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Showing items 1 through 9 of 9.
  1. Library Resource
    Journal Articles & Books
    June, 2013
    Africa, Sierra Leone

    In sub-Saharan Africa, commercial bioenergy production has been hailed as a new form of ‘green capitalism’ that will deliver ‘win-win’ outcomes and ‘pro poor’ development. Yet in an era of global economic recession and soaring food prices, biofuel ‘sustainability’ has been at the centre of controversy. This paper focuses on the case of post-war Sierra Leone, a country that has over the last decade been consistently ranked as one of the poorest in the world, facing food insecurity, high unemployment and entrenched poverty.

  2. Library Resource
    Journal Articles & Books
    December, 2013
    Tanzania, Malawi, Eastern Africa

    Carbon-based forest conservation requires the establishment of ‘reference emission levels’ against which to measure a country or region's progress in reducing their carbon emissions. In East Africa, landscape-scale estimates of carbon fluxes are uncertain and factors such as deforestation poorly resolved due to a lack of data. In this study, trends in vegetation cover and carbon for East Africa were quantified using moderate-resolution imaging spectroradiometer (MODIS) land cover grids from 2002 to 2008 (500-m spatial resolution), in combination with a regional carbon look-up table.

  3. Library Resource
    Journal Articles & Books
    December, 2013
    Italy

    Although human-related disturbance is usually detrimental for biodiversity, in some instances it can simulate natural processes and benefit certain species. Changes in the disturbance regime, both natural and human-driven, can affect species that rely on it. The Apennine yellow-bellied toad Bombina variegata pachypus, an amphibian endemic to peninsular Italy, has declined throughout its range in the last 3 decades. We sought to identify the drivers of the decline in the region of Liguria, at the north-western limit of its distribution.

  4. Library Resource
    Journal Articles & Books
    December, 2013
    Europe

    To evaluate the status of biodiversity and to determine how current conservation efforts can be improved, biodiversity monitoring is crucial. An important aspect of data quality lies in its spatial resolution. It is unclear how finer scale land cover and land value information might further benefit biodiversity conservation. This paper aimed to assess the impacts of scale by modelling the conservation of endangered European wetland species and their corresponding habitats. Fine-scale datasets were derived by integrating existing geographical, biophysical and economic data.

  5. Library Resource
    Journal Articles & Books
    December, 2013

    Predictive models are frequently used to define the most suitable areas for species protection or reintroduction. Land-cover variables can be used in different ways for distribution modelling. The surface area of a set of land-cover classes is often used, each land-cover presence/absence or the distance to them from any point of the study area can be preferred; multiple types of land-cover variables may be combined to produce a single model.

  6. Library Resource
    Journal Articles & Books
    December, 2013
    Namibia, Africa

    Legislative changes during the 1960s–1970s granted user rights over wildlife to landowners in southern Africa, resulting in a shift from livestock farming to wildlife-based land uses. Few comprehensive assessments of such land uses on private land in southern Africa have been conducted and the associated benefits are not always acknowledged by politicians. Nonetheless, wildlife-based land uses are growing in prevalence on private land. In Namibia wildlife-based land use occurs over c. 287,000 km².

  7. Library Resource
    Journal Articles & Books
    December, 2013

    Herbivores are a significant source of nitrous oxide (N₂O) emissions. They account for a large share of manure-related N₂O emissions, as well as soil-related N₂O emissions through the use of grazing land, and land for feed and forage production. It is widely acknowledged that mitigation measures are necessary to avoid an increase in N₂O emissions while meeting the growing global food demand. The production and emissions of N₂O are closely linked to the efficiency of nitrogen (N) transfer between the major components of a livestock system, that is, animal, manure, soil and crop.

  8. Library Resource
    Journal Articles & Books
    December, 2013
    United States of America

    Conservation easements (or conservation covenants) are commonly conceptualized as acquisitions of sticks in a ‘bundle of rights’ and are increasingly implemented for wildlife conservation on private lands. This research asks: (1) What are the possibilities and limitations of the conservation easement approach to wildlife conservation in contrasting rural and periurban regions? and (2) How does analysis of conservation easements differ when examining property as a bundle of rights or alternative metaphors?

  9. Library Resource
    Journal Articles & Books
    December, 2013
    Italy

    Agriculture and animal husbandry are important contributors to global emissions of greenhouse (GHG) and acidifying gases. Moreover, they contribute to water pollution and to consumption of non-renewable natural resources such as land and energy. The Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodology allows evaluation of the environmental impact of a process from the production of inputs to the final product and to assess simultaneously several environmental impact categories among which GHG emissions, acidification, eutrophication, land use and energy use.

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