Commercial late medieval bog peat exploitation in the Low Countries: a rare example from the Monnikenberg (Hilversum, the Netherlands)

Dispatches

International trade in endangered species: the challenges and successes of the 17th conference of parties to the convention on international trade in endangered species of wild fauna and flora (CITES)

The growing demand for grapevine planting materials, due to growing global viticulture, is promoting research studies to improve vineyard sustainability. In greenhouse nurseries, peat is the most common growing medium component used although is an expensive and non-renewable material. Indeed, the reduction of peat exploitation is receiving great attention, and currently, several materials are being investigated as peat substitutes for composing the cultivation substrates. Biochar, a carbon-rich, recalcitrant charred organic co-product of the pyrolysis or gasification process, has emerged as a potentially promising replacement for soilless substrates in nursery plant material propagation. Although several studies carried out at greenhouse nurseries have shown that biochar, can improve plant growth, only a few studies have focused on the production of grapevine plant material. To fulfil this knowledge gap and push forward the sustainability of the nursery sector, we evaluated above and below-ground morpho-physiological traits of one-year-old potted grapevine cuttings growing with 30% volume of four different biochar types (i.e., from pyrolysis and gasification) mixed with commercial peat. The present study shows that biochar can be used in growing media mixes without adverse effects on roots, improves soil water retention and leaf water potential, and improves the effects on soil microbiology.

ABSTRACTIndonesia is a significant trader in marine molluscs and has a comprehensive legislative framework in place to protect and use molluscs sustainably. The recent inclusion of nautilus in Appendix II of CITES and the general lack of understanding of the level of protection and regulation Indonesia's marine molluscs receive necessitates a review of current laws and agreements. The most relevant are two legally binding international agreements, CITES and the CBD, and Law No 5, and Regulations 8 and 20, dealing with protection, preservation and exploration, respectively. Over the last 30 years, 12 species of mollusc have been legally protected in Indonesia and 7 are included in CITES Appendix II. Species that are not protected can be traded, provided quotas have been set for their commercial exploitation. Seizure data suggest that the illegal trade is considerable – on average almost 10,000 shells/year are confiscated. Seizures do not lead to prosecutions. It is recommended that (a) those involved in the trade of Indonesian marine molluscs need to familiarise themselves better with current legislation and regulation, (b) monitoring of domestic and international trade in marine molluscs needs to be better coordinated and intensified and (c) prosecutions for those trading illegally in marine molluscs need to increase.

This chapter examines the food situation of the evacuated children during the last year of the Pacific War, using wartime diaries and post-war memoirs to catalogue the responses of school administrators, teachers, house-mother, local farmers, parents and the children themselves to the food problem. The children's meals clearly began containing less and less protein and were becoming much more monotonous, although, as might be expected, those evacuated to villages near the ocean, lakes or rivers had more fresh fish. It is hardly surprising that the children's lasting and most powerful memory of their evacuation is hunger. Farmers helped the evacuated children in highly inventive way. They hired them to help with simple chores such as weeding, cutting grass or wheat, planting rice, harvesting sweet potatoes or even milking cows. This was called kuikasegi, or earning ones food. Although largely self-sufficient, most farmers found that the wartime governments system of food requisitioning often took most of what they produced.

The informal sector had become an essential pillar that takes over the economy of Indonesia. While the pandemic is dragging the economy to a low level, the informal sector needs more attention from the government. Bad governance of the informal sector will lead to the creation of an underground economy that impedes economic potential. In contrast, good governance will create more massive economic growth, which will lead to the development of the formal sector. The informal sector supports the economy of low and middle-income countries than the high-income country. That statement is also shown by the data that the informal sector support 8.33% of Indonesian gross domestic product (GDP). This research aims to measure the impact of the pandemic on the inclusive and underground economy from two different perspectives, owners and workers in the underground economy system. This research was conducted by using descriptive and quantitative analysis involving a dummy variable to capture the difference between before and during the pandemic. Using time-series data, this research shows that there are significant effects of the pandemic on the changing of income, consumption, and saving for both owners and workers. Moreover, some informal activists shift to different jobs to keep the proper way of living during the pandemic. The changing of four different aspects, certainly brings society’s prosperousness to a low level. Keywords: inclusive growth, pandemic era, underground economy

The Avalon Lakes project was a concept to utilize, as water storage reservoirs, shallow basins left by commercial peat exploitation. There are, however, important nature-conservation interests in the project area. The proposed scheme ultimately incorporated measures to enhance these and, perhaps unusually for a source development, was broadly supported by conservation groups. The related cost was estimated at £4.2M, or 17% of the overall source works’price. Plans and scientific investigations of the scheme occupied a span of 21 years to 1988. It was eventually abandoned as an option for future water supplies following the restructuring of Wessex Water Authority in preparation for privatization of the water industry. The grounds for terminating the project were substantially concerned with costs, though coloured by lingering apprehension about the consistency of water quality. There is now a greater public awareness of the adverse environmental effects of water resource developments. It is suggested that this will lead to future schemes, less obviously suited to their surroundings than Avalon, incurring a higher conservation-related cost in order to gain acceptance.

This chapter aims to present a discourse of AI governance for and from the Global South, and contrast this with the Inclusive AI Governance discourse led largely out of Global North institutions. By doing so, it identifies gaps in the dominant AI governance discourse and advocates for its systemic restructuring. It proposes that key differences between the Global South and dominant Global North discourses can be explained in part by historic power dynamics, describing the coloniality of power in AI governance. It bridges these gaps by outlining critical concerns expressed by Global South actors but neglected by the dominant AI discourse—including digital sovereignty as relevant to low and middle-income countries, infrastructural and regulatory monopolies, harms associated with the labor and material supply chains of AI technologies, beta-testing, and commercial exploitation. It then offers three roles for Global South actors to substantively engage in the restructuring of AI governance processes.

The following paper is designed to describe and explain some highly profitable yet ethically indefensible business transactions. Involved were German merchant bankers and allied money changers who gained from tampering with the legal gold currency of the Holy Roman Empire, the ducats. The scandal broke when a faithless employee of the house of Gebruder Bethmann of Frankfurt on the Main, tried to use his knowledge of his employer's illegal business practices in staging a hold-up. At about the same time the agent of another Frankfurt merchant banker was arrested in Brabant; he handled at Brussels the distribution of the illegal currency which his master was sending to the Low Countries. 1 It was probably a mere coincidence that both events took place simultaneously. The Imperial government, then master of the Southern Low Countries (now Belgium), which had suffered heavy losses from the illegal trade, as will be described, decided to take action. In 1749, it sent a commission to Frankfurt, the “Kay...

Dispatches

Gap junctions were identified in the membrana granulosa and cumulus oophorus, and between cells of the internal theca, of the preovulatory rat follicle. In replicas of freeze fractured follicles, the A face presented clusters of closely packed intramembrane particles, 7--9 nm in diameter, forming a mosaic pattern, while the B face showed a similar pattern of small pits. Optical diffraction analysis of these electron micrographs revealed that both the intramembrane particles and the corresponding pits were organized in hexagonal lattices with centre-to-centre spacing of 9-10 nm. In small junctions (up to 0.4 mum in diameter), both A and B faces generally consisted of a single lattice, while large junctions (0.5-2 mum) contained multiple lattices differing in orientation. Occasionally intramembrane particles and pits were more loosely arranged throughout the junctional area and failed to show a hexagonal pattern. Both granulosa and thecal cells often contained intracellular vesicles resembling annular junctions. These contained intramembrane particles whose assembly resembled that of the gap junctions with regard to periodicity and lattice organization. Examination of thin section of thin sections suggested that small gap junctions occur also between cytoplasmic processes of coronal cells and the oolemma. No tight junctions were detected between granulosa cells and between thecal cells.

The systematics of the dart-poison frogs, family Dendrobatidae, experienced several taxonomic rearrangements over time (e.g., Grant et al. 2006, 2017; Brown et al. 2011). Currently, this family comprises 194 described species organized in three sub-families and 15 genera (Frost 2018). Among them, the genus Adelphobates Grant, Frost, Caldwell, Gagliardo, Haddad, Kok, Means, Noonan, Schargel, Wheeler, 2006, comprises three species, all distributed in Central and lower Amazon drainage of Peru and Brazil, and possibly in northeast of Bolivia (Grant et al. 2006; Frost 2018). Adelphobates galactonotus (Steindachner 1864) is an endemic Brazilian frog, and can be found throughout Pará, Maranhão, Mato Grosso and Tocantins states (Hoogmoed Avila-Pires 2012), related to Amazon forest formations and also in transitional areas between the Cerrado and the Amazon forest (Valdujo et al. 2012). Despite this species is classified as Least Concern (Rodrigues et al. 2010), several threats are known. First, its geographic distribution coincides with the so-called Amazonian Deforestation Arc, which comprehends the southeastern portion of the Amazonian Forest that has been rapidly converted into pasture and crop areas or being flooded due to the construction of hydroelectric power plants (Hoogmoed Avila-Pires 2012). Also, this species is present in Appendix II of CITES as a target for illegal trade, and their commercial exploitation should be controlled to avoid that this species become seriously endangered in the near future (see a case study in Paula et al. 2012). These threats are of deeper concern because despite A. galactonotus has been described since more than 150 years (Steindachner 1864), its tadpole remains unknown. Without a better understanding of the natural history of A. galactonotus, attempts of conservation strategies and population management are inefficient. In an effort to fill the knowledge gaps about this species natural history, we present a detailed description of the external morphology of the A. galactonotus tadpole.

The elusive and Critically Endangered silvery pigeon Columba argentina is only found on small offshore islands in western Indonesia and Malaysia. Historically, trade records have suggested that, in addition to habitat degradation and invasive predators, commercial exploitation could be a threat to the species. The current study confirms this to be the case, with a relatively high volume of silvery pigeons found offered for sale on social media platforms in Indonesia between October and December 2021. The trade numbers (at least 10 individuals) observed within this short period exceeded 20% of the global silvery pigeon population according to the latest Red List assessment, suggesting that actual population numbers may be larger than previously thought but also confirming that trade poses a considerable threat. Some of the recorded posts were in new areas within the species’ presumed range, further suggesting that the population may be slightly larger than hitherto assessed. The reported trade observations are reason for grave concern, particularly given the potential interest of international collectors which could further drive demand and increase prices. Due to the locations of the observed online trade we recommend timely field surveys to confirm the species’ presence and current status, particularly in the Riau-Lingga island group, as well as the development of a species conservation action plan to catalyse local and regional efforts to tackle the current illegal trade and work towards the regulation of international trade.

Labor and World Development Through the Lens of Cotton: A Review Essay

The logic behind conflicts in land acquisitions in contemporary China: A framework based upon game theory