Changes In Protection Levels Research Articles

Incorporating free‐flowing rivers into global biodiversity targets: Prioritization and targeted interventions to maintain ecological integrity

Abstract Free‐flowing rivers (FFRs) are important surrogates for freshwater biodiversity as there are increasingly fewer rivers that reflect intact habitat and species diversity from source to sea. The status and changes in the ecological condition or protection of FFRs is not explicitly reported on in global biodiversity targets. Indices are proposed for reporting such changes to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 6 and 15, Aichi Target 11, and the post‐2020 global biodiversity framework. FFRs were identified at a countrywide scale in South Africa for protection, planning, monitoring, and assessing changes in their ecological condition and protection status. They were selected and prioritized using criteria co‐produced with national, provincial, and local river managers and policy makers. Given the high competition for water resources and the unlikely possibility for strictly protecting all FFRs, a subset of FFRs, termed ‘flagship FFRs’, was identified. Methods for reporting changes in the protection levels of prioritized FFRs at a countrywide scale were developed, which included indices of FFRs related to global targets: the loss of the extent of FFRs in a natural and largely natural ecological condition for SDG 6; changes in the connectivity of FFRs included in the post‐2020 global biodiversity framework targets; and changes in protection levels of FFRs for Aichi Target 11 and SDG 15.1.2. Flagship FFRs attracted targeted management initiatives and thus maintained their connectivity and ecological condition. This was not true when all FFRs were considered; in the broader set of FFRs, longitudinal fragmentation increased and ecological condition declined from 2011 to 2018. Considering the increasing pressures rivers are likely to experience from human and climate change impacts, particularly in semi‐arid to temperate environments, urgent prioritization and monitoring of FFRs is called for so that a targeted set of protection and management strategies can be applied.

Assessment of Resistance Pathways Induced in Arabidopsis thaliana by Hypovirulent Rhizoctonia spp. Isolates

Certain hypovirulent Rhizoctonia isolates effectively protect plants against well-known important pathogens among Rhizoctonia isolates as well as against other pathogens. The modes of action involved in this protection include resistance induced in plants by colonization with hypovirulent Rhizoctonia isolates. The qualifications of hypovirulent isolates (efficient protection, rapid growth, effective colonization of the plants, and easy application in the field) provide a significant potential for the development of a commercial microbial preparation for application as biological control agents. Understanding of the modes of action involved in protection is important for improving the various aspects of development and application of such preparations. The hypothesis of the present study is that resistance pathways such as systemic acquired resistance (SAR), induced systemic resistance (ISR), and phytoalexins are induced in plants colonized by the protective hypovirulent Rhizoctonia isolates and are involved in the protection of these plants against pathogenic Rhizoctonia. Changes in protection levels of Arabidopsis thaliana mutants defective in defense-related genes (npr1-1, npr1-2, ndr1-1, npr1-2/ndr1-1, cim6, wrky70.1, snc1, and pbs3-1) and colonized with the hypovirulent Rhizoctonia isolates compared with that of the wild type (wt) plants colonized with the same isolates confirmed the involvement of induced resistance in the protection of the plants against pathogenic Rhizoctonia spp., although protection levels of mutants constantly expressing SAR genes (snc1 and cim6) were lower than that of wt plants. Plant colonization by hypovirulent Rhizoctonia isolates induced elevated expression levels of the following genes: PR5 (SAR), PDF1.2, LOX2, LOX1, CORI3 (ISR), and PAD3 (phytoalexin production), which indicated that all of these pathways were induced in the hypovirulent-colonized plants. When SAR or ISR were induced separately in plants after application of the chemical inducers Bion and methyl jasmonate, respectively, only ISR activation resulted in a higher protection level against the pathogen, although the protection was minor. In conclusion, plant colonization with the protective hypovirulent Rhizoctonia isolates significantly induced genes involved in the SAR, ISR, and phytoalexin production pathways. In the studied system, SAR probably did not play a major role in the mode of protection against pathogenic Rhizoctonia spp.; however, it may play a more significant role in protection against other pathogens.

The cultural acceptability of the EBEM in Yemen

This paper examines the importance of quality management for Yemen, a developing country, in the light of challenges introduced by recent changes in levels of protection from international competition previously enjoyed by Yemeni companies. The current state of quality practices in Yemeni organisations is investigated and discussed. Then a variety of issues relating to the introduction and use of quality management approaches such as ISO 9000 and the European business excellence model (EBEM) are raised, with particular emphasis being placed on cultural issues. This paper also introduces a methodology to test the cultural acceptability of the European business excellence model in Yemen that could be accomplished in Yemen. Finally, the results of surveys and trials conducted in Yemen are presented.

Employment and Wage Effects of Trade Liberalization: The Case of Mexican Manufacturing

In 1985, after decades of an import-substitution industrial strategy, Mexico initiated a radical liberalization of its external sector. Between 1985 and 1988, import licensing requirements were scaled back to a quarter of earlier levels, reference prices were removed, and tariff rates on most products were substantially reduced. By 1989, Mexico was one of the most open economies in the developing world. Adjusting to trade liberalization required the reallocation of resources between sectors and entailed substantial dislocation of workers. The author analyzes how Mexico's trade liberalization (1985-87) affected employment and wages in indusry, focusing on how it affected average employment and earnings rather than on the link between trade and relative wages. She examines the tradeoff between wage and employment adjustment, identifies which labor groups benefited more from liberalization, and tries to associate changes in employment and wages directly with measures of change in trade protection, rather than link them to changes in imports and exports (which is more common). The author also finds that reductions in quota coverage and tariff levels are associated with moderate reductions in firm-level employment. A 10-point reduction in tariff levels (between 1985 and 1990) is associated with a 2- to 3- percent decline in employment in Mexico. Changes in quota average appear to have no discernible effect on wages, but reduction in tariff levels are associated with increases in average wages. This seems to reflect improved productivity in the reformed industries, which may be related to a shift toward the use of more skilled workers. There seems to have been a slight shift in the skill mix in favor of nonproduction workers. This was paralleled by a sharper increase in the wage differential between skilled and unskilled workers. The wages and employment of skilled production workers were significantly more responsive to changes in protection levels than those of nonproduction workers - perhaps partly because production workers were more heavily concentrated in the industries in which protection levels were greatly reduced.

The Political Economy of Agricultural Policy: Discussion

The last decade has seen a surge of interest and literature in political economy by political scientists, economists, sociologists, and in the past several years agricultural economists and others concerned with agricultural and food sector issues. Much of this work has been in response to apparently perverse policy outcomes or public choice failures that have proved difficult to address through conventional economic theory and analysis. Perhaps the question that has received the most attention in this regard has been the paradox of developing countries typically taxing, while industrialized countries commonly subsidize, their agricultural sectors. The titles of both of these invited papers address other questions that are important to U.S. farm policy analysis. To begin, the Paarlberg paper explicitly asks whether there is anything uniquely to American farm policy. Paarlberg addresses this question by introducing the cosmopolitan model of Honma and Hayami and, by extension, related analyses byBalisacan and Roumasset, de Gorter and Tsur, and others. Paarlberg identifies several important limitations of these models. First, the cosmopolitan model has considerably greater difficulty in explaining intertemporal changes in levels of protection than it does in explaining cross-sectional and/or cross-commodity variations in protection levels. Typically, these models seek to explain agricultural protection levels as functions of structural economic and demographic variables (agriculture's proportion of GDP or the labor force, etc.), variables measuring comparative advantage in agriculture (such as input ratios), and binary variables to dummy out unique geographic or political influences. These (and other) factors are commonly shown to explain up to 70% or so of crosssectional variability in protection levels. However, this type of explanatory ability may considerably overstate our ability to understand the determinants of changes in protection levels over time, which are of primary interest from a policy-making perspective. Any number of specific examples could be ci ed in this regard: the recently completed U.S.-Canada Free Trade Agreement, the host of developing country policy reforms instituted in the 1980s, the ongoing GATT negotiations on reducing agricultural protectionism, and so on. At least the first two of these are