Conservation Of Natural Environment Research Articles

Making Space: A New Way for Community Engagement in the Urban Planning Process

The current research shifts from the tradition of researcher-generated and directed community study and explores a new model for data collection based on citizen-directed participation and restorative economies. This is important because the scholarship of urban planning is often separated from the practice, in which scholars undertake the bulk of the academic research and professional planners work in the field, engaging with the community and creating and implementing plans around local issues and opportunities. While urban planning trends support diverse, equitable, and inclusive engagement in visioning and shaping local development, few operationalized examples exist for citizen-led scholarship with local community application. The work outlined herein explicitly partners with local residents to collect data on both community and academic interests, and it also promotes a citizen sense of agency. Community leaders worked with the local public university to design and implement a study to solicit park use ideas and visions among three groups: youth; adults; and returning citizens. Results identify an overall theme of a lack of engagement with the community, relative to other local parks, and they also highlight four common areas of thought between the three populations—concerns about safety among park users, functional use of park space, demand for widespread park access, and desire for natural environment conservation. This work represents a viable local engagement approach including demonstrated investment in a local community and resultant increased trust; also, this work contributes valuable new knowledge about local history and the use of a community resource to inform land use planning and policy around community sustainability.

First Generation Hazardous Waste Inventory for Developing A Master Plan for Hazardous Waste Management in Myanmar

Hazardous Waste Management (HWM) is an emerging priority in Myanmar, with the Environmental Conservation Department (ECD) under the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environmental Conservation (MONREC) acting as the nodal authority. Before the initiation of the HWM project in 2015, funded by the Norwegian government, Myanmar lacked essential regulations and statistical data concerning hazardous waste. The country formally ratified the Basel Convention in January 2015, mandating environmentally sound disposal of hazardous waste by its signatories. Crucial for effective waste management, hazardous waste generation information is fundamental for planning, implementation, and monitoring. Initial development stages involve the creation of first-generation inventories, which identify priority waste streams, sources, risks, and key stakeholders through basic calculations and management practice reviews. Myanmar's first-generation hazardous waste inventory, conducted from June 2016 to 2018, estimated that in 2017, approximately 280,600 tonnes/year of hazardous waste were generated, with projections foreseeing a 2.4-fold increase by 2030. Challenges in private industries, where waste streams, including hazardous waste, are often uncontrolled, led to underestimation of quantities. Data collection, however, employed cross-verification, site visits, and extensive consultations with the technical task force to enhance accuracy. This paper presents the purpose, methodology, major findings, and challenges faced during the formulation of Myanmar's first-generation hazardous waste inventory.

Characteristics Citizen Participation National Ecosystem Survey Data

Citizen participation data has different characteristics from expert. Understanding the unique attributes of citizen participation data and considering the disparities between such data and that collected by experts is of paramount importance to harness citizen-generated data effectively. In this regard, location information was presented for five taxa of plants, insects, birds, amphibians, and mammals nationwide surveyed by citizens in 2022, excluding endangered species. Additionally, species information and administrative district information are included. It is anticipated that the integration of citizen participation survey results with expert research findings will enhance the efficacy of natural ecological monitoring. By directly collecting ecological data, which becomes the basic data for natural environment policy, opportunities for public participation in natural environment policy will be expanded, and through this, it will be possible to raise awareness of natural environment conservation.

Toward the symbiosis and co-prosperity between Narita International Airport and the local community

Narita International Airport has been regarding its symbiosis measures, airport development, and regional development as a trinity and various efforts have been made. In addition, since the opening of the airport, Narita International Airport Corporation(NAA) has taken detailed measures from various angles to address the problems stem from being an inland airport. While environmental measures and regional development can be mentioned as a part of them, noise control, air quality conservation, water quality conservation and natural environmental conservation and agricultural revitalization are mentioned as a part of the environmental measures. Among them, aircraft noise especially has the greatest impact on the area surrounding the airport. Currently, Narita International Airport is working toward "Further capacity enhancement of Narita Airport", and will be able to increase the annual departure and arrival capacity from the current 300,000 to 500,000 times by constructing Runway C, as well as the extension of Runway B. This report describes what kind of initiatives and measures Narita International Airport takes in collaboration with the local municipalities and residents based on the basic idea that "Airport development is regional community development".

수도권 정비계획에 관한 법적 검토

The Metropolitan Area Readjustment Planning Act is criticized for penalizing local governments in the Seoul metropolitan area, such as hindering regional development and reducing local taxes, compared to local governments in the non-metropolitan area. Under the Seoul Metropolitan Area Readjustment Planning Act, restrictions on various activities in the area limit regional development projects by local governments in the area, so procedural legitimacy is a question in designating the area. In particular, the total amount regulation on the establishment or expansion of population-intensive facilities such as factories and schools restricts the activities of companies wishing to enter the Seoul metropolitan area, and makes it difficult for local governments to establish or expand factories and schools in the region.
 The Administrative Planning Act refers to administrative regulations that stipulate administrative plans as a means to achieve administrative objectives, including the former Comprehensive National Land Construction Planning Act, the Framework Act on National Land Planning and Use, and the Metropolitan Area Readjustment Planning Act. These administrative plans prescribed by the Administrative Planning Act have a system of upper and lower plans, and this paper examines the status of the metropolitan area maintenance plan within this administrative planning law system, derives problems through legal evaluation of the division of areas, restrictions on activities in overcrowded control areas, growth management areas, and natural environment conservation areas, and suggests improvement measures.

Fundamental study on high-quality welding of copper and aluminum by angled and superposed irradiation of blue and near-infrared lasers

In order to achieve sustainable development goals, decarbonization and low-carbonization are required. Electric and hybrid vehicles are indispensable for the conservation of natural environment, and the lightweight construction and the effective transfer of electricity become important. Thus, copper and aluminum have been increasingly recognized as important materials because of their excellent materials’ properties. However, in the welding of these materials, it is difficult to obtain strong joints because there are problems in the brittle intermetallic compounds and the welding defects due to different melting points between copper and aluminum. Especially in the joining of copper and aluminum by copper side irradiation, aluminum-rich intermetallic compounds (IMCs) of brittle state result in the decrease of mechanical strength. Therefore, mild heat input from copper to aluminum would be necessary to reduce the brittle IMC. Angled irradiation might result in the mild energy input to aluminum because it can be expected that aluminum would be heated by the reflected light inside the keyhole generated in copper according to its high light reflection. In addition, stable welding can be expected by the superposed irradiation of blue and near-infrared lasers because of high light absorption rate of blue laser to copper. The angled and the superposed irradiation could achieve a stable welding state, and the generation of aluminum-rich IMC becomes smaller. Angled irradiation of a near-infrared laser showed equivalent joining strength to the superposed irradiation of two wavelengths, and the combination of angled and superposed irradiation achieved a remarkable increase of joining strength in a cross tensile test by 80%.

Preface

The International Conference on Natural Resources and Environmental Conservation (ICNREC) is an annual event to discuss various topics and issues regarding the conservation of natural resources and the environment. The third year the ICNREC event was held on Oktober 27, 2023 through hybrid (both online and offline) due to COVID-19 pandemic. The offline session was held at IPB International Convention Center Bogor - West Java - Indonesia, which raised the theme: “Optimizing the roles of biodiversity in improving the economic and ecological aspects of oil palm plantation”.Indonesia is one of the countries that has started to move towards a green economy. In the 11th UNEP Special Session on Governing Council meeting in Bali, the Government of Indonesia declared a green economy paradigm. The oil palm plantation sector also plays a role in implementing a green economy through the production of environmentally friendly biofuel sources (biodiesel with a 2022 production of 8.6 million KL) and supporting the use of renewable electricity sources from biogas in CPO processing plants. Nowadays, the practice of using biodiversity for controlling pests in oil palm plantations has also been carried out, such as the use of owls, cobras, leopard cat, and macaques for natural predator. Several studies also shown the role of biodiversity as a natural pesticide in controlling caterpillar pests to replace synthetic chemical pesticides. Several companies have also started encouraging the use of biopesticides to maintain the health of the soil and palm trees. The use of organic fertilizers and biofertilizers has also been applied by national oil palm players in the last few years.Through this third ICNREC theme, with the gathering of competent and qualified experts from various disciplines and from around the world, it is hoped that discussions able to clarify the biodiversity’s role scientifically and objectively so that in the future the “best practice sustainable palm oil management” will be more applicable.The third ICNREC was held in collaboration with the Center for Study, Advocacy and Nature Conservation (PUSAKA KALAM), the Faculty of Forestry and Environment of the IPB University, and the French Agricultural Research for International Development (CIRAD) as well as for the support of sponsors {Coordinating Ministry of Economic Affair Indonesia; Indonesia Oil Palm Plantation Fund Management Agency (BPDPKS); Indonesian Palm Oil Association (GAPKI); Sinarmas Agribusiness and Food (PT SMART Tbk); PT. Adei Plantation & Industry (KLK Group); French Embassy In Indonesia; Institut Français Indonesia; Republic of Indonesia Ministry of Education and Culture (DIKTI), Asosiasi Petani Kelapa Sawit Indonesia (APKASINDO)} and those who helped run the event. As the output of this conference, a proceeding consisting of 24 papers were presented which discussed various topics about biodiversity’s roles. We are grateful for the support that has been given both in organizing conferences and in preparing proceedings and hopes that these proceedings can benefit many people.Best Regards,Prof, Dr. Ir. Yanto Santosa, DEAChairman of Committee of The 3rd ICNRECList of Committee is available in this pdf.

Integration of quality management systems in tourism destinations: implications and benefits for sustainability and competitiveness

Tourism is an industry in constant growth and competitiveness, so the integration of quality management systems in tourism destinations has become crucial to ensure sustainability and improve competitiveness in this sector. This summary addresses the implications and benefits of this integration in terms of sustainability and competitiveness in tourism destinations. The integration of quality management systems in tourism destinations implies the implementation of standards and processes that guarantee the quality of services offered to tourists. This has positive implications in several aspects. First, it improves the quality of tourism services, which increases tourist satisfaction and their experience at the destination. In addition, quality management contributes to the conservation and preservation of the destination's natural and cultural environment, which in turn promotes long-term sustainability.

Co-management for sustainable development and conservation in Sanjiangyuan National Park and the surrounding Tibetan nomadic pastoralist areas

The Qinghai-Tibet Plateau plays an essential role in national to regional ecological security, biodiversity conservation, and sustaining livelihood. An array of natural resource management, environmental conservation, and ecological restoration projects have been trialed and implemented in recent years in the vast Sanjiangyuan region of the central Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, aiming especially to ensure socio-ecologically appropriate and sustainable development of animal husbandry in the alpine grasslands. Novel approaches in China have included the introduction of more collaborative approaches in protected area management and the development and formal establishment of a new multi-purpose national park system. Many milestones have been achieved. However, such developments are driven largely by national and global goals and very little has been heard to date directly from the people most affected: those residing within the protected landscapes, i.e. the community stakeholders themselves. This empirical, perceptions-based study aims to partially fill this gap, drawing on the results of focus group discussions with community representatives supplemented by key informant interviews and a targeted review of the literature, to provide synthesized feedback and priority recommendations for improving “community co-management” collaborations for the joint benefit of Tibetan herders and protected areas. The mixed-method approach employed in this study was based on a conceptual model derived from Elinor Ostrom’s social–ecological systems framework, calibrated to local residents’ self-assessments of their household well-being. Results highlight how the most recent configuration of China’s national park model (i.e., its form and the approaches it utilizes) is generally deemed successful by community stakeholders, albeit with some notable perceived limitations mainly relating to a sense of lack of fairness and inclusiveness in the “one household, one post” co-management mechanism. The paper closes with discussion and recommendations around fundamental issues of equity, empowerment, and gender, finally pointing to the significance and, ultimately, the need to move even beyond co-management per se and to adopt a model of inclusive governance for conservation wherein joint deliberations and decision-making amongst diverse stakeholders are prioritized over the simple implementation of externally developed programs and management plans.

Sustainable urban development in Latin America

This paper shows the results of a documentary exploration of sustainable development in Latin America. The Latin American region is characterized by having holistic environmental policies, but it is also integrated and seeks to balance economic growth, social inclusion, and environmental preservation. For this work, different reliable sources have been analyzed to know the Latin American trends around the subject and specify the strategies that must be addressed to achieve the expected results. In this sense, a program is proposed that aims to strengthen environmental awareness and promote sustainable urban planning practices in rural communities in Latin America. The main results show that environmental education empowers local communities to become agents of change and adopt sustainable measures in natural resource management, agriculture, energy, and environmental conservation.

Estimating Forest Above-Ground Biomass in Central Amazonia Using Polarimetric Attributes of ALOS/PALSAR Images

Polarimetric synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images are essential to understand forest structure and plan forest inventories with the purpose of natural resource management and environmental conservation efforts. We developed a method for estimating above-ground biomass (AGB) from power and phase-radar attributes in L-band images. The model was based on the variables “Pv” (from Freeman–Durden decomposition) and “σ°HH”, complemented by the attributes of Touzi decomposition “αS2”, “τm”, “ ΦS3”, and “ ΦS2”. The analyses demonstrated the contribution of volumetric, multiple, and direct scattering resulting from the interaction between the signal and the random structure of canopies and their forest biomass. The proposed model had good predictive capacity and a positive correlation (R2 = 0.67 and = 0.81, respectively), with Syx = 56.9 Mg ha−1 and a low average estimation error of 7.5% at R2 = 0.81 in the validation. An additional exploratory analysis of the parallel polarimetric responses did not reveal a defined pattern for the different phytophysiognomies—although all indicated a predominance of multiple and/or volumetric scattering. This fact can be related to the floristic and structural variation in the primary forest units, the degree of human intervention in legal logging, and the differences among succession stages.

Evaluasi Kesesuian Subjek Skripsi dengan Roadmap Penelitian di Fakultas Kehutanan Universitas Lancang Kuning Tahun 2017-2021

This research is a type of descriptive research. The population in this study is all 2017-2021 theses, namely 131 theses. This study used a purposive sampling technique. The method used to collect data for the 2017-2021 Faculty of Forestry Thesis was to conduct observations and interviews with the Study Program section of the Faculty of Forestry, Lancang Kuning University. Based on the results of the research above, it can be concluded that the number of theses, namely the thesis of the 2017 Faculty of Forestry students, has done a lot of research on the subject of the economics of forest resources. The 2018 Faculty of Forestry Student Thesis has the most research on the subject of ecotourism and environmental services. In 2019 the thesis is dominated by the subject of conservation. The Student Thesis of the Faculty of Forestry in 2020 has a total of subjects that have been extensively researched on natural resource and environmental conservation. In 2021 thesis is dominated by the subject of silvilculture, forest entrepreneurship, ecotourism and environmental services.

Ecological Service Function Evaluation and Sustainable Development Countermeasures of Plateau Wetland Ecosystem: A Case Study in Lashihai Nature Reserve, PRC

The Nature Reserve plays a very important ecological role in many ways, such as soil-water conservation, flood-drought prevention, and water balance. Thus, protecting and maintaining the wetland and other crucial components of Lashihai Nature Reserve are of great importance not only to the natural environment and biodiversity conservation, but also to the development of regional economic as well as social stability. Based on the characteristics of plateau wetland of Lashihai Nature Reserve in Lijiang City, Yunnan Province, this study tried to establish an evaluation system. It is mainly aimed at evaluating the direct and indirect use value of the ecosystem service value of this vary wetland reserve. The results showed that: the total annual ecosystem service value of Lashihai Nature Reserve is 198.44 million yuan. Among all kinds of values, the climate regulation value ranks first with 79.35 million yuanꞏa-1, accounting for 39.99% of the totality, then followed by the tourism value and resources value, while the water purification value comes the last with 0.48 million yuanꞏa-1.

Climate calibration of the Spring Index model for more accurate broad-scale first leaf predictions

Phenological models are needed for forecasting plant and ecosystem responses to climate change. Due to a lack of considering local adaptation induced variations in climatic requirements of plant species for phenological development, traditional uniform/non-spatial models that cover broad geographic regions are susceptible to systematic prediction biases. This study presents a climate calibration method that incorporates climate adaptation patterns of plant species into a widely used Spring Index (SI) First Leaf (FL) model. Multi-year (2009-2021) phenological observation data for a most frequently observed shrub species(common lilac Syringa vulgaris) and a most frequently observed tree species(red maple Acer rubrum) in the eastern USA from the USA-National Phenology Network (USA-NPN) were used to develop and validate the calibrated models. Climatic gradients defined by latitudinal temperature variations were used to predict varied climatic requirements of the populations of each species. Prior to calibration, SI FL predictions showed consistent geographic biases and yielded large prediction errors (especially for red maple, RMSE = 30 d). Calibrated SI FL predictions yielded reduced errors (e.g. RMSE = 16 d for red maple) and were freed from significant geographic biases (α = 0.05) in all cases. The calibration method accounted for both intraspecific and interspecific variations, leading to more accurate broad-scale first leaf predictions for the species tested. The climate-calibrated SI FL allows for more accurate tracking of the onset of spring over extensive geographic areas and would support spatially explicit natural resource and environmental conservation efforts under climate change.

Utilizing big data to measure key connections between gender and climate change1

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate change (IPCC) reports and other literature draw focus to disproportionate impacts of natural hazards on women and girls; as well as on the roles they play on climate change mitigation, adaptation, natural resource management, environmental conservation and degradation. The connections between climate change and gender are rarely measured and hence, fewer related policies are in place. This paper showcases three separate data collation and analysis exercises, that generated evidence on the gender and climate change nexus utilizing big data: i) geospatial data integrated with Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) data that provide evidence on the connections between climate change and gender outcomes; ii) search and social media data that show violence-related searches increasing at times of hazards; and iii) web document text data that find little mention of gender in climate speeches. Beyond shedding light on the clear connections between gender and climate change issues, it also highlights the important role that non-traditional sources can play in filling these data gaps.

Forest Management Laboratory, Natural Environment Conservation Program, Environmental Science and Natural Resources Course, Graduate School of Agriculture, Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology

Forest Management Laboratory, Natural Environment Conservation Program, Environmental Science and Natural Resources Course, Graduate School of Agriculture, Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology

Application of Indigenous Knowledge in Natural Resources and Environment Conservation in Nepal

Diversity, natural resources and indigenous knowledge are the wealth of Nepal. Nepalese indigenous people possesses large varieties in language, culture, traditions, art and literatures which can also be applied as knowledge system and can also be taken as indigenous knowledge. These indigenous knowledge are applicable not only in the continuation of beliefs, customs and traditions but also helpful in conservation of natural resources and environment. This paper aims to uncover the application of indigenous knowledge of some groups of indigenous people of Nepal and has applied descriptive and interpretive methods of study. The nature of data used in the study is qualitative. Most of practices are culturally and religiously important which are directly and indirectly helpful in environmental conservation but there is need of further scientific investigation and verification also.

Exploring the Outdoor Recreational Behavior and New Environmental Paradigm among Urban Forest Visitors in Korea, Taiwan and Indonesia

This is international comparative research on the perception of local residents toward the natural environment in South Korea, Taiwan, and Indonesia. Through the New Ecological Paradigm (NEP) investigation, perceptions of natural environmental conservation and utilization of 664 urban forest visitors were analyzed, and the relationship between recreational behavior, NEP scores, and demographic characteristics was investigated. The three countries, with different histories, cultures, and economic development, showed statistically significant differences in all items. In terms of the NEP response score, Taiwan showed the most positive results with an average of 4.08. Frequent visits by the elderly and family were common significant factors of high NEP score for all survey locations. In the confirmatory factor analysis of latent variables for NEP, ‘limits to growth’ were significant in South Korea while ‘ecological crisis’ was more significant in Taiwan and Indonesia. Forest experience frequency was a common factor affecting NEP, indicating that frequent forest visits during leisure time are a major factor in improving the ecological paradigm.

A shoreline evolution model for embayed beaches based on cross-shore, planform and rotation equilibrium models

Coastal stakeholders, engineers, and scientists have long sought a simplified and practical model to predict shoreline change along sandy coastlines; this model could be applied for several purposes, such as public safety, natural environment conservation and coastal management. This study focuses on embayed beaches, which are physiographic units where the incident hydrodynamic conditions determine the interrelation between the beach profile and planform, resulting in a characteristic beach-planform curvature.This article presents a new equilibrium shoreline evolution model. It is a reduced-complexity model based on the integration of cross-shore, planform and rotation equilibrium-based models, and it is exclusively applicable to embayed beaches. This new approach obtains the entire beach coastline evolution over time scales spanning months, several years or decades. In contrast, previous similar models needed to discretize the beach into transects or stretches to evaluate the entire embayed shoreline beach evolution, and this process represents a significant computational cost.The proposed model has been applied to the Collaroy–Narrabeen embayment, Australia and shows overall good performance. The results demonstrate that the model successfully achieves the general erosion–accretion trend along with beach orientation variability of the entire shoreline and the dry beach area evolution at a qualitative and quantitative level. Nevertheless, observations in different sites with diverse beach characteristics and wave conditions are needed to widely validate the proposed model.

Spatial Diversity of Organic Farming in Poland

Economic development requires following the principles of sustainable development for the socio-economic progress of a country. The organic farming sector is important in ensuring sustainable development. The advancement of organic farming is an important issue which combines the environment, human health and socio-economic development. It is a management method that facilitates supplying high-quality food products and aims at eliminating the use of artificial fertilisers and pesticides. Organic farming has a beneficial impact on natural environmental protection, biodiversity conservation and food safety and quality improvement. The natural conditions in a region have a decisive impact on organic farming development. The purpose of this study is to assess the spatial diversity of organic farming and selected organic crop production in Poland by voivodship in 2013 and 2018. The statistical analysis of organic farming spatial diversity was conducted in a one- and two-dimensional approach. The analysis conducted made it possible to identify four clusters of voivodships based on the production volume of selected organic crops using the k-means algorithm. Graphs of observation depth contours in a sample were used to visualise and to analyse the two-dimensional data. STATISTICA software and selected packages of the R environment, available under the GPL licence, were used in the analysis. The analysis shows that the organic farm number and acreage in Poland is characterised by considerable variability between voivodships, with their noticeable concentration in several country regions. In the analysed years, organic farming was the most widespread in the Warmińsko-Mazurskie Voivodship and the Zachodniopomorskie Voivodship.