Pristine Landscapes Research Articles

The Temporal and Spatial Evolution Characteristics of the Ecosystem Service Value and Conversion Rate in China’s Key State-Owned Forest Regions

To achieve a sustainable development path that harmonizes ecological and economic considerations, China has advocated the “two mountains” concept: “lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets”. This idea posits that those who protect the environment can economically benefit by selling pristine landscapes and utilizing rich ecological resources. This paper use “the equivalence factor method” to calculate ecological benefits, introduces a technical measure—the conversion rate of ecosystem service value—and analyzes its temporal and spatial evolution from 2003 to 2020 in the operational areas of 87 state-owned forestry enterprises in Northeast China. The findings show: (1) a significant improvement in ecosystem-service quality, with its value increasing from 404.7 to 850.2 billion CNY between 2003 and 2020. The restoration of the ecological environment in China’s KSFR provides a foundation for economic and social development. (2) A decrease in the economic gains derived by operators from developing protected ecosystems, with the most significant decline observed in economic benefits generated from the supply product, including timber harvesting. However, the industrial structure in KSFR shifted from being dominated by timber production to diversified development, with non-timber forest resources becoming an important part of regional economic growth. (3) Significant potential for realizing the value of ecosystem services, evidenced by an increasing trend in the conversion rates of cultural, regulatory, and supporting services. These findings underscore the effectiveness of China’s natural forest protection and restoration policies in optimizing forest ecology and realizing the “two mountains” concept through appropriate market transactions and ecological compensation mechanisms.

Illustrating the future

In the early 1900s, Sweden looked to its north, to “Lappland” as its “land of the future” – an optimistic, utopian vision that tied Sweden’s emergence as a nation-state both to the north’s untapped resources as well as to its open, pristine landscape as a place of symbolic regenerative potentiality – a Nature in which Swedes could re-create themselves. At the same time, the Swedish publishing industry was emerging as a social force, and with it the proliferation of mass-produced images. Photographs, illustrations, engravings, and facsimiles, circulating with scant reference to an original, were powerful political and commercial agents in creating competing mythologies of space and place – one a “found”, natural paradise, one an invented utopia, ripe for development. This article examines the discursive formation of Lapland as it was transformed into such a landscape of desire through the mass production and circulation of visual images – in particular photographs – that were continuously recontextualized, recirculated, remediated, and consumed.

Occupancy of the Ethiopian endemic Moorland Francolin in pristine and degraded Afroalpine biome using a camera trap approach.

Occupancy modeling is an essential tool for understanding species-habitat associations, thereby helping to plan the conservation of rare and threatened wildlife species. The conservation status and ecology of several avian species, particularly ground-dwelling birds, are poorly known in Ethiopia. We used camera trap-based occupancy modeling to investigate habitat covariate influence on occupancy (Ψ) and detection probability (ρ) estimates of Moorland Francolins Scleroptila psilolaema from spatially replicated surveys across both relatively pristine and disturbed landscapes in the Afroalpine biome of Ethiopia. Model-averaged estimate of across all sites was 0.76 (SD = 0.28) and was 0.77 (SD = 0.13) in the pristine landscape. The of the species in the disturbed landscape was 0.56 (SD = 0.19) and was 0.48 (SD = 0.06). As hypothesized, based on our model-averaged beta coefficient estimates (βmean ± SE), predators significantly negatively influenced the occupancy of Moorland Francolins in pristine habitat. We also found a significant positive association of occupancy with herb species richness. Contrary to our prediction, distance to road significantly negatively influence the occupancy of the species, suggesting that occupancy probability was highest in proximity to roadsides and trails in the pristine habitat. There was no significant influence of habitat covariates on the occupancy of the species in the disturbed habitat. The most important covariates that significantly influence the detectability of the species in pristine habitat included sampling occasion and precipitation. The greater occupancy and detectability of this endemic species in the pristine habitat could be linked with the particular conservation status and management of this biodiversity hotspot in the central highlands of Ethiopia. Our results suggest that strict legal enforcement is required to sustainably preserve Moorland Francolins and the ecological integrity of the entire Afroalpine biome. We recommend using camera traps in order to develop realistic and effective conservation and management strategies for rare, sensitive, cryptic, and ground-dwelling animals in the region.

Earth, Water, Air, and Fire – Thinking about Farming and Farmscapes

Farming has changed the face of the earth in Africa as much as elsewhere. But histories of African farmscapes, shaped by millennia of agriculture, are obscured by narratives of pristine landscapes, whether of forests or savanna, and the role of farming in transforming African farmscapes is seldom taught in schools. We present examples of farming strategies and systems from western and southern Africa, which we hope are inspiring and maybe, at times, even surprising. Our exploration of the farmscapes, structured along the classical elements of Earth, Fire, Water, and Air, describes how plants and people deal with the influence these elements have on successful farming and how these influences show up in farmscapes. We hope these stories of flexibility, adaptation, and success and failure motivate teachers and students to think out of the box in grappling with the challenges our world is facing. These stories also provide opportunities for teaching about the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly the goals of Zero Hunger (SDG 2), Responsible Consumption and Production (SDG 12), and Life on Land (SDG 15).

Navigating towards justice and sustainability? syncretic encounters and stakeholder-sourced solutions in Arctic cruise Tourism Governance

ABSTRACTCruise tourism has a dubious reputation for conspicuous consumption and associated environmental harm. Cruises to the Arctic promise passengers pristine landscapes and authentic and engaging experiences interacting with local and Indigenous communities. Yet, these very environments and communities are under existential threat amidst the climate crisis, provoking the question of how to reconcile the ever-expanding Arctic cruise industry’s conflict with the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs). To answer this question, the article proposes a novel approach that fuses concepts and methodologies from normative global governance research and critical tourism studies. Based on extensive empirical research in Norway, Canada and Iceland, the article presents stakeholder-sourced solutions that address a variety of justice conundrums associated with the expanding cruise tourism sector in the region. On the basis of the approach developed in the article, our research is able to inform public and policy discourse towards a just and sustainable transition of the polar cruise tourism industry in light of UN SDGs by highlighting the importance of creating ‘syncretic encounters’ based on four dimensions: authentic storytelling, decompressing spatial and temporal resources, just working conditions, and attention towards the built environment.

Reclamation Plan on Stone Land of The Ex-Nickel Mining at PT Vale Indonesia Tbk Central Pinnacle Condemnation

Environmental and occupational safety issues in the world's mining business have always been the most important issues. The main problems that arise in ex-mining areas include environmental changes which include chemical changes, physical changes and biological changes (Hoskin, 2002). Reclamation is an activity carried out throughout the stages of the mining business to organize, restore and improve the quality of the environment and ecosystem so that they can function again according to their designation (Ahmad, 2006). Primary data collection was obtained using a mobile phone as evidence of the implementation of research activities for research location data, reclamation locations were taken using GPS (global position system) and drones. Secondary data is given directly from supervisors in the company. Land arrangement is intended to obtain a surface finish that is stable and has a natural shape so that it is in harmony with the shape of the pristine landscape, supports the success of plant growth, facilitates access to further work throughout the area, and increases the aesthetic value of the land (Munir, 2017). All irregular heaps are tidied up and leveled, deposits that have the potential to form a collection of water are filled with the result of pushing material from the leveled heap. Ex-mining land with irregular and uneven terrain (holes, relatively steep slopes) must be laid out in such a way as to be stable with low landslide and erosion hazard potential (Noor Rizqoon, 2004). Piling of rocks using top soil as thick as 50 cm on rocky ground. Activities that are no less important are sowing topsoil, making contour drains and making planting holes, these activities are carried out by making arrangements for making drainage and pocket ponds have been completed. Planting holes with a spacing of 3.5 meters and 4 meters can be ascertained that in 1 hectare of reclamation land for Konde Central Pinnacle 714 planting holes can be made, so it can be concluded that the planting holes for Konde Central Pinnacle are good with spacings of 3.5m and 4m.

Glacier decay boosts the formation of new Arctic coastal environments—Perspectives from Svalbard

AbstractThe consequences of accelerating climatic warming on Arctic landscape evolution are far‐reaching. In Svalbard, glaciers are rapidly retreating after the Little Ice Age, which leads to exposing new coastal landscapes from marine‐terminating glaciers. Precise quantification of these changes was limited until the complete dataset of Svalbard glacier outlines from 1930's was made available. Here, we analyse the new Svalbard glacier change inventory data and demonstrate that glacier retreat led to a major shift from marine‐terminating towards land‐based glaciers in the last century. This retreat also led to the formation of 922.9 km of new coastline since 1930's creating pristine landscapes governed by paraglacial processes and sediment‐rich nearshore fjord environments. Recent palaeogeographical reconstructions suggest that such a mode of coastal evolution was dominant over the extended periods of the Holocene. Transitions from marine‐terminating to land‐based glaciers have significant implications for fjord circulation, biological production, the state of marine ecosystems, biogeochemical cycles between land and seas and the CO2 budget in coastal waters.

The fecal bacterial microbiome of the Kuhl’s pipistrelle bat (Pipistrellus kuhlii) reflects landscape anthropogenic pressure

BackgroundAnthropogenic disturbance has the potential to negatively affect wildlife health by altering food availability and diet composition, increasing the exposure to agrochemicals, and intensifying the contact with humans, domestic animals, and their pathogens. However, the impact of these factors on the fecal microbiome composition of wildlife hosts and its link to host health modulation remains barely explored. Here we investigated the composition of the fecal bacterial microbiome of the insectivorous bat Kuhl’s pipistrelle (Pipistrellus kuhlii) dwelling in four environmental contexts with different levels of anthropogenic pressure. We analyzed their microbiome composition, structure and diversity through full-length 16S rRNA metabarcoding using the nanopore long-read sequencer MinION™. We hypothesized that the bacterial community structure of fecal samples would vary across the different scenarios, showing a decreased diversity and richness in samples from disturbed ecosystems.ResultsThe fecal microbiomes of 31 bats from 4 scenarios were sequenced. A total of 4,829,302 reads were obtained with a taxonomic assignment percentage of 99.9% at genus level. Most abundant genera across all scenarios were Enterococcus, Escherichia/Shigella, Bacillus and Enterobacter. Alpha diversity varied significantly between the four scenarios (p < 0.05), showing the lowest Shannon index in bats from urban and intensive agriculture landscapes, while the highest alpha diversity value was found in near pristine landscapes. Beta diversity obtained by Bray–Curtis distance showed weak statistical differentiation of bacterial taxonomic profiles among scenarios. Furthermore, core community analysis showed that 1,293 genera were shared among localities. Differential abundance analyses showed that the highest differentially abundant taxa were found in near pristine landscapes, with the exception of the family Alcaligenaceae, which was also overrepresented in urban and intensive agriculture landscapes.ConclusionsThis study suggests that near pristine and undisturbed landscapes could promote a more resilient gut microbiome in wild populations of P. kuhlii. These results highlight the potential of the fecal microbiome as a non-invasive bioindicator to assess insectivorous bats’ health and as a key element of landscape conservation strategies.

Wang Anshi and Song Poetic Culture

Wang Anshi and Song Poetic Culture

Optimizing on utility-scale solar for conservation of pristine landscapes and ecosystems: the case of Rodrigues Island

Optimizing on utility-scale solar for conservation of pristine landscapes and ecosystems: the case of Rodrigues Island

Plastic in Lake Titicaca: Tourism and Management of Non-Biodegradable Waste in the Andes

Plastic has invaded the rural Andean landscape in recent decades. Its increase is due to the emergence of new consumption patterns, the absence of adequate waste management systems, and the persistence of a logic that incorporates waste into nature—which was appropriate when waste was biodegradable. However, the rural indigenous population is aware of plastic’s polluting effects. Tourism, which transmits urban and Western perceptions of cleanliness, is one of the factors that have led to this view. Tourism spreads an ecological perception that supports the sustainability of natural resources. It also spreads a bucolic perception of the landscape. Sometimes, the two discourses complement each other, but they can also clash. From the discard studies paradigm, and based on the case of Amantaní Island (Lake Titicaca, Peruvian Andes), the article shows that tourist demand for a pristine landscape can drive practices that increase the environmental and health risks of plastic waste.

A Systematic Review for Establishing Relevant Environmental Parameters for Urban Lighting: Translating Research into Practice

The application of lighting technologies developed in the 20th century has increased the brightness and changed the spectral composition of nocturnal night-time habitats and night skies across urban, peri-urban, rural, and pristine landscapes, and subsequently, researchers have observed the disturbance of biological rhythms of flora and fauna. To reduce these impacts, it is essential to translate relevant knowledge about the potential adverse effects of artificial light at night (ALAN) from research into applicable urban lighting practice. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to identify and report, via a systematic review, the effects of exposure to different physical properties of artificial light sources on various organism groups, including plants, arthropods, insects, spiders, fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and non-human mammals (including bats, rodents, and primates). PRISMA 2020 guidelines were used to identify a total of 1417 studies from Web of Science and PubMed. In 216 studies, diverse behavioral and physiological responses were observed across taxa when organisms were exposed to ALAN. The studies showed that the responses were dependent on high illuminance levels, duration of light exposure, and unnatural color spectra at night and also highlighted where research gaps remain in the domains of ALAN research and urban lighting practice. To avoid misinterpretation, and to define a common language, key terminologies and definitions connected to natural and artificial light have been provided. Furthermore, the adverse impacts of ALAN urgently need to be better researched, understood, and managed for the development of future lighting guidelines and standards to optimize sustainable design applications that preserve night-time environment(s) and their inhabiting flora and fauna.

Nature and the 'National Brand Austria': Contested Concepts in Raphaela Edelbauer's Das flüssige Land and Robert Seethaler's Ein ganzes Leben

An allegedly pristine landscape is the crucial backbone of Austria's national 'brand'. This narrative, however, is and must be contested. Authors like Robert Seethaler and Raphaela Edelbauer have recently added their voices to a canon of those who question this romanticized element of Austria's self-stylization and look behind the appealing facade. Reading Seethaler's Ein ganzes Leben and Edelbauer's Das flüssige Land through the lens of Jason Moore's concept of the Capitalocene, this article seeks to address the authors' engagement with the exploitation that underpins the Austrian idyll and its lasting effects, highlighting just how contested nature is in the Austrian context.

Effect of contamination and purity priming on attitudes to vaccination and other health interventions: A randomised controlled experiment

The objective of this experiment is to assess whether priming for contamination and purity causes a change in attitudes to health interventions, including vaccination, and complementary and alternative medicines (CAMs). An online priming experiment was conducted with four between-subject experimental conditions including photos of: 1) biological contamination, 2) chemical contamination, 3) pure environments, such as pristine landscapes, and 4) hazard signs/icons indicating physical threats. Two control conditions included photos of neutral scenes and neutral icons, whereby experimental groups were compared against the related control groups (photograph for conditions 1–3 and neutral icons for condition 4). Subjects were randomly assigned to one of the six conditions, and after exposure to the images they were asked to rate 10 conventional and alternative health interventions for effectiveness and safety, as well being assessed for disgust sensitivity using the reduced-item DPSS-R [10]. A total of 642 adults completed the experiment. Exposure to primes did not cause a differential change in ratings of health interventions. Nevertheless, higher levels of sensitivity to disgust were associated with lower ratings of the effectiveness of MMR vaccination, tetanus injection, antibiotics, and surgery; and higher levels of sensitivity to disgust were associated with higher ratings of effectiveness of vitamins/minerals. In conclusion, this online experiment did not find an experimental effect of priming for contamination and purity on subjects’ ratings of the safety and effectiveness of conventional and alternative health interventions. This indicates that attitudes to these health interventions are not influenced by a temporary increase in the salience of feelings of contamination or purity. However, individual differences in disgust sensitivity are related to their attitudes to vaccination and CAM interventions.

An affective absence: Memorialising loss at Pike River Mine, New Zealand

Pike River Mine was an ordinary, everyday workplace, unremarkable, pragmatic, an industrial aesthetic inserted into a pristine landscape. Following an explosion in November 2010, 29 men became entombed in the mine and their bodies remain there. Unfolding revelations of the culpability of the mine's management and a shocking narrative of events left the mine suspended in time. As a crime scene, it remained sealed off until mid-2019, when the process of re-entry began. All of this is set within one of the country's most sublime landscapes, with lush rainforest, dripping, moist, tranquil. The living and the dead continue to communicate, families shouting names into the portal, Mines Rescue leaving a note for the dead men to read, and out of the mine flows the water that has crossed their bodies. The dead, the living, the mine, the forest, and the deep history of Māori, coalesce in the affective landscape of Pike River. This paper explores affectivity in the context of co-designing a memorial landscape with the dead men's families, local Māori, and the Department of Conservation.

Indigenous knowledge and the shackles of wilderness

The environmental crises currently gripping the Earth have been codified in a new proposed geological epoch: the Anthropocene. This epoch, according to the Anthropocene Working Group, began in the mid-20th century and reflects the “great acceleration” that began with industrialization in Europe [J. Zalasiewicz et al., Anthropocene 19, 55–60 (2017)]. Ironically, European ideals of protecting a pristine “wilderness,” free from the damaging role of humans, is still often heralded as the antidote to this human-induced crisis [J. E. M. Watson et al., Nature, 563, 27–30 (2018)]. Despite decades of critical engagement by Indigenous and non-Indigenous observers, large international nongovernmental organizations, philanthropists, global institutions, and nation-states continue to uphold the notion of pristine landscapes as wilderness in conservation ideals and practices. In doing so, dominant global conservation policy and public perceptions still fail to recognize that Indigenous and local peoples have long valued, used, and shaped “high-value” biodiverse landscapes. Moreover, the exclusion of people from many of these places under the guise of wilderness protection has degraded their ecological condition and is hastening the demise of a number of highly valued systems. Rather than denying Indigenous and local peoples’ agency, access rights, and knowledge in conserving their territories, we draw upon a series of case studies to argue that wilderness is an inappropriate and dehumanizing construct, and that Indigenous and community conservation areas must be legally recognized and supported to enable socially just, empowering, and sustainable conservation across scale.

Beyond order, beyond the human

Beyond order, beyond the human

Short‐term responses to a human‐altered landscape do not affect fat dynamics of a migratory ungulate

Abstract According to risk‐sensitive foraging theory, animals should make foraging decisions that balance nutritional costs and gains to promote fitness. Human disturbance is a form of perceived risk that can prompt avoidance of risky habitat over acquisition of food. Consequently, behavioural responses to perceived risk could induce nutritional costs. Population declines often coincide with increases in human disturbance, which likely is associated with direct and indirect habitat loss. Nevertheless, behavioural and physiological responses to perceived risks associated with human disturbance could be an added nutritional deficit with population‐level repercussions. Using GPS‐collar data from three populations of migratory mule deer Odocoileus hemionus exposed to a gradient of established industrial energy development on winter ranges where direct and indirect habitat loss were well documented, we evaluated whether exposure and behavioural responses to human disturbance alter changes in nutritional condition (i.e. fat reserves) over winter. Although animals exhibited behaviours indicative of perceived risk of human disturbance, such as increased movement rates and avoidance of infrastructure, exposure and behavioural responses to human disturbance had little to no measurable effect on fat loss over a winter. Instead, catabolism of fat reserves occurred primarily as a function of the amount of fat animals had entering winter, suggesting that, in the short term, animals were able to mitigate the energetic costs of perceived risk of human disturbance over winter. Animals, however, did not appear to overcome persistent food limitations, and animals with less food availability lost more fat over winter. Our findings heed caution in using short‐term behavioural and physiological responses to inform long‐term nutritional consequences of human disturbance. Although animals appear to mitigate the energetic costs of perceived risk, food limitations exacerbated by broader‐scale avoidance of food near human disturbance may be the primary pathway causing the frequently observed population declines following human disturbance to pristine landscapes. A free Plain Language Summary can be found within the Supporting Information of this article.

Framework for Sustainable Recovery of Tourism in Protected Areas

Tourism in protected areas was a fast-growing segment within the global travel and tourism industry prior to the economic fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic. As a development pathway, tourism generated foreign exchange for countries endowed with natural assets (protected areas, pristine landscapes, forests, oceans, wildlife), contributed to conservation revenues, and provided local development benefits for communities. However, the spread of COVID-19 and its associated travel restrictions severely impacted this sector. In this review, we describe the main challenges preventing the sector from achieving its development potential. We propose a framework to steer tourism in protected areas as a green recovery initiative, so that it may rebound sustainably and continue to support biodiversity conservation and socio-economic development.

Plant invasion in protected areas, the Indian Himalayan region, and the North East India: progress and prospects

Global biodiversity is not uniformly distributed in terms of species richness. The global and national protected areas (PAs), the Indian Himalayan Region (IHR) and the North East (NE) India, are extremely rich in plant biodiversity, contributing to the environment and the socio-economy/livelihood prospects, linked with human health or well-being. However, the anthropogenic disturbances have modified the vegetation structure of PAs, IHR, and NE India, such that the pristine landscapes are now ripe for the encroachment of invasive alien plants (IAPs). The plants invasions is now increasingly being realised as a major threat to biodiversity globally and the ecologically sensitive mountain ecosystems are no exception. The abrupt spread of IAP in these regions can significantly exacerbate the biodiversity conservation problems, as these regions are already faced with challenges of habitat fragmentation and climate change. Also, the complex interactions among the plants invasion, habitat destruction and climate change can further impose a challenge to the restoration ecologists. Interestingly, the invading plants are equipped with several species or site or habitat-specific adaptive mechanisms like the presence of allelochemicals as novel weapons that facilitate their landscape spread and ecological dynamics. This review describes the theories or hypotheses which may account for the accelerated IAPs spread in IHR, NE India and PAs. The research progress in IHR and NE India is discussed with respect to worst invaders like Lantana camara, Chromolaena odorata, Ageratum conyzoides, Parthenium hysterophorus, Mikania micrantha, etc. In this respect, the outcome of preliminary research in NE India to identify the dominant invaders through quantitative methods is also mentioned. Lastly, the management strategies are described to mitigate the IAPs hazards for sustainable biodiversity conservation.