Treesearch

The argument is made that sustainability should be construed as measurable environmental conditions, and that sustainable development strategies should be considered in terms of how well they contribute to the sustainable condition target. A case study of the Chesapeake Bay is presented to illustrate how use of Material Flow Analysis (MFA) as a basic component in the proposed sustainability methodology serves to coordinate and harmonize information. Observations are presented on the MFASustainability methodology pertaining to its harmonious accord with existing regulatory structures and...

Notions of market embeddedness highlight the dependency of markets upon social, cultural, and political infrastructures for their operation and legitimation. In contrast, narrow interpretations of the World Trade Organization (WTO) agreements attempt to enshrine the primacy of free trade, institutionalizing the theoretical abstractions of neoclassical economics in a regime with substantial enforcement power. Though trade restrictions are permitted in order to protect the life and health of humans, plants, and animals, advocates of “free trade” insist that such measures be based on a risk...

Starting with the concepts of the “noosphere” -- the sphere of thought -- and the evolution of consciousness developed by Pierre Teilhard de Chardin in the first half of the last century, we will introduce a hypothesis declaring the interdependence of the noosphere with global systems, and extrapolate to new perceptions that these concepts, and others which seem to flow from them, could contribute to transforming historic views into more hopeful visions of the future of human development and life on Earth. Just as mental outlook plays an important part in each person’s life path, so also...

This paper reports on an initiative referred to as the Biodiversity Assessment Project (BAP). A suite of tools is being developed to assist forest managers in assessing the predicted future forest conditions of Newfoundland and Labrador’s forests under a variety of management scenarios. Since 1999, the Western Newfoundland Model Forest partnership has worked with the Institut Québécois d’Aménagement de la Forêt Feuillue (IQAFF) to develop a suite of strategic planning tools that assess the impact of various forest management scenarios on selected biodiversity indicators. This original...

Stakeholders in wilderness, and other public lands, have varying opinions on how well the land management agencies reflect their values and respond to their needs in management, and they therefore vary in their level of commitment and attachment to these places and the activities that occur there. Establishing baseline measures and monitoring indicators of the relationship between the public and wilderness lands can provide efficient evaluations of many management activities. Examples include protection of traditional relationships for indigenous people, and the enhancement and protection...

Tropical reef corals have experienced unprecedented levels of bleaching and disease during the last three decades. Declining health has been attributed to several stressors, including exposures to elevated water temperature, increased solar radiation, and degraded water quality. Consequences of coral bleaching and disease vary; some recover, while others lose tissue, die, and succumb to algal overgrowth. In 2000, a regional monitoring project documented disease prevalence and bleaching across 41 km2 of coral reefs in the Florida Keys. Thirty sites were randomly selected from a spatially-bal...

The National Coastal Assessment of the US EPA began field work in the Western US in 1999-2000. Probabilistic sampling for biotic and abiotic condition indicators was conducted at 381 stations within estuaries and coastal embayments of Washington, Oregon and California. In 2002, intertidal and low salt marsh habitats were sampled at an additional 190 stations. As part of the intertidal effort, pilot evaluations of landscape indicators of coastal wetland condition were carried out in California. Pilot studies were also conducted in south central Alaska and in the Hawaiian Islands. In 2003,...

Achieving sustainable resource management in coastal Louisiana requires establishing reference conditions that incorporate the goals and objectives of restoration efforts. Since the reference condition is usually considered sustainable, it can be a gauge to assess the present condition of a (degraded) system or to evaluate progress of management actions toward some target system state (the reference or desired conditions). In 2003, the Coastal Wetlands Planning, Protection, and Restoration Act (CWPPRA) Task Force and the Louisiana State Wetlands Authority adopted the “Coastwide Reference...

The Alberta Biodiversity Monitoring Program is a rigorous science-based initiative that is being developed to monitor and report on biodiversity status and trends throughout the province of Alberta, Canada. Forest management plans in Alberta are required to monitor and report on the achievement of stated sustainable forest management objectives; however, the effectiveness of these objectives in maintaining biodiversity is not directly addressed in this operational monitoring. The Alberta Biodiversity Monitoring Program will provide this effectiveness function at provincial and regional...

This paper presents a brief conceptual overview of inventory and monitoring and the role of the Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) program in national assessments. FIA has become a focal point of national inventory and monitoring and kept national leadership as well as forest resource research and management professionals apprised, through periodic reports to Congress and others on the status, condition and health of the Nations forests across all ownerships for over 75 years.