Abstract: A number of national and international policy processes are underway to allow for the development of sui generis systems to protect local natural and genetic resources and related knowledge about their management, use and maintenance. Despite agreements reached on paper at international and national levels, such as the Nagoya Protocol on access to genetic resources and the fair and equitable sharing of benefits derived from their use, and the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture, progress in implementation has been slow and in many countries, painful. Promising examples from the field could stimulate policy debates and inspire implementation processes. Case studies from China, Cuba, Honduras, Jordan, Nepal, Peru and Syria offer examples of novel access and benefit sharing practices of local and indigenous farming communities. The examples are linked to new partnership configurations of multiple stakeholders interested in supporting these communities. The effective and fair implementation of mechanisms supported by appropriate policies and laws will ultimately be the most important assessment factor of the success of any formal access and benefit sharing regime.
Abstract: Advances in plant biotechnology provide new options for collection, multiplication and short- to long-term conservation of plant biodiversity, using in vitro culture techniques. Significant progress has been made for conserving endangered, rare, crop ornamental, medicinal and forest species, especially for non-orthodox seed and vegetatively propagated plants of temperate and tropical origin. Cell and tissue culture techniques ensure the rapid multiplication and production of plant material under aseptic conditions. Medium-term conservation by means of in vitro slow growth storage allows extending subcultures from several months to several years, depending on the species. Cryopreservation (liquid nitrogen, −196 °C) is the only technique ensuring the safe and cost-effective long-term conservation of a wide range of plant species. Cryopreservation of shoot tips is also being applied to eradicate systemic plant pathogens, a process termed cryotherapy. Slow growth storage is routinely used in many laboratories for medium-conservation of numerous plant species. Today, the large-scale, routine application of cryopreservation is still restricted to a limited number of cases. However, the number of plant species for which cryopreservation techniques are established and validated on a large range of genetically diverse accessions is increasing steadily.
Abstract: Material efficiency is one of the most effective methods for achieving more sustainable operations in iron and steelmaking. Sintering and briquetting processes are commonly used in integrated steel plants to recycle carbon- and iron-containing residues back to blast furnace. In the Ruukki steelworks in Finland, a surplus of solid coking plant by-products is produced, none of which are presently utilized within the steelworks. In this paper, a novel concept for recycling solid coking plant by-products to a blast furnace via liquid-solid injection is evaluated. According to the conducted laboratory study, all the solid by-products could be utilized via liquid-solid mixture injection. By pulverizing the coke gravel and coke sand and mixing it with extra heavy bottom oil, the annual coke requirement of a blast furnace could be decreased by almost 9% with constant oil injection and could reduce annual oil requirements by almost 39% with constant coke rate. Evaluation of direct and indirect environmental impacts reveals that there would be more positive than negative impacts when recycling solid coking plant by-products inside steel plant boundaries.
Abstract: In the early nonindustrial private forest (family forest) research literature, size of forest holding was identified as a critical variable impacting the propensity of family forest owners to invest in and manage small forest properties. This literature discusses relationships between size of forest holding and variables like forest owners’ financial and asset positions, forest management objectives, use of a forest management plan and professional forestry advice, and use of forestry cost-share funding. Since then, the literature has expanded and now relates to the major problem of forest parcelization. We reviewed this literature for historical themes, technical considerations, and continuing ownership problems, emphasizing the current circumstances of forest parcelization and its historical roots in the size of forest holding problem. Many of the sociological, economic, financial, and technical relationships identified earlier as foundations of the size of forest holding problem are shown to be also fundamental to the parcelization problem in forestry. We suggest that today’s parcelization issues are partially a continuation of the size of forest holding problem and that earlier research may be relevant to parcelization problems. We provide a detailed literature review that relates parcelization to the size of forest holding problem.
Abstract: A common goal shared by the world is to achieve well-being for the planet—for this generation and generations to come. The world formalized this common goal when it accepted the concept of ecological sustainable development (ESD) at the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, and through the adoption of the United Nation’s Agenda 21. This paper explores the capacity of New South Wales’ planning system to deliver on this shared goal. It does this through an evaluation of the triple bottom line (TBL), as an impact assessment framework, in the context of coal mine development proposals. The evaluation is performed against ESD principles, and draws from the experience of the authors in reviewing a recent coalmine expansion application in New South Wales, Australia. During this review the authors encountered opportunities to improve the impact assessment process. The opportunities identified relate to the process of robust and consistent drawing of impact boundaries and selection of scales (geographic and temporal), in which to conduct an impact assessment. The findings are significant, as they offer a path toward greater discussion around, and realization of, opportunities for achieving development in each TBL domain, i.e., social, environmental and economic.
Abstract: Partnership working is necessary to allow nations to harness the evolving opportunities presented by climate finance and to progress towards climate compatible development (CCD). However, the new multi-stakeholder partnerships being formed and the factors affecting their outcomes remain poorly understood. This paper aims to identify the characteristics of partnership models that can lead to successful delivery of CCD projects by analyzing case study data from two projects in Zambia. The projects are primarily funded under the umbrella of Corporate Social Responsibility and support activities such as conservation farming which can have carbon storage (mitigation), adaptation and rural development benefits. In each of the case study projects, multiple partnerships have been established between private sector companies, government, Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), traditional authorities and community stakeholders to achieve project aims. A new partnership evaluation model is developed and applied to analyze the partnerships formed. Findings show that the rationale behind the partnership, partner-related factors, and process-related factors can all affect achievement of the project’s aims. Good practices are identified which can inform future partnerships and projects. For example, when establishing a project, the initiating partner must identify gaps that can be addressed by establishing one or more partnership(s). Careful consideration of which partners can best address these gaps allows for synergies in contributions across the partnership required for successful project implementation. Transparency, openness and communication over roles and responsibilities are key to successful partnerships, and power imbalances between partners will reduce the utilization of each partner’s strengths. When working with communities, extra care must be taken to ensure projects are appropriate and relevant to local needs, as well as allowing goals to be met, by engaging communities from the beginning of the project.
