Preprints
Filtering by Subject: Environmental Studies
The Emergence and Persistence of Payments for Watershed Services Programs in Mexico
Published: 2021-11-19
Subjects: Environmental Studies, Social and Behavioral Sciences
Payments for watershed services programs (PWS) have become a prominent tool to protect ecosystems and hydrological services but little is known about where these innovative financing tools and governance systems emerge and persist. In 2008, the Mexican government started a program where they match funding from local partners to establish user-financed PWS programs, leading to the creation of 145 [...]
Why understanding stakeholder perspectives and emotions is important in upland woodland creation – a case study from Cumbria, UK
Published: 2021-10-15
Subjects: Community-based Research, Environmental Studies, Human Ecology, Social and Behavioral Sciences, Sociology
Upland regions in the United Kingdom (UK) are increasingly under consideration as potential areas for the creation of woodlands. This is driven by a combination of factors, including the aims of UK forestry and environmental policy to increase woodland cover, meeting international greenhouse gas emission reduction targets, agro-environment schemes in national and international policy, and an [...]
Impacts of woodland planting on nature-based recreational tourism in upland England – a case study
Published: 2021-10-06
Subjects: Environmental Studies, Social and Behavioral Sciences
Upland landscapes provide important ecosystem services (ES) to society. One cultural ES - nature-based recreational tourism (NBR) - is a growing industry in upland regions that provides an important revenue to areas where other industries are often in decline. NBR tourism is a service that relies partly on the aesthetic appearance of the landscape. Changes in land management, such as increasing [...]
Make natures role visible to achieve the SDGs
Published: 2021-09-07
Subjects: Agriculture, Biodiversity, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Economics, Environmental Studies, Forest Sciences, Life Sciences, Public Affairs, Public Policy and Public Administration, Social and Behavioral Sciences
Central to the premise of the Sustainable Development Goals is the concept that the environment underpins the economic and social dimensions of development, yet the language and structure of the SDG framework are largely blind to these environment-development relationships beyond the "nature" Goals (14 and 15). As a result, ecosystem health continues to decline, development milestones lag, and [...]
Recognize diverse approaches to area-based conservation of nature
Published: 2021-08-24
Subjects: Environmental Studies, Other Social and Behavioral Sciences, Social and Behavioral Sciences
To conserve nature globally, policies and practices must recognize the contribution of diverse environmental governance systems to nature stewardship.
Nature’s contributions in coping with a pandemic in the 21st century: A narrative review of evidence during COVID-19
Published: 2021-08-10
Subjects: Environmental Public Health, Environmental Studies, Geography, Medicine and Health Sciences, Mental and Social Health, Nature and Society Relations, Public Health, Social and Behavioral Sciences
While COVID-19 lockdowns have slowed coronavirus transmission, such structural measures also have unintended consequences on mental and physical health. Growing evidence shows that exposure to the natural environment (e.g., blue-green spaces) can improve human health and wellbeing. In this narrative review, we synthesized the evidence about natures contributions to health and wellbeing during the [...]
Social Equity Outcomes in Ethiopia
Published: 2021-06-10
Subjects: Environmental Studies, Social and Behavioral Sciences
Community-based conservation (CBC), albeit lauded as a more just alternative than command-and-control conservation approaches, is riddled by equity concerns. This study measures perceptions of equity and examines how household, institutional, and program design characteristics affect multiple dimensions of equity in a CBC program in the Bale Mountains, Ethiopia. Informed by a prior in-depth [...]
Comment on ‘Carbon intensity of corn ethanol in the United States: state of the science’
Published: 2021-05-07
Subjects: Agricultural and Resource Economics, Agricultural Economics, Agricultural Science, Agriculture, Agronomy and Crop Sciences Life Sciences, Biogeochemistry, Earth Sciences, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Energy Policy, Environmental Indicators and Impact Assessment, Environmental Policy, Environmental Sciences, Environmental Studies, Geography, Life Sciences, Oil, Gas, and Energy, Physical and Environmental Geography, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Plant Sciences, Public Affairs, Public Policy and Public Administration, Social and Behavioral Sciences, Soil Science, Sustainability
Scully et al [1] in their recent contribution review and revise past life cycle assessments (LCAs) of corn-grain ethanol’s carbon (C) intensity to suggest that a current ‘central best estimate’ is considerably less than all prior estimates. Their conclusion emerges from selection and recombination of sector-specific greenhouse gas emission predictions from disparate studies in a way that [...]
COVID-19 and Small-scale fisheries in Africa: Impacts on livelihoods and the fish value chain in Cameroon and Liberia
Published: 2021-04-15
Subjects: Environmental Studies, Social and Behavioral Sciences
This study explores the emerging impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on coastal small-scale fishing communities in Cameroon and Liberia, where we conducted qualitative interviews with small-scale fish harvesters, fish processors, traders, and consumers. We found that the implementation of COVID-19 safety and health protocol initiatives impacted the entire fish value chain, which contributed to [...]
Conserving rhinos by legal trade: Insights from a choice experiment on rhino horn consumers
Published: 2021-04-12
Subjects: Agricultural and Resource Economics, Economic Theory, Economics, Environmental Studies, Social and Behavioral Sciences
A legal rhino horn trade is suggested to reduce poaching. To examine this proposition we conducted a choice experiment with 345 rhino horn consumers in Vietnam investigating their preferences for legality, source, price and peer experience of medicinal efficacy as attributes in their decision to purchase rhino horn. We calculated consumers’ willingness to pay for each attribute level. Consumers [...]
Supporting actionable science for environmental policy: Advice for funding agencies from decision makers
Published: 2021-04-01
Subjects: Environmental Policy, Environmental Studies, Life Sciences, Public Affairs, Public Policy and Public Administration, Social and Behavioral Sciences
Successful incorporation of scientific knowledge into environmental policy and decisions is a significant challenge. Although studies on how to bridge the knowledge-action gap have grown rapidly over the last decade, few have investigated the roles, responsibilities, and opportunities for funding bodies to meet this challenge. In this study we present a set of criteria gleaned from interviews [...]
Applying the FEW nexus concept at the local scale
Published: 2021-04-01
Subjects: Civil and Environmental Engineering, Engineering, Environmental Studies, Social and Behavioral Sciences
The food-energy-water (FEW) nexus describes interactions among domains that yield gains or tradeoffs when analyzed together rather than independently. In a project about renewable energy in rural Alaska communities, we applied this concept to examine the implications for sustainability and resilience. The FEW nexus provided a useful framework for identifying the cross-domain benefits of renewable [...]
Hutchinsons ecological niche for individuals
Published: 2021-03-31
Subjects: Animal Studies, Environmental Studies, Social and Behavioral Sciences
We here develop a concept of an individualized niche in analogy to Hutchison’s population-level concept of the ecological niche. We consider the individualized (ecological) niche as the range of environmental conditions under which a particular individual has expected lifetime reproductive success of ≥1. Our concept is essentially ecological primarily in the sense of fit of individual phenotypes [...]
Temporal Change Detection Analysis of Monroe County, NY tree cover from 2009 to 2017
Published: 2021-03-16
Subjects: Biodiversity, Biology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Environmental Studies, Life Sciences, Other Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Other Life Sciences, Social and Behavioral Sciences, Urban Studies and Planning
Forests provide many ecosystem services which are enjoyed by nearby residing communities. This includes pollution and flood mitigation, carbon sequestration, oxygen production, food, fuel, education, recreation, and aesthetics. These ecosystem services also come from urban and suburban forests. Urban ecosystems, specifically urban green spaces services have been noted to improve human health [...]
Wildlife gardening: an urban nexus of social and ecological relationships
Published: 2021-03-05
Subjects: Biodiversity, Environmental Studies, Life Sciences, Social and Behavioral Sciences
Biodiversity in urban environments continues to decline, alongside diminution of human connections with nature and community. An integrated ethic and practice of caring for one’s human and ecological community could help address these issues. Here, we describe how wildlife gardening can be such a pathway. We snapshot related social dynamics and human wellbeing benefits, highlighting a case study [...]