1,720,959 research outputs found
Mangrove Ecosystem Services in Tobago: Challenges, Uses and Future Prospects
Full text linkMangroves in Tobago face challenges from anthropogenic disturbances such as pollution, fragmentation and cover loss through conversion to alternative uses for economic development. However, mangroves also provide a wide range of use and non-use benefits or ecosystem services (ES) to the residents of Tobago. In this study 36 key informant interviews and two focus group discussions were undertaken to identify current uses, challenges, and future opportunities for the mangrove areas, particularly in South-West Tobago. The key informant interviews involved various stakeholder groups that have a vested interest in the use of the mangrove. The two focus-group discussions were done with residents and fishers. NVivo 12 was used in the qualitative analysis to code the data on ES uses, challenges and opportunities. Current ES uses (direct and indirect) identified include forestry products, crab and shellfish, recreation, scientific research, water purification and coastal protection. Non-use (bequest and existence) benefits identified include the aesthetics, biodiversity and habitat. Option and future-uses opportunities include more developed eco-tourism ventures, sustainable development, an exploration of the viability of tannin extraction and further employment opportunities from the provision of fisheries products to the growing tourism sector on the island
Recommended from our members
Valuing mangrove ecosystem services in Tobago: payment horizons and preference uncertainty
No full textThere is an increasing recognition that many ecosystem services provide multiple welfare benefits,
which may not always be fully incorporated into decision making on resource use. In this thesis
these welfare impacts are from the use and non-use values that the mangroves provide in Tobago.
Mangroves are intertidal tree and shrub environments that fringe shorelines in the tropics and sub-tropics, providing essential benefits locally and globally. However, there is still insufficient
understanding on the valuation of some benefits or non-market goods by decision-makers when
being valued with a time sensitive payment vehicle or cost. This thesis contributes to the economic
valuation of mangroves on the island and discusses the potential for increased environmental
management through greater understanding of how different stakeholders, in particular the
residents value mangroves. This was done using qualitative and quantitative research, in-depth
interviews were carried out with 46 [36 pre-discrete choice experiment (DCE) and 10 post-DCE]
participants, 2 focus groups and a DCE with 292 respondents. The Choice Models used the
Hierarchical Bayesian approach and were modelled in Stan with a python interface. Choice
uncertainty and socio-demographic factors were also included in the extended models. The results
were generally the same and the respondents exhibited temporal insensitivity to the 5- and 25-year
payment horizons used. In all models the mangrove cover removal for the tourism development
attribute had the highest annual tax willingness-to-pay (WTP) across the attributes measured. In
the merged 5- and 25-year model this was an annual WTP of 212.07 TT. This
suggests that residents of Tobago value the benefits the mangrove provide in relation to other uses
such as hotel development in both the short and long-term. From the surveys with residents there
is a general desire for increased economic development but not at the expense of mangrove
removal and a loss to its ecosystem services. Recommendations were subsequently made with
policy implications in the short and long-term. Also, the benefits from post DCE follow-up surveys
were found to encourage a better understanding of the SQ aversion and respondent preferences.
General recommendations are made for legislative amendments, a mangrove management plan or
policy and the direction future economic development activities may take to achieve a balance in
resource uses for tourism activities, economic development and mangrove conservation
Recommended from our members
Global soybean trade - the geopolitics of a bean
Full text linkFollowing a collaborative effort and with the support of The UK Research and Innovation Global Challenges Research Fund (UKRI GCRF), the Trade, Development and the Environment Hub -- or simply Trade Hub, https://tradehub.earth/ -- has recently launched the report “Global Soybean Trade – The Geopolitics of a Bean”. Originally cultivated as a traditional staple food in China, soybean today is of the most important global commodities in international trade. The report examines the economics of the ‘soybean miracle’, exploring its complex – and often controversial – implications for people and ecosystems, and analysing how different institutions and stakeholders are addressing the growing sustainability concerns. This publication not only provide a comprehensive review of the existing publications and data, but also highlights some of the open questions that need to be addressed by Trade Hub partners and other stakeholders in order to increase the sustainability of the soybean supply chain, both globally and locally
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Recommended from our members
The role of open data in fighting land corruption: evidence, opportunities and challenges
Full text linkThe rapid progress in digital information and communication technologies (ICTs) comes with both fresh opportunities and new challenges. Since the mid-2000s, the global land governance community has piloted a series of open data and transparency initiatives largely based on such digital innovations, aiming at increasing accountability and counteracting corruption in the land sector, both at the local and global level. By combining a desk-based review of the existing literature and data with a series of semi-structured interviews with a panel of sectoral experts, this study takes stock of more than a decade of interventions pioneering the use of open data to curb land corruption, and explores their impact, their achievements, the existing barriers and limitations, as well as potential ways to overcome them. While open data and transparency initiatives tackling land corruption – which is one of the key issues undermining the achievement of sustainable land governance – are reaching their maturity, their success and their ability to secure funding and investments in the near future still hangs in the balance, as it relies on the capacity to demonstrate, measure and track impact on the ground.
This publication was commissioned and funded by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH – Anti-Corruption and Integrity Programme, on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development(BMZ). This study, awarded to the School of Agriculture, Policy and Development – University of Reading through a competitive tender process, was conducted by Dr Marcello De Maria and Niko Howa
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Full text linkWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Full text linkWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
- …
