‘The forest is our inheritance’: An introduction to Semai Orang Asli place‐naming and belonging in the Bukit Tapah Forest Reserve

The forest realm of the Gòòl‐War watershed of southeast Perak, Malaysia holds much socio‐cultural significance to the Semai Orang Asli communities living along these rivers. Notwithstanding its present‐day location within the Bukit Tapah Forest Reserve, the forest continues to be where Semai conceptions of history and lore are encoded in the geographical particulars of the landscape. A thriving forest‐dependent lifestyle maintains and transmits Semai place knowledge, observed in this research through people's command of ancestral place‐names. This paper provides an introduction to Semai toponymy and considers the implications of indigenous place‐names on the protection of indigenous homelands and ways of life.     

Is Certification Associated with Better Forest Management and Socioeconomic Benefits? A Comparative Analysis of Three Certification Schemes Applied to Brazil Nuts in Western Amazonia

Nontimber forest product (NTFP) certification has potential to promote sustainable harvest and to bolster rural livelihoods. This research compares environmental and socioeconomic benefits of Brazil nut certification for 231 producers in 17 communities in the trinational border region of Bolivia, Brazil, and Peru during the 2006–2007 harvest. Specific objectives were: (1) to analyze differences in “best management practices” between certified and noncertified producers; (2) to identify socioeconomic benefits associated with certified nuts; and (3) to explore producer perceptions of nut certification. Organic and Fairtrade certification were associated with better postharvest practices and higher prices, while Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification was related to preharvest planning. Certification was viewed most positively in Bolivia, where producers gleaned financial and social benefits, moderately in Peru, and least positively in Brazil, where benefits were lower or nonexistent. Partnerships with cooperatives, donors, government, and nongovernmental organizations were essential to maximize conservation and development objectives.     

Exploring the dynamics of migration to mega-delta cities in Asia and Africa: Contemporary drivers and future scenarios

This paper uses a content analysis of the published literature to take stock of current understanding of key social and policy drivers of migration to cities in 11 Asian and African mega-deltas and identifies commonalities and differences among them. The analysis shows that migration to urban centers in mega-deltas is an outcome of many forces: economic policies and incentives, local and destination institutions, government policies to develop small towns, and the geographic concentration of investments. Massive influx of capital to many deltas has transformed the local economic base from a primarily agricultural one to a manufacturing and processing economy. This has created uneven spatial economic development which is the underlying driver of migration to cities in the mega-deltas regardless of geographic context or size. Going forward to 2060, one critical challenge for all the deltas is to increase the labor skill of their workforce and foster technology innovation. Continued economic growth in these regions will require substantial investments in education and capacity building and the ability of urban centers to absorb the migrant labor pool.     

Regime shifts in the marine environment: the scientific basis and political context

Regime shifts in the marine environment have recently received much attention. To date, however, few large-scale meta-analyses have been carried out due to insufficient data coverage and integration between sustained observational datasets because of diverse methodologies used in data collection, recording and archival. Here we review the available data on regime shifts globally, followed by a review of current and planned policies with relevance to regime shifts.We then focus on the North and Baltic Seas, providing examples of existing efforts for data integration in the MarBEF Network of Excellence. Existing gaps in data coverage are identified, and the added value from meta-analyses of multiple datasets demonstrated using examples from the MarBEF integrated data project LargeNet. We discuss whether these efforts are addressing current policy needs and close with recommendations for future integrated data networks to increase our ability to understand, identify and predict recent and future regime shifts.     

A simulation of probabilistic wildfire risk components for the continental United States

This simulation research was conducted in order to develop a large-fire risk assessment system for the contiguous land area of the United States. The modeling system was applied to each of 134 Fire Planning Units (FPUs) to estimate burn probabilities and fire size distributions. To obtain stable estimates of these quantities, fire ignition and growth was simulated for 10,000 to 50,000 “years” of artificial weather. The fire growth simulations, when run repeatedly with different weather and ignition locations, produce burn probabilities and fire behavior distributions at each landscape location (e.g., number of times a “cell” burns at a given intensity divided by the total years). The artificial weather was generated for each land unit using (1) a fire danger rating index known as the Energy Release Component (ERC) which is a proxy for fuel moisture contents, (2) a time-series analysis of ERC to represent daily and seasonal variability, and (3) distributions of wind speed and direction from weather records. Large fire occurrence was stochastically modeled based on historical relationships to ERC. The simulations also required spatial data on fuel structure and topography which were acquired from the LANDFIRE project (). Fire suppression effects were represented by a statistical model that yields a probability of fire containment based on independent predictors of fire growth rates and fuel type. The simulated burn probabilities were comparable to observed patterns across the U.S. over the range of four orders of magnitude, generally falling within a factor of 3 or 4 of historical estimates. Close agreement between simulated and historical fire size distributions suggest that fire sizes are determined by the joint distributions of spatial opportunities for fire growth (dependent on fuels and ignition location) and the temporal opportunities produced by conducive weather sequences. The research demonstrates a practical approach to using fire simulations at very broad scales for purposes of operational planning and perhaps ecological research.     

Granular Controls on Periodicity of Stick-Slip Events: Kinematics and Force-Chains in an Experimental Fault

It is a long-standing question whether granular fault material such as gouge plays a major role in controlling fault dynamics such as seismicity and slip-periodicity. In both natural and experimental faults, granular materials resist shear and accommodate strain via interparticle friction, fracture toughness, fluid pressure, dilation, and interparticle rearrangements. Here, we isolate the effects of particle rearrangements on granular deformation through laboratory experiments. Within a sheared photoelastic granular aggregate at constant volume, we simultaneously visualize both particle-scale kinematics and interparticle forces, the latter taking the form of force-chains. We observe stick-slip deformation and associated force drops during an overall strengthening of the shear zone. This strengthening regime provides insight into granular rheology and conditions of stick-slip periodicity, and may be qualitatively analogous to slip that accompanies longer term interseismic strengthening of natural faults. Of particular note is the observation that increasing the packing density increases the stiffness of the granular aggregate and decreases the damping (increases time-scales) during slip events. At relatively loose packing density, the slip displacements during the events follow an approximately power-law distribution, as opposed to an exponential distribution at higher packing density. The system exhibits switching between quasi-periodic and aperiodic slip behavior at all packing densities. Higher packing densities favor quasi-periodic behavior, with a longer time interval between aperiodic events than between quasi-periodic events. This difference in the time-scale of aperiodic stick-slip deformation is reflected in both the kinematics of interparticle slip and the force-chain dynamics: all major force-chain reorganizations are associated with aperiodic events. Our experiments conceptually link observations of natural fault dynamics with current models for granular stick-slip dynamics. We find that the stick-slip dynamics are consistent with a driven harmonic oscillator model with damping provided by an effective viscosity, and that shear-transformation-zone, jamming, and crackling noise theories provide insight into the effective stiffness and patterns of shear localization during deformation.     

Spatial distribution and general population characteristics of mysid shrimps in the Westerschelde estuary (SW Netherlands)

The distribution and general population characteristics of five mysid shrimps were investigated in the period 2003–2005 in the Westerschelde estuary, a tidal temperate estuary situated along the Dutch–Belgian border. Multivariate analyses revealed that salinity predominantly governs the spatial distribution of Neomysis integer, Gastrosaccus spinifer, Schistomysis kervillei and Schistomysis spiritus while temperature, and to a lesser extent turbidity, control the distribution of Mesopodopsis slabberi. N. integer is a resident species in the mesohaline zone of the estuary, i.e. all life stages of the species are present in the estuary throughout the year. For the first time since decades N. integer inhabits the oligohaline zone of the estuary supposedly as a consequence of improved oxygen conditions in the upstream reaches. M. slabberi, the most abundant mysid in the Westerschelde, dominates the hyperbenthos of the mesohaline zone of the estuary. The polyhaline zone of the estuary is, most abundantly inhabited by M. slabberi, G. spinifer, S. kervillei and to a lesser extent by S. spiritus. The abundance of the latter four species is low in winter, probably due to a migration towards coastal waters to avoid colder temperatures in the estuary combined with an increased mortality after breeding. The sex ratio of all the mysid populations corresponds to the expected 1:1 female:male ratio and no salinity governed segregation is found between the different life stages of each mysid population. A seasonal variation exists in brood size in the N. integer population regardless of the body size, with a larger number of broods during winter and spring compared to the summer. In the other mysid populations the brood sizes vary only with the length of the ovigerous females.     

Developing a long-term outlook for the Great Barrier Reef,Australia: A framework for adaptive management reporting underpinning an ecosystem-based management approach

The Great Barrier Reef Outlook Report 2009 was the first produced in response to a newly legislated requirement for five-yearly reports on the status of and outlook for the Great Barrier Reef. It adopted an ecosystem approach, assessing all habitats and species, ecosystem processes and major uses. By then considering the factors affecting the ecosystem, coupled with an assessment of management effectiveness, it provided a risk-based forward-looking projection for the ecosystem. Rarely has such a comprehensive, ecosystem-based report been produced to guide government action. With no pre-determined path to follow for interpreting the legislative requirements, the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority (GBRMPA) developed a repeatable structure and method for Great Barrier Reef Outlook Reports that impartially and consistently considers the evidence and clearly presents the findings. The GBRMPA worked closely with relevant Australian and Queensland Government agencies as well as researchers, industry representatives and the community while developing the report. That such a report must be produced every five years allows an overview of the effectiveness of management responses to be regularly assessed. It also provides a transparent means of highlighting and tracking emerging risks facing the Great Barrier Reef.