Politico-economic determinants of forestry policy in Cameroon

Factors that influence the policy choices of forest and environmental policy-makers in developing countries are yet to be completely understood. The study reported in this paper seeks to contribute to efforts addressed to promoting knowledge of these factors. It does so by analyzing the forest and environmental policy and policy field of Cameroon. The field is shown to be crowded, involving entities and individuals with disparate goals. The state emerges as the most powerful stakeholder in the field. It is argued that despite their seemingly inconsistent and contradictory nature, major provisions of Cameroon’s forestry and environmental policy have a unified purpose, viz., to serve the interests of powerful domestic and international stakeholders. It is concluded that the interests of these stakeholders, rather than the country’s national development goals, constitute the major determinant of the policy choices of its forest and environmental policy-makers.     

Note of the experience in the preparation of CSK standard solutions and the ICES—SCOR intercalibration experiment, 1969–1970

Responding to the recommendation of the first Session of the International Coordinating Group for CSK, Sagami Chemical Research Center prepared a series of CSK standard solutions for PO₄-P, SiO₂-Si, NO₂-N and NO₃-N in addition to KI0₃ standard solution for dissolved oxygen, satisfying the following requirements: (i) the highest accuracy attainable, (ii) covering the whole range of concentrations met within seawater and (iii) ensuring at least one year's stability after preparation.The ICES—SCOR International Intercalibration Experiment was performed using sets of unknown synthetic solutions of P, Si, NO₂ and NO₃ which were offered by Sagami Chemical Research Center with the participation of 56 world laboratories.Using the reported data from 36 laboratories which were collected by Prof. F. Koroleff (Finland), Chairman of the programme, C.V. values (Coefficient of Variation in %) for the deviation of the reported values for the distributed samples from the correct concentrations are calculated, ranging from 4.1 to 25.8 for several nutrient elements. The fraction of deviation originating from discrepancies in the standards used was calculated to discover possible causes leading to the variance. C.V. values of the deviation of the experiment were compared with the corresponding C.V. values for the test samples as determined by our laboratory; this revealed that the C.V. values for the reported data from the experiment were 3.4 to 22 times larger than those for the test samples.     

Distribution of local Cs anomalies on the seafloor near the Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant

An estimated 3.5 ± 0.7 × 10¹⁵ Bq of ¹³⁷Cs is thought to have been discharged into the ocean following the melt down at Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant (F1NPP). While efforts have been made to monitor seafloor radiation levels, the sampling techniques used cannot capture the continuous distribution of radionuclides. In this work, we apply in situ measurement techniques using a towed gamma ray spectrometer to map the continuous distribution of ¹³⁷Cs on the seafloor within 20 km of the F1NPP. The results reveal the existence of local ¹³⁷Cs anomalies, with levels of ¹³⁷Cs an order of magnitude higher than the surrounding seafloors. The sizes of the anomalies mapped in this work range from a few meters to a few hundreds of meters in length, and it is demonstrated that the distribution of these anomalies is strongly influenced by meter scale features of the terrain.     

Estimating the Kuroshio Axis South of Japan Using Combination of Satellite Altimetry and Drifting Buoys

By tracking the locally strongest part of the sea-surface velocity field, which was obtained by integrating data of satellite altimeters and surface drifting buoys, we extracted the Kuroshio axis south of Japan every 10 days from October 1992 to December 2000. The obtained axes clearly express the effect of the bottom topography; three modes were observed when the Kuroshio ran over the Izu Ridge. The axis was very stable to the south of ‘Tosa-bae,’ off the Kii Channel. Mean current speed at the Kuroshio axis gradually increased from 0.65 m/s south of Kyushu to 1.45 m/s off Enshu-nada. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Surface current and vertical thermal structure on the continental slope in Tosa Bay

In order to specify a vertical thermal structure related to surface current variation on the continental slope in Tosa Bay, Japan, we analyzed monthly regular hydrographic measurements in the years 1991–2004. Subsurface temperature below 200 m on the slope was found to vary synchronously with the vertical displacement of the main thermocline around 200 m. It is shown that the vertical-averaged temperature below 200 m is significantly correlated with an along-isobath/southwestward surface current velocity on the slope. This correlation indicates that when a strong (weak) southwestward surface current is observed, temperature below 200 m decreases (increases) simultaneously, that is, isotherms below the 200 m are displaced upward (downward) together with the main thermocline. Moreover, when the strong southwestward flow is detected, across-isobath isotherms around 200 m slope upward toward the offshore direction. Furthermore, it is suggested that as the Kuroshio axis moves offshore south of the bay, the southwestward flow tends to be weakened by the combined effect of other Kuroshio parameters such as transport and stream width as well as the Kuroshio axis position. As a result, it is inferred that the correlation between the surface current and subsurface temperature can be interpreted in terms of the formation and decay of an anticlockwise circulation interacting with a cold eddy.     

Vulnerability of water resources in northern Cameroon in the context of climate change

Water resources in northern Cameroon have continuously been reducing over the past years. Many studies have suggested two principal causes: (1) human activities such as poor farming practices, unsustainable use of water resources, increased demand of water, deforestation, land-use change, etc., (2) human-induced climate change. Northern Cameroon in this study includes: the Adamawa, North and Far North regions located closer to the Sahel regions of Africa. These regions are already water stressed because of their location and any further change in climate with rising temperature would impact water resource either positively or negatively. Time series analysis and a 12-month standardized precipitation index (SPI12) with digital data between 1957 and 2006 were used to investigate the variation of water resources in northern Cameroon. Results obtained varies between the different regions with an increased annual trend in temperature and precipitation for Ngaoundere (Adamawa region) and Garoua (north region), whereas Maroua (far north region) had a decreased annual trend in both precipitation and temperature. Further variability results obtained from a SPI12 show that wetter period out number drought period in all three regions. The study concluded that water resources vary with the changing climatic condition and the severity of the impact varies from region to region. Furthermore, water deficiency in northern Cameroon might not be due to climate change. The reasons might be a combination of poor water management and other factors such population growth, the environmental condition, etc.     

The chemical states of iron in marine sediments by means of Mössbauer spectroscopy in combination with chemical leachings

The chemical states of iron in near-shore and deep-sea sediments were investigated by means of⁵⁷Fe Mössbauer spectroscopy in combination with selective and nonselective chemical leachings. As far as a limited number of the sediments analyzed are concerned, Mössbauer spectra of near-shore sediments consist of high-spin paramgnetic ferrous (=1.13 mm/s, Eq=2.65 mm/s) and paramagnetic ferric (=0.35 mm/s, Eq=0.64 mm/s) components, while those of deep-sea sediments are composed of high-spin paramagnetic ferrous, paramagnetic ferrous, paramagnetic ferric and magnetic ferric (0.4 mm/s,H510 KG) components. The Fe²⁺/Fe³⁺ ratios of deepsea sediments are much smaller than those in near-shore sediments, while the total contents of iron in the former are much higher than those in the latter. This is principally due to the high contents of authigenic ferric oxides in deep-sea sediments. Further, in the aluminosilicate fraction, the Fe²⁺/Fe³⁺ ratios of deep-sea sediments are also smaller than those of near-shore sediments. This is probably attributed to high contents of clay minerals and authigenic aluminosilicates in deep-sea sediments relative to near-shore ones. The magnetic components in deepsea sediments are attributable to hematite, magnetite and/or maghemite.     

Preparation of the standard solutions of nitrate and their application to seawater and freshwater

Responding to the recommendation at the first Meeting of the International Coordination Group for the Cooperative Study of the Kuroshio and Adjacent Regions (CSK) 1965, a series of nitrate standard solutions consisting of eight different concentrations ranging from 0 to 50g-at NO₃-N/l in 30.5 sodium chloride solution with the highest purity was prepared for nitrate-N determination in seawater. The solutions have been proved to be stable at least 520 days after preparation.The best way of handling and conditioning the copper-cadmium column was studied for securing the perfect and reproducible conversion of nitrate to nitrite for the procedure as proposed byWood et al. (1967).It was also shown that the method can be applied to freshwater samples by the addition of sodium chloride and adjusting pH properly.     

Embracing Informality – A Commentary

This short commentary surveys an international exhibition entitled ‘The cartography of the unseen’, presented at HIT's Faculty of Design Research Gallery, Israel, February 2015. For a better understanding of this exhibition and its implications, also theoretically, we intervened with a further interpretation on one of the exhibited projects, that is, Map Kibera.     

Operational Data Assimilation System for the Kuroshio South of Japan: Reanalysis and Validation

We describe an operational ocean data assimilation system for the Kuroshio and its validation using a nine-year reanalysis (historical run from 1993 to 2001) dataset of upper-ocean state estimation in the North Pacific. The horizontal structure of volume transport of the Ryukyu Current System (RCS) is shown from the reanalysis: The RCS is connected to the flow of the subtropical gyre, and its volume transport gradually increases from south-east of Okinawa (5–10 Sv) to the east of Amami-Ohshima Island (20 Sv). Comparing the reanalysis with independent observations on the southeast slope of the Amami-Ohshima Island indicates that the root mean square differences (RMSDs) are 0.076 (0.037) m/s in the period of December 1998 to November 1999 (November 1999 to November 2000) respectively. The reanalysis field has a bias (3.1 Sv) of the volume transport of the RCS and the RMSD (3.5 Sv) which is larger than the observed variability (2.81 Sv). Surface velocity and the Kuroshio axis south of Japan are also examined. Comparison of the reanalysis and ADCP data gave maximum RMSD of 0.749 (0.271) m/s in the strong (weak) current regions, respectively. The annual mean value of the axis error is 19 km in 1998. The RMSD of the error is at most 50 km, in 294 cases in the observation period, which is smaller than the observed root mean square variability of the axis (64 km). This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.