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In Georgia and Alabama, USA, the American Forest Foundation and Longleaf Alliance implement a habitat credit trading system on family forestlands
. It aimed to develop a voluntary incentive approach for conservation of non-listed species such as gopher tortoise by generating new income options for private landowners. This was to address the primary causes for gopher tortoise decline, conserve a suite of other species, while providing valuable environmental services as conservation of forests, timber products.
Success factors are the set up of an advisory group of stakeholders for consultations throughout the entire process. as well as a framework for monitoring, evaluation and adaptation protocols
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The South Lake Tahoe Monitoring Project, a volunteer water quality monitoring effort coordinated by the Sierra Nevada Alliance, tested pollution levels in creeks and rivers
. 2008 was the first field season for the group of trained citizen-monitors. Volunteers checked for polluted water in local creeks and rivers by collecting data which evaluates the health of water bodies in the Upper Truckee Watershed. Using meters, chemical tests and streamside habitat surveys, monitors gathered information on the ecological health of the river or creek.
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The majority of California’s freshwater comes from the Sierra Nevada, falling in winter as a thick blanket of snow that slowly melts in spring, delivering enormous quantities of fresh, clean water to fill the state’s rivers and reservoirs in support of its cities, industry and agriculture
. As the Earth’s climate warms up, more of this water will fall as rain rather than snow which will run off immediately in large winter pulses that will increase flooding and are likely to be beyond the storage capacity of the existing reservoir system. Meanwhile there will be much less snowmelt that recharges streams and helps keep a reliable water supply for people and wildlife in summer and autumn. These changes are a monumental challenge for the people, economy and environment of California. An innovative solution may help provide part of the solution to this problem: mountain meadow restoration and conservation.
This business plan maps out a 10 year programme to restore and conserve meadow habitat in the Sierra Nevada. This plan puts emphasis on the first 5 years, during which it focuses on implementation of strategies that will further build the economic and scientific rationale that meadow restoration and conservation is worth pursuing on a large scale as well as building the capacity and model projects to make future expanded efforts possible. Contingent on success in years 1-5 and expanded funding to all partners in this effort, Years 6-10 will focus on implementing work on a sufficient scale to ensure appropriate restoration and management of the majority of degraded Sierra meadows. This business plan will guide every aspect of the Foundation’s anticipated $10-15 million in grant-making associated with this landscape habitat feature over 10 years. Ultimately, the hope is that the strategies and activities described herein are adopted by the broader community of agencies and organisations working on similar goals and shared responsibility for the additional $200 million or more of investments identified as necessary to restore degraded meadows.
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Global warming threatens to make the situation worse by bringing more floods, droughts and waterborne diseases
. In addition, the crucial elements of our natural system including healthy rivers, wetlands, forests and floodplains that filter clean water and provide flood protection are being lost. Clean water is the lifeblood of our communities and our environment. But due to global climate change, drinking water, wastewater and stormwater systems, dams and levees have seriously been outdated.
This article reviews on the most affected rivers in America demonstrating the hazards of outmoded infrastructure resulting to poor economic, health and safety benefits. Also poor river management results in the flood threat and poor drinking water quality. The most endangered rivers of America listed in this article shows that the river system is on the verge of ecological collapse. The endangered rivers include:
- Sacramento-San Joaquin River System California;
- Flint River Georgia;
- Lower Snake River Idaho Oregon Washington;
- Mattawoman Creek Maryland;
- North Fork of the Flathead River Montana;
- Saluda River South Carloina.
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This newsletter contains 56 pages of global change science from mountain regions around the world, news from MRI's regional networks, meeting reports, interview and book review
.
Content:
- MRI Interview: ACQWA: Assessing the Future of Water Resources in Vulnerable Mountain Regions;
- Science Peaks: A High Altitude Interdisciplinary Field Campaign - The Storm Peak Aerosol and Cloud Characterization Study (SPACCS08);
- Science Peaks: A new Peruvian-Swiss Program on Climate Change Adaptation: Advancing towards Integrated Climate Change Research, Implementation and Science-Policy Dialogue;
- Science Peaks: The Cordillera Forest Dynamics Network (CORFOR);
- Science Peaks: Ongoing and Future Vegetation Changes in the Western Swiss Alps;
- Science Peaks: Challenges and Opportunities for Sustainable Development in the Ukrainian Carpathians;
- Science Peaks: International Research Collaboration for the Development of Flow Forecasting Tools for the Upper Indus Basin in Pakistan;
- Science Peaks: Colorado’s Roaring Fork River: Incorporating Climate Change Projections into Watershed Management;
- Science Peaks: The Hydrological Atlas of Switzerland – Knowledge for Sustainability in the Alps;
- News from MRI's regional networks in Africa, the Americas, and Europe;
- Partner Organizations: the Global Land Project;
- Meeting Reports: The Water Towers of the World at the 5th World Water Forum Istanbul 2009;
- Meeting Reports: Mountain Hydrology under Increasing Climate Variability and Anthropogenic Pressure;
- MRI Notes: Introducing a New High Elevation Research Facility in the Southern Appalachian Mountains at Appalachian State University, Boone, NC USA;
- MRI Notes: From „Bergler“ to Greenkeeper. Structural Changes in Andermatt, Switzerland.
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Scientists and kids explore climate change together
. The book is a non-scary, action-oriented, and inspiring look at how scientists do their work, what they are discovering about global warming, and how kids are already learning about this through Citizen Science
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There are growing concerns about local and regional ecosystems and their vulnerability in relation to human activities
. This case study evaluates 10 Integrated Land Management (ILM) projects from Canada, the U.S. and Europe to provide information that will help promote better awareness of potential environmental and cumulative impacts due to development priorities and choices. ILM builds on a spectrum of approaches including integrated resource management, integrated watershed management, comprehensive regional land use planning and ecosystem-based management. The study found that ILM approaches could provide significant benefits for local and regional decision-makers by helping them understand the linkages between environment and humans, and by providing opportunities to explore potential future development pathways and policies
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The 2010 Janauray edition of Mountain FOrum Bulletin mainly focuses on the articles' based on Payment of Environmental Services in Mountain Areas of different parts of the world
. The bulletin contains total thirty two case articles and consists of activities done on PES in different environmental resources such as agriculture, water,carbon, biodiversity, ecotoursim and forest.
The list of articles included in the Bulletin are:
1. Paying for Environmental Services: Using the Contingent Valuation Method to Estimate Willingness to Pay for Conservation in the Sho’llet Forest, Peru
2. A Case of Voluntary Collection for Environmental Services, Zapalinamé, Mexico
3. Conservation of water sources in Moyobamba: A brief review of the first experience in payments for ecosystem services
4. Valuing Watersheds in Rural Landscapes: A Case Study from Nepal
5. Payment for Forest Environmental Services: A Pilot Government Policy in the Dong Nai River Basin, Vietnam
6. Protecting Environmental Services in Vittel, France: A Business Opportunity for the Private Sector
7. Payments for the protection of watershed services: A potential tool for improving protection of “paper parks” in Latin America?
8. Complementary Environmental Service Reward Programmes for Sustainable Mosaic Landscapes in the Sierra Madre de Chiapas, Mexico
9. Using water funds to finance watershed conservation in the Andes and Costa Rica
10.Local governmental-led PES for watershed protection: Cases from the Philippines
11.The Cloud Forests of Quillosara: A Local Government Initiative to Establish a Compensation Mechanism for Environmental Services in Ecuador
12.Using Payments for Environmental Services to improve conservation in a Tunisian Watershed
13.Payment for Environmental Services for Sustainable Water Management in Loktak Lake, Manipur
14.Compensation for Hydrological Services in Bolivia: The Comarapa Municipal Water Fund
15.Using Waste Land for Afforestation: Assessing the Results of the First Registered CDM Forestry Project
16.Delivering Environmental Services in Landscapes: Lessons Learned from Experience with PES through IUCN’s Livelihoods and Landscapes Strategy
17.Introduction to the SARD-M Project: An Initiative of FAO, Rome, for Remuneration of Positive Externalities in Mountain Regions
18.Organic Farming: Enhancing Environmental Services from Farmland in Austria
19.Using a Biogas Scheme to Control Soil Erosion on Sloping Lands, North Vietnam
20.Can Payments support Environmental Services from Farmland?
21.Honeybees as Providers of Pollination Services
22.Snow Leopards and ‘Himalayan Homestays’: Catalysts for Community-Based Conservation in Mountain Areas
23.The Voluntary Gopher Tortoise Habitat Credit Trading System
24.Rewards for Environmental services and collective land tenure: Lessons from Ecuador and Indonesia
25.Valuing Environmental Services for Recreation in the Margalla Hills National Park, Islamabad
26.Tourism and Payments for Environmental Services: The Outlook for a Stronger Business Case to Develop Rural Tourism in Bhutan
27.From Poachers to Park Wardens: Revenue sharing scheme as an incentive for environmental protection in Rwanda
28.The Rhön Biosphere Reserve: Developing New Financing Options to Conserve a Traditional Agricultural Landscape
29.Khasi Community Landscape Restoration and Conservation Project: Mawhplang Lyngdohship, Meghalaya
30.Payments for Carbon Sequestration in the Philippines: Lessons and Implications
31.Can Nepal Benefit from Forest Carbon Financing : An assessment of opportunities, challenges and possible action
32.Valuing the Services provided by forest and agro ecosystems in the Central Himalaya, Indi
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The signature of Colorado's Rocky Mountains are the 58 named mountain peaks that exceed an elevation of 14,000 feet (4267 m), referred to as the ?Fourteeners
.? For decades, 53 or 54 peaks were widely accepted as Fourteeners, but all US Geological Survey-named, recognized, and frequented Fourteeners are included here to bring the total to 58. This article documents factors that affect mountain climbing in Colorado, USA, and discusses the potential for adverse environmental impacts from the increasing number of climbers visiting the Fourteeners, presumably from the adjacent major population center of the Denver, CO, metropolitan area. The first goal was to determine from summit registers the amount of climbers (Fourteener-visits) on any given 14,000-foot peak by month and by year. The second goal identified distance and accessibility factors that have a significant effect on relative annual mountain climbing frequency. Findings provide important insights on identifying potential preservation needs and tourism management within heavily visited rural mountain environments
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Collective action among resource users has long been identified as a basic element of successful common pool governance, and one of the main concerns of common pool research is the identification of factors that affect collective action
. Among the most commonly identified factors are trust, social capital, common preferences, shared knowledge, collaborative experiences, focusing events and expectations of future interactions. Thus far, however, relatively little attention has been paid to the historical-institutional context of collective action and the constraining effects of path dependency. Path dependency suggests that investments and adaptations in early resource management institutions can make it difficult for actors to abandon these institutions, thereby influencing and shaping subsequent collective action efforts. This article examines the impact that path dependency can have on collective action in common pools, by examining basinlevel water management in the Murray-Darling Basin of Australia, the Colorado Basin of the US and the Saskatchewan-Nelson Basin of Canada. In all three cases, early water apportionment institutions have proven strongly path dependent, significantly shaping subsequent collective action efforts at water conservation.
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