International Journal of Environment and Climate Change

In Africa, the important agro-pastoral activity and poverty in rural areas lead to strong anthropogenic pressures on protected areas and to their quick degradation. Therefore the efficient conservation and sustainable exploitation of protected areas require adaptive and dynamic management that integrates peripheral interactions with regard to their changing spatial and temporal dimensions. They call for the deployment of appropriate management indicators capable of translating all the issues raised into concrete and practical terms. To this end, a new conceptual and analytical approach to assess pressure indicators is needed to take into account the spatio-temporal oscillation or mobility of the area of ​​socio-economic dependence that must henceforth provide the basis for sustainable management in the context of adaptation to climate change. The study responds to this concern through rigorous conceptualization, characterization and validation of original peripheral pressure indicators focused on a global and dynamic socio-economic framework. The method used consisted of an interpretative analysis of theoretical bibliographic data, measurements and field observations using GPS, ArcGIS 10.1 and Envi 4.5 and semi-structured interviews for the characterization of defined pressure indicators and their field validation. The five pressure indicators designed and applied on the basis of the criteria of direct dependence on protected areas are the coefficient of asymmetry (K_c), the periphery (Ψ), the dependent population (Dπ), the distance-access time (DAT) and the field daily working time (FDWT). The approach and pressure indicators were successfully applied to the Rusizi National Park (Burundi) for the period 1984-2015. The results showed that the park has a coefficient of asymmetry of 2.64 which represents a three times higher level than its circular equivalent, a periphery of 13.23 km radius composed of 35 localities characterized by distance-access times comprise between 0 to 2 h 30 and field daily working times ranging from 7 to 11 hours. They revealed that nearly 70% of peripheral populations are concentrated within 6 km from the boundaries and have distance-access times of less than one hour. The peripheral dependence on Rusizi Park reaches 100% for woody resources, 97% for livestock products, 88% for agricultural resources and 83% for animal protein products. The modeling of potential pressures and field observations showed that peripheral localities are the more threatening that they are more dependent, more populated and closer to the park. As a consequence, the important anthropogenic pressures led to a very significant degradation of the park during the study period.

To adapt to the emergent global climate impacts, the local communities of Khulna, Satkhira and Bagerhat districts in South-Western Bangladesh have spontaneously promoted a number of social innovation using their innovative ideas and traditional knowledge. The present study highlights on this practice called as Community Mangrove Aqua-Silvi-Culture (CMAS) to cultivate some floral and faunal species of the Sundarbans mangrove ecosystem. CMAS is a plot of swampy land with 1 to 1.5 feet deep water bordered by a dyke of 0.5 to1.5 feet height from the water level. The mangrove plant species in CMAS includes Goalpata (Nypa fruticans), Goran (Ceriops tagal), Keora (Sonnerata species), Hargoza (Alanthus ilicifolius), and Baen (Avicennia Species). Besides, there is a canal of about 2-2.5 feet depth that runs along the farm dykes where fish (Telapia, Vetki, Amadi, Tengra, Carps), shrimp (Bagda) and crabs are cultured. For in depth analysis of CMAS, face-to-face interview was conducted in 18 CMAS farms to know about the cultivation method, cost-benefit aspects, environmental and social impact of this unique culture. The farm owners opined that after 13 to 14 months of plantation, which is the shortest in comparison with traditional practice, Golpata and Goran can be harvested usually in January to February. On the other hand, farming seasonality of fish and shrimps varies species to species. However, most of the fish species can be harvested in between May to June in each year. Interestingly, CMAS culture doesn’t need much care and maintenance costs. It is expected that the detailed analysis of CMAS will help the Sundarbans depended local communities more climate resilient.

Aims: This paper investigates the spatial distribution of mosquito breeding sites within the Dakhla oasis of the Western Desert of Egypt.

Study Design:  GIS spatial analysis was used to map the area under risk of mosquito proliferation.

Place and Duration of Study: Dakhla oases, during September 2009 to October 2010.

Methodology: Landsat images, synchronized with mosquito larval survey, were processed to identify the vegetation status of the study area. Twenty-two locations distributed in Dakhla oasis were investigated as nine mosquito species were collected from drains, paddle fields, and waterlogged areas.

Results: Results showed that the main vector of Malaria disease (Anopheles pharoensis and Anopheles sergentii), as well as the Culex pipiens, which is the main vector of filarial disease are abundant. Further, the geo-environmental setting and the discharge of increasing cultivated areas develop considerable waterlogging and pond areas, which are favorable breeding sites of mosquito. In Dakhla oases, the produced risk map showed that a large part of urban and cultivated regions were at risk of mosquito spread.

Conclusion: It was concluded that mosquito larval populations fluctuated with the dynamics of vegetation cover in Dakhla. Multi-year data of mosquito collections are still required to provide a better characterization of the abundance of these insects from year to year which can potentially provide predictive capability of their population density based on remotely sensed ecological measurements.

The phenomenon of non-significant trends in ice-off date under a warming climate was quantitatively explained by three efforts:  exploring possible driving factors where possible and defining new factors to represent snow conditions, identifying the contributing factors through correlation and trend tests, and evaluating relative contributions through partial Mann-Kendall method. Why the ice-off became only slightly earlier over 62 years at Lake of Bays has been satisfactorily assessed: the increased winter temperature, increased total rain and decreased days of snow on ground acted as three promoting drivers to earlier ice-off date, but their promoting functions were effectively offset by adverse changes in four other factors (snowfall slope, precipitation slope, snowpack slope, and last day of snow). The ice-off date at Lake Nipissing did not have a significant trend over 58 years, although there were five factors  contributing to the ice-off decline without sufficient offsetting, suggesting that the ice-off of this lake may not be sensitive, or basically elastic, to the climatic variation stressor. Relative contributions of drivers as calculated helped explain how much they contributed to ice-off trends or how much they offset the influences.

The internal organization of reef-fish communities, particularly the species richness and the hierarchical structuring of species abundances, depends on many environmental factors, including fishing intensity and proportion of macroalgal cover which are expected to have determinant influences. However, reported studies on this topic are generally based on incomplete samplings (almost unavoidable in practice when dealing with highly uneven and species-rich communities), so that the derived results can be appreciably skewed. To overcome this difficulty, the incomplete samplings involved in this study were completed numerically through a reliable extrapolation procedure. This precaution provided a safe confirmation that reduced fishing activity and increased macroalgae cover both contribute to enhance the total species richness and to reduce the abundance unevenness in these reef fish communities.  Yet, it is shown that this reduction of abundance unevenness is almost entirely attributable to the increase in species richness.