Local Government's Resource Commitment to Environmental Sustainability: Capacity, Conservatism, and Contractual Dynamics

Local governments are leading sustainability efforts through a range of initiatives, often voluntarily. While a spate of research exists to explain what drives these voluntary decisions, we are still limited in understanding how localities follow through with the resources to implement their adopted plans. This is particularly the case for environment and climate protection programs that are transboundary in nature and thus require more innovative and longer-term approaches than those that are relatively low-cost and easier to implement with future savings. This research examines local investment in promoting three of these program areas: air quality, biodiversity preservation, and ecological restoration. It investigates how local governments vary according to resource commitment and what factors explain those variations. We find several factors significant, including community capacity, political ideology, and institutional arrangements for service production and delivery. Variations are, however, found across different types of resource commitment, suggesting a more complex picture of local resource availability for advancing sustainability efforts.

Forest Management Assessment of Biodiversity in the Taiga Zone

The need to preserve biodiversity has been recognized for decades, even centuries in North America, Europe and some other regions of the world. importance of preserving species and wildlife areas is emphasized in many cultures. Preservation of biodiversity in forest management, and especially in industrial logging, is one of the most important tasks of modern forestry. In many countries with the developed forest complex (Finland, Sweden, etc.), the task of preserving natural biodiversity has the same priority in the state forest policy as providing the forest industry with wood raw materials. The main requirements for the biodiversity preservation in Russia are enshrined in the National Standard (Forest Code of the Russian Federation, article 1) governing Voluntary Forest Certification. Organization of forest management in the Vologda region is carried out with consideration of significant aspects of biodiversity preservation. The research purpose is the forestry and economic assessment of biodiversity at the local level in the taiga zone (case study of the Vologda region). The assessment was carried out based on the inventory characteristic obtained in the field studies. The methodological provisions of E.A. Rai and S.I. Slastnikov were used to perform economic assessment of the preservation of key objects. A comparison of the costs of timber logging in biotopes and the income from its sale (in the case of logging stands in key biotopes with the subsequent sale of the resulting timber) showed significant differences between the objects under consideration. It is shown that according to the assortment structure, a significant part of the studied biotopes accrue to firewood. The cost of timber varies from 9.6 to 529.5 ths rubles. The amount of costs at different sites will vary significantly from 9.0 to 340.5 ths rubles due to the possible cutting of key biotopes. At the same time, a negative financial result is observed only at one site (a forest site with a habitat of Neckera pennata, which is included in the Red Data Book of the Vologda Region). The results demonstrate that the allocation of key sites and their further preservation is environmentally sound, but in some cases (when compared with the income from their cutting) is not commercially justified. For citation: Korchagov S.A., Khamitov R.S., Gribov S.E., Ivanova M.G., Belyakov D.V. Forest Management Assessment of Biodiversity in the Taiga Zone. Lesnoy Zhurnal [Russian Forestry Journal], 2021, no. 6, pp. 110–120. DOI: 10.37482/0536-1036-2021-6-110-120

Emergent Proteins-Based Structures—Prospects Towards Sustainable Nutrition and Functionality

The increased pressure over soils imposed by the need for agricultural expansion and food production requires development of sustainable and smart strategies for the efficient use of resources and food nutrients. In accordance with worldwide transformative polices, it is crucial to design sustainable systems for food production aimed at reducing environmental impact, contributing to biodiversity preservation, and leveraging a bioeconomy that supports circular byproduct management. Research on the use of emergent protein sources to develop value-added foods and biomaterials is in its infancy. This review intends to summarize recent research dealing with technological functionality of underused protein fractions, recovered from microbial biomass and food waste sources, addressing their potential applications but also bottlenecks. Protein-based materials from dairy byproducts and microalgae biomass gather promising prospects of use related to their techno-functional properties. However, a balance between yield and functionality is needed to turn this approach profitable on an industrial scale basis. In this context, downstream processing should be strategically used and properly integrated. Food solutions based on microbial proteins will expand in forthcoming years, bringing the opportunity to finetune development of novel protein-based biomaterials.

Indicators of Rainforest Recovery from Disturbance

Recovery of forest after logging can be tested in many ways: the presence of particular species of fauna or flora, the similarity of the biodiversity of the recovering forest to that on neighbouring areas of undisturbed forest; or the characteristics of soils and streams whose conditions may have drastically changed during logging. Three cases of rainforest recovery after logging and clearance from Australia and Borneo exhibit different starting and different goals for recovery. Faunal indicators of recovery vary with size and with species dependence of the rainforest. Endemic forest species may have difficulty in recovering. Tree species richness and abundance may recover in two decades, but canopy closure takes longer. Compacted soils may retain low infiltration capacities for many decades. This diversity in recovery rates is confirmed when compared with those used elsewhere. Because the starting points for recovery vary, from damage by tropical cyclones and landslides, to clearance for shifting cultivation, pasture or agriculture, to post-logging conditions, universal indicators may be inappropriate. The desired endpoints of recovery also range from a “wilderness” state to a National Park for human enjoyment, biodiversity preservation, safeguarding rights of traditional forest-dwelling peoples, or a second round of selective logging.

First Coronavirus Active Survey in Rodents From the Canary Islands

Since the beginning of the 21st century five new coronaviruses inducing respiratory diseases in humans have been reported. These emergences has promoted research on coronaviruses in wildlife. We started the first eco-epidemiological study to screen the presence of coronaviruses circulating in mice and rats of four Canary Islands. Between 2015 and 2019, we obtained fecal samples of three rodent species (150 Mus musculus, 109 Rattus rattus and 1 Rattus norvegicus) captured in urban and rural areas. Fecal samples were analyzed by nRT-PCR and the resulting sequences were compared to known diversity using Bayesian phylogenetic methods. We only found coronavirus RNA in house mice from El Hierro (10.53%), Tenerife (7.02%) and Lanzarote (5.26%) islands. All coronaviruses detected belong to the species Murine coronavirus belonging to the genus Betacoronavirus and subgenus Embecovirus, being all positive house mice captured in anthropogenic environment. The phylogenetic analysis shows that murine coronaviruses from the Canary Islands are related to European murine coronaviruses. Albeit data are still scarce in the region, the most probable origin of M. coronavirus present in the Canary Islands is continental Europe. According to temporal Bayesian phylogenetics, the differentiation between Canary and continental viruses seems to be quite recent. Moreover, murine coronaviruses from El Hierro, Tenerife and Lanzarote islands tend to segregate in different clades. This enlightens the potential role of rodents or other possibly invasive species in disseminating infectious diseases to remote places through exchanges with the continent. It is important to consider these aspects in the sanitary control of islands, for health and biodiversity preservation concerns.

TINGKAT ASOSIASI JENIS-JENIS BENALU DENGAN POHON INANGNYA DI BLOK KOLEKSI TAMAN HUTAN RAYA WAN ABDUL RACHMA

Arboreal plant species is one of a group of parasitics plants that belong to the Loranthaceae family. Trees or shrubs that are attacked by parasitics would be disturbed and might even die if the attack is in wide numbers. Wan Abdul Rachman Great Forest Park is an area to maintain the nutrient cycle and biodiversity preservation center for Lampung Province. Wan Abdul Rachman Great Forest Park is divided into five wide blocks, one of which is the collection block, with an area of 2,120.10 ha or around 9.53% of the total area. The objective of this study i.e to determine the species of parasitcs at Collection Block of Wan Abdul Rachman Great Forest Park, determine the species of host plants associated with the species of parasitcs, and analyze the density of each parasitics population. This research was conducted on JuneJuly 2019 using a systematically arranged plot methods. Sample plots have 70 the form rectangle measuring 20m x 20m. The results of this study were found 4 species of parasitics, which were 7 species of host plants. The parasitics population which has the highest density is Macrosolen cochinchinensis with a density value of 4.64 individuals / ha. The parasitics significantly associated with the ketupa tree obtained an (OI value 16.50) and significantly associated with the jackfruit tree (OI value11.60). while the parasitics population that had the smallest density was Scurrula philippensis with a density valueof 0.71 individuals / ha. The parasite is not significantly associated with the Tangkil tree (OI value 1.51)

STUDI KEANEKARAGAMAN, BIOMASSA DAN CARBON STOCK BAMBU DI TAMAN HUTAN RAYA K.G.P.A.A. MANGKUNAGORO I

K.G.P.A.A. Mangkunagoro I Forest Park is the one and only forest park in Central Java. As area of protection, life support system, and biodiversity preservation, K.G.P.A.A. Mangkunagoro I Forest Park plays an important role for life, especially for people around the forest area. To ensure this function, the sustainability of forest functions is determined by the presence of vegetation in the forest area. The purpose of this study was to determine the diversity of species, biomass and carbon stock of bamboo in K.G.P.A.A. Mangkunagoro I Forest Park. The diversity of bamboo species was observed by exploration method with an inventory. Then, based on the inventory data obtained, one species of bamboo was selected based on its number of clumps to determine the biomass and carbon storage. In the present study, there were 20 species bamboo at K.G.P.A.A. Mangkunagoro I Forest Park namely Bambusa balcoa, B. balcoa var. Capensis, B. bambos, B. blumeana, B. multiplex-green hedge, B. multiplex-alphanse karr, B. oldhami, B. tuldoides, B. vulgaris vulgaris, B. vulgaris vitata, B. vulgaris wamin budha, Dendrocalmus asper, D. asper thai, D. asper black, D. hamiltoni, Guadua amplexifolia, G. agustifolia, Oxytenanthera abysinica, Phyllostacys aurea, dan P. nigra. Furthermore, D. asper (petung bamboo) was the most dominated bamboo species. The number of D. asper were 758 clumps/ha and 3,213 reeds/ha. The average D. asper biomass was 6.02 kg/reed. Thus, the estimated biomass per ha was 19.5 tonnes/ha. In addition, D. asper has the ability to store carbon of 9.1 tonnes/ha.