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Op 6 juni 2015 vond op Fort IJmuiden een landelijke bijeenkomst plaats van het project Kenniskringen Visserij. Het doel van deze dag was te komen tot een uitwisseling van kennisvragen over verschillende visserij gerelateerde thema’s. Het programma bestond uit een plenaire bijeenkomst en uit een aantal zogenoemde cafébijeenkomsten. Bij elke cafébijeenkomst was een relevante expert aanwezig, die de bijeenkomst inleidde. Hierna konden de aanwezigen vragen aan de expert en aan elkaar stellen. Dit verslag is een samenvatting van de uitspraken die door de deelnemers en experts op deze dag gedaan zijn rond de thema’s: 1. Duurzaamheid en de visser als onderzoeker (expert: Bas Haring, volksfilosoof) 2. Communicatie (expert: Marissa Tanis, GoMaris) 3. Fuel of the future (expert: Dirk Kronemeijer) 4. Veiligheid aan boord (expert: Cor Blonk) 5. Coöperaties (expert: Thomas Højrup)

Destabilization of the water cycle threatens human lives and livelihoods. Meanwhile our understanding of whether and how changes in vegetation cover could trigger abrupt transitions in moisture regimes remains incomplete. This challenge calls for better evidence as well as for the theoretical concepts to describe it. Here we briefly summarise the theoretical questions surrounding the role of vegetation cover in the dynamics of a moist atmosphere. We discuss the previously unrecognized sensitivity of local wind power to condensation rate as revealed by our analysis of the continuity equation for a gas mixture. Using the framework of condensation-induced atmospheric dynamics, we then show that with the temperature contrast between land and ocean increasing up to a critical threshold, ocean-to-land moisture transport reaches a tipping point where it can stop or even reverse. Land-ocean temperature contrasts are affected by both global and regional processes, in particular, by the surface fluxes of sensible and latent heat that are strongly influenced by vegetation. Our results clarify how a disturbance of natural vegetation cover, e.g., by deforestation, can disrupt large-scale atmospheric circulation and moisture transport. In view of the increasing pressure on natural ecosystems, successful strategies of mitigating climate change require taking into account the impact of vegetation on moist atmospheric dynamics. Our analysis provides a theoretical framework to assess this impact. The available data for Eurasia indicate that the observed climatological land-ocean temperature contrasts are close to the threshold. This can explain the increasing fluctuations in the continental water cycle including droughts and floods and signifies a yet greater potential importance for large-scale forest conservation. 25 pages, 5 figures, and 1 table

Een gesprek met Joop Verheul, bedrijfsleider van Zegveld, over de toekomst van het veenweidegebied, is vooral een gesprek over het waterpeil.

The diversification of agri-food products through emerging chains has a fundamental social and economic role in Ecuador. A substantial amount of research focused only on examining critical factors in terms of agronomic and environmental performance. However, there is a shift in the agri-food chain perspective and study towards more sustainable models of production, logistics trade, and consumption. Aspects such as the socio-economic sustainability, level of collaboration between actors, an adequate chain configuration, and the employment of smart governance mechanisms show the weaknesses where stakeholders can propose enhancements. In this respect, socioeconomic and productive factors are consequential and still affecting the progress of these chains. Also, the current growth of market opportunities at the local and international level is a driver to support them by setting sustainable strategies. This study aimed to analyze socio-economic and production aspects to understand the dynamic across the emerging Inca berry (Physalis peruviana) chain located in Ecuador and bring forward potential strategies. Thus, chain vertical and horizontal dimensioning was introduced to contribute with relevant insights. The framework applied accounts with a revision of primary and support activities, and flows of high and low relevance. The investigation clustered pre-production, production, and post-production tiers. Also, it executed the food chain mapping, the identification of chain actors, and application of surveys at the supply chain levels to identify strengths and weaknesses based on specific socio-economic and productive variables. Results stated several viable long-term strategies. Examples of those strategies are the diversification of marketing channels, the intervention of academic institutions to improve efficiency, productivity, and the associations' empowerment. All of them aimed at circular economic models. The main research contribution is the application of the chain configuration to assess the chain performance comprehensively. Based on the results, our recommendation is incorporating new indicators to analyze the environmental and institutional components profoundly.

AbstractThe effects of rising global temperatures are becoming increasingly evident, with observable consequences such as the melting of polar ice caps, the occurrence of cyclones and hurricanes, desertification, and the destruction of ecosystems. The Italian economy is particularly vulnerable to the climate challenge, due to the prolonged slowdown in economic growth and the high unemployment that have plagued this economy over the last decades. Environmental innovation could be the key to tackling climate change, while at the same time promoting growth and employment. A comprehensive assessment of the effects of environmental innovation on growth and employment at the macroeconomic level should consider the compensation mechanisms associated with productivity gains, the substitution effects between more or less polluting goods, and the role of demand and consumer preferences. However, a comprehensive analysis that includes all of these direct and indirect effects of environmental innovation at the macroeconomic level is still lacking. This study aims to bridge this gap, introducing a structuralist computable general equilibrium model to simulate the effects of an increase in productivity and a change in consumer preferences in favour of less polluting industries in the Italian economy over the period 1995–2050. The results of the simulations indicate that a change in consumer preferences in favour of environmentally friendly goods in the Italian context may be more effective than an increase in productivity in stimulating demand, growth, and employment.

This study concerns agricultural development planning and policy-making in the context of post-independent Algeria, which went unquestioned for more than three decades. Algeria won its independence in 1962 after 132 years of French colonization. A post-independence State was formed, taking over the colonial power, and set a centralized planning for economic and social development.In the agricultural sector, the effects of this planning model were far-reaching and turned a potential agricultural country par excellence into one of the most net importers of food in the developing world.The onset of this study sterns from the questioning of whether planning, as a fundamental item of the development process, and in addition of being inspired by de-humanizing philosophy and methods, can still be seen as a mere technical discipline. The response of this study is that development planning and policymaking is not only a technical discipline but certainly a political process. By deduction, the development process was and could never be apolitical.The study tries to describe how the influence of different political actors, in particular, and the political system, in general, shape the outcomes of the development process. To achieve this, the study compares two sets of development actions (policies, programmes and projects) planned and implemented under two different political perspectives: the first set represents the authoritarian regime era (1962-1988), based on the one-party system and an arrogant interventionist bureaucracy; the second introduces some development actions conducted during the transitory process of democratization (1988-1998). The study describes in parallel the changes introduced by the process of democratization and how these influenced the conventional development vision adopted by the state in postindependent Algeria.In more a detailed explanation, the study starts first by describing the shortcomings of the conventional development thinking and the different influences that the Algerian development planning system underwent since the independence time. Then, it develops the research hypotheses which will orient the comparison of the two set of development actions presented in this book. Finally, it reflects on the advantages offered by an alternative development view, based on participation, local organizations and social learning, and their effects on the issue of sustainability. In this study, the conceptualization of sustainability refers to the "critical triangle of sustainability" (Oram et al , 1998:1).The basic assumption of this study is that the main condition for a development action to secure some substantial and sustainable outcome resides in the fulfillment of the four following prerequisites formulated by van Dusseldorp (1992:12):1. The possibility of formulating a consistent, realistic and durable set of objectives , which is acceptable to all, or at least to a large majority of the people who will be involved in/or and affected by the planned development;2. The availability of knowledge of all the relevant processes and their interrelationships which have to be influenced to change the present situation in such a way that the objectives will be realized;3. The availability of the means and power to influence these processes;4. The political will to use the available means and power , to influence the relevant processes in order to realize the desired objectives.In most development actions designed for and implemented in Third World countries, these prerequisites were never completely fulfilled, especially in people-centered development actions. More clearly put, in some development actions, sorne prerequisites might have been fulfilled to some extent, but others have never been fulfilled, even to a very small extent. In fact, in the general case, objectives were ill-defined and top-down decided; knowledge was mobilized in a very reductionist way - most of time supposedly rational/scientific - with a complete denial of people's knowledge; means and power were never sufficiently made available, and when available, were not fairly distributed among the needy ones; and finally, the political will was never concretized unless the development action in concern aimed to incorporate, encapsulate and increase control over rural populations, or at sustaining an actual status quo in benefit of the powerful actors.In this context, the study suggests that integration of some features, such as participation , either directly (individually) or indirectly (through local organizations ), on the one hand; and social learning , (either as a flexibility in the project design and implementation and/or as a monitoring & evaluation mechanism), on the one hand, increases the probability of fulfillment of the aforementioned prerequisites.At the level of operationalization of the basic concepts on which the study bases the present work, it faced a dilemma with the concept 'sustainable development'. To which actor or group of actors should development be sustainable in the context of this study? As the implicit and explicit assumptions of this study may suggest, the sustainability of the outcomes of a given development action is posited here to be in line with the interests of the 'hitherto excluded', the disadvantaged segments of the population. Hence, in the context of this study, the pre-requisites and conditions of sustainability rely to a large extent on the centrality of the beneficiaries' knowledge, and the importance of participation of these beneficiaries in their (self-)development. In this order, up till now and for not less than three decades, development actions in Algeria were designed without consultation of their supposed beneficiaries, and yielded a huge gap between the priviligentsia and the disadvantaged. It was thus important that the study focuses more on the impact of beneficiaries' participation and knowledge in steering a given development action towards their needs of development.However, although the study considers that beneficiaries' participation and knowledge is a necessary condition for sustainable development, it is not a sufficient condition per se . This is true given that the so-called beneficiaries are still strongly interacting with other actors that hold a great power of decision, and are extremely self-referent and self-impressed by the rationality and 'scientificality' of their knowledge, such as planners, researchers, development staff, etc. It is, thus, important that the availability of the beneficiaries' knowledge must be acknowledged by these latter actors. Moreover, all this must be supported by a real social learning process whose importance for sustainable development is acknowledged and supported by all social actors who have some interest at stake in a given development action.Consequently, the study aims at answering the following general research andsub-research question: GQ. How can (direct and indirect) participation of the beneficiaries and the social learning ability of diverse actors acting in the development theater secure sustainable achievements of a people-centered planned development action ?Ql. To which extent and when is participation of the beneficiaries required in order to steer development actions towards their (self-) development?Q2. Which role(s) can local organizations play in the beneficiaries' steering of development actionsQ3. Which mechanisms are required to make monitoring and evaluation play the role of a learning process in steering development actions?Q4. Can the design of a practical methodology be proposed according to the advocated issues in this study, such as participation, local organizations and social learning?Q5. What might be the shortcomings of this methodology and what political, institutional, and sociocultural pre-requisites are needed for such a methodology to work?The results of the study shows that:Participation since the first step of the development action cycle (problems identification and objectives determination) improved the design and the implementation of development actions. Participation helped the beneficiaries not only to develop a sense of ownership of the development process, but to mobilize their own resources when needed, in addition to public ones.Creation of farmers' organizations independently from State-led organizations helped the 'excluded' to improve their access to public resources they were hitherto excluded from. lt sustained participation of the beneficiaries towards a more democratized development and tumed it into a means of sustainable development.Embedding the implementation phase of development actions into a learning process, that is a regular, permanent and efficient monitoring and evaluation process, gives a certain flexibility to development. Corrective measures were devised upon knowledge generated by the leaming process and applied in true time, saving time and reducing the waste of resources.The 'building blocks' of an alternative development view for Algeria were defined and a methodology needs to be designed its application.A process of democratization of social and political life, on the hand, and a reform of the mentality and procedures of the development planning and policy-making system, on the other, are necessary conditions for the application of the alternative development view.

Climate change calls for an energy transition utilizing all available renewable energy resources, such as bioenergy from biomass. However, the use of biomass is debated in society, and public acceptance is low or lacking. This survey-based research demonstrates for the first time that public acceptance of bioenergy hinges on (a) the type of biomass feedstock used to generate bioenergy and (b) the perceptions of the effectiveness of bioenergy in contributing to the energy transition. A survey-embedded vignette experiment (with 409 Dutch participants) shows that public acceptance of the biomass feedstocks 'wood' and 'energy crops' is significantly lower than the acceptance of 'organic waste' and 'manure' for bioenergy. These results indicate that the biomass feedstock type should be more carefully considered and specified in future research and communication on public acceptance of bioenergy. Thematic coding and bootstrapped mediation analyses identified the perceived effectivity of bioenergy in contributing to the energy transition as a prime explanatory (i.e., mediating) variable for acceptance. A subsequent message-framing communication experiment (with 414 Dutch participants) demonstrates that emphasizing biomass feedstock as a form of waste utilization is a frame that helps to increase public acceptance of bioenergy. The waste utilization frame notably improves the perceptions of the effectiveness of bioenergy as contributing to the energy transition for the two lesser accepted biomass feedstocks. The emphasis on biomass feedstock type as a form of waste treatment can improve strategic communications on bioenergy and foster wider public acceptance of bioenergy in the transition toward a more sustainable energy system.

The effect of elevated pH and salt concentration on the growth of the freshwater microalga Neochloris oleoabundans was investigated. A study was conducted in 24-well plates on the design of a growth medium and subsequently applied in a photobioreactor. An artificial seawater medium with reduced Ca(2+) and PO(4)(3-) could prevent mineral precipitation at high pH levels. Growth was characterized in this new medium at pH 8.1 and at pH 10.0, with 420 mM of total salts. Specific growth rates of 0.08 h(-1) at pH 8.1 and 0.04 h(-1) at pH 10.0 were obtained under controlled turbidostat cultivation. The effect of nitrogen starvation on lipid accumulation was also investigated. Fatty acids content increased not only with nitrogen limitation but also with a pH increase (up to 35% in the dry biomass). Fluorescence microscopy gave visual proof that N. oleoabundans accumulates oil bodies when growing in saline conditions at high pH.