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This chapter uses data on Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs) to examine the nature of climate change mitigation and adaptation actions being pursued in African countries and assesses the extent to which preferred mitigation and adaptation priorities advance the cause of sustainable development on the continent. The prospective synergies between mitigation and adaptation approaches and sustainable development are assessed. Also, the pathways through which resource constraints and institutional and policy environment affect Africa’s ability to mitigate and adapt to climate change are examined, as well as the degree to which these constraints are being addressed. It is argued that Africa’s ability to benefit from sustainable development synergies embedded in the mitigation and adaptation strategies in the INDCs will be greatly limited by institutional and policy environment that hinders funding, capacity building, and technological innovation systems development. The slow pace of efforts to address these impediments further erodes confidence that climate adaptation in Africa will be effective at sufficiently contributing to a reduction in climate change risks to the continent.

Numerous authors have stressed the importance of guaranteeing and protecting the tenure and human rights of indigenous and other forest-based communities under schemes for reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD, or REDD+); and important international indigenous organizations have spoken out strongly against REDD+. This article examines two specific issues that present risks for local communities: rights to forests and rules for resource use. It draws on the findings of a study conducted by the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) on forest tenure reforms in selected countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America from 2006 to 2008. The study underlines the numerous obstacles faced by communities after rights are won, in moving from statutory rights to their implementation and to access to benefits on the ground. It argues that there is currently little reason to expect better results from national policies under REDD+ without binding agreements to protect local rights.

Abstract Current conventional agricultural systems using intensive energy has to be re-vitalized by new integrated approaches relying on renewable energy resources, which can allow farmers to stop depending on fossil resources. The aim of the present study was to compare wheat production in dryland (low input) and irrigated (high input) systems in terms of energy ratio, energy efficiency, benefit/cost ratio and amount of renewable energy use. Data were collected from 50 irrigated and 50 dryland wheat growers by using a face-to-face questionnaire in 2009. The results showed that the total energy requirement under low input was 9354.2 MJ ha −1 , whereas under high input systems it was 45367.6 MJ ha −1 . Total energy input consumed in both dryland and irrigated systems could be classified as direct, indirect, renewable and non-renewable energies which average in two wheat production systems were 47%, 53%, 24% and 76%, respectively. Energy ratios of 3.38 in dryland and 1.44 in irrigated systems were achieved. The benefit–cost ratios were 2.56 in dryland and 1.97 in irrigated wheat production systems. Based on the results of the present study, dry-land farming can have a significant positive effect on energy-related factors especially in dry and semi-dry climates such as Iran.

Facing the non-point source pollution caused by fertilizer loss, study on the agricultural factors that have an influence on fertilizer reduction could provide a basis for the implementation of policies on fertilizer reduction control. Based on the panel data during 2002-2016 with cumulative contribution model and Log-Mean Divisia Index (LMDI), this paper innovatively comes up with reduction driving functions (including agricultural scale, intensification, fertilizer utilization, and labor productivity), studies the cumulative contribution rate and driving factors of fertilizer reduction in county units of Zhejiang Province. Main conclusions are: (1) 37 of 63 county units (58.73%) showed decreased in fertilizer application; top five county units contributed 50+%; top county units that contribute to fertilizer reduction are in plain area in Northern Zhejiang, coastal area in Eastern and Southern Zhejiang, valley and basin area in Western and Southern Zhejiang where arable land is relatively even. (2) Fertilizer application intensity (fertilizer application per unit area of land cultivation) in Zhejiang Province increased by 18.67%, but there are only 15 county units where fertilizer application intensity is reduced. In general, fertilizer reduction in Zhejiang Province kept developing steadily. (3) Factors (fertilizer efficiency, intensification and agricultural scale) drive fertilizer reduction while labor productivity triggers the growth in application intensity. In Hangzhou, Ningbo and Shaoxing in Northern and Eastern Zhejiang, the above factors all have a prominent driving effect, but labor productivity also promotes fertilizer increment. In the end, this paper proposes policies on fertilizer reduction control in terms of efficiency, inputs and compensations.

Abstract Reasonable assessment of the environmental benefits of integrating forest products into global value chains (GVCs) is important to promote sustainable development. Based on the forest product sector data for 41 countries from 2002 to 2014, this paper explores the impact of GVC participation on carbon embodied in exports using the 2008 financial crisis, a quasi-natural experiment of negative global value chain shocks. We found that deepening backward participation in forest product value chains led to more substantial increases in carbon emissions than did forward participation. Countries with large decreases in GVC participation reduced more carbon embodied in forest product exports after the financial crisis (relative to countries with small decreases) through a larger reduction in the scale of forest product exports, and a decrease in the growth rate of capital-intensive products as a result of the relative decline in capital investment. They increased the embodied carbon of exports through a decrease in the growth rate of skilled personnel. Strengthening the technology effect of GVCs with the guidance of skilled forestry personnel is a key way to decrease exported embodied carbon.

Urban vacant lots are often a contentious feature in cities, seen as overgrown, messy eyesores that plague neighborhoods. We propose a shift in this perception to locations of urban potential, because vacant lots may serve as informal greenspaces that maximize urban biodiversity while satisfying residents’ preferences for their design and use. Our goal was to assess what kind of vacant lots are ecologically valuable by assessing their biotic contents and residents’ preferences within a variety of settings. We surveyed 150 vacant lots throughout Baltimore, Maryland for their plant and bird communities, classified the lot’s setting within the urban matrix, and surveyed residents. Remnant vacant lots had greater vegetative structure and bird species richness as compared to other lot origins, while vacant lot settings had limited effects on their contents. Residents preferred well-maintained lots with more trees and less artificial cover, support of which may increase local biodiversity in vacant lots. Collectively, we propose that vacant lots with a mixture of remnant and planted vegetation can act as sustainable urban greenspaces with the potential for some locations to enhance urban tree cover and bird habitat, while balancing the needs and preferences of city residents.

AbstractAutotrophs play an essential role in the cycling of carbon and nutrients, yet disease‐ecosystem relationships are often overlooked in these dynamics. Importantly, the availability of elemental nutrients like nitrogen and phosphorus impacts infectious disease in autotrophs, and disease can induce reciprocal effects on ecosystem nutrient dynamics. Relationships linking infectious disease with ecosystem nutrient dynamics are bidirectional, though the interdependence of these processes has received little attention. We introduce disease‐mediated nutrient dynamics (DND) as a framework to describe the multiple, concurrent pathways linking elemental cycles with infectious disease. We illustrate the impact of disease–ecosystem feedback loops on both disease and ecosystem nutrient dynamics using a simple mathematical model, combining approaches from classical ecological (logistic and Droop growth) and epidemiological (susceptible and infected compartments) theory. Our model incorporates the effects of nutrient availability on the growth rates of susceptible and infected autotroph hosts and tracks the return of nutrients to the environment following host death. While focused on autotroph hosts here, the DND framework is generalizable to higher trophic levels. Our results illustrate the surprisingly complex dynamics of host populations, infection patterns, and ecosystem nutrient cycling that can arise from even a relatively simple feedback between disease and nutrients. Feedback loops in disease‐mediated nutrient dynamics arise via effects of infection and nutrient supply on host stoichiometry and population size. Our model illustrates how host growth rate, defense, and tissue chemistry can impact the dynamics of disease–ecosystem relationships. We use the model to motivate a review of empirical examples from autotroph–pathogen systems in aquatic and terrestrial environments, demonstrating the key role of nutrient–disease and disease–nutrient relationships in real systems. By assessing existing evidence and uncovering data gaps and apparent mismatches between model predictions and the dynamics of empirical systems, we highlight priorities for future research intended to narrow the persistent disciplinary gap between disease and ecosystem ecology. Future empirical and theoretical work explicitly examining the dynamic linkages between disease and ecosystem ecology will inform fundamental understanding for each discipline and will better position the field of ecology to predict the dynamics of disease and elemental cycles in the context of global change.

Resource-use efficiency and crop yield are significant factors in the management of agricultural greenhouse. Appropriate modeling methods effectively improve the control performance and efficiency of the greenhouse system and are conducive to the design of water and energy-saving strategies. Meanwhile, the extreme environment could be forecasted in advance, which reduces pests and diseases as well as provides high-quality food. Accordingly, the interest of the scientific community in greenhouse modeling and optimizing has grown considerably. The objective of this work is to provide guidance and insight into the topic by reviewing 73 representative articles and to further support cleaner and sustainable crop production. Compared to the existing literature review, this work details the approaches to improve the greenhouse model in the aspects of parameter identification, structure and process optimization, and multi-model integration to better model complex greenhouse system. Furthermore, a statistical study has been carried out to summarize popular technology and future trends. It was found that dynamic and neural network techniques are most commonly used to establish the greenhouse model and the heuristic algorithm is popular to improve the accuracy and generalization ability of the model. Notably, deep learning, the combination of “knowledge” and “data”, and coupling between the greenhouse system elements have been considered as future valuable development.