Environmental Management最新文献

Agricultural sustainability in closed endorheic basins is constrained by periodic water scarcity, hydrological isolation, and the cumulative effects of intensive land use. The Cuauhtémoc region of northern Mexico hosts long-established Mennonite farming communities whose mechanized and irrigation-dependent agriculture constitutes an important component of the regional economy and resource-use system. This study examined the prevalence, diversity, and drivers of sustainable agricultural practices among 95 Mennonite farmers in the Bustillos Lagoon region. Thirteen practices spanning soil and residue management, water conservation, biological soil-fertility management, and agrochemical stewardship were assessed, while a conservation-practice breadth indicator quantified the number of ten resource-management practices used by individual farmers. Among 92 farmers with complete practice data, conservation-practice breadth ranged from 2 to 8 practices (mean = 3.76 ± 1.06). Residue incorporation (98.9%), residue cover (89.4%), and rainwater collection (71.0%) were widespread, whereas zero tillage (1.1%), compost/leachate use (5.3%), mycorrhiza application (5.3%), and reduced tillage (8.5%) were uncommon. Robust Poisson regression showed that technical assistance was associated with a 37.8% higher expected conservation-practice count (IRR = 1.378, 95% CI 1.168-1.626, p < 0.001), while environmental concern was associated with an 18.7% higher count (IRR = 1.187, 95% CI 1.017-1.385, p = 0.030). Water-supply problems, farm area, producer-organization membership, and education showed no independent associations. The findings demonstrate that sustainable management is better characterized as a heterogeneous portfolio of practices than as a binary adoption decision and highlight institutional support and environmental orientation as important correlates of management diversification in water-constrained agricultural landscapes.

Payment for Ecosystem Services (PES) has been widely promoted as a market-based mechanism in which conservation is achieved through conditional, monetary transactions between service providers and beneficiaries. However, this framing often overlooks the relational, cultural, and moral dimensions through which many Indigenous communities engage with ecosystems. This paper examines an alternative understanding of “payment” among the Batak people in Tapanuli, Indonesia. Drawing on qualitative methods, including participant observation, oral histories, in-depth interviews and group discussions, we analyse how governance arrangements such as the Jago Bondar system and Parpatihan organize contributions that sustain human–nature relationships beyond market-based exchange. We develop the concept of relational payment to describe contributions embedded in socially recognized institutional and normative systems, tied to rights of access, participation, or belonging, and necessary for the reproduction of ecosystem governance over time. In this context, contributions in rice, benzoin resin, labor, and ritual practice function not as market transactions or generalized reciprocity, but as structured obligations that sustain both social relations and ecological systems. By situating these findings within debates on ecosystem services and value pluralism, the paper complicates the universality of transaction-based PES frameworks and highlights the limits of approaches that conceptualize conservation primarily through market transactions. Rather than extending PES, we argue for a reconsideration of what constitutes “payment” in contexts where value is produced through enduring social–ecological relationships.

Biodiversity across Africa faces escalating threats from agricultural expansion, urbanisation, resource overexploitation, and pollution, particularly at the margins of protected areas (PAs). These land‑use changes intensify interactions between people and wildlife by compressing habitats, increasing competition for space and resources, and disrupting ecological processes, thereby exacerbating human–wildlife conflict and threatening conservation outcomes. In this context, conservation practitioners play an important role in managing these conflicts by implementing conservation management interventions. A total of 49 conservation practitioners across KwaZulu‑Natal, Limpopo, and Mpumalanga in South Africa were interviewed using a semi-structured questionnaire to document the implementation of key conservation measures and to examine their association with practitioner-reported poaching occurrence. Most reserves implemented perimeter fencing and shared boundaries with adjacent local communities. Community engagement and environmental education programmes were also widely reported. The proportion of practitioners reporting poaching was highest in KwaZulu‑Natal (84.2%), followed by Limpopo (71%) and Mpumalanga (61.5%). Binary logistic regression revealed that community engagement was significantly associated with lower odds of poaching. Sustaining PAs requires integrated strategies that combine enforcement, community engagement, and adaptive management.

Due to their widespread distribution, persistence, and potential to release additives and adsorb environmental pollutants, microplastics pose complex risks to ecosystems and human health. Bioindicators can reflect microplastic pollution levels in specific environments, as well as reveal microplastic bioavailability, food chain transfer potential, and associated ecological risks, thereby providing key evidence for early warning systems and ecological health impact assessments. However, current biomonitoring studies have not yet provided a comprehensive synthesis of bioindicator distribution, monitoring matrix selection, intrinsic physiological traits, and extrinsic environmental influences. This review systematically analyzes these key aspects, with the following major findings: current research is unevenly distributed (primarily concentrated in Europe, Asia, and water environment; indicator species include fish and bivalves; and the biological substrate is mainly the digestive tract). By integrating factors including monitoring duration, quantitative accuracy, and ethical constraints, we established a research-objective-oriented decision tree for sample matrix selection. Further demonstrates that the correlation between biological traits and microplastic burden is species- and metric-dependent, and highlights the urgent need to establish a multi-indicator integrated assessment system and a novel toxicological framework.

We extend a previous list of four rationality criteria for the setting of a single goal to a list of six rationality criteria for the construction of large goal systems, such as those commonly established for sustainability policies. These criteria are applied to the European Union’s Water Framework Directive (WFD). For each of the six criteria we find deficiencies that should preferably be redressed in future revisions of the framework. Based on this example, we argue that in the future, complex goal systems should be carefully analysed from the viewpoint of goal-setting rationality before they are adopted.

Understanding how grassland productivity responds to increasing aridity is critical under climate change, yet whether consistent thresholds exist and how underlying mechanisms shift remain unclear. Here, we conducted a global meta-analysis to examine the response of aboveground net primary productivity (ANPP) to the aridity index (AI) and the role of plant functional traits. ANPP showed a significant nonlinear relationship with AI, with a threshold at AI ≈ 0.51. Below this threshold, ANPP increased strongly with AI, whereas this relationship weakened above it. This threshold coincided with a shift in trait–productivity relationships. Before the threshold, ANPP was positively associated with traits linked to resource acquisition and conservation (LCN and SLA). After the threshold, key traits (LCN and SRL) showed reduced or reversed effects, indicating a reorganization of functional controls. Structural equation modeling further showed that the relative importance of direct climatic and trait-mediated pathways differed across the threshold. These results identify a distinct aridity threshold associated with changes in grassland productivity responses and their functional controls, emphasizing the importance of incorporating nonlinear climatic responses and trait-mediated pathways into predictions under future climate change.

Wind energy offers cleaner benefits over fossil fuels. However, wind farms also pose complex ecological consequences, including risk to birds. We leveraged a dataset of bird fatalities collected over 15 years of carcass searches at eight wind farms in southern Mexico, to evaluate three aspects of bird collisions with wind turbines. First, we examined the taxonomic and spatiotemporal patterns of bird collisions; then we evaluated how fatalities relate to residency status and other species classifications; finally, we explored the relationship of fatalities with environmental and spatial factors. We recorded 1527 bird carcasses of 123 species. Pigeons and doves accounted for nearly 40% of all fatalities, with the White-winged dove concentrating 17% of the carcasses registered. Resident species accounted for 78% of the fatalities, with >50% occurring on only six species. Resident species and temporary residents had higher fatality rates than migratory species. Trophic guild analyses revealed that granivores, omnivores, insectivores, and scavengers had the highest collision rates. Environmental models showed that bird fatalities increased at turbines located further north with greater height, while those situated closer to the wind farm periphery also tended to exhibit higher collision counts. Our results suggest that wind farms disproportionately affect certain bird groups, especially residents, native, and ground-foraging species. Future research should address detection biases, integrate finer-resolution vegetation data, and evaluate cumulative impacts across additional wind farms to improve ecological risk assessments.

Illegal artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM), or galamsey, in Ghana presents persistent environmental, social, and governance challenges despite growing policy attention. Recent literature emphasizes digital and smart mining technologies such as remote sensing, machine learning, and block chain as potential solutions for monitoring, formalisation, and supply chain transparency. However, evidence on their effectiveness remains fragmented and unevenly distributed. This systematic review synthesizes 25 empirical and policy-relevant studies published between 2020 and 2025 to evaluate how digital interventions interact with governance structures and livelihood realities. Following the PRISMA 2020 guidelines, the studies were assessed across four domains: technology deployment, environmental sustainability, workforce and socioeconomic impacts, and institutional governance. A four-objective contribution framework (High/Medium/Low) was applied, and the concept of technology–governance–livelihood alignment was introduced to explain why technically viable solutions often fail to produce expected outcomes in practice. The findings indicate that while satellite-based monitoring and machine learning models are technically capable of detecting illegal mining and environmental degradation, their effectiveness is constrained by fragmented institutional mandates, limited enforcement capacity, and socio-economic barriers affecting miners’ participation. Environmental harms, particularly mercury contamination and deforestation, are well-documented, yet workforce and gender impacts remain critically understudied. The review demonstrates that successful ASM interventions require integrated strategies that combine technological innovation with governance reform spanning national regulatory bodies and customary/traditional authoritiesand livelihood-sensitive approaches. Such governance reforms will also need to pay attention to the role of local government assemblies as the development authority of areas. The alignment lens provides a conceptual framework for designing interventions that are technically robust, institutionally feasible, and socially inclusive.

Understanding forest governance requires examining the interactions among stakeholders and the institutional arrangements that shape resource management. This study investigates collaborative forest governance in the Gargeda State Forest, Western Ethiopia, focusing on the institutional arrangement, social interaction, and logistical challenges that constrain effective management. Network analysis, conducted with Gephi 0.10.1, was used to map and visualize relationships among government agencies, NGOs, and local social groups. The resulting network comprises 27 nodes and 55 edges, with a moderately sparse structure (density = 0.156). Government institutions dominate the network (66.7% of nodes), driving policy formulation, resource allocation, and decision-making, while local social groups (18.5%) contribute to community-based management, and NGOs (14.8%) act as intermediaries linking grassroots actors with policymakers. Analysis of edge strengths reveals moderate ties (pink, 57.9%, weight = 2) forming the operational backbone, strong ties (green, 13.8%, weight = 3) indicating substantial cooperation, weak ties (purple, 12.8%, weight = 1) requiring reinforcement, and the strongest ties (blue, 15.5%, weight = 4) reflecting deeply integrated partnerships and shared leadership. Challenges such as inadequate infrastructure, political instability, and over-reliance on central actors like REDD+ hinder effective governance. Integrating traditional and formal governance systems, enhancing decentralized leadership, and strengthening stakeholder collaboration are essential for promoting sustainable and equitable management. Addressing these gaps through inclusive decision-making, infrastructure development, and capacity building could foster a more sustainable and equitable governance model for the protected natural Forest.