Suchergebnisse

This thesis estimates and analyses the values of forest recreation in Europe and considers the spatial and time aspects of valuing existing and new forest sites, given preferences for forest characteristics. The analysis of forest recreation values in Europe is conducted with a meta-analysis, which has not previously been done for Europe and includes exogenous variables on site characteristics, which is also new to meta-analysis. The estimation of total forest recreation values is carried out on state owned forests in a region in Denmark in 1977 and 1997 using a mixed logit specification of the random utility model (RUM) combined with Geographic Information System (GIS). A series of benefit transfers are conducted over time and space and validated against the 'true' values to ascertain the efficiency of transfers under different conditions. Validated benefit transfers over 20 years have not been attempted previously, primarily due to a lack of adequate data.

This report gives an overview of the technical and political work of the Nordic Council of Ministers since 1993 to create a Joint Implementation set-up that mitigates greenhouse gas emissions at least costs with mutual benefits for both the Nordic countries and the countries in the Baltic Sea Region.

This article analyses the design and outcomes of the research project Rewilding Lystrup, which involved a partnership with local authorities in Aarhus, Denmark, to merge two distinct processes: climate adaptation and the biodiversity transformation of a public park. Our key interest in the article is the potential offered by experimental participatory events to support the biodiverse transformation of public areas by creating micro-utopian entanglements of citizens and nonhuman organisms. The article will focus on three experimental participatory events enacted as part of the research project: (1) public dialogues and workshops, (2) the arrival on the scene of charismatic cows, and (3) pop-up events in the form of participatory playing. The article concludes that this kind of material citizenship is a powerful strategy for stimulating public engagement in building more biodiverse futures. The strategy thus materializes micro-utopian spaces where the importance of biodiversity can be rehearsed and sensed by local communities. In this way, a culturally transformative zone of dreaming while doing—or doing dreams—is enacted.

AbstractThe expansion of cocoa farms is a major driver of deforestation and emissions in Ghana's high forest zone. The Ghana Cocoa Forest Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation Program (REDD+) was launched as the world's first commodity-based initiative to address emissions from deforestation caused by cocoa production and generate non-carbon benefits. Hotspot Intervention Areas were established to implement the Ghana Cocoa REDD+ program. This study combines Q-methodology with focus group discussions and interviews to assess stakeholder perceptions in the Juabuso-Bia cocoa landscape regarding the capacity of the Hotspot Intervention Area to facilitate the generation of governance and economic non-carbon benefits to sustain emission reductions. We found that introducing the Hotspot Intervention Area has re-centralized landscape governance, which, coupled with weak collaboration among stakeholders, has led to poor generation of non-carbon benefits. Furthermore, efforts to include women in the leadership structure of the Hotspot Intervention Area can be described as tokenism, and little has been done to improve land and tree tenure for vulnerable groups. This, combined with the low adoption of climate-smart cocoa practices, is likely to negatively affect the generation of economic non-carbon benefits. To overcome these challenges, we recommend reforming the Hotspot Intervention Area, bolstering community-level sensitization, improving access to decision-making spaces that will enhance the participation of women and minority groups in landscape governance, and improving farmers' tenure security through a registration scheme for land and trees. These recommendations can ensure the efficient generation of non-carbon benefits, which are key to the success of REDD+.

AbstractThe coast plays a significant recreational role in the nine countries around the Baltic Sea. More than 70% of the population of these countries visit the coast, representing some 80 million recreational visits annually. Understanding the values associated with coastal recreation, and the potential welfare changes resulting from improvements in the state of environmental and infrastructure conditions of the Baltic Sea coast is important for marine environment management in the region. We estimate a spatially explicit travel cost model for Baltic coast recreation to assess the welfare of accessing individual sites, identify recreational hot spots and simulate the welfare changes resulting from improvements in environmental and infrastructure conditions. The total benefits associated with Baltic Sea coast-based recreation amount to 27.5 billion EUR per year with significant variation across sites. Improving water quality and infrastructure boost the recreational value by nearly 6.2 billion EUR, an increase of about a fifth of the existing recreational benefits.

The present technical paper provides an overview of knowledge and practice for just resilience in Europe as a scoping exercise based on a rapid review of scientific literature on social impacts of adaptation and resilience, information from National Reference Centres, input from the Expert Group on Just Resilience, established for this analysis, information from regulatory reports on national adaptation progress and a screening of the Climate-ADAPT database. The context of the technical paper is European policy developments, notably the EU Green Deal and the revised EU Adaptation strategy, which stresses the importance of achieving resilience in a just and fair way in order for adaptation benefits to be shared equitably. For purposes of clarity, the technical paper uses the step-wise approach proposed by the EU Adaptation policy guidance framework – the Adaptation Support Tool - for exploring current knowledge and practice. The technical paper concludes with barriers and enabling conditions for just resilience, actionable recommendations for policy-makers, adaptation planners and practitioners and identifies a number of knowledge gaps and directions for future research.

AbstractCausal loop diagrams (CLDs) are often used to provide an overview of important systemic elements related to an issue, rather than to inform empirical evaluations (studies which assess changes following an intervention using observed data). We suggest that empirical evaluations may benefit from the development of systems‐informed research propositions (specific testable causal assumptions with an emphasis on feedback loops) used to guide subsequent data collection, hypothesis testing and interpretation. We describe a qualitative systems‐thinking informed approach building on preexisting CLDs, published evidence, and expert/stakeholder consultation and reflect on our experience applying this to the early stages of two nature‐based solution (NBS) evaluations. We reflect on our experience and suggest that CLDs can be usefully employed to develop systems‐informed research propositions to inform subsequent empirical evaluation. This may lead to novel policy‐relevant research propositions which differ substantially from effectiveness‐oriented ("did it work?") research questions. © 2023 The Authors. System Dynamics Review published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of System Dynamics Society.