Background: Ghanas transition forests, neighbouring savannahs and timber plantations in the Ashanti region face a constant degradation due to the increased occurrence of fires. In most cases the fires are deliberately set by rural people for hunting purposes. Main target is a cane rat, here called grasscutter (Thryonomys swinderianus), whose bushmeat is highly esteemed throughout the country. The animal is a wild herbivorous rodent of subhumid areas in Africa south of the Sahara. The grasscutter meat is an important source of animal protein. Existing high-value timber plantations (mainly Teak, Tectona grandis) are affected by fires for hunting purposes. Thus resulting in growth reduction, loss of biomass or even complete destruction of the forest stands. It became obvious that solutions had to be sought for the reduction of the fire risk. Objectives: Since 2004 the Institute for World Forestry of the Federal Research Centre for Forestry and Forest Products, Hamburg, Germany is cooperating with a Ghanaian timber plantation company (DuPaul Wood Treatment Ltd.) the German Foundation for Forest Conservation in Africa (Stiftung Walderhaltung in Afrika) and the Center for International Migration with the purpose to improve the livelihood of the rural population in the surroundings of the forest plantation sites and simultaneously to safeguard and improve the timber plantations. The introduction of grasscutter rearing systems to local farmers accompanied by permanent agricultural and agroforestry practices appeared to be a promising approach for the prevention of fires in the susceptible areas. Additionally a functioning grasscutter breeding system could contribute to the improvement of food security, development of income sources and the alleviation of poverty. The following measures are implemented: - Identification of farmers interested in grasscutter captive breeding, - Implementation of training courses for farmers on grasscutter rearing, - Delivery of breeding animals, - Supervision of rearing conditions by project staff, - Development of a local extension service for monitoring activities, - Evaluation of structures for grasscutter meat marketing. Results: After identification of key persons for animal rearing training courses were successfully passed and animals were delivered subsequently. Further investigations will evaluate the effects of the grasscutter rearing in the project region. This will be assessed through the - Acceptance of grasscutter rearing by farmers, - Success of the animal caging, - Reproduction rate, - Meat quality, - Marketing success of meat, - Reduction of fire in the vicinity of the timber plantations, - Improvement of peoples livelihood.
Background: An increasing frequency of massive flooding along the lower Yangtse River in China ended in a disastrous catastrophe in summer 1998 leaving several thousand people homeless, more than 3.600 dead and causing enormous economic damage. Inappropriate land-use techniques and large scale timber felling in the water catchment of the upper Yangtse and its feeder streams were stated to be the main causes. Immediate timber cutting bans were imposed and investigations on land use patterns were initiated by the Chinese Government. The Institute for World Forestry of the Federal Research Centre for Forestry and Forest Products was approached by the Yunnan Academy of Forestry in Kunming to exchange experiences and to cooperate scientifically in the design and application of appropriate afforestation and silvicultural management techniques in the water catchment area of the Yangtse. This cooperation was initiated in 1999 and is based on formal agreements in the fields of agrarian research between the German and Chinese Governments. Objectives: The cooperation was in the first step focussing on the identification of factors which caused the enormous floodings. After their identification measures of prevention were determined and put into practice. In this context experiences made in past centuries in the alpine region of central Europe served as an incentive and example for similar environmental problems and solutions under comparable conditions. Relevant key questions of the cooperation project were: - Analysis of forest related factors influencing the recent floodings of the Yangtse, - Analysis and evaluation of silvicultural management experiences from central Europe for know-how transfer, - Evaluation of rehabilitation measures for successful application in Yunnan, - Dissemination of knowledge through vocational training. Results: - Frequent wild grazing of husbandry is a key factor for forest degeneration beyond unsustainable timber harvests, forest fires and insect calamities leading to increased water run-off in the mountainous region of Yunnan; - Browsing of cattle interrupts succession thus avoiding natural regeneration and leaving a logging ban ineffective; - Mountain pasture in the Alps had similar effects in the past in central Europe. The introduction of controlled grazing has led to an ecologically compatible coexistence of pasture and ecology. Close-to-nature forestry can have positive effects in this sensitive environment. - Afforestation with site adopted broadleaves and coniferous tree species was implemented on demonstration level using advanced techniques in Yunnan.
Zusammensetzung und Menge der organischen Bodensubstanz (OBS) werden durch die Landnutzungsform beeinflußt. Die OBS läßt sich nach ihrer Abbaubarkeit und nach ihrer Löslichkeit in verschiedene Pools einteilen. So kann die wasserlösliche organische Bodensubstanz (DOM) als Maßzahl für die abbaubare OBS herangezogen werden. Mit Natriumpyrophosphat-Lösung als Extraktionsmittel läßt sich ein weit größerer Anteil der OBS erfassen, da der stabilisierende Bindungsfaktor zwischen OBS und Bodenmineralen entfernt wird. Extrahiert man zuerst mit Wasser und anschließend mit Natriumpyrophosphat-Lösung, erhält man im letzten Schritt den schwer abbaubaren OBS-Anteil. Über die funktionelle Zusammensetzung der organischen Substanz dieser Pools und deren Abhängigkeit von Landnutzungsformen ist relativ wenig bekannt. Ziel der geplanten Untersuchung ist es, den Pool der löslichen abbaubaren und schwer abbaubaren OBS zu quantifizieren und deren funktionelle Zusammensetzung mittels FT-IR Spektroskopie zu erfassen. Die so gewonnenen Daten sollen der Validierung von Soil Organic Matter Turnover modellen (z.B. Roth 23.6) dienen und die im Modell berechneten Pools um einen qualitativen Term ergänzen. In Zusammenarbeit mit anderen Arbeitsgruppen sollen im DFG-Schwerpunktprogramm 1090: ;Böden als Quelle und Senke für CO2 die Pools der löslichen abbaubaren und schwer schwer löslichen, schwer abbaubaren organischen Bodensubstanz (OBS) quantifiziert, die funktionelle Zusammensetzung dieser Pools mittels FT-IR Spektroskopie erfasst und Abbaubarkeit der erhaltenen Extrakte überprüft werden, um Mechanismen, die zur Stabilisierung der OBS führen, aufzuklären.
The Nametech project is funded under the 7th European Framework Programme and harnesses benefits of nanotechnology to bring about improvements in membrane filtration for advanced water treatment. The general objective is to strengthen the European membrane market by making nanotechnology available to large scale European membrane manufactures. The projects brings together all required elements to enable the transfer of nanotechnology towards the field of water treatment. The broad engineering and application know-how of the partners has been brought together to realize cost reduction and process intensification strategies. The starting point of the project is development of the criteria for the identification of nanoparticles with relevance for water treatment applications. After identification and selection of appropriate nanoparticles, attachment of particles to membrane surfaces has been investigated. Another approach examined in the project is to prepare membranes from homogeneous casting solution containing nanoparticles. The major challenge is to identify binders/compounds keeping the nanoparticles stabilized in the casting solution and ensuring compatibility between the polymer, solvent and nanoparticles in order not to disturb the membrane forming process and ensure a desired distribution of built-in particles thereby inducing the maximal nanoparticles activity. Subsequently, laboratory module scale filtrations of both synthetic and real feed are envisaged to asses the filtration performance in terms of permeability and fouling propensity, as compared to unmodified membranes.
Fragile arid and semi-arid ecosystems are in urgent need of integrated conservation approaches that can contribute significantly to prevent and reduce the widespread on-going land degradation and desertification processes, such as erosion, flooding, overgrazing, drought, and salinization. The DESIRE project will establish promising alternative land use and management conservation strategies based on a close participation of scientists with stakeholder groups in the degradation and desertification hotspots around the world. This integrative participatory approach ensures both the acceptability and feasibility of conservation techniques, and a sound scientific basis for the effectiveness at various scales. DESIRE employs a bottom up approach such as is favoured by the UNCCD: i) degradation and desertification hotspots and stakeholder groups will be identified in all countries surrounding the Mediterranean, and in 6 external nations facing similar environmental problems, ii) desertification indicator sets will be defined in a participatory approach and a harmonized information system will be constructed to organize socio-economic and geoinformation data and tools for active dissemination; iii) new and existing conservation strategies will be defined with the stakeholder communities; iv) these strategies will be implemented in the field, and monitored and modeled to quantify their effectiveness at various scales; v) the results will be extrapolated using both the indicator sets, geoinformation data, and integrated modeling systems combining socio-economic and environmental aspects; vi) finally the results will be translated to a series of practical guidelines for good agricultural practices and environmental management, which will be disseminated to practitioners, agricultural extensionists, governmental authorities, policy makers, NGOs, land users, land owners, and local communities. Prime Contractor: Alterra B.V.; Wageningen; Netherlands.
The ZEF research focuses on the Tungabhadra basin in south India, which is one of the four basins studied in the project. Tungabhadra river is a tributary of the Krishna river. ZEF will be mainly active in Work Package (WP) 9 IWRM in the twinned Tungabhadra and Tejo/Tagus river basins, with a focus and land and water use interactions . The research focuses on the interaction between irrigated and rainfed farming in the lower Tungabhadra basin, in the border area of the states of Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. The districts on the Karnataka side are Raichur, Koppal and Bellary, on the Andhra Pradesh side Mahbubnagar and Kurnool. Some of the sub-themes ZEF will look at, together with other partners, are: 1) Flows and relations (people (livelihood linkages, labour), nutrients and energy, money/income, water); 2) Institutional and policy (dis)integration (departmental coordination, agency coordination, policy contradictions and alignments); 3) Innovations (water saving farming systems (SRI and other), (tiered) water users associations, water pricing and water rights, substitutability of technical and institutional solutions to water problems); 4) History (heads and tails of different kinds: the spatial dimension of social differentiation; evolution of policy regimes, natural resources degradation/conservation in historical perspective, land and water use change over time and its implications). It is part of the research design to compare the situation in the Tungabhadra basin with that in the Tajo/Tegus basin in Spain/Portugal. Other basins studied in the larger project are the Glomma basin in Norway and the Sesan basin in Vietnam/Cambodia).
Hydrothermal activity at mid-oceanic ridges is an important factor for the heat and mass transfer between the mantle and the ocean. Little information is available on the life-span of hydrothermal systems, their temporal variability or changes of the chemistry of hydrothermal solutions with time. Based on age determinations of hydrothermal deposits by means of natural radionuclides, the duration and periodicity of hydrothermal activity shall be investigated in the Logatchev field and, for the first time, in hydrothermal fields at 15 degree N at the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, which are due to serpentinization of ultramafic rocks. Based on the geochemistry and the ages of the hydrothermal deposits information on the variability of the hydrothermal fluids during the geological past will be obtained. The importance of the residence time of hydrothermal fluids in the crust for their chemical composition will be investigated for the different fluids venting at the Logatchev field. These studies are based on sampling of fluids and hydrothermal precipitates which will be conducted during the FS Meteor cruise M60/3 along the Mid-Atlantic Ridge between 14 degree 45 N and 15 degree 05 N.
In ecological sanitation, the wastewater is considered not only as a pollutant, but also as a resource for fertiliser, water and energy and for closing water and nutrients cycles (Otterpohl et. al., 1999; Otterpohl et. al., 2003; Elmitwalli et al. 2005). The ecological sanitation based on separation between grey and black water (and even between faeces and urine), is considered a visible future solution for wastewater collection and treatment. Grey water, which symbolises the wastewater generated in the household excluding toilet wastewater (black water), represents the major volume of the domestic wastewater (60- 75 percent) with low content of nutrients and pathogens (Otterpohl et. al., 1999; Jefferson et al., 1999; Eriksson et al., 2002). Most of grey-water treatment plants include one or two-step septic-tank for pre-treatment (Otterpohl et al., 2003). The grey-water treatment needs both physical and biological processes for removal of particles, dissolved organic-matters and pathogens (Jefferson et al., 1999). Recently, many researchers have studied the grey-water treatment either by application of high-rate aerobic systems, like rotating biological contactor (Nolde, 1999), fluidised bed (Nolde, 1999), aerobic filter (Jefferson et al., 2000), membrane bioreactor (Jefferson et al., 2000), or by application of low-rate systems, like slow sand filter (Jefferson et al., 1999), vertical flow wetlands (Otterpohl et. al., 2003). Although high-rate anaerobic systems, which are low-cost systems, have both physical and biological removal, no research has been done until now on grey water in these systems. The grey water contains a significant amount (41 percent) of chemical oxygen demand (COD) in the domestic wastewater (Otterpohl et al., 2003) and this amount can be removed by the highrate anaerobic systems. Although high-rate anaerobic systems have been successfully operated in tropical regions for domestic wastewater treatment, the process up till now is not applied in lowtemperature regions. The COD removal is limited for domestic wastewater treatment in high-rate anaerobic systems at low temperatures and, therefore, a long HRT is needed for providing sufficient hydrolysis of particulate organic (Zeeman and Lettinga, 1999; Elmitwalli et al. 2002). The grey water has a relatively higher temperature (18-38 degree C), as compared to the domestic wastewater (Eriksson et al. 2002), because the grey water originates from hot water sources, like shower (29 degree C), kitchen (27-38 degree C) and laundry (28-32 degree C). Therefore, high-rate anaerobic systems might run efficiently for on-site grey water treatment, even in low-temperature regions. The upflow anaerobic sludge blanket (UASB) reactor is the most applied system for anaerobic domestic waster treatment. Accordingly, the aim of this research is to study the feasibility of application of UASB reactor for the treatment of grey water at low and controlled (30 degree C) temperatures.
By 2020, the number of people living in developing countries will grow from 4.9 billion to 6.8 billion. Ninety percent of this increase will be in rapidly expanding cities and towns. More than half the population of Africa and Asia will live in urban areas by 2020. Growth in urban poverty, food insecurity, and malnutrition and a shift in their concentration from rural to urban areas will accompany urbanization. Severe environmental degradation and hygienic problems caused by the lack of infrastructure are additional problems. The linking of urban and peri-urban agriculture and ecological sanitation could play an important role for the solution of the mentioned problems. Agriculture within city limits, socalled urban agriculture, became a survival strategy for many poor families in the last decades. These families would not be able to secure their nutrition without urban agriculture. This form of agriculture can be a vehicle to increase food security and health, to generate economic opportunities for people with low income, and to promote recycling of waste and waste water. The philosophy of ecosan is based on the consequent implementation of the closing the loops approach (Nutrient Cycling). Urine and faeces are regarded as resources rather than waste. If collected separately they could easily used as fertilizer respectively as soil conditioner. The objective of the research is to evaluate the potentials and constraints of the link of urban and peri-urban agriculture and ecological sanitation, in short UPA-Ecosan-Concept. The UPA-Ecosan-Concept enables sustainable resource management, prevention of environmental degradation through urban agriculture, an increase in soil fertility and therefore higher yields. The challenge is to prove this theoretical statement scientifically. It has to be evaluated, if an UPA-Ecosan concept fulfils the requirements of a system, which is safe, easy to maintain, and transferable to local conditions. However, such a system has to be as effective as possible with respect to nutrient recycling, sanitation and public health. A vital part of the studies will be the investigation of the safe reuse of faeces and urine and the social acceptability of re-circulation of human-derived nutrients. The results should lead to a catalogue of appropriate methods and technologies on which a sustainable UPA-Ecosan concept can be based. Such a catalogue is imperative for the development of clear political guidelines, which should allow an effective integration of urban and peri-urban agriculture and ecological sanitation in existing urban economies. As a final result, the catalogue should address the challenge of rapid urbanisation and corresponding growth of food insecurity and sanitation deficits of the urban poor.
To protect the health of populations and individuals, policies need to integrate environmental and health issues. The aim of HENVINET is to support such informed policy making. HENVINET will review, exploit and disseminate knowledge on environmental health issues based on research and practices, for wider use by relevant stakeholders. Further, it will lead to validation of tools and results with emphasis on the four priority health endpoints of the EHAP 2004-2010, and will provide structured information overview that may be utilized by other actors relevant to Environment and Health Strategy. Building on activities such as AirNET, CLEAR, PINCHE, INTARESE and SCALE, HENVINET will collect, structure and evaluate new material and present it in a consistent manner, which will lend itself to transparency and identification of knowledge gaps. HENVINET will establish an overview of results, activities, projects and tools existing in Europe and will promote stakeholder networking through workshops and conferences. Knowledge, best practices and decision support tools will be reviewed to allow wider exploitation by the relevant stakeholders such as policy makers. Recognizing that dissemination of knowledge, best practices and decision support tools is crucial in supporting the implementation of the European EHAP, the project will define ways to disseminate information in collaboration with main stakeholders, with emphasis on the needs of users of information, more than of those producing it. To allow for efficient data gathering, information exchanges, and targeted dissemination, the project will utilize state-of-the-art internet solutions and methodologies. To further promote interactions with stakeholders and relevant international organisations, an external Reference group will be set up.
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