PubMed Health⌕ Search

SEARCH · PubMed Health

Results for “Conservation of Natural Resources”

Explore indexed PubMed citations for clinical trials, systematic reviews and public health research. Read source abstracts and follow each citation to its original PubMed record.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2001

Position of the American Dietetic Association: dietetics professionals can implement practices to conserve natural resources and protect the environment. (Previously titled "natural resource conservation and waste management").

It is the position of the American Dietetic Association to encourage environmentally responsible practices that conserve natural resources, minimize the quantity of waste that is generated, and have the least adverse affect on the health of all living organisms and the environment. All components of the food system, from farmer to consumer, are affected by the availability and cost of energy and the availability and quality of water. Outdoor and indoor air quality significantly impacts the health of all living organisms. Decisions that dietetics professionals make as practitioners and consumers can affect the quantity and type of solid waste generated. The demand for natural resources should be evaluated when selecting the most cost-effective, environmentally sensitive approach to the management of solid waste. Special precautions are needed when using and disposing of hazardous and medical waste to protect the safety of our clients and employees. This position paper provides information and resources for dietetics professionals for addressing the complexity of the environmental issue presented. Conservation strategies are identified that dietetics professionals can use in their worksites and at home. These conservation practices may reduce cost and decrease the environmental impact we have on our communities and the world.

Air Pollution↗
PubMed1997

Position of the American Dietetic Association: natural resource conservation and waste management.

ADA members are encouraged to evaluate their personal and professional practices and take action to more effectively conserve natural resources and protect the environment. Dietetics professionals' knowledge of the complexity of the issues associated with environmental concerns should be increased through participation in continuing education activities. Knowledgeable members should be proactive in implementing programs to conserve natural resources and protect the environment and participate in the legislative process within their states and communities. ADA supports programs designed to preserve natural resources and protect the environment. ADA is committed to enhancing the quality of life for future generations.

Air Pollution↗
PubMed2006

Tourism's impacts on natural resources: A positive case from China.

Tourism development may result in negative impacts on natural resources owing to overuse and mismanagement. However, tourism may also play positive roles in natural resource conservation, which has rarely been verified in practice, although some researchers have demonstrated this in theory. In this article, taking the Jiuzhaigou Biosphere Reserve as a case study area, we conducted an analysis for the environmental impacts from tourism development based on social survey and interpretation of remote sensing images. The results show that the natural environment was not degraded and some indicators are even improving because all the residents have participated in tourism and given up farming and hunting. It is concluded that it is possible to use tourism as a way to balance natural resource conservation and economic development under the preconditions of making effective policies to encourage and help local people participate in tourism business and to benefit from it.

China↗
PubMed2005

Toward sustainable management of national parks in Japan: securing local community and stakeholder participation.

Japan's national park system constitutes a potentially viable mechanism for securing local community participation and building stakeholder consensus for sustainable park management, although the potential of this system is yet to be fully maximized. This article gives an overview of the system of protecting natural resources in Japan, focusing on the national park system. Parks are managed by zoning and regulation, which is unique in that land is not "set aside" for nature conservation, but designated as national park wherever the need to preserve "scenic beauty" has been recognized, regardless of land ownership or land use. Although resource conservation under this system has been problematic, it has advantages, especially in terms of community participation. This article demonstrates that in order to reach the system's potential, the park authority must act as coordinator of stakeholders and facilitator of bottom-up approaches to decision-making. In order to do this, steps that must be taken include the following: identifying the various stakeholders in park management and defining the "local community"; clarifying the roles and responsibilities of each stakeholder; and supporting consensus-building among stakeholders regarding the objectives and long-term vision of each park. By taking these steps, it would be possible to build a park management system that overrides government boundaries and involves local communities. This will enable the park authority to address the challenges facing Japan's complex system of conserving natural resources, and move towards sustainable management of natural resources in Japan.

Conservation of Natural Resources↗
PubMed1996

Medicinal plant genetic resources and international cooperation: the Brazilian perspective.

Brazil is a gene rich country, host to 24% of known primate species, between 10 and 15 million species of insects, and 22% of the world's higher plant species. The debate over how and by whom these resources should be protected has intensified over the last few years due to a growing awareness of the links between sustainable utilization of natural resources, conservation of biodiversity, and economic development. Within this context the pharmaceutical exploitation of natural products for drug development has a prominent place. For a significant portion of Brazilian society, fair cooperation is welcome and can facilitate drug discovery. Nevertheless, the complexity of the consequences of patenting and utilization of natural resources calls for a thorough cost/benefit analysis in order to promote policies that can ensure significant and long term benefits for the country.

Brazil↗
PubMed2004

The case and opportunity for public-supported financial incentives to implement integrated pest management.

Food, water, and worker protection regulations have driven availability, and loss, of pesticides for use in pest management programs. In response, public-supported research and extension projects have targeted investigation and demonstration of reduced-risk integrated pest management (IPM) techniques. But these new techniques often result in higher financial burden to the grower, which is counter to the IPM principle that economic competitiveness is critical to have IPM adopted. As authorized by the 2002 Farm Bill and administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), conservation programs exist for delivering public-supported financial incentives to growers to increase environmental stewardship on lands in production. NRCS conservation programs are described, and the case for providing financial incentives to growers for implementing IPM is presented. We also explored the opportunity and challenge to use one key program, the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP), to aid grower adoption of IPM. The EQIP fund distribution to growers from 1997 to 2002 during the last Farm Bill cycle totaled approximately 1.05 billion dollars with a portion of funds supporting an NRCS-designed pest management practice. The average percentage of allocation of EQIP funds to this pest management practice among states was 0.77 +/- 0.009% (mean +/- SD). Using Michigan as an example, vegetable and fruit grower recognition of the program's use to implement IPM was modest (25% of growers surveyed), and their recognition of its use in aiding implementation of IPM was improved after educational efforts (74%). Proposals designed to enhance program usefulness in implementing IPM were delivered through the NRCS advisory process in Michigan. Modifications for using the NRCS pest management practice to address resource concerns were adopted, incentive rates for pest management were adjusted, and an expanded incentive structure for IPM technique adoption was tabled for future consideration. The case is strong for using public-supported financial incentives offered by the EQIP to aid grower adoption of IPM as a means to address resource concerns, but current use of the EQIP for this purpose is modest to meager. With appropriate program adjustments and increased grower awareness, USDA NRCS conservation programs, and the EQIP in particular, may provide an important opportunity for growers to increase their use of IPM as a resource conservation and farm management tool.

Agriculture↗
PubMed2003

An introduction of co-management approach into Babon River management in Semarang, Central Java, Indonesia.

The Babon River lies over three regions, i.e. Semarang District where the upstream is located while downstream it passes through Semarang Municipality and Demak District. This river has been used for many purposes by the neighbouring communities (e.g. water source, canal disposal, mining, etc). Thereafter many transboundary environmental problems have arisen here. The environmental management strategy (using a top-down approach) such as Program Kali Bersih (Clean River Program) on Babon River, which had been implemented by the Bapedalda of Semarang Municipality, is not successfully achieving the targets. In the past, most policies were formulated based on top-down orientation. Hence, the communities' participation was not paid enough attention. Co-management is a participative-management approach to empower the stakeholders (related parties) to achieve a certain goal. This study seeks answers to the research questions: (1) whether the co-management approach has good prospects for managing the Babon River; and (2) what kinds of strategy should be formulated to empower the stakeholders to manage the Babon River in the study area. The study employed a multistage sampling method to select the location of the study areas and key-persons sample. Rowosari, Penggaron Kidul and Karangtoro were selected to represent the upstream, middle stream and downstream areas, respectively. The descriptive statistics method had been used to describe the significance of river resource attributes' characters. Institutional analysis approach, introduced by Pomeroy and Williams, was adopted with necessary modification in this study. The results showed that the level of participation of the community in the three segments of the Babon River is different. The prospects for the co-management approach to manage the river resource in the study area are fairly good and in the upstream area are better than in the other two segments. The level of participation is far from complete; nevertheless the response from society towards development is quite good. There are five significant attributes in Babon River, which affect the community participation in river management, namely: (1) intensity of resource commercialisation; formal education of the community; and dependency of the community toward the resources, resource products distribution and resource damage. These variables could influence the pattern of participation of the community in the study area. The other stakeholders such as industrial or plant owners, academics, and the related institutions have not been explored in detail in this study. The co-management model that has been developed in this study has the prospect of encouraging the community and other stakeholders' empowerment in economic activities, natural resource conservation, and environmental law enforcement, as part of achieving the ultimate goal of sustainable environmental management.

Community Participation↗
PubMed2001

A stream visual assessment protocol (SVAP) for riparian landowners.

A user-friendly Stream Visual Assessment Protocol (SVAP) was recently developed in a joint effort by the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) of the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the University of Georgia. SVAP was designed to be an introductory screening-level assessment method for people unfamiliar with stream assessments. It was designed for use by NRCS field staff who work with agricultural landowners. NRCS is in a key position to influence conservation practices since the organization works with private stakeholders, maintaining more than 2000 field offices throughout the U.S. with a central office in each state. The SVAP measures a maximum of 15 elements and is based on visual inspection of the physical and biological characteristics of instream and riparian environments. Each element is assigned a numerical score relative to reference conditions and an overall score for the stream reach is calculated. A qualitative description of the stream reach is made based on overall numerical score. While SVAP is not intended to replace more robust stream assessment protocols, it provides quick and reliable information for use in NRCS farm assistance programs. It is also an educational tool through which landowners can learn about conservation of aquatic resources. An abridged copy of SVAP is attached as an appendix to this article and the complete document can be found on the web at http://www.ncg.nrcs.usda.gov/tech_notes.html.

Agriculture↗
PubMed2002

Regional variations in burnout rates in a natural resources agency.

This study explores employee burnout within and across the four administrative regions of the Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS) based on the hypothesis that burnout levels will vary systematically with workload levels. Approximately 1100 District Conservationists (DCs), the front-line operating officers of the NRCS, were surveyed. Results indicate significant variation in workload and burnout levels but no significant association between these two variables within and across regions. Further analysis revealed that a number of important variables help to explain burnout across regions including job design, functional unit cooperation, and adequate staffing. Within regions, the variables that explain burnout are under the categories of leadership, job design, human resource systems, and agency policy. The authors make use of the research findings to develop a set of organization development (OD) recommendations to help the agency deal with burnout within and across regions.

Burnout, Professional↗
PubMed2001

Developing a spatial framework of common ecological regions for the conterminous United States.

In 1996, nine federal agencies with mandates to inventory and manage the nation's land, water, and biological resources signed a memorandum of understanding entitled "Developing a Spatial Framework of Ecological Units of The United States." This spatial framework is the basis for interagency coordination and collaboration in the development of ecosystem management strategies. One of the objectives in this memorandum is the development of a map of common ecological regions for the conterminous United States. The regions defined in the spatial framework will be areas within which biotic, abiotic, terrestrial, and aquatic capacities and potentials are similar. The agencies agreed to begin by exploring areas of agreement and disagreement in three federal natural-resource spatial frameworks--Major Land Resource Areas of the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) Natural Resources Conservation Service, National Hierarchy of Ecological Units of the USDA Forest Service, and Level III Ecoregions of the US Environmental Protection Agency. The explicit intention is that the framework will foster an ecological understanding of the landscape, rather than an understanding based on a single resource, single discipline, or single agency perspective. This paper describes the origin, capabilities, and limitations of three major federal agency frameworks and suggests why a common ecological framework is desirable. The scientific and programmatic benefits of common ecological regions are described, and a proposed process for development of the common framework is presented.

Conservation of Natural Resources↗
PubMed2004

Technical basis for quantifying phosphorus transport to surface and groundwaters.

Decreasing the potential delivery of phosphorus in fertilizers or animal waste to surface and groundwater requires a knowledge of phosphorus's fate and transport mechanisms. The USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service has recently mandated each state to develop an assessment tool to estimate P transport to water bodies. The objective of this paper is to describe the processes involved with P transport to surface and groundwaters that must be accounted for in practical methods used to quantify the potential for P loss. Mechanistic models to assess P loss should account for: 1) P adsorbed to eroding sediments, 2) soluble P in runoff water, 3) soluble P in leaching water, and 4) P losses related to specific P sources. With sediment-bound P, the adsorbed P content in the eroded soil mass at the field edge must be quantified, whereas runoff volume and P concentration are needed to estimate soluble P loss in runoff water. Estimating P leaching potential requires calculation of drainage water volume and P concentration. When P is applied in animal waste, the specific source influences both soluble and particulate P loss because of differences in P solubility between waste types. In addition, the effects of conservation practices and other technologies on decreasing sediment, soluble, and leached P need to be included. Using these methods, a practical, quantitative P loss assessment tool can be developed that will enable technical service providers and other practitioners to estimate potential P loss and design best-management practices for land-applied waste management systems in order to minimize P transport to surface and groundwater.

Adsorption↗
PubMed2004

Community production practices and desertification in the Sahelo-Sudanian region of Cameroon at the turn of the millennium.

The Sahelo-Sudanian region of Cameroon extends over 10 million hectares. Varied flora and soil types, a complex mosaic of vegetation and plant communities and a diversified wild animal population are the major natural resources of this region. Desertification in the region can be related to two major known causes: a. short or long-term drought due to short-term or long-term climatic trends toward aridity; b. human activities which degrade the biological environment. Globally, humans generally have less effect on desertification than climatic change in the short run. The only strategy to fight against this situation particularly in the developing countries is to withdraw populations from the areas and to settle them elsewhere. However, most local or regional desertification processes in general, and in the Sahelo-Sudanian region in particular, are due to the misuse or unsound exploitation of natural resources by humans and their animals. Often, comprehension of the complexity of even small interactions between parameters affecting our local environment remains limited. Poor economic assessments of the long-term benefits of proper natural resource conservation and management increase the extent of the exploitation, in turn increasing the degradation process. Yet ecologically sound management of natural resources integrating indigenous knowledge and basic population interest and concern can secure restoration in several areas and sustained productivity of Sahelo-Sudanian lands.

Agriculture↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Software for pest-management science: computer models and databases from the United States Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service.

We present an overview of USDA Agricultural Research Service (ARS) computer models and databases related to pest-management science, emphasizing current developments in environmental risk assessment and management simulation models. The ARS has a unique national interdisciplinary team of researchers in surface and sub-surface hydrology, soil and plant science, systems analysis and pesticide science, who have networked to develop empirical and mechanistic computer models describing the behavior of pests, pest responses to controls and the environmental impact of pest-control methods. Historically, much of this work has been in support of production agriculture and in support of the conservation programs of our 'action agency' sister, the Natural Resources Conservation Service (formerly the Soil Conservation Service). Because we are a public agency, our software/database products are generally offered without cost, unless they are developed in cooperation with a private-sector cooperator. Because ARS is a basic and applied research organization, with development of new science as our highest priority, these products tend to be offered on an 'as-is' basis with limited user support except for cooperating R&D relationship with other scientists. However, rapid changes in the technology for information analysis and communication continually challenge our way of doing business.

Agriculture↗
PubMed1988

Villagisation Guidelines, October 1985.

The following major aims are set forth in these Guidelines issued by the Ministry of Agriculture of Ethiopia: 1) enhancing extension services aimed at increasing agricultural productivity; 2) promoting more rational land-use patterns and conserving natural resources; 3) facilitating access of rural people to schools, clinics, water supplies, and service co-operatives; and 4) strengthening security and self-defense.

Africa↗
PubMed2004

Reuse of wastewater sludge with marine clay as a new resource of construction aggregates.

The disposal of sludge from wastewater treatment presents highly complex problems to any municipality. Most of the sludge disposal methods have varying degrees of environmental impact. Hence, it is necessary to explore potential areas of reuse in order to alleviate sludge disposal problems and to conserve natural resources. Industrial sludge and marine clay are two forms of high-volume wastes. Using these wastes as a resource of raw materials to produce construction aggregates would enable large-scale sludge reuse. The aggregates were produced at various sludge-clay combinations containing 0, 20, 50, 80 and 100% clay contents, respectively. The pelletized aggregates displayed lower particle densities ranged between 1.48 and 2.25 g/cm3, compared to the density of granite at 2.56 g/cm3. Good 28-day concrete compressive strength of 38.5 N/mm2 achieved by the 100% sludge aggregate was comparable to the value of 38.0 N/mm2 achieved of the granite control specimens. The leachate contamination levels from the aggregates after 150 days were found acceptable when used in concrete, indicating insignificant environmental contamination. The heat flow study showed increases in heat flow at the temperatures of 480 degrees C and between 660 degrees C and 900 degrees C, indicating a need for the extension of heating time around these temperatures.

Aluminum Silicates↗