•Life cycle assessment of low-cost digesters in small-scale farms was performed.•Biogas and digestate replaced liquefied petroleum gas and synthetic fertilizer.•Scenarios previous to low-cost ...digesters implementation were also considered.•Digesters reduced environmental impacts by up to 80%.•Digesters reduced expenses associated with fuel and fertilizer purchase by 80%.
The aim of this study was to assess the environmental benefits of implementing low-cost digesters in small-scale farms in Colombia by using the LCA methodology. Four scenarios were taken into account considering two small-scale farms located in different areas: two (previous) scenarios where manure was stored in a manure pit and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) was used for cooking; and two (current) scenarios where manure is treated in low-cost digesters, the digestate replaces the synthetic fertiliser and the biogas is used for cooking replacing the LPG. Results showed that digesters implementation considerably reduced (by up to 80%) potential environmental impacts associated with manure handling, fuel and fertiliser use in the small-scale Colombian farms. This was mainly due to the reduction of LPG and synthetic fertiliser use which were replaced by biogas and digestate. An economic assessment showed that low-cost digesters reduced expenses associated with cooking fuel and fertiliser purchase by 80%.
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Climate-Smart Agriculture (CSA) is seeking to overcome the food security problem and develop rural livelihoods while minimizing negative impacts on the environment. However, when such synergies ...exist, the situation of small-scale farmers is often overlooked, and they are unable to implement new practices and technologies. Therefore, the main aim of this study is to improve CSA by adding the neglected but very important element “small-scale farmer”, and introduce Vulnerable-Smart Agriculture (VSA) as a complete version of CSA. VSA indicates, based on the results of this study, that none of the decisions made by policymakers can be realistic and functional as long as the voice of the farmers influenced by their decisions is not heard. Therefore, to identify different levels for possible interventions and develop VSA monitoring indicators, a new conceptual framework needs to be developed. This study proposed such a framework consisting of five elements: prediction of critical incidents by farmers, measuring the consequences of incidents, identifying farmers' coping strategies, assessing farmers' livelihood capital when facing an incident, and adapting to climate incidents. The primary focus of this study is on farmers’ learning and operational preparation to deal with tension and disasters at farm level. Understanding the implications of threats from climate change and the recognizing of coping mechanisms will contribute to an increase in understanding sustainable management.
•This study aimed to adjust Climate-Smart Agriculture (CSA) goals towards a Vulnerable-Smart Agriculture (VSA).•It suggested a new conceptual framework consisting of five elements.•VSA starts with small-scale farmers and attempts to understand the barriers they face.•VSA boosts CSA concept by adding the neglected but very important element “small-scale farmers”.•The results of this study can help improve future methods for resilience evaluation at farm level.
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Based on Swarm satellite data from 2015 through 2018, we present the mean characteristics of magnetic field fluctuations at midlatitudes and low latitudes. It is the first comprehensive study ...focusing on small‐scale variations (<10 km). Events are observed on about 35% of the orbits. The highest occurrence rates are detected after sunset, in the East Asian/Australian sector, and during months around June solstice. Low occurrence rates are found at low magnetic latitudes (below ±10° quasi‐dipole latitude), in the region of the South Atlantic Anomaly, and during equinox seasons. All these occurrence features compare well with those of medium‐scale traveling ionospheric disturbances. We therefore term our small‐scale events small‐scale traveling ionospheric disturbances (SSTIDs). SSTIDs exhibit high field‐aligned current (FAC) densities connected to narrow current sheets with meridional width of typically 4 km. The intense FACs of several μA/m2 flow typically between the hemispheres. Return currents are distributed over larger scales and thus have smaller amplitudes. Peak current densities get larger toward lower latitudes. There are two groups of events, around morning‐noontime and evening‐night, which are separated by demarcation lines near 04 and 15 magnetic local time. The magnetic amplitudes of the small‐scale fluctuations are larger in sunlight than in darkness, indicating larger total currents in the loops. But the FAC peak current densities are larger in darkness, inferring a stronger squeezing of the current sheet under low‐conductivity conditions. We suggest that our SSTIDs are an evolutional state of medium‐scale traveling ionospheric disturbances.
Key Points
First detailed study of small‐scale (<10 km) magnetic fluctuations at mid‐ and low‐latitudes which are interpreted as narrow, intense FAC
Events show distinct occurrence rate distributions in different frames; there are two groups of events, morning‐noon and evening‐night
The similar distribution features of small‐scale events with medium‐scale TIDs suggest a close relation between the two phenomena
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Summary
The R package TropFishR is a new analysis toolbox compiling single‐species stock assessment methods specifically designed for data‐limited fisheries analysis using length‐frequency data.
It ...includes methods for (i) estimating biological stock characteristics such as growth and mortality parameters, (ii) exploring technical aspects of the fisheries (e.g. exploitation rate and selectivity characteristics), (iii) assessing size and composition of a fish stock by means of virtual population analysis (VPA), and (iv) assessing stock status with yield prediction and production models.
This paper introduces the package and demonstrates the functionality of a selection of its core methods.
TropFishR modernises traditional stock assessment methods by easing application and development and by combining it with advanced statistical approaches.
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Marine ecosystem–scale fisheries research and management must include the fishing effort of women and men. Even with growing recognition that women do fish, there remains an imperative to engage in ...more meaningful and relevant gender analysis to improve socio‐ecological approaches to fisheries research and management. The implications of a gender approach to fisheries have been explored in social approaches to fisheries, but the relevance of gender analysis for ecological understandings has yet to be fully elaborated. To examine the importance of gender to the understanding of marine ecology, we identified 106 case studies of small‐scale fisheries from the last 20 years that detail the participation of women in fishing (data on women fishers being the most common limiting factor to gender analysis). We found that beyond gender difference in fishing practices throughout the world, the literature reveals a quantitative data gap in the characterization of gender in small‐scale fisheries. The descriptive details of women's often distinct fishing practices nonetheless provide important ecological information with implications for understanding the human role in marine ecosystems. Finally, we examined why the data gap on women's fishing practices has persisted, detailing several ways in which commonly used research methods may perpetuate biased sampling that overlooks women's fishing. This review sheds light on a new aspect of the application of gender research to fisheries research, with an emphasis on ecological understanding within a broader context of interdisciplinary approaches.
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The COVID-19 pandemic has rapidly spread around the world with extensive social and economic effects. This editorial focuses specifically on the implications of the pandemic for small-scale fishers, ...including marketing and processing aspects of the sector, and coastal fishing communities, drawing from news and reports from around the world. Negative consequences to date have included complete shut-downs of some fisheries, knock-on economic effects from market disruptions, increased health risks for fishers, processors and communities, additional implications for marginalized groups, exacerbated vulnerabilities to other social and environmental stressors, and increased Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated fishing. Though much of the news is dire, there have been some positive outcomes such as food sharing, the revival of local food networks, increases in local sales through direct marketing and deliveries, collective actions to safeguard rights, collaborations between communities and governments, and reduced fishing pressure in some places. While the crisis is still unfolding, there is an urgent need to coordinate, plan and implement effective short- and long-term responses. Thus, we urge governments, development organizations, NGOs, donors, the private sector, and researchers to rapidly mobilize in support of small-scale fishers, coastal fishing communities, and associated civil society organizations, and suggest actions that can be taken by each to help these groups respond to the COVID-19 pandemic.
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The development of area‐based tools that combine fishing, aquaculture and repopulation practices is increasingly necessary and important to conserve ecosystems, promote sustainable use of marine ...resources and contribute to the well‐being of the people that rely on them.
In the Gulf of California, Mexico, two small‐scale fishers' cooperatives were granted a Permit for Exploratory Aquaculture of bivalve species, and their members decided to set three zones within those concessions: (i) a zone for natural seed collection and repopulation, (ii) a no‐take zone and (iii) an area where fishing was allowed. This management arrangement, named by them as the Integral Management Zone (Zona de Manejo Integral), was conceived as an innovative alternative to the current policy tools available in the Mexican General Law for Sustainable Fisheries and Aquaculture.
The natural collection of bivalve larvae in the artificial collectors was sufficient to allow the development of the repopulation project. Based on hydrodynamic models of larval dispersal, self‐recruitment was low, and the collection of seed depended on distant sources. The broader scale (regional) connectivity source–sink patterns should be considered in the design stages of the Integral Management Zones.
The implementation of the Integral Management Zones can complement other conservation and fisheries management tools available in Mexican environmental and fisheries laws. The approach envisioned to implement this tool is participative, with a meaningful role of local fishers in the decisions concerning the use of these zones, with a supportive engagement of governmental and other stakeholders (e.g., academia and civil society organizations).
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In this study, the electric field and the particle precipitation at different spatial scale sizes have been investigated by utilizing the Dynamic Explorer 2 satellite data set, focusing on conditions ...of moderately strong southward interplanetary magnetic field. Dynamic Explorer 2 data from the period between 1981 and 1983, from all universal times, seasons, and both hemispheres, have been processed and binned over geomagnetic latitude and local time. It is found that, as compared with the large‐scale (>500 km) average electric field and particle precipitation, the variabilities (i.e., departures from the large‐scale average) of electric field and particle precipitation are not negligible. Moreover, the electric field variability tends to be anticorrelated with the particle precipitation variability in the auroral regions on small scale and mesoscale (<500 km). The impacts associated with the small‐scale and mesoscale electric field and particle precipitation variabilities on Joule heating have also been addressed in this study by using the Global Ionosphere and Thermosphere Model. It is found that although Joule heating can be significantly enhanced by the small‐scale and mesoscale electric field variabilities (~27% globally), the corresponding change in the particle precipitation tends to depress such enhancement (−5% globally), which is not negligible on the dusk side (up to −17.5% locally). It is the first time that the correlation between electric field and particle precipitation variabilities on small scale and mesoscale has been quantified. Furthermore, the impact on Joule heating associated with the correlation between the small‐scale and mesoscale electric field and particle precipitation variabilities has been evaluated unprecedentedly in a general circulation model.
Plain Language Summary
At high latitudes, the electromagnetic energy from the magnetosphere dissipates into Earth's upper atmosphere, leading to both local and global changes. The accuracy of numerical simulation of Earth's upper atmosphere depends on the accuracy of the estimation of such energy input or heating, which is always challenging. The heating is closely related with the ionospheric electric field and precipitating particles from the magnetosphere. Part of the difficulty of determining the heating is that the knowledge about their structures below the model resolution (i.e., small‐scale and mesoscale variabilities) is still limited, especially about their correlation. Therefore, it is still unclear to what extent such correlation can impact the heating estimation. In this study, the correlation between small‐scale and mesoscale electric field and particle precipitation variabilities has been quantified for the first time by utilizing satellite observations. Furthermore, the impact of small‐scale and mesoscale variabilities and their correlation on the heating estimation has been evaluated unprecedentedly using a general circulation model. It is found that there can be a large localized overestimation of heating if the correlation between small‐scale and mesoscale electric field and particle precipitation variabilities is neglected. Our results can be useful for the improvement of numerical models of Earth's upper atmosphere and important for magnetosphere‐ionosphere coupling studies.
Key Points
The electric field and particle precipitation variabilities at high latitudes have been quantified
The variable electric field is anticorrelated with the variable particle precipitation on small scale and mesoscale
The reduction of Joule heating due to the anticorrelation between the small‐scale and mesoscale electric field and particle precipitation variabilities is not negligible
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•Collaborative arrangements shaped by local farmers are social innovation that may help them to overcome structural barriers and promote their inclusion in sustainable rural ...development•Collaborations are comprised of two main arrangements - collective action and partnership - which may reinforce each other and they have been built through bonding and bridging social capital•Middle-scale farmers, who hold significant political, social and human capital, are particularly relevant local actor to develop more autonomous collaborative arrangements•The engagement and agency of local farmers provide concrete examples of the potential of local governance based on collaborative arrangements to support sustainable farming production systems•Engagement of external actors (e.g., private companies, researchers, NGOs and state organizations) are important to support bottom up social innovations when farmers keep their autonomy and occupy a central position as agents in collaborative arrangements
Brazilian small-scale farmers are seeking new types of collaborations and economic opportunities amid a changing world. Market opportunities, however, have incurred demanding environmental, financial and labor requirements, and created trade-offs between expanding cash crops and maintaining livelihood security. We analyze the Tomé-Açu region in the Brazilian Amazon, where different collaborative models between small-scale farmers and other social agents (industries, government, non-governmental organizations) have emerged. Local farmers are engaging in collective actions and pursuing different types of partnerships, which facilitate knowledge exchange and access to market niches, also helping them overcome the infrastructural and logistical deficiencies that have historically limited rural development in the region. In particular, we discuss the diffusion and adoption of agroforestry and oil palm production systems among small-scale farmers. We examine the challenges and opportunities these partnerships and social innovations have created for local farmers, who are part of heterogeneous groups with distinct roles, assets and contexts. The state-led oil palm program posed challenges to small-scale farmers who experienced asymmetrical relationships within their partnership with private companies. On the other hand, the farmer-led agroforestry model opened new opportunities for farmers who had more flexibility in deciding their production arrangements, developing new agroforestry techniques, and pursuing commercialization pathways. Despite their limited power, small-scale farmers have been able to overcome some structural barriers through innovations, entrepreneurship, and renegotiation of oil palm contract farming. Thus, their ability to engage in both farmer-led agroforestry and state-led oil palm programs provides concrete examples of the potential of local governance based on collaborative arrangements to support sustainable farming production systems.
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10.
Small‐scale fisheries through the wellbeing lens Weeratunge, Nireka; Béné, Christophe; Siriwardane, Rapti ...
Fish and fisheries (Oxford, England),
June 2014, Volume:
15, Issue:
2
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Despite longstanding recognition that small‐scale fisheries make multiple contributions to economies, societies and cultures, assessing these contributions and incorporating them into policy and ...decision‐making has suffered from a lack of a comprehensive integrating ‘lens’. This paper focuses on the concept of ‘wellbeing’ as a means to accomplish this integration, thereby unravelling and better assessing complex social and economic issues within the context of fisheries governance. We emphasize the relevance of the three key components of wellbeing – the material, relational and subjective dimensions, each of which is relevant to wellbeing at scales ranging from individual, household, community, fishery to human‐ecological systems as a whole. We review nine major approaches influential in shaping current thinking and practice on wellbeing: the economics of happiness, poverty, capabilities, gender, human rights, sustainable livelihoods, vulnerability, social capital, and social wellbeing. The concept of identity is a thread that runs through the relational and subjective components of social wellbeing, as well as several other approaches and thus emerges as a critical element of small‐scale fisheries that requires explicit recognition in governance analysis. A social wellbeing lens is applied to critically review a global body of literature discussing the social, economic and political dimensions of small‐scale fishing communities, seeking to understand the relevance and value addition of applying wellbeing concepts in small‐scale fisheries.
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