Energy security is a priority for most countries as a pivot for economic development. However, Nigeria, despite being a major oil producer, is plagued by energy insecurity in addition to long-standing food insecurity. Nigeria spent 4% of its GDP (~ US$5B/year) importing refined petroleum products (RPP) for its transport sector between 2005 and 2009. In addition, an annual average food import of 3 million metric tonnes has existed for almost a decade. To combat these energy and food insecurities, the Nigerian government plans to produce bioethanol from its major staple food (sugar and starch) crops in order to increase its transport fuel supply and ameliorate the negative impacts of the on-going import of motor fuel to its economy; given substantial uncultivated arable land, unemployed labour and suitable climatic and soil conditions. The dilemma between the apparent benefits of biofuels versus its potential impacts on food security needs to be analysed in order to articulate and implement a feasible ethanol policy. This study develops and applies a sectoral Energy-Food Model (EFM) to: 1) analyse the supply capacity of the feedstock and food suppliers (the farmers in Nigeria) for ethanol; 2) estimate the bioethanol production potential in Nigeria; 3) identify the regional potential ‘best’ feedstock; and 4) assess the impacts of the potential feedstock and bioethanol demands and supplies on the national energy and food securities. The programming model is based on farm production data from relevant national agencies and on Nigerian energy supply, food consumption, commodity export and import and commodity prices from international and national official databases such as EIA, FAOSTAT, IMF, World Bank, and Nigerian Bureau of Statistics databases. Results show that Nigeria has the potential to produce sufficient feedstock and food crops required to meet the domestic ethanol and crop consumption requirements without reducing domestic food supply or increasing domestic commodity prices. Further, cassava is identified as the best feedstock for ethanol production in all the regions under current production and price conditions. Domestic ethanol production/supply to the local market for blending would generate and add a gross profit of US$2,725M per annum (including the potential co-products revenue) to national income. Also an annual production of 5.14 billion litres of ethanol from all the regions is feasible, and this can substitute 514 million litres of gasoline (4% of the annual average domestic RPP demand) at 10% ethanol blending, and save about US$36B per annum at US$70.33 per litre of the imported RPP. The changes in labour and land use were substantial, but without associated increase in the prices of labour and land, reflecting existing un- and under-employment and stocks of uncultivated arable land. The impacts of ethanol production from the first generation feedstock on food supply and food prices are practically absent in a country with sufficient land and production resources.

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A growing global energy demand resulting from an ever increasing world population and scale of economic activity poses one of the world's main challenges for the future. The consequences of this rise in population and economic development include, among others, 'excessive' fossil fuel energy consumption and increasing greenhouse gas emissions. The use of renewable energy sources (RES) can help to mitigate this pressure on energy demand. In connection with this, the European Union's climate policy strategy, in tandem with a reduction in greenhouse gases (GHGs), presses for the development of renewable energy. The generation of renewable energy, in particular biomass, contributes to economic development through the creation of employment opportunities. In particular, rural regions with limited development opportunities can benefit from renewable energy production and dissemination. European rural border regions are disadvantaged primarily because of their location, poor infrastructure and smaller populations. Border regions with a significant division of agricultural land and forest, however, can benefit from the increase of biomass and bioenergy generation. There are, nevertheless, many barriers associated with bioenergy development in general, and in cross-border regions in particular. Despite the fact that they are a unique category and require special consideration there is almost an academic void in respect of research focusing on renewable energy linked to border regions. This research addresses the following key aspects: the crucial factors required for bioenergy dissemination and the special characteristics of European border regions, and analyzes stakeholders ' perceptions along the bioenergy supply chain. Using the two-phase design inspired by Barton and Lazarsfeld (1984) in a mixed research design, semi-structured expert interviews and online/offline surveys were conducted with stakeholders based in the border regions between Poland, the Czech Republic and Germany, with their opinions measured using a Likert scale questionnaire. Both strands of data collection delivered similar perceptions, especially in the case of the stakeholders ' motivation for biomass use and bioenergy generation, in addition to differing assessments regarding the barriers for the growing of biomass, and bioenergy generation - mainly prompted by the diverse economic and legal envi ronments in each country. Among other findings, the study identified the fact that current market barriers resulting mostly from different financial incentives could be reduced if, at a European level, the various financial incentives were harmonized. In addition, common sustainable standards for bioenergy generation are required, in order to support the sustainable use of biomass and bioenergy generation. Moreover, the intensification of the transfer of knowledge and communication between cross-border parties, with the support of regional energy agencies, seems to be necessary, in order to improve knowledge of market opportu nities across border regions, and hence reduce the transaction costs in relation to bioenergy cooperation.

Translocation is widely used to counter the fragmentation and decline of populations of species at risk, in order to enhance their survival prospects. Additionally, translocation is used in ecological restoration to introduce taxa conferring strong positive influence, with the potential to recreate communities and reinstate functional roles. Conservation of species by translocation is considered high risk and high cost; therefore ecologists need to understand how success can be maximised. In this thesis, I test the community level impacts of a rare plant and evaluate the effectiveness of single-species conservation for bottom-up restoration. To do this I study the effect a rare plant species, Sium latifolium, has on pollinator communities and find a strong local effect, but detect no population level change. I conclude that the addition of a single plant species is ineffective at providing population change. For evaluation of conservation strategies for pollinators, population level impact must be tested for, rather than assuming that they mirror the local effect. I then explore options for improving the success of species translocation, adopting methodologies from population genetics and social sciences. I test whether low genetic diversity limits the success of S. latifolium translocations, predicting that introduction survival correlates with diversity of the donor natural population. I reject this hypothesis and conclude instead that, for S. latifolium, ecological conditions determine initial success of introductions. Much experience for this resides with practitioners, therefore I use social network analysis to quantify communication between people conserving S. latifolium. I test whether a small scale network intervention (organising a meeting) can create new ties and improve knowledgeexchange through the network.

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This research examines marine management strategies in Cambodia, with the aim of addressing key issues relating to the design, implementation and management of marine protection systems. The establishment of marine protected areas in developing countries is perceived to solve many of the issues currently facing the marine environment. However, in reality this is not the case. A majority of the world's marine protected areas are considered ineective, with issues relating to the environmental understanding and appropriate governance of such strategies. Implementing marine management is an extremely complex process, with many factors, stakeholders and individual site-specific variables and it has long been understood that an integrated social-ecological approach is preferable. This thesis aims to build a more comprehensive picture of the implementation of marine management strategies into developing communities and addresses a number of research gaps. This thesis provides key information on the current extent and health of coral reefs in the Koh Sdach Archipelago, and identies changes in the health of those reefs between 2002 and 2013 in the absence of marine management. The socio-economic impacts of the current management programmes used to protect the Cambodian coastal zone have been examined, and identify the perceptions of community members relating to governance, change and threats surrounding marine management. This work highlighted issues relating to the eective governance of areas at multiple institutional levels, stressing the need for increased governmental support and communication within and between management organisations. Finally, the suitability of volunteer and community-based coral reef monitoring was assessed. Despite only being a preliminary study into the potential applications of such systems, the results suggested that the use of both volunteers and community members in the collection of coral reef health data could contribute to the current decit in monitoring data.

Human impact on the natural world is pervasive. The effects of historical and contemporary industrialisation, agricultural expansion and globalisation can be felt even in remote environments. Addressing anthropogenic threats to biodiversity is becoming ever more urgent, and ever more challenging. Conservationists must navigate increasingly complex problems that consider not only natural processes, but also the inextricable social dimensions of environmental change, and must do so with limited human and financial resources. The challenge is particularly great in tropical regions. These are home to the majority of terrestrial biodiversity and are facing unprecedented pressures due to expanding and impoverished human populations, urbanisation and exploitation of natural resources. Conservation strategies in the tropics increasingly recognise the need to embrace social-ecological approaches, often designed around initiatives that aim to safeguard biodiversity and the benefits provided to humans by ecosystems, and promote social progress. Yet development of monitoring techniques to better inform these strategies has lagged behind. Despite recent growth in the presence of social science theory and methods in conservation, research to characterise threats and identify conservation priorities rely heavily on traditional ecological methods. These methods have limitations, including restricted replication capacity, small spatial scales and sampling error. Perhaps more importantly, they fail to elicit the social context of human activities and behaviours. The main objective of this thesis was to critically examine and develop methods to address complex conservation problems in tropical forest contexts strongly influenced by human actions. The research is based in Brazil, a mega-diverse country experiencing turbulent economic and political times. The thesis begins in the Brazilian Amazon, where recent evidence indicates that urban consumption and commercial trade of wild-meat may be widespread, presenting an important threat to Neotropical biodiversity. Yet adequate regional data is scarce. Subsequently the first two data chapters of this thesis examine two approaches that could provide important insights into the extent and characteristics of wildlife harvest and trade across large spatial scales: expert knowledge and federal enforcement reports. First, using caiman as a model taxon, I surveyed experts across the Brazilian Amazon using a Likert-style questionnaire (Chapter 2). The results of expert responses revealed novel evidence of common and geographically widespread caiman hunting, driven in part by urban demand for meat and resulting in long-distance trade networks. Chapter 3 examines the potential of federal enforcement data to provide valuable regional information on illegal harvest and trade activities, utilising reports of enforcement events in 549 Amazonian municipalities. I also examine spatial and temporal patterns of institutional capacity of Brazil’s environmental agency to understand the efficacy of governance in tropical forests against this cryptic and hard-to-detect activity; and in turn how these realities impact our interpretations of the species data contained within enforcement reports. The analyses revealed evidence of inadequate institutional capacity and low enforcement of wildlife crime, particularly in smaller towns far from deforestation frontiers. Nonetheless, the approach yielded vital conservation information on spatial patterns and dynamics of species-level harvest and trade, including evidence of large-scale commercial trade in larger cities, and local-level harvest of vulnerable terrestrial vertebrates. The study also highlighted a potential Amazonian enforcement vacuum resulting from decentralization and institutional reforms. From here, we move to the Atlantic forest, a severely modified biome and conservation hotspot, to explore the use of Local Ecological Knowledge (LEK) to inform on local-scale occupancy and population trends of large-bodied mammals and birds. I conducted interviews with rural people to assess their knowledge of selected native species, and also to elicit their perceptions of social, environmental and economic processes of change. The results demonstrate that LEK can provide valuable information on species responses within severely modified tropical landscapes. Perhaps more importantly, qualitative insights from respondent interviews illustrated the inter-linked social, economic and political drivers of changing landscapes and livelihoods that have shaped contemporary species patterns. The findings of this thesis demonstrate the value of alternative and innovative research methods for eliciting important conservation-relevant information in tropical forest contexts. The research presented highlights the importance of critical and robust development and application of methods, recognizing the challenges that stem from integrating social-ecological knowledge systems and approaching complex problems at different spatial scales.

In a world of declining biodiversity, Indonesia stands out in particular due to the richness of its diversity, and because of the rapidity of its decline. In response to this decline, Indonesia ratified the Convention on Biological Diversity, and additional protected areas have been established, with the most significant category being national parks. This study sets out to investigate how effective national parks are at conserving biodiversity, and examining whether they have improved since the Convention on Biological Diversity was ratified. Current literature on the issue primarily considers issues relating to management and illegal activities, and frequently focuses on only parts of Indonesia, whilst other issues such as location and design are overlooked. The literature also does not establish whether national park effectiveness can be established. To address this, an exploratory methodological stance is adopted, a variety of methods are considered, with two key approaches, geographical information systems and remote sensing being selected. Following guidance on factors that effect protected area effectiveness, the author develops new, experimental methods which investigate different aspects of national park effectiveness, with the intention of exploring the methods' utility and spatial analysis more generally. In particular they analyse ecosystem representativeness, the quality of the environment protected, their size and shape, their connectedness and how much encroachment has occurred. Despite the limitations of the methods, the study proves that there is utility and potential in combining geographical information systems and remote sensing methods and that national parks can be evaluated in terms of biodiversity effectiveness. The paper establishes that there are design and location issues with national parks and that they have not generally improved noticeably regarding design and location since the CBD was ratified. It also establishes the limitations of spatial analytical techniques, advocating a multi disciplinary approach to investigating this issue, and points to further study and other methods that would assist this investigation.

This study investigates the connections between indigenous people's migration and agrobiodiversity conservation in the Altiplano Norte of Bolivia. The Altiplano Norte is located in one of the centres of origin and biodiversity in the world, where smallholder farmers maintain in their plots a wide range of agricultural varieties and relevant knowledge. Around Lake Titicaca significant effort has been devoted, in recent decades, to the prevention of genetic erosion. However, the phenomenon of farmers' rural-urban migration, although predominant in the Altiplano Norte, has been accounted for only marginally with regard to on-farm agrobiodiversity conservation both within the initiatives coordinated and implemented by national and international stakeholders, and in the academic literature. In order to produce useful knowledge for a better understanding of farmers' relationship with agrobiodiversity today, this research explores the broader context in which indigenous smallholders operate, according to traditional practices, as well as to new stimuli and priorities. The space in which they live and the identities and aspirations that influence their choices and behaviours are characterised by an increased proximity, at both a physical and an ideal level, between the rural and the urban dimensions. Two trends are identified and analysed in this work: 1) agronomic simplification, observable in the Altiplano Norte as well as in other developing countries' regions, as part of a process of deagrarianisation; 2) agrobiodiversity reinvention, taking shape in a period in which the indigenous roots of Bolivia, native crops and traditional dishes experience a revival in discourse and food practices. Temporary and return migrants are important characters in this process, as innovators and crucial allies for scientists promoting agrobiodiversity conservation.

It has been argued that socio-cultural aspects of fisheries sustainability have been omitted in favour of environmental and economic perspectives within marine and fisheries policy. Responding to recent calls to pay greater attention to these overlooked aspects, this thesis is examining fishing lives (including those of fishing family members) in their socio-cultural contexts. This is done by drawing on Bourdieu’s conceptual ideas of habitus, field and capital alongside three additional literatures: i) the application of Bourdieu’s ideas in the ‘good farmer’ literature, ii) the lifecourse approach, and iii) the gender identity lens – which taken together seeks to understand how fishing capitals are acquired over time from different positions within the fishing field. The research utilises qualitative semi-structured interviews and participant observation in a case study of the Llŷn peninsula small-scale fishery to investigate the socio-cultural context of fishing lives. A number of important contributions to the wider fisheries social sciences are made. First of all, the thesis develops the new conceptual idea of the ‘good fisher’ which is constructed around the display of embodied cultural capital alongside fishers’ reputation of complying with the unwritten ‘rules of the game’. Secondly, the thesis finds that the socio-cultural contexts are important for getting on the ‘fishing ladder’, and interrelated to this, the fishing lifecourse is linked across generations. A third contribution is that fishers construct a ‘localised socially dominant masculinity’ in which fishing masculinities are hybrid, multiple and situated. As a final point the thesis found that the pre-existing socio-cultural contexts are important for how fishers respond to marine and fisheries policy schemes and it is suggested that new policies need to recognise these contexts to be environmentally as well as culturally sustainable.