O fenômeno de aquecimento do planeta, conhecido como \"Efeito Estufa\", é um dos fenômenos de degradação ambiental mais alarmante. Países que mais emitem os gases de efeito estufa (GEEs) têm, portanto, sofrido forte pressão internacional para que reduzam tais emissões. No caso do Brasil, grande atenção é voltada à questão do desmatamento, um dos maiores responsáveis pelas emissões de dióxido de carbono. Com isso, o país se comprometeu a reduzir suas emissões entre 36,1% e 38,9% em relação às emissões projetadas para 2020. Para conseguir isso, foi promulgada a Lei nº 12.187, que regula que uma das medidas a serem tomadas é a redução de 80% do desmatamento na Amazônia Legal e de 40% do desmatamento no Cerrado. Assim como o aquecimento global, a produção de alimentos também é um dos maiores desafios do mundo moderno. Mais uma vez, Brasil tem um papel fundamental nesta questão, organizações como a OCDE e a FAO afirmam que o Brasil é o país com maior potencial de aumentar a produção agrícola. Ademais, a importância da produção de alimentos para o Brasil é reforçada pelo fato de que o agronegócio é um setor fundamental da economia brasileira tanto em termos de geração de renda quanto para promoção de divisas. Uma questão importante é como a agropecuária brasileira será impactada diante da redução no desmatamento da Amazônia e do Cerrado. Uma hipótese é que frear o desmatamento resultaria em redução significante na produção agropecuária, maiores preços dos produtos agropecuários e alimentos, e menor geração de renda. O presente trabalho objetiva responder essa questão por analisar os impactos econômicos de uma política restritiva de desmatamento sobre o setor agropecuário e a economia nacional, uma vez que essa discussão é recente e ainda carece de estudos mais abrangentes. Para esse propósito é utilizado o modelo de equilíbrio geral computável EPPA, capaz de considerar as relações entre os diferentes setores da economia e uma ampla gama de distorções de políticas. Os resultados deste estudo apontam que uma política restritiva de desmatamento gera perdas pequenas em termos de PIB, de aproximadamente 0,15% no cenário de política em relação ao cenário de referência. Os impactos sofridos pela produção são modestos, de queda de até 1,9% no setor agrícola, -1,8% na pecuária e -1,5% no setor de alimentos. As exportações do agronegócio, no entanto, reduzem em mais de 3,9%. Um resultado positivo importante é que em torno de 68 milhões de hectares de florestas e cerrados deixam de ser transformados em área agrícola, até 2050. Esses resultados sugerem custos econômicos pouco expressivos diante dos potenciais benefícios de preservação ambiental, e devem-se em grande parte à capacidade de aumento em produtividade das pastagens brasileiras e conversão de áreas de vegetação secundária e subaproveitadas em cultivos agrícolas. / The global warming phenomenon known as the \"Greenhouse Effect\" is one of the most alarming phenomena of environmental degradation. Countries that have been larger emitters of greenhouse gases (GHGs) have therefore received strong international pressure to reduce such emissions. In Brazil, much of the attention is focused on the issue of deforestation, a leading cause of carbon dioxide. As a result, the country has committed to reducing its emissions between 36.1% and 38.9% compared to projected emissions by 2020. In order to accomplish this, Law nº 12.187 was enacted, which regulates that deforestation in the Amazon be reduced by 80% and in the Cerrado (savannah) by 40% by the year 2020. Just as global warming is one of the largest challenges facing the modern world, so is food production. Once again, Brazil has a critical role in this issue, organizations as the OECD and FAO recognize that Brazil is the country with the greatest potential to increase agricultural production. Moreover, the importance of food production to Brazil is enhanced by the fact that agribusiness is a key sector of the Brazilian economy in terms of its contribution to both income generation and for promotion of foreign exchange. The key question is how will Brazil\'s agricultural and livestock sectors be impacted by a reduction in deforestation in the Amazon and Cerrado. One hypothesis is that halting deforestation would imply significantly lower agricultural production, higher prices of agricultural products and food and lower income generation. This study serves to answer this question by analyzing the economic impacts of a restrictive policy of deforestation on the agricultural and livestock sectors and the national economy, a growing topic and concern that has yet to be studied in significant detail. For this purpose, the computable general equilibrium model EPPA is utilized, able to consider the relationships between different economic sectors and a wide range of policy distortions. The results of this study reveal that a restrictive policy of deforestation causes only small losses to GDP, of approximately 0.15% in the policy scenario compared to the baseline scenario. The impacts suffered by the production are modest: -1.9% in agriculture, -1.8% in livestock and -1.5% in the food sector. Agribusiness exports, however, decrease by a higher 3.9%. An important positive result is that around 68 million hectares of forests and savannahs cease to be transformed into agricultural land by 2050. These results suggest little economic costs against the potential benefits of environmental preservation, and are due in large part to the ability to increase pasture productivity in Brazil and conversion of areas of secondary vegetation and underutilized in areas of crops.

The diploma thesis evaluates the current status of former common pastures of a study area in southwestern Bohemia. The thesis aims to demonstrate the high biological value of former common pastures and determine predictors of their preservation. For this purpose, a vector layer of former common pastures containing 668 segments was created. This layer was compared with other map layers (aerial images, consolidated layer of ecosystems, Natura 2000 mapping, species database) and various field observations. A database describing a current status of former common pastures was created and 49 preserved pastures were selected, according to predetermined criteria. Comparison of data from the common pastures and the sorrounding landscape confirmed higher biological value of the pastures. They have significantly higher habitat diversity, described by frequency and composition of Natura 2000 habitats. Several ecological and descriptive parameters were tested to find predictors of pastures preservation. The results showed that signifiant predictors of the pastures preservation are ecological parameters (i.e. number of Natura 2000 habitats, number of protected species recorded in database) and also descriptive factors (i.e. size of the pastures, shape, distance from municipality). Key words: common pastures,...

The peripheral region of South Sinai in Egypt is experiencing large-scale tourism development on the Gulf of Aqaba coast. Its Bedouin community is facing great challenges in its struggle for livelihood and transformation from a pastoral and fishing community to an urbanized one. This case study employs a political ecology approach to examine development on the coast in relation to its Bedouin community. The study revealed that the contextual sources of rapid development beginning in 1986 included urban, economic, and national defense policies; increased integration within international tourism markets; and support from international aid agencies. The study concluded that the tourism development boom contributes to Bedouin marginalization. Bedouin livelihood no longer depends on fishing and grazing as means of subsistence as expansion of tourism resorts along the coast has displaced other land-uses and denied Bedouin fishermen access to the sea. Tourism resorts and tourism operations controlled by multinational corporations leave little economic benefits to local Bedouins who engage in marginal tourism-related activities. Migrant entrepreneurs from other parts of Egypt compete with Bedouins over work opportunities. Regional and local plans point to increased tourism development and in-migration. This will result in further marginalization of Bedouins if development planning does not consider Bedouin interests. This research comes at a critical time to address some of the issues related to Bedouin marginalization and to recommend alternative development approaches and Bedouin community-based projects. It sets the stage for further research on regional development of South Sinai; the role of national parks in sustaining Bedouins; and future role of civil society. / Master of Urban and Regional Planning

As land use transformations are the main driver of biological diversity loss at the global scale, it is essential to provide predictions and understanding of their impacts in order to improve the mitigation of ecosystem perturbations. The first objective of this project was to describe the response of biological assemblages along a gradient of urbanization and to compare metrics of watershed imperviousness in order to determine, as has been suggested in the literature, whether effective imperviousness, which represents the proportion of impervious area directly connected to the stream by storm sewers, is a better predictor of stream impairement than total imperviousness in the watershed. Decline in sensitive taxa abundance is initiated at 14% total imperviousness and 3% effective imperviousness in the Ottawa-Carleton region and, total and effective imperviousness have equivalent predictive power. The second objective of this project was to describe how the structure of metazoan assemblages in urban streams, as described by size spectra attributes (i.e. slopes, intercepts, number of logarithmic size classes occupied, and residual variance), varies with watershed size, land use and water quality. Streams size spectra of the Ottawa-Gatineau region have relatively shallow slopes, reflecting relatively higher densities of organisms in the larger size classes compared to other ecosystem types (e.g. lakes, oceans, soils, coastal waters). Size spectra slopes, density corrected for size, number of size classes, and residual variance vary predictably along gradients of watershed size, watershed proportion of natural land use and periphyton chlorophyll a. A systematic trend of declining spectra slopes with increasing periphyton biomass suggests that ecological efficiency declines in urban eutrophic streams.

As land use transformations are the main driver of biological diversity loss at the global scale, it is essential to provide predictions and understanding of their impacts in order to improve the mitigation of ecosystem perturbations. The first objective of this project was to describe the response of biological assemblages along a gradient of urbanization and to compare metrics of watershed imperviousness in order to determine, as has been suggested in the literature, whether effective imperviousness, which represents the proportion of impervious area directly connected to the stream by storm sewers, is a better predictor of stream impairement than total imperviousness in the watershed. Decline in sensitive taxa abundance is initiated at 14% total imperviousness and 3% effective imperviousness in the Ottawa-Carleton region and, total and effective imperviousness have equivalent predictive power. The second objective of this project was to describe how the structure of metazoan assemblages in urban streams, as described by size spectra attributes (i.e. slopes, intercepts, number of logarithmic size classes occupied, and residual variance), varies with watershed size, land use and water quality. Streams size spectra of the Ottawa-Gatineau region have relatively shallow slopes, reflecting relatively higher densities of organisms in the larger size classes compared to other ecosystem types (e.g. lakes, oceans, soils, coastal waters). Size spectra slopes, density corrected for size, number of size classes, and residual variance vary predictably along gradients of watershed size, watershed proportion of natural land use and periphyton chlorophyll a. A systematic trend of declining spectra slopes with increasing periphyton biomass suggests that ecological efficiency declines in urban eutrophic streams.

This thesis deals with the effects of changing land use, following landscape abandonment, on butterfly communities in the Mediterranean Basin. It consists of three case studies. The first focuses on the effects of forest encroachment on butterflies in the Southern Balkans; the second studies butterfly communities in Portuguese 'montados' and the third explores demography and life histories of three co-occurring Papilionidae butterfly species (Archon apollinus, Zerynthia polyxena and Zerynthia cerisy) in Greek Thrace. The results describe shifts in butterfly communities, detectable even at the level of individual species life history traits, with increasing forest encroachment. The preference of range-restricted Mediterranean endemics for either grasslands or open woodland formations contributes to falsifying the forested Mediterranean hypothesis, favouring a hypothesis of finely grained landscape mosaic instead. This mosaic is currently threatened by land use change and biodiversity homogenisation. Maintaining habitat and landscape heterogeneity is crucial for conserving the Mediterranean biodiversity hot-spot.

Cette thèse traite du Brazilian Proposal, c'est-à-dire de la détermination des contributions nationales au changement climatique d'origine humaine. Pour répondre à cette question, nous avons développé un modèle compact du système Terre, OSCAR v2.1. Ce modèle intègre une représentation du cycle du carbone (CO2, CH4), de la chimie atmosphérique des gaz à effet de serre (CH4, N2O, O3, composés halogénés), mais également des aérosols et de la dynamique climatique. Il est forcé en émissions anthropiques de composés actifs et en changements d'usage des sols. Après avoir constaté la bonne capacité du modèle à reproduire les observations passées des principales grandeurs climatiques, et après avoir énoncé les grands principes régissant les exercices d'attribution, nous attribuons les causes anthropiques du changement climatique. Nous trouvons que la rétroaction climatique, sur le cycle du carbone et sur la chimie atmosphérique, a un effet prépondérant qui exacerbe l'importance relative de chaque forçage anthropique. Par ordre décroissant, émissions de dioxyde de carbone fossile, de dioxyde de soufre, de méthane, et usages des sols, sont trouvés comme étant les plus importants contributeurs au changement climatique en 2008. A travers ces forçages, les pays dits en développements sont dorénavant de plus grands contributeurs au changement climatique que les pays dits développés. C'est cependant toujours l'inverse si l'on résonne en contribution par tête ; mais nous montrons qu'un tel raisonnement rend incompatibles une trajectoire de réchauffement inférieur à deux degrés et équitable. / This PhD thesis deals with the Brazilian Proposal, that is the assessment of national contributions to anthropogenic climate change. To answer the Proposal, we have developed a compact Earth system model, named OSCAR v2.1. The carbon cycle (CO2, CH4), the atmospheric chemistry of greenhouse gases (CH4, N2O, O3, halogenated compounds), as well as aerosols and climate dynamics are included in this model. It is driven by anthropogenic emissions of active compounds, and by land-use changes. After acknowledging the ability of the model to reproduce past observations of the main climatic variables, and after exposing the fundamental principles of attribution exercises, we attribute climate change to its anthropogenic causes. We find that the climate feedback -- over both the carbon cycle and the atmospheric chemistry -- has a prominent effect that exacerbates the relative importance of each anthropogenic forcing. In decreasing order, emissions of fossil carbon dioxide, of sulfur dioxide, of methane, and land-use changes, are found to be the most important contributors to climate change in 2008. Through these forcings, the so-called developing countries are now contributing more to climate change than the so-called developed countries. It is however still the contrary on a per capita basis; but we show that such an accounting approach makes it impossible to reach equity within a less-than-two-degree warming trajectory.

As land use transformations are the main driver of biological diversity loss at the global scale, it is essential to provide predictions and understanding of their impacts in order to improve the mitigation of ecosystem perturbations. The first objective of this project was to describe the response of biological assemblages along a gradient of urbanization and to compare metrics of watershed imperviousness in order to determine, as has been suggested in the literature, whether effective imperviousness, which represents the proportion of impervious area directly connected to the stream by storm sewers, is a better predictor of stream impairement than total imperviousness in the watershed. Decline in sensitive taxa abundance is initiated at 14% total imperviousness and 3% effective imperviousness in the Ottawa-Carleton region and, total and effective imperviousness have equivalent predictive power. The second objective of this project was to describe how the structure of metazoan assemblages in urban streams, as described by size spectra attributes (i.e. slopes, intercepts, number of logarithmic size classes occupied, and residual variance), varies with watershed size, land use and water quality. Streams size spectra of the Ottawa-Gatineau region have relatively shallow slopes, reflecting relatively higher densities of organisms in the larger size classes compared to other ecosystem types (e.g. lakes, oceans, soils, coastal waters). Size spectra slopes, density corrected for size, number of size classes, and residual variance vary predictably along gradients of watershed size, watershed proportion of natural land use and periphyton chlorophyll a. A systematic trend of declining spectra slopes with increasing periphyton biomass suggests that ecological efficiency declines in urban eutrophic streams.

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