Food waste is a major issue from various perspectives. During the process from harvest to the end consumer, almost one-third of food produced is wasted. It is not just the wasted food during the process that is concerning, there are issues in sustainability related to food waste that need to be considered. Moreover, there has been little attention to the issue of food waste in the downstream part of the supply chain and how specific behaviours affect the issue of wasting food.This thesis explores the food waste of fresh fruits and vegetables from a consumer´s perspective. To specify, the purpose of the study is to investigate the drivers of the disposal pattern of fresh fruit and vegetables, with an emphasis on the behaviour of "Generation Y" (born 1980 – 1995). Therefore, a revised model of the Theory of Planned Behaviour is applied. Also, to understand the behaviour of "Generation Y" regarding disposal, it is expected to identify impacts on the supply chain.A deductive approach is applied to this thesis. The qualitative study was conducted with open-ended survey questions to supplement the results with the answers of the respondents. The empirical data is collected from consumers within the “Generation Y” who usually purchase their fresh fruits and vegetables for their respective households. The data was analysed using the coding analysis which involves summarization and categorization of data.The results of the research reveal that external attitudinal factors such as price and marketing perception, storage habits, and quality consciousness and internal attitudinal factors such as sustainable environmental awareness, health consciousness, and subjective norms influence the respondents’ disposal behaviour. Moreover, the sustainable attitude of “Generation Y’’ leads to most of the consumers’ waste reduction, and highly influences the supply chain.

The Amazon has experienced rapid forest loss in the past decades due to the growing colonization, infrastructure development and commercial agriculture expansion. Understanding the underlying social, political and economic drivers of deforestation is key to curb deforestation of the Amazon basin. However, analysis of deforestation has primarily been conducted in Brazil and there is a need to study this phenomenon in other countries such as Colombia. This research intends to contribute to this growing body of knowledge to better understand drivers and processes of deforestation in the Northwestern Colombian Amazon by unpacking the causal mechanism underpinning deforestation. To achieve this, I a used Theory-building Process-tracing approach to conceptualize the underlying logics of deforestation in the region. Data collection included qualitative text analysis of policy documents, articles, reports, and grey literature, and virtual semi-structured interviews with key national, regional and local actors. Interviews’ format was adapted due to current travelling and social restrictions. Findings indicate that the power vacuum resulting from FARC guerrilla demobilization acted as a window of opportunity for peasants, squatters, narco-traffickers, cattle ranchers, landlords and other investors to access public lands and capitalize from converting forests to coca crops and pastures for cattle ranching. Capital accumulation has increased actors’ ability to reshape the landscape and societal organization by accumulating different forms and sources of power. Traditional elites, and old and emerging narco-bourgeoisie have capitalized on preexisting power asymmetries by disproportionally accumulating different social power seeking to consolidate territorial hegemony. Powerful actors exercise attained sources and forms of power to dispose historically marginalized groups – such as indigenous communities, peasants, and squatters – from their means of subsistence and production, resulting in the instauration of a capitalist economy based on land rent and drug trafficking. All this has deepened forest loss, inequalities and conflict over land access between actors.

An increasing wave of critique against conventional forestry favouring even-aged monoculture plantations and intense ground preparation in Sweden is arising, where some researchers are warning about the negative consequences of the long history of intense forestry and increasing extraction due to the growing demand for bioenergy has caused devastating consequences on ecosystems in forests such as loss of biodiversity. Additionally, reports are revealing that Sweden will not meet its own national environmental goals. Meantime, a growing interest in Continuous Cover Forestry (CCF) has increased due to prioritising biodiversity and conserving ecological and social values in the forests. Therefore, this study aims to explore pathways towards more diverse and varied forest management by examining the attitudes, existing support and required incentives for stakeholders in the Swedish forest sector towards an increase of CCF. This study follows an interpretive approach, where qualitative semi-structured interviews are conducted with different actors within the Swedish forest sector along with a literature review. The empirical data is analysed through a coding procedure and analysed with the multi-level perspective approach. The main findings of this study suggest that the existing attitude and support contribute as well as prevent an increase of CCF to some extent, however, the required incentives are crucial for forest actors’ ability to increase CCF. To conclude, the incentives are discussed to affect the ability to increase CCF, and if implemented, the incentives will in turn influence the attitudes of willingness to increase CCF and the existing support to develop in relation to CCF.

Naturvårdsbränning är en åtgärd som avser att återskapa effekterna avnaturliga skogsbränder genom att påverka det ekologiska systemet. Trotsfördelarna föreligger risker, såsom oönskad eskalering och spridning av eld,rök och glöd, vilket kan negativt påverka mark, människor och samhällen.Studiens syfte var att undersöka hur ansvariga inom Länsstyrelsen hanterarrisker genom identifiering av kritiska incidenter utifrån Critical IncidentTechnique (CIT) baserad på intervjuer, samt att bidra till att öka den allmännakunskapen kring åtgärden.Resultatet visade att naturvårdsbränningsansvariga tar stor hänsyn till riskeroch arbetar kontinuerligt för att minimera dem. Dock identifierades treförbättringsområden inom riskhanteringsarbetet: säkerhet under bränningar,kommunikation under bränningar och kommunikation med samhället.Förbättringar inom dessa områden kan minimera risker under bränningar,minska oron i samhället och antalet falsklarm samt öka tryggheten igenomförandet för allmänheten och naturvårdsbränningspersonal vidnaturvårdsbränningar. / Hållbart sambruk av räddningsaktörer i svensk landsbygd

Rapporten gick igenom Sveriges miljö- och klimatmål berörande skogensbiologiska mångfald samt klimatnytta och undersökte hur väl de fungeradeihop, tillsammans med detta gjordes intervjuer med individer i skogssektornsamt en kunskapsöversikt av tidigare forskning. Resultaten analyserades medforskningen och visade att målens behövda åtgärder till stor del gick emotvarandra. Det ansågs därför att ny målsättning och planering för hur dessabehövde genomföras för att säkerställa att dem hålls.

Greenhouse food production has intensive fertilizer practices, and it leads to contamination in the soil and food chains. This study investigated the potentially toxic elements (As, Pb, Zn, Cd, Cr, Cu, and Ni) (PTE) in agriculture soil and their bioaccumulation by dragon fruit and banana. Different fertility tests are conducted to see if there is a correlation between PTEs and fertilizers. CHNS/O analyzer was used to determine organic carbon and nitrogen concentration in the soil. Besides, organic and inorganic phosphorus amounts were analyzed to detect the amount of fertilizer input. Elemental analysis was conducted with ICP-MS. The amount of N, P, and K and PTEs compared and discussed to source the PTEs. Excessive fertilizer practices were acquired, and possible reasons and results were discussed. Besides, the investigations have revealed that concentrations of potentially toxic elements in greenhouse and open-field farms in Gazipaşa/Turkey are below the environmental standards in the soil and fruit samples. Organic farming practices are more dominant than inorganic farming practices in the sampling stations. / Seralarda yapılan gıda üretimi yoğun gübre uygulamalarına sahip olup hem toprakta hem de besin zincirlerinde kontaminasyona yol açmaktadır. Bu çalışma, tarım toprağındaki potansiyel olarak toksik elementleri (As, Pb, Zn, Cd, Cr, Cu ve Ni) (PTE) ve bunların ejder meyvesinde ve muzda olan biyolojik birikimlerini araştırmıştır. PTE'ler ve gübreler arasında bir korelasyon olup olmadığını görmek için farklı verimlilik testleri yapılmıştır. Topraktaki organik karbon ve azot konsantrasyonunu belirlemek için CHNS/O analiz cihazı kullanılmıştır. Ayrıca gübre girdi miktarının tespiti için organik ve inorganik fosfor miktarları analiz edilmiştir. Özellikle PTE tespiti için ICP-MS ile element analizi yapılmıştır. N, P ve K ve PTE'lerin miktarı, PTE'lerin kaynağını tespit edebilmek için karşılaştırıldı ve tartışıldı. Aşırı gübre kullanımı tespit edildi. Bu durumun olası nedenleri ve sonuçları tartışıldı. Ayrıca yapılan araştırmalar, Gazipaşa’daki sera ve açık tarla çiftliklerinde potansiyel toksik element konsantrasyonlarının toprak ve meyve örneklerinde çevre standartlarının altında olduğunu ortaya koymuştur. Örnekleme istasyonlarında organik tarım uygulamalarının inorganik tarım uygulamalarına göre daha baskın olduğu da tespit edilmiştir.

Management of rare and threatened species requires an understanding of processes limiting population establishment and growth. The Large blue butterfly Phengaris arion needs two other organisms, the Thyme plant Thymus serpyllum and the ant genus Myrmica, for the completion of its life cycle. The large blue butterfly is very rare in Sweden and also declining in Europe, and both the large blue and Myrmica are red-listed and in need of protection. Studies conducted in Great Britain have suggested that a lack of suitable habitat with the presence of the host plant thyme and Myrmica limits the distribution of the large blue. A good environment for the butterfly is thus a habitat where all three organisms can exist. To examine whether vegetation structure and abundance of Thymus serpyllum and Myrmica ants are good predictors of the presence of the large blue in Sweden, I investigated sites where the butterfly has been observed or reportedly gone extinct in the last five years. I studied one site in the region of Stockholm, five sites in the Uppsala region, and 10 sites on the island of Gotland. At each site, I recorded an abundance of thyme and its flowering status, the presence of shrubs, trees, and open vegetation, and any observations of the large blue.  Areas with the large blue tended to have a higher abundance of thyme plants and a higher percentage of thyme flowers in bloom during my visit than areas without the large blue. The difference in abundance of shrubs and trees between sites with and without the butterfly was small. Areas with the large blue also tended to have shrubs and trees compared to areas without the large blue. Because the study species are rare and endangered, the number of sites with current and past occurrence is limited, which complicates the statistical analysis of factors influencing its distribution. However, the results indicate the importance of a high abundance of the host plant for the occurrence of the large blue, but also that the host plant is much more common than the butterfly. Ants of the genus Myrmica were observed at only two of eight sites with observations of the large blue.  This suggests that the method used to detect Myrmica ants was not efficient, or that the large blue is not critically dependent on Myrmica ants in Sweden. To conclude, the remaining populations of the large blue should be monitored and measures to improve habitat quality should be considered at sites where it has gone extinct. We can try to reintroduce species in areas where the species has previously existed with strong populations of the thyme and the ant. Create a similar reintroduction as the success story of the large blue butterfly in Great Britain.

Mänskliga aktiviteter som till exempel urbanisering, har bidragit till förlusten av biologisk mångfald. En metod som man har föreslagit är att introducera gröna områden och plantera träd i stadsområden. Hypoteserna som testades i den här studien är att det finns en signifikant skillnad i trädartrikedom och trädartsdiversitet mellan tätorter och omgivande naturskogar i centrala Sverige; och att artrikedomen och diversiteten varierar mellan olika habitat i tätorterna. Studien utfördes inom fyra kommuner i Dalsland: Bengtsfors, Åmål, Dals-Ed och Mellerud. Man inventerade träd i fem olika habitater per kommun inom ett tätortsområde, samt ett naturskogsområde som ligger nära orten. Antalet trädarter och individuella träd beräknades och diversiteten inom varje kommun beräknades med hjälp av Shannon-Weavers diversitetsindex för det senare fallet. En signifikant skillnad i trädartrikedom och trädartsdiversitet uppmättes mellan ett tätortsområde och ett naturskogsområde (medianvärde på 10 respektive 3,5). Trädartrikedomen var högst i Bengtsfors med 13 olika trädarter och trädartdiversiteten var högst i Dals-Eds kommun (H’ = 1,22). En signifikant skillnad i trädartrikedom hittades, men inte i trädartsdiversitet. I tätorterna hade vattendrag det högsta medelvärdet i trädartrikedom tillsammans med förskolor med 4 trädarter. Den tidigare har också det högsta medelvärdet i trädartsdiversitet (H’ = 1,07). Resultaten stämde överens med den första hypotesen, men inte med den andra hypotesen. Sammanfattningsvis, är det välgörande att bibehålla och återställa gröna områden och träd i tätorter, och att det krävs mer forskning, för att föreslå strategier om att skydda biologisk mångfald och städerna från klimatförändringar och andra faror. / Anthropogenic activities, e.g. urbanization, have contributed to the loss to biological diversity. One method that has been proposed to combat urban biodiversity loss is to introduce green areas and to plant trees in urban areas. The hypotheses that were tested in this study are that; there is a significant difference in tree species richness and diversity between urban areas and surrounding natural forests in central Sweden; also, that the species richness and diversity varies between different habitats in urban areas. The study was performed in four municipalities in Dalsland: Bengtsfors, Åmål, Dals-Ed and Mellerud. Trees were inventoried in five different habitats per municipality within a suburban area, and in a natural forest area located near the locality. The number of tree species, individual trees, as well as the tree species diversity within each municipality were accounted for, with the use of Shannon-Weaver’s diversity index for the latter. A significant difference in tree species richness and diversity were found between suburban areas and surrounding natural forest areas (median of 10 and 3,5 respectively). The species richness was the highest in Bengtsfors’ municipality with 13 tree species, and the species diversity was the highest in Dals-Ed’s municipality (H’ = 1,22). A significant difference in tree species richness was found, but not in tree species diversity. In the suburban areas, sites near to water bodies had the highest average tree species richness, alongside kindergartens with 4 tree species. The former also has the highest average tree species diversity (H’ = 1,07). The results matched with the first hypothesis but did not match with second hypothesis. In conclusion, it is beneficial to maintain or restore green areas and trees in urban areas, and it requires more research, to propose strategies to protect biodiversity and cities from climate change and other dangers.

As a response to the growing global sustainability challenges related to industrial agriculture, alternative approaches of food production and distribution are emerging. One approach that fosters direct consumer-producer relationships and sustainable local food production is known as Community Supported Agriculture (CSA). This study explored how the CSA movement can be supported strategically towards a flourishing movement in Europe. A qualitative research approach was chosen with a comparative element of the two countries with contrastive characteristics in terms of the degree of successfulness of the movement; with France being successful and Sweden having less success in terms of the number of CSAs. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 21 CSA farmers, network members and researchers. The results revealed barriers and enablers for a flourishing movement under five overarching themes: (1) Definition, structure and operation (2) The direction of the movement (3) Social aspects (4) Knowledge and communication, and (5) Country-/region-specific aspects. Crucial factors and contrastive features between countries were identified and discussed in relation to how they hinder or enable a flourishing movement. Based on the findings, strategic guidelines were developed with the aim of contributing to CSA practitioners and leaders in Europe.

Arvika Fjärrvärme AB is manufacturing and distributing district heating to around 300 customers in Arvika. Heat production consists of a BFB boiler fed with GROT fuel (branches and peaks) and delivers a maximum power of 30 MW. In order to operate the plant, an average of 60 m3 of water per day is consumed from the urban water network. The water consumption is divided between water treatment, sooting and process cooling. In the processes, sulfur is dosed to obtain a more complete combustion of the hazardous flue gases that can occur. This is a result of previous thesis made for Arvika fjärrvärme. GROT is a fuel that contains high levels of moisture, which means that a high amount of condensate is formed during combustion, averaging 100 m3 per day. At present, condensate is sufficient to meet the condensate limit values ​​to be flushed into the drain. This is achieved by sand filtration and pH neutralization. Today, Arvika heat production is equipped with a purification stage for the feed water consisting of a softening filter and membrane filtration. This creates good conditions for cleaning the condensate and recirculating it in the process. Questions for this study are which hazardous substances the condensate can contain and how the condensate composition affected due to sulfur dosage. In addition, Arvika fjärrvärme wants to find out whether the purified condensate can replace the use of the urban water and, finally, if the condensate can be purified and used as feed water in the process. The execution of the work was based on a full-scale attempt in two operating cases of 9 and 18 MW. The tank collecting all condensate after purification in the sand filter and pH neutralization was coupled to the feed water purification stage. Thus, the condensate was pumped and purified in the softening filter and membrane filter. Assay substrates were collected before and after purification of the condensate. In addition to the topics that Arvika investigates, high levels of alkalinity were found in the condensate. The sulfur dosage that Arvika technology works with can be the cause of the high concentrations of sulphate. However, it appears that both the sulfate and alkalinity were purified in the membrane filter. The amount of condensate formed cannot completely replace the entire water requirement, but definitely large parts. The condensate can be used as feed water based on the retention rate for all substances. However, it appears that two substances, chloride and sulphate can create problems for the membrane filter. To investigate this, the condensate should be tested over a longer period of time to see the affect the chloride as well as the sulphate in the long run. / Arvika Fjärrvärme AB bedriver produktion och distribution av fjärrvärme till ca 300 kunder runt om i Arvika. Värmeproduktionen består av en BFB-panna som matas med bränslet GROT (grenar och toppar) och levererar en maxeffekt på 30 MW. För att driva anläggningen förbrukas i snitt 60 m3 vatten per dag från stadsvattennätet för spädvattenförberedning, sotning och processkylning. I denna typ av värmeproduktion som Arvika Fjärrvärme bedriver doseras svavel. Detta är ett resultat av ett tidigare examensarbete som visade att vid en dosering av svavel bildas det färre farliga rökgaser som kan uppstå vid förbränningen. GROT är ett bränsle som innehåller höga halter fukt vilket innebär att höga mängder kondensat bildas vid förbränningen, i snitt 100 m3 per dag. I dagsläget renas kondensatet tillräckligt för att möta de gränsvärden för att kondensatet ska få spolas ner i avloppet. Detta uppnås genom en sandfiltrering och pH-neutralisering. Idag är Arvika Fjärrvärme utrustade med ett reningssteg för spädvattnet bestående av ett avhärdningsfilter samt membranfilter. Detta skapar goda förutsättningar för att rena kondensatet och återcirkulera det i processen. Funderingar som uppstår är vilka farliga ämnen som kondensatet kan innehålla samt hur kondensatsammansättningen påverkas av svaveldoseringen. Dessutom ställer sig värmeverket frågan om det renade kondensatet kan ersätta förbrukningen av stadsvattnet och slutligen om kondensatet kan renas och användas som spädvatten i processen. Genomförandet av arbetet baserades på ett fullskaligt försök under två driftfall på 9 samt 18 MW. Tanken som samlar upp allt kondensat efter rening i sandfiltret och pH neutraliseringen kopplades på i steget för spädvattenrening. På så sätt pumpades kondensatet igenom och renades i avhärdningsfiltret samt membranfiltret. Analysunderlag samlades in före samt efter rening av kondensatet. Förutom de ämnen som Arvika fjärrvärme undersöker förkommer höga halter alkalinitet i kondensatet som bidrar till bildning av pannsten. Svaveldoseringen som Arvika fjärrvärme jobbar med kan vara orsaken till de höga koncentrationerna av sulfat. Det visar sig dock att både sulfatet och alkaliniteten renas bort i membranfiltret. Mängden kondensat som bildas kan inte helt ersätta hela vattenbehovet men definitivt stora delar. Kondensatet kan användas som spädvatten om retentionsgraden för ämnena anses hög nog. Det visar sig dock att två ämnen, klorid och sulfat, kan skapa problem för membranfiltret. För att undersöka detta bör kondensatet testas under en längre tidsperiod för att se vilken påverkan klorid och sulfat har i längden.