Forests provide immense goods and services to both local and regional communities. The USDA Forest Service’s, State and Private Forestry program administer multiple landowner assistance programs aimed at helping private forest owners while supporting the continued supply of ecosystem services (e.g., timber harvesting, recreation, carbon sequestration and storage). The two landowner assistance programs assessed in this study are the Forest Legacy Program (FLP) and the Forest Stewardship Program (FSP). A majority of the nation’s forests are privately owned, many of which are facing deleterious impacts like wildfires, invasive species, development pressures, and other adverse effects from climate change. The goal of this project is to (1) quantify the economic contributions emanating from lands participating in FLP and FSP in the conterminous US and (2) quantify and value the carbon sequestration on lands participating in FLP and FSP in New England. IMPLAN is an input-output modeling system, used in Chapter 1, that estimates how money flows through a regional economy. The results from the IMPLAN analysis suggest that FLP lands in the conterminous US contribute an estimated 4,560 jobs and $306.8 million in value-added from timber harvesting and recreation. Further, FSP lands contribute an estimated 27,700 jobs and $1.8 billion in value added from timber harvesting and recreation. Using Forest Inventory and Analysis carbon sequestration data and the social cost of carbon, the results of chapter 2 suggest that, in New England, FLP lands sequester 147,000 metric tons of CO2, or $7.5 million in aboveground CO2, per year. FSP lands in New England are estimated to sequester 82,000 metric tons of CO2, or $4.1 million in CO2, per year. Quantifying and estimating the economic and ecosystem service contributions emanating from lands participating in FLP and FSP provide a framework for understanding the total benefits associated with these programs (e.g., supporting rural economies, impacting climate change and the global carbon network, etc.).

High-value, lootable natural resources drive, finance and sustain armed conflicts around the world. At the same time, these resources are crucial for livelihoods through artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) in the very same contexts. Yet, little is known regarding how these resources should be managed in the wake of conflict to contribute to peacebuilding and prevent conflict recurrence. Drawing on the environmental peacebuilding and informal economies literature, this study argues that ASM formalization improves the quality and sustainability of livelihoods by empowering ASM communities. Using the method of structured focused comparison, the hypothesis is tested on two mining municipalities in Antioquia, Colombia. Data was gathered through interviews and secondary sources. The main finding is that while ASM formalization under certain conditions can contributeto sustainable livelihoods, this is only partly through community empowerment. Furthermore, the practice remains inaccessible to most artisanal and small-scale miners and can make them dependent on the goodwill of large-scale multinational mining companies. Thereby it ends up marginalizing many of the people it is meant to benefit.

In most developing countries, forest resources are a major source of livelihood for forest dwellers. Forests provide fuel wood, farm products, meat, timber and plants of high medicinal value, including Prunus africana. The collection of medicinal plants is also an important source of cash income for some forest communities, and widely relied on to cure illnesses (Poffenberger, 1993). Because of this, the poor forest dwellers in particular are forced to exert pressure on their surrounding environment to make ends meet. Indiscriminate exploitation of forest resources has cost some forest dwellers dearly as they are now experiencing marked reduction of wildlife, forest cover, soil fertility and most importantly water supply, which is a key to life. Prunus africana has a very high economic and medicinal value locally as well as internationally. The exploitation of this species is a very profitable activity in most parts of Africa where it occurs, including the Mount Cameroon region. In recent years, most youths and young men in the Mount Cameroon region have seemingly become less interested in their usual income generating activities (farming, hunting, etc.) because of reduced productivity and have taken up Prunus harvesting as their major source of income. Increase in demand for this species by the French pharmaceutical company (Plantecam), weak institutional capacity to control exploitation, uncontrolled access into the forest, scramble for diminished stock by legal and illegal exploiters, destruction of wild stock by unsustainable practices, and insufficient regeneration of the species in the past have almost driven this species to extinction in certain parts of Cameroon and made it severely threatened in others. Prunus africana is presently threatened with extinction in the entire Mount Cameroon region. In response to this, the Mount Cameroon Project (MCP) and the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MINEF) helped some communities (Bokwoango and Mapanja) in the Mount Cameroon region to form Prunus africana harvesters’ unions with the aim of preserving the resource and improving the socio-economic benefits. The principal aim of the Bokwoango Prunus africana harvesters’ union is to ensure sustainable exploitation of Prunus africana while saving money for important development projects for individual members, their families and the entire community. This piece of work highlights the different facets of Prunus africana management in Cameroon in general and the Bokwoango community in particular. The study examines the socio-economic impact of Prunus africana management in the Bokwoango community and shows specifically the management role played by the Bokwoango Prunus africana harvesters’ union to reduce the rate of exploitation of Prunus africana and also to ensure benefit sharing of the earnings from sales of Prunus bark. It at the same time brings out the constraints encountered by harvesters as well as the opportunities that can make the union become more viable to the socio-economic development of the Bokwoango community. Results of this study show that for the short period that the Bokwoango Prunus africana harvesters’ union has existed, the socio-economic changes in this community are encouraging if one compares the present situation with that before the formation of the union. Most importantly, there has been increased awareness on the great need to conserve not only the threatened Prunus africana species but also other threatened plant and animal species in the region through sustainable hunting, harvesting and regeneration. Some proposals are made for efficient natural resource management and improvements on livelihood through alternative income generating activities. The study ends with recommendations for policy and institutional reforms as well as suggestions for further research in sustainable management of Prunus africana.

<p>Many cities around the world struggle with the presence of vacant and underutilized land in the urban environment. There is growing momentum across many municipal jurisdictions in North America to reuse public and privately held vacant and underutilized urban land on a temporary to potentially permanent basis for community-based projects; however, there are limited community-based tools available to assess the suitability of vacant land for potential reuse.</p> <p>This thesis presents three papers (Chapters 2-4) that describe the development and application of a prototype community-based decision support tool (PDSS), developed in Microsoft ExcelÒ. The PDSS provides a methodology for evaluating up to fifteen community-based reuse strategies across three green infrastructure categories: parks, urban food production, and stormwater/ecosystems management. The PDSS aids in deriving community-focused goals, objectives and solutions for the efficient reuse of vacant and underutilized land.</p> <p>The PDSS includes a vacant and underutilized land inventory for identifying and inventorying the physical and spatial attributes (i.e. location and condition) of vacant and underutilized land across the urban environment (VULI); a methodology for quantifying the suitability of vacant land for a suite of reuse strategies (SSI); a multi-objective, binary-integer programming formulation for the allocation of reuse strategies across the urban environment (LOCAL), and a tool for municipal green infrastructure investment decision-making (DECO).</p> <p>The information derived from VULI and SSI can be used by community groups to help articulate the inherent potential of these spaces for future reuse. If this methodology was adopted at the municipal level, the prototype tool has the potential to expedite applications to reuse city-owned lands on a temporary basis. LOCAL provides a methodology to facilitate the allocation of multiple reuse strategies to a single parcel, to achieve a mix of green infrastructure uses at each site, and provides users with the ability to readily generate “what-if” scenarios based on user-specified allocation constraints. DECO can be utilized to design and investigate material alternatives, maintenance schedules, and different cost regimes, which can be useful for construction and long-term preventative maintenance decision-making. Finally, the results of a tree growth-stormwater attenuation modeling exercise are presented (Chapter 5). The methodology and results presented aid in articulating the stormwater attenuating benefits of trees that are planted on a temporary basis on vacant land.</p> / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

The main argument of this dissertation is that the White Mountain Apache Tribe's appropriation of ecological restoration played a vital role in reinstituting control over knowledge production and eco-cultural resources on the Fort Apache Indian Reservation in the second half of the twentieth century. As a corollary, I argue that the shift in knowledge production practices from a paternalistic foundation to a community-based approach resulted in positive consequences for the ecological health of the Apachean landscape and Apache culture. The democratization of science and technology on the reservation, therefore, proved paramount to the reestablishment of a relatively sustainable Apache society. Beginning with the Indian New Deal, the White Mountain Apache slowly developed the capacity to employ ecological restoration as an eco-political tool to free themselves from a long history of Euro-American cultural oppression and natural resource exploitation. Tribal restoration projects embodied the dual political function of cultural resistance to and cultural exchange with Western-based land management organizations. Apache resistance challenged Euro-American notions of restoration, nature, and sustainability while maintaining cultural identity, reasserting cultural autonomy, and protecting tribal sovereignty. But at the same time, the Apache depended on cultural exchange with federal and state land management agencies to successfully manage their natural resources and build an ecologically knowledgeable tribal workforce. Initially adopting a utilitarian conservation model of land management, restoration projects aided the creation of a relatively strong tribal economy. In addition, early successes with trout, elk, and forest restoration projects eventually granted the Tribe political leverage when they sought to reassume control over reservation resources from the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Fish and Wildlife Service. Building on this foundation, Apache restoration work significantly diverged in character from the typical Euro-American restoration project by the 1990s. While striving toward self-sufficiency, the Tribe hybridized tribal cultural values with Western ecological values in their restoration efforts. These projects evolved the tripartite capacity to heal ecologically degraded reservation lands, to establish a degree of economic freedom from the federal government, and to restore cultural traditions. Having reversed their historical relationship of subjugation with government agencies, the Apache currently have almost full decision-making powers over tribal eco-cultural resources. / Ph. D.

Yes / This research aims to design a green Pharmaceutical Supply Chain (PSC ) that reduces preventable pharmaceutical waste and effectively disposes of inevitable pharmaceutical waste. The main output of this study is the formulation of an integrated green PSC model involving all critical stakeholders, leading to improved environmental, economic and safety performance in medication management and delivery. The research is based on literature and on secondary resources. To green the PSC, every producer of waste is duty bound to facilitate the safe handling and disposal of waste. A Cross boundary Green PSC (XGPSC) approach is proposed to identify participants’ contribution to the PSC. Peripheral influences are also recognised from professional and regulatory bodies. This study focuses solely on community PSC in the UK where patients receive medication from local community pharmacies and thus may be limited. The proposed XGPSC approach also needs to be tested and validated in practice. It may also be difficult to transfer some of the environmental practices proposed in this research into practice. The environmental practices and actions proposed provide invaluable insight into various PSC activities, including purchasing, product design, prescription patterns and processes, medication use review, and customer relationship management. The proposed environmental actions encourage firm commitment from everyone to reduce, recycle or effectively dispose of pharmaceutical waste, with patients becoming stewards of medication rather than only consumers. A cross boundary approach is developed to green the PSC, and it encourages total involvement and collaboration from all participants in PSC.

Die vorliegende Dissertation widmet sich methodischen und empirischen Forschungsfragen mit Bezug auf saisonale Arbeitsmärkte und Politiken zur nachhaltigen Nutzung natürlicher Ressourcen. Hierfür wird ein gesamtwirtschaftlicher Modellierungsansatz angewendet, für den das im südöstlichen Himalaya gelegene Königreich Bhutan als empirische Fallstudie dient. Das methodische Forschungsziel der Arbeit ist, die Relevanz der Darstellung von saisonalen Arbeitsmärkten innerhalb von allgemeinen Gleichgewichtsmodellen (sog. CGE Modelle) zu ergründen. Dies stellt eine Neuheit in der Literatur dar. Die Arbeit zeigt auf, dass Modelle ohne saisonale Arbeitsmärkte systematisch Ergebnisse, wie Angebotsreaktionen und Wohlstandseffekte, verzerren. Die Saisonalität von Arbeit hat eine hohe Relevanz für gesamtwirtschaftliche Analysen im Kontext landwirtschaftlich geprägter Volkswirtschaften, insbesondere für Untersuchungen des Strukturwandels und agrarpolitischer Interventionen. Empirisch wird die wechselseitige Abhängigkeit von Politiken zum nachhaltigen Management natürlicher Ressourcen mit Zielen des Umweltschutzes und der ländlichen Entwicklung untersucht. Basierend auf unterschiedlichen Modellierungsansätzen, konzentrieren sich drei Studien auf agrar- und forstpolitische Szenarien in Bhutan. Es wird gezeigt, dass Bhutans Ziel, seinen landwirtschaftlichen Sektor auf 100% ökologische Landwirtschaft umzustellen, zu substantiellen Wohlfahrtsverlusten und negativen Folgen für die Ernährungssicherung führen würde. Die Analyse verschiedener forstpolitischer Szenarien demonstriert, dass eine höhere Forstnutzung in Bhutan im Sinne der gesamtwirtschaftlichen und ländlichen Entwicklung nachhaltig möglich ist. Die Arbeit weist auf verschiedene zukünftige Forschungsfelder hin, wie zum Beispiel die Integration von Ökosystemdienstleistungen, was als eine der wesentlichen Einschränkungen bei der modellgestützten Analyse von Politiken zur Nutzung natürlicher Ressourcen identifiziert wurde. / Using an economy-wide modelling approach, this dissertation investigates methodological and empirical research questions related to seasonal labour markets and natural resource policies. The Kingdom of Bhutan, located in the south-eastern Himalayas, serves as a case study. The methodological research objective of this thesis is to gain an understanding of the relevance of seasonal labour markets in the context of economy-wide modelling. The depiction of seasonal labour markets at national scale using a seasonal social accounting matrix (SAM) and computable general equilibrium (CGE) model presents a novel development within the literature. It is demonstrated, that the absence of seasonal labour markets leads to systematic bias of model results. The consequences are distorted supply responses and biased welfare effects, underlining the pivotal implications of seasonality for economy-wide analysis in the context of agrarian economies, particularly for scenario analysis involving structural changes and agricultural policy interventions. The empirical research objective addresses the interdependence of natural resource policies with objectives of environmental conservation and rural development. Employing modelling techniques, three studies focus on specific agricultural and forest policy scenarios in Bhutan. Simulating Bhutan’s ambitious policy objective to convert to 100% organic agriculture demonstrates substantial welfare losses and adverse impacts on food security, causing trade-offs with objectives of rural development and food self-sufficiency. Analysing forest policy reforms shows that increased forest utilization contributes to economic development, particularly in rural areas, without jeopardizing the country’s forest conservation agenda. The dissertation points at numerous areas of future research, as for example the incorporation of ecosystem services, which is identified as one key limitation of economy-wide analysis of natural resource policies.

Les alliances stratégiques sont devenues autant une nécessité qu'un choix pour les entreprises afin d'être compétitif sur les marchés d'aujourd'hui. Toutefois, faire fonctionner les alliances stratégiques n'est pas une évidence. Des taux de défaillance entre 30% et jusqu'à 70% ont été régulièrement signalés. Un nombre important de recherches a examiné comment ces chiffres pouvaient être améliorés. La sélection de partenaires a été identifiée comme l'un des facteurs clés de la réussite. En fait, les attributs spécifiques de chaque partenaire, influant même sur la sélection de ces mêmes partenaires, ont tendance à avoir des effets boule de neige au-delà de la phase de formation, jusqu'aux phases de conception et de post-formation. S'appuyant sur des recherches antérieures étudiant l'attribut « réputation », cette thèse vient combler une lacune en explorant le rôle que peut jouer la réputation pour la performance environnementale dans la détermination des avantages individuels et communs dans les différentes phases des alliances stratégiques. Dans quatre essais indépendants mais interconnectés, des questions de recherche spécifiques sont théoriquement examinées sous la « Natural-Resource-Based View (NRBV) » et la « Strategic Cognition Perspective ». Les hypothèses de l'étude sont testées empiriquement à partir des données recueillies auprès des PDG et des cadres supérieurs dans 176 entreprises manufacturières norvégiennes. / Strategic alliances have become as much a necessity as a choice for companies to be competitive in today's markets. However, making strategic alliances work is not evident. Failure rates between 30% and as high as 70% have been regularly reported. A substantial stream of research has examined how these numbers can be improved. Partner selection has been identified as a key success factor. In fact, partner-specific attributes, affecting which partners are selected, tend to have snowball effects beyond the formation phase to the design and postformation phases. Building on previous studies investigating the attribute of reputation, this thesis fills a gap by exploring the role reputation for environmental performance can play in determining firm-specific and joint competitive advantages in the different phases of strategic alliances. In four individual but connected Essays, specific research questions are theoretically examined under the Natural-Resource-Based View (NRBV) and Strategic Cognition Perspective. The study's hypotheses are empirically tested using data collected from CEOs and top managers in 176 Norwegian manufacturing firms.

<p>Three prescribed burn sites and seven selective timber harvest sites were surveyed using a UAS equipped with a PPK-triggered RGB sensor to determine optimal image collection parameters surrounding each type of disturbance and land cover. The image coordinates were corrected with a third-party base station network (CORS) after the flight, and photogrammetrically processed to produce high-resolution georeferenced orthomosaics. This addressed the first objective of this study, which was to <i>establish effective data procurement methods from both before and after planned </i>disturbances. <br></p><p>Orthomosaic datasets surrounding both a prescribed burn and a selective timber harvest, were used to classify land covers through geographic image-based analysis (GEOBIA). The orthomosaic datasets were segmented into image objects, before classification with a machine-learning algorithm. Land covers for the prescribed prairie burn were 1) bare ground, 2) litter, 3) green vegetation, and 4) burned vegetation. Land covers for the selective timber harvest were 1) mature canopy, 2) understory vegetation, and 3) bare ground. 65 samples per class were collected for prairie burn datasets, and 80 samples per class were collected for timber harvest datasets to train the classifier. A supported vector machines (SVM) algorithm was used to produce four land cover classifications for each site surrounding their respective planned disturbance. Pixel counts for each class were multiplied by the ground sampled distance (GSD) to obtain area calculations for land covers. Accuracy assessments were conducted by projecting 250 equalized stratified random (ESR) reference points onto the georeferenced orthomosaic datasets to compare the classification to the imagery through visual interpretation. This addressed the second objective of this study, which was to <i>establish effective data classification methods from both before and after planned </i>disturbances.<br></p><p>Finally, a two-tailed t-Test was conducted with the overall accuracies for each disturbance type and land cover. Results showed no significant difference in the overall accuracy between land covers. This was done to address the third objective of this study which was to <i>determine if a significant difference exists between the classification accuracies between planned disturbance types</i>. Overall, effective data procurement and classification parameters were established for both <i>before </i>and <i>after </i>two common types of <i>planned </i>disturbances within the CHF region, with slightly better results for prescribed burns than for selective timber harvests.<br></p>

Despite decades of development efforts to combat desertification processes in southern Zimbabwe, a development deadlock occurs. Using the local knowledge systems as a basis, and making an effort to strategically facilitate the revival of their capacity for checks and balances as a development approach, endogenous development could become more realistic. The actor-oriented RAAKS.methodology offers relevant tools for a case study'in which an insight into the processes of innovation is obtained in order to confirm this. The Charurnbira case study shows that many local interfaces hinder development. Although the facilitation of platform processes could enhance endogenous development, the external environment provides a serious constraint. The method employed did ndt permit broad conclusions, but a deeper examination of recent experiences suggested that by giving local people a greater say in natural resource use, local knowledge could be utilized more effectively and better use could be made of traditional management structures. / Development Administration / M.A. (Development Administration)