Thesis (doctoral)--Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, 2003. / Thesis documentation sheet inserted. Appendix reproduces five published papers and submitted manuscripts, four co-authored with others. Includes bibliographical references. Also partially issued electronically via World Wide Web in PDF format; online version lacks appendix.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--York University, 2008. Graduate Programme in Political Science. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 347-364). Also available on the Internet. MODE OF ACCESS via web browser by entering the following URL: http://gateway.proquest.com/openurl?url_ver=Z39.88-2004&res_dat=xri:pqdiss&rft_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:dissertation&rft_dat=xri:pqdiss:NR51701

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Idaho, December 2006. / Major professor: Paul E. Gessler. Includes bibliographical references. Also available online (PDF file) by subscription or by purchasing the individual file.

Thesis (M.Sc. (Environmental Science)) - Rhodes University, 2009.

Thesis (M.Sc.)--Victoria University of Wellington, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references.

This study set out to investigate the learning and change that emerged in and through participatory mapping in the context of biocultural diversity and resilience in rural Ethiopia. It did this through examining the learning and agency emerging from three participatory mapping practices (Participatory 3 Dimensional Modelling, sketch mapping and eco-cultural calendars) using two case study sites, located in the Bale Mountains and the Foata Mountains in Ethiopia, and honing in on in-depth reflective processes in two community contexts located within the broader case study sites, namely Horo Soba, Dinsho wereda in Bale; and Telecho, in Wolmera wereda, in the Foata Mountain complex. This study tried to answer three research questions related to participatory mapping: its role in mobilizing knowledge related to biocultural landscape, its role in learning and change, and its value in building resilience. The study used qualitative case study research methodology underpinned by critical realist philosophy, and used photographic ‘cues’ to structure the reporting on the cases. It used four categories of analysis: biocultural diversity, educational processes, learning and agency, in the first instance to report on the interactions associated with the participatory mapping practices as they emerged in the two case study sites. This was followed by in-depth analysis and interpretation of participatory mapping and biocultural diversity, as well as participatory mapping and learning, with an emphasis on acquisition, meaning making and identity formation processes. The in-depth analysis drew on social and learning theory, and theory of biocultural diversity and social-ecological resilience. The study also included analysis of broader change processes that were related to and emerged from the social interactions in the mapping activities, and the resultant morphogenesis (change), showing that morphogenesis, while broadly temporal, is not linear, and involves ‘little iterative morphogenic cycles’. These insights were then used to interpret how participatory mapping may contribute to resilience building in a context where social-ecological resilience is increasingly required, such as the two case study sites, where socialecological degradation is highly visible and is occurring rapidly. The study’s contribution to new knowledge lies in relation to the role of participatory mapping in facilitating learning, agency and change which, to date, appears to be under-theorised and under-developed in the participatory mapping and environmental education literature. As such, the study findings provide in-depth insight into how participatory mapping methodologies may ‘work in the world’, in contexts such as those presented in the two cases under study. It has tried to demonstrate how participatory mapping has managed to mobilize knowledge related to biocultural diversity, facilitated the acquisition of knowledge and helped members of the community to engage in meaning making activities relevant to their biocultural landscape and renegotiate their identity within the wider community context. It has also shown that dissonance is an important dynamic in the learning process; and that morphogenesis (or change) occurs over time, but also in smaller cycles that interact at different levels; and that participatory mapping cannot, by itself mobilise significant structural change, at least in the short term. It has also shown, however, that learning and the desire for change can emerge from participatory mapping processes, and that this can be utilized to adapt to the changing socio-ecological environments, potentially contributing to longer term resilience of social-ecological systems.

This thesis investigated the development of the Global Standard for the Identification of Key Biodiversity Areas (KBA Standard), which is a new approach to identifying important sites for biodiversity. Key Biodiversity Areas are defined as sites contributing significantly to the global persistence of biodiversity. The KBA Standard was developed through a global stakeholder engagement process convened by the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Joint Task Force on Biodiversity and Protected Areas (IUCN Task Force). The engagement process included four main components: (i) technical workshops with subject experts; (ii) interviews and an online questionnaire with end-users; (iii) regional events with additional interested stakeholders; and (iv) an open online consultation where stakeholders were invited to review the draft KBA Standard. The aim of this thesis was to use an action research approach to work with the IUCN Task Force to analyse the end-user component of the global stakeholder engagement process. End-users were defined during the engagement process as those who lead or influence decision-making processes linked to mechanisms that secure biodiversity or that avoid biodiversity loss. The main objectives of this research were to: (i) clarify the purpose of engaging end-users by examining the use of normative, instrumental, and substantive rationales; (ii) use mixed methods to gain an understanding of end-users’ needs and concerns; (iii) categorise and analyse end-users’ needs and concerns by sector and region; (iv) assess the end-user engagement process through a summative evaluation; (v) examine how end-user input was used to inform the development of the KBA Standard; and (vi) develop a set of recommendations related to global end-user engagement practice. The analysis indicated that the IUCN Task Force used a blend of instrumental and substantive rationales to justify engaging end-users. Five main categories of end-user needs and concerns emerged from the analysis of the qualitative interview data: (i) the need for communication and local stakeholder engagement; (ii) the potential for the KBA Standard to either complement or conflict with existing approaches; (iii) the need for clarity regarding the scale at which KBAs can be identified (i.e. global, regional, and/or national); (iv) concerns about the implementation of the KBA Standard, including data availability, timeliness, and resources; and (v) comments about how KBAs inform decision-making, including management options, sustainable use, and prioritisation. These topics were examined in depth through the qualitative interviews and in breadth through the quantitative questionnaire. The results demonstrate a high level of convergence in opinion on many topics; however, four topics resulted in a divergence in opinion between end-users, including: (i) the scale at which KBAs are identified; (ii) the prioritisation of KBAs over other areas; (iii) whether KBA data should be made freely available; and (iv) whether development activities should be permitted in KBAs. These areas of divergence were analysed further by categorising end-user questionnaire responses by sector and region. The results have important implications for how end-users are identified, categorised, and engaged and highlight the complex and individual nature of end-users’ needs and concerns. The summative evaluation analysed the purpose, process, outputs, and outcomes against a typology of engagement and principles of good practice for international standard setting to reflect upon how end-users’ needs and concerns were integrated into the development of the KBA Standard. This indicated both the strengths and weaknesses of the engagement approaches used and informed the development of 11 recommendations to inform future similar processes. This thesis ultimately helps to bridge the gap between stakeholder engagement theory and practice and provides insight into the challenges and benefits of using a mixed methods action research approach to investigate a global stakeholder engagement process.

In this study, the diversity of forty Salmonella isolates from selected drinking water and wastewater sources in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa was assessed using parameters such as protein and lipopolysaccharide profile analysis, DNA fingerprinting and antibiotic susceptibility profile as test indices. Wastewater samples from Amalinda, Shornville and Fort Hare wastewater plants, and water samples from Gogogo and Tyume rivers were collected on ice and transported to the laboratory of the department of Microbiology and Biochemistry, University of Fort Hare for processing. The DNA dendograms of Salmonella and the applied UPGMA revealed 4 similarity groups of the strains. Most of the strains recovered from Amalinda, Shornville, Fort Hare wastewater plants, Gogogo and Tyume rivers show a high percentage of genetic similarity. On the other hand, protein dendograms of Salmonella isolates revealed 2 similarity groups which varied widely. Also, the lipopolysaccharide dendograms revealed three similarity groups with the first similarity groups showing a very high relatedness between strains from different water sources. The second similarity group included 16 strains which formed a rather homogenous group, and the third similarity group formed a distinct group. Of the seven antibiotics and sulfonamides tested against the Salmonella species, five namely, neomycin, chloramphenicol, kanamycin, streptomycin and cotrimoxazole were significantly inhibitory, while the bacteria showed considerable resistance to doxycycline and sulphamethoxazole. Our results based on restriction digestion, SDS/PAGE and dendogram construction show that there is a high similarity between the forty Salmonella strains studied, and that these methods are valuable tools for evaluating the relatedness ofSalmonella species. Our observations have proffered a veritable reference point on the diversity of Salmonella strains in the studied area.

270 pages / I theorize and offer some evidence that humans inadvertently risk exacerbating the loss of maintenance-dependent species on private land by using species-based land-use regulation to seek other benefits. Drawing evidence primarily from the US, I argue that such regulation poses a risk to maintenance-dependent species, that humans routinely disregard this risk, and that this disregard widely serves to defend the power of individuals and organizations to use such regulation to seek other benefits. I suggest this implies that with constraints on public funding, humans might improve the survival of some species by clarifying the purpose of such regulation and considering openly refraining from such regulation for some species. I also suggest such change might depend on articulating the issue as whether the survival of a species could ever depend on individuals having a right to conserve or maintain it without selectively incurring harm from regulation intended to save it.

Made available in DSpace on 2015-06-17T19:33:59Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2014-02-26. Added 1 bitstream(s) on 2015-06-18T12:47:40Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 000829923.pdf: 1534183 bytes, checksum: 014af315ccbbf82caab7fc935e23a68f (MD5) / Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq) / O objetivo deste estudo foi analisar a composição, a abundância e a diversidade de siris de substrato não consolidado encontrados em profundidades de até 35 m, em duas regiões distintas do litoral norte paulista. Adicionalmente, verificou-se a influência da granulometria do sedimento e da temperatura da água sobre a diversidade e abundância dos portunídeos. As amostras foram realizadas com um barco camaroneiro equipado com double-rig. Os indivíduos e os fatores ambientais foram amostrados mensalmente durante dois anos, em profundidades de 5 a 35 m das regiões de Ubatuba (UBA) e Caraguatatuba (CAR). Os valores de riqueza (S), diversidade (H'), equidade e dominância foram determinados em cada profundidade e estação do ano. Oito espécies de portunídeos foram obtidas (SUBA = 8 e SCAR = 7), totalizando 19.287 indivíduos coletados (UBA = 9.645 e CAR = 9.642). As profundidades com maiores valores de riqueza (UBA: 5 m e CAR: 15 m) não foram as que apresentaram os maiores valores de diversidade e equidade (UBA: 20 m e CAR: 5 m). Temporalmente, as estações do ano com maiores valores de diversidade e equidade (UBA: inverno/01 e outono/03; CAR: inverno/01 e outono/02) estiveram entre as estações com maiores riquezas (UBA: inverno/01, verão/02 e outono/02-03; CAR: outono/02). Os maiores valores de dominância foram registrados nos locais e períodos que apresentaram os menores índices de diversidade, e vice-versa. O phi (sedimento) e a temperatura não se correlacionaram significativamente com a diversidade, mas se correlacionaram com a abundância de indivíduos. Dentre as espécies obtidas, Charybdis hellerii, Cronius ruber e Portunus ordwayi apresentaram, juntas, abundância relativa menor que 0,1% em cada região, enquanto Callinectes ornatus e Portunus spinicarpus foram responsáveis por mais de 80% da abundância total. As maiores abundâncias das duas últimas espécies variaram diferentemente entre as profundidades e as ... / The aim of this study was to analyze the composition, abundance and diversity of swimming crabs of unconsolidated substrate at depths up to 35 m, in two distinct regions of the northern coast of São Paulo. Additionally, the influence of the sediment and water temperature on the diversity and abundance of portunid crabs was analyzed. The samples were collected using a commercial shrimp trawler equipped with double-rig nets. The crabs and environmental variables were sampled monthly during two years, at depths from 5 to 35 m in Ubatuba (UBA) and Caraguatatuba (CAR) regions. Richness (S), diversity (H'), evenness and dominance values were determined in each depth and season. Eight species of portunid crabs were obtained (SUBA = 8 and SCAR = 7), totaling 19,287 individuals collected during study period (UBA = 9,645 and CAR = 9,642). The depths with the highest richness values (UBA: 5 m and CAR: 15 m) were not necessarily those with the highest diversity and evenness values (UBA: 20 m and CAR: 5 m). Temporally, the seasons with the highest diversity and evenness (UBA: winter 01 and autumn 03, CAR: winter 01 and autumn 02) were the seasons which showed the highest richness (UBA: winter 01, summer 02 and autumn 02-03, CAR: autumn 02). The highest dominance values were recorded in sites and periods with the smallest diversity indexes, and vice versa. Phi (sediment) and temperature did not correlate significantly with the diversity but correlated with the abundance of individuals. Among the species obtained, Charybdis hellerii, Cronius ruber and Portunus ordwayi presented, all together, relative abundance smaller than 0.1% in each region, while Callinectes ornatus and Portunus spinicarpus comprised more than 80% of the total abundance. The highest abundance of the latter species varied differently among the depths and seasons. Sites and periods with the highest diversity indexes are related to the great uniformity of the number of individuals ...