Search

A number of national environmental objectives have been decided on by the Swedish parliament. In this paper, a measure of willingness to pay for attaining these objectives is outlined in terms of an “environmental budget”, which can be disaggregated. Based on a nationwide contingent valuation survey, the average environmental budget was estimated and then disaggregated on specific “green” indicators. This paper focuses especially on protection of forest land for biodiversity purposes. Multiple bounded dichotomous choice questions were employed in the survey, allowing respondents to express uncertainty in their valuations. The effect of different question formats and valuation scenarios on the disaggregation of the environmental budget was investigated. Consideration of uncertainty had a significant impact on willingness to pay estimates. Willingness to pay varied between different levels of forest land protection when uncertainty was explicitly introduced. When valuation estimates were aggregated on the national level, the value of forest land protection exceeded the costs by a small margin. Plusieurs objectifs environnementaux ont été arrêtés par le Parlement suédois pour l’ensemble du pays. La mesure du consentement à payer pour atteindre ces objectifs constitue l’objet de cet article. Cette mesure est présentée en terme de budget environnemental qui peut être décomposé. tabli à partir d’un sondage réalisé avec la méthode d’évaluation contingente à l’échelle du pays, le budget environnemental moyen a été estimé puis décomposé selon des indicateurs « verts »spécifiques. Cet article met une emphase particulière sur la protection du territoire forestier pour des fins de biodiversité. Des questions contraintes par des choix de réponses multiples dichotomiques ont été utilisées lors du sondage pour permettre aux répondants d’exprimer de l’incertitude à propos de leurs évaluations. L’effet des différentes formulations des questions et des différents scénarios d’évaluation proposés sur la décomposition du budget environnemental a été étudié. Le fait de considérer l’incertitude a un impact significatif sur les estimations du consentement à payer. Le consentement à payer varie selon le niveau de protection du territoire forestier lorsque l’incertitude est explicitement introduite. Lorsque les estimations des valeurs sont regroupées à l’échelle nationale, la valeur de la protection du territoire forestier excède légèrement les coûts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By the establishment of the Greenland Botanical Survey in 1962 at the Botanical Museum, University of Copenhagen, an era of regular and systematic exploration of the vascular plant flora of Greenland was initiated and it ended in 1996, when funding ended. Preceding this period, the vascular plant flora was mainly known from the results of more sporadic botanical investigations mostly in low arctic West and East Greenland, but after the 1980s, investigations expanded to include the more inaccessible high arctic Northeast and North Greenland. Nowadays, vascular plant species have been collected from most regions of Greenland. So far, three regional phytogeographical studies of South, North, and West Greenland have been published, and at present, two papers dealing with the vascular plant flora of East Greenland are ready for publication. These studies will be the basis for a synopsis of the phytogeography of Greenland and a new edition of the Flora of Greenland. The published distribution maps from South, West, and North Greenland based on these collections have been digitized and used for modelling the regional vegetation and flora and its relation to past glaciations and current climate. The specimens from East Greenland have been entered into a database and will be available for future modelling projects.

If the current rate of climate change continues, the composition, distribution, and relative population sizes of species in the higher latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere are likely to change considerably. Understanding the magnitude of this change requires a well- documented baseline against which to compare. Although specimen-less observations can help augment such a baseline for the minority of organisms that can be confidently identified in the field or from photographs, the vast majority of species are small-bodied invertebrates, primarily arthropods, that can only be identified from preserved specimens and (or) their tissues. Museum staff archive specimens and make them and their data available for research. This paper describes a number of challenges to the goal of thorough documentation of high-latitude arthropod biodiversity and their potential solutions. Examples are provided from ongoing and recently completed research that demonstrates the value of museum specimens and the sharing of their data via global portals like GBIF.org.

Copyright of Genome is the property of Canadian Science Publishing and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Canadian Journal of Zoology is the property of Canadian Science Publishing and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)