Spatial Variability and Ecological Effects of Anthropogenic Activities in a Nature Reserve: A Case Study in the Baijitan National Nature Reserve, China

Sustainability 2017, 9(2), 239; doi:10.3390/su9020239

Author

Xiaoyang Song ¹

, Yaohuan Huang ^2,3

, Jingying Fu ^2,3

, Dong Jiang ^2,3,*  and Guangjin Tian ⁴

¹

College of Geoscience and Surveying Engineering, China University of Mining & Technology, Beijing 100083, China

²

Institute of Geographical Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China

³

College of Resources and Environment, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China

⁴

School of Government, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China

^*

Author to whom correspondence should be addressed. 

Received: 31 December 2016 / Accepted: 6 February 2017 / Published: 9 February 2017

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Abstract 

Nature reserves play an essential role in protecting natural resources and maintaining an ecological balance. However, certain nature reserves are increasingly disturbed by human activities in the form of settlements, roads, farmland, etc. How to monitor the status of nature reserves by using remote sensing methods has been a focus of scholars for a long time. In this study, remote sensing satellite images from 2009 and 2014 were used to extract and analyze the distribution of anthropogenic activities, such as agriculture, industry, residency, traffic, and other human activities. On this basis, the Nature Reserve Human Interference (NRHI) and landscape indices (LI) were calculated to describe the intensity of anthropogenic disturbance; in addition, the slope and aspect were analyzed to describe the regularity in the distribution of anthropogenic activities. The results showed that more than 90% of the anthropogenic activity occurred in the experimental and buffer zones. Likewise, the NRHI increased from 0.0901 in 2009 to 0.1127 in 2014. The NRHI was proportional to the patch density (PD), landscape shape index (LSI), landscape division index (DIVISION), Shannon’s diversity index (SHDI), and Shannon′s evenness index (SHEI), and it was inversely proportional to the contagion index (CONTAG). Moreover, 84.54% of the anthropogenic activity occurred in a range from 0 to 3.6 degrees, and 14.44% of the activity occurred in a range from 3.6 to 7.2 degrees. More than 60% of the anthropogenic activity occurred on sunny slopes because of the human adaptability to the environment and the possibility for humans to fulfill their physical needs (warmth and comfort). Thus, the monitoring of this nature reserve needs to be further strengthened and focused on the area with a range of 0–7.2 degrees and on the sunny slopes. View Full-Text

Keywords: anthropogenic activity;  landscape indices (LI);  Nature Reserve Human Interference (NRHI);  slope;  aspect

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Finding Common Ground: Environmental Ethics, Social Justice, and a Sustainable Path for Nature-Based Health Promotion

Healthcare 2016, 4(3), 61; doi:10.3390/healthcare4030061

Author

Viniece Jennings ^1,* , Jessica Yun ²

 and Lincoln Larson ³

¹

Southern Research Station, Integrating Human and Natural Systems, USDA Forest Service, 320 Green Street, Athens, GA 30602, USA

²

Department of Environmental Planning, Graduate School of Environmental Studies, Seoul National University, Building 82, 1 Gwanak-ro, Gwanak-gu, Seoul 08826, Korea

³

Department of Parks, Recreation, and Tourism Management, Clemson University, 298 Lehotsky Hall, Clemson, SC 29634, USA

^*

Author to whom correspondence should be addressed. 

Academic Editor: Sampath Parthasarathy

Received: 17 May 2016 / Revised: 16 August 2016 / Accepted: 18 August 2016 / Published: 25 August 2016

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Ethics, Health, and Natural Resources)

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Abstract 

Decades of research have documented continuous tension between anthropocentric needs and the environment’s capacity to accommodate those needs and support basic human welfare. The way in which society perceives, manages, and ultimately utilizes natural resources can be influenced by underlying environmental ethics, or the moral relationship that humans share with the natural world. This discourse often centers on the complex interplay between the tangible and intangible benefits associated with nonhuman nature (e.g., green space), both of which are relevant to public health. When ecosystem degradation is coupled with socio-demographic transitions, additional concerns related to distributional equity and justice can arise. In this commentary, we explore how environmental ethics can inform the connection between the ecosystem services from green space and socially just strategies of health promotion. View Full-Text

Keywords: nature;  public health;  green space

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The Vietnamese State and Administrative Co-Management of Nature Reserves

Sustainability 2016, 8(3), 292; doi:10.3390/su8030292

Author 

Nguyen KimDung ^1,2,* , Simon R. Bush ¹

 and Arthur P. J. Mol ¹

¹

Environmental Policy Group (ENP), Wageningen University, Hollandseweg 1, 6706 KN Wageningen, The Netherlands

²

Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Faculty of Biology-Biotechnology, University of Science Ho Chi Minh City, 227 Nguyen Van Cu street, District 5, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

^*

Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.

Academic Editor: Helmut Haberl

Received: 18 September 2015 / Revised: 17 March 2016 / Accepted: 18 March 2016 / Published: 22 March 2016

(This article belongs to the Section Social Ecology and Sustainability)

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Abstract 

The Vietnamese government has introduced co-management in its national system of special-use forests (SUFs) to improve the effectiveness of nature and biodiversity conservation. One of the major challenges is to allow flexibility and local adaptability of co-management coordinated by SUF management boards within the overall still-rigid structure of vertical state networks. Using a critical institutional perspective, this paper examines the influence of the vertical and horizontal linkages that underline the form and function of SUF co-management. Data is presented from a nation-wide survey of 113 SUFs, 22 random in-depth interviews, and four in-depth case studies of SUFs. The results show that the success of co-management in centralized states like Vietnam depends on the greater devolution of allocative power from central to district governments to facilitate horizontal networked collaboration with local communities. Yet the results also indicate that the central state maintains an important role in setting the conditions that allow for the success of these networked collaborations. Based on these findings the conclusions reflect on the need to further develop a critical institutional approach for understanding the purpose, interests, and resources of co-management in the context of centralized states. View Full-Text

Keywords: co-management;  networks;  nature conservation;  protected areas;  Vietnam

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Status of Nature Reserves in Inner Mongolia, China

Sustainability 2016, 8(9), 889; doi:10.3390/su8090889

Author

Wenjing Ma ^1,2,†

, Gang Feng ^1,†

 and Qing Zhang ^1,* 

¹

Department of Ecology, College of Life Sciences, Inner Mongolia University, Hohhot 010021, China

²

Grassland Research Institute of Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Hohhot 010010, China

^*

Author to whom correspondence should be addressed. 

Academic Editor: Iain Gordon

Received: 21 May 2016 / Revised: 22 August 2016 / Accepted: 30 August 2016 / Published: 2 September 2016

(This article belongs to the Section Sustainable Agriculture, Food and Wildlife)

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Abstract 

Nature reserves are an important component of the strategy to halt biodiversity loss caused by habitat fragmentation and loss, climate change and other anthropogenic factors. In the past decades, 184 nature reserves were designed for biodiversity conservation in Inner Mongolia. However, no studies have quantified the general condition of these reserves. In this paper, we summarized the history, distribution and effects of human interference on these reserves in Inner Mongolia. The results showed that: (1) The total area of nature reserves is 138,047 km² in Inner Mongolia. This constitutes 11.7% of its geographic area, which is lower than the national (14.9%), and the global average (13%). These reserves are mainly forest (68) and inland wetland (31) ecosystems. However, in terms of area, desert (40,948 km²), forest (26,141 km²) and inland wetland ecosystems (25,540 km²) are predominant; (2) nature reserves have increased rapidly in number and area since 1995, especially at the province, city, and county levels; (3) the evergreen coniferous (26.4%), wetland (20.2%) and deciduous needle-leaf forests (19.6%) were sufficiently protected according to the 2020 target of 17% set by the Convention on Biological Diversity, while the other eight natural vegetation types, i.e., evergreen broad-leaved forests (14.2%), shrubs (13.5%), meadow vegetation (12.5%), typical steppe (10.2%), open forests (8.9%), desert vegetation (6.2%), desert steppe (2.9%), and sand vegetation (1.6%) were insufficiently protected; (4) the effects of human activities on these vegetation types were different. Open forest, sand vegetation, shrub, typical steppe, meadow steppe, evergreen broad-leaved, and evergreen coniferous forest were more affected than other vegetation types. Our results indicated that a more scientific approach is needed to effectively manage nature reserves in Inner Mongolia. View Full-Text

Keywords: Inner Mongolia;  nature reserve;  vegetation type;  human interference;  protection strategy

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The Online Dissemination of Nature–Health Concepts: Lessons from Sentiment Analysis of Social Media Relating to “Nature-Deficit Disorder”

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2016, 13(1), 142; doi:10.3390/ijerph13010142

Author 

Marco Palomino ^1,†,* , Tim Taylor ²

, Ayse Göker ¹

, John Isaacs ¹

 and Sara Warber ^2,3

¹

School of Computing and Digital Media, Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen, Scotland AB10 7GE, UK

²

European Centre for Environment and Human Health, University of Exeter Medical School, Truro, Cornwall TR1 3HD, UK

³

Department of Family Medicine, University of Michigan Medical School, Ann Arbor, MI 48104-1213, USA

^†

Research started while working for the University of Exeter Medical School.

^*

Author to whom correspondence should be addressed. 

Academic Editors: Agnes van den Berg and Jenny Roe

Received: 30 October 2015 / Revised: 24 December 2015 / Accepted: 30 December 2015 / Published: 19 January 2016

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Green-Blue Space and Health: Advances in Methods, Technologies and Applications)

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Abstract 

Evidence continues to grow supporting the idea that restorative environments, green exercise, and nature-based activities positively impact human health. Nature-deficit disorder, a journalistic term proposed to describe the ill effects of people’s alienation from nature, is not yet formally recognized as a medical diagnosis. However, over the past decade, the phrase has been enthusiastically taken up by some segments of the lay public. Social media, such as Twitter, with its opportunities to gather “big data” related to public opinions, offers a medium for exploring the discourse and dissemination around nature-deficit disorder and other nature–health concepts. In this paper, we report our experience of collecting more than 175,000 tweets, applying sentiment analysis to measure positive, neutral or negative feelings, and preliminarily mapping the impact on dissemination. Sentiment analysis is currently used to investigate the repercussions of events in social networks, scrutinize opinions about products and services, and understand various aspects of the communication in Web-based communities. Based on a comparison of nature-deficit-disorder “hashtags” and more generic nature hashtags, we make recommendations for the better dissemination of public health messages through changes to the framing of messages. We show the potential of Twitter to aid in better understanding the impact of the natural environment on human health and wellbeing. View Full-Text

Keywords: nature-deficit disorder;  sentiment analysis;  Twitter;  big data;  nature–health

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