A local fisheries management model employing short-term fisheries closures for rapidly growing species is proliferating across coastal east Africa and Indian Ocean islands. Aiming to improve management and boost incomes, NGOs, international finance institutions, and government agencies are promoting the technique in artisanal fishing communities. In southwest Madagascar alone, over...
Understanding how people value ecosystem goods and services can provide important information to managers and planners. Marine protected area valuations often focus on marketed goods and services. For many traditional fisherfolk, however, non-marketed ecosystem services are critically important inputs to their wellbeing. Using discrete choice experiments (DCEs), we quantify the...
The aquaculture of Holothuria scabra is under development in the southwest of Madagascar. In order to enable local communities to benefit from this new opportunity, Blue Ventures is implementing a village-based aquaculture programme, based on a public-private partnership with an international donor and a local private company. If the theoretical...
Small-scale fisheries make key contributions to food security, sustainable livelihoods and poverty reduction, yet to date the economic value of small-scale fisheries has been poorly quantified. In this study, we take a novel approach by characterizing post-landing trends of small-scale fisheries resources and estimating their total economic value, including both...
Silviculture systems that involve commercial thinning may provide higher quality wildlife habitat than traditional clearcut systems, yet such systems have not been vigorously tested. This prospective study examined forest floor animal abundance and habitat relationships under three different silviculture conditions: clearcuts, commercial thins, and uncuts. Eighteen stands, six per treatment,...
During catalysis the flavoprotein domain of neuronal nitric-oxide synthase (nNOS) shuttles NADPH-derived reducing equivalents from FAD to FMN and then to the P450-heme enabling heme-based oxygen activation and subsequent NO-synthesis. The binding of Ca²⁺-activated calmodulin (Ca²⁺-CaM) to nNOS alleviates inhibition of flavin mediated electron transfer within the diflavin domain, which...
In the realms of psychology and sociology two new theoretical models have arisen to describe the forces influencing altruistic human behavior. The first is the Empathy-Altruism Hypothesis (EAH), by C.D. Batson. The second is the Conceptual Continuum of Altruism (CCA), by K.R. Monroe. Both models have proven to be highly...
In the realms of psychology and sociology two new theoretical models have arisen to describe the forces influencing altruistic human behavior. The first Empathy-Altruism Hypothesis (EAH), by C.D. Batson. The second is the Conceptual Continuum of Altruism (CCA), by K.R. Monroe. Both models have proven to be highly useful in...
Perhaps the most undervalued, yet critically important ecosystem services are related to socio-cultural values tied to the non-material benefits that arise from human-ecosystem relationships, such as bequest. Bequest values linked to natural ecosystems can be particularly significant for indigenous communities, whose livelihoods and cultures are often closely tied to ecological...
The defining feature of our planet are the oceans, which make up 70% of the Earth’s surface. The importance of the ocean cannot be understated: 50% of oxygen originates from phytoplankton; heat is absorbed and redistributed by ocean currents; and hundreds of millions of people rely on the ocean for...