Suchergebnisse

Government agencies responsible for monitoring the health of U.S. waterways report that nonpoint-source pollution from agricultural nutrient runoff is one of America's greatest water-quality threats. Federal agencies and states have partnered to develop nutrient-management policies and programs to reduce farm runoff. These efforts are complicated by the fact that policy decisions are made in an environment with limited resources, imperfect scientific knowledge, and diverse interests and understandings. This increases the likelihood that participants in the policy-making process will have different understandings of environmental problems and preferences for addressing them. Thus, there is a critical need for cooperation and collaboration in creating and implementing nutrient-management policies. In particular, it is important for policy makers to work collaboratively with farmers because nutrient-management policy goals cannot be achieved without their support for and full participation in policy programs. I contend that the success of nutrient-management policy efforts can be enhanced by greater knowledge of the cultural models that shape farmers' management beliefs and practices and inform their understandings of themselves and their relationship to the world. By situating policy efforts and proposals within the context of farmers' compelling cultural models, policy makers are more likely to create nutrient-management policy that farmers are willing to support and adopt. This in turn increases the likelihood that environmental goals will be achieved. A key element of this strategy is to successfully link policy ideas and practices with farmers' shared "goal-schemas" and leverage the motivational force associated with them to gain their support. To explore my contention that farmer cultural models play a central role in informing and directing their farm-management decisions, and that knowledge of these models can serve a valuable function in helping policy makers create more effective nutrient-management ...

The New Zealand Government's Department of Conservation facilitates assessment of the threat status of all species of New Zealand's fauna, flora, and fungi on a regular basis. Fungi have been included in these assessments since 2002, and this has stimulated renewed research and awareness of fungal conservation. Assessment has centred mainly on macrofungi and obligate species on threatened plants. Currently, 49 fungal species are listed in the highest threat category (Nationally Critical), 16 species in lower threat categories, and about 1440 species as Data Deficient. In a complementary initiative, the Department is prioritising long-term recovery plans of all species of New Zealand's threatened taxa that are in decline through evaluation of methodology, feasibility, and cost. This work includes the fungi. To support this work, recent studies have applied molecular techniques to seek new records of Data Deficient fungal species to more accurately define their threat status.