Suchergebnisse

An analysis of the functioning of the Dutch monarchy in the 20th century is hardly possible by lack of documents. For the study of the contacts between the Head of State and the Cabinet-ministers a scholar needs the documents from the Cabinet of the Queen and from the Royal Archives. The archives of the Cabinet of the Queen are now accessible up to the Second World War, but the Royal Archives are closed from 1898.Tbe Dutch people bas a sympathy for the dynasty (Orange-Nassau) and by that a deduced sympathy for the monarchy.Tbere was no real criticism on the functioning of the following queens Wilhelmina, Juliana and Beatrix. Tbe Heads of State accomodated themselves to the political and social developments. By that the monarchy lengthened its life.The formation of a new Cabinet is an essential task of the Queen. Wilhelmina (a rather authoritarian character) did not hide her personal views but respected carefully the constitutional framework and already in the beginning of this century she asked the consulted political leaders to confirm their advices by letter. The possibility to play a role seems to be more limited since 1945.

Global population growth and associated urban development are having profound effects on biodiversity. Two major outcomes of expanding development that affect wildlife are light and noise pollution. In this paper, we review literature reporting the effects of light and noise on biodiversity, and assess implications for conservation planning in Australia. Our results clearly indicate that light and noise pollution have the potential to affect the physiology, behaviour and reproduction of a range of animal taxa. Types of effects include changes in foraging and reproductive behaviours, reduction in animal fitness, increased risk of predation and reduced reproductive success. These could have flow-on consequences at the population and ecosystem levels. We found a significant gap in knowledge of the impact of these pollutants on Australian fauna. To reduce the effect of light and noise pollution, there needs to be careful planning of urban areas in relation to protected areas, and for biodiversity more generally. Potential measures include strategically planning the types of development and associated human activities adjacent to protected areas, and the use of shields and barriers, such as covers for lights or the use of dense native vegetation screens, while still allowing movement of animals. Changes in government standards and regulations could also help to reduce the impacts of light and noise pollution.

The destruction and transformation of ecosystems by humans threatens biodiversity, ecosystem function, and vital ecosystem services. Ecological repair of ecosystems will be a major challenge over the next century and beyond. Restoration efforts to date have frequently been ad hoc, and site or situation specific. Although such small-scale efforts are vitally important, without large-scale visions and coordination, it is unlikely that large functioning ecosystems will ever be constructed by chance through the cumulative effects of small-scale projects. Although the problems of human-induced environmental degradation and the need for a solution are widely recognized, these issues have rarely been addressed on a sufficiently large-scale basis. There are numerous barriers that prevent large-scale ecological restoration projects from being proposed, initiated, or carried through. Common barriers include the "shifting baseline syndrome," the scale and complexity of restoration, the long-term and open-ended nature of restoration, funding challenges, and preemptive constraint of vision. Two potentially useful approaches that could help overcome these barriers are stretch goals and backcasting. Stretch goals are ambitious long-term goals used to inspire creativity and innovation to achieve outcomes that currently seem impossible. Backcasting is a technique where a desired end point is visualized, and then a pathway to that end point is worked out retrospectively. A case study from the Scottish Highlands is used to illustrate how stretch goals and backcasting could facilitate large-scale restoration. The combination of these approaches offers ways to evaluate and shape options for the future of ecosystems, rather than accepting that future ecosystems are victims of past and present political realities.

Global population growth and associated urban development are having profound effects on biodiversity. Two major outcomes of expanding development that affect wildlife are light and noise pollution. In this paper, we review literature reporting the effects of light and noise on biodiversity, and assess implications for conservation planning in Australia. Our results clearly indicate that light and noise pollution have the potential to affect the physiology, behaviour and reproduction of a range of animal taxa. Types of effects include changes in foraging and reproductive behaviours, reduction in animal fitness, increased risk of predation and reduced reproductive success. These could have flow-on consequences at the population and ecosystem levels. We found a significant gap in knowledge of the impact of these pollutants on Australian fauna. To reduce the effect of light and noise pollution, there needs to be careful planning of urban areas in relation to protected areas, and for biodiversity more generally. Potential measures include strategically planning the types of development and associated human activities adjacent to protected areas, and the use of shields and barriers, such as covers for lights or the use of dense native vegetation screens, while still allowing movement of animals. Changes in government standards and regulations could also help to reduce the impacts of light and noise pollution.

The destruction and transformation of ecosystems by humans threatens biodiversity, ecosystem function, and vital ecosystem services. Ecological repair of ecosystems will be a major challenge over the next century and beyond. Restoration efforts to date have frequently been ad hoc, and site or situation specific. Although such small-scale efforts are vitally important, without large-scale visions and coordination, it is unlikely that large functioning ecosystems will ever be constructed by chance through the cumulative effects of small-scale projects. Although the problems of human-induced environmental degradation and the need for a solution are widely recognized, these issues have rarely been addressed on a sufficiently large-scale basis. There are numerous barriers that prevent large-scale ecological restoration projects from being proposed, initiated, or carried through. Common barriers include the "shifting baseline syndrome," the scale and complexity of restoration, the long-term and open-ended nature of restoration, funding challenges, and preemptive constraint of vision. Two potentially useful approaches that could help overcome these barriers are stretch goals and backcasting. Stretch goals are ambitious long-term goals used to inspire creativity and innovation to achieve outcomes that currently seem impossible. Backcasting is a technique where a desired end point is visualized, and then a pathway to that end point is worked out retrospectively. A case study from the Scottish Highlands is used to illustrate how stretch goals and backcasting could facilitate large-scale restoration. The combination of these approaches offers ways to evaluate and shape options for the future of ecosystems, rather than accepting that future ecosystems are victims of past and present political realities.

Context
Understanding the ecological impacts of the palm-oil industry on native fauna requires information on anthropogenic threats that may cause species decline or local extinction.

Aim
The main aim of the study was to assess wildlife deaths caused by illegal hunting, road accidents and introduced predators in established oil-palm landscapes in Peninsular Malaysia.

Methods
Between April and October 2009, we interviewed 362 oil-palm workers at 36 sites, including large industrial estates and semi-traditional smallholdings.

Key results
Our results showed that (1) illegal hunting by oil-palm workers in different oil-palm management systems was not statistically significant (P = 0.097), (2) native fauna were more often destroyed as pests in smallholdings than in conventional and eco-friendly plantation estates (P = 0.005), (3) non-local poachers conducted illegal activity more often in smallholdings than in conventional and eco-friendly plantation estates (P = 0.011), (4) road accidents were reported to kill more native fauna in conventional plantation estates than in smallholdings and eco-friendly plantation estates (P < 0.001) and (5) feral dogs were reported as killing more native fauna in eco-friendly plantation estates than in conventional plantation estates and smallholdings (P = 0.034).

Conclusion
In addition to the conversion of native forest to oil-palm monocultures, various other anthropogenic threats can have a substantial effect on wildlife in oil-palm landscapes.

Implications
To improve the conservation value of oil-palm landscapes, we recommend that palm-oil stakeholders should implement anti-poaching patrols, organise conservation programs to educate workers, reduce vehicle speeds on roads within oil-palm landscapes, and control local populations of feral dogs.

AIM: Urban expansion significantly alters fringe environments often with unde-sirable impacts on biodiversity. Consequently, there is a need to define clearconservation objectives for areas subject to urban encroachment. Urban fringe development is a highly dynamic process, both spatially and temporally, but few studies are equipped to examine its temporal effects on biota. We aimed to explore the impacts of urban encroachment on avifauna through space and time.LOCATION: The Australian Capital Territory, Australia. METHODS: We used records from an extensive 14-year monitoring programme undertaken in temperate woodland. We fitted hierarchical generalized linear models to assess individual species responses to the distance from monitoring sites to the urban boundary, and the temporal rate of change in this distance through time. We used factorial analysis on mixed data to examine trait group responses to these predictors.RESULTS: Our results indicated that the occurrence of approximately half of the study region's avifauna is strongly linked to the proximity of their habitat to the urban fringe, but that the impact of urban fringe development on the occurrence of some species changed through time. We identified several species of conservation concern that respond negatively to large annual increases in urban fringe development, irrespective of its proximity to suitable habitat. Species responses to urban proximity were linked to life history traits, with small,migratory, woodland-dependent species that rely on mid- and upper-canopy structures, clearly disadvantaged by urban environments.MAIN CONCLUSIONS: Our findings demonstrate the breadth of species responses to urban encroachment over much larger distances than is typically investigated in urban ecological studies. We identify guilds vulnerable to the impacts of urban fringe development and therefore in need of ecologically sensitive urban design. We argue that future urban expansion towards important fringe habitats will need to be planned strategically through space and time. ; This research received funding support from ConservationPlanning and Research, Environment and Sustainable Devel-opment Directorate ACT Government and the Fenner Schoolof Environment and Society. DBL, PG and KI were sup-ported by the National Environmental Research Program.ADM was supported by an ARC Future Fellowship(FT100100358).

AIM: Urban expansion significantly alters fringe environments often with unde-sirable impacts on biodiversity. Consequently, there is a need to define clearconservation objectives for areas subject to urban encroachment. Urban fringe development is a highly dynamic process, both spatially and temporally, but few studies are equipped to examine its temporal effects on biota. We aimed to explore the impacts of urban encroachment on avifauna through space and time.LOCATION: The Australian Capital Territory, Australia. METHODS: We used records from an extensive 14-year monitoring programme undertaken in temperate woodland. We fitted hierarchical generalized linear models to assess individual species responses to the distance from monitoring sites to the urban boundary, and the temporal rate of change in this distance through time. We used factorial analysis on mixed data to examine trait group responses to these predictors.RESULTS: Our results indicated that the occurrence of approximately half of the study region's avifauna is strongly linked to the proximity of their habitat to the urban fringe, but that the impact of urban fringe development on the occurrence of some species changed through time. We identified several species of conservation concern that respond negatively to large annual increases in urban fringe development, irrespective of its proximity to suitable habitat. Species responses to urban proximity were linked to life history traits, with small,migratory, woodland-dependent species that rely on mid- and upper-canopy structures, clearly disadvantaged by urban environments.MAIN CONCLUSIONS: Our findings demonstrate the breadth of species responses to urban encroachment over much larger distances than is typically investigated in urban ecological studies. We identify guilds vulnerable to the impacts of urban fringe development and therefore in need of ecologically sensitive urban design. We argue that future urban expansion towards important fringe habitats will need to be planned strategically through space and time. ; This research received funding support from Conservation Planning and Research, Environment and Sustainable Devel-opment Directorate ACT Government and the Fenner Schoolof Environment and Society. DBL, PG and KI were sup-ported by the National Environmental Research Program. ADM was supported by an ARC Future Fellowship (FT100100358).

Context Over the last 230 years, the Australian terrestrial mammal fauna has suffered a very high rate of decline and extinction relative to other continents. Predation by the introduced red fox (Vulpes vulpes) and feral cat (Felis catus) is implicated in many of these extinctions, and in the ongoing decline of many extant species. Aims To assess the degree to which Australian terrestrial non-volant mammal species are susceptible at the population level to predation by the red fox and feral cat, and to allocate each species to a category of predator susceptibility. Methods We collated the available evidence and complemented this with expert opinion to categorise each Australian terrestrial non-volant mammal species (extinct and extant) into one of four classes of population-level susceptibility to introduced predators (i.e. 'extreme', 'high', 'low' or 'not susceptible'). We then compared predator susceptibility with conservation status, body size and extent of arboreality; and assessed changes in the occurrence of species in different predator-susceptibility categories between 1788 and 2017. Key results Of 246 Australian terrestrial non-volant mammal species (including extinct species), we conclude that 37 species are (or were) extremely predator-susceptible; 52 species are highly predator-susceptible; 112 species are of low susceptibility; and 42 species are not susceptible to predators. Confidence in assigning species to predator-susceptibility categories was strongest for extant threatened mammal species and for extremely predator-susceptible species. Extinct and threatened mammal species are more likely to be predator-susceptible than Least Concern species; arboreal species are less predator-susceptible than ground-dwelling species; and medium-sized species (35 g–3.5kg) are more predator-susceptible than smaller or larger species. Conclusions The effective control of foxes and cats over large areas is likely to assist the population-level recovery of ~63 species – the number of extant species with extreme or high predator susceptibility – which represents ~29% of the extant Australian terrestrial non-volant mammal fauna. Implications Categorisation of predator susceptibility is an important tool for conservation management, because the persistence of species with extreme susceptibility will require intensive management (e.g. predator-proof exclosures or predator-free islands), whereas species of lower predator susceptibility can be managed through effective landscape-level suppression of introduced predators.

Context Many Australian mammal species are highly susceptible to predation by introduced domestic cats (Felis catus) and European red foxes (Vulpes vulpes). These predators have caused many extinctions and have driven large distributional and population declines for many more species. The serendipitous occurrence of, and deliberate translocations of mammals to, 'havens' (cat- and fox-free offshore islands, and mainland fenced exclosures capable of excluding cats and foxes) has helped avoid further extinction. Aims The aim of this study was to conduct a stocktake of current island and fenced havens in Australia and assess the extent of their protection for threatened mammal taxa that are most susceptible to cat and fox predation. Methods Information was collated from diverse sources to document (1) the locations of havens and (2) the occurrence of populations of predator-susceptible threatened mammals (naturally occurring or translocated) in those havens. The list of predator-susceptible taxa (67 taxa, 52 species) was based on consensus opinion from >25 mammal experts. Key results Seventeen fenced and 101 island havens contain 188 populations of 38 predator-susceptible threatened mammal taxa (32 species). Island havens cover a larger cumulative area than fenced havens (2152km2 versus 346km2), and reach larger sizes (largest island 325km2, with another island of 628km2 becoming available from 2018; largest fence: 123km2). Islands and fenced havens contain similar numbers of taxa (27 each), because fenced havens usually contain more taxa per haven. Populations within fences are mostly translocated (43 of 49; 88%). Islands contain translocated populations (30 of 139; 22%); but also protect in situ (109) threatened mammal populations. Conclusions Havens are used increasingly to safeguard threatened predator-susceptible mammals. However, 15 such taxa occur in only one or two havens, and 29 such taxa (43%) are not represented in any havens. The taxon at greatest risk of extinction from predation, and in greatest need of a haven, is the central rock-rat (Zyzomys pedunculatus). Implications Future investment in havens should focus on locations that favour taxa with no (or low) existing haven representation. Although havens can be critical for avoiding extinctions in the short term, they cover a minute proportion of species' former ranges. Improved options for controlling the impacts of cats and foxes at landscape scales must be developed and implemented.