Current and potential carbon stocks of trees in urban parking lots in towns of the Eastern Cape, South Africa
- Authors: O'Donoghue, Alexandra , Shackleton, Charlie M
- Date: 2013
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/181037 , vital:43689 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ufug.2013.07.001"
- Description: Greening of shopping centre parking lots is a potentially important strategy that can contribute to urban carbon mitigation efforts, improve aesthetics and the shopping experience of consumers, whilst adding to urban biodiversity. Twenty-eight shopping centre parking lots in six Eastern Cape urban centres, South Africa, were sampled to determine tree species composition, density and annual carbon sequestration potential. The best case parking lot found during the study was used as a benchmark to display the difference between current tree density and above-ground carbon stocks relative to the potential optimum. The highest tree density was 66 trees ha−1, whereas the average density across all sampled parking lots was less than half that (27.2 ± 22.6 trees ha−1). The average annual carbon sequestration potential per parking lot was 1390 ± 2503 kg ha−1. Planting density was positively related to annual sequestration rates, whilst parking lot age and the mean annual rainfall of the town had no influence. Mean tree species richness per parking lot was 2.3 ± 1.8 species, with a positive relationship to parking lot size, but not to mean annual rainfall of the site. The majority of trees (62.5%) in parking lots were alien species, although newer parking lots had significantly greater proportions of indigenous species. There was no difference in mean annual carbon sequestration rate per tree between indigenous and alien trees species. Low tree densities and small parking lot areas constrained the potential for earning carbon credits from trees in parking lots. Nonetheless, planners and designers need to be more aware of the potential contribution of trees towards urban sustainability.
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- Date Issued: 2013
Perceptions and use of public green space is influenced by its relative abundance in two small towns in South Africa
- Authors: Shackleton, Charlie M , Blair, Andrew
- Date: 2013
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/181026 , vital:43688 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landurbplan.2013.01.011"
- Description: The challenges in planning and maintaining urban public green spaces in poor towns of the developing world differ markedly from those of the developed world. This paper reports on residents’ perceptions, use and willingness to get involved in urban public green space (PGS) issues in two poor towns in South Africa which differed markedly in the amount of PGS. The disparities in PGS between the two towns were also replicated in different suburbs within the two towns. We hypothesised that levels of dissatisfaction would be highest in those suburbs and the town with the least PGS. The results indicated that the distance from residents’ homesteads to the nearest PGS was similar across towns and suburbs. Most residents felt that having accessible PGS was important, and the majority agreed that there was insufficient PGS in their respective town and suburb, and that the local municipality did not do enough in providing PGS or maintaining what there was. The level of dissatisfaction with the amount and condition of PGS was generally highest in the suburbs and town with the least PGS. Many felt that the municipality had insufficient commitment and funds to adequately maintain PGS, and consequently the willingness of residents to get involved through either a commitment of time or funds was high. The more affluent town and suburbs were willing to pay more than the poorer ones, and the poorer ones were willing to provide more time than the more affluent ones.
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- Date Issued: 2013
Playing with the forest: Invasive alien plants, policy and protected areas in India
- Authors: Kannan, Ramesh , Shackleton, Charlie M , Shaanker, Ramanan U
- Date: 2013
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/182334 , vital:43821 , xlink:href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/24092395"
- Description: Protected areas (PAs) are inviolate and invaluable landscapes that promote the in situ conservation of endangered, threatened and rare species. Accordingly, and in keeping with this definition, PA managers ensure that PAs are free from fire, poaching, grazing, non-timber forest products collection, mining, etc. In India, following the Indian Wildlife (Protection) Act (1972), there are today 102 and 515 National Parks and Wildlife Sanctuaries respectively. Many of these have in recent decades been heavily threatened by the spread of invasive alien plant species, notable among them being Lantana and Eupatorium. These species may have usurped as yet unestimated number of native plants and fauna, besides depressing the reproduction of native plant species. In fact, it is realized that the threat to biodiversity by invasive alien species (IAS) may only be second to that of fragmentation. Yet there seems to be no major attempts to eradicate, contain or manage IAS in PAs. Ironically, the justification for the lack of action lies in the definition of PAs - that they need to be kept inviolate and therefore above any active intervention. In this article we bring home this serious contradiction in the approach to management of PAs in India and discuss the philosophical origins of this practice. We argue that if we are to protect our PAs from the serious scourge of invasive species, we would have to relook at the policy governing PA management and revise it to be more inclusive than exclusive.
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- Date Issued: 2013
Reconstructing the history of introduction and spread of the invasive species, Lantana, at three spatial scales in India
- Authors: Kannan, Ramesh , Shackleton, Charlie M , Shaanker, Ramanan U
- Date: 2013
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/181015 , vital:43687 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s10530-012-0365-z"
- Description: This study sought to reconstruct the history of Lantana invasion and spread in India by considering two questions; (a) from where, by who, and when were Lantana species introduced into India? and (b) given its long history in the country, is it still spreading or more or less stable? We critically evaluated the archival and historical information on plant imports by the European powers into India during the period before and after British colonization. We then reconstructed the path of spread by analyzing the spatio-temporal patterns of occurrence and distribution of Lantana in India at both the national and local scale using a GIS platform. The spread of Lantana across the globe started as early as the 1690s. The European colonial powers moved the plants from Latin America to Europe and to their colonial countries in the early 1800s. Lantana species were introduced in India from 1807 onwards and thereafter the colonial powers moved this plant across the country. Following its introduction into India, the spread of Lantana across the country, either through subsequent multiple introductions from Europe to different British cantonments, or through moving the plants between cantonments within India, were reasonably rapid spanning only a few decades. In the absence of a rigorous control program, the spread of Lantana has gone on unabated and thereby impacting both wildlife and biodiversity.
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- Date Issued: 2013
The challenges of alleviating poverty through ecological restoration: Insights from South Africa's “working for water” program
- Authors: McConnachie, Matthew M , Cowling, Richard M , Shackleton, Charlie M , Knight, Andrew T
- Date: 2013
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/181003 , vital:43680 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1111/rec.12038"
- Description: Public works programs have been posited as win–win solutions for achieving societal goals for ecological restoration and poverty alleviation. However, little is documented regarding the challenges of implementing such projects. A commonly cited example is South Africa's invasive alien plant control program “Working for Water” (WfW), which aims to create employment via restoring landscapes invaded with alien plants. Recent studies have raised questions over the effectiveness of this program in achieving both its restoration and poverty alleviation goals. This is the first study that we are aware of that synthesizes the knowledge of managers on both the poverty alleviation and environmental outcomes of a public works project. Herein, we sought to understand the challenges and constraints faced by 23 WfW managers in fulfilling the program's environmental and poverty alleviation objectives. We found that the challenges most frequently cited by managers related to the capacity and competence of managers and teams, followed by challenges relating to planning and coordination, specifically the challenges of being flexible and adaptive when constrained by operating procedures. In addition, the current focus on maximizing short-term employment was perceived by some as limiting the efficiency and long-term effectiveness of the WfW program in achieving its environmental and social goals. We suggest that improving the conditions and duration of employment could improve the effectiveness of invasive alien plant control and ecological outcomes. We also suggest that WfW measure the impacts of their interventions through an adaptive management approach so that it can learn and adapt to the challenges it faces.
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- Date Issued: 2013