BACKGROUND This paper illustrates the results of a study carried out in four Regional Parks of Sicily (Italy), concerning traditional knowledge on food use of wild plant species. The main aims of the paper were: (i) to verify which wild plant species are used for food purpose in the local culture based on information provided by elderly inhabitants (ii) to verify the presence of wild plant spec...

In 1996, the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute and the Republic of Panama's Environmental Authority, with support from the United States Agency for International Development, undertook a comprehensive program to monitor the ecosystem of the Panama Canal watershed. The goals were to establish baseline indicators for the integrity of forest communities and rivers. Based on satellite image c...

Abstract Background Forests are naturally endowed to combat climate change by protecting people and livelihoods as well creating a base for sustainable economic social development. But this natural mechanism is often hampered anthropogenic activities. It therefore imperative take measures that environmentally not only mitigation but also its adaptation. This study was carried out assess the rol...

Granularity as described by Hobbs [5] is a parameter of context that restricts a) the available objects and b) the categories and properties for characterizing objects. Geographic spatial granularity is mainly determined by size, and surfaces in geography as scale-dependency. Goodchild [4] points out that one main specialty of geographic attributes is scale-specificity : A region that is assign...

Coffee agroforestry systems and secondary forests have been shown to support similar bird communities but comparing these habitat types are challenged by potential biases due to differences in detectability between habitats. Furthermore, seasonal dynamics may influence bird communities differently in different habitat types and therefore seasonal effects should be considered in comparisons. To ...

Protected area (PA) coverage is used as an indicator of biodiversity protection worldwide. The effectiveness of using PAs as indicators has been questioned due to the diversity of categories encompassed by such designations, especially in PAs established for purposes other than biodiversity protection. Although international standards have been developed by the International Union for Conservat...

Many temperate reefs are experiencing a shift towards greater abundance of tropical species in response to marine heatwaves and long-term ocean warming worldwide. Baseline data for coral communities growing high-latitude is required better understand ecosystem changes over time. In this study, we explore spatial temporal trends the distribution from 1999 2019 at 118 reef sites within five parks...

Public parks, salient locations for engaging populations in health promoting physical activity, are especially important in high-density cities. We used the System for Observing Physical Activity in Communities (SOPARC) to conduct the first-ever surveillance study of nine public parks in Hong Kong (288 observation sessions during 36 weekdays and 36 weekend days) and observed 28,585 visitors in ...

The worldwide evolution of park management has revealed the dual roles of parks in meeting nature conservation and social objectives. Sustainable tourism is able to support these roles by providing financial support to nature conservation, benefiting local communities through providing employment opportunities and capacity building as well as by maintaining visitor satisfaction. Kinabalu Park i...