Nature Ecrogrow

Careful consideration the locations overall potential should be taken before a microalgae production plant is considered. To avoid selecting a site with conflicting land use, it was important to identify areas that were not previously developed or used for a more economically viable use. As the world’s population increases there will be a greater demand for biofuels but also an increased demand for land as food production. Food verses fuel is the dilemma regarding the risk of diverting farmland or crops for liquid biofuel production to the detriment of the food supply on a global scale .More recent GIS-based algal biofuel production facility site targeting includes estimates of production potential . This approach has been used widely in the US and other parts of the world with excellent results. The approach focused primarily on the physical characteristics of optimal locations including land-use/land-cover and slope, and climatic considerations such as insulation,flood and drain tray temperature,precipitation and evaporation .

Iran is a very historic country with a very deep culture that lies in the Middle East bordering Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Turkmenistan and Turkey. Iranians consist of several ethnic groups who have been living peacefully with each other since the beginning of the central government in Iran 550BC, Achaemenians. Iran has a rapid population growth and despite it having some of the largest gas and oils reserves in the world it is still trying to develop renewable energy sources. Iranian algae biofuel projects is being carries out by researchers iat Tarbiat Modaras University, Tehran and Shiraz University who succeeded in producing green fuel from algae .Lake Urmia is a salt lake in the North West in Iran which presents itself as an ideal location for a microalgae production plant with many advantages such as suitable water salinity, plenty of sunlight and warm temperatures. See Figure 3.A salt lake in Iran has given rise to a new species of algae for biofuel . Lake Urimia’s natural environment is very well suited to microalgae cultivation with algal blooms not being an uncommon occurrence on the region. The “Red Tide” is actually the result of an algal bloom,an event in which marine or fresh water algae accumulate rapidly in the water.

Australia is a very vast land with multiple locations in the North Western corner that could be considered as having the ideal conditions for microalgae biofuel production. Western Australia already hosts the largest commercial microalgae production plant in the world,nft hydroponic the Dunaliella salina plant producing the valuable carotenoid B-carotene from this algae . This plant is owned and operated by Badishece Anilan-& Sodafabrik  since 1989in the Hutt Lagoon Pilbara region of Western Australia for the production of natural food coloring, demonstrating the regions suitability for microalgae production. As shown in Figure 4Many other locations in the same region offer good potential for the cultivation of microalgae that can be utilized for other applications such as biofuel. Western Australia  specifically, has several key advantages for large-scale microalgae for biofuel cultivation including abundant sunshine, extensive land area unsuitable for agriculture, an abundant water source in the Indian Ocean, existing infrastructure in several potential locations, high local demand for fuel and stable political conditions . The USA has many locations that have been identified as potentially viable locations to grow microalgae for biofuel with particular focus on the states from the Pacific Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico.

The Salton Sea Lake in Southern California has good environmental, geographical and climatic conditions to suit microalgae cultivation. Over the years the Salton Sea featured in several generic engineering cost analysis, including one that developed cost estimates for a pilot-scale facility and full scale  microalgae fuels production on the shores of this lake . Salton Sea Lake is suffering from environmental damage as a result of local agriculture and therefore a microalgae cultivation plant could also offer advantages in assisting in water purification. This large , shallow, inland lake receives about 10,000 tons of nitrogen and phosphorous per year from agricultural drainage waters and other sources, resulting in massive algal blooms, fish kills and other negative environmental impacts. See Figure 5 . As part of this paper one of the three locations is to be selected for further study and analysis so that a design and operating cost model can be created. This model can be used as an indicator to determine the viability and problems that may arise in such a project. The selection criteria must take into account all of the influencing factors that may impact on the project helping to determine its chances of successful operation. The influencing factors are of a very broad nature with consideration given to, but not limited to climate, topography, environmental risks, local infrastructure and local political and economic issues.

However, because of the shortage of investment in public services and infrastructure, a set of social problems emerged,such as the medical treatment, housing problem, and the education problem of the poor population. The health conditions of the households were a barrier to the prevention of falling into “disease-poverty-disease” and breaking down intergenerational poverty caused by poor sanitation. At the same time, for families with housing problems, they need the transfer income to achieve poverty reduction because of a low level of asset possession. Thus, we need to improve the living and health conditions of poor households to complete poverty alleviation. The robust demand for quality products,mobile vertica farm the development of the market and supportive institutional frameworks are the driving forces for smart,sustainable European agriculture. This trend is expected to continue, as the growth in demand for organic products steadily outpaces the corresponding supply even during the current financial recession.

European organic farmland reached 7.6 million hectares  in 2008, which corresponds to 4.1% of the total utilized agricultural area and accounts for almost 190,000 active holdings in the sector. In Greece, the organic sector has experienced even more rapid growth, as organically cultivated area increased from 591 ha in 1993 to309,822 ha in 2010 . The structure of the 24,000 organic holdings primarily consists of arable crops , permanent crops  and permanent pasture . This portfolio depicts a significant change in the make-up of organic production since its early phase in the 1990s, when permanent crops were the main organic production category and organic olive trees , vineyards  and citrus fruits were dominant. Today, the diversification of organic crops has been increasing as crops with superior market prospects such as cereals , forages , and vegetables and fruits  have gradually been introduced .Recent data confirm that fruits and vegetables are the most important category of organic products that consumers purchase.The growing demand for organic fruits creates new opportunities for Greek farmerswho have opted for the production of organic cherries. Greek cherry producers have recently followed an export oriented policy to reach new markets and have gradually managed to build their commercial links and strengthen their presence in European markets.

This strategy is the outcome of a carefully designed and systematically implemented approach in the areas of standardisation, promotion and post-harvest physiology. These solutions were offered to producers who had adopted innovative farm practices, modernised their farms, and introduced new cherry varieties. The interest of Greek farmers in organic cherry production appears to be equally as strong as interest in conventional production despite the increased risk and uncertainty involved.Today, organic cherry production in Greece is limited and covers only 138 ha. The total area for cherry cultivationis 9700 ha, accounting for the production of approximately 42,000 tonnes of cherries in the last decade.The main cherry-producing areas are in Northern Greece and, more specifically, vertical farming rack in the region of Central Macedonia,where 77.9% of cherry orchards and 64.2% of total cherry production are located. In the last decade, the number of trees has shown an upward trend. The average production increased by 23% from 37,122 tonnes to 45,892 tonnes . An upward trend in the farm-gate price of cherries was the main driving factor behind the modernisation and restructuring of the sector. Consumers’ perceptions of the health-promoting properties of cherries   and the high convenience level of cherries  create favourable conditions for the further development of the sector.

These new varieties cover observed gaps during the picking period and produce higher-quality products with increased export potential. Moreover, agricultural cooperatives and producer organisations have applied advanced technological systems for post-harvest treatments that prevent quality loss, expand the timing of supply and ultimately maximise returns.This study explores whether the expansion of organic cherry production generates satisfactory economic results for farmers and whether it can thus be regarded as a promising alternative productive activity. Cherry farmers face significant yield and price risks, which, combined with the high initial cost of orchard establishment,provoke difficult investment decisions. This study applies the stochastic efficiency with respect to a function, introduced by Hardaker et al. , to account for the risk and uncertainty of such investments. Therefore,the evaluation of the farmers’ option of turning to organic cultivation, under risk and uncertainty, reveals the real dimensions of such an attempt and allows for policy suggestions that could facilitate farmers’ decisions.In addition, this study explores the consequences of the exclusion of the fruit sector from the Greek organic policy scheme on the economic outcomes of organic cherry producers. We thus perform a sensitivity analysis to investigate the economic outcomes of organic cherry production under various levels of subsidies. To explore the consequences of the financial crisis on the risky investment decisions, we also perform a sensitivity analysison changes in the net present value caused by increases in the discount rate level.

Operational risk of SMEs and farming households is one of the major risk clusters to be considered for RCBs with regard to assessing credit risk of their loan portfolio. Due to the nature of SMEs and lacking of data, SME failure rates are very often difficult to track properly. Two of the main reasons businesses suffer unexpected closures are identified as insufficient capitalisation and lack of planning.When RCBs consider a SME for a load, they promptly look at all the planning documents and financial models applicable to the firm. Usually, the bank requires three years of taxes, current proof of any income, a financial statement and, if the company is already operating, financials for the company for at least two years. As such, banks take into account only a snapshot of the firm’s current financial status and performance but do not consider the ability of the applicant to bring the loan to maturity, led grow lights which depends on a number of non-financial factors and future development of the economy.The age of the firm is also a factor to be considered as newly established firms are likely to be less stress in the earlier stage of the business development.

Hudson suggests that a newly formed company is most likely to have a “honeymoon eriod” before being at real risk of failure as it takes time to build up problems and for creditors to get organized into formal insolvency proceedings.His finding suggests that young companies form the majority of the liquidated companies and that a company needs at least nine years to be regarded as established. However, he also finds evidence that a newly formed company is most likely to have a “honeymoon period” of around two years.SMEs often rely heavily on trade finance from suppliers when bank finance is not available to them. Moreover, small companies extend trade credit to customers as a means of gaining and retaining customers. The use and extension of trade credit makes the business vulnerable to cash flow difficulties.A potentially powerful addition to operational risks is the occurrence of “event” data, such as evidence of a company defaulting on credit agreements and/or trade credit payments or variables representing operational risk, and regulatory compliance, such as whether the firm is late to file its financial statements.

CEOs who have personal affairs and family problems also considerably affect the normal operations of a business. Some of these “default events” are available from local government agencies and media. They should be used to adjust risk scores more frequently than is possible with annual accounting data.The number of court cases against the firm is also a key indicator of potential failures. For example, a county economic court judgment , which arises from a claim made to the court following the non-payment of unsecured debt can be a potential factor. The accumulation of CECJs and/or CECJs against companies that are already showing signs of financial distress is likely to be an effective predictor of insolvency. In the financial variables, our variable selection reflects the importance of working capital for the survival of SMEs firms and farming households. The literature on trade credit suggests that smaller firms both extend more credit to customers and take extended credit from suppliers when facing decline and financial stress.Trade credit forms a large proportion of a firm’s liabilities,strawberry gutter system especially for small firms.In the analysis model, the accounting-based variables are used as one cluster of principal components to predict which firms will become insolvent and go into bankruptcy procedures.

Return on Capital Employed  was widely used as an indicator of performance in large firms. Frecknall-Hughes et al. note that ROCE is a particularly poor indicator of performance in SMEs and may be defined in many different ways giving rise to widely differing values of ROCE. Working capital is one of the most important variables in this cluster.A number of variables reflect a firm’s working capital. The quick assets/current assets variable determines the extent to which current assets consist of liquid assets.The net cash/net worth variable measures net cash as a proportion of net worth.Other variables reflecting the working capital cycle are total liabilities/quick assets,trade debtors/total assets, trade creditors/trade debtors, trade creditors/totally abilities and inventories/working capital. Retained profit/total assets is a measure of the cumulative profitability of the firm, its leverage and the age of the company. Firms that are unable to accumulate profit from sales will have lower values of this variable. Short-term debt/net worth measures the changes in net worth and retained profit/total assets year on year. Financially distressed firms are more likely to have a declining and/or negative net worth.

Even considering the trend towards improvement in the naturalness performance,particularly, for the period 2001-2016, the Northern Region of Rio Grande do Sul continues under the influence of pressure factors related to the continuity of agricultural and non-agricultural anthropic land uses. This trend is supported by the predominance of areas with medium/low and low naturalness ,categorized by UI values between > 0.5 to 1.0. The predominance of agricultural anthropic areas reverting to landscapes with low naturalness is also reported in other studies. A cluster analysis between the land use area values, together with a naturalness levels, and the time period , identified two scenery of ecological sustainability for the Northern Region of Rio Grande doSul, over a 30-year period. One with a impaired ecological sustainability related to agricultural anthropic area values, related to higher naturalness UI values, hydroponic nft channel particularly, for 1986 and 1991; and another with anon-impaired ecological sustainability reveled by the increase of natural and aquatic areas, associated to lower naturalness UI values ,for 2001, 2011 and 2016.

The grouping related to the first scenario is due to the reduction of the agricultural anthropic areas in relation to the other years, while the second scenario  is related to the increase of natural vegetation and aquatic areas compared to previous periods.Compromising conditions represented by UI values  were related to the anthropic  areas, while non-compromising conditions to ecological sustainability represented by UI values  were related to aquatic and natural areas , mainly due to the largest patches of native vegetation in the region. That scenery supports the relevance of wetlands, water bodies and native vegetation to maintain the naturalness and ecological sustainability of the study area. The transition from agricultural anthropic to natural land use resulted in a gain in the stock of natural capital and an increase in naturalness, promoting the improvement of the ecological sustainability of the Northern Region of Rio Grande do Sul, over a 30-year period. Credit risk is a major risk faced by financial institutions as it takes up to 60.0% of risks that banks normally face. CRM has long been the focus of governments, regulatory authorities and financial institutions as most major banking problems have been either explicitly or indirectly caused by weaknesses in CRM.

However, Chinese financial institutions have been facing huge credit risk exposure reflected in the high level of bad loan.In China, rural commercial banks were originally derived from rural credit co-operatives that specifically work for rural population with low income.China’s RCBs were developed under the authorities’ initiatives to provide financial services support to rural areas and Sannong  related business.Sannong refers to agriculture, rural areas and peasants. China’s RCBs are different from the majority of rural credit cooperatives in other countries whose business operation focused only on agriculture,nft grow system rural areas and farmers. In the Chinese case, RCBs also serve SMEs as their key customers and provide them with lending service. There has been a significant increase in the number of RCBs in China since the beginning of this century and the number had reached85 up to the end of 2010. At the end of 2010, the total assets of Chinese RCBs registered RMB2.8 trillion, the total liabilities RMB2.6 trillion and the after-tax profit RMB27.99 billion. Chinese RCBs took a rising proportion in banking financial institutions from 1.15% in 2006 to 2.90% in 2010. At the end of 2010, the non-performing loan ratio of Chinese RCBs turned out to be 2.34% and the balance of bad loans amounted to RMB28.82 billion, an increase of RMB1.71 billion from the beginning of 2010.

RCBs became the sole category that featured the rising bad loan balance among various banks in China. RCBs are exposed to risks inherent to specific rural commercial banking business and in particular, Sannong-related loans and services, in addition to usual risks faced by financial institutions. For many RCBs, their business focus is to provide high-quality financial services to SMEs in rural and county areas and serve the needs of Sannong. Consequently, RCBs had generally presented relatively higher risks than large city commercial banks,partially because their primary source of income is interest income and their ability to generate fee and commission income is limited.At the moment, many RCBs adopt the traditional CRM approaches used by large commercial banks. It is questionable if these approaches would be effective in managing credit risks of RCBs that operate in a different business environment.

The so-called cententism refers to the village with a spiritual center, the villagers are close to this center,he stressed a subjective psychological state, with social character. In addition to the function of sacrifice, most of the monasteries in the village are responsible for the function of public activities, public places through activities to bring the villagers together, creating a human connection, to meet the spiritual needs of the villagers, enhance the villagers’ sense of belonging and embodies the cohesion and dedication of the village’s religious belief culture. The monastery bears the spiritual core and cultural function in the village, which provides space for the development of public activities, such as folk cultural performances with local characteristics, sacrifices and other activities, which enrich the spiritual and cultural life of the villagers. Religion Faith transforms from intangible to tangible through the organization of activities, which is also away of cultural heritage. Mosques have had an impact on the form of roads in the village of Datun, where roads should lead to mosques, 4x8ft rolling benches so that villagers can participate in religious activities.

The main road in the village is centered on a mosque or its square, spreading to the surrounding population, with a small radiographic road.Intersections exist in the form of T-shaped , in order to ensure that the villagers have a quiet living and sacrificial environment, the road is in a T-shaped shape, with the characteristics of communication and poor, conducive to reducing external interference, while the characteristics of winding twists and turns are conducive to weakening.The impact of the wind environment. In the layout of the building, the layout of the residential buildings presents a dense feature, the density of residential buildings around the temple is higher than the density of the other areas of the village, and the temple surrounding the residence and the temple will be separated, the temple will be surrounded by a piece of open space, If there is not enough space, a road may be left as a partition,mainly for the daily public gathering in the village to leave a space.In the building orientation, the buildings around the temple are generally the same as the orientation of the temple, while in other areas of the village, the orientation of the building is freer. In the metropolitan areas, trees can be advantageous in creating an environment that is highly systematic as they contribute to the large production of oxygen as well as the reduction of gaseous pollutants, hence improving the general air quality.

However, it is also important to note that, tree planting in the cities requires excellent planning which includes the execution of a well-planned and highly efficient tree management system by the local municipalities.Successful tree growth depends on the ability to manage such factors as pests, diseases, water, fertilizer requirements,flood and drain table etc. Even though the data stemming from the monitoring of tree management activities could only be tracke donce trees have been planted but there are some studies which have demonstrated that the data stemming would affected by the tree development. Nevertheless,this is not an overnight process and intensive sources with higher number of datasets are frequently difficult to find and access.Quantitative forecasting for weather element such as rainfall, humidity, temperature,and others is valuable in agricultural areas. This is because, factoring in the weather element in the tree-management system or planning could substantially drive down the operational costs associated to it. Better scheduling of activities pertaining to the management of trees planted can also be derived if weather forecast is being taken into consideration as an important part of the planning process. This, therefore, has demonstrated that there is a need to innovate the existing system as to incorporate the weather element due to Malaysia’s climatic conditions.

Weather forecast is not only crucial in the urban planning to mitigate the risks stemming from weather that include floods and landslides but also in the general management of trees at the local recreational facilities and parks. Weather forecasting is a challenging activity. The challenging nature of weather forecasting can be derived from the complex atmospheric processes that are usually not presented via a perfectly linear correlation. Comparing the traditional and numerical methods, ANN is found to be the best approach for the weather prediction. According to the research by  that compares linear and non-linear technique for rainfall prediction, ANN models are having higher correlations compared to the linear models, indicating better generalization capacity of the non-linear models in predicting by producing lower error and fitting better with the measured data.Weather forecasting can be done by leveraging on the Numerical Weather Model  a statistical and Machine Learning-based model.

Human activities especially in the land use pattern of the farming communities around the NGPs, as cattle grazers encroach on the game park pastures have resulted in an increased incidence of the HP . This risk is higher in the Western region, and as communities continue to move long distances in search of water and pastures in the long dry seasons which have been worsened by the climatic changes in the region, probably accounting for the higher observed DRR over that in the Central region.The current livestock policy  has yielded undesirable effects that have continued to undermine the development of the livestock industry . This has led to the proliferation of the HP burden due to the maintenance of chronic carriers within the communities. This would be due to the fact that most farmers find the services costly and would prefer not allowing the veterinarian to visit them  coupled with limited supervision of the veterinary drug industry by National Drug Authority ,blueberry grow pot which has led to the development of antibiotic and acaricide resistance in the farming communities which has been induced by the farmers.

The current dilemma facing the food animal drug use is probably due to the lack of appropriate guidance on proper drug usage, medication to use for a particular parasite, probably due to the poor Government policy in the livestock industry , as well as inadequate supervision of the drug industry  and ineffective extension service delivery as a result of shortage of professional human resource in these communities. This is further worsened by the poor attitude amongst farmers as they seldom rely on district veterinary laboratories  for a diagnosis,to gain a better knowledge on their individual herd challenges before treatment is instituted . This would probably also be due to the few veterinary laboratories in the countryside or the shortage of human resource to operate them at the local Government level, thus leading to the development of this trend in farming practices which have continued to favor the proliferation of HPs within Uganda despite all the various policies in place. This would be due to the seasonal variations as the tick population increases exponentially during the rainy season and logistic regression showed no significant association for the other months except for the Months of December/February . This would probably have been due to the vector epidemiological dynamics as the tick  challenge is highest in the rainy seasons, thus the observed increases in the HP challenge, and farmers are often vigilant to intervene and administer treatments.

In the dry season, most of the severely challenged animals died due to increased stress levels from water shortage,hydroponic bucket limited pastures and severe mineral deficiencies in addition to the suppressed immune system as a result of the chronic infections due to HP. Cattle were observed to come down with infection as the dry season intensified  and more livestock losses were registered from several farms. Statistical analysis showed there was no significant association between cattle that had been treated and those that had not been treated by the farmers in this study. This would probably be due to the fact that farmer treatments are often ineffective due to their failure to seek professional assistance and adherence to dosage regiments, as well as poor diagnosis of HP conditions with other differential infections  within the community as they seldom rely on laboratory diagnosis. The current Government policy regarding veterinary drug usage has contributed to the development of drug resistance in the cattle in several farms, which has led to the proliferation of HP in the rural communities especially. Farmer treatment efficacy on the individual HP was further analyzed and it was discovered infection rate was higher in treated than non-treated groups as shown in Table 8.

This observation was due to the fact that resistance had developed in the Ugandan cattle to the antibiotics that had overly been abused over the years . There was no association between age and the infection of the cattle with HP despite of the fact that majority of infected animals were adults,which would be due to the fact that adult cattle move great distances in search of pastures and the yearlings are kept nearby the farm thus less exposed to the risk of HP.The increasing HP burden is attributed to the farming practices, increased antibiotic and acaricide resistance as well as failure by farmers to adhere to the therapeutical regiment for effective treatment, and epidemiological pattern of the dominant ticks in the region  as well as the current government policy. The findings,together with those of previous studies, suggest that eradication of hemo-parasites is not feasible unless there areradical changes implemented, and that current practices are expensive and given the indigenous nature of the breeds, also epidemiologically unsound  .

They indicate that residents used the natural advantage of this area  to develop animal husbandry. However, the changes in the montane steppe belt were seen to greatly affect the scale of animal husbandry and the income of herdsmen . To address the challenges of agricultural production in mountain areas, farmers who are relatively better-off, tend to move along an altitude gradient—to the lowlands . The results of analysis of income inequality using the Gini index and Lorenz curves for income distribution are shown in Table 4 and Figure 3 respectively.The Gini coefficient for the pooled sample was 0.97. The analysis of income data disaggregated by farmland location, gender of household head, access to extension services, and membership to community-based financial institutions, revealed that the latter had the most equalizing effect on income. The Gini coefficient for farmers who were not members of any community-based was 0.77 implying that non-membership to these institutions had a more inequalising effect on income.

Importantly,4×8 flood tray income inequality was the highest among farmers with farmland locatedfar from homestead . Overall, these findings support the argument that the size of households, access to extension service, credit access, and membership to social groups determine income distribution .Unexpectedly however, income inequality among farmers who accessed extension services was higher than that of their counterpart farmers who did not access the services . We attribute this to variations in personal household characteristics , and economic characteristics  as indicated in our results of coefficients for the independent multiple linear regression models presented in Appendix 3. The coefficients for age of household, size of farmed land, and value of household assets in the model of farmers who accessed extension services statistically significantly determined household income with p-values of 0.001, 0.007,and 0.000 respectively. Before running our model to get the descriptive statistics such as mean, media,range and interquantile range, we generated the P-P and histogram plots of regression standardized residual against continuous predictor variables and used them to test the assumption of normality .

Where they vary more from the straight line,then the data could be considered to be not normally distributed, otherwise the data were considered to be normally distributed . The P-P and histogram plots add value to regression analysis as they can expose a biased model far more effectively than the numeric output by displaying problematic patterns in the residuals. If the model is biased then the results cannot be trusted. If the residual plots look good, ebb flow tray then the analyst can proceed with the assessment of model statistics such as the adjusted R-squared , which is also called the coefficient of determination, or the coefficient of multiple determination for multiple regression. It is used to measure the model’s goodness-of-fit and it shows the percentage of the dependent variable variation that a linear model explains.Graphically, it evaluates the scatter of the data points around the fitted regression line . The coefficients of our step by step multiple linear regression model for the pooled sample suggest that household assets, size of farmland, and age of household head positively influenced household income while the household size negatively influenced the household income. These results can be compared with findings of other previous studies. In Urban Ethiopia for example, Abebe  employed Fields’  regression based on decomposition technique to investigate the factors influencing income inequality using cross-sectional analysis.The study found age and household size to be negatively influencing expenditure and household income contributing to widen income inequality. In Malaysia, Ayyashand Sek  found sex and age of household heads to be contributing negatively to inequality and had inequality decreasing effects, with negative impact on inequality. Elsewhere, in South Korea, Shin analysed data linking survey data with administrative data shows that wealth, employment status, family size, and education were significant contributors of income inequality.

If our EC scheme is implemented, we believe that the inhabitants of Bangui town could get ecological compensation funding for four reasons. The first reason is that they provide ecological services values. The second is the opportunity cost of the locals to protect the environment. The third is poverty because of geographic reasons, such as severe undulating surface and lack of water and soil resources.The last reason is that the development of karst areas is seriously lagging behind for historical reasons, and reducing regional differences is one of the Chinese government’s objectives. Past EC projects did not have the desired effects as the projects were implemented in wide-ranging areas, e.g., the whole of west China or the whole area around the southern parts of the Yangtze River. In addition, the compensation to the farmers was too small and it was impossible to mobilize any enthusiasm from them . The farmers definitely need a special EC to improve their living standards while achieving ecosystem restoration.

Sachs and Reid stressed that environmental goals cannot be attained without also addressing poverty; similarly,vertical grow system addressing poverty is essential for improving the environment; both need additional resources, particularly in developing nations. On the basis of field measurements, literature study and analysis, we find that it has become increasingly necessary to establish a particular Ecological Compensation scheme for karst areas, to save the rapidly degrading natural forest ecosystem and reduce poverty. Due to the particularity of the karst region of southwest China, we have built an EC scheme that is not restricted by opportunity costs or the value of ecosystem services or other factors. It is more suited to local conditions, and stresses ease of operation and promotion. Land degradation due to use of unsustainable agricultural practices has affected many communities in rural mountain areas.

The available evidence from the study by Salvati  for example, shows that rural communities in inland,mountainous districts of Italy were particularly exposed to the extensive phenomena of land degradation and abandonment caused by bourgeoning human populations. Elsewhere,flower pot in the Bolivian mountain valley of north Chuquisaca,the study by Kessler and Stroosnijder  also provides similar evidence of soil degradation which caused dwindling availability of water and nutrient resources.They stressed the need for urgent integrated action with regard to soil and water conservation. More interesting is perhaps the argument that population growth in mountain areas can lead to land degradation or enhancement or aspects of all . In their paper, Templeton and Scherr conclude that increases in the labour-land endowment ratios of households and local land demand and labour supply increase the opportunity cost of land relative to labour, consequently, people use mountainous land resources more intensively for production and consumption, thus tending to deplete resources and significantly alter habitats.

Yet, capital- and labour-intensive methods of replenishing or improving soil productivity may become economically more important and attractive, especially when production systems promise greater returns than that from the systems which degrade the land . Agroforestry is one of these systems. It entails a range of land-use and farming systems which involve the deliberate growing of woody perennials  on the same land-management units as agricultural crops and or animals, in some form of spatial arrangement or temporal sequence . Agroforestry has huge potential to control land degrading and reduce vulnerability to poverty in mountain areas. It can help rural farmers in these areas to diversify and sustain production for increased social,economic and environmental benefits. In particular, agroforestry is crucial to small holder farmers in mountain areas because it can enhance their food supply,income and health .Agroforestry systems offer great solutions as they can be developed in unfavourable conditions where production would either rapidly degrade the land or otherwise would not be possible . They have the potential to mitigate land degradation problems through both the service and production functions played by the different components of agroforestry.

The most important challenge or potential road block to future progress of coral farming and reef rehabilitation overall is largely related to climate change associated conditions, in combination with poor land use management and weak governance. Therefore, human activities must be integrated into the equation for coral farming and reef rehabilitation success. This suggests that positioning of coral farms is fundamental. Special considerations should be given to factors such as: 1) environmental history of each proposed coral farming site; 2) environmental conditions of adjacent reef communities; 3) sediment movement ; 4) distance of sources of runoff; 5)exposure to wave action, winter storm and hurricane swells; 6) distance to large sand deposits ; and 7) magnitude and extent of recreational activities impacting the system, even with so called “low-impact” activities. Therefore, carrying capacity and the limit of acceptable change need to be determined for such sites.

Successful coral farming and reef rehabilitation will also require functional synchronized and integrated management efforts to address land use patterns, water quality issues and fishing activities  in order to improve ecosystem conditions for enhancing coral and fish recruitment, dutch bucket hydroponic and overall biodiversity recovery . It will be critical to fully implement LBSP controls, as well as appropriate watershed-scale management plans to control runoff impacts. Runoff-associated bleaching events and colony mortality can be highly clone-specific, as well as site-specific and event-specific. No generalizations can be made because not all coral clones respond the same, or because impacts from any given extreme rainfall event can produce different impacts on different locations, and on different times of the year. The combination of high SST and factors such as meso-scale water quality can also have significant impacts on project outcomes and should be closely monitored. Achieving successful local management of reefs is vital to maintain the sustained net production of coral farms, and of reef structure, and therefore the provision of the important ecosystem services that they provide.

These measures are also vital for buying time for reefs while global action on climate change is implemented . Any problem or imbalance in any of these elements will have in the long run a negative impact on rehabilitation success. If such impacts occur in combination with increasing forecasted climate change-related negative impacts in the near future and increased reef degradation rates, they could make community-based coral reef rehabilitation more challenging. In combination with declining reef condition and increased inability of coral and fish larvae to identify suitable natural reef bottoms for settlement , dutch buckets system it could potentially drive rapidly declining, transient coral reefs into the slippery slope to slime . It provided a framework to analyze ecosystem changes in terms of impacts on human well-being. Degradations in the environment are now seen as the increasing ecological costs of achieving this well-being. This increases the legitimacy of conservation and restoration policies, as this new reference framework offers a positive and ethno-centered approach to environmental protection. It entails a win-win relationship where services appear as common goods or as “the dividends that society receives from natural capital ”.

This change in the frame of reference requires a reassessment of actors’ perceptions of these services in order to adapt public policies and promote collective learning processes towards their protection and/or their development. At an individual level, perceptions are determining factors to understand behavior evolution in the face of new standards for ecosystem preservation . At a collective level, they condition adhesion and trust in the institutional systems responsible for the implementation of these measures.The ecosystem service approach involves several stages: the identification , the monetization, the privatization, and the marketing of services , partially adopted by the Ring et al. . Identification is a key stage which conditions the recognition of the value given to these services and the acceptation of policies. Yet, when compared to the other aspects, it is seldom the subject of research.

These included important events such as tropical storm Isaac , which also produced waves of approximately 4 m across coral farms. During late October 2012 long-period swells from Hurricane Sandy produced 5 m NW breaking waves, in combination with bottom swells across the region, and produced Doppler estimates of 13 cm. Another important event in December2012 was tropical storm Rafael, which produced not much rain, but generated 3 – 4 m swells. Bottom swells resulted in significant sediment resuspension. During the first 9 months of 2013 Culebra Island was initially impacted by three consecutive months of very dry conditions , followed by a few significant isolated strong rainfall episodes associated to the mid-Atlantic through positioning over Culebra. These included extreme events during late March  and a strong tropical wave during mid June . Then, tropical storm Chantal  produced some significant rain bands over eastern Puerto Rico and Culebra, with 2.5 m-high SW swells and a monthly rainfall anomaly of 215%. Tropical storm Gabrielle produced about 18 cm of rain over Culebra in about 48 hours. Runoff impacts by recurrent storm events, particularly those associated to passing tropical storms, hydroponic grow table were magnified by the recurrent practice of the Culebra Island municipal government of clearing all vegetation across several small creeks and natural drainage channels adjacent to urban areas as a preventive measure to manage potential flooding.

The end product of such practices is extreme runoff pulse events and major erosion of ephemeral stream banks with significant concomitant turbidity impacts on costal ecosystems. In spite of hurricane and extreme rainfall impacts during 2011, A. cervicornis farming during the first year was highly successful. Corals in “A frame” units showed 84% and 78% survival rate at BTA and PSO, respectively,after the first year. Survival rate at PME reached only 57% due to significant mechanical impacts by Hurricane Irene during August 2011, which caused localized destruction of some of the farming units and significant immediate and delayed coral mortality due to SDR and a White Band Disease-like condition.Also, frequent extreme rainfall events caused recurrent sediment-laden, nutrient-loaded turbid runoff impacts.PME, as well as BTA, received substantial recurrent runoff impacts. PME farms were eventually relocated after September 2011 to an alternative site adjacent to BTA, where surviving fragments showed an outstanding recovery. Temporal and management effects significantly influenced coral colony survival rates in “A frame” units, but clone variation did not, which means that extreme rainfall events had widespread adverse impacts among all clones in the population. Most interaction effects were also highly significant.

Mean percent live tissue cover on coral farms after one year was89% at BTA, 93% at PME ,and 91% at PSO ). Coral colonies showed rapid and remarkable tissue regeneration after hurricanes and blasting impacts. This project produced important lessons for adapting future community-based coral farming and coral reefrehabilitation efforts to forecasted climate changing conditions. Lessons include aspects regarding wild population source propagule selection to maintain high genetic diversity,flood tray coral farming site selection, impacts from LBSP and the crititical significance of managing adjacent land uses, and adaptive modifications to coral farming methods to improve success under changing environmental conditions. There were also important lessons learned regarding community-based participation in coral reef management activities. Maintaining high genetic clone diversity should be a critical component of every coral aquaculture and coral reef rehabilitation project to buffer against any future impacts by disease outbreaks, other epizootics, massive bleaching or environmental variability associated to local human factors or climate change. State-of-the-art genetic characterization confirmed that the six coral clones of A. cervicornis used in coral farms in this study were different genetic individuals. Genetic diversity and structure in scleractinian corals vary significantly, reflecting the evolutionary differences between species, but also the type of genetic markers employed. Microsatellite markers were more successful at detecting weak genetic structure than mitochondrial markers, ITS or allozymes.