Journal articles on the topic 'Soil erosion Social aspects Australia'

Abstract. Soil is a key asset of natural capital, providing a myriad of goods and ecosystem services that sustain life through regulating, supporting and provisioning roles, delivered by chemical, physical and biological processes. One of the greatest threats to soil is accelerated erosion, which raises a natural process to unsustainable levels, and has downstream consequences (e.g. economic, environmental and social). Global intensification of agroecosystems is a major cause of soil erosion which, in light of predicted population growth and increased demand for food security, will continue or increase. Elevated erosion and transport is common in agroecosystems and presents a multi-disciplinary problem with direct physical impacts (e.g. soil loss), other less tangible impacts (e.g. loss of ecosystem productivity), and indirect downstream effects that necessitate an integrated approach to effectively address the problem. Climate is also likely to increase susceptibility of soil to erosion. Beyond physical response, the consequences of erosion on soil biota have hitherto been ignored, yet biota play a fundamental role in ecosystem service provision. To our knowledge few studies have addressed the gap between erosion and consequent impacts on soil biota. Transport and redistribution of soil biota by erosion is poorly understood, as is the concomitant impact on biodiversity and ability of soil to deliver the necessary range of ecosystem services to maintain function. To investigate impacts of erosion on soil biota a two-fold research approach is suggested. Physical processes involved in redistribution should be characterised and rates of transport and redistribution quantified. Similarly, cumulative and long-term impacts of biota erosion should be considered. Understanding these fundamental aspects will provide a basis upon which mitigation strategies can be considered.

Soil erosion is an environmental problem that occurs in many parts of the world because it involves ecological, social and economic aspects. Kikim sub-watershed is part of the Musi river area, most of the topographic conditions are flat slopes (54.64%), steep slopes with a total percentage of 12.81%. Meanwhile, hydrological conditions have a maximum daily rainfall with a high category so that the potential for erosion and flooding is very high. The purpose of this study was to identify soil erosion vulnerability based on morphometric parameters. The research data used DEM-SRTM 30 meters and then extracted into a map of the sub-watershed and river networks to calculate morphometric parameters. The method used was the weighted sum analysis (WSA) with a GIS application approach. The DEM data excavation found 11 (eleven) sub-watersheds with an area ranging from 81.26 km2 to 220.50 km2, and the total length of the river was 2221.24 km. Based on the weighted results of the WSA method, two sub-watersheds (SB3 and SB7) had very high soil erosion vulnerability, moderate soil erosion vulnerability in SB1, SB2, SB4, SB8, SB10, and SB11. Furthermore, the low soil erosion vulnerability (SB9), and very low soil erosion vulnerability were at SB5 and SB6. The results of this study could be used for conservation zone planning to control soil erosion.

This article discusses the findings of a national survey of the social organisation of television viewing practices in contemporary Australia. These questions are addressed through multiple correspondence analyses of the aspects of television practices and tastes covered in the survey. These go beyond channel and genre preferences to include a sample of Australian and overseas produced television programmes and of 10 Australian TV personalities. The differential distribution of tastes across Australian and overseas programmes also throws significant light on different investments in the national culture across different social groups. The survey data also includes evidence regarding viewing platform and device preferences. In concluding, the article reviews the evidence of a cluster analysis, registering the effects of major changes within the television field in Australia, including the decline of free-to-air and ‘linear’ viewing, the rise of streaming services and the erosion of brand loyalty as it relates to television channels.

Soil security identifies global challenges and a series of dimensions that are necessary requirements to meet those global challenges using sustainable land management. The soil security concept is applied to two contrasting soil landscape systems with varying climate, landform and soil types. Previous methodologies for assessing land and soil capability are combined within the soil security conceptual approach. The land and soil capability methodologies are used to assess how the soil condition changes in response to the stresses and forcing associated with land management and land and soil degradation processes. It is the soil capability that defines how the soil condition changes between the reference state of the soil condition, or the genoform, and the soil condition under land use, or the phenoform. The conclusion is that soil capability, which is one of the dimensions used to apply the soil security concept, is a complex dimension and has several aspects or further facets to be considered to achieve sustainable land management. It is apparent that in assessing soil capability, the following facets are relevant. I: The capacity of the soil to provide ecosystem services to meet the global challenges outlined for Soil Security. II: The stability of the soil condition to land degradation processes resulting from the effects of land management practices and the environmental stresses on the soil. III: The capacity to recover following degradation. Facets II and III can be considered the resilience. An important conclusion is that the soil capability cannot be assessed without taking into account features of the landscape including climate and landform. Two examples from south eastern Australia of the application of these facets of soil capability to on-ground situations are presented. The Cowra Trough Red Soils in the Australian wheat belt are a set of soils, primarily contributing to meeting the global challenge of food security. The major degradation processes threatening the stability of these soils are water erosion and soil acidification. The Kosciusko National Park in the Snowy Mountains region is primarily contributing to meeting the challenges of water security for the irrigation industry in the Murray Darling Basins and energy security through the production of hydroelectricity. The set of soil landscapes also contributes to biodiversity protection and human health and well-being. The major degradation processes threatening the stability of these soils and their capacity to meet the global challenges are water and wind erosion. A major limitation is the poor capacity of these soils to recover once degraded. Identifying the main ecosystem services provided by the two examples, together with the major risks of land degradation can clarify extension, economic and policy aspects of sustainable land management for the two sets of soil landscapes. For the Cowra Trough Red Soils, management of water erosion and soil acidification are essential for maintaining the contribution of the area to food security. For the Kosciusko National Park, the control of water and wind erosion are essential to maintain the contribution of the area to water and energy security.

By 2016, there were 32.70 million ha of degraded forests in Indonesia. If it is not quickly rehabilitated, there will be land use changes and expansion of industrial forest plantation, which significantly affects its biodiversity and environmental. This research aims to study the impacts of the gap planting technique with red jabon on soil density and erosion. The research used: (1) the gap planting technique of red jabon with a proportion of the total gap area to the total natural forest area of 40%: 60%, planting distance of 4m x 5m, and the number of trees planted of 200 stems/ha, (2) Digital-Humboldt Static Cone Penetrometer to measure soil density, and (3) stick for soil erosion measurement. The results showed that gap planting with red jabon to rehabilitate degraded natural forests increased the soil density, but its value was categorized as a very loose soil class. On the other hand, the soil erosion in gap area was lower than in degraded natural forest area, because the condition of a part of the degraded forest was unvegetated land, and there were the wastes of branches, twigs, and leaves as well as grown grasses on the soil surface that hinder the soil erosion in the gap area. This research concluded, that the impact of the gap planting on soil density can be neglected, and the impact of the gap planting on soil erosion is positive. Further research on social-economic, biodiversity, effective and efficiency aspects of the gap planting technique for forest rehabilitation are needed before its implementation.

The necessity to increase soil fertility by identifying their critical condition, which is associated with developing erosion processes, increasing acidity and decreasing humus, has been proven in the article. The requirement of introducing crop rotations and their legal regulation in Ukraine has been determined. The practice connected with the questions of supporting soil quality and crop rotations in different countries, members of the EU has been presented. The assessment of modern farming systems (intensive, organic, no-till, strip-till, precise, bio-enzyme, biogenic) taking into account economic, ecological, technological-energy, and social factors aimed at determining their impact on the natural soil fertility has been conducted. The expediency of improving soil quality in terms of its evaluation has been revealed. The necessity of introducing economic incentives or penalties to landowners or land users for agro-ecological condition of farmlands basing on the methods of land money value has been substantiated.

This paper examines the state of knowledge about the effects of prescribed burning on surface runoff and erosion at point to catchment scales in forests and shrublands. Fires can increase surface runoff and erosion by removing vegetation, changing soil hydrologic properties and providing a readily erodible layer of sediment and ash. Catchment-scale studies in prescribed-burnt areas usually report minimal impacts from the burn. However, measurements at smaller spatial scales suggest that large changes to hydrologic properties and processes do occur, and a debris-flow example from Australia demonstrates that large catchment-scale impacts are possible. It appears that existing catchment-scale studies in prescribed burns do not capture these large events as the sample size (i.e. number of studies) is too small relative to the infrequency of such events. Furthermore, numerous knowledge gaps across all spatial scales limit understanding of the processes contributing to post-prescribed burn runoff and erosion. Understanding the influence of fire regime characteristics on post-fire runoff and erosion is particularly important in the context of prescribed burning, as fire regimes can be manipulated to reduce erosion and water-quality impacts. Therefore, two directions for future research are recommended: (1) process-based studies to understand the factors controlling surface runoff and erosion, particularly in relation to aspects of the fire regime; and (2) landscape-scale surveys to quantify large erosion events.

AbstractThe problems facing farmers in the Esperance Sandplain region of Western Australia—salinity, herbicide resistance, wind erosion, and plant disease—are highly interrelated. Unless the biological, economic and social aspects of the problems are examined in an integrated way, no sustainable system will be found. Similarly, agricultural teaching and research must become much more integrated if they are to address agricultural and environmental problems satisfactorily. This will require changes in the structure of university and research institutions and in the rewards for research and teaching.

It goes almost without saying that there are no academic bioethical debates that are unique to the United Kingdom. The debates in which U.K. bioethicists become involved take place in international journals and in books with a worldwide readership. The contributions of those from these shores are frequently made in response to work by academics from the United States, Australia, Scandinavia, and a whole host of other countries.

The problem of the development of the underground erosion is considered ion the article. The most brightly the underground erosion is shown in the massifs of the loessial breeds, which are widely developed in Uzbekistan. This phenomenon of consequences of the underground erosion development is described in science as the term “loessial pseudo-karst”. The loessial pseudo-karst have received the greatest spread and development in places of an active technogenesis since the second half of the XX century. Besides the territories connected with civil, industrial and hydrotechnical engineering the loessial pseudo-karst develops actively in the connection with active irrigation of the massifs formed with the loessial breeds. In case of not dosed water supply for the irrigation of agricultural grounds and the subsequent uncivilized dumping of surplus of water there is an extremely fast development of a loessial pseudo-karst (a day and even several hours). The negative consequences of the development of the underground erosion in loessial massifs lead to the violation of fragile balance of the natural and technical geosystems (NTG) and their conclusion from the condition of metastable balance. When forming pseudo-karst sinkholes near settlements, their unreasoned elimination by filling happens generally at the expense of solid and liquid household waste that considerably accelerates process of destruction of the massif, due to the impact on the loessial breeds of aggressive infiltrate. In case of active development of the underground erosion there is a final fracture of the loessial massif and formation of so-called pseudo-karst “bedlend”, that is sites where any economic activity is impossible. There are considerable economic, ecological and quite often social damages. It is easier to prevent a loessial pseudo-karst, than to fight against after its development has begun. The lack of due consideration to this promptly developing process annually causes the necessity of recultivation of the soil massifs broken by an underground erosion (pseudo-karst) or to the conclusion from the crop rotation of the most valuable irrigation lands in arid areas. The qualitative recommendations about the prevention of the development of a loessial pseudo-karst and minimization of damage are made.

In the Amazon region, there are more than 26.000 people living in areas at risk of fluvial erosion processes. In addition to the large number of people impacted, studies have shown that the erosion patterns identified on the margins of mega rivers in the Amazon region are distinct due to the fact they are related the mass movement leading to great soil displacement known as ‘Terras Caidas’. In this context, this study aims to evaluate quantitatively the degrees of risk in areas subject to fluvial erosion in three communities: Itanduba, São Braz, and Fátima de Urucurituba. The methods include hazard attributes, as well as vulnerability aspects, through the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP). A multitemporal analysis were made to validated the marginal erosion at the studied areas. The results indicated a high risk of fluvial erosion on these areas. The local families lives under high and very high social vulnerability in conditions with little infrastructure and very close to the susceptible erosive riverbank. The riverbank is composed of poorly consolidated sediments, show instability indicators, and are usually associated to drainages with flow rates above 100.000m3/s. The results and methodology brings an important contribuition to territorial planning of the region.

AbstractIn the past several years, researchers, educators, policymakers, and activists have initiated sustainable agriculture programs and efforts the world over. This development has sometimes been accompanied by a sense that it is time to stop discussing sustainability at a conceptual level and get on with the work of making agriculture sustainable. Our perspective is that it is critical to pursue a comprehensive definition of sustainability in order to set sustainable agriculture priorities and ensure that sustainable agriculture takes a path that does not reproduce problems of conventional agriculture. In this paper we briefly review some popular definitions of sustainable agriculture and find that their focus is primarily on farm-level resource conservation and profitability as the main components of sustainability. Others have challenged this approach for either not examining the social aspects of sustainability or for containing an implicit assumption that working on the environmental, production, and microeconomic aspects of sustainability will automatically take care of its social aspects. We propose an expanded conceptualization of sustainability—one that focuses on the entire food and agriculture system at a global level and includes not only environmental soundness and economic viability, but social equity as well. In this perspective, issues such as poverty and hunger are as central to achieving agricultural sustainability as those of soil erosion and adequate farm returns.

Eucalyptus is an ever green flowering tree and a shrub which belong to the family Myrtaceae, subfamily Myrotideae and consists of some 800 species. This tree is native to Australia and widely planted for various uses in the different parts of Ethiopia integrating into the various farming systems, and their planting has resulted in high economic profitability. It is over a century since eucalyptus was introduced in Ethiopia for multipurpose use and rescues the remaining indigenous forests from being destroyed, for controlling soil erosion, for replacing indigenous species for fuel-wood, thereby preventing further degradation of natural forests by quickly producing firewood, would eliminate the causes which frequently may have led to land degradation and desertification and also a food and habitat for wild animals. But, it also a harmful effect on the environment, uses a lot of nutrient which is leading to soil exhaustion and reduction of crop yields, secretion of allelochemical and decreasing crop production, but the trees are neither good nor bad, and careful analysis of the ecological and social implications should be undertaken before planting. Decisions, such as what, where, why and how to grow and how to manage it have to be made; and the social and ecological implications of each decision, as well as the economic implications, have to be weighted up. J. Biodivers. Conserv. Bioresour. Manag. 2019, 5(1): 93-104

Rainwater conservation and soil erosion prevention are vital for the economic and financial sustainability of dry land agriculture. An integrated watershed development programme is thus a means of achieving these goals. Presently, integrated watershed management is receiving worldwide recognition as an effective model for watershed planning. A watershed is considered the basic geographical unit for developing any plan by integrating various social, economic, and policy factors with modern science. Hence, it is an approach to develop the basic resources for sustainable life support. The present study was conducted to assess the impacts of the watershed development programme on the social and biophysical aspects in a micro-watershed area of Cooch Behar district, West Bengal, India. This study confirmed that the project had positive effects that strengthened the socio-personal and economic characteristics of the farmers and improved the biophysical environment of the farms. The soil and water conservation efforts have increased the total cultivable area as well as improved the irrigation and drainage facilities in the micro-watershed units, thereby increasing the acreage and productivity of crops.

Keynote paper presented at the International Leucaena Conference, 1‒3 November 2018, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.Leucaena (Leucaena leucocephala ssp. glabrata) is a highly palatable and productive forage used mainly by beef producers on extensive properties in northern Australia. When sown into native or sown grass pastures, leucaena provides significant production, economic, environmental and social benefits. Adoption of leucaena was slow initially due to a range of technical, agronomic and landscape factors. These have now been largely overcome through extensive research, development, producer experience and other advances, resulting in around 130,000 ha of cultivated leucaena being utilized across northern Australia.A range of aspects will need to be addressed if the adoption of leucaena is to be accelerated into the future. These include environmental concerns, especially potential weediness, and a range of technological needs, including soil nutritional requirements, grazing and toxicity management, opportunities for companion fodder systems and conservation options. Advances in technology and the ongoing need for a high-quality, profitable and sustainable perennial forage will ensure the continued adoption of leucaena across northern Australia for the foreseeable future.

Natural area tourism may contribute to deterioration in biophysical environments important for sustainable conservation of biodiversity and/or historically significant sites. Levels of protection within the IUCN guidelines provide general descriptors of desirable outcomes, and the Limits of Acceptable Change (LAC) management tool has often been implicitly applied. This article presents an initial attempt to assess the value of Thresholds of Potential Concern (TPC) relative to LAC as management frameworks for protected areas, using the example of trail width as an indicator of visitor impacts on vegetation, soil, water and, potentially, visitor safety. Visitor preferences relating to trail width were incorporated when applying the TPC and LAC principles. Sections of three walking trails in a high-visitation national park near Sydney, Australia, were measured at ~10.7 m intervals: the mean trail widths were 1.6 m, 1.8 m and 2.14 m. Of the 115 recreationists surveyed, 16% of those having the greatest tolerance towards management interventions (‘Non-purist’ wilderness category) viewed a trail ≥ 2 m wide as acceptable, but 96% of ‘Purists’ nominated a maximum of ≤1.5 m. The TPC was found to provide a broad strategy for identification, assessment and grading of multiple biophysical thresholds within an ecological framework. Combined with stakeholder information, the TPC allows for timely, proactive and calibrated management responses to maintaining biophysical and social sustainability.

Purpose – Temporary and permanent decline in the productive capacity of the land due to natural and human-induced activities such as soil erosion, changing cropping practices and less use of organic matter (OM) has been the greatest challenge faced by mankind in recent years, particularly in the hills and mountains of Nepal. Hence, the purpose of this paper is to examine the effectiveness of sustainable soil management practices to mitigate desertification process in the hills of Nepal. Design/methodology/approach – Promotion of sustainable soil management (SSM) practices through a decentralised agriculture extension approach by involving all the stakeholders in a participatory way. Findings – SSM practices mainly: OM management, fodder and forage promotion, increased biomass production systems, integrated plant nutrition systems, and bioengineering for soil and water conservation are identified as the most appropriate and relevant technologies in mitigating the desertification process without deteriorating land quality, particularly conserving the top-soils effectively and efficiently in the hills and mountains of the country. Research limitations/implications – This research is focus on the overall effect of SSM practices due to time and budget constraints. There is scope for doing research on the different aspects of SSM practices and the extent of their effect on different soil parameters (chemical, biological and physical). Practical implications – SSM interventions clearly indicated that there is significant impact in increasing soil fertility, conserving fertile top-soils and mitigating physical, chemical and biologic desertification processes. These are possible through maintaining and improving the soil organic matter, which is the most important indicator for soil health. SSM practices have resulted in an increase of up to 30 per cent in crop yield compared to yields without SSM practices. This might be due to the improvement in SOC which improves soil texture, increases nutrient supply from organic source and conserves water quality, thus, improving soil quality. Social implications – This has created awareness among farmers. Hence, farmers are mitigating pH through increased use of organic manures, where there is less availability of agriculture lime and they are far from road access. Originality/value – SSM practices significantly contributes to combat soil desertification in the hills of Nepal.

The definition of informational soil science as a new trend of soil science is proposed, and includes a system of ordering, collecting, storing and analyzing of the soil data at different hierarchical levels, obtaining continuous in space and time information on soil conditions for modeling and balanced use, reproduction and management of soils, resources based on environmental, social, environmental, economic and legal requirements. The subject of informational soil science is all aspects of the functioning of information, namely: (1) the processes of origin, transmission, storage, processing, dissemination of information about the soil, its properties and soil processes; (2) ways to manage information processes; (3) general patterns of influence of information processes on the nature of applied communications in soil science. Traditional and modern methods of analysis of soil information, which form the modern methodological apparatus of informational soil science, are also considered. Peculiarities of formation of thematic databases of soil formation factors, in particular determining geomorphological factor, and use of spatial analytical functions of soil information systems in modeling of influence of a relief on development of erosion processes of a certain territory are considered. Since informational soil science, as an applied trend of soil science, is considered an integrated scientific subject, it also uses the methods and achievements of many applied and humanitarian sciences. It can be argued that in connection with the development of a new direction of organization and analysis of soil data based on automated information systems, new terminology borrowed from computer science, computer theory and programming is widely used in soil science, the vocabulary of concepts in mathematics is significantly expanded. This is an inevitable and necessary for our science process that helps to increase its efficiency in connection with the use of modern achievements of these relatively new disciplines. Keywords: soil information; informatiology; data base; informational soil science.

Abstract Throughout 2016-2021, there were 31 landslides that have caused physical, economic, and social damages. Bumiaji Sub-District has several tourist destinations that are potentially exposed to landslides. This study aims to create a landslide risk map in Bumiaji Sub-District. This research was conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic situation. Therefore, the data collected was secondary data obtained from Google satellite images, Google Street View, the digital elevation model from the National Geospatial Institution, and other literature reviews. The data was then analysed using a landslide risk assessment based on Perka BNPB Number 2/2012. The results of this risk analysis show that Bumiaji Sub-District is dominated by low-level risk (48%), followed by high-level risk (30%), and medium-level risk (15%). High-risk level is affected by high hazards and vulnerabilities, especially in Giripurno Village. High hazard level is affected by high intensity of rainfall, slope degree, the sensitivity of soil to erosion, and the type of land cover. High vulnerabilities are affected by physical, social, and economic aspects susceptible to losses.

This open-pit mining activity has a very helpful environmental potential, soil chemistry, erosion and sedimentation. Change in land use from mining actively after mining requires land and energy closure to ensure that the land is safe for and returned. In accordance with the local spatial pattern in Muara Enim, South Sumatra, the transfer of post-mining land after the dismissal of mining operations will be used as a conservation area managed by the mining community. The concept is an environmental addressing plan to determine the sustainability of various aspects of community life, including local sustainability, food environment, awareness, biodiversity, and sustainability. This study aims to ensure community sustainability after mining operations. The methodology that is an interview with Experts. The results of this research indicate that community empowerment in mining area can use one of the community's natural resource management strategies to ensure social sustainability with land use as agroforestry and integrated agricultural industries.

Actions that promote the sustainability of small-scale agricultural activities are fundamental to maintaining the supply and diversification of products, generating income, and minimizing their environmental impact. This study aimed to identify the main economic, environmental, and social indicators used in studies focused on food production by family farming. A systematic literature review was performed in the Scopus database, where 22 original articles were identified. The largest number of publications was observed in Italy and the United States of America, followed by Brazil, India, Poland, and the United Kingdom. The main aspect observed in the publications was the interrelationship of the three spheres of sustainability, highlighting the importance of integrated monitoring. Some indicators identified were: in the economic sphere, financial planning, productivity, and profitability; in the environmental sphere, soil use and quality, water, erosion, temperature, and energy; and in the social sphere, food security, job and income generation, and government subsidies. A holistic approach to the use of monitoring indicators as a tool for sustainability is fundamental, but there are few studies that evaluate these three spheres; mainly in the field of agribusiness, due to its greater diversity of activities and aspects to be monitored.

The Darling Downs and Southern Inland Burnett are important geographical subregions of the Queensland dairy industry. The system of dairy farming in these subregions is unique in Australia in that it is based on grazed annual forage crops rather than pastures. When these soils were first cultivated up to 110 years ago they were inherently fertile. However, erosion and fertility decline has reduced their productive capacity and there is a need for the adoption of farming practices that are less exploitative. In February 1997, a survey was conducted to determine dairy farmers' practices and attitudes toward management strategies that were being recommended to grain farmers in the subtropical cereal belt for sustaining the soil resource base. These strategies included greater use of ley pastures, opportunistic double-cropping, zero-till planting and higher fertiliser inputs. We found that dairy farmers were generally familiar with and understanding of the potential benefits of these approaches to their farming enterprises. However, farmers raised a number of issues that need consideration in the transfer of these practices to dairy forage production. These included concerns that an increased emphasis on pastures would result in lower and less-reliable forage production; that double-cropping is practiced more out of necessity than in the belief it is a better way to farm; that zero tillage may not be suitable on clay soils that have been trampled by cattle and that farmers rely primarily on their own observations of crop performance to determine fertiliser use. These findings have particular implications for research and extension activities conducted with dairy farmers and are also relevant to work conducted with other cropping enterprises that incorporate grazing animals in their farming program.

Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and pollutants, soil erosion and groundwater pollution are some of the negative aspects blamed on livestock farming, so their level of sustainability needs to be assessed, taking into account the territory in which they operate. The research focuses on the assessment of sustainability performance in the four dimensions of good governance: environmental integrity, economic resilience and social well-being, considered by the ‘‘Sustainability Assessment of Food and Agriculture Systems’’ (SAFA) tool developed by Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). The objective of applying this methodology is to highlight the sustainability dimensions in which the ten analyzed farms are weakest and the ones in which they show the most strength, in order to provide farmers a tool to understand the criticalities on which to intervene. The farms considered follow the principles of agroecology and organic farming, which are decisive in the pursuit of sustainable development. The overall results show a satisfactory level of sustainability with high prospects for improvement, in line with the EU commitments undertaken in the Green Deal and the Millennium Development Goals. Livestock farms must, therefore, be encouraged and accompanied with targeted technical assistance strategies and appropriate agroecological protocols.

In the Czech Republic, the afforestation of agricultural land has been supported by providing subsidies from the government and the European Union. Afforestation of less-productive agricultural land provides many benefits including carbon sequestration, soil erosion control, biodiversity, water retention, cooling, social benefits, decreasing noise and light pollution, increasing air quality, wind speed reduction, oxygen production, wood production and non-wood products. In some aspects, it is possible to produce wood of the same quality on former agricultural land compared to permanent forest land. In this study, we attempted to find out the course of temperatures and volumetric water content as well as some other physical soil properties (at depths of 20, 40 and 60 cm) 9 years after the afforestation of agricultural land (warm, mild dry region of the Czech Republic) with a mixture of broadleaved tree species (Quercus robur L., Quercus rubra L. and Acer platanoides L.) or monospecific Pinus sylvestris L. stand; the study was performed in the period from April to the beginning of November 2020. Concerning the studied physical soil properties, the value of bulk density was higher (and total porosity lower) at a depth of 20 cm in Pinus sylvestris L. compared with agricultural land or the mixture of broadleaves; the water stability of soil aggregates was higher after the afforestation with the mixture of broadleaves. The temperature was lower in the soil of afforested plots (at all studied depths) compared to the agriculturally used land. Differences in rainfall interception, transpiration, soil<br />(and forest floor) properties and other factors could influence the obtained values of water content in the soil of the studied plots. The average volumetric water contents were the highest in the plots with Scots pine (depth of 20 cm) and broadleaves (depth of 40 cm), and on the control plot (depth of 60 cm). The volumetric water content at a soil depth of 20 cm was not significantly (P &gt; 0.05) different when the plot with Scots pine and agriculturally used land were compared. In all other cases and depths, the differences between plots were significant (P &lt; 0.05).

The unbalanced anthropogenic effects for several decades resulted in significant technogen damages in the ecosystem of Ukraine. Excessive land development, including the use of slopes, effected the disintegration of the natural balance of lands – arable-lands, meadows, forests, and watershed areas – producing quite a negative effect on the landscape’s nature itself. It has to be stressed that according to other indexes, too, agricultural lands show a tendentious deterioration.Erosion, caused by water and wind, is one of the most influential factors in the degradation of agricultural soils and in the reduction of the productiveness of benefital lands. Nowadays the degree erosion became significant and it directly endangers the existence of the soil which is a principal chain-link of the agricultural cultivation as well as an irreplaceable element of the biosphere.The social and political changes in Ukraine’s life demand fundamental modernization in the land utilization both in ecological and in economical aspects. However, these aims can be realized only if, during the developments, we base on the up-to-date results of agronomics, and we do further research in the relations of agricultural land use and environmental protection. According to the latest theories, rational and environmental-safe agricultural production relates to the optimum correlation of the natural- and agricultural- ecosystems as well as to the reconstruction of agricultural areas built on the basis of environmental protection.

Sclerophyllous forests are extremely sensitive to global warming, and the sclerophyllous forest in the possession of small forest landowners (SFLs) in the Libertador General Bernardo O’Higgins Region in Chile is degraded in spite of their high ecological value. Due to the total lack of forest management, the yield obtained from native forests is very low, with highly intervened forests and intense soil erosion. The main contribution of this article is to present, for the first time, a study on the characterization and problems of 211 small forest landowners in this region of Chile. After interviewing the landowners, multivariate analysis techniques were applied to the results of the survey, which enabled four types of SFL to be identified. Differences were found in regard to the surface area of their properties and the products extracted, among others. However, they all had a similar social profile, low education level and little training in forest management, very advanced ages, a lack of initiative to create forest communities, and lack of basic services due to their isolation. The characterization of the SFLs allowed proposals to be designed for future sustainable forest management activities to help mitigate the continuous deterioration of the native forest and obtain products in a sustainable way and with greater yields, considering current legal aspects, access to subsidies, and specific forest training plans for each type of SFL.

Protected forest is a forest area that has the main function of protecting life support systems to regulate water management, prevent flooding, control erosion, prevent seawater intrusion, and maintain soil fertility. Management of forest areas for food estate development using a mechanism to change the designation of a Food Security Forest Area (KHKP) in Indonesia is implemented based on Article 3 paragraph 2 of the Ministerial Regulation LHK 24/2020, which can only be submitted by the Government. In this case the Minister, Head of Institution, Governor, Regent/Mayor or Head of Authority Body who is specially assigned by the Government. The development of a food estate in Subang is an integrated development of food production and consists of agriculture, plantations and animal husbandry on an area of 100 hectares. This research examines the policy of changing the function of protected forests for food estate in Subang, Indonesia and food estate management. The results showed that food estate development in Subang is a food development that is carried out in an integrated manner, covering agriculture, plantations and even livestock in an area that has previously existed but in productive forests. Meanwhile, the food estate program does not only cover rice commodities, but also for others, such as corn, cassava and sago as well as livestock. Food estate projects are carried out in a sustainable manner in terms of economic, social, agrarian and ecological aspects.

This overview paper presents a description of the National Windbreaks Program (NWP) — its objectives, the main methods used to achieve these objectives and a summary of the key results. It draws these from the individual papers appearing in this special issue, which provide detailed descriptions and discussion about the specific research sites and research methods used, in addition to interpreting and discussing the results. The key findings were the following: (i) Two broad areas of crop and pasture response can be identified downwind of a porous windbreak: a zone of reduced yield associated with competition with the windbreak trees that extended from 1 H to 3 H, where H is the windbreak height, and a zone of unchanged or slightly increased yield stretching downwind to 10 H or 20 H. (ii) Averaged over the paddock, yield gains due to the effect of shelter on microclimate were smaller than expected — especially for cereals. Yield simulations conducted using the APSIM model and 20 years of historical climate data confirmed this result for longer periods and for other crop growing regions in Australia. Larger yield gains were simulated at locations where the latter part of the growing season was characterised by high atmospheric demand and a depleted soil water store. (iii) Economic analyses that account for the costs of establishing windbreaks, losses due to competition and yield gains as a result of shelter found that windbreaks will either lead to a small financial gain or be cost neutral. (iv) Part of the reason for the relatively small changes in yield measured at the field sites was the variable wind climate which meant that the crop was only sheltered for a small proportion of the growing season. In much of southern Australia, where the day-to-day and seasonal variability in wind direction is large, additional windbreaks planted around the paddock perimeter or as closely-spaced rows within the paddock will be needed to provide more consistent levels of shelter. (v) Protection from infrequent, high magnitude wind events that cause plant damage and soil erosion was observed to lead to the largest yield gains. The main forms of direct damage were sandblasting, which either buries or removes seedlings from the soil or damages the leaves and stems, and direct leaf tearing and stripping. (vi) A corollary to these findings is the differing effect that porous windbreaks have on the air temperature and humidity compared to wind. While winds are reduced in strength in a zone that extends from 5 H upwind to at least 25 H downwind of the windbreak, the effects of shelter on temperature and humidity are smaller and restricted mainly to the quiet zone. This means that fewer windbreaks are required to achieve reductions in wind damage than for altering the microclimate. (vii) The wind tunnel experiments illustrate the important aspects of windbreak structure that determine the airflow downwind, and subsequent microclimate changes, in winds oriented both perpendicular and obliquely to porous windbreaks. These results enable a series of guidelines to be forwarded for designing windbreaks for Australian agricultural systems.

Live fences in tropical production systems: a global review of uses and perceptions. The expansion of agricultural and livestock production has been a key factor in deforestation in the world and especially in the tropical region. Currently, more than half of the Earth’s surface is used for the establishment of production systems; in this context, live fences can generate positive effects on the environment and provide environmental goods and services. In this work, we reviewed the effects of live fences on production systems from the tropical regions of America, Africa, Asia and Australia, analyzing the uses and perceptions of farmers that have made use of these fences. It was found that live fences were mainly related to the delimitation of farms and pastures. However, their uses and benefits are manifold, among which we found: provide forage, wood extraction, fruit supply, windbreaks, medicinal, to avoid soil erosion, moisture retention and nutritional support. In addition, other positive perceptions were: increasing landscape connectivity, increasing economic incomes, reducing production costs, reducing pressure on remaining vegetation, keeping maintenance costs down, contributing to pest control, and improving fertility. However, negative perceptions included the excessive work in repairing or pruning them, shade negative impact on agricultural production, lack of information discourages establishment, high establishment costs, generation of property conflicts and management difficulty. It was found that the uses by farmers are focused on improving the yields of productive systems, but also on the conservation of natural resources especially soil and biodiversity. We proposed research topics for the future, as determining the criteria in the selection of native species to establish and enrich living fences valuing ecological and socioeconomic aspects; in additionally, we must deepen the benefits they produce on the yields of productive systems. We suggest the development of live fences studies in the tropical region of Australasia, because no data was found for this region, in order to know the biodiversity and services status that they provide to the rural communities. As a conclusion, it will be important to generate initiatives that encourage the formulation of rural policies, the creation of programs that encourage the establishment of live fences, whether through payments for environmental services, tax compensation or other mechanisms. Providing adequate information to farmers and livestock farmers is a key aspect on dynamizing the establishment of live fences. Rev. Biol. Trop. 66(2): 739-753. Epub 2018 June 01.

In Mediterranean regions, afforested areas were planted to ensure the permanence of land cover, and to protect against erosion and to initiate the vegetation processes. For those purposes, pine species were mainly used; however, many of these stands, without silvicultural treatments for over fifty-sixty years, were in a poor state from physical and biological perspective, and therefore, clear-cutting on strips was conducted as silvicultural operation with the aim to eliminate 50% of the pine trees and to favor the affirmation of indigenous broadleaves seedlings. At the same time, the high and increasing demand of the forest based sector for wood biomass related to energy production, needs to be supplied. In a modern and multifunctional forestry, in which society is asking for sustainable forestry and naturalistic forest management, forestry operations should ideally be carried out in a sustainable manner, thus support the concept of sustainable forest management. All these aspects are also related to the innovation in forestry sector for an effective energetic sustainability. Three different forest wood chains were applied in pine plantations, all differing in the extraction system (animal, forestry-fitted farm tractor with winch, and double drum cable yarder). The method of the sustainability impact assessment was used in order to assess potential impacts of these alternative management options, and a set of 12 indicators covering economic, environmental, and social dimensions was analyzed. Further, to support decision makers in taking informed decisions, multi-criteria decision analysis was conducted. Decision makers gave weight towards the indicators natural tree regeneration and soil biological quality to support the achievement of the forest management goal. Results showed that first ranked alternative was case 2, in which extraction was conducted by a tractor with a winch. The main reason for that lies in the fact that this alternative had best performance for 80% of the analyzed criteria.

Olbia is one of the largest poleis, which was founded in the Northern Black Sea region at the delta of the Southern Bug River as a result of political, social and geographical processes in the middle of the 6th century BCE. According to the relief, this is the territory of the Black Sea Lowland, and polis and the surrounding territories are located on the shore of the Southern Bug estuary, which caused a certain lowering of the territory and its dismemberment. According to B. P. Alisov's climatic zoning of Ukraine, the climate of this territory belongs to the region of the coast of the seas, which in turn is part of the southern Atlantic-continental climatic region, and the main factor influencing the climate of this territory is the breeze circulation. The study of the settlement of specific territories (residential quarters, public places, necropoleis, communication routes, etc.) is one of the urgent issues in the paleogeographical and historical factors in the researches of urban structure in ancient times. All of these elements of the urbanization process contain various information about the life activities of the ancient society. This allows us to look at the source base of interdisciplinary studies in a new way. There is proposed to expand the traditional views on the study of archaeological objects of the ancient polis as a socio-political phenomenon in the ancient history of mankind in this paper. In particular, the indirect results of human activities, namely redeposited soils, were investigated. They contain conserved information that was preserved at the time of disruption of natural layers in a specific period of time. Among the archaeological sites of Olbia, which are used for such research, the necropolis occupies a priority place. After all, it was here that the disturbed soil remained in place and was used mainly for filling the burial structure. In addition, ancient necropoleis were traditionally arranged outside the city, which makes this area more interesting to study, because it has undergone minimal anthropogenic influence. The paper presents the results of paleosoil studies of the "Orient" section of the Olbian necropolis, namely two profiles within its area. A stratigraphic dissection of the section into genetic horizons was carried out and the boundary of the buried soil material of ancient times was established. A complex paleopedological method was used in this study, which included macro- and micromorphological analysis of sediments, as well as their granulometric characteristics. At the same time, the historiographic component of the study of this ancient Greek polis is presented, as well as some paleoclimatic conditions of its existence. From an archaeological point of view, the «Orient» section of the Olbian necropolis is characterized by diversity and a wide chronological range of burial objects (from the middle of the 6th century BCE to the beginning of the 3rd century CE). It was used during almost the ancient period of Olbia's existence (ancient Greek and Roman periods) for funerary and memorial purposes and practically does not contain traces of anthropogenic and agricultural influence. In this paper, the soil (as source base) and soil deposits were investigated in order to determine the paleogeographic features of the territory, in particular, during the Roman period of the necropolis' functioning (1st century BCE – 1st century CE). It is worth noting that at this time the most intensive use of this area for burial and memorial purposes was recorded, and the discovered archaeological objects date back to the 1st century BCE \ 1st century CE – 2nd century \ beginning of the 3rd century CE. According to the macro- and micromorphological characteristics of the soil in the cross-section, it is defined as southern chernozem, formed on the loess. This is also confirmed by micromorphological data. The mechanical composition of the soil illustrates that the profile at the beginning of the Holocene had a pedomorphological character of formation. In the future, the alluvial factor had a significant influence. During the functioning of the ancient polis and after its decline, the aeolian factor prevailed, which is consistent with the physical and geographical location of the territory. The natural conditions of the second half of the sub-Atlantic chronointerval, in which the ancient polis of Olbia was formed, were one of the main factors, which influenced to the urbanization processes. The formation of the necropolis is a component of it. At the beginning of the development of this territory in ancient times, the climate was cooler and wetter, compared to the metropolis. At the turn of the era, gradual aridization took place, there is a decrease in previous afforestation, a decrease in the role of mesophilic rocks and xerophytization of the steppes. At this time soil formation takes place within the «Orient» section of the Olbian necropolis. The obtained data were compared with the results of other studies (Matviishyna Zh. M., Parkhomenko O.G. (2017), Shilyk K.K. (1975), Ievlev M.M. (2014), Odrin O.V. (2014)). Thus, we state that general and specific paleogeographic studies of this archaeological site are relevant today, and the results in some cases are controversial. Analysis of the relief showed that the territory of the necropolis is slightly elevated at the modern stage and was probably elevated above the surrounding territories in ancient times as well. According to the results of macro- and micromorphological analysis, the soil in this area is similar in type to southern chernozems, which are suitable for agriculture. Considering the proximity to the estuary and the relief, we assume that the weak humus layer that was formed on this soil quickly disappeared due to the action of strong wind. This soil was sandblasted, which is confirmed by the data of granulometric analysis. Thus, this may be evidence that this site was not chosen for the necropolis by chance, because the soils a few hundred meters to the north (the territory of the Olbia chora) had similar agronomic properties, but were subjected to less wind erosion. Keywords: paleopedology, antiquity, Olbia, necropolis.

Purpose: Using a Systems’ Approach, this study explores what aspects are essential for stone quarries to adopt a functional environmental management plan and whether compliance with environmental laws enhances business performance. The specific objectives of the study were: To evaluate the bio-physical effects of quarrying activities in selected quarries in Tezo ward and to evaluate the socio-economic effects of quarrying activities in selected quarries in Tezo ward. Methodology: The study adopted descriptive survey design; the research data collection instrument was questionnaires. The study adopted purposive sampling; a survey of 134 respondents representing 80 quarry workers, 40 quarry owners, 10 EIA Experts, 3 NEMA staff and 1 County geologist were sampled purposively. Weighted and the Consolidated Scores were entered on Microsoft Excel for cleaning and later transferred to Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS version 23.0) for statistical analyses. Data was presented inform of graphs, pie-charts, tables and narration in the thematic areas. Findings: The study found out that there were health and ecological problems associated with quarrying. The application of heavy quarrying machines resulted to soil erosion, destruction of flora and threatens biodiversity aesthetic. The study revealed that quarrying was a source for livelihood among the community and more men (90%) were involved in quarrying due to masculinity nature of the task. EMPs were found to be significant in management of quarries. The development of EMPs and EIA was influenced by different actors and informal sector was a significant influencer of EMPs implementation. The study concluded that EMPs were effective in management of quarries despite varied challenges facing the NEMA official and the EIA experts. Unique contribution to theory, practice and policy: The study recommends the need for transparency in the EIA as well as in the development of EMPs, to avoid discrimination and non-adherence. Further research is needed to understand the perception of community members on the effectiveness of EMPs in sustainable management of quarries and environment in general.

Shrimp farming has been introduced since the mid-1980s at the southern coast of Daerah Istimewa Yogyakarta (DIY). However, the industry was not well growing in the initial stage. The new shrimp development project also promoted in the early of 2000s, particularly in Jangkaran Village, Subdistrict of Temon, Kulon Progo District and Poncosari Village, Subdistrict of Srandakan, Bantul District, but many of shrimp farms fail because of shrimp diseases, lack of capital to recover and shrimp farming experiences. Recently, the shrimp culture industry experienced rapid expansion along the coast of the two districts. This study aimed to determine the profile and growing of shrimp farming at the southern coast of DIY and to identify the technical aspects, social, and economic indicators of sustainable shrimp culture in the less favorable areas. To identify the sustainability of current shrimp culture, the study develop four indicators consist of technical indicators (6 sub-indicators), economic indicators (9 sub-indicators), social indicators (7 sub-indicators), and environmental indicators (8 sub-indicator). The study was conducted during March to October 2014 by using a combination of literature study and survey at two selected villages: Jangkaran and Poncosari Villages. The total 82 respondents were interviewed; consist of shrimp farmers, coastal communities, community leaders, and local government. The study showed that the rapid growing of shrimp farming were caused by several factors, among others: (1) the existence of technological innovation in shrimp farming in the sandy soil areas, particularly the lower cost in the pond investment and the more easier of seawater collecting; (2) high price and market opportunities of the commodity; and (3) changes in the physical environment due to the threat of coastal erosion which damage the fisher livelihood, thus demanding adaptation strategies. Shrimp farmer in average managed 2,138 m2 and implemented intensive to super intensive cultivation technology, with an average stocking density of 144 shrimp/m2. Production per year in average reaches 25.9 ton/ha and generating revenue of IDR286.544.232 per year. The total cost of production is estimated at IDR210.590.175 per year, and generated a net profit of IDR75.954.057 per year. The perception based indicator of sustainability showed the environmental related issues were in average have a low value. Thus, environmental regulation of aquaculture is an important aspect to be considered in promoting sustainable development of shrimp farming at the southern coast of the province.

The municipality Santa Filomena that it was for is included in the Nucleus of Desertification of Gilbués, since all the other municipalities that are part of the same nucleus are. Data from the IBGE Demographic Census (2010) and the GDP of the municipalities published by IBGE (2009) were used. Social indicators of exclusion of education and income are sought. In addition to being reduced, GDP is far from ideal for a good quality of life. All the social indicators of the semiarid region are very bad. The evidence of the study allows us to conclude that, in fact, in this region, in relative terms, numbers are concentrated that allow the inclusion of these municipalities in the semi-arid area. In addition, the justifications for additional criteria because these municipalities belong to the Nucleus of Desertification of Gilbués, being the only one not yet contemplated with its inclusion in front of all the others already included, including those that belong to the other three nuclei existing in Brazil. The study of the aridity index and its tendency to desertification for the municipalities of Santa Filomena, Barreiras do Piauí, Gilbués and Monte Alegre do Piauí, Brazil was requested by a group of farmers, mayors and lawyers who intend to see the possibility of including these municipalities as a degraded area and its inclusions in the Brazilian semiarid region. The methodology used the calculations of aridity indexes by the water balance method developed by Thornthwaite and Mather (1948; 1955) with a field capacity (CAD) of 100 mm. The water balance graphs were used to demonstrate the variability of water surpluses and deficiencies, replacement and removal of water in the soil and visualization of interannual buoyancy. Electronic spreadsheets of evapotranspiration, evaporation, deficiency and annual water surplus were generated in order to understand their interannual fluctuations as an aid in erosive contributions and aridity indexes. The monthly rainfall for the period 1960-2017 was acquired from the climate bank of Superintendence for the development of the Northeast and from the Empresa de extensión Rural do Piauí where annual fluctuations, anomalies, moving averages, standard deviation, coefficient of variance, absolute maximums and minimums, in addition to studying the fluctuation of average temperatures and calculations of precipitation erosivity indices for the referred municipalities aiming at the objective of municipalities to be included in the semi-arid region and susceptible to desertification. The physiographic aspects, relief, fauna, flora and distance from the sea are evidenced and the edaphic contributions contribute to the incidence of aridity index and susceptibility to desertification in the studied area. The development of monoculture and improper planting techniques contributed to the increase in erosion rates and the tendency for changes in the semi-arid climate with very high risk of susceptibility. Areas identified as vulnerable to desertification, due to the lower aridity index, may not be located in the degraded area, and areas that present a higher aridity index and are not identified as vulnerability processes may be degraded to the point of being considered desertified areas. This variability may occur due to inappropriate use of the soil and environment. Temperature influences evapotranspiration, that is, the loss of water to the atmosphere, because the higher the temperature, the greater the evapotranspiration and, consequently, the lower the aridity index and, therefore, the greater the susceptibility to desertification. Possibly anthropic factors, the lack of afforestation in the beds of ponds, lakes, rivers, streams, streams, dams and water tables, the vertical construction and compaction of urban and rural soil plus transient meteorological systems and local factors may have contributed to periods ( months, years) with greater variability, however it is known that depending on the season, summer or winter, evapotranspiration and evaporation can really vary, as they are directly related to the seasons with higher and lower precipitation, variability in air temperature, air humidity between other variables such as solar radiation, cloud cover, wind speed and vapor saturation pressure, which can reduce the evaporative process.

Climate change induced sea-level rise (SLR) is on its increase globally. Regionally the lowlands of China, Vietnam, Bangladesh, and islands of the Malaysian, Indonesian and Philippine archipelagos are among the world’s most threatened regions. Sea-level rise has major impacts on the ecosystems and society. It threatens coastal populations, economic activities, and fragile ecosystems as mangroves, coastal salt-marches and wetlands. This paper provides a summary of the current state of knowledge of sea level-rise and its effects on both human and natural ecosystems. The focus is on coastal urban areas and low lying deltas in South-East Asia and Vietnam, as one of the most threatened areas in the world. About 3 mm per year reflects the growing consensus on the average SLR worldwide. The trend speeds up during recent decades. The figures are subject to local, temporal and methodological variation. In Vietnam the average values of 3.3 mm per year during the 1993-2014 period are above the worldwide average. Although a basic conceptual understanding exists that the increasing global frequency of the strongest tropical cyclones is related with the increasing temperature and SLR, this relationship is insufficiently understood. Moreover the precise, complex environmental, economic, social, and health impacts are currently unclear. SLR, storms and changing precipitation patterns increase flood risks, in particular in urban areas. Part of the current scientific debate is on how urban agglomeration can be made more resilient to flood risks. Where originally mainly technical interventions dominated this discussion, it becomes increasingly clear that proactive special planning, flood defense, flood risk mitigation, flood preparation, and flood recovery are important, but costly instruments. 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Soils have many ecological functions and provide various ecosystem services including support for global food and fuel production. However, FAO reports indicate that approximately one-third of the planet’s arable lands show levels of degradation from processes including soil erosion, low levels of nutrients, acidification, salinization, compaction, sealing, and contamination. These conditions are also found in Brazil where soil degradation is largely caused by inadequate land management. Worldwide, strategic policies have been presented to mitigate this problem, with emphasis on sustainable agriculture. Among them, agroforestry has been identified as a viable system for mitigating and recovering degraded areas. Agroforestry techniques have been developed and tested but are still not understood by farmers, due to their complexity. This study aimed to analyze experiences and studies with agroforestry reported from Australia, some countries in Africa, and Brazil to search for similarities in these complex systems and identify possible correlations to support the hypothesis that land recovery can be enhanced through soil management using agroforestry. A Sankey diagram was developed to illustrate relationships among problems, the adoption of agroforestry and improvements, and the most important contributions. Data analysis shows that the main problems related to soil degradation are soil erosion and decreased soil fertility, while the adoption of agroforestry systems proved to improve different aspects of soil quality and to be a safe path to sustainable agricultural production. To obtain more information on the adoption of these systems in different locations, soils, and climates, it is important to implement policies for reducing land degradation. Furthermore, the assessment of the economic, environmental and social benefits of improving soil fertility and decreasing erosion in agroforestry systems is necessary to validate the use of agroforestry as a sustainable agricultural practice.

The fast tempo of agriculture development and land use changes has resulted in a rapid depletion of most of the suitable land for agriculture in the country. This has caused the opening of new unsustainable agriculture area in sloping land especially the steep land and has sparked serious soil erosion phenomena. The Malaysia Good Agricultural Practice (myGAP) certification program which emphasizes the environment, economy and social aspects for agricultural produce has become one of the tools to guide farmers in controlling soil erosion. This study looked at the comparison of vetiver grass (T1) and daylily (T2) as slope stabilizers against bare soil at different elevations using the Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE). A unit plot of 22.1m long and 4.5m wide was built on the 9% sloping area in Cameron Highlands, Pahang (L1) and Titi Gantong, Perak (L2), respectively. Data from rainfall stations were used to define rain erosivity (R) while land cover (C); inclusive of the measurement of height, canopy and root was obtained using hemispherical photography. Length of slope (LS) was constant and conservation measures (P) were based on structures and land use types. To obtain the erodibility factor (K), soil samples were analyzed. The dry soil weight was measured to determine the eroded soil (A). Results showed that L1 had the highest R (13260.3 MJ/mm/ha/hour/year). C of T1 (L1&L2) gave the broadest coverage compared to T2 (L1) and T2 (L2) with higher average measurement of height, canopy and root, while P (L1&L2) was 0.1 (T1) and 0.4 (T2). However, T2 was outstanding at L1 than L2. Despite the K value of L1 (0.02 ton/hour/MJ/mm) being higher, L2 showed higher erosion. Thus, it is concluded that vetiver grass can be a myGAP recommendation as an easy and low-cost slope stabilizer at different elevation whilst daylily is best to be recommended for the highlands.

Agriculture plays a central role within the Ethiopian economy. In our country, concerning 85% of total population depends on agriculture and its product. This implies agriculture provides a good portion of national product growth. In spite of the importance of this sector, production and productivity area units restricted by varied biophysical, social and economic aspects. Soil fertility decline is one of the central issues that scale back Ethiopian agriculture and at last, it ends up in poverty and starvation. The main causes of those entrenched challenges are the land degradation showed in type of soil fertility decline, as introduced by varied hindrances as deforestation, overgrazing and through a consequence of wearing away, deposit, pollution, etc. Hence, the core objectives of this review are to evaluate the soil fertility status in Ethiopia, the sources of soil fertility decline and find improved resolutions to soil fertility in Ethiopia. As the physiological factors of the country are rugged with dynamical sorts of soils, preponderantly the upland wherever regarding 90% of the tillable land is concentrated, difficulties such as soil erosion, meager and incessant cultivation are the chief reasons of soil fertility loss. Thus, the application of combined soil fertility management approach with presence and mixture of manure, compost, crop rotation, soil protection practices provides improved production and saves the soil fertility standing to an improved level. The apply undertaken by the government of Ethiopia, is that the application of optimum rate of fertilizers, but it's not thriving as a results of various factors like amendment of agroecology, edaphic factors, the social and economic state of affairs of the farmer, repair to property combined soil fertility management to get high yield while not compromising the soil fertility position within the future, this can be broad and needed to be followed.

The Khorgo-Terkhiin Tsagaan Nuur National Park is one of the major tourist destinations in Mongolia. The Park, in recent years, has witnessed a significant increase in the number of visiting local tourists. The present research was conducted to assess the environmental, social and cultural impacts of tourism in the region particularly today when we talk about sustainable tourism. To assess these impacts, as assessment method was used which is applied internationally. These impacts were based on three criterion for sustainable development-environmental impacts, social and cultural impacts. The National Park has been facing environmental impacts such as poor waste management, soil erosion, overgrazing, and water pollution. Even though it has some great impacts on the social, cultural and environmental aspects and its products and services, preserving traditional and cultural heritages and improving the skills of local and tourist workers, it continues to have a negative affect on the traditional customs, national arts and culture. Therefore, it is important that the means and methods of reducing these negative impacts should be planned and developed in the near future.

The development of oil palm plantations and its expansion as well, ensured potentially give impact on the environment. A standardized environmental management system is required by companies to develop and implement environmental aspects. This research is classified as a qualitative research with a case study which emphasizes potential environmental impacts analysis of oil palm plantations and the urgency of environmental management systems in oil palm plantation management policies in North Sumatra. The research results showed that there were potential environmental impacts began pre-construction, construction and operational stages related to oil palm plantations development such as erosion, changes of sustainable and quantity of water, plant pests distribution, diseases and weeds, changes in soil fertility, potential social conflicts and the emergence of the spread of plant diseases endemic and disruption of water infiltration function in peat areas. In addition, it affected environmental factors including ecosystem condition, hydrology, landscape, and resident’s attitude around the plantation. Alternative policies which be carried out related to environmental preservation and community welfare are (1) agro-industrial development policies that process oil and palm oil waste, (2) Moratorium (temporary suspension) of illegal logging, (3) Establish policy synergies and improve communication between government agencies and institutions, (4) reduce conflicts over land freehold by reforming above the law.

The study of the grassland type Agrostis tenuis - Festuca rupicola from Valea Bistrei - Otelul Rosu has been necessary due to the great surfaces covered with grasslands from the studied area and due to the social and economic climate characterised by the orientation of the rural community from the adjacent area to agriculture after the failure of the former intensive industry.There have been studied two grassland plots of about 500 hectares, res pectively Gai and Scărisoara. The purpose of this research is to assess the state of the biodiversity and pastoral value of four Agrostis tenuis - Festuca rupicola  grasslands from the hill area. Also, there has been analysed the floristic composition and a series of ecological indexes, respectively humidity, soil reaction, temperature, light, and nitrogen. Other aspects taken in account were the life-forms spectres. The analysed grasslands are placed on Bistrei Valey, in the perimeter of the locality OÅ£elul Roșu, Caraș -Severin County. The researches have been developed during 2010-2012 period. The average elevation level in the studied area is 268 square meters. The soil from the studied area is brown type, with a pH comprised between 4.79 and 5.31. The rainfall amount is about 700 mm and the average temperature is 10 Celsius degrees. The management mode of these grasslands is extensive, the grazing period being 150 days per year. The analysed surfaces are characterised by the lack of the maintenance works, there being present erosion phenomena. The method used for the vegetation analysis is the linear point quadrate method (Daget et Poissonet, 1971), the data being used for the calculation of different ecological indexes and pastoral value. The pastoral value of the species is low in both plots due to the great contribution of the low economical values of the most of the species from the analysed grasslands.

Sub-Watershed management and planning is integration of both technical and social aspects. Physical assessment of sub-watershed includes among many other bio-physical parameters, the morphometric analysis. The current study examines the applicability of existing stream order digital data for morphometric analysis and sub-watershed prioritization of Kailash Khola watershed. The study is based on secondary data and desk study and uses GIS data produced by Survey Department of Nepal and GIS tool for the analysis. Three linear and three aerial/shape parameters are taken for the morphometric analysis and simple ranking method based on calculated value is applied for sub-watershed prioritization. Technological tools like GIS and Remote Sensing has aided for spatial analysis using morphometric method. The study show that variation is found in vulnerability of sub-watershed in terms of linear and aerial morphometric parameters. The finding show that western part of the watershed is relatively vulnerable in terms of potential soil erosion and flooding. The study concludes that the importance of readily available stream order digital data and GIS tool and technology in identifying and analyzing priority subwatershed is reasonable. However, it is realized that spatial data at more finer spatial scale will improve the analysis and provide better analysis result and exemplify local problems in the area of topographical variation. The study suggest that, introduction of stream order data set finer scale or will allow analysis to be performed at much greater so that more localized effect of drainage morphometry in varying topographical landscape of the country could be assessed.

In many parts of the world, the utilization of rangelands is based on the targeted movement of herds within and across often vast territories. Crucial for the success of these livestock operations are decisions on how to flexibly allocate animals to the existing vegetation, both in terms of numbers and concentrations, and in space and time. Research from large scale ranching in the prairies of the Americas, and nomadic or transhumant livestock systems in Africa, the Middle East, and Central Asia, suggests that the more precisely specific patches of vegetation at a specific development stage can be targeted, the more beneficial will be the outcome in terms of animal nutrition and productivity. This also holds for the provision of environmental services such as aboveground net primary production, biodiversity preservation, and soil fertility. However, herding requires year-round labor investment, and in rural areas where seasonal migration is an important livelihood strategy, herding may suffer from absence of skilled workforce. Additional obstacles are political neglect and land use competition, insecurity, reduced self-ownership rates of herds, partial social isolation of herders, and hardship of the work. These make herding an increasingly unpopular occupation, especially for the young generation, but there are also factors that drive (young) people to take up or continue this profession. Reduced herding efforts, reflected in the reluctance to utilize remote grazing areas, may lead to overstocking of favorable pastures. This increases the risk of pasture degradation, long-term reduced herd productivity, social conflict, and public criticism of pastoralism as an anachronistic lifestyle and detrimental land stewardship, thereby further fueling the erosion of herding. By reviewing studies from Africa, the Middle East, and southern and eastern Asia, and including some insights from Europe and southern America, we discuss the ecosystem services produced by herding and herd mobility, and reflect on the ecological and social consequences of the loss of herding labor. Highlighting aspects that speak for this occupation at the individual level, we conclude by suggesting interventions that may sustain the herding profession, such as facilitation of labor sharing, labor contracts, improved herder security, and societal payments for ecological and cultural services.

Introduction The decline of marriage in the West has been extensively researched over the last three decades (Carmichael and Whittaker; de Vaus; Coontz; Beck-Gernshein). Indeed, it was fears that the institution would be further eroded by the legalisation of same sex unions internationally that provided the impetus for the Australian government to amend the Marriage Act (1961). These amendments in 2004 sought to strengthen marriage by explicitly defining, for the first time, marriage as a legal partnership between one man and one woman. The subsequent heated debates over the discriminatory nature of this definition have been illuminating, particularly in the way they have highlighted the ongoing social significance of marriage, even at a time it is seen to be in decline. Demographic research about partnering practices (Carmichael and Whittaker; Simons; Parker; Penman) indicates that contemporary marriages are more temporary, fragile and uncertain than in previous generations. Modern marriages are now less about a permanent and “inescapable” union between a dominant man and a submissive female for the purposes of authorised sex, legal progeny and financial security, and more about a commitment between two social equals for the mutual exchange of affection and companionship (Croome). Less research is available, however, about how couples themselves reconcile the inherited constructions of romantic love as selfless and unending, with trends that clearly indicate that romantic love is not forever, ideal or exclusive. Civil marriage ceremonies provide one source of data about representations of love. Civil unions constituted almost 70 per cent of all marriages in Australia in 2010, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics. The civil marriage ceremony has both a legal and symbolic role. It is a legal contract insofar as it prescribes a legal arrangement with certain rights and responsibilities between two consenting adults and outlines an expectation that marriage is voluntarily entered into for life. The ceremony is also a public ritual that requires couples to take what are usually private feelings for each other and turn them into a public performance as a way of legitimating their relationship. Consistent with the conventions of performance, couples generally customise the rest of the ceremony by telling the story of their courtship, and in so doing they often draw upon the language and imagery of the Western Romantic tradition to convey the personal meaning and social significance of their decision. This paper explores how couples construct the idea of love in their relationship, first by examining the western history of romantic love and then by looking at how this discourse is invoked by Australians in the course of developing civil marriage ceremonies in collaboration with the author. A History of Romantic Love There are many definitions of romantic love, but all share similar elements including an intense emotional and physical attraction, an idealisation of each other, and a desire for an enduring and unending commitment that can overcome all obstacles (Gottschall and Nordlund; Janowiak and Fischer). Romantic love has historically been associated with heightened passions and intense almost irrational or adolescent feelings. Charles Lindholm’s list of clichés that accompany the idea of romantic love include: “love is blind, love overwhelms, a life without love is not worth living, marriage should be for love alone and anything less is worthless and a sham” (5). These elements, which invoke love as sacred, unending and unique, perpetuate past cultural associations of the term. Romantic love was first documented in Ancient Rome where intense feelings were seen as highly suspect and a threat to the stability of the family, which was the primary economic, social and political unit. Roman historian Plutarch viewed romantic love based upon strong personal attraction as disruptive to the family, and he expressed a fear that romantic love would become the norm for Romans (Lantz 352). During the Middle Ages romantic love emerged as courtly love and, once again, the conventions that shaped its expression grew out of an effort to control excessive emotions and sublimate sexual desire, which were seen as threats to social stability. Courtly love, according to Marilyn Yalom, was seen as an “irresistible and inexhaustible passion; a fatal love that overcomes suffering and even death” (66). Feudal social structures had grounded marriage in property, while the Catholic Church had declared marriage a sacrament and a ceremony through which God’s grace could be obtained. In this context courtly love emerged as a way of dealing with the conflict between the individual and family choices over the martial partner. Courtly love is about a pure ideal of love in which the knight serves his unattainable lady, and, by carrying out feats in her honour, reaches spiritual perfection. The focus on the aesthetic ideal was a way to fulfil male and female emotional needs outside of marriage, while avoiding adultery. Romantic love re-appeared again in the mid-eighteenth century, but this time it was associated with marriage. Intellectuals and writers led the trend normalising romantic love in marriage as a reaction to the Enlightenment’s valorisation of reason, science and materialism over emotion. Romantics objected to the pragmatism and functionality induced by industrialisation, which they felt destroyed the idea of the mysterious and transcendental nature of love, which could operate as a form of secular salvation. Love could not be bought or sold, argued the Romantics, “it is mysterious, true and deep, spontaneous and compelling” (Lindholm 5). Romantic love also emerged as an expression of the personal autonomy and individualisation that accompanied the rise of industrial society. As Lanz suggests, romantic love was part of the critical reflexivity of the Enlightenment and a growing belief that individuals could find self actualisation through the expression and expansion of their “emotional and intellectual capacities in union with another” (354). Thus it was romantic love, which privileges the feelings and wishes of an individual in mate selection, that came to be seen as a bid for freedom by the offspring of the growing middle classes coerced into marriage for financial or property reasons. Throughout the 19th century romantic love was seen as a solution to the dehumanising forces of industrialisation and urbanisation. The growth of the competitive workplace—which required men to operate in a restrained and rational manner—saw an increase in the search for emotional support and intimacy within the domestic domain. It has been argued that “love was the central preoccupation of middle class men from the 1830s until the end of the 19th century” (Stearns and Knapp 771). However, the idealisation of the aesthetic and purity of love impacted marriage relations by casting the wife as pure and marital sex as a duty. As a result, husbands pursued sexual and romantic relationships outside marriage. It should be noted that even though love became cemented as the basis for marriage in the 19th century, romantic love was still viewed suspiciously by religious groups who saw strong affection between couples as an erosion of the fundamental role of the husband in disciplining his wife. During the late 19th and early 20th centuries romantic love was further impacted by urbanisation and migration, which undermined the emotional support provided by extended families. According to Stephanie Coontz, it was the growing independence and mobility of couples that saw romantic love in marriage consolidated as the place in which an individual’s emotional and social needs could be fully satisfied. Coontz says that the idea that women could only be fulfilled through marriage, and that men needed women to organise their social life, reached its heights in the 1950s (25-30). Changes occurred to the structure of marriage in the 1960s when control over fertility meant that sex was available outside of marriage. Education, equality and feminism also saw women reject marriage as their only option for fulfilment. Changes to Family Law Acts in western jurisdictions in the 1970s provided for no-fault divorce, and as divorce lost its stigma it became acceptable for women to leave failing marriages. These social shifts removed institutional controls on marriage and uncoupled the original sexual, emotional and financial benefits packaged into marriage. The resulting individualisation of personal lifestyle choices for men and women disrupted romantic conventions, and according to James Dowd romantic love came to be seen as an “investment” in the “future” that must be “approached carefully and rationally” (552). It therefore became increasingly difficult to sustain the idea of love as a powerful, mysterious and divine force beyond reason. Methodology In seeking to understand how contemporary partnering practices are reconstituting romantic love, I draw upon anecdotal data gathered over a nine-year period from my experiences as a marriage celebrant. In the course of personalising marriage ceremonies, I pose a series of questions designed to assist couples to explain the significance of their relationship. I generally ask brides and grooms why they love their fiancé, why they want to legalise their relationship, what they most treasure about their partner, and how their lives have been changed by their relationship. These questions help couples to reflexively interrogate their own relationship, and by talking about their commitment in concrete terms, they produce the images and descriptions that can be used to describe for guests the internal motivations and sentiments that have led to their decision to marry. I have had couples, when prompted to explain how they know the other person loves them say, in effect: “I know that he loves me because he brings me a cup of coffee every morning” or “I know that she loves me because she takes care of me so well.” These responses are grounded in a realism that helps to convey a sense of sincerity and authenticity about the relationship to the couple’s guests. This realism also helps to address the cynicism about the plausibility of enduring love. The brides and grooms in this sample of 300 couples were a socially, culturally and economically diverse group, and they provided a wide variety of responses ranging from deeply nuanced insights into the nature of their relationship, to admissions that their feelings were so private and deeply felt that words were insufficient to convey their significance. Reoccurring themes, however, emerged across the cases, and it is evident that even as marriage partnerships may be entered into for a variety of reasons, romantic love remains the mechanism by which couples talk of their feelings for each other. Australian Love and Marriage Australians' attitudes to romantic love and marriage have, understandably, been shaped by western understandings of romantic love. It is evident, however, that the demands of late modern capitalist society, with its increased literacy, economic independence and sexual equality between men and women, have produced marriage as a negotiable contract between social equals. For some, like Carol Pateman, this sense of equality within marriage may be illusory. Nonetheless, the drive for individual self-fulfilment by both the bride and groom produces a raft of challenges to traditional ideas of marriage as couples struggle to find a balance between independence and intimacy; between family and career; and between pursuing personal goals and the goals of their partners. This shift in the nature of marriage has implications for the “quest for undying romantic love,” which according to Anthony Giddens has been replaced by other forms of relationship, "each entered into for its own sake, for what can be derived by each person from a sustained association with another; and which is continued only in so far as it is thought by both parties to deliver enough satisfactions for each individual to stay within it” (qtd. in Lindholm 6). The impact of these social changes on the nature of romantic love in marriage is evident in how couples talk about their relationship in the course of preparing a ceremony. Many couples describe the person they are marrying as their best friend, and friendship is central to their commitment. This description supports research by V.K. Oppenheimer which indicates that many contemporary couples have a more “egalitarian collaborative approach to marriage” (qtd. in Carmichael and Whittaker 25). It is also standard for couples to note in ceremonies that they make each other happy and contented, with many commenting upon how their partners have helped to bring focus and perspective to their work-oriented lives. These comments tend to invoke marriage as a refuge from the isolation, competition, and dehumanising elements of workplaces. Since emotional support is central to the marriage contract, it is not surprising that care for each other is another reoccurring theme in ceremonies. Many brides and grooms not only explicitly say they are well taken care of by their partner, but also express admiration for their partner’s treatment of their families and friends. This behaviour appears to be seen as an indicator of the individual’s capacity for support and commitment to family values. Many couples admire partner’s kindness, generosity and level of personal self-sacrifice in maintaining the relationship. It is also not uncommon for brides and grooms to say they have been changed by their love: become kinder, more considerate and more tolerant. Honesty, communication skills and persistence are also attributes that are valued. Brides and grooms who have strong communication skills are also praised. This may refer to interpersonal competency and the willingness to acquire the skills necessary to negotiate the endless compromises in contemporary marriage now that individualisation has undermined established rules, rituals and roles. Persistence and the ability not to be discouraged by setbacks is also a reoccurring theme, and this connects with the idea that marriage is work. Many couples promise to grow together in their marriage and to both take responsibility for the health of their relationship. This promise implies awareness that marriage is not the fantasy of happily ever after produced in romantic popular culture, but rather an arrangement that requires hard work and conscious commitment, particularly in building a union amidst many competing options and distractions. Many couples talk about their relationship in terms of companionship and shared interests, values and goals. It is also not uncommon for couples to say that they admire their partner for supporting them to achieve their life goals or for exposing them to a wider array of lifestyle choices and options like travel or study. These examples of interdependence appear to make explicit that couples still see marriage as a vehicle for personal freedom and self-realisation. The death of love is also alluded to in marriage ceremonies. Couples talk of failed past relationships, but these are produced positively as a mechanism that enables the couple to know that they have now found an enduring relationship. It is also evident that for many couples the decision to marry is seen as the formalisation of a preexisting commitment rather than the gateway to a new life. This is consistent with figures that show that 72 per cent of Australian couples chose to cohabit before marriage (Simons 48), and that cohabitation has become the “normative pathway to marriage” (Penman 26). References to children also feature in marriage ceremonies, and for the couples I have worked with marriage is generally seen as the pre-requisite for children. Couples also often talk about “being ready” for marriage. This seems to refer to being financially prepared. Robyn Parker citing the research of K. Edin concludes that for many modern couples “rushing into marriage before being ‘set’ is irresponsible—marrying well (in the sense of being well prepared) is the way to avoid divorce” (qtd. in Parker 81). From this overview of reoccurring themes in the production of Australian ceremonies it is clear that romantic love continues to be associated with marriage. However, couples describe a more grounded and companionable attachment. These more practical and personalised sentiments serve to meet both the public expectation that romantic love is a precondition for marriage, while also avoiding the production of romantic love in the ceremony as an empty cliché. Grounded descriptions of love reveal that attraction does not have to be overwhelming and unconquerable. Indeed, couples who have lived together and are intimately acquainted with each other’s habits and disposition, appear to be most comfortable expressing their commitment to each other in more temperate, but no less deeply felt, terms. Conclusion This paper has considered how brides and grooms constitute romantic love within the shifting partnering practices of contemporary Australia. It is evident “in the midst of significant social and economic change and at a time when individual rights and freedom of choice are important cultural values” marriage remains socially significant (Simons 50). This significance is partially conveyed through the language of romantic love, which, while freighted with an array of cultural and historical associations, remains the lingua franca of marriage, perhaps because as Roberto Unger observes, romantic love is “the most influential mode of moral vision in our culture” (qtd. in Lindholm 5). It is thus possible to conclude, that while marriage may be declining and becoming more fragile and impermanent, the institution remains important to couples in contemporary Australia. Moreover, the language and imagery of romantic love, which publicly conveys this importance, remains the primary mode of expressing care, affection and hope for a partnership, even though the changed partnering practices of late modern capitalist society have exposed the utopian quality of romantic love and produced a cynicism about the viability of its longevity. It is evident in the marriage ceremonies prepared by the author that while the language of romantic love has come to signify a broader range of more practical associations consistent with the individualised nature of modern marriage and demystification of romantic love, it also remains the best way to express what Dowd and Pallotta describe as a fundamental human “yearning for communion with and acceptance by another human being” (571). References Beck, U., and E. Beck-Gernsheim, Individualisation: Institutionalised Individualism and Its Social and Political Consequences. London: Sage, 2002. Beigel, Hugo G. “Romantic Love.” American Sociological Review 16.3 (1951): 326–34. Carmichael, Gordon A, and Andrea Whittaker. “Forming Relationships in Australia: Qualitative Insights into a Process Important to Human Well Being.” Journal of Population Research 24.1 (2007): 23–49. Coontz, Stephanie. Marriage, A History: How Love Conquered Marriage. New York: Viking, 2005. Croome, Rodney. “Love and Commitment, To Equality.” The Drum Opinion, Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) News. 8 June 2011. 14 Aug. 2012 < http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/2749898.html >. de Vaus, D.L. Qu, and R. Weston. “Family Trends: Changing Patterns of Partnering.” Family Matters 64 (2003): 10–15. Dowd, James T, and Nicole R. Pallotta. “The End of Romance: The Demystification of Love in the Postmodern Age.” Sociological Perspectives 43.4 (2000): 549–80. Gottschall, Jonathan, and Marcus Nordlund. “Romantic Love: A Literary Universal?” Philosophy and Literature 30 (2006): 450–70. Jankowiak, William, and Ted Fischer, “A Cross-Cultural Perspective on Romantic Love,” Ethnology 31 (1992): 149–55. Lantz, Herman R. “Romantic Love in the Pre-Modern Period: A Sociological Commentary.” Journal of Social History 15.3 (1982): 349–70. Lindholm, Charles. “Romantic Love and Anthropology.” Etnofoor 19:1 Romantic Love (2006): 5–21. Parker, Robyn. “Perspectives on the Future of Marriage.” Australian Institute of Family Studies 72 Summer (2005): 78–82.Pateman, Carole. “Women and Consent.” Political Theory (1980): 149–68. Penman, Robyn. “Current Approaches to Marriage and Relationship Research in the United States and Australia.” Family Matters 70 Autumn (2005): 26–35. Simons, Michelle. “(Re)-forming Marriage in Australia?” Australian Institute of Family Matters 73 (2006): 46–51.Stearns, Peter N, and Mark Knapp. “Men and Romantic Love: Pinpointing a 20th-Century Change.” Journal of Social History 26.4 (1993): 769–95. Yalom, Marilyn. A History of the Wife. New York: Harper Collins, 2001.

The formation of a comprehensive forest management strategy in Ukraine should in accordance with the criteria that create the preconditions for achieving parity of environmental, economic and social aspects of sustainable development. In the country, the establishment of compliance of the forest management system with certain international requirements should be realized through the implementation of the Helsinki Criteria for Sustainable Forest Development. The purpose of the work was analyzed the state of forests and the actual indicators of economic activity of forestry enterprises operating in the Steppe Zone of Ukraine according to of the Helsinki Criteria. The source data were the materials of sectoral reporting and state statistical information.The article shows the distribution of the forest area within administrative Dnipropetrovsk region by forest users. The distribution of the area of forest subordinated to the State Agency of Forest Resources of Ukraine by functional categories is analyzed. The structure of nature reserve fund of objects and territories of the forest fund was estimated. The provision of forestry with labor resources is indicated.The areas covered with forest vegetation by dominant forest-forming species with distribution by age group was given.The total forest phytomass and its trend for forestry enterprise which subordinated to the State Agency of Forest Resources of Ukraine in Dnipropetrovsk region was calculated. The distribution of the total phytomass by structural components of plantations – wood and bark of trunks, wood and bark of branches, leaves, roots and subtent are given. The dynamics of the average values of the total stock of trunk wood for stand forest, the density of phytomass and the deposited carbon in the forest phytomass are described. The effect of biotic factors on forest plantations had been assessed – the species composition of pests and phytopathogenes and the area of their foci had been established. The list of the main forestry measures connected with timber harvesting was given.The species composition and distribution of area covered vegetation by forest-forming species and age groups in forests of the protective functional categories which prevent soil erosion was characterized.

This paper investigates linkages between two apparently disparate government initiatives. Together they function symbolically to maintain Australia’s moral order by excluding filth, keeping personal and national boundaries tight and borders secure. The Commonwealth government recently set aside over five million dollars to improve continence in the Australian population (incontinence is the inability to control movements of the bowel or bladder, producing leakage of filth in the form of urine and faeces). The Strategy funded research into prevalence rates, treatment strategies, doctor education, a public toilet mapping exercise, and public awareness through a telephone helpline and patient information pamphlets. Almost simultaneously with the continence initiative, concerns over the influx of asylum seekers to Australia lead the federal government to focus more resources on strengthening Australia’s border protection. This paper explores the two phenomena of personal and national boundary maintenance as aspects of classification dilemmas based in conceptions of filth, pollution and cleaning rituals. Continence and Boundary Maintenance Elias has pointed out that the development of rules of decorum around bodily control was the very essence of ‘the civilizing process’ in Western cultures. Currently, we see bodily control as a prerequisite for becoming an adult, and the loss of control is a sign of a loss of responsible adulthood, a ‘spoiled identity’ (Goffman; Murcott; Hepworth). However, Foucault pointed out that the body, through the imposition of the State and the medical profession, has become a target for self-work, resulting not in self-empowerment but in subjection. Through the ‘new micro-physics of power’ (Foucault 139), the bladder and pelvic floor have become sites in need of control. Analysis of discourses around incontinence, both in the public and private spheres, indicate a concern with issues of control and agency, particularly the moral imperative to be in control of one’s body and the feelings of incompetence produced by the loss of control. Incompetence, self blame and guilt are evident in sufferers’ talk about their condition (Tilbury et al.; Murcott). The negativity surrounding incontinence is connected with the construction of urine and faeces as filth – but is this construction of dirtiness ‘natural? Mary Douglas argued that cultural classification creates the order of social life and has an inherently moral dimension. A consequence is that things which cross categorical boundaries are impure and therefore dangerous, because they threaten the rules of classification. Douglas suggested that there is nothing inherent in ‘unclean’ things which make them dirty. Soil in the garden is ‘clean’ whereas on the carpet it is ‘dirty’, spaghetti on a plate is clean, but on your trousers it is dirty. Douglas concluded that dirtiness is not about the stuff itself, but about it being in the wrong location. We are left with the very old definition of dirt as matter out of place. This is a very suggestive approach. It implies two conditions: a set of ordered relations and a contravention of that order. … Dirt is the by-product of a systematic ordering and classification of matter, in so far as ordering involves rejecting inappropriate elements (Douglas 48). Like the fear of deviance generally, fear of pollution by ‘dirty’ things is strongly emotive because of its threat to the larger moral order. In the same way that moral panics, scapegoating, and witch hunts occur where there is a threat to the collectivity’s boundaries, clean-ups are in order where there is a perceived social crisis which threatens social classification and order. They serve as purges, drawing attention to the violated moral order, and to the State’s ability to secure it. Cleaning rituals function symbolically to reaffirm the social order. Thus, an insistence on continence is symbolic of something deeper than a fear of infection from leaking urine and faeces. Douglas suggests that issues of dirt and cleanliness in relation to the human body are actually about wider social concerns. The body is a tabula rasa on which the concerns of society are writ small. The biological body is a symbol of the social body. Elias argued bodily control and social control are linked – for example we are careful to control publicly bodily functions such as farting, belching and yawning. Now if bodies serve as symbols of society, then concern over group boundaries will be expressed symbolically as concerns over bodily boundaries. Bodily orifices, those entrances and exits which define the boundaries of the body most obviously, become sites of some significance, and those dirty things which traverse these openings/closings challenge and destabilize the system of categorization which society holds sacrosanct. But why, one might ask, the recent concern over bodily boundaries? Continents and Border Protection On the ABC’s 7.30 Report (20 June 2002) anchor Kerry O’Brien introduced a story about ‘the migrant problem’ in the Netherlands with a comment about the Dutch desire to control the ‘flooding’ in of refugees through their ‘weakening borders’ and noted the growing public concern to ‘seal their leaking border’. While such imagery obviously references the story of ‘the little Dutch boy and the dike’, it was directly relevant to Australian audiences because Australia was in the midst of its own ‘refugee crisis’ (see Saxton; Manne; Pickering; Gelber). The ‘Tampa crisis’, in September 2001, saw a Norwegian freighter, the Tampa, rescue 433 asylum seekers from their sinking boat which was headed for Australia. Australia denied the Tampa permission to enter its waters and ports, so it was left out to sea for days, while the Australian government negotiated a face saving solution to the problem. This was the ‘Pacific solution’ – whereby asylum seekers are moved to nearby Pacific nations to be ‘processed’ off shore, in exchange for monetary incentive to these struggling economies. Asylum seekers were demonized by the press and by politicians for threatening to throw themselves and their children overboard. Prime Minister John Howard suggested some were likely to be terrorists, and the then Minister of Immigration Philip Ruddock asked the rhetorical question: ‘Are these the sort of people we want as Australians?’ Discursive analyses of media coverage (news reports, opinion columns and letters to the editor) of the arrival of asylum seekers indicate that they were represented as illegal, illegitimate and threatening (Saxton), and constructed as deviant in a variety of ways, including being diseased (Pickering). The language used to describe the ‘threat’ is revealing: terms such as ‘swamped’, ‘awash’, ‘latest waves’, ‘more waves’, ‘tides’, ‘floods’ and ‘migratory flood’ (Pickering 172). Most importantly, a ‘national rights’ discourse emerged, asserting Australia’s authority over its physical and cultural space, and its right to ‘protect its territory and character’ (Saxton 111) from potentially polluting pariahs, the excrement of other nations, refugees. The net result of these activities was the putting in place of a series of emergency measures to ensure Australia’s borders were ‘protected’, including moving the legal definition of borders, rigorous enforcement of imprisonment in detention centres, providing a two thousand dollar incentive to return to their countries of origin, and increased sea and air surveillance. Recent moves by the government to make seeking asylum more difficult have continued this trend. Continents and Continence Now what do incontinence and the Tampa crisis have in common? Obviously both are attempts to contain filth, ensuring boundary maintenance of the individual and the national body. The desire of the Australian government to clarify Australia’s boundaries by reducing them to its mainland is indicative of a concern with keeping national boundaries precise and clear. The threat of breaches from outside spurs this attempt to ensure closure, but it is simultaneously evidence of the fear of violation. Australia’s attempts at boundary maintenance are forms of ‘pollution rituals’ designed to maintain the definition of Australia as the domain of white Anglo-Saxon Christians (Hage; Saxton; Pickering). Being racially, ethnically and religiously different, asylum seekers challenge cherished notions of what ‘we’ Australians are – they are matter-out-of-place, challenging the integrity of the nation. As Pickering notes: ‘Asylum seekers transgress many boundaries: physical, geographic, language, legal, national, social and political. In so doing they routinely disrupt established, although precarious, orders’ (Pickering 170). The ‘breach’ panic, and consequent attempts to fortify ‘fortress Australia’, function symbolically to reaffirm the social order and maintain the classification of in-group and out-group. Conclusion The parallels drawn between these two initiatives are not meant to assert a causal relationship, but rather a form of ‘elective affinity’ (Weber). Thus, my argument is rather more than a recognition of the ways in which body metaphors are used as ‘convenient way[s] for talking or thinking about the moral and political problems of society’ (Turner 1), but less than a suggestion that one is in a direct causal relationship to the other. If pollution behaviour is that which condemns objects or ideas which might confuse cherished classifications, then government attempts to keep national boundaries contained and bodies secure are both examples of pollution behaviours. The National Continence Management Strategy and the concerns about Australia’s border protection are both symbolic manifestations of the same concern over unsealed boundaries and boundary crossings. Both result from a barely contained hysteria manifest in a fear of things coming in, and things going out, and a frustrated recognition of the impossibility of keeping entries and exits secure. The National Continence Management strategy mirrors the macro concerns over boundary maintenance and security. The tightening up of movements of matter across bodies, and movements of people across nations, are signs of attempts to control identity. But from whence has this concern arisen? One possibility is the general destabilising of national identities resulting from the broad postmodern recognition of hybridity and fluidity in the construction and maintenance of identity. A specific example of this is the fact that while Australia has long been proud of its identity as a white nation of the Antipodes, at the same time it is developing an identity as multicultural. The traditional values of white society are being challenged and the resulting destabilization is threatening (Hage; Ang; Phillips). Postmodern constructions of identity as contextual, fuzzy, and open ended, destabilize identity as singular and unproblematic. Hall and du Gay, Bhabha, and others have noted the discomfort attendant on a version of identity which is hybrid and liminal, which challenges the notion that categories are clear cut and people are either ‘in’ or ‘out’. This discomfort results in the need to shore up individual and national identities through efforts to define and maintain boundaries and to contain them – in essence to re-establish and defend ‘fortress Australia’ by containing matter in its proper place, and excluding filth. References Bhabha, Homi, ed. Nation and Narration. London: Routledge, 1990. Douglas, Mary. Purity and Danger: An Analysis of Concepts of Pollution and Taboo. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1966. Elias, Norbert. The Civilizing Process. Trans. E. Jephcott. Oxford: Blackwell, 1994. Foucault, Michel. Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison. Trans A. Sheridan. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1979. Gelber, Katherine. “A Fair Queue? Australian Public Discourse on Refugees and Immigration.” Journal of Australian Studies 1 March 2003: 23-30. Goffman, Erving. Stigma: Notes on the Management of Spoiled Identity. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 1963. Hage, Ghassan. White Nation: Fantasies of White Supremacy in a Multicultural Society. Annendale NSW: Pluto Press, 1998. Hall, Stuart, and Paul du Gay, eds. Questions of Cultural Identity. London: Sage, 1996. Hepworth, Mike. Stories of Ageing. Buckingham: Open University Press, 2000. Manne, Robert, with David Corlett. “Sending them Home: Refugees and the New Politics of Indifference.” Quarterly Essay 13. Melbourne: Black, 2004. Murcott, Anne. “Purity and Pollution: Body Management and the Social Place of Infancy.” In Sue Scott and David Morgan, eds. Body Matters. London: The Falmer Press, 1993. Pickering, Sharon. “Common Sense and Original Deviancy: News Discourses and Asylum Seekers in Australia.” Journal of Refugee Studies 14.2 (2001):169-86. Saxton, Alison. “‘I Certainly Don’t Want People like That Here’: The Discursive Construction of Asylum Seekers.” Media International Australia Incorporating Culture and Policy 109 (Nov. 2003): 109-20. Tilbury, Farida, Pradeep Jayasuriya, Jan Taylor, and Liz Williams. Continence Care in the Community. Report to Department of Health and Aged Care, 2001. Turner, Bryan. “Social Fluids: Metaphors and Meanings in Society.” Body and Society 9.1 (2003): 1-10. Turner, Bryan, with Colin Samson. Medical Power and Social Knowledge. London: Sage, 1996. Citation reference for this article MLA Style Tilbury, Farida. "Filth, Incontinence and Border Protection." M/C Journal 9.5 (2006). echo date('d M. Y'); ?> <http://journal.media-culture.org.au/0610/06-tilbury.php>. APA Style Tilbury, F. (Nov. 2006) "Filth, Incontinence and Border Protection," M/C Journal, 9(5). Retrieved echo date('d M. Y'); ?> from <http://journal.media-culture.org.au/0610/06-tilbury.php>.

IllegitimacyBack in 1987, Gregory Bateson argued that:Kurt Vonnegut gives us wary advice – that we should be careful what we pretend because we become what we pretend. And something like that, some sort of self-fulfilment, occurs in all organisations and human cultures. What people presume to be ‘human’ is what they will build in as premises of their social arrangements, and what they build in is sure to be learned, is sure to become a part of the character of those who participate. (178)The human capacity to marginalise and discriminate against others on the basis of innate and constructed characteristics is evident from the long history of discrimination against people whose existence is ‘illegitimate’, defined as being outside the law. What is inside or outside the law depends upon the context under consideration. For example, in societies such as ancient Greece and the antebellum United States, where slavery was legal, people who were constructed as ‘slaves’ could legitimately be treated very differently from ‘citizens’: free people who benefit from a range of human rights (Northup). The discernment of what is legitimate from that which is illegitimate is thus implicated within the law but extends into the wider experience of community life and is evident within the civil structures through which society is organised and regulated.The division between the legitimate and illegitimate is an arbitrary one, susceptible to changing circumstances. Within recent memory a romantic/sexual relationship between two people of the same sex was constructed as illegitimate and actively persecuted. This was particularly the case for same-sex attracted men, since the societies regulating these relationships generally permitted women a wider repertoire of emotional response than men were allowed. Even when lesbian and gay relationships were legalised, they were constructed as less legitimate in the sense that they often had different rules around the age of consent for homosexual and heterosexual couples. In Australia, the refusal to allow same sex couples to marry perpetuates ways in which these relationships are constructed as illegitimate – beyond the remit of the legislation concerning marriage.The archetypal incidence of illegitimacy has historically referred to people born out of wedlock. The circumstances of birth, for example whether a person was born as a result of a legally-sanctioned marital relationship or not, could have ramifications throughout an individual’s life. Stories abound (for example, Cookson) of the implications of being illegitimate. In some social stings, such as Catherine Cookson’s north-eastern England at the turn of the twentieth century, illegitimate children were often shunned. Parents frequently refused permission for their (legitimate) children to play with illegitimate classmates, as if these children born out of wedlock embodied a contaminating variety of evil. Illegitimate children were treated differently in the law in matters of inheritance, for example, and may still be. They frequently lived in fear of needing to show a birth certificate to gain a passport, for example, or to marry. Sometimes, it was at this point in adult life, that a person first discovered their illegitimacy, changing their entire understanding of their family and their place in the world. It might be possible to argue that the emphasis upon the legitimacy of a birth has lessened in proportion to an acceptance of genetic markers as an indicator of biological paternity, but that is not the endeavour here.Given the arbitrariness and mutability of the division between legitimacy and illegitimacy as a constructed boundary, it is policed by social and legal sanctions. Boundaries, such as the differentiation between the raw and the cooked (Lévi-Strauss), or S/Z (Barthes), or purity and danger (Douglas), serve important cultural functions and also convey critical information about the societies that enforce them. Categories of person, place or thing which are closest to boundaries between the legitimate and the illegitimate can prompt existential anxiety since the capacity to discern between these categories is most challenged at the margins. The legal shenanigans which can result speak volumes for which aspects of life have the potential to unsettle a culture. One example of this which is writ large in the recent history of Australia is our treatment of refugees and asylum seekers and the impact of this upon Australia’s multicultural project.Foreshadowing the sexual connotations of the illegitimate, one of us has written elsewhere (Green, ‘Bordering on the Inconceivable’) about the inconceivability of the Howard administration’s ‘Pacific solution’. This used legal devices to rewrite Australia’s borders to limit access to the rights accruing to refugees upon landing in a safe haven entitling them to seek asylum. Internationally condemned as an illegitimate construction of an artificial ‘migration zone’, this policy has been revisited and made more brutal under the Abbot regime with at least two people – Reza Barati and Hamid Khazaei – dying in the past year in what is supposed to be a place of safety provided by Australian authorities under their legal obligations to those fleeing from persecution. Crock points out, echoing the discourse of illegitimacy, that it is and always has been inappropriate to label “undocumented asylum seekers” as “‘illegal’” because: “until such people cross the border onto Australian territory, the language of illegality is nonsense. People who have no visas to enter Australia can hardly be ‘illegals’ until they enter Australia” (77). For Australians who identify in some ways – religion, culture, fellow feeling – with the detainees incarcerated on Nauru and Manus Island, it is hard to ignore the disparity between the government’s treatment of visa overstayers and “illegals” who arrive by boat (Wilson). It is a comparatively short step to construct this disparity as reflecting upon the legitimacy within Australia of communities who share salient characteristics with detained asylum seekers: “The overwhelmingly negative discourse which links asylum seekers, Islam and terrorism” (McKay, Thomas & Kneebone, 129). Some communities feel themselves constructed in the public and political spheres as less legitimately Australian than others. This is particularly true of communities where members can be identified via markers of visible difference, including indicators of ethnic, cultural and religious identities: “a group who [some 585 respondent Australians …] perceived would maintain their own languages, customs and traditions […] this cultural diversity posed an extreme threat to Australian national identity” (McKay, Thomas & Kneebone, 129). Where a community shares salient characteristics such as ethnicity or religion with many detained asylum seekers they can become fearful of the discourses around keeping borders strong and protecting Australia from illegitimate entrants. MethodologyThe qualitative fieldwork upon which this paper is based took place some 6-8 years ago (2006-2008), but the project remains one of the most recent and extensive studies of its kind. There are no grounds for believing that any of the findings are less valid than previously. On the contrary, if political actions are constructed as a proxy for mainstream public consent, opinions have become more polarised and have hardened. Ten focus groups were held involving 86 participants with a variety of backgrounds including differences in age, gender, religious observance, religious identification and ethnicity. Four focus groups involved solely Muslim participants; six drew from the wider Australian community. The aim was to examine the response of different communities to mainstream Australian media representations of Islam, Muslims, and terrorism. Research questions included: “Are there differences in the ways in which Australian Muslims respond to messages about ‘fear’ and ‘terror’ compared with broader community Australians’ responses to the same messages?” and “How do Australian Muslims construct the perceptions and attitudes of the broader Australian community based on the messages that circulate in the media?” Recent examples of kinds of messages investigated include media coverage of Islamic State’s (ISIS’s) activities (Karam & Salama), and the fear-provoking coverage around the possible recruitment of Australians to join the fighting in Syria and Iraq (Cox). The ten focus groups were augmented by 60 interviews, 30 with respondents who identified as Muslim (15 males, 15 female) and 30 respondents from the broader community (same gender divisions). Finally, a market research company was commissioned to conduct a ‘fear survey’, based on an established ‘fear of rape’ inventory (Aly and Balnaves), delivered by telephone to a random sample of 750 over-18 y.o. Australians in which Muslims formed a deliberative sub-group, to ensure they were over-sampled and constituted at least 150 respondents. The face-to-face surveys and focus groups were conducted by co-author, Dr Anne Aly. General FindingsMuslim respondents indicate a heightened intensity of reaction to media messages around fear and terror. In addition to a generalised fear of the potential impact of terrorism upon Australian society and culture, Muslim respondents experienced a specific fear that any terrorist-related media coverage might trigger hostility towards Muslim Australian communities and their own family members. According to the ‘fear survey’ scale, Muslim Australians at the time of the research experienced approximately twice the fear level of mainstream Australian respondents. Broader Australian community Australian Muslim communityFear of a terrorist attackFear of a terrorist attack combines with the fear of a community backlashSpecific victims: dead, injured, bereavedCommunity is full of general victims in addition to any specific victimsShort-term; intense impactsProtracted, diffuse impactsSociety-wide sympathy and support for specific victims and all those involved in dealing with the trauma and aftermathSociety-wide suspicion and a marginalisation of those affected by the backlashVictims of a terrorist attack are embraced by broader communityVictims of backlash experience hostility from the broader communityFour main fears were identified by Australian Muslims as a component of the fear of terrorism:Fear of physical harm. In addition to the fear of actual terrorist acts, Australian Muslims fear backlash reprisals such as those experienced after such events as 9/11, the Bali bombings, and attacks upon public transport passengers in Spain and the UK. These and similar events were constructed as precipitating increased aggression against identifiable Australian Muslims, along with shunning of Muslims and avoidance of their company.The construction of politically-motivated fear. Although fear is an understandable response to concerns around terrorism, many respondents perceived fears as being deliberately exacerbated for political motives. Such strategies as “Be alert, not alarmed” (Bassio), labelling asylum seekers as potential terrorists, and talk about home-grown terrorists, are among the kinds of fears which were identified as politically motivated. The political motivation behind such actions might include presenting a particular party as strong, resolute and effective. Some Muslim Australians construct such approaches as indicating that their government is more interested in political advantage than social harmony.Fear of losing civil liberties. As well as sharing the alarm of the broader Australian community at the dozens of legislative changes banning people, organisations and materials, and increasing surveillance and security checks, Muslim Australians fear for the human rights implications across their community, up to and including the lives of their young people. This fear is heightened when community members may look visibly different from the mainstream. Examples of the events fuelling such fears include the London police killing of Jean Charles de Menezes, a Brazilian Catholic working as an electrician in the UK and shot in the month following the 7/7 attacks on the London Underground system (Pugliese). In Australia, the case of Mohamed Hannef indicated that innocent people could easily be unjustly accused and wrongly targeted, and even when this was evident the political agenda made it almost impossible for authorities to admit their error (Rix).Feeling insecure. Australian Muslims argue that personal insecurity has become “the new normal” (Massumi), disproportionately affecting Muslim communities in both physical and psychological ways. Physical insecurity is triggered by the routine avoidance, shunning and animosity experienced by many community members in public places. Psychological insecurity includes fear for the safety of younger members of the community compounded by concern that young people may become ‘radicalised’ as a result of the discrimination they experience. Australian Muslims fear the backlash following any possible terrorist attack on Australian soil and describe the possible impact as ‘unimaginable’ (Aly and Green, ‘Moderate Islam’).In addition to this range of fears expressed by Australian Muslims and constructed in response to wider societal reactions to increased concerns over radical Islam and the threat of terrorist activity, an analysis of respondents’ statements indicate that Muslim Australians construct the broader community as exhibiting:Fear of religious conviction (without recognising the role of their own secular/religious convictions underpinning this fear);Fear of extremism (expressed in various extreme ways);Fear of powerlessness (responded to by disempowering others); andFear of political action overseas having political effects at home (without acknowledging that it is the broader community’s response to such overseas events, such as 9/11 [Green ‘Did the world really change?’], which has also had impacts at home).These constructions, extrapolations and understandings by Australian Muslims of the fears of the broader community underpinning the responses to the threat of terror have been addressed elsewhere (Green and Aly). Legitimate Australian MuslimsOne frustration identified by many Muslim respondents centres upon a perceived ‘acceptable’ way to be an Australian Muslim. Arguing that the broader community construct Muslims as a homogenous group defined by their religious affiliation, these interviewees felt that the many differences within and between the twenty-plus national, linguistic, ethnic, cultural and faith-based groupings that constitute WA’s Muslim population were being ignored. Being treated as a homogenised group on a basis of faith appears to have the effect of putting that religious identity under pressure, paradoxically strengthening and reinforcing it (Aly, ‘Australian Muslim Responses to the Discourse on Terrorism’). The appeal to Australian Muslims to embrace membership in a secular society and treat religion as a private matter also led some respondents to suggest they were expected to deny their own view of their faith, in which they express their religious identity across their social spheres and in public and private contexts. Such expression is common in observant Judaism, Hinduism and some forms of Christianity, as well as in some expressions of Islam (Aly and Green, ‘Less than equal’). Massumi argues that even the ways in which some Muslims dress, indicating faith-based behaviour, can lead to what he terms as ‘affective modulation’ (Massumi), repeating and amplifying the fear affect as a result of experiencing the wider community’s fear response to such triggers as water bottles (from airport travel) and backpacks, on the basis of perceived physical difference and a supposed identification with Muslim communities, regardless of the situation. Such respondents constructed this (implied) injunction to suppress their religious and cultural affiliation as akin to constructing the expression of their identity as illegitimate and somehow shameful. Parallels can be drawn with previous social responses to a person born out of wedlock, and to people in same-sex relationships: a ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ kind of denial.Australian Muslims who see their faith as denied or marginalised may respond by identifying more strongly with other Muslims in their community, since the community-based context is one in which they feel welcomed and understood. The faith-based community also allows and encourages a wider repertoire of acceptable beliefs and actions entailed in the performance of ‘being Muslim’. Hand in hand with a perception of being required to express their religious identity in ways that were acceptable to the majority community, these respondents provided a range of examples of self-protective behaviours to defend themselves and others from the impacts of perceived marginalisation. Such behaviours included: changing their surnames to deflect discrimination based solely on a name (Aly and Green, ‘Fear, Anxiety and the State of Terror’); keeping their opinions private, even when they were in line with those being expressed by the majority community (Aly and Green, ‘Moderate Islam’); the identification of ‘less safe’ and ‘safe’ activities and areas; concerns about visibly different young men in the Muslim community and discussions with them about their public behaviour and demeanour; and women who chose not to leave their homes for fear of being targeted in public places (all discussed in Aly, ‘Australian Muslim Responses to the Discourse on Terrorism’). Many of these behaviours, including changing surnames, restricting socialisation to people who know a person well, and the identification of safe and less safe activities in relation to the risk of self-revelation, were common strategies used by people who were stigmatised in previous times as a result of their illegitimacy.ConclusionConstructions of the legitimate and illegitimate provide one means through which we can investigate complex negotiations around Australianness and citizenship, thrown into sharp relief by the Australian government’s treatment of asylum seekers, also deemed “illegals”. Because they arrive in Australia (or, as the government would prefer, on Australia’s doorstep) by illegitimate channels these would-be citizens are treated very differently from people who arrive at an airport and overstay their visa. The impetus to exclude aspects of geographical Australia from the migration zone, and to house asylum seekers offshore, reveals an anxiety about borders which physically reflects the anxiety of western nations in the post-9/11 world. Asylum seekers who arrive by boat have rarely had safe opportunity to secure passports or visas, or to purchase tickets from commercial airlines or shipping companies. They represent those ethnicities and cultures which are currently in turmoil: a turmoil frequently exacerbated by western intervention, variously constructed as an il/legitimate expression of western power and interests.What this paper has demonstrated is that the boundary between Australia and the rest, the legitimate and the illegitimate, is failing in its aim of creating a stronger Australia. The means through which this project is pursued is making visible a range of motivations and concerns which are variously interpreted depending upon the position of the interpreter. The United Nations, for example, has expressed strong concern over Australia’s reneging upon its treaty obligations to refugees (Gordon). Less vocal, and more fearful, are those communities within Australia which identify as community members with the excluded illegals. The Australian government’s treatment of detainees on Manus Island and Nauru, who generally exhibit markers of visible difference as a result of ethnicity or culture, is one aspect of a raft of government policies which serve to make some people feel that their Australianness is somehow less legitimate than that of the broader community. AcknowledgementsThis paper is based on the findings of an Australian Research Council Discovery Project (DP0559707), 2005-7, “Australian responses to the images and discourses of terrorism and the other: establishing a metric of fear”, awarded to Professors Lelia Green and Mark Balnaves. The research involved 10 focus groups and 60 individual in-depth interviews and a telephone ‘fear of terrorism’ survey. The authors wish to acknowledge the participation and contributions of WA community members and wider Australian respondents to the telephone survey. ReferencesAly, Anne. “Australian Muslim Responses to the Discourse on Terrorism in the Australian Popular Media.” Australian Journal of Social Issues 42.1 (2007): 27-40.Aly, Anne, and Lelia Green. “Fear, Anxiety and the State of Terror.” Studies in Conflict and Terrorism 33.3 (Feb 2010): 268-81.Aly, Anne, and Lelia Green. “Less than Equal: Secularism, Religious Pluralism and Privilege.” M/C Journal 11.2 (2008). 15 Oct. 2009 ‹http://journal.media-culture.org.au/index.php/mcjournal/article/view/32›.Aly, Anne, and Lelia Green. “‘Moderate Islam’: Defining the Good Citizen”. M/C Journal 10.6/11.1 (2008). 13 April 2008 ‹http://journal.media-culture.org.au/0804/08-aly-green.php›.Aly, Anne, and Mark Balnaves. “‘They Want Us to Be Afraid’: Developing a Metric for the Fear of Terrorism. International Journal of Diversity in Organisations, Communities & Nations 6.6 (2008): 113-122.Barthes, Roland. S/Z. Oxford: Blackwell, 1990.Bassio, Diana. “‘Be Alert, Not Alarmed’: Governmental Communication of Risk in an Era of Insecurity.” Annual Conference Australian and New Zealand Communication Association, Christchurch, New Zealand, 2005. ‹http://www.anzca.net/documents/anzca-05-1/refereed-proceedings-9/247-be-alert-not-alarmed-governmental-communication-of-risk-in-an-era-of-insecurity-1/file.html›.Bateson, Gregory, and Mary Catherine Bateson. “Innocence and Experience”. Angels Fear: Towards an Epistemology of the Sacred. New York: Hampton Press, 1987. 167-182. 11 Sep. 2014 ‹http://www.oikos.org/baten.htm›.Cookson, Catherine. Our Kate. 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Australian Journal of Communication 31.1 (2004): 19-36.Green, Lelia. “Did the World Really Change on 9/11?” Australian Journal of Communication 29.2 (2002): 1-14.Green, Lelia, and Anne Aly. “How Australian Muslims Construct Western Fear of the Muslim Other”. Negotiating Identities: Constructed Selves and Others. Ed. Helen Vella Bonavita. Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2011. 65-90. Karam, Zeina, and Vivian Salama. “US President Barack Obama Powers Up to Shut Down Islamic State”. The Australian 11 Sep. 2014. 11 Sep. 2014 ‹http://www.theaustralian/world/%20us-president-barak-obama-powers-up-to-shut-down-islamic-state-20140911-10f9dh.html›.Lévi-Strauss, Claude. The Raw and the Cooked: Mythologiques, Volume 1. Chicago: University of Chicago, 1969.Massumi, Brian. “Fear (the Spectrum Said).” Positions 13.1 (2005): 31-48.McKay, Fiona H., Samantha, L. 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As I write this piece, many countries around the world are being described as experiencing a «second wave» of the COVID-19 pandemic. For example, on 19 September 2020, the UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson said: «We are now seeing a second wave coming in. We’ve seen it in France, in Spain, across Europe. It’s been absolutely inevitable, I’m afraid, that we would see it in this country». Metaphors are crucial tools for communication and thinking, and can be particularly useful in public health communication. For example, the «second wave» metaphor suggests that there is renewed danger and threat from the virus, and may therefore encourage compliance with measures aimed at reducing transmission. However, all metaphors have both strengths and limitations, and the potential to be used both to enlighten and to obfuscate. The metaphor of the pandemic as a series of waves suggests that changes in the number of infections are due to the virus itself (cf. the idea that it may be seasonal), rather than the result of actions taken to slow its spread. In this sense, this metaphor is inaccurate. As Dr. Margaret Harris from the World Health Organization put it, «We are in the first wave. There is going to be one big wave». In addition, precisely because waves follow one another uncontrollably, this metaphor can be used strategically to present new increases in infection as inevitable, as in Boris Johnson’s statement, and thus to deflect responsibility from governments and their policies. As with any other complex and long-term problem, different metaphors are needed to capture different aspects of the pandemic, convey different messages, and address different audiences. Based on the analysis of two different datasets (the #ReframeCovid multilingual metaphor collection – an open-source repository of non-war-related language on COVID-19 – and the English Coronavirus Corpus – a multi-million-word database of news articles in English since January 2020 – I suggest that the metaphor of COVID-19 as a fire, and specifically a forest fire, is particularly apt and versatile. Forest fires are dangerous and hard to control. However, they can be controlled, with prompt and appropriate action. They can even be prevented, by looking after the land properly, protecting the environment, and educating citizens to behave responsibly. Indeed, forest fire metaphors for COVID-19 have been used since the start of the pandemic for multiple purposes, including to: convey danger and urgency (e.g., COVID-19 as a «forest fire that may not slow down»); distinguish between different phases of the pandemic (e.g., «a fire raging» vs. «embers» that must be stopped from causing a new fire); explain how contagion happens and the role of individuals within that (e.g., people as trees in a forest catching fire one after the other, or as breathing out «invisible embers»); justify measures for reducing contagion (e.g., social distancing as «fire lines» in a forest); connect the pandemic with health inequalities (e.g., pointing out that, like a fire, COVID-19 spreads more easily when people live in overcrowded conditions); and outline post-pandemic futures (e.g., when an Italian commentator pointed out that everyone has to contribute to the reclamation of the soil – bonifica del terreno – after the end of the pandemic, to prevent future ones). Of course, no metaphor is suitable for all purposes or all audiences. For example, the metaphor of people as trees in a forest fire does not easily account for asymptomatic transmission. And the use of forest fire metaphors may be inappropriate in parts of the world that have been dramatically affected by literal fires, such as some parts of Australia in 2019-2020. However, a well-informed and context-sensitive approach to metaphor selection can be an important and effective part of public health messaging.

Thirteen years ago, Kenichi Ohmae proclaimed that the world had become “borderless,” and the nation-state nothing more than a “bit actor” in a globalised economy. Around the same time, “interdisciplinarity” appeared as the prime strategy for breaking down the rigid stratifications of traditional disciplines, promising an equivalently borderless academe. However, despite the rhetoric of globalisation and interdisciplinarity, territorial boundaries—both physical and conceptual—remain in evidence and under contention. We chose Christy Collis’s article, “Australia’s Antartic Turf,” as our feature article because it foregrounds what we were most interested in: the collaboration between the physical and representational aspects of territory in the creation of “turf.” Ironically, as Collis notes, the territory she maps out—the Australian Antarctic Territory—is, in a physical sense, a “turfless space,” though it is one that is legally claimed as Australian turf. In this space, once again, we can see the collapsing of the literal and conceptual aspects of turf. Collis’s “anatomy” of Australia’s Antarctican space is exciting reading for questions of territorial claims and territorial representations and their implications. She informs us about the often forgotten complex geopolitical and legal aspects involved in such territory-making, and shows how these aspects, together with certain cultural spatialising technologies, have transformed vast areas of Antarctica into Australian sovereign space. As Collis’s article shows, the territories these practices mark out are not neutral spaces, but highly politicised turfs, themselves fragmented by conflicting interests and agendas. Eric D. Mason’s article, “Border-Building: Cultural Turf and the Maintenance of Hybridity,” examines the way in which, in the context of international capitalism, the border-eliding practice of hybridity is, paradoxically, fostered through the “strategic reinforcement of national and cultural borders.” The problems of this paradox are exemplified in “the idealistic American view of culture as a ‘melting pot’” in which disparate cultural identities are subsumed into a “greater national identity.” However, as Mason argues, the 9/11 attacks have shattered this homogeneous hybridity and “prompted a host of culturally-focused turf disputes ranging from the bombing of mosques to the deliberate dumping of French champagne.” In “Allegiance and Renunciation at the Border,” Brian J. Norman also addresses changes to U.S. immigration and citizenship policies post-9/11, but from a rhetorical standpoint. He examines the way in which the Bush administration responded to the attacks “with vigorous efforts to shore up national borders within a language of terrorism, evildoers, and the dire need for domestic security.” The Oath of Allegiance, he argues, is one such example of how rhetoric creates new political realities. Norman’s article, in this way, rethinks the figure of the immigrant and questions of citizenship within the context of state procedures, and considers these shifts as a result of newly inflamed discourses of terrorism and national security. This theme of the production and circulation of nationalism through language continues to run through Terrence Maybury’s article, “The Literacy Control Complex.” This article examines the literate domain and some of the changes it has experienced throughout the new media communications revolution. Maybury ultimately relates questions of literacy and its control to the concepts of sovereignty, territoriality, and nationalism. New media technologies are among the most effective and pervasive means for circulating and maintaining such politicised turfs, and, in “Transformations: A Nation State Responds,” Tim Dwyer looks specifically at these technologies in an Australian context. Dwyer addresses issues of “turf” as part of national debates about the institutional reshaping of media regulation at times of rapid changes within communications media. Using debates in Australia about how to merge the functions of the Australian Communications Authority and the Australian Broadcasting Authority as an example, he discusses social, technological, and politico-economic dimensions of regulatory policies. From these more geo-political and mediatised aspects of turf, our articles take a turn towards academic questions of disciplinary turf. Fred Mason’s story of his personal experiences of the academic “turf protection” maintained by traditional disciplines offers thoughts about interdisciplinarity and multidisciplinarity—those much-touted new prime strategies in cultural research. For Zach Whalen, games studies is a new field of cultural research at the edges of academe that must deal with the issues surrounding interdisciplinarity and multidisciplinarity raised by Fred Mason. He poses the question as to whether “ludology is sufficiently robust as a hypothetical academic discipline” to firmly establish games studies within the confines of the traditional university. He argues that the study of video games has been the subject of “a quiet disciplinary turf war between scholars who attempt to bring games into existing academic discourse communities and scholars who see games as an entirely unique medium warranting independent academic infrastructures.” Whalen’s conclusion is that, at present, ludology may not be able to resolve this turf war and, instead, games studies may be better considered as a “melting pot” of competing methodologies. Laurie Taylor’s article on the spaces of video games can be considered a telling counterpoint to Whalen’s for two reasons. First, Taylor shifts the focus from the disciplinary turf war of games studies to the internal turf spaces and violent turf wars within video games themselves. Second, her article exemplifies the way in which new fields of study carve out ideological territories that delimit critical language, critical practice, and the object of study. Taylor maintains that what has been lacking in the debate over violence in video games is an awareness of the relationship between the virtual game space and the physical space of play. She argues that “the internal game space of a video game cannot be examined outside of the space of play because the space of play dictates how the game is played and how the game space is to be read.” In some way, each of these articles portrays a “turf war,” which, by definition, relies upon competing claims for cultural, spatial, or intellectual exclusivity. However, the word “turf” itself is intrinsically transcultural, sharing an Indo-European root with the Sanskrit darbha or “tuft of grass.” Moreover, in this sense of the word, turf can be carved up and exploited, burned for fuel; however, as a living network of roots and soil, it is also resilient and transplantable. It is this aspect of “turf” that Michelle Dicinoski’s poem “Golf” draws out. Dicinoski’s poem gives us a living image of one such cultural grafting as she opens the geopolitics of “turf” up to the everyday, the tangible, the local, and the familial. In her humorous and personal way, Dicinoski distils the genealogy of “culture” that Raymond Williams maps out in Keywords. In the same way, we need to cultivate an attentiveness to the spatial metaphors we (and these articles) use to talk about knowledge. Traditional epistemology has been consistently defined in geographical terms—knowledge is surveyed and divided into fields, topics (from topos, or place), provinces, domains, realms, and spheres. Implied in this subdivision of epistemological territory is a mastery or dominance over knowledge, as the terms “subject” and “discipline” make evident. An awareness of these metaphors alerts us to the fact that the language we use is not neutral, apolitical, or simply academic. Critical encounters with “turf” are not mere rhetoric: they at once establish, erase, or contest borders both of knowledge and physical territory. Citation reference for this article MLA Style Mitchell, Peta & Buettner, Angi. "Editorial" M/C: A Journal of Media and Culture <http://www.media-culture.org.au/0403/01-editorial.php>. APA Style Mitchell, P. & Buettner, A. (2004, Mar17). Editorial. M/C: A Journal of Media and Culture, 7, <http://www.media-culture.org.au/0403/01-editorial.php>

Kangatarianism is the rather inelegant word coined in the first decade of the twenty-first century to describe an omnivorous diet in which the only meat consumed is that of the kangaroo. First published in the media in 2010 (Barone; Zukerman), the term circulated in Australian environmental and academic circles including the Global Animal conference at the University of Wollongong in July 2011 where I first heard it from members of the Think Tank for Kangaroos (THINKK) group. By June 2017, it had gained enough attention to be named the Oxford English Dictionary’s Australian word of the month (following on from May’s “smashed avo,” another Australian food innovation), but it took the Nine Network reality television series Love Island Australia to raise kangatarian to trending status on social media (Oxford UP). During the first episode, aired in late May 2018, Justin, a concreter and fashion model from Melbourne, declared himself to have previously been a kangatarian as he chatted with fellow contestant, Millie. Vet nurse and animal lover Millie appeared to be shocked by his revelation but was tentatively accepting when Justin explained what kangatarian meant, and justified his choice on the grounds that kangaroo are not farmed. In the social media response, it was clear that eating only the meat of kangaroos as an ethical choice was an entirely new concept to many viewers, with one tweet stating “Kangatarian isn’t a thing”, while others variously labelled the diet brutal, intriguing, or quintessentially Australian (see #kangatarian on Twitter).There is a well developed literature around the arguments for and against eating kangaroo, and why settler Australians tend to be so reluctant to do so (see for example, Probyn; Cawthorn and Hoffman). Here, I will concentrate on the role that ethics play in this food choice by examining how the adoption of kangatarianism can be understood as a bargain struck to help to manage grief in the Anthropocene, and the limitations of that bargain. As Lesley Head has argued, we are living in a time of loss and of grieving, when much that has been taken for granted is becoming unstable, and “we must imagine that drastic changes to everyday life are in the offing” (313). Applying the classic (and contested) model of five stages of grief, first proposed by Elisabeth Kübler-Ross in her book On Death and Dying in 1969, much of the population of the western world seems to be now experiencing denial, her first stage of loss, while those in the most vulnerable environments have moved on to anger with developed countries for destructive actions in the past and inaction in the present. The next stages (or states) of grieving—bargaining, depression, and acceptance—are likely to be manifested, although not in any predictable sequence, as the grief over current and future losses continues (Haslam).The great expansion of food restrictive diets in the Anthropocene can be interpreted as part of this bargaining state of grieving as individuals attempt to respond to the imperative to reduce their environmental impact but also to limit the degree of change to their own diet required to do so. Meat has long been identified as a key component of an individual’s environmental footprint. From Frances Moore Lappé’s 1971 Diet for a Small Planet through the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organisation’s 2006 report Livestock’s Long Shadow to the 2019 report of the EAT–Lancet Commission on Healthy Diets from Sustainable Food Systems, the advice has been consistent: meat consumption should be minimised in, if not eradicated from, the human diet. The EAT–Lancet Commission Report quantified this to less than 28 grams (just under one ounce) of beef, lamb or pork per day (12, 25). For many this would be keenly felt, in terms of how meals are constructed, the sensory experiences associated with eating meat and perceptions of well-being but meat is offered up as a sacrifice to bring about the return of the beloved healthy planet.Rather than accept the advice to cut out meat entirely, those seeking to bargain with the Anthropocene also find other options. This has given rise to a suite of foodways based around restricting meat intake in volume or type. Reducing the amount of commercially produced beef, lamb and pork eaten is one approach, while substituting a meat the production of which has a smaller environmental footprint, most commonly chicken or fish, is another. For those willing to make deeper changes, the meat of free living animals, especially those which are killed accidentally on the roads or for deliberately for environmental management purposes, is another option. Further along this spectrum are the novel protein sources suggested in the Lancet report, including insects, blue-green algae and laboratory-cultured meats.Kangatarianism is another form of this bargain, and is backed by at least half a century of advocacy. The Australian Conservation Foundation made calls to reduce the numbers of other livestock and begin a sustainable harvest of kangaroo for food in 1970 when the sale of kangaroo meat for human consumption was still illegal across the country (Conservation of Kangaroos). The idea was repeated by biologist Gordon Grigg in the late 1980s (Jackson and Vernes 173), and again in the Garnaut Climate Change Review in 2008 (547–48). Kangaroo meat is high in protein and iron, low in fat, and high in healthy polyunsaturated fatty acids and conjugated linoleic acid, and, as these authors showed, has a smaller environmental footprint than beef, lamb, or pork. Kangaroo require less water than cattle, sheep or pigs, and no land is cleared to grow feed for them or give them space to graze. Their paws cause less erosion and compaction of soil than do the hooves of common livestock. They eat less fodder than ruminants and their digestive processes result in lower emissions of the powerful greenhouse gas methane and less solid waste.As Justin of Love Island was aware, kangaroo are not farmed in the sense of being deliberately bred, fed, confined, or treated with hormones, drugs or chemicals, which also adds to their lighter impact on the environment. However, some pastoralists argue that because they cannot prevent kangaroos from accessing the food, water, shelter, and protection from predators they provide for their livestock, they do effectively farm them, although they receive no income from sales of kangaroo meat. This type of light touch farming of kangaroos has a very long history in Australia going back to the continent’s first peopling some 60,000 years ago. Kangaroos were so important to Aboriginal people that a wide range of environments were manipulated to produce their favoured habitats of open grasslands edged by sheltering trees. As Bill Gammage demonstrated, fire was used as a tool to preserve and extend grassy areas, to encourage regrowth which would attract kangaroos and to drive the animals from one patch to another or towards hunters waiting with spears (passim, for example, 58, 72, 76, 93). Gammage and Bruce Pascoe agree that this was a form of animal husbandry in which the kangaroos were drawn to the areas prepared for them for the young grass or, more forcefully, physically directed using nets, brush fences or stone walls. Burnt ground served to contain the animals in place of fencing, and regular harvesting kept numbers from rising to levels which would place pressure on other species (Gammage 79, 281–86; Pascoe 42–43). Contemporary advocates of eating kangaroo have promoted the idea that they should be deliberately co-produced with other livestock instead of being killed to preserve feed and water for sheep and cattle (Ellicott; Wilson 39). Substituting kangaroo for the meat of more environmentally damaging animals would facilitate a reduction in the numbers of cattle and sheep, lessening the harm they do.Most proponents have assumed that their audience is current meat eaters who would substitute kangaroo for the meat of other more environmentally costly animals, but kangatarianism can also emerge from vegetarianism. Wendy Zukerman, who wrote about kangaroo hunting for New Scientist in 2010, was motivated to conduct the research because she was considering becoming an early adopter of kangatarianism as the least environmentally taxing way to counter the longterm anaemia she had developed as a vegetarian. In 2018, George Wilson, honorary professor in the Australian National University’s Fenner School of Environment and Society called for vegetarians to become kangatarians as a means of boosting overall consumption of kangaroo for environmental and economic benefits to rural Australia (39).Given these persuasive environmental arguments, it might be expected that many people would have perceived eating kangaroo instead of other meat as a favourable bargain and taken up the call to become kangatarian. Certainly, there has been widespread interest in trying kangaroo meat. In 1997, only five years after the sale of kangaroo meat for human consumption had been legalised in most states (South Australia did so in 1980), 51% of 500 people surveyed in five capital cities said they had tried kangaroo. However, it had not become a meat of choice with very few found to eat it more than three times a year (Des Purtell and Associates iv). Just over a decade later, a study by Ampt and Owen found an increase to 58% of 1599 Australians surveyed across the country who had tried kangaroo but just 4.7% eating it at least monthly (14). Bryce Appleby, in his study of kangaroo consumption in the home based on interviews with 28 residents of Wollongong in 2010, specifically noted the absence of kangatarians—then a very new concept. A study of 261 Sydney university students in 2014 found that half had tried kangaroo meat and 10% continued to eat it with any regularity. Only two respondents identified themselves as kangatarian (Grant 14–15). Kangaroo meat advocate Michael Archer declared in 2017 that “there’s an awful lot of very, very smart vegetarians [who] have opted for semi vegetarianism and they’re calling themselves ‘kangatarians’, as they’re quite happy to eat kangaroo meat”, but unless there had been a significant change in a few years, the surveys did not bear out his assertion (154).The ethical calculations around eating kangaroo are complicated by factors beyond the strictly environmental. One Tweeter advised Justin: “‘I’m a kangatarian’ isn’t a pickup line, mate”, and certainly the reception of his declaration could have been very cool, especially as it was delivered to a self declared animal warrior (N’Tash Aha). All of the studies of beliefs and practices around the eating of kangaroo have noted a significant minority of Australians who would not consider eating kangaroo based on issues of animal welfare and animal rights. The 1997 study found that 11% were opposed to the idea of eating kangaroo, while in Grant’s 2014 study, 15% were ethically opposed to eating kangaroo meat (Des Purtell and Associates iv; Grant 14–15). Animal ethics complicate the bargains calculated principally on environmental grounds.These ethical concerns work across several registers. One is around the flesh and blood kangaroo as a charismatic native animal unique to Australia and which Australians have an obligation to respect and nurture. Sheep, cattle and pigs have been subject to longterm propaganda campaigns which entrench the idea that they are unattractive and unintelligent, and veil their transition to meat behind euphemistic language and abattoir walls, making it easier to eat them. Kangaroos are still seen as resourceful and graceful animals, and no linguistic tricks shield consumers from the knowledge that it is a roo on their plate. A proposal in 2009 to market a “coat of arms” emu and kangaroo-flavoured potato chip brought complaints to the Advertising Standards Bureau that this was disrespectful to these native animals, although the flavours were to be simulated and the product vegetarian (Black). Coexisting with this high regard to kangaroos is its antithesis. That is, a valuation of them informed by their designation as a pest in the pastoral industry, and the use of the carcasses of those killed to feed dogs and other companion animals. Appleby identified a visceral, disgust response to the idea of eating kangaroo in many of his informants, including both vegetarians who would not consider eating kangaroo because of their commitment to a plant-based diet, and at least one omnivore who would prefer to give up all meat rather than eat kangaroo. While diametrically opposed, the end point of both positions is that kangaroo meat should not be eaten.A second animal ethics stance relates to the imagined kangaroo, a cultural construct which for most urban Australians is much more present in their lives and likely to shape their actions than the living animals. It is behind the rejection of eating an animal which holds such an iconic place in Australian culture: to the dexter on the 1912 national coat of arms; hopping through the Hundred Acre Wood as Kanga and Roo in A.A. Milne’s Winnie-the-Pooh children’s books from the 1920s and the Disney movies later made from them; as a boy’s best friend as Skippy the Bush Kangaroo in a fondly remembered 1970s television series; and high in the sky on QANTAS planes. The anthropomorphising of kangaroos permitted the spectacle of the boxing kangaroo from the late nineteenth century. By framing natural kangaroo behaviours as boxing, these exhibitions encouraged an ambiguous understanding of kangaroos as human-like, moving them further from the category of food (Golder and Kirkby). Australian government bodies used this idea of the kangaroo to support food exports to Britain, with kangaroos as cooks or diners rather than ingredients. The Kangaroo Kookery Book of 1932 (see fig. 1 below) portrayed kangaroos as a nuclear family in a suburban kitchen and another official campaign supporting sales of Australian produce in Britain in the 1950s featured a Disney-inspired kangaroo eating apples and chops washed down with wine (“Kangaroo to Be ‘Food Salesman’”). This imagining of kangaroos as human-like has persisted, leading to the opinion expressed in a 2008 focus group, that consuming kangaroo amounted to “‘eating an icon’ … Although they are pests they are still human nature … these are native animals, people and I believe that is a form of cannibalism!” (Ampt and Owen 26). Figure 1: Rather than promoting the eating of kangaroos, the portrayal of kangaroos as a modern suburban family in the Kangaroo Kookery Book (1932) made it unthinkable. (Source: Kangaroo Kookery Book, Director of Australian Trade Publicity, Australia House, London, 1932.)The third layer of ethical objection on the ground of animal welfare is more specific, being directed to the method of killing the kangaroos which become food. Kangaroos are perhaps the only native animals for which state governments set quotas for commercial harvest, on the grounds that they compete with livestock for pasturage and water. In most jurisdictions, commercially harvested kangaroo carcasses can be processed for human consumption, and they are the ones which ultimately appear in supermarket display cases.Kangaroos are killed by professional shooters at night using swivelling spotlights mounted on their vehicles to locate and daze the animals. While clean head shots are the ideal and regulations state that animals should be killed when at rest and without causing “undue agonal struggle”, this is not always achieved and some animals do suffer prolonged deaths (NSW Code of Practice for Kangaroo Meat for Human Consumption). By regulation, the young of any female kangaroo must be killed along with her. While averting a slow death by neglect, this is considered cruel and wasteful. The hunt has drawn international criticism, including from Greenpeace which organised campaigns against the sale of kangaroo meat in Europe in the 1980s, and Viva! which was successful in securing the withdrawal of kangaroo from sale in British supermarkets (“Kangaroo Meat Sales Criticised”). These arguments circulate and influence opinion within Australia.A final animal ethics issue is that what is actually behind the push for greater use of kangaroo meat is not concern for the environment or animal welfare but the quest to turn a profit from these animals. The Kangaroo Industries Association of Australia, formed in 1970 to represent those who dealt in the marsupials’ meat, fur and skins, has been a vocal advocate of eating kangaroo and a sponsor of market research into how it can be made more appealing to the market. The Association argued in 1971 that commercial harvest was part of the intelligent conservation of the kangaroo. They sought minimum size regulations to prevent overharvesting and protect their livelihoods (“Assn. Backs Kangaroo Conservation”). The Association’s current website makes the claim that wild harvested “Australian kangaroo meat is among the healthiest, tastiest and most sustainable red meats in the world” (Kangaroo Industries Association of Australia). That this is intended to initiate a new and less controlled branch of the meat industry for the benefit of hunters and processors, rather than foster a shift from sheep or cattle to kangaroos which might serve farmers and the environment, is the opinion of Dr. Louise Boronyak, of the Centre for Compassionate Conservation at the University of Technology Sydney (Boyle 19).Concerns such as these have meant that kangaroo is most consumed where it is least familiar, with most of the meat for human consumption recovered from culled animals being exported to Europe and Asia. Russia has been the largest export market. There, kangaroo meat is made less strange by blending it with other meats and traditional spices to make processed meats, avoiding objections to its appearance and uncertainty around preparation. With only a low profile as a novelty animal in Russia, there are fewer sentimental concerns about consuming kangaroo, although the additional food miles undermine its environmental credentials. The variable acceptability of kangaroo in more distant markets speaks to the role of culture in determining how patterns of eating are formed and can be shifted, or, as Elspeth Probyn phrased it “how natural entities are transformed into commodities within a context of globalisation and local communities”, underlining the impossibility of any straightforward ethics of eating kangaroo (33, 35).Kangatarianism is a neologism which makes the eating of kangaroo meat something it has not been in the past, a voluntary restriction based on environmental ethics. These environmental benefits are well founded and eating kangaroo can be understood as an Anthropocenic bargain struck to allow the continuation of the consumption of red meat while reducing one’s environmental footprint. Although superficially attractive, the numbers entering into this bargain remain small because environmental ethics cannot be disentangled from animal ethics. The anthropomorphising of the kangaroo and its use as a national symbol coexist with its categorisation as a pest and use of its meat as food for companion animals. Both understandings of kangaroos made their meat uneatable for many Australians. Paired with concerns over how kangaroos are killed and the commercialisation of a native species, kangaroo meat has a very mixed reception despite decades of advocacy for eating its meat in favour of that of more harmed and more harmful introduced species. Given these constraints, kangatarianism is unlikely to become widespread and indeed it should be viewed as at best a temporary exigency. As the climate warms and rainfall becomes more erratic, even animals which have evolved to suit Australian conditions will come under increasing pressure, and humans will need to reach Kübler-Ross’ final state of grief: acceptance. In this case, this would mean acceptance that our needs cannot be placed ahead of those of other animals.ReferencesAmpt, Peter, and Kate Owen. Consumer Attitudes to Kangaroo Meat Products. Canberra: Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation, 2008.Appleby, Bryce. “Skippy the ‘Green’ Kangaroo: Identifying Resistances to Eating Kangaroo in the Home in a Context of Climate Change.” BSc Hons, U of Wollongong, 2010 <http://ro.uow.edu.au/thsci/103>.Archer, Michael. “Zoology on the Table: Plenary Session 4.” Australian Zoologist 39, 1 (2017): 154–60.“Assn. 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