26 pages., Via online journal., Competing natural resources usage that leads to dramatic land use changes can threaten the balance of a social-ecological system. When this is the case, communities are directly exposed to the negative consequences of those land use changes. The Mashavera River Basin is considered one of the hotspots of environmental pollution in Georgia. This is of importance for public health because the food production from this basin meets a substantial proportion of the country’s food demand. The farmers’ perception of the water quality and their perceived risks to the economy, health, and lifestyle reflect the status of the environmental and social conditions. The inclusion of farmers’ risk perceptions is an important stage of water quality governance that could enable active civic participation. The approach of this research study was the convergence model in the triangular design of the mixed method approach. As part of the social data, the research study was conducted with a survey of 177 households, for which agriculture was either a main or partial source of income. A few focus group discussions were also conducted. A binary logistic regression analysis was employed as the main method for the analysis. The results from the pollution load index (PLI) were used as the supportive data to verify some geospatial hypotheses. We found that aesthetic attributes (i.e., color changes observed in the river) and the source of the water contamination (i.e., mining sites) were the main predictor variables for a perceived risk to water quality, health, and livelihoods. The people who work in agriculture as the main income source had more concern about their ability to sell their agricultural products as a result of water contamination in the river, compared with people for whom agriculture is a secondary source of income or for self-consumption. Age, amount of land, years of agricultural experience, and the source of water supply for agriculture did not have a significant effect on any of the risk perception or water quality perception models. The results indicate that the health risk is perceived more strongly in areas with more heavily contaminated water compared to less polluted areas. We propose that conducting a public risk perception assessment is an ideal means to detect people’s concerns regarding water quality governance for future risk analysis in Georgia. Another recommendation of this study is an integrated model of risk assessment that combines the results from a public risk perception assessment and a technical assessment. The benefits of such an integrated assessment include finding new hazard-sensitive areas for further analysis, the possibility to cross-check data for verification, communal communication of hazardous conditions by utilizing local knowledge, and the direct participation of the community in monitoring risks.
17 pages., via online journal article, The Sustainable Forestry and African American Land Retention
Program (SFLR) was launched in 2012 to increase adoption of sustainable forestry practices among African American landowners in
the southeastern United States to prevent land loss, increase forest
health, and build economic assets. One of its main goals was to
build communication networks through which African American
landowners could obtain and share information about forestry practices and landowner assistance programs independent of public agencies. To measure and examine the growth of these communication
networks over a three-year period (2014-2017), we conducted 87
interviews with landowners (24 of whom were interviewed multiple
times), SFLR personnel, and Federal and State staff members in
North Carolina. We used complementary methods of data gathering
and analysis, including social network analysis and qualitative analysis. Our results showed expanding communication networks will be
sustained independently of the program over time, although there is
still a heavy reliance on program personnel.
13 pages., Via online journal., The investigation of the rising use of pesticides in the Yazd City is a remarkable issue, the respective witnesses on the factors affecting the issue are lacking. For this reason, this contribution was intended to investigate the determinants of the pesticide use behavior (PUB) using the design of sequential-exploratory mixed method in central Iran. In the qualitative phase, verbal data (i.e., pesticide narratives) were collected. The heuristic units of the case study were thematically analyzed using the Atlas.ti software. The obtained results served as the data that were applied to develop the conceptual framework, including grounded concepts. By surveying 306 cucumber farmers, the proposed model was tested using the path analysis in the interface of SPSS and AMOS, indicating the model fits with the data well. The study finds that attitude towards the indigenous knowledge of the pest and disease management forecasts the PUB indirectly by the mediation of attitude, behavioral intention, and PBC. Moreover, large-scale farmers have a better understanding of the usefulness of the IPM. Furthermore, the scientific pesticide knowledge and imitation influence the PUB. Habitual behavior and avarice also have a negative impact on the PUB. In addition, trust has an indirect impact on the PUB via behavioral intention. It is necessary to take policy initiatives to enhance the efficient PUB by (1) establishing a network of indigenous knowledge relevant to the pest and disease management together with the scientific pesticide knowledge, (2) disseminating the innovations that mitigate the impact of pesticides (e.g., Biochar), (3) giving information to farmers so that they are persuaded to make money as much as they fulfill their fundamental needs, change their detrimental habits of pesticide use, and (4) raising the trust in cucumber farmers by establishing a close communication between agricultural experts and cucumber farmers and updating the technical knowledge of agricultural experts in the ground of pest and vector management as well as the use of pesticides.
