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Coordination of conservation policies and conservation actions between countries is expected to reduce overall costs and increase effectiveness. It rests on the assumption that, as a global public good, the provision of biodiversity conservation is independent of geographical and political jurisdictions. However, from a welfare economic perspective this assumption requires testing and justification. Indeed, distance may matter, as may the country of provision. This study applies a choice experiment to estimate individuals' marginal willingness to pay for comparable biodiversity conservation measures and outcomes across country borders, and with different distances from their place of residence to conservation locations in Denmark and in Southern Sweden. The case is designed to distinguish the effect of distance from the effect of country of residence versus country of provision. We find a clear and distinguishable effect of both location and country of provision. We find distance-related attributes to reflect bridge tolls and per-kilometre transport costs, and Swedes and Danes to prefer provision in their own country, over provision in the neighbouring country. The results of this study may be useful in discussing cooperation on regional and even global biodiversity conservation efforts.

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Original old-growth northern forests of Iran are essential sources of genetic variation, biodiversity, commercial woody products, and various environmental services (e.g., ground water reservation, auxiliary forest products provision, wildlife habitation, and erosion control). Today, the forests are depleting ra pidly due to population growth, and associated socio-economic problems, in dustrial development, urbanism, and more recently intensive/irregular tou rism. Satellite image processing and other geo-spatial tools have been used in Iran from the early 80's to map the vegetative attributes of forests for environ mental resource monitoring. This paper aims to build up a basic assumption of when and how the spectral, spatial and temporal features of satellite-borne re mote sensing have been applied for the sustainable resource monitoring of the Caspian forests of Iran. To this end, available literature will be reviewed, spe cific features of the studies discussed in brief, and the future prospects for re mote sensing-aided delineation of structural and functional characteristics of the forests will be outlined.Keywords: Iranian Caspian forests, Natural resource monitoring and manage ment, Remote Sensing, Satellite-borne image analysis cover type, and cover change.The application of satellite image pro cessing, along with other forms of geo-refe renced digital tools, for documenting vegeta tion attributes for environmental resource monitoring in Iran has a long history dating back to the 80's. Prior to that, B/W aerial photographs, acquired as two major country wide projects in the mid 50 and 60's, served as a useful monitoring tool for forest area/ type mapping. A variety of satellite remote sensing functions have been introduced, tested and proposed by environmental ana lysts, many of which have been pointed out by Iverson et al. (1989). Forest type map ping, change detection, forest succession monitoring, stand's structure and physiolo gical parameters and forest productivity as sessment can be highlighted as some of the major applications, many of which are not known in Iran yet. Further information on the basic potential applications of satellite imagery in forest assessments can be found in the available literature (Danson 1987, Greegor 1986, Hopkins et al. 1988, Billings ley 1984, Lillesand & Kiefer 2000.The aim of this paper is to build up a basic assumption of when and how the spectral, spatial and temporal features of satelliteborne remote sensing have been applied to ward sustainable resource monitoring over Caspian forests of Iran. To this end, the available literature will be reviewed, the spe cific perspectives of the studies will be briefly discussed, and future prospects to ward the delineation of Caspian forest's structural and functional characteristics by remote sensing will be outlined. The applications of satellite image processing in Caspian forests of Iran: a reviewForest monitoring mainly focuses on de tecting and estimating the land conversion rate and more recently, on assessing carbo...

 Users may download and print one copy of any publication from the public portal for the purpose of private study or research.  You may not further distribute the material or use it for any profit-making activity or commercial gain  You may freely distribute the URL identifying the publication in the public portal If you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact us providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim.

 Users may download and print one copy of any publication from the public portal for the purpose of private study or research.  You may not further distribute the material or use it for any profit-making activity or commercial gain  You may freely distribute the URL identifying the publication in the public portal If you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact us providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim.

Native English accents (British and American) are known as highly favored and accepted varieties compared to other existing accents in English as foreign language (EFL) context. Notwithstanding the research accomplished on EFL learners’ attitudes toward either of the accents (British or American), studies are still scant regarding the investigation of their perspectives in detail toward one of the accents specifically within the context of Iran. The aim of this study is to examine the Iranian EFL learners’ attitudes toward the two major known English accents (British and American. Additionally, the study highlights the major factors contributing to the learners’ preferences toward either of the accents (British or American). To that aim, a developed and validated questionnaire was distributed among 108 EFL learners selected from two of the major EFL contexts (universities and private institutes). The results indicated that the majority of the learners preferred American over British English accent. Besides, factor analysis revealed that American English exposure, lack of guidance, and lack of reinforcement toward British accent were among the mentioned factors accepted by learners for their preference of American. Finally, the study concludes with interpretations regarding the learners’ decision making issues in either of the two major accents, and recommendations are provided for revisiting the EFL learners’ attitudes and insights toward native English accents.