In the north-western Peruvian Amazon, a new road has recently been constructed to link the city of Iquitos with the town of Nauta. The road crosses lands that are remarkably heterogeneous in terms of ecological conditions, comprising distinctive soil types from extremely poor to relatively fertile. Although this reality contributes to the land use potential and human carrying capacity of each place, deforestation of road margins appears equally intensive on all types of land. In the mid-1990s, two dead-end roads starting from both urban centres were characterized by distinctive zones of resource exploitation, with a road-free section of primary forest in between. A few years later, the separate road ends were linked by a dirt road that served only occasional traffic, but introduced significant new settlement. Various developmental trends evidence incoherent resource management and momentary public support in the region. By promoting diverse economic activities that reflect environmental conditions in the initial land use planning and land allocation, most sections along this road could be considered economically valuable for purposes such as sustainable forestry, tourism, agroforestry and, in suitable sites, intensive agriculture. To promote the more sustainable uses, thorough environmental legislation, administrative guidelines and follow-up based on an implicit mechanism of learning from previous experiences should be implemented. At the local level, there are some important initiatives to support such development, including ecological and economic zoning. However, these measures might be too late to prevent the destructive practices so common in many parts of Amazonia.

Aim To provide a quantitative spatial analysis of the riverscape (open-water bodies and their surrounding areas) of the Western Amazonian lowlands using a consistent surface of remotely sensed imagery. Taking into account the essential significance of fluvial environments for the Amazonian biota, we propose that an enhanced understanding of the Amazonian riverscape will provide new insight for biogeographical studies in the region and contribute to the understanding of these megadiverse tropical lowlands.Location An area of 2.2 million km 2 covering the Western Amazonian lowlands of the Andean foreland region, i.e. the upper reaches of the Amazon river system. Areas in Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Peru, Brazil and Bolivia between longitudes 83°W and 65°W and latitudes 5°N and 12°S are included.Methods A mosaic of 120 Landsat TM satellite images was created with 100-m resolution, and water areas of over 1 ha in size or c. 60 m in width were extracted using a simple ratio threshold applicable to a large set of data. With this method, 99.1% of the water areas present in 30-m imagery were mapped with images with 100-m resolution. Water pixels of distinct river segments were assigned to river classes on the basis of their channel properties, and islands and lakes were distinguished separately and classified. Measures of water patterns such as structure, composition, richness and remoteness were provided for various spatial units. Riverine corridors were computed from the open-water mask by outer limits of active channels and floodplain lakes. Analytical results are shown as both thematic maps and statistics.Results A total of 1.1% of Western Amazonia is covered by open-water bodies over 1 ha in size or 60 m in width. River-bound waters comprise 98% of the total water surface. Whilst isolated lakes are scarce, river-bound oxbow and backchannel lakes are plentiful, comprising 17.5% of all waters. They are particularly frequent along meandering channels, which dominate both in area and length. The riverine corridors including active channels and floodplain lakes cover 17% of the land area. The average distance from any point of land to the nearest water is 12 km. Geographically speaking, the distribution of waters is uneven across the region, and the detailed characteristics of the riverscape are geographically highly variable. Three major, fluvially distinct regions can be identified: central Western Amazonia, the south, and the north-east. The proportional surface areas of the riverine corridors, numbers of lakes, sizes of islands and their distributions depend largely on the types and sizes of the rivers.Main conclusions Our results support the notion of Western Amazonia as a dynamic, highly fluvial environment, highlighting and quantifying considerable internal variation within the region in terms of fluvial patterns and the processes that they reflect and control. Biogeographically, the variety of types of fluvial

The efforts in sustainable natural resource management have given rise to decentralization of forest governance in the developing world with hopes for better solutions and effective implementation. In this paper, we examine how spatially sensitive participation is realized from policy to practice in the process of establishing participatory forest management in Zanzibar, Tanzania. Our policyÀpractice analysis shows that the policies in Zanzibar strongly support decentralization and local level participation has in practice been realized. However, the policy does not emphasize participatory process design nor address the possibilities of using spatial information and technologies to ensure wider participation. Thus, the practices fall short in innovativeness of using site-sensitive information with available technologies. Reflecting the Zanzibari Community Forest Management Agreements (CoFMA) context with examples of participatory use of spatial information and technologies in other parts of the world, we discuss ways to improve the Zanzibari CoFMA process towards increased participation, communication, local sense of ownership and more sustainable land management decisions, and argue for the future implementation of CoFMA as a spatially sensitive participatory process.

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Climate change (CC) has widespread impacts on human and natural systems and thus threatens the future of contemporary youths. Only a few studies on climate change education (CCE) have been published in Finland, and no research has been conducted on upper secondary education. Thus, this study investigated Finnish university students’ views on CCE in upper secondary schools. According to them, the most common goals in CCE are increasing and structuring knowledge, developing thinking skills, and encouraging action both today and in the future. The respondents considered preconceived notions and opinions stemming from their inner circles, the media, and social debate to be the most difficult factor in teaching about CC. CCE was perceived to provide either a weak or relatively weak capacity to follow a climate-friendly lifestyle. By increasing and diversifying teaching and strengthening multidisciplinarity, climate-friendly lifestyles can be improved. The respondents’ views on current and future CCE differed most clearly concerning motivation and inclusion, which are not prevalent in contemporary teaching. The results indicate, however, that the university students were motivated to increase and develop CCE, and according their answers, their own capacity to address different aspects of CCE was relatively good.

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School culture includes values, principles, and criteria. It is an integral part of sustainability education, of which climate change education (CCE) is seen as a way to improve students’ ability to take action to mitigate climate change. This survey aimed to investigate Finnish student teachers’ views of factors important in implementing CCE in school culture and their abilities as teachers to promote CCE. Thirty-six student teachers wrote essays regarding the implementation of school culture and responded to a questionnaire concerning their ability to act as climate change (CC) educators and the challenges they identified in teaching and learning about it. Inductive content analysis was used to study the essays. In student teachers’ answers, six themes to implement in school culture were identified: elements, work community, teacher’s impact, students in the centre, actors outside the school, and challenges. The student teachers highlighted challenges, such as views that deny CC and challenge the transformation of school culture to support sustainable development. The suggested ways to support CCE in daily school life that were very concrete, such as recycling and food education. Student teachers found their own ability to act as climate educators to be relatively good. They identified challenges, especially in motivating students to learn about CC and to participate and take action towards a climate-friendly lifestyle. Students’ conflicting attitudes, values, and beliefs related to CC, reinforced by their inner circle, were seen as challenges in teaching and learning about CC. Despite these challenges, transforming a school culture to support CCE should be the goal of every school.