Purpose This study aims to investigate risks associated with climate change vulnerability and in response the adaptation methods used by farming communities to reduce its negative impacts on agriculture in Pakistan. Design/methodology/approach The study used household survey method of data collection in Charsadda district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, involving 116 randomly selected respondents. Findings Prevalent crops diseases, water scarcity, soil fertility loss and poor socio-economic conditions were main contributing factors of climate change vulnerability. The results further showed that changing crops type and cultivation pattern, improved seed varieties, planting shaded trees and the provision of excessive fertilizers are the measures adapted to improve agricultural productivity, which may reduce the climate change vulnerability at a household level. Research limitations/implications The major limitation of this study was the exclusion of women from the survey due to religious and cultural barriers of in Pashtun society, wherein women and men do not mingle. Practical implications Reducing climate change vulnerability and developing more effective adaptation techniques require assistance from the government. This help can be in the form of providing basic resources, such as access to good quality agricultural inputs, access to information and extension services on climate change adaptation and modern technologies. Consultation with other key stakeholder is also required to create awareness and to build the capacity of the locals toward reducing climate change vulnerability and facilitating timely and effective adaptation. Originality/value This original research work provides evidence about farm-level vulnerability, adaptation strategies and risk perceptions on dealing with climate-change-induced natural disasters in Pakistan. This paper enriches existing knowledge of climate change vulnerability and adaptation in this resource-limited country so that effective measures can be taken to reduce vulnerability of farming communities, and enhance their adaptive capability.

He is involved in research focusing on vulnerability and adaptation of indigenous communities towards climate change induced natural disasters in Pakistan. His fields of interest are climate change, disaster risk reduction, poverty reduction and livelihood improvement through sustainable agriculture and natural resource management. Previously, he worked for the Center for International Forestry Research on identifying suitable conditions for efficient and sustainable participatory monitoring, reporting and verification systems of carbon emissions so that it can be embedded into a national database.

Abstract:The Brazilian Pantanal, the world's largest wetland holding abundant wildlife, has recently drawn profound concern about the development of the tourist industry. To provide significant proposals for ecotourism in the wetland, we believe that detailed data acquired by fieldwork is requisite, This study examines the regional bases that carry regional ecotourism, and attempts to present some proposals for ecotourism from the case of the north Pantanal. The results are shown as follows in order of regional scale. (1) In the water source of the Pantanal, Cerrado region, it is necessary to make efficient plans to control recent agricultural development, especially in soybean and cotton production.

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Abstract:A The results presented also imply that agriculture in Japan has increased its impact on the natural environment through an increased use of fossil fuel energy.

The grazing capacity of ranch, which stands for the maximum number of grazing animals that the land can support under a given level of management without suffering deterioration, should be estimated rigorously to put the sustainable management into practice . Especially in the traditional cattle ranches that rely on natural grassland, it is necessary to estimate grazing capacity rigorously. In the case of the ranches in the Pantanal, however, people find difficulties in estimating optimal grazing capacity. Whereas overgrazing results in the degradation of the grassland, sparse grazing also leads to the plant succession from grassland to bush under the tropical environment of the wetland.In the former studies, the grazing capacity of the Pantanal was estimated around 0 . 3 heads per one hectare, however, it brings out the problems in the methodology of calculation . The estimation of the grazing capacity of ranch is simple in concept, but very intricate in practice to obtain the data by the survey of real grazing land. It is especially difficult to estimate productivity of grassland and herbage intake of cow, which varies in terms of space and time. To resolve problems in productivity of grassland, EMBRAPA Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation conducted continuous measurement of the grass production in each grassland type in the experimental farm field of Nhecolândia . However, the amount of herbage intake by cow is still estimated merely from their weight and metabolism.To estimate appropriate number of livestock, detailed observation for the distribution of vegetation botanical composition and the grazing behavior of livestock in a specific area is requested. The procedure requires quantitative understandings of livestock's behavior by means of time and space relevancy, namely, when, where, how much the livestock feeds. However it is difficult to make a quantitative record of the livestock's feeding behavior since the cows continuously eat and move around the vast grassland. Observations by the human eye or by the ground wave tracing method using conventional transmitters are not suitable to collect such data. We have to look for practical and stable methods to observe the grazing behavior of cow.To confront with the circumstances, we use two devices, i. e., GPS collar and bite counter collar system. Animal tracing collars with GPS receivers have attracted much attention in recent years. The device, generally known as a GPS collar or GPS telemetry system, has the advantage of obtaining detailed data of animal behavior with little restriction on time and location of observers. The device's effectiveness and usefulness were verified in biological researches of the wildlife, whose behavioral characteristics cannot be easily captured or tracked down .The GPS collars are subsequently applied to domestic animals such as sheep, goats, and cows by the researchers mainly in zootechnical sciences. For example, the behavior of the cattle grazed in a forest of Kyushu Island was investigated by GPS collar at an interv...

Poverty, lack of transportation and communication facilities, insufficient educational institutions, lack of awareness, huge distance from schools, and natural barriers are the main causes of educational backwardness in rural areas of Bangladesh. This study aims to evaluate the NGO education services at district-level along the river Jamuna, Bangladesh. Mainly this research purposes to investigate the deficiency in providing facilities by different NGOs and make recommendations for further improvement in the educational sector. GPS data overlapped onto satellite imagery of SPOT 5, GIS and remote sensing technology was used for identifying and predicting the service zone of pre-primary, primary and high schools. Modern technological tools have been used for mapping, buffering area measurement and data analysis using primary data and secondary information. Moreover, satellite navigation data has been developed and linked with remote sensing imagery that facilitates detailed and long term planning of educational institutions. There are 126 unions (the smallest a rural administration) within the 5 districts in the study area. According to the 1990 Primary Education Act, the government of Bangladesh intended to develop optimal distance for the educational institutions with respect to several parameters i.e. human settlements, size of service population, distance factors and road networks. This research intends to take up a case study at union level to examine the present status of NGO education in terms of services of the schools. Educational necessity in rural Bangladesh is functioned by a three-tier system. At the bottom is the pre-primary tier (usually one year) catering to the educational needs of children under six years. After that, there are primary schools serving children from six to eleven years. At the top, there are secondary high schools for children from 12 to 17. However, there are four types of schools in terms of ownership; the first is public, the second are registered non-government schools which receives government support in terms of salaries and other benefits, the third are NGO schools running with some community support and last are private institutions that are for profit. The key findings of this study are unequal spatial distribution of rural schools, insufficient and unplanned educational infrastructure, lack of utility facilities, i.e., water supply, electricity and lack of technology in educational institutions. Local NGOs along the river Jamuna provide facilities on education sectors such as increasing consciousness, development of a need-based curriculum, creation of graded learning materials, non-formal education and food for rural poor students. Unfortunately, donors' do not take any initiatives for clean water supply, playgrounds, the internet, computers, electricity and other facilities. It is estimated that along the river Jamuna the population density is 928 per km 2 , whereas male and female literacy rates are 38.85% and 32.26% respectively. Evidently, the female literac...

Abstract:Examining agricultural efficiency in terms of energy balance will be a first step in helping to find a solution to the sustainable development of agriculture, and to environmental problems such as the exploitation of natural resources especially in developed countries. This study attempts to define regional energy efficiency based on the regional input-output energy ratio (output/input), which is calculated by the input fossil fuel energy and output food energy of all crops produced in a region. It also investigates the changes in regional energy efficiency of the prefectures in Japan from 1970 to 1990. By inspecting typical combinations of crops, the regional energy efficiency, which will be an index for examining the temporal and spatial changes of regional crop production, is divided into four categories: high (regional input-output energy ratio: more than 2.7 in 1970 and 1990), middle (1.8-2.6 in 1970,1.7-2.6 in 1990), low (0.7 1.7 in 1970, 0.7-1.6 in 1990) and very low (under 0.6 in 1970 and 1990). Applying these categories to the prefectural level, specific features were seen in the decrease of the prefectures with middle efficiency in the southern Kanto Region and the appearance of prefectures with very low efficiency in the southeastern part of Japan over two decades. It is considered that the decline of energy efficiency was caused mainly due to the increase in the percentage of greenhouse crops planted in the prefectures that are active in the production of paddy rice and horticultural crops. The emergence of the prefectures with very low efficiency in 1990 also implies that intensive crop production reinforces the impact on the natural environment by the usage of fossil fuel energy especially in the region that has high economic land productivity.