The short story called “Das Stadtwappen” (“The City Coat of Arms”) by the author Franz Kafka was posthumously published 1931 in the collection Beim Bau der chinesischen Mauer. The story, retold by a narrator, revolves around the creation of the Tower of Babel. However, unlike the original story of Babel, the builders are hesitant in completing, or ...
The ongoing loss of global biodiversity is unprecedented in both magnitude and pace, raising urgent questions as to how this loss will affect ecosystem functioning and human well-being. Control of infectious diseases has been proposed as an important ecosystem service that is likely to be affected by biodiversity loss. A negative relationship betwe...
PBL Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency has conducted a study into the potential impact of certified sustainable production on natural capital and the related ecosystem goods and services. Forests are a well-known example of natural capital; they are valuable to society, among other things because they store large amounts of carbon. The per...
Leendert van 't Leven heeft een schat aan ervaring met de tropische bijenhouderij opgebouwd. In een gesprek met hem zit je nooit zonder gespreksstof: de herinneringen vloeien rijkelijk. En hij is nog lang niet uitgewerkt...
Forests in the wet tropics harbour an incredible biodiversity, provide many ecosystem services and regulate climatic conditions on regional scales. Tropical forests are also a major component of the global carbon cycle, storing 25% of the total terrestrial carbon and accounting for a third of net primary production. This means that changes in fores...
This technical report explores the governance options available to the Dutch government to promote the sustainable use and maintenance of ecosystem services in tropical commodity value chains with Dutch links. It examines how ecosystem services can be given a more explicit role in public and market mechanisms, using the cocoa, soy, palm oil and tim...
The Netherlands sets the standard for high-tech greenhouses worldwide. But increasingly suppliers are looking too at possibilities within the mid-tech and even the low-tech market segments. The Dutch government is supporting demonstration projects, for example in Mexico, East Africa and Malaysia. Technically it’s all going well.
Tidal rivers and lowland wetlands present a transition region where the interests of hydrologists and physical oceanographers overlap. Physical oceanographers tend to simplify river hydrology, by often assuming a constant river discharge when studying estuarine dynamics. Hydrologists, in turn, generally ignore the direct or indirect effects of tide...
Nederland zet de toon in high tech kassenbouw over de hele wereld. Maar in toenemende mate kijken de toeleveringsbedrijven ook naar mogelijkheden binnen het mid tech en zelfs het low tech segment. De Nederlandse overheid ondersteunt demonstratieprojecten in bijvoorbeeld Mexico, Oost-Afrika en Maleisië. Technisch lukt het allemaal goed.
Land-use intensification (LUI) is one of the main global drivers of biodiversity loss with negative impact on ecosystem processes and the services that societies derive from the ecosystems. The effect of LUI on ecosystem processes can be direct through changes in environmental conditions and indirect through changes in plant community. In this diss...
