Miyake-jima, one of the Izu Islands of southern Japan and a part of the Fuji–Hakone–Izu National Park, has been designated by the governments of Japan and the United States of America as the site for a proposed military airport. Construction of the proposed facility would destroy lands especially designated, by the Environmental Agency of Japan and the Japan Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries, for special protection. Relocation of farmland and housing from the proposed site would result in destruction of valuable National Park land on other parts of the island.

The Brown Mussel (Perna perna) is an important fooditem for coastal people in the Republic of Transkei, providing some 16% of their annual protein requirements in 1978, though the energy benefit associated with the consumption of Mussels is relatively low. Uncontrolled heavy exploitation of the stocks of these Mussels resulted in reductions in both their density and size between 1978 and 1984. The reduced availability of Mussels to collectors led to increased exploitation-pressure on other, longer-lived, intertidal species: the proportion of limpets in the take of collectors rose from 7% in 1978 to 37% in 1984, while the proportion of Brown Mussels decreased from 92% to 57%.

In view of the increasing rate of world-wide desertification in many arid and semi-arid land situations, certain plants that produce human or animal feedstuffs or industrially useful by-products under such hostile environments deserve the most serious attention.

In this paper we present documentation for the realistic assessment of the concept of peat as an energy alternative in the United States. A proposal to mine peat in north-central Florida provides the framework from which a community worksheet for the evaluation of a peat-mining proposal has been developed. Documentation is also given of crucial local and regional environmental impacts that would result from large-scale disturbance of peatlands and the subsequent removal of peat, among which are:

1) toxic-metal release from peat,

2) eutrophication of surface waters,

3) increased runoff (including flooding and impacts on fisheries),

4) release of organic pollutants,

5) changes of salt and freshwater systems,

6) changes in ground-water supply, and

7) air pollution and fires.

Other community concerns, such as zoning regulations, sewage disposal impacts, and disruption of stable industries, must also be considered.

This paper introduces the concept of ‘ecological engineering’, which is based on two fundamental functions that play leading roles in the dynamic processes of ecosystems. These functions are maintaining ‘the general eco-balance resulting from the harmonization of well-coordinated structures with functions in the ecosystems’, and the transformation and regeneration ‘of substances based on the multi-layer trophic structures’ that are common to most ecosystems.

Footpath erosion in mountain wilderness areas is generally undesirable, and maintenance and rehabilitation of eroded paths are costly. Although path erosion results from a complex interactioin between recreational and geomorphological forces and each path's resistance, the processes involved are not well understood.

Many of the federal agencies of the United States (e.g. US Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management) are involved in making decisions that alter land-use on a massive scale. Subsequently, these land-use changes may have deleterious or beneficial effects on wildlife habitat and its ability to support wildlife species, both plant and animal. There exists an urgent need to develop methodologies that are capable of predicting the consequences, for wildlife species, of regional land-use changes. This study develops one such methodology to predict the distribution and abundance of animal species at a regional level.

Petroleum refineries are major sources of air pollution, giving off particulate matter, volatile hydrocarbons, and oxides of sulphur and nitrogen. The field-study here reported was conducted in the vicinity of Barauni Petroleum Refinery, in the Begusarai district of Bihar, India, with the objects of measuring the level of pollution through phytomonitoring and assessing the overall impact of the Refinery's emissions on vegetation.