Surigao State College of Technology

Narciso Street, Surigao City

Graduate Studies

ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT
Case Studies

Name: Che-I M. Labial Date: December 14, 2019 Score: __________

1. Why does studying pollutants in dolphins give a better representation of pollution's
impacts on an ecosystem than studying marsh grasses?
Studying pollutants and morbillivirus in dolphins gives a representation of pollution's
impact on an ecosystem because it shows the pollution negatively affecting a whole ecosystem,
while marsh grass habitats do not because marshes tend to remove the negative effects of pollution
within their environment. Marsh grasses create a safe environment by removing toxicity in the
water and therefore protect marine creatures from the consequences of pollution. Scientists
studying these habitats never see the true effects of pollution. However, in the dolphins' case, there
is nothing like marsh grasses acting to detoxify the ecosystem, and animals can be observed dying
and passing on the toxicity through the food chain.
2. If a large portion of the bottlenose dolphin population were to die-off in the Atlantic, what
are some of the ecological effects that you might expect?
Fish that the dolphin’s prey on would become more abundant because there are fewer
dolphins in their habitat preying on them. Large sharks which prey on the DOLPHINS would begin
to become extremely competitive as they have lost a large amount of their food source. They might
begin to prey on other animals in the dolphins' place- such as the fish, considering there would
now be such a great number of them.
3. How might the timing between the last morbillivirus-caused die off event and this dolphin
die-off event be related to the immune function of dolphin?
Genetic tests have confirmed that an outbreak of a measles-like virus known as
morbillivirus is playing a major role in the massive dolphin die-off on the Mid-Atlantic coast. The
virus suppresses the immune system.
It has become clear that all morbilliviruses initially infect cells of the immune system,
before they spread to epithelial, endothelial and/or neuronal cells. Morbilliviruses remain a
potential cause of disease outbreaks in previously unexposed populations. However, they can also
be used to our advantage, as vaccine vectors or as oncolytic viruses. Sustained vaccination
coverage and surveillance of circulating morbilliviruses will remain of critical importance for
years to come
4. Do you think mothers or offspring are at higher risk of endocrine disruption from PBDEs
or other environmental contaminants? What about adult males versus adult females?
In terms of endocrine disruption from PBDEs, dolphin offspring are at a higher risk than
mothers because mothers pass on their PBDE to their offspring through their milk during nursing.
For this reason, males are also more susceptible because they don't possess this ability.
5. Why are lipophilic chemicals of greater concern when it comes to endocrine disruption?
What parts of the endocrine system are more likely to be affected by these?
Lipophilic chemicals are stored in high fat places of the body, including a mother's milk
and other glands of the endocrine system. The sex glands are affected by the practice of maternal
offloading. Thyroid glands and other lipophilic glands are affected because lipophilic chemicals
like PBDE are shaped similarly and can mock their activity within the body to manipulate growth,
development, function, and more.

6. What are some of the factors that could be causing the sudden outbreak of morbillivirus
in dolphins?
Water pollution and pollution within plants in their ecosystem, reproductive success and
the spread of PBDEs through maternal offloading, immune response being slowed due to the virus
becoming immune after such persistence

7. Some dolphin populations are year-round residents, while others migrate over seasons.
How can migration impact morbillivirus outbreaks?

Migration exposes dolphins to various new ecosystems. While some may be safe from
pollution, others will not. Consuming fish in areas with high pollution in the water and plants will
result in catching the disease that they may have been safe from at another location. This affects
the whole dolphin population because once one is infected, they can spread the virus through
offspring.

8. What are some possible solutions to the dolphin die-offs?

Injecting infected dolphins with an appropriate vaccine and finding better methods of e-
waste disposal as it is loaded with flame retardants and PBDE.
 Surigao State College of Technology
Narciso Street, Surigao City

Graduate Studies

ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT
Case Studies

Name: Che-I M. Labial Date: December 14, 2019 Score: __________

1. What are some of the relationships you can identify between trends of elephants, people, and
rainfall over time?

The relationship between elephants and rainfall is embedded in the mythology and legends
of people living for centuries in close contact with these animals. Turkana legend in northern
Kenya holds that sighting an elephant at the end of the dry season is a sign that rain is imminent.
The Samburu people, further south in Kenya, have a similar belief, where the sudden appearance
of an elephant, after months of no rain, signals the coming of the rains. In India, the elephant is
believed to bring the monsoon rain and is considered to be allied to cumulus clouds.

2. What are some of the spatial relationships between all of the different regional trends that
might play a role in how management decisions are made locally? Specifically, how is
Zambezi Region similar to or different from surrounding areas?

Zambezi Region is a finger-shaped strip of land that the Belgians colonized as part of
Namibia in order to gain access to the Indian Ocean. It is surrounded by Angola, Zambia,
Botswana, and Zimbabwe. In this region, international borders cut across wetland and Kalahari
woodland landscapes.
As a result, animals frequently move across political boundaries, coming down from
Zambia and up through Botswana during the dry season in search for water, resulting in vacillating
numbers of different species in the wetlands of Zambezi Region. Protected areas and developing
conservancies in Zambezi Region fit into a regional network of parks, forest reserves, and game
management area and other community wildlife projects that are taking place in neighboring
countries. The main role of this puzzle-like landscape is to ultimately allow wildlife such as
elephants, zebra, wildebeest, impala, buffalo, lions, and other African wildlife to use the rivers as
corridors for movement during the alternating wet and dry seasons of the year.

3. What are some of the barriers and opportunities KAZA faces in facilitating the movement
of wildlife between the 5 countries that comprise this trans-frontier conservation area?
The KAZA TFCA is the world’s largest transfrontier conservation area that has a goal to
manage the regional ecosystem for biodiversity preservation and sustainable natural resources uses
while maintaining its rich cultural heritage and developing the communities within the region.
KAZA faces sustainable development to be successful, preserving and enhancing the
natural resources and biodiversity of the KAZA TFCA region are critical due to their inherent
socio-economic and cultural value. One of the identified keys to sustainable development is the
integration of the flourishing photographic and hunting safari-based tourism with community
 development. However, the opportunity costs of biodiversity conservation must be balanced with
human wildlife conflicts which may have dire effects on household food insecurity and human
lives. Specifically, human wildlife conflict includes damage to livestock or crops, injury to people,
and, in some cases, death. Those that survive an attack by a wild animal may also suffer
psychologically, and there are also opportunity costs associated with conflict such as farmers being
forced to guard crops 24 hours a day or people being restricted in traveling at night for fear of
encountering a wild animal. Successful conservation initiatives must develop an approach that
balances the needs of wildlife with needs of people in the shared environment.

4. Are you optimistic that KAZA will succeed in stabilizing wildlife populations in the region?
Leaders of the five partner countries have a shared vision for the conservation area: to
protect wildlife, promote tourism, and improve the wellbeing of local communities. They
recognize that wildlife and conservation can contribute to development and poverty alleviation in
rural communities. If KAZA succeeds, the model could inform similar initiatives across Africa.
WWF supported the development of KAZA and today, an important conservation partner
to KAZA—collaborating to prevent poaching, conducting scientific research on wildlife;
promoting habitat protection, and seeking opportunities for communities to manage and benefit
from wildlife on their land.

5. How does this village balance its responsibility to make decisions for its own welfare and its
desire to participate in regionally-focused management activities?

The communal lands are divided into conservancies, each of which are comprised of
villages that have been engaged in community-based natural resource management (CBNRM)
since the end of the Namibian Independence War in 1990. Each conservancy area has its own
management office with elected officials that oversee the affairs of a given set of villages specific
to natural resource management and involvement in ecotourism. Ecotourism is mainly centered
around the 5 lodges operating in the region that take advantage of the national parks (Bwabwata,
Mudumu, and Mamili) and the abundant wildlife the wet floodplains and wetlands draw in the dry
season. Since lodge operators in the Zambezi Region Strip are required to lease the land from the
government through conservancy representatives, they are automatically obliged to pay a levy to
both the Traditional Authorities of the main villages and to the conservancy on whose land the
enterprise was established. Thus, conservancies directly benefit financially from the existence of
tourism enterprises in addition to jobs and other in-kind benefits such as meat from big game that
is killed by safari hunters. Conservancy management leaders also makes decisions and interact
with professional safari outfits who bring hunters of big game to this area. They also are
responsible for interacting with NGO and government representatives in compensating local
farmers for crop losses due to human-wildlife conflicts if occurrences are reported and
documented. However, some communities struggle with lack of accountability and transparency
in money flows so that only conservancy leaders benefit from the tourism efforts while farmers
are left with no crops and no financial compensation.