Sustainable Resources Management Journal

01-12

Authors: Asal Aziz Tawfeeq and Mohammad Aljaradin

In the work, fifty soil samples were cultivated on selective Gauze agar medium plates containing carboymethyl cellulose as the sole carbon source. Thirty-two samples showed similarity to the morphological characteristics of Streptomyces bacterium which were tested for cellulolytic activity using the 3,5-Dinitrosalicylic acid reagent. Four efficient Streptomyces isolates were selected for their high cellulolytic activity which was recorded after 12 hours of incubation in the early logarithmic phase of growth. The four isolates attained their optimum cellulose activity after 96 hours of incubation with an enzyme activity of (0.55 + 0.1, 0.53+ 0.12 and 0.49 + 0.22 U/mL) by the Streptomyces isolates AA-17-1, AA-17-19 and AA-17-22 respectively with recording a specific enzymatic activity of (0.68 + 0.23 U/ml) of the Streptomyces isolate AA-17-32. The result showed, a supreme activity of the Streptomyces purpureus AA-17-32 to reduce (20 g) of paper waste to about (0.78 U/ml). After applying further morphological and biochemical analysis it’s recognized that, the Streptomyces isolate AA-17-32 belonged to the species Streptomyces purpureus. It concludes that this method for the production of cellulose can be used for the sustainable development of sugar production from the degradable of waste materials.

01-18

Authors: Weston D. Sakala and Stephania Moyo

Participation of local communities in wildlife management through Community resource boards (CRBs) has been in existence for many years. However, the socio- economic benefits regarding community participation remain questionable. The main objective of this study was to investigate the socio-economic benefits and challenges of community participation in sustainable wildlife management. A survey was conducted with the households living in Chiundaponde chiefdom. Stratified random sampling was used to select 170 households. Data for this study was collected through semi-structured interviews with heads of households, focus group discussions with CRB members and community meetings. The results revealed that socio-economic benefits derived from wildlife resources have not made a great impact in uplifting the standard of living. Furthermore, households living in GMAs have lower average income than households in other rural areas. However, the study has established that there is a link between sustainable wildlife management and improved rural livelihoods. This is so because revenues from wildlife are used to build schools, clinics, roads, bridges etc. It also offers employment to local communities. However, the proportion of people who benefited from wildlife was not significantly different from those who did not benefit (Pearson χ2 = 2.9, df=2, p < 0.24). Rural poverty and lack of food security contribute to poaching in protected areas. Therefore, the solution lies in improving the local capacity for investing wildlife revenues into sustainable revenue generating activities.

01-09

Authors: Weston D. Sakala and Stephania Moyo

The purpose of this research was to determine the contribution of solid waste recycling companies to the job market in Zambia. A comprehensive database of patents and company registration agency for thirty-four companies working with waste recycling in Zambia was used. The data was collected through semi-structured interviews with key stakeholders. The results revealed that recycling companies create job opportunities and environmental benefits. The study has also established that recycling industry is growing rapidly. However, the sector has a lot of challenges e.g. the poor status of machinery. Old technologies have made the industry structure more costly to operate at full capacity. There was no significant difference (p >.05) in job creation between companies using old and new technologies (p = 0.635). Similarly, there was no significant difference (p >.05) in contribution to job creation between paper and plastic recycling (p = 0.456). However, there was a significant (p<.05) difference in efficiency between old and new technologies

01-14

Authors: Weston D. Sakala and Jacob Mwitwa

Donors have played a significant role in the environmental sector in Zambia. They have over the years provided financial and technical resources for environmental management. Purposive stratified sampling was employed in selecting the respondents for the study. The sample population of the study consisted of government departments, statutory bodies, donors, non-governmental organizations and community-based organizations. The research employed semi-structured and key informant interviews, focus group discussions, field observations, and review of existing literature. The results revealed that policy making and implementation was an expensive implementation hence government depended on external financial and at a foreign technical support. As a result of inadequate resources, most policies in the environmental resources sector had not been reviewed for some time. Other challenges in policy making include; conflict of interests among different stakeholders and weak linkages between research and policy making. Public policies in the developing countries possess certain challenges and peculiarities of their own. It is as a result of these various challenges that most developing countries need donor support when making and implementing.This compromises environmental resource governance and consequently, there is a high probability of donor driven policies influencing how environmental resources are managed as the new policies have the potential to reflect a broad range of international interests at the expense of local interest.

01-10

Authors: Khaldoon Al-whoosh, Mohammad Aljaradin, Raed Bashitialshaaer and Hisham Balawneh

An experiment for salinity-gradient solar pond has been constructed and operated at the Dead Sea area over a period of 3 months. The pond has a volume of 5m3 with dimensions of (L, H, W) as 2.0m, 2.0m and 1,25m respectively. The two parameters temperature and salinity concentration profiles were evaluated through the measurements of the solar pond with respect to time. The experimental result shows that the bottom layer has a higher temperature and it reached a maximum temperature of 85 ℃ after 100 hour of operating. In this experiment, the thermal insulation for the pond was successful to keep the boundaries isolated that made it possible to extract the thermal energy stored in the bottom zone during the day time, continuously, while maintaining the stability of the solar pond. The total cost of the pond was about $35/sqm, in which the cost of the salt represents 45% of the total cost of the solar pond which is relatively cheap. Therefore, constructing the ponds close to the Dead Sea area is a cheaper alternative. Resulting low cost of utilizing thermal energy that could be a valuable option for multistage flash desalination plant that is functioning below 100 ℃. The operation of this pond reveals that solar pond technology in the Dead Sea area, as compared with other methods of using solar thermal energy for power generation, is more efficient especially for the utilities where direct thermal energy is required.