Abstract Plastic waste and microplastics are invading lands and oceans, creating problems for animals, human health and the environment. Packaging, building and construction, textiles and cosmetic sectors are the main industries that utilize these non biodegradable materials. Thus, there is a necessity to find a new way of producing and consuming skin- and eco-compatible’ goods. For this purpose, it’s important to remember that the cosmetic and diet supplement markets are continually increasing, due also to the introduction of “Beauty from within,” based on the contemporary consumption of cosmeceuticals applied to the skin and nutraceuticals taken by oral route. Moreover, both of these products are made by emulsions or solutions based on a great consumption of water with the use of carriers rich in chemicals, which often cause allergy and sensitization problems. Thus, the proposed solution to use smart tissue-carriers, which are embedded with natural ingredients, and is based on the use of raw materials and biopolymers obtained from food and agro-forestry waste. These new carriers, with a structure similar to the Extra Cellular Matrix, may be used to realize smart cosme-nutraceuticals useful to reduce water consumption, producing innovative products free of emulsifiers, preservatives, colors, fragrances and other chemicals. So, it will possible to save the human health and the environment by maintaining natural raw materials and the biodiversity of the earth for the future generations.

Abstract Taita hills are one of the most important biodiversity hotspots of Kenya but experiencing a high rate of deforestation due conversion of its original forestland to agriculture and settlement during the last century. These landscape dynamics coupled with rainfall fluctuations in these critical ecosystems may significantly affect water resource distribution and food security in Taita Taveta County and its environs. This study aimed to establish the trends of land use/cover change (LUCC) in Wundanyi catchment from 1970 to 2030 and predict their specific and combined effects on surface runoff and stream flow in the same period. The analysis was based on statistical trend analysis and dynamic landscape modeling using both historical and primary data from Wundanyi catchment, and Landsat TM and ETM+ imagery of Taita Hills for 1990, 2000, and 2010. Results show highly variable mean seasonal and annual values of discharge in Wundanyi catchment probably attributed to environmental changes affecting Taita Hills in general and Wundanyi catchment in particular. Compared to 1990, major land use/cover changes in 2010 were featured by the expansion of built-up area (250%), plantation forest (23.7%), broadleaved forest (17.4%), and thicket (15.9%). Was also notable the decrease in woodland (−30.3%), cropland (−21.6%), and shrubland (−0.8%). Dynamic spatial trends by the year 2030 will be evidenced by increased thicket by 0.41% per annum ( R 2 = 81.6%), and by decreased plantation forests (−0.13%; R 2 = 91.3%), woodland (−0.10%; R 2 = 77.6%), shrubland (−0.11%; R 2 = 85.2%), broadleaved forests (−0.03%; R 2 = 56.6%) and cropland (−0.09%; R 2 of 84.4). These changes will shape the catchment landscape and influence its hydrology, unless the existing forest and agricultural policy interventions are enforced. Hence, crop diversification, agroforestry, and soil and water conservation structures are recommended to maintain effective control of LUCC on hydrological processes going on in the Wundanyi catchment.

Abstract The development of some rural areas, such as most municipalities in the Portuguese interior, are completely dependent on the maintenance and retention of their population. The strengthening and qualification of a minimum number of inhabitants are necessary for the local dynamization processes. In this paper it is proposed a theoretical approach and the data presentation for a case study—the municipality of Torre de Moncorvo in the Douro valley region (northern Portugal). The main objective of this contribution is to demonstrate that the population maintenance is crucial to the local development. The social, economic, and territorial aspects are mutually dependent and determine the sustainability and the future dynamics of this kind of rural territories.

Abstract The study attempts to learn the perceptions of people living in Balıkesir about cooperatives and their expectations from cooperatives. It also aims to learn the thoughts of cooperative members about cooperative activities and the behavior of each member. Within the scope of the research, 724 people from Balıkesir were interviewed. Meetings were held for discussions. The public’s perception of cooperatives in Balıkesir is generally positive. However, unsuccessful attempts and the difficulty of establishing a joint business also cause negative criticisim. The public expects supervision and educational assistance from the government and financial support from the municipality. There are many reasons to become a member of cooperatives. However, the first thing to do is to facilitate the work related to the activity. Acting in solidarity with other people is also an important motivation for becoming a member. In Balıkesir, it is not regular for cooperative members to attend cooperative general assembly meetings. At the same time, their desire to take part in cooperative management and control bodies is low. The success level of cooperatives varies according to the expectations of the members. In Balıkesir, 36.7% of the members find the technical information provision activity of the cooperative sufficient, while 32.7% find the product marketing activity sufficient. The majority of cooperative members in Balıkesir find the financial aid activities of cooperatives incomplete. At the same time, they generally find the product purchase price of cooperatives inadequate.

Abstract Close to 4 decades post the publishing of the Brundtland Report, a global blueprint that emphasised on multilateralism and interdependence of nations as the basis for a tenable sustainable development, gender inequalities and untenable development persist in Africa. There is need to continuously redefine the pathways for eliminating poverty and gender inequalities, as the basis for sustainability. A better understanding of the causes of gender inequality, as well as an acknowledgement of the fact that gender equality and sustainable development are inseparable is also imperative. This review study, through a desk review of available literature, explored three central issues; why gender inequality and sustainable development must be addressed together in everyday theory and practice, how patriarchy and war cause gender inequalities and untenable sustainability in Africa and how these twin pandemics must be confronted to ensure achievement of the 17 sustainable development goals (SDGs) and their 86 targets, drawing from case studies of Southern and West Africa. Focusing on a number of social determinants of well-being, including good health for all, sexual and reproductive health services, education for all, quality of employment, gender rights and basic requirements such as food and portable water, the review study argues that development efforts in Africa have proved gender unequal and thus unsustainable. The review study advanced arguments for a holistic view to sustainable social development, contending that market focused indicators of development that disregard social determinants of well-being misrepresent reality. Market focused neo-liberal patterns of growth neglect human needs and compound poverty and under-growth. On the other hand, integrating a people centred approach to growth helps understand the connections, ruptures and trade-offs between dimensions of gender equality and sustainability in a way that facilitates holistic growth.

Abstract The goal of this paper corresponds to a small theory on the discovery of the incorporation of climate action to go deeper regarding educational treatment. There is no search to raise awareness in the social community for educational inclusion on current environmental problems such as pollution, loss of biodiversity, and climate change, among others. Social inclusion on ecology and the new treatment of sustainability through practice that allows us to assume and strengthen the greatest responsibility for the environment, this is, notable and conscious, of course, the transversal programs within the environmental matter together with the inclusive school. This educational operation seeks to strengthen the practice of values that allow us to assume the greatest responsibility of caring for the environment in a notable and conscious way, of course, the transversal programs within the environmental field along with the participation of students with cultural-functional diversity. It is possible to debate the use of a modernized model for inclusive ecology to improve the structuring of the educational strategy, depending on the teaching and learning process of the inclusive school.

Abstract Carrying capacity assessment of nature-based tourist destinations is important for keeping the consumption of natural resources and anthropogenic pollution levels within environmentally safe and sustainable limits. With the mostly rural character of such destinations, the local community's well-being also needs to be prioritized. Exposure to natural hazards and climate crises have further exacerbated concerns about the long-term sustainability of these locations. The interrelationship between tourism intensity and its impacts clearly reflects in Butler’s Tourism Area Life Cycle model of 1980. The ‘elements of capacity’ and their ‘critical range’ mark a significant threshold in the model that leads us to the concept of Carrying Capacity. The capacity may be physical, spatial, ecological, environmental, social, economic, management, and governance, among others. This is also linked with the quality of touristic experience and satisfaction. In this context, aiming to understand the optimum level of tourist traffic flow in Bakkhali, one of the popular beach destinations of the deltaic island system of the Indian Sundarbans, this study assesses its visitor carrying capacity at three levels—physical, real, and effective. It also briefly introduces the idea of ‘operative’ carrying capacity at the fourth level. The study is based on tourist data till 2019 and adopts the well-established methodological framework of carrying capacity assessment applied widely in several settings. The result suggests that tourism operations at Bakkhali may optimally handle 2040 visitors per day, which may be stretched to a maximum of 2267 visitors per day. This may be used as baseline information for sustainable coastal tourism policy framing in long term while planning for tourism management and infrastructure development in the Sundarban region in immediate terms.

Abstract This article outlines key features of an emerging spatial turn in education, the social sciences and humanities and its relevance to developing sustainable social systems, with a particular focus on inclusive systems. This is cognisant of UN Sustainable Goal 4 on Equitable Inclusive Education and Goal 1 on No Poverty. Offering a necessarily illustrative selection of key conceptual traditions and recent applications of spatial understandings pertinent to education and inclusion, with wider applicability, this proposed spatial turn is examined as offering critical alternatives to Western ethnocentric frames of space. This leads to contrasts between concentric spatial systems of inclusion, assumed connection and relative openness and diametric spatial systems of exclusion, splitting and mirror image oppositions in education and community spaces of relation.