The purpose of this study was to analyze and develop a workflow for assessing and representing the value of ecosystems to professionals involved in municipal planning. A thorough literature review was conducted and supplemented by interviews and observations. Frameworks for ecosystem service assessments were analyzed and combined with methods in urban planning in order to assess social and ecological conditions. A workflow was set up and methods were evaluated by applying them to a case study in the area Åstråket in Uppsala. Experience from the case study was compiled in order to improve the workflow.Complex assessments were identified and simplified for the method to be useful for practitioners.

Large areas of forests in the tropical region have during the last decades been lost and converted to new land uses while other areas have been degraded into secondary forests. These secondary forests need to be restored and rehabilitation through enrichment planting and liberation may help to speed up the recovery process. The objective of this thesis was to evaluate a rehabilitation method that includes enrichment planting, slashing of weeds and girdling of unwanted trees. The site for the project is situated in Sabah, Borneo in a secondary forest which had been logged and burnt by a wildfire. The project?s goal is to rehabilitate and increase Biodiversity through enrichment planting of seedlings mainly belonging to the family Dipterocarpeaceae (dipterocarps).

To work with environments outdoors for people, animals and plants is the main topic for the landscapearchitect. On several occasions the work is about public places that is to be in relation with other parts of the town. It is about the activities and the life that take place. The physical environment and the interpretation of it gives possibilities or obstructions for people who moves around or spend time in it.Since public places, parks and places for movement are used in daily life they strongly effect the people who use the places. The concequences of this effect can be positive or negative experiences.A positive example is a passage over a brook on the way to school while a negative one is to be afraid while passing a tunnel when it is dark outside. Other examples of concequences are stress effect from traffic noice or calming environments with twitter of birds. The physical environment is also a part of the total interpretation of a town.

Sweden signed, in 1992, the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and has thus assumed responsibility for the indigenous Biodiversity. That also means that Sweden has a conservation responsibility for the Swedish Friesian (SLB) (SJV, 2007a). In a survey conducted by the Board of Agriculture (SJV) in 1996, it appeared that there were around 780 cows and heifers of the SLB breed (SJV, 1997). SJV did in 2006 a plan for the development of livestock genet-ic resources and the number of cows of SLB was estimated at approximately 200. This meant that the SLB was in need of being conserved and SJV assumed it would be categorized as threatened.The primary objective of conservation of a breed is to reduce the loss of the original genetic variation (Lacy et al., 1995).

Urban forests are important for people to get at break and be able to relax in a stressful world. Several studies show that we feel better through being out in the forest and historically this was the normal environment for us. As a result of population growth and urbanization we tend to spend less time in nature nowadays than before. Due to this development urban forests have become a central role in our society as a place where people can fulfill their needs and interests. The management of the urban forest is therefore important, especially for municipalities that own forest which is supposed to be of benefit to local residents.Falköpings municipality owns approximately 260 hectares of forest in the popular and most visited recreational area along Mösseberg?s southern slope.

Fragmentation and reduction of forest area is a threat for many forest species and their habitat. Deficiencies in forest quality, such as lack of dead wood and old trees, are one explanation of the threat. The most important action to prevent the continued loss of forest types is to protect forest, but also to restore and to create areas that not previously had high nature values. Hence one of the key strategic roles for Fritid- och Naturkontoret, Uppsala municipality, is to monitor Biodiversity in the context of urban planning. The majority of the Uppsala municipality residents live in urban areas and most of them spend some of their spare time in natural areas in cities and their immediate surroundings. Exploitation in and around Uppsala is high, but it is important that there is enough nature close to houses to meet the residents? needs of recreation.

Sweden signed, in 1992, the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and has thus assumed responsibility for the indigenous Biodiversity. That also means that Sweden has a conservation responsibility for the Swedish Friesian (SLB) (SJV, 2007a). In a survey conducted by the Board of Agriculture (SJV) in 1996, it appeared that there were around 780 cows and heifers of the SLB breed (SJV, 1997). SJV did in 2006 a plan for the development of livestock genet-ic resources and the number of cows of SLB was estimated at approximately 200. This meant that the SLB was in need of being conserved and SJV assumed it would be categorized as threatened.The primary objective of conservation of a breed is to reduce the loss of the original genetic variation (Lacy et al., 1995).

In this Master thesis an effective method is presented to find out what is requested in a forest or outdoor recreation. The aim with the study is to find out how Sveaskog can increase the general interest for experiences in nature and improve the access for recreation. Some questions that have been used to answer this purpose are: Who is visiting/not visiting the recreation area? How is it possible to increase the number of visits? The study is carried out in Kilsbergen and mainly centered around Ånnaboda, which is the natural place for people to meet at and undertake recreational activities. The method that is used is a mail-survey that was sent to visitors and people living in Örebro. People living in Örebro represent potential visitors who live close to the recreation area.

In November 2007 the countries around the Baltic Sea signed the Baltic Sea Action Plan (BSAP). The action plan was an initiative from HELCOM due to the environmental status in the Baltic Sea. The action plan implemented a new approach with measures targeting the whole ecosystem. Eutrophication, hazardous substances, Biodiversity and maritime activities constituted the main segments. The parties were to establish national implementation plans to fulfil the BSAP goals, which shall lead to good environmental status in the Baltic Sea by 2021.  The aim of this thesis is to investigate the points in common regarding conceptions of eutrophication in the Baltic Sea between the management, the science, the media and the public.

Climate changes today are mainly caused by anthropogenic activities and the increased emissions of greenhouse gases to the atmosphere and this has raised questions on how to reduce the usage of fossil fuels. Ethanol is a good alternative to conventional gas and has been used in Brazil since the 1970 ?s. In Sweden several newspapers has written about the poor working conditions on many farms thus making the Swedish company SEKAB design a certification for their ethanol to ensure that it can be considered to be a sustainable alternative.Furthermore WWF has developed a certification tool called Bonsucro in cooperation with Coca Cola, Ferrero group, BP and Shell. This is due to the fact that no global certification tool has been available up until now.

Trakthyggesbruk är det skogsbruk som i över ett halvt sekel dominerat i Sverige. På senare år har dock detta skogsbruk ifrågasatts gällande främst den naturhänsyn som det lämnar samt att trakthyggesbruket bedrivs på i princip all skogsmark som brukas. Detta leder till liten variation bland de uppväxande skogarna, och flera myndighetsutredningar och rapporter hävdar att Sveriges nationella mål för bevarande av natur och miljö inte kommer att nås om inga omfattande förändringar görs i sättet att bruka skogarna på. I denna rapport undersökte jag om zonerat skogsbruk, s.k. triadskogsbruk, är ett bra alternativ till dagens traditionella skogsbruk i Sverige i syfte att uppnå hög virkesproduktion och biologisk mångfald på landskapsnivå.

Cumulative effects are seldom treated in Swedish Environmental Impact Assessments (EIA). This report treats these questions and which procedures and methods that can be used when assessing cumulative effects in EIA. This report is a literature study where also a case study is a part. The case study shows how existing methods for cumulative effects can be used in practice. The report is concentrated on biology and treats cumulative effects on premises of Biodiversity and roads. Cumulative effects include both direct and indirect effects.

The expansion of the Swedish hydro power has contributed positively to the reduction of the environmental impacts from the fossil fueled power production. In the same time the extensive expansion has been proved to cause negative ecological and local environment impacts of a stream. This, in turn, has been affecting the Biodiversity and fish stock negatively, which has been reduced. One of the underlying problems is the lack of possibility for the fish to pass the plants, but it is also directly correlated to the mortality rate of the fish passing through the turbine, which this study is investigating.The mortality rate has been computed for three different locations in Sweden, Untra, Tännfallet and a third one whose location is confidential, and is denoted as Case 1, 2 and 3. The model used to calculate the mortality rate in this investigation is based by existing blade strike models and knowledge and are investigating the death due to mechanical injuries from collision with a runner blade in the turbine.

In the tropics, logging and wild fire can result in degraded secondary forests with lower Biodiversity than in the natural forest. One way to limit forest degradation is to rehabilitate the present large areas of secondary forests. However, there is a lack of knowledge concerning the ecology of tropical tree species and further studies would be advantageous for future rehabilitation efforts of degraded rainforest. The objective of this study was to investigate how mother trees in secondary forest and different site factors affect the abundance and spatial distribution of natural regeneration of non-pioneer tree species in a tropical rainforest in Sabah, Malaysia. The study took place in the INIKEA Forest Rehabilitation Project area, which suffered from wild fire in 1983 and has been selectively logged over both before and after the fire. Natural regeneration and site variables were inventoried in plots, while mother trees were inventoried in the whole survey area.

Intresset för vattenfrågor har ökat efter införandet av EU:s ramdirektiv för vatten (vattendirektivet, 2000/60/EG) och inneburit att vattenvård och hänsynstagande till vatten inom skogsbruket fått större fokus. Målet med vattendirektivet är att alla vatten inom EU (Europeiska Unionen) ska erhålla en god kemisk och ekologisk status innan år 2015 samt att ingen försämring får ske. Skogsbruket kan i vissa fall ha negativa effekter på vattenmiljöer. NPK+ och Blå målklassning är två skogliga vattenplaneringsverktyg som har utvecklats för att öka vattenhänsynen i skogen. Verktygen utgörs av ett inventeringsprotokoll som bedömer vattenmiljöns naturvärde (N), påverkan (P), känslighet för skogsbruk (K) samt plusvärden (+).