Estimating Carbon Dynamics in the Tropical Semi-Deciduous Forest of the Yucatan Peninsula
Modeling carbon (C) in Mexican forest ecosystems using process-based models is an important contribution to a methodology and protocol for assessing North American forest carbon dynamics, sponsored by the Commission for Environmental Cooperation and carried out by the Forest Services of Canada, USA, and Mexico, and their partner organizations.
Reducing Air Pollution and Land Ports of Entry:
Increased traffic at North American land ports of entry (POEs) associated with transportation of goods affects air quality in border communities and beyond. In its 2013–2014 Operational Plan, the Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC) has provided support for researching and developing viable, integrated options for the implementation of vehicle emission-reduction mechanisms at selected land POEs.
Action Plan to Enhance the Comparability of Pollutant Release and Transfer Registers (PRTRs) in North America
Updated October 2014: Action Plan to Enhance the Comparability of Pollutant Release and Transfer Registers (PRTRs) in North America
Taking Stock 14
This edition of the Taking Stock report examines the data on pollutant releases and transfers reported by industrial facilities from 2005 through 2010 to the three pollutant release and transfer registers (PRTRs) of North America: Canada’s National Pollutant Release Inventory (NPRI); Mexico’s Registro de Emisiones y Transferencia de Contaminantes (RETC); and the US Toxics Release Inventory (TRI). It provides details about specific pollutants, how they were managed, and the sectors and facilities reporting them over time and across North America.
Where do grassland birds winter?
Fifty-seven percent of North American grassland bird species are undergoing significant, long-term population declines. Almost 90% of grassland-obligate bird species breeding in the western Great Plains are migratory and fully 90% of these species overwinter in the Chihuahuan Desert.
Assessing Comparability of Atmospheric PCDD, PCDF and Coplanar PCB Data from North American Ambient Air Monitoring Networks
This report compares for the first time the history, sampling strategy and results of the Canadian National Air Pollution Surveillance (NAPS) and the US National Dioxin Air Monitoring Net-work (NDAMN) for polychlorinated dioxin and furan (PCDD/Fs) concentrations for the periods 1989–2009, and 1999–2002, respectively, for co-planar polychlorinated biphenyl ethers (Co-PCBs) for the periods 2005–2009 and […]
Prairie Beef and Biodiversity
A lack of conservation tools and incentives to steward native prairie in Canada has placed a disproportionate cost for environmental stewardship on livestock producers managing natural grasslands. The Ranchers Stewardship Alliance Inc. (RSAI) has investigated conservation tools that would help distribute the cost of maintaining declining ecosystem services from native rangelands more proportionally among those who value and use those services.
A Proposal for Developing Desired Future Conditions for the Big Bend Reach of the Rio Grande
The aim of this report is to provide background information and a proposed operating framework that US and Mexican state and federal land and natural resource management agencies can use in making collaborative decisions relating to that portion of the Rio Grande that extends from its confluence with the Río Conchos, at Presidio, Texas, to […]
A Framework Document: Factors to Consider in Characterizing Vulnerability to Environmental Contamination Across North America
Assessing individual or community risk from environmental pollution is complex and requires consideration of chemical and non-chemical stressors, community priorities and values, and numerous other factors. This framework document is intended to serve as an information and awareness resource for the development of environmental health assessment tools. It draws from an exhaustive review of scholarly and grey literature from varied disciplines (e.g., environmental pollution, nutrition, social sciences, health and public health promotion), and from consultations with subject-matter experts and stakeholders from the three North American countries.
Conservation Assessment for the Big Bend-Río Bravo Region
The borderlands of the Chihuahuan Desert, in the Big Bend-Río Bravo (BBRB) region, have one of the highest levels of diversity and endemic species among the world’s arid and semiarid ecosystems. This large binational area, comprised by a total of eleven protected areas in Texas, Coahuila, and Chihuahua, offers a unique opportunity for conservation because of its isolation from human settlements and the unfragmented nature of its landscape. Private land conservation efforts underway in both countries add an important dimension to these efforts by extending the region’s conservation potential to include essential habitat for mammals, birds, aquatic and other species from the Davis Mountains and Marfa in the north, to the Sierra de Hechiceros and Lagunas de Sanchez y de Montoya in the west, the Devils River to the east, and the Sierra de Santa Rosa to the south.
Guide to Green Building Products in North America
This short document provides an overview of various green building codes and standards, ratings and certification programs, and benchmarking systems used across North America. This initiative aims to increase knowledge and awareness of green building practices and materials, help stakeholders facilitate decision-making and thus greater uptake of green building practices and materials, as well as […]
Improving Conditions for Green Building Construction in North America
Among other factors, increasing uptake of green-building construction in North America requires access to financial capital, enabling policies, and a skilled workforce. As part of the report series “Improving Conditions for Green Building Construction in North America,” this report describes three financial mechanisms with strong potential for changing the green-building financing landscape in North America and recommends changes and supporting initiatives that may help overcome existing barriers to a more widespread adoption of those models.