Policies for Biodiversity Conservation: The Case of Sub-Saharan Africa

Why does biodiversity conservation matter, and what can be done about it? The article discusses the options in the case of Sub-Saharan Africa, drawing on the results of a Darwin Initiative project on the ecology and economics of biodiversity conservation in the continent. It uses the case of Sub-Saharan Africa to illustrate both the consequences of biodiversity loss and the constraints within which policy-makers operate. To most people the biodiversity loss that matters is not the global extinction of species, but the effects of local change in flora and fauna on watershed protection, soil conservation, habitat, productivity and amenity. For this reason, biodiversity conservation concerns even the poorest communities. But because poverty, indebtedness, insecurity of land tenure and other social conditions affect the way in which people respond to incentives, the policy options for biodiversity conservation may be different in different parts of the world.     

Juvenal,satire and the persona theory: Some critical remarks

This article briefly outlines the origin of the persona theory as applied to Roman verse satire, particularly Juvenal. Scholars adapting this theory regard the speaker in the satires as a fictitious literary character, a dramatic mask (persona). The central arguments in favour of this concept put forward by W.S. Anderson and some of his followers are examined and discussed, and the validity of the whole persona doctrine in its more exceeding form is challenged.