General Directorate for Environmental Protection

Ecological connectivity is one of the primary prerequisites of effective prevention and adaptation to climate change. However the legal protection of this phenomenon has been scattered in different legal acts of international, European and national law. The main criterion adopted for the purposes of this research was to focus on the development of instruments for the protection of ecological corridors. The research included both framework agreements on the protection of biodiversity as well as agreements strictly related to the migration of fauna and flora. The main conclusions of the research show that the provisions of multilateral nature conservation agreements vary in terms of their legal force, and in most cases leave a wide margin of discretion to the parties with regard to the forms of implementation. Furthermore, the agreements are not integrated and coherent, and are still based on outdated management tools and terminology (dating back to the 1970-1980 period). Binding executive acts are not widely recognised as having the same legal force as framework conventions and are, in fact, lost in the microcosmos of national environmental legislation. It is recommended to conduct a harmonised, in-depth review of the implementation of the conventions analysed, in order to integrate and improve the coherence of the protection regime of ecological networks at national, continental and global levels. This should be done by adopting an integrative agreement under the auspices of all the conventions concerned. The detailed scope of the necessary amendments proposed in the final chapter of this article constitutes the main added value of this research.

ABSTRACTAlthough urbanization poses various threats to avifauna, some bird species, including Mallards, are attracted to towns and cities as their winter habitats due to favourable temperatures and abundant anthropogenic food. In this study, we investigated how population dynamics changed in relation to winter harshness and intensity of supplementary feeding. The results indicated that the number of Mallards increased with the feeding intensity but the pattern differed in response to worsening of wintering conditions on water bodies with distinct supplementary feeding intensity. The ponds with low feeding intensity were occupied by fewer but more stable populations, suggesting the presence of natural food resources there, available for small number of individuals, regardless of winter conditions. On the ponds with medium feeding intensity, we observed a bell-shaped relationship between the number of ducks and ice cover. Unpredictable anthropogenic food on those ponds might not provide sufficient food resources, forcing birds to relocate when wintering conditions worsen. In such conditions, the ponds with a high feeding intensity attracted more ducks. We demonstrated that the wintering population of Mallards in urban areas is not solely influenced by ambient temperature but is also significantly affected by the intensity of supplementary feeding.

<p><strong>Background:</strong> Of the 607 fatal occupational accidents that occurred in Spain in 2016, 37.9% were due to ischemic heart disease and stroke. Working conditions such as night work, noise or respiratory contaminants were associated with a higher cardiovascular incidence. The aim of the present study was to assess whether health surveillance in workers exposed to these conditions should include assessment of cardiovascular risk. <strong>Subjects and methods: </strong>A cross-sectional study was conducted in 680 workers in a public administration. The qualification of working conditions was obtained from the company risk assessment and from personal, anthropometric and analytical data, which allowed the assessment of cardiovascular risk in the medical examination performed in 2015. <strong>Results: </strong>30.1% of the sample were exposed to these working conditions, with significant differences by sex (37% in men, 11.9% in women, p<0.05). According to REGICOR, 13.2% of those exposed were classified as particularly sensitive to cardiovascular risk. <strong>Conclusions:</strong> A large percentage of workers are exposed to TC related to a greater prevalence of cardiovascular pathology. The percentage of workers classified as especially sensitive to cardiovascular risk among those exposed suggests that this risk should be assessed in occupational health surveillance when there are working conditions related to cardiovascular pathology.</p>

Park w Wojsławicach jest cenną pozostałością dawnego założenia dworskiego, powstałego na przełomie XIX i XX wieku wokół siedziby rodziny Siemiątkowskich. Oryginalny układ przestrzenny założenia został zmieniony w wyniku zmian sposobu zagospodarowania terenu po upaństwowieniu, a następnie sprywatyzowaniu (części) obiektu. Obecnie na dendroflorę parku składają się 73 gatunki drzew i krzewów (20 gatunków iglastych i 53 gatunki liściaste), reprezentujących 23 rodziny. Charakterystycznym komponentem parku są liczne okazałe jesiony wyniosłe Fraxinus excelsior, klony zwyczajne Acer platanoides i topole kanadyjskie Populus canadensis. Walorem parku są wielogatunkowe zgrupowania drzew, najlepiej zachowane w części (centralnej) przypałacowej. Nowsze elementy założenia tworzone są głównie przez barwne odmiany i formy obcych gatunków krzewów iglastych i liściastych. Wśród szczegółowo zinwentaryzowanych 281 drzew i drzewiastych form krzewów dostępnych w części nieleśnej parku i blisko 300 drzew w części leśnej, wyróżnia się 10 okazów o wymiarach pomnikowych.

Information systems, which include the spatial information systems (GIS, LIS, etc.) should be designed and built based on widely accepted and adopted standards in order to operate properly and efficiently. This principle is the foundation of modern information technology, and without following this principle, the operation of such solutions as e-mail or web sites would not be possible. Standards are the basis for interoperability of information systems and a common denominator for the exchange of information between them.