The search for a sustainable alternative to slash-and-burn agriculture in the World's rain forests: the Guama Model and its implementation

Structural equation model was used to evaluate the effects of soil chemical environment, fertility and enzyme activity on eucalyptus biomass

This paper aims to reveal the effects of multi-generational succession of eucalyptus on soil fertility, organic structure and biological properties. Soil samples were collected from eucalyptus plantations of different stand ages (5, 11, 17 and 21 years old) in a typical area in south Asia, soil organic fraction structure and content characteristics were investigated using Fourier transform infrared (FTIR), and structural equation modelling (SEM) was used to explore influences of soil fertility, enzyme activity and organic fraction on stand biomass. FTIR analysis showed that 11 infrared absorption peaks existed in the soils of this study area, attributed to silicates, aromatics, carbonate ions, sugars, esters, polysaccharides, aliphatic hydrocarbons and phenolic alcohols. Combined with the results of peak area integration, the content of esters, aromatics and phenolic alcohols was significantly higher in 17- and 21-year-old stand soils than in control soils. The results of SEM showed that organic components were negatively related (p < 0.01) to enzyme activity and biomass, with standardized coefficients of 0.53 and 0.49, respectively. In summary, multi-generation succession of eucalyptus trees can change the structure of soil organic functional group composition and promote the enrichment of aromatic and phenolic alcohol functional groups. Such changes can directly inhibit the increase in eucalyptus biomass and indirectly negatively affect biomass by inhibiting enzyme activity.

The Role of B Companies in Tourism towards Recovery from the Crisis COVID-19 Inculcating Social Values and Responsible Entrepreneurship in Latin America

One of the particularities of companies with a social purpose is that, through their business model of B companies, they have incorporated into their processes the necessary mechanisms to obtain, simultaneously, the profits to ensure the existence of the organization in the market. At the same time, social value is generated, which is necessary to address the problems of the social crisis caused by COVID-19 and the environmental problems affecting the community. The current global health and economic crisis has opened up the possibility of adopting business model B and focusing more on the individual. Based on the grounded theory method, we have examined 3500 B Corporations in Latin America, of which 57 were examined in 10 countries listed in the Directory of B Corporations for Latin America. The main conclusions are that B Corporations dedicated to tourism through responsible entrepreneurship develop a more inclusive, sustainable and environmentally friendly economy for the benefit of society, go beyond the notion of CSR and move away from traditional business, as B Corporations combine social development and economic growth.