Forest Management Devolution: Gap Between Technicians’ Design and Villagers’ Practices in Madagascar

In the 1980s, tropical forest-management principles underwent a shift toward approaches giving greater responsibilities to rural people. One argument for such a shift were the long-term relations established between rural people and their natural resources. In Madagascar, a new law was drawn up in 1996 (Gelose law), which sought to integrate rural people into forest management. A gap was observed between the changes foreseen by the projects implementing the Gelose law and the actual changes. In this article, we use the concept of the social-ecological system (SES) to analyze that gap. The differences existing between the planned changes set by the Gelose contract in the village of Ambatoloaka (northwest of Madagascar) and the practices observed in 2010 were conceptualized as a gap between two SESs. The first SES is the targeted one (i.e., a virtual one); it corresponds to the designed Gelose contract. The second SES is the observed one. It is characterized by the heterogeneity of forest users and uses, which have several impacts on forest management, and by very dynamic social and ecological systems. The observed SES has been reshaped contingent on the constraints and opportunities offered by the Gelose contract as well as on other ecological and social components. The consequences and opportunities that such an SES reshaping would offer to improve the implementation of the Gelose law are discussed. The main reasons explaining the gap between the two SESs are as follows: (1) the clash between static and homogeneous perceptions in the targeted SES and the dynamics and heterogeneity that characterize the observed SES; and (2) the focus on one specific use of forest ecosystems (i.e., charcoal-making) in the targeted SES. Forest management in the observed SES depends on several uses of forest ecosystems.     

Consumer Choice and Farmers’ Markets

The increasing popularity of local food consumption can be attributed to the heightened awareness of food safety concerns, carbon emissions produced from food transportation, and an understanding of how large corporations’ obtain their food supplies. Although there is increasing discussion on both the local and organic food movement independently, there is not a wide availability of literature examining the motivations and perceptions of consumers with regard to farmers’ markets. Issues such as perceptions about what type of food consumers are purchasing at markets, nor the main motivations for frequenting such establishments are discussed. Therefore the purpose of this study was to determine consumer motivations, benefits, and perceptions of farmers’ markets. Using the case study location of Toronto, Canada, this study surveyed 300 participants during the fall of 2011. Findings indicated that the main purpose for visiting famers’ markets is not solely to fulfill grocery needs. Quality of products offered and the ability to support the local community were the primary motivators to visit the markets.     

贵‘在七分管’

人们常说:环保工作,三分治,七分管。这话,越来越觉得是在理。几年来,我厂花了三十几万元环保投资,搞了几套环保设备,但厂内污染负荷降不下来,所缴排污费不断上升,环境污染仍然严重。什么原因?不是环保设备不好用,而是不好好用,由于管理不善,未能使其发挥应有作用。据说,国外的环保设备一般也都是“常规武器”,和我们的差不多,所不同的是,管理得科学,工作认真、负责任。我厂一天排电镀污水300～350吨。如果责任到人,让工人都能爱护水象爱护自家的油那样,有活就开开关,无活就闭开关,减少长流水,那     

中国环保产业协会举行’96新春环保联谊会

中国环保产业协会举行’９６新春环保联谊会ＣＡＥＰＩＨｅｌｄＥｎｖｉｒｏｎｍｅｎｔａｌＰｒｏｔｅｃｔｉｏｎＵｎｉｏｎＦｒｉｅｎｄｓｈｉｐＭｅｅｔｉｎｇ＇９６ＳｐｒｉｎｇＦｅｓｔｉｖａｌ２月１２日，中国环保产业协会在北京人民大会堂举行了’９６新春环保联谊...     

The Impact of NTFP Sales on Rural Households’ Cash Income in India’s Dry Deciduous Forest

In recent years, researchers and policy makers have recognized that nontimber forest products (NTFPs) extracted from forests by rural people can make a significant contribution to their well-being and to the local economy. This study presents and discusses data that describe the contribution of NTFPs to cash income in the dry deciduous forests of Orissa and Jharkhand, India. In its focus on cash income, this study sheds light on how the sale of NTFPs and products that use NTFPs as inputs contribute to the rural economy. From analysis of a unique data set that was collected over the course of a year, the study finds that the contribution of NTFPs to cash income varies across ecological settings, seasons, income level, and caste. Such variation should inform where and when to apply NTFP forest access and management policies.     

Understanding Managers’ Views of Global Environmental Risk

This research investigated managers’ views of two global environmental risks: climate change and loss of biodiversity. The intent was to understand why different managers place varying levels of attention and priority on these issues. The data came from in-depth interviews with 28 senior corporate managers across Canada and a range of sectors, although most were employed in the energy sector. Approximately half had direct environmental responsibilities and half had other management duties. Grounded theory was used to collect and analyze the data. From the results, a theoretical framework was constructed to explain important factors that can influence managers’ mental models of environmental risk. Four factors relevant to managers’ appraisal of the threat of environmental risk include: (1) salience, (2) intrinsic value of nature, (3) knowledge, and (4) perceived resilience of nature. In addition, four factors relevant to managers’ view of the appeal of a particular response strategy were: (1) avoidability, (2) perceived costs and benefits, (3) fairness and equity, and (4) effectiveness. The time horizon for decision making was seen as being important in both portions of the mental model.     

中国环保产业协会’97工作年会在桂召开

1997年3月25日至28日中国环保产业协会在广西桂林召开了’97年工作年会，来自全国各省、自治区。直辖市及部分省会城市的环保产业协会秘书长，中国环保产业协会专业委员会秘书K以及国家环保局产业处和有关省市环保局局长出席了会议。全国人大环资委主仔、中国环保产业协会会长曲格平、国家环保局副局长叶汝求到会并做了重要讲活。曲格平在讲话中说：中国的环保产业发展较快，有力地支持了国家的环境建设。目前全国环保形势很好，环保的声音比任何时候都强，国务院对环保工作给予了高度重视，大力发展环保产业的时机已经来到。但目前我国环…     

’97中国环境论坛国际会议在京开幕

1997中国环境论坛国际会议于11月18－ZI日在北京召开，这是中国首次由非政府组织发起的高层次国际环保会议。国家主席江泽民为大会发来了贺词，国务院总理李鹏接见了部分外方会议代表。会议就中国的经济、社会、环境之间的协调发展问题进行了研讨，主要议题包括：环境、资源与发展，环境与融资，环境与教育，环境与贸易，环境科技，环境立法。此外，会议还安排了旨在推动环保产业发展的科技展示和交流、洽谈等活动。本次论坛由中国环境科学学会和中国人类生态学会联合主办，会议得到了联合国环境署、联合国开发计划署、世界银行以及亚洲开…     

Redressing China’s Strategy of Water Resource Exploitation

China, with the confrontation of water-related problems as an element of its long history, has been investing heavily in water engineering projects over the past few decades based on the assumption that these projects can solve its water problems. However, the anticipated benefits did not really occur, or at least not as large as expected. Instead, the results involved additional frustrations, such as biodiversity losses and human-induced disasters (i.e., landslides and earthquakes). Given its inherent shortcomings, the present engineering-dominated strategy for the management of water resources cannot help solve China’s water problems and achieve its goal of low-carbon transformation. Therefore, the present strategy for water resources exploitation needs to be reevaluated and redressed. A policy change to achieve better management of Chinese rivers is urgently needed.     

Ryder’s Painism and His Criticism of Utilitarianism

As a member of the British Oxford Group, psychologist Richard Ryder marked the beginning of the modern animal rights and animal welfare movement in the seventies. By introducing the concept “speciesism.” Ryder contributed importantly to the expansion of this movement. Surprisingly little attention has been paid to Ryder’s moral theory, “painism”, that aims to resolve the conflict between the two predominant rival theories in animal ethics, the deontological of Tom Regan and the utilitarian of Peter Singer. First, this paper examines the kernel and historical sources of Ryder’s painist theory, linking it to the work of John Rawls and Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Second, it examines Ryder’s critique of utilitarianism. It is argued that his critique of Singer’s use of the word “sentience” is unconvincing and that his critique of utilitarian aggregation as not taking a full account of the metaphysical separateness of persons, has already been countered and dealt with. Finally this paper looks at some of the counterintuitive implications of Ryder’s theory and argues that utilitarianism might have more resources for dealing with its own alleged counterintuitive implications than Ryder acknowledges.     

’97中国国际环保展暨会议胜利闭幕

12月5日至9日，由国家环保局主办、中国环保产业协会承办的第三届全国环保产业、第五届国际环保展暨会议（’97CIEPEC）在北京展览馆成功举行。开幕式由国家环保局张坤民副局长主持，解振华局长、欧盟委员会环境、文化及核安全委员RittBjerregaoyd女士、日本产业机械工业会环境装置部会长冈武及美国驻华大使馆商务处安凯彬在开幕式上致词。全国政协副主席钱正英、全国人大环资委主任委员曲格平、国家环保局解振华局长和RittBjerregaoyd女士为开幕式剪彩。欧盟驻华代表团团长魏根深大使也出席了开幕式。尽管天气寒冷，第一天晚上还下了雪…     

The ‘green’ and ‘self’ in green self-governance – a study of 264 green space initiatives by citizens

Scholars observe an increased involvement of citizens in green space governance. This paper focuses on green self-governance, in which citizens play a major role in realizing, protecting and/or managing green space. While existing research on green self-governance focuses mostly on specific cases, we aim to contribute towards a large overview via an inventory of 264 green self-governance practices across The Netherlands. With this, we discuss the relevance of green self-governance for nature conservation and its relationship with authorities. In our analysis, we show that green self-governance practices are very diverse: they pursue a wide variety of physical and social objectives; employ a multitude of physical and political activities; involve different actors besides citizens; mobilize different internal and external funding sources; and are active within and outside of protected areas. While green self-governance can contribute towards protection and management of green space and towards social values, we highlight that this contribution is mostly of a local relevance. Most practices are small scale and objectives do not always match those of authorities. Although we speak of self-governance, authorities play an important role in many practices, for example, as financial donor, landowner or regulatory authority. In this, self-governance is often not completely ‘self’.

Abbreviations: PAA: Policy Arrangement Approach; NNN: National Nature Network; N2000: Natura 2000; NCOs: Nature Conservation Organizations; NGOs: Non-governmental organizations     

模糊数学在效益‘三统一’中的应用

1979年我国颁布了《中华人民共和国环境保护法(试行)》。该法明确规定,在基本建设项目中,环保设施要与主体工程同时设计、同时施工和同时投产(即基建“三同时”)。近年来中央又提出对城市环境进行综合整治,实现经济建设、城乡建设与环境建设“三同步”,经济效益、社会效益与环境效益“三统一”的基     

Public-Private Partnerships in China’s Urban Water Sector

During the past decades, the traditional state monopoly in urban water management has been debated heavily, resulting in different forms and degrees of private sector involvement across the globe. Since the 1990s, China has also started experiments with new modes of urban water service management and governance in which the private sector is involved. It is premature to conclude whether the various forms of private sector involvement will successfully overcome the major problems (capital shortage, inefficient operation, and service quality) in China’s water sector. But at the same time, private sector involvement in water provisioning and waste water treatments seems to have become mainstream in transitional China.     

Hope in a hopeless age: environmentalism’s crisis

In this short essay it is argued that recent criticisms portraying the activist environmental movement as overly pessimistic are valid and that the communication of this pessimism to the public at large has been largely counterproductive to the objectives of environmentalists. It is argued that, in contrast to historic assumptions of a ‘progress paradigm’ that epitomized the widely held optimism of the past, the shock tactics and pessimistic media campaigns employed by the activist environmental movement, and the media that capitalizes upon those campaigns, have contributed to the creation of a figurative hopeless age. The key characterization of the hopeless age is the widely held assumption that the future will be worse than the present and that the lives of future generations will be diminished relative to our own. It is argued that the creation of this social-psychological phenomenon is counterproductive to the aims of the environmental movement and that the restoration of a collective vision and message of hope would be far more productive. Lastly, some reasons for a hopeful outlook are suggested.

Some pitfalls of ‘manstream’ environmental theory and practice

Summary Radical environmentalists consider the environmental crisis to be ultimately one of culture and character. However, in analyses and strategies for social transformation, non-feminist greens have generally accepted the Patriarchal conception of human motivation, which is based on a rational, impersonal (read Masculine) model of Man. Thus, it is implicitly assumed that the motivations underlying the environmental crisis are greed or self-interest (deemed rational motives in Western Patriarchal culture). Owing to this male-centred perspective on human nature, green strategies have ultimately relied on an appeal to reason. This, at least, has failed relative to the accelerating pace of environmental destruction.It is argued that a focus on the abuse of power leads to a more useful analysis of the causes of human oppression and environmental exploitation. The abuse of power can be understood as an attempt to overcompensate for unmet emotional needs (e. f. for love, recognition, and a sense of belonging) through an excessive drive for gratification in other dimensions of life. In Patriarchal thought, emotional needs are largely denied, being non-rational and non-masculine, and hence have also been largely ignored in social policy. This realisation suggests new strategies.Dr Janis Birkeland was an attorney, architect and planner San Francisco, USA, and now teaches at the Department of Architecture, University of Tasmania. A more extensive discussion of these points can be found in Birkeland (1993a).     

‘强化一级物化法’处理生活污水技术

以广州电池厂及华南缝纫机公司的生活污水治理工程为例,介绍了用EWP高效污水净化器的强化一级物化法处理城市生活污水的技术特点、工艺流程和工程实践。该物化法比常规的生化法降低投资成本1／2以上,占地面积减少2／3以上,处理效果较好。     

Understanding Anglers’ Preferences for Fishing Tournament Characteristics and Policies

Saltwater fishing tournaments in the United States are generally not regulated nor are there different fishing regulations for tournament and nontournament anglers. Although much is known about those who participate in fishing tournaments in terms of their fishing motivations, attitudes, and characteristics, much less is known at the angler population level regarding their preferences for tournament opportunities. Using a stated preference choice model with hypothetical scenarios to simulate participation choices and understand preferences, study objectives were to identify angler preferences for various types of tournament fishing “products.” Four tournament policy characteristics were investigated: promotion of catch and release, bait restrictions, whether a percentage of the tournament entrance fee should go to support fishery management activities, and whether a tournament should be a nonprofit or profit-making venture. Three expectation attributes were inserted: tournament size, trip cost per day, and whether a tournament is family friendly. We sent seven different versions of the mail questionnaire to 1,633 anglers. Of 795 returns, 648 were used for estimating conditional logit models. Analysis indicated that a scenario with no management interventions was not most preferred. Anglers most preferred a conservation-oriented option that introduced additional management measures. Overall, scenarios with management interventions were more favored than the status quo situation (with no management interventions). Although respondents showed reluctance to adopt other management-related options, results generally indicated they were increasingly concerned with sustainability of fish stocks and potential conflicts between tournament and nontournament users and preferred tournament products that reflect these concerns.