Barriers Beyond the Partners: Bureaucratic and Political Constraints to Implementing Joint Forest Management in Tamil Nadu,India

Whereas past research has treated co-management of common pool resources as if villagers and project implementing authorities were the only relevant actors, numerous external factors beyond the control of these two partners create barriers to successful co-management. This paper draws on discussions with Forest Department officials to examine the influence of these forces on the outcomes of Joint Forest Management (JFM) in Tamil Nadu, India. An empirical inquiry into the operational aspects of JFM indicates the important roles of political parties, powerful people, and other state institutions and functionaries as well as the flow of foreign funding. Further, the strong demand by local people for socio-economic development interventions as opposed to improvement of degraded forests belittles the role of the Forest Department relative to other departments. Numerous other conditioning factors and relationships are explored. The authors call for reforms in public governance to allow better participation of all the actors involved for this participatory management approach to succeed and sustain.     

Cumulative impact assessment in environmental planning: A coastal wetland watershed example

Several theoretical, analytical, and institutional difficulties have impeded the development and application of the assessment of cumulative environmental impacts. Watershed development on coastal wetlands offers an ideal context for evaluating the land disturbance target approach to cumulative impact assessment. A model land use planning system involving a time series approach was developed for Elkhorn Slough in California. The approach included four major components: evaluation of erosion susceptibility, measurement of land disturbance, establishment of a land disturbance target, and a comparison of existing and target land disturbance values. Further research is needed to test the transferability of the approach in a wide range of coastal watersheds and to verify the applicability of the methods to other cumulative impact problems.     

车载巡测在区域射频电磁环境质量监测与表征中的应用分析

对北京中央电视塔周围25 km²区域电磁环境质量分别进行了射频的网格法手工监测和车载巡测自动监测，通过SPSS软件等对两种监测方法获取的数据进行了统计对比分析，发现两组数据在总体水平及数值分布特征上较为接近，因此车载巡测监测可以替代网格法监测。以车载巡测数据为基础，绘制了实测数据的道路电磁地图，利用插值法绘制了区域电磁地图，对区域电磁环境质量进行了直观表征。从回应公众关注和城市电磁规划出发，建议今后可利用车载巡测监测加强时域和频域的监测。     

区域环境风险研究进展探讨

主要围绕国内外在区域环境风险领域的研究进展、趋势与不足进行分析评述,在此基础上提出了进行区域环境风险水平及阈值研究,并进行动态调控的研究新思路。     

我国固体废物的管理体制问题分析

随着经济的发展和城市化水平的提高,固体废物的产生量迅速膨胀,其已成为制约社会和经济持续健康发展的瓶颈.以政策过程为主线,主要在责任界定、政策制定、政策执行和效果监督等环节上对城市生活垃圾、工业固体废物、危险废物和进口固体废物这4种重要的固体废物管理中存在的问题进行分析.结果表明,城市生活垃圾和工业固体废物管理中最亟待解决的问题均在于管理责任机制不明确;危险废物管理中最显著的困难在于国内相关法律法规还不健全、存在监管漏洞;进口固体废物管理中关注的重点是电子垃圾非法贸易问题.针对以上问题,给出了相应的政策建议,以促进固体废物管理体制基础的完善.     

上海市实施ISO14001环境管理体系标准的回顾与展望

建立ISO14001环境管理体系、开展ISO14001认证工作已在我国全面展开，如何发挥环境保护行政主管部门的作用，对深入推进ISO14001标准认证至关重要。从实施ISO14001标准，促进环境保护工作发展的角度回顾了上海市实施ISO14001环境管理体系标准的历程，探讨了上海市实施 标准的未来发展趋势，并对实施过程中出现的问题提出了对策和建议。     

关于区域性有害废物集中处理的管理法规研究

对区域性有害废物集中处理场的建设及管理等问题,提出了一系列相关的注意事项及处理办法;并从法律的角度给予明确的规定     

中国可持续发展与国家安全文化战略的新对策

“可持续发展”战略的实质是社会、经济发展与资源、环境相协调的一种发展模式。值得注意，这一人类社会发展模式中跨世纪重大转变的策略，尚未引起安全与减灾科技界的普遍关注，不仅在安全减灾战略研究中很少涉及，严重的是它阻碍了安全减灾诸领域跨世纪及决策课题研究的深度，造成与国际接轨进程缓慢。为此，立足可持续发展思路，并以全新视角、系统地讨论适宜安全减灾文化战略的总体对策，可望能为中国二十一世纪安全保障及科技发展提供科学指南     

Significant developments in sustainable development law and governance: A proposal

This article develops a practical proposal for progress on sustainable development law. It examines the prospects for an international sustainable development law to provide a framework for more effective, coherent governance. Sustainable development law is briefly defined and an analytical framework is provided. Different degrees of integration between economic, social and environmental law are described. Certain principles of international law related to sustainable development are also highlighted. It is argued that these principles may serve to guide law‐makers and jurists where social, economic and environmental law and policy conflict or overlap. Continuing, underlying questions of sustainable development governance are addressed and its global frameworks analysed. The article also focuses on the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development, held in Johannesburg in August‐September 2002, and its specific mandate for the United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development (UNCSD) to take related legal developments into account. The article advances a proposal: that governments, economic, social and environmental intergovernmental organizations and other actors establish a ‘network of inquiry’ with members from relevant groups, including legal and academic organizations, and other expert groups, in order to follow, research, analyse and debate legal developments in a balanced way.     

The city as a refuge for insect pollinators

Research on urban insect pollinators is changing views on the biological value and ecological importance of cities. The abundance and diversity of native bee species in urban landscapes that are absent in nearby rural lands evidence the biological value and ecological importance of cities and have implications for biodiversity conservation. Lagging behind this revised image of the city are urban conservation programs that historically have invested in education and outreach rather than programs designed to achieve high‐priority species conservation results. We synthesized research on urban bee species diversity and abundance to determine how urban conservation could be repositioned to better align with new views on the ecological importance of urban landscapes. Due to insect pollinators’ relatively small functional requirements—habitat range, life cycle, and nesting behavior—relative to larger mammals, we argue that pollinators put high‐priority and high‐impact urban conservation within reach. In a rapidly urbanizing world, transforming how environmental managers view the city can improve citizen engagement and contribute to the development of more sustainable urbanization.