Institutions, Forest Management, and Sustainable Human Development – Experiences from India

New institutional economists have argued that there are many categories of institutions, including market and non-market institutions, which may prove economically efficient, specifically for public goods and common pool goods. The Government of India introduced a non-market community-based institution, known as Joint Forest Management (JFM), for forest management and protection in 1990. JFM is a sharing mechanism for forest planning and management based on sharing of rights and duties, control and decision-making authority over forestlands, between forest departments and local user groups. By 2001, 42 000 Village Forest Committees established under JFM were managing over 11.5 million ha forestland. These institutions have proved very useful, and have contributed to forest management as well as four aspects of sustainable human development (SHD) – ecological output, income generation, village infrastructure development, and community empowerment. In the long-term, community-based institutions will prove to be a foundation of SHD and participatory democracy.     

Sustainable Development and the Role of the Financial World

The incapacity to finance sustainable development through philanthropic official assistance turned the Johannesburg Summit to business world and the financial industry. Pioneering financial institutions – including development banks and private banks – have developed a wide range of innovations that can support sustainable development. This article highlights a few innovative products and markets and focuses on the progress made by financial players on the level of standards, metrics and guidelines to improve sustainability management systems, reporting and accounting practices and the multi-stakeholder dynamic. The role of the socially responsible investing (SRI) community has been underexposed by the Summit. Through its voice and market success, SRI has moved from a green market niche to the mainstream, however not becoming mainstream. The invaluable levering effect of SRI has just been discovered by authorities and market regulators and is becoming instrumental. In order to show the business case of Corporate Social Responsibility and to prove the financial viability of the People, Planet, Prosperity investing approach, the SRI community should critically reflect on its own quality assurance systems, sound disclosure and verification practices.     

TECHNOLOGY,INSTITUTIONS, AND SOCIAL GOALS1

ABSTRACT: The cries of pending water crises are usually cast in terms of water availability and/or water quality. Unfortunately, the real factors underlying a perceived crisis are often overlooked and the solutions prescribed are fax from optimal when measured in either economic or social terms. Today's technology outstrips its implementation, yesterday's solutions are imposed on a new breed of problems, and a static game is being played in a dynamic world. There is a need for the application of innovative and revolutionary tactics, for modernizing institutions, and for educating technologists and decision makers alike in the art of communicating their views and skills. This is the challenge. If it is met, some predicted crises will not materialize, and many others will be diminished in scale. An exciting opportunity exists to extend the boundaries of a new era in water management.     

Oil dependency,political institutions,and urban–rural disparities in access to electricity in Africa

In line with the resource curse literature, this paper examines the effect of oil dependency on the disparities in access to electricity between urban and rural areas in Africa, conditional on the quality of political institutions. Based on data from 36 African countries over the period 2000–2017, our investigation suggests that oil rents (% of GDP) increase urban–rural disparities in access to electricity. However, the quality of institutions shapes the effect of oil dependency on these disparities. Specifically, a 10% increase in the institutional quality score reduces the adverse effects of oil rent on electricity access disparity by around 19%, and the negative impact of oil dependency on urban–rural disparities is reversed when institutional quality reaches a score of 52% on a scale from 0 to 100. The robustness tests support these results and call for strengthening the quality of institutions to overcome the resource curse in Africa.     

Hybrid governance tensions fuelling self-reflexivity in Alternative Food Networks: the case of the Brussels GASAP (solidarity purchasing groups for peasant agriculture)

This paper applies the concept of Hybrid Governance to the analysis of the GASAP (Groupe d’Achats Solidaires de l’Agriculture Paysanne), a solidarity-based producers–consumers network established in Brussels in 2006. The Hybrid Governance concept allows to capture the role of key governance tensions in driving the self-organisation, scaling out and self-reflexive dynamics of Alternative Food Networks (AFNs). The approach provides a multifaceted and sound socio-political account of the ways AFNs arise, self-organise, associate and build networks in the pursuit of their food allocation objectives, often facing a contradictory socio-institutional environment. Three types of governance tensions, i.e. organisational, resource, and institutional, as well as the interactions among them, are analysed throughout the life-course of the GASAP network. The analysis identifies three phases in the GASAP’s life-course, showing how governance tensions and their interrelations arise and play a critical role in conditioning the overall development of the organisation through time. The paper concludes with highlighting prospective values of the hybrid governance approach for the analysis of AFNs in general. These values relate to: the role of the hybrid approach in illuminating on key drivers behind the scaling out of AFNs; the hybrid governance as a tool to conceptualise and sustain the self-reflexive capacity of local food initiatives and the ways by which this approach unravels challenges to build cooperative alliances and networks among a diversity of agents in the food arena.     

小煤矿透水事故分析及预防

通过对乡镇小煤矿透水事故典型案例分析,得出其事故发生原因主要在于从业人员素质较差、内部管理混乱、技术装备力量薄弱和行业主管部门监督不力。因此,煤矿防治水害要坚持以防为主。同时,提出不仅要从辨识透水征兆、留设防水煤柱、规范探放水安全距离、组建探放水机构等技术方面上,还要加强从业人员培训、编制防灾救援预案、行业主管部门监督等方面采取措施。另外,还提出"防、堵、疏、排、截"5项综合治理措施。     

Linking parks and people: Nepal's experience in resolving conflicts in parks and protected areas

SUMMARY

The search for innovative methods for improving relations between parks and people has led to various conservation and development projects around the world. Nepal's almost three decades of experience in park management in a variety of institutional settings offers valuable lessons in the challenges and opportunities for enlisting local support for conservation. Citing several macro and micro-level case studies from around the country, this paper provides a comparative perspective on the significance of tourism-focused conservation and community development activities in resolving conflicts between parks and local people.     

加拿大浸入式教学对我国高职英语教学改革的启示

我国高职院校存在着学生英语水平较差、师资力量薄弱、课堂教学模式与教学大纲偏差的现状。通过探讨“浸入式”教学法的概念、分类及原则,并结合我国高职院校英语教学的现状,探讨“浸入式”英语教学法在我国高职院校实施的途径：从观念上重新认识浸入式教学模式,努力营造浸入式英语学习和教学的环境,引进既精通专业知识,又能熟练运用英语进行课堂授课的师资力量,组织编写适合高职院校浸入式英语教学的教材。     

试论石油企业环境监测机构的现状及发展

文章分析了石油企业环境监测机构的现状,明确了石油企业环境监测机构的工作立足点。同时,在中国石油天然气集团公司创建综合性国际能源公司、深化HSE体系推进的大背景下,对各油气田企业环境监测机构的未来与发展进行探讨,并结合实际提出较为合理的发展设想。