Effectiveness of participatory planning for community management of fisheries in Bangladesh

This study provides statistical evidence that support for community-based management of resources was more effective when initiated through a process known as participatory action plan development (PAPD). Thirty-six sites were studied where community management of fisheries was facilitated by NGOs. All involved community participation and establishing local fisheries management institutions. However, communities were able to take up more conservation-related interventions and faced fewer conflicts in the 18 sites where a PAPD was the basis for collective action and institution development. This indicates the value and effectiveness of adopting good practice in participatory planning, such as PAPD, which helps diverse stakeholders find common problems and solutions for natural resource management.     

The implications of ecosystem dynamics for fisheries management: a case study of selected fisheries in the Gulf of Paria, Trinidad

It is accepted that if fisheries resources are to remain renewable and able to sustain livelihoods, appropriate management practices must be implemented. Even while fisheries management grapples to resolve single-species issues, the biological and economic interactions among species mandate that to be effective, management techniques must be based on more interactive and aggregate-level analyses. In order to implement these techniques, the actual links, and the potential impact of these links, among the fisheries must be established. Vector autoregression (VAR) analysis has the potential to play an increasingly important role in ecosystem modelling for fisheries management. This study uses VAR analysis to demonstrate the quantitative impact of certain ecosystem changes on the productivity of the carite, honey shrimp and croaker fisheries of the Gulf of Paria, Trinidad, in the particular context of the ecosystem dynamics of trophic linkages, bycatch and multispecies fisheries. Four VAR models are constructed to investigate the extent to which these factors affect the production of the selected fisheries, and to evaluate the management implications of these linkages. The empirical analysis is further evidence that, if sustainable management of fishery resources is to be achieved, management practices based on more multi-species, ecosystem approaches must replace the traditional, single-species management techniques.     

The use of GIS for the integration of traditional and scientific knowledge in supporting artisanal fisheries management in southern Brazil

The integration of local harvesters' knowledge of attitudes and practices toward the resources they harvest with scientific information is essential to natural resources management. However, the development and implementation of management policies have, in most cases, not been effective because of a failure to use all available sources of information and knowledge. In fisheries management, local knowledge is usually not collected in a systematic format and little published literature has discussed the use of local knowledge data collection and analysis methods. This paper describes the implementation of geographic information systems to systematize, analyze, and display traditional and scientific information to support fisheries management in the Patos Lagoon Estuary, southern Brazil. Artisanal fishing data were documented through a series of interviews conducted during and after fishing trips at harvest spots, and scientific data on environmental variables were obtained from different research institutions. A multi-layer GIS database integrating local fishers' and scientific knowledge information was developed with ArcGIS 8.3 ArcView tools to integrate and translate information into an accessible and interpretable format. The geo-spatial database interface allowed the selection of specific data characteristics by target species, harvest areas, fishers' communities, fishing gear, catch-per-unit of effort (CPUE), and monthly landings. The observed fishing spatial dynamics presented among the fishers' communities shows that, in most cases, artisanal fishermen tend to concentrate in shallow estuarine waters surrounding their villages.     

A GIS-based protocol for the collection and use of local knowledge in fisheries management planning

Despite a heavy reliance on scientific knowledge as the primary source of information in resource management, many resources are in decline, particularly in fisheries. To try and combat this trend, researchers have drawn upon the knowledge of local resource users as an important supplement to scientific knowledge in designing and implementing management strategies. The integration of local knowledge with scientific knowledge for marine species management, however, is problematic stemming primarily from conflicting data types. This paper considers the use of spatial information technology as a medium to integrate and visualise spatial distributions of both quantitative scientific data and qualitative local knowledge for the purposes of producing valid and locally relevant fisheries management plans. In this context, the paper presents a detailed protocol for the collection and subsequent use of local knowledge in fisheries management planning using geographic information systems (GIS). Particular attention is paid to the use of local knowledge in resource management, accuracy issues associated with the incorporation of qualitative data into a quantitative environment, base map selection and construction, and map bias or errors associated with the accuracy of recording harvest locations on paper map sheets, given the complications of map scale.     

Social Capital and Fisheries Management: The Case of Chilika Lake in India

This article shows how social capital impacts fisheries management at the local level in Chilika Lake, located in the state of Orissa in India. In Chilika, the different fishing groups established norms and “rules of the game” including, but not limited to, spatial limits that determine who can fish and in what areas, temporal restrictions about when and for how long people may fish, gear constraints about what harvesting gear may be used by each group, and physical controls on size and other characteristics of fish that may be harvested. A survey of the members of fishing groups has shown that the bonding social capital is strong within the Chilika fishing groups. Bonding and bridging social capital keeps the fishers together in times of resource scarcity, checks violations of community rules and sanctions, and strengthens the community fisheries management. In contrast, linking social capital in Chilika appears to be weak, as is evident from the lack of trust in external agencies, seeking the help of formal institutions for legal support, and increasing conflicts. Trust and cooperation among fishers is crucial in helping to build the social capital. A social capital perspective on fisheries governance suggests that there should be a rethinking of priorities and funding mechanisms, from “top-down” fisheries management towards “co-management” with a focus on engendering rights and responsibilities for fishers and their communities.     

Pathology and failure in the design and implementation of adaptive management

The conceptual underpinnings for adaptive management are simple; there will always be inherent uncertainty and unpredictability in the dynamics and behavior of complex ecological systems as a result non-linear interactions among components and emergence, yet management decisions must still be made. The strength of adaptive management is in the recognition and confrontation of such uncertainty. Rather than ignore uncertainty, or use it to preclude management actions, adaptive management can foster resilience and flexibility to cope with an uncertain future, and develop safe to fail management approaches that acknowledge inevitable changes and surprises. Since its initial introduction, adaptive management has been hailed as a solution to endless trial and error approaches to complex natural resource management challenges. However, its implementation has failed more often than not. It does not produce easy answers, and it is appropriate in only a subset of natural resource management problems. Clearly adaptive management has great potential when applied appropriately. Just as clearly adaptive management has seemingly failed to live up to its high expectations. Why? We outline nine pathologies and challenges that can lead to failure in adaptive management programs. We focus on general sources of failures in adaptive management, so that others can avoid these pitfalls in the future. Adaptive management can be a powerful and beneficial tool when applied correctly to appropriate management problems; the challenge is to keep the concept of adaptive management from being hijacked for inappropriate use.     

云平台助力智慧环保

结合全国以及福建省环境管理信息化的实践经验,提出了狭义的云概念和面向全省各级环境主管部门的基于云平台的信息化建设思路。将新一代信息技术充分融入到环境综合管理应用中去,并从架构、技术应用及效益几个方面进行了分析,是“十二五”期间福建省环境信息化大踏步迈进的有力探索。     

The problem of scale in community resource management

Scale is a fundamental variable in most community resource management programs. This is true both in terms of scale as a management concept (i.e., local, regional, and national level management) as well as a mapping concept (i.e., units on the map per unit on the ground). Julian Steward, the father of human ecology, recognized as early as 1950 that social scientists have failed to develop methods for incorporating the effect of scale in their work. This article seeks to determine whether methods used in plant and animal ecology for assessing the effects of scale are applicable to community resource management. The article reviews hierarchy theory and multiple scales, two methods (one theoretical and the other practical) for dealing with problems that span many scales. The application of these methods to community resource management programs is examined by way of an example.     

The limitations of environmental management systems in Australian agriculture

The efficacy of government-supported programs to encourage improved management of land and water systems associated with agricultural land in Australia has been mixed. The broad approach of Australian governments is reviewed briefly. Evidence is presented from case assessments of a program to promote adoption of environmental management systems (EMSs) to improve environmental outcomes from agricultural practices. EMSs are systems implemented to manage the environmental impacts and ameliorate environmental risk associated with business activity. Data are presented on reported EMS activity and experience of four selected groups of farmers in Victoria, south-eastern Australia, representing broad-acre cropping, beef and dairy farming. The pro-environmental behaviours of farmers were mediated through voluntary adoption of government and industry sponsored EMSs, often with financial incentives and other support. Findings from the study were that adoption of EMS practices with sufficient public benefits is unlikely to occur at sufficient scale for significant environmental impact. Farmers more readily adopted practices which were financially beneficial than those which had a positive environmental impact. Although the focus on voluntary market-based instrument (MBI) type programs is popular in western countries, enforcing regulation is an important, but usually politically unpopular, component of land use policy. The comparative advantage of EMSs differed for the industries studied, but overall there were insufficient market drivers for widespread EMS adoption in Australia. Environmental outcomes could be more effectively achieved by directly funding land management practices which have highest public net benefits. Having a clear and unambiguous management objective for a particular land management policy is more likely to achieve outcomes than having multiple objectives as occurs in a number of international programs currently.     

我院校园木本植物物种多样性调查与分析评价

对中国环境管理干部学院校园内现有的木本植物进行了种类统计和鉴定，发现校园内大部分木本植物生长良好，但是部分木本植物因人为破坏、气候不适而生长不良甚至死亡。我们应该提高认识、明确方向、优化结构、利用资源、加强养护，对校园植物资源进行管护。     

上海市南汇大治河水质CODcr的监测评价

南汇大治河化学需氧量(CODcr)含量的调查结果表明,大治河的CODcr含量逐年上升,水质从Ⅲ级水体下降到Ⅳ级水体,个别断面有恶化到Ⅴ级水源的趋势,通过分析认为CODcr含量的上升与工业废水大量不达标排放以及生活污水的乱排放有关。     

我国城市公交全面电力化的战略思考

近两年来,雾霾天气不断侵扰我国,尽管有关部门和各级政府采取了一系列措施,仍难产生立竿见影的效果。能否积极有效地改善环境质量特别是改善城市空气质量是考验我国生态环境治理体系和治理能力的重大课题。本文提出了将城市公交全面电力化作为突破口的有益思考。     

The costs and benefits of packaging waste management systems in Europe: the perspective of local authorities

Local authorities are generally in charge of household packaging waste management operations, particularly in countries with Green Dot schemes or similar extended producer responsibility systems. This leads to the need of establishing a system of financial transfers between the packaging industry and the local authorities (regarding the costs involved in selective collection and sorting). In the present study, the costs and benefits of recycling, from the perspective of local authorities, are compared for Portugal, Belgium and Italy (in Lombardia region), adopting the same economic–financial methodology. The results show that the industry is not paying the net cost of packaging waste management. If the savings attained by diverting packaging waste from other treatment operations are not considered, it seems that the industry should increase the financial support to local authorities. However, if the avoided costs with other treatments are considered as a benefit for local authorities, the costs are generally outweighed by the benefits, and the financial support could, therefore, be reduced.     

高校消防管理的现状和对策

高校属消防安全重点单位。为有效地防止火灾事故的发生,本文围绕建立一整套消防管理的体系,从四方面展开系统阐述,有很强的操作性,对高校防火工作具有一定的指导意义。     

Socio-technical Systems as Place-specific Matters of Concern: The Role of Urban Governance in the Transition of the Wastewater System in Denmark

In recent years, cities have been portrayed as important loci for transformations of large-scale systems. This paper contributes to scholarship on urban transitions by exploring why the boundaries, functions and challenges of large-scale systems typically are framed differently at the urban level of governance than at more aggregated levels of governance. Empirically, we examine the wastewater system in Denmark by contrasting framings at the urban and national levels over the last 20 years and the transition dynamics that emerged as a consequence of their juxtaposition. The findings illustrate that urban governance of the wastewater system was influenced by a particular concern with developing attractive and competitive urban spaces. The wastewater system emerged as a ‘place-bound’ and even ‘place-making’ governance concern; as such, the boundaries and functions of the system were subject to continuous redefinition at the city level. This urban framing conflicted with the national-level, efficiency-oriented framing of the wastewater system as homogenous, without regard to place-specific differences. The research findings suggest that a distinct characteristic of urban-level governance is concern for place-specific development; this concern can be transformative because it leads to ongoing reinterpretation of traditional boundaries and dependencies between large-scale systems and local contexts.     

广安市大气环境质量现状评价与优化布点监测

采用网格布点法对广安市城区大气环境质量进行了第一次普查监测，利用模糊综合评判法做出简易的现状评价，并评选出了一组优化点位作为日后大气自动化监测点位。     

Dilemmas and advances in corporate social responsibility in Brazil. The work of the Ethos Institute

This article discusses the development of corporate social responsibility (CSR) in Brazil from the perspective of the Ethos Institute of Business and Social Responsibility. The Institute is a not‐for‐profit, non‐governmental organization, that has played a leading role in the Brazilian CSR effort. In Brazil, CSR initiatives have a long tradition of philanthropy, a consequence of the country's great social inequalities. The increased attention to corporate social responsibility has paralleled growing concern about sustainable development and the intensifying activities of pressure groups (consumers, customers, investors, NGOs, labour unions, the media, among others) that have been increasing since the 1990s as natural resources are progressively becoming exhausted, social tensions rising and environmental conditions deteriorating worldwide. This article identifies problems and obstacles to the growth of corporate social responsibility in Brazil, as well as advances and alternatives for CSR and towards creating conditions for the country to be internationally competitive and sustainable in the financial, social and environmental areas.     

Riverbanks and the law: The arbitrary nature of river boundaries in New South Wales,Australia

Key aspects of environmental management exist within a legislative framework. The Rivers and Foreshores Improvement Act 1948 (NSW) and several Regional Environmental Plans created under the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979 (NSW) make reference to ‘the top of the bank’ for defining areas of protected land adjacent to rivers, within which development consent may be required. It is an arbitrary term and its use within the Rivers and Foreshores Improvement Act 1948 (NSW) leads to confusion. This paper examines the range of definitions of ‘the top of the bank’ in respect of natural watercourses and aims to provide a more lucid and effective definition that will clarify existing ambiguities in legal interpretation. The paper examines the historical origins of the phrase ‘top of the bank’, finding that stereotyped Eurocentric views of what a river ‘should look like’ have impaired the legal definition for Australian rivers, thereby influencing common law and the development of statutory definitions. Judicial applications of the phrase ‘top of the bank’ are examined from a geomorphological perspective, demonstrating the misconceptions of the term in a legal context. The paper identifies the existence of widespread support for the need to protect land adjacent to rivers in the interests of environmental, economic and social sustainability. It concludes by calling for legislative reform that is both tailored to the individual site and consistent with overarching goals at the catchment scale.