Can environmental compensation contribute to socially equitable conservation? The case of an ecological fiscal transfer in the Brazilian Atlantic forest

ABSTRACT

Regions of high biodiversity often coincide with regions of poverty and conservation can imply economic and social costs for poor resident populations. Environmental compensation is considered a tool to reduce socio-environmental conflict, improve the equity of conservation and promote sustainable development. The intricacies of specific socio-ecological systems may determine how compensation payments are interpreted locally to produce outcomes. This research examines the social perceptions of an ecological fiscal transfer which intends to compensate the local public administration for the substantial costs of conservation in a hotspot of biological and social diversity in the Brazilian Atlantic forest. In this context we explore whether financial compensation (1) influences local perceptions of the conservation regime, (2) contributes towards the reconciliation of human-conservation conflicts and (3) triggers any meaningful socio-economic improvement that would counter the local costs of conservation. Results show that environmental compensation is not widely recognised as effectively benefiting the community. Local authorities consider compensation insufficient to enact a sustainable development agenda. Environmental compensation could play an important role in a policy mix for socially equitable conservation by being explicitly linked to community benefits, especially to fostering local livelihoods. The collaboration of actors operating across multiple governance levels may improve the institutional capacity of local actors to produce effective outcomes.     

Transnational environmental collective action facing implementation constraints – the case of nutrient leakage in the Baltic Sea Action Plan

While scholars have showed a long-standing interest for how to design effective environmental treaties and other international agreements, less interest has been paid to implementation phases of these agreements. This article takes the Eutrophication Segment in the Baltic Sea Action Plan as an example of a regional effort to reduce nutrient leakages, where national reporting of adopted strategies has been a key mechanism to improve implementation effectiveness. It is shown that although transnational collective action theory is a powerful tool to analyse underlying drivers and priorities in state implementation policies, a deeper analysis of domestic and external constraints can shed additional light on observed implementation gaps. Varying views among countries on, for example, the role of stakeholder participation, legitimacy and top-down governing versus multi-stakeholder governance approaches may comprise domestic constraints that make effective and efficient implementation problematic. In terms of external constraints, states’ balancing of action plan objectives versus other international commitments, such as other environmental treaties and EU Directives, is shown to potentially reduce implementation efficiency as well.     

Patronage and access to a legacy city farmers’ market: a case study of the relocation of the Flint,Michigan, market

This study examines the effects of relocating the Flint Farmers’ Market, a large and successful market in the medium-sized legacy city of Flint, Michigan. Over the course of a year, market patrons and vendors were surveyed to explore questions about the scale of the market, patron demographics, reasons for visiting the market, seasonal variations in outcomes, and healthy food access. The results indicate that the relocated, downtown market is successful in large part because it satisfies multiple needs – it provides access to fresh, local produce; it provides lunch options for downtown workers and students; and it serves as a community gathering space. The study further demonstrates that farmers’ markets in legacy cities can serve a large region, attract diverse customers, and remain sustainable year-round, even in northern climates. These findings should be of interest to planners, policy-makers, and market managers who are considering opening or relocating a farmers’ market as a means of supporting community health, well-being, and economic development.     

Ecosystem services in infrastructure planning – a case study of the projected deepening of the Lower Weser river in Germany

We consider how ecosystem services can be incorporated into water infrastructure planning by studying the projected deepening of the Lower Weser river channel in Germany. We recalculate the project's benefit–cost ratio by integrating the monetary value of changes in different ecosystem services, as follows: (1) the restoration costs of a mitigation measure for a loss in fresh water supply for agricultural production in the estuary region, (2) the costs of a loss in habitat services, transferring the willingness to pay from a contingent valuation study to the area assessed in the environmental impact assessment, and (3) the benefits of emissions savings induced by more efficient shipping, taking a marginal abatement cost approach. We find that including monetary values for ecosystem service changes leads to a substantial drop in the benefit–cost ratio. On this basis, we argue for a reform of the standard cost–benefit analysis to facilitate more complete welfare assessments.     

Injustice and organisation in Anchicayá, Colombia: an environmental legal case in a hydropower watershed

The paper looks at Colombia's first major environmental justice legal case involving a riparian Afro-Colombian community and the Pacific Energy Company (EPSA). Riverine Afro-Colombian communities gained political recognition as a culturally distinct group largely based on their conservation practices in riparian environments. The work contrasts the complexities of the case with the vulnerable reality of the people of Anchicayá who largely live in conditions of poverty, violence and political isolation. It also describes the institutions that frame watershed management, the ethnic rights to collective land and self-governance and the property rights of energy companies in the backdrop of decentralisation reforms that clarified different types of property rights and refounded Colombia as a multicultural nation. The legal suit, however, demonstrates that the government failed to offer equal protection to collective versus private cultural and socio-economic uses of land and water in order to protect energy investments. The Constitutional Court's jurisprudence ultimately privileged technical and legal know-how and overlooked the limits community intermediaries face offering similar evidence. By doing so, the court not only disregarded the constitutional rights of Afro-Colombians, but it also failed to mitigate a socio-environmental conflict.     

Multi-level water governance – the case of the Morsa River Basin in Norway

Management of fresh water resources meets a range of often conflicting interests. Waterways usually run across political and administrative borders and hence make management difficult and collective action politically challenging. In order to meet these challenges, multi-level bioregional approaches to water management have been called for. Such an approach is institutionalised in the EU's Water Framework Directive (WFD). This paper presents the experiences of the Morsa water sub-district in southern Norway, a pilot for implementing the WFD. The paper discusses Morsa in the light of four principles for multi-level water governance: management on a bioregional scale; polycentric governance; public participation; and an experimental approach to water governance. Contrary to widely held assumptions that collective action in polycentric networks will be difficult because actors will follow their own narrow interests, the findings demonstrate how this is not an absolute truth, and how social action cannot be fully explained by rational action theories. The analysis concludes that the relative success of Morsa relates to a complex of factors, including openness of practices and active involvement of key actors, strong but including leadership, and a knowledge based ‘hybrid’ type of multi-level network combining horizontal and vertical network governance.     

Multi-criteria ranking of copper concentrates according to their quality – An element of environmental management in the vicinity of copper – Smelting complex in Bor,Serbia

The results of multi-criteria ranking of copper concentrates by their quality, according to their content of useful and harmful components, are presented in this paper. Cu, Ag and Au were taken as useful components, while Pb, Zn, As, Cd, Hg, Bi and Sb were considered as harmful with adequate weight parameters. Considering its specific role in copper metallurgy, sulfur in the concentrate was considered in two scenarios. In the first scenario S was considered as a useful and in the other one as a harmful component. The ranking is done by implementing the PROMETHEE/GAIA method with an additional implementation of the special PROMETHEE V method, using the standard limitations of the heavy metals content in the concentrate. In this way, it is possible to perform an optimization of the input charge for the copper extraction from two aspects. The first aspect covers benefits from the content of useful metals, while the second deals with the protection of the environment, considering the content of harmful components of the charge.Using multi-criteria decision making for the sake of ranking the quality of copper concentrates, as described in this paper, could be considered as a contribution to the methodology of forming the market price of this product.     

Implementation of riverside parks in the city of São Paulo – progress and constraints

The environmental degradation of urban rivers and streams in large cities has led to the development of a variety of public policies. In the city of São Paulo, Brazil, a policy for recovering watercourses and valley floors has been developed with the implementation of riverside parks. This represents a new paradigm for the city in terms of its relationship with rivers and streams. This paper presents the results of an exploratory study, which aimed to analyse riverside parks in the city of São Paulo during the last decade. The study analysed the main management difficulties in relation to these types of urban park during their post-implementation stage, assessing their performance in relation to their social and environmental functions. It addressed issues such as the state of the site before and after the implementation of the riverside park, levels of user satisfaction in relation to the state of the watercourse, sports and leisure facilities, green space, security and the way the park is used. The study showed that riverside parks are recognised as elements that improve the quality of public spaces, socially legitimised as public policies.     

Making nature conservation modern: an analysis of developments in nature conservation policy in relation to macro-social changes—the Netherlands as a case study

It is often said that we live in the ecological era. It is also often said that society has entered a new phase, which—depending on the theoretical orientation—is called post-modern, post-industrial or risk society. This article analyses to what extent the presupposed shift to a phase beyond modernity is reflected in nature conservation policy. To do so, an analysis is first made of whether the basic perception and appreciation of nature in latter-day society differs essentially from perceptions and appreciations that were dominant during the heyday of modernity. When this turns out not to be the case, the development of nature conservation policy in the Netherlands during the last decades of the twentieth century is investigated to establish if conservation policy—that is, the way in which society deals with nature—has fundamentally changed. The conclusion is that Dutch policy with regard to nature has been undergoing a process of belated modernization in the sense that it is striving towards a firmer base in science and a more objective and quantifiable process of policy development. This can be seen as removing a pre-modern relic from modern society. At the same time, there is a late-modern drive towards consensus building and communication, which cannot be reconciled entirely with the stronger orientation towards science as the sole basis for deciding which kind of nature and how nature should be protected. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Monetary assessment of the recreational benefits of improved water quality – description of a new model and a case study

The European Union Water Framework Directive (WFD) has created a demand for comparing the benefits and costs of the remedial measures. A major part of the benefits from improved water quality relate to the increased recreational value. However, there is a lack of easily operative and widely applicable quantitative methods to assess the benefits of improved water quality for recreational use. We present a new model to link physical indicators of water quality, water feasibility indicators for different recreational uses, individuals’ perceptions concerning the current feasibility of water for recreational purposes and monetary measures of water-related recreation benefits. The model has been applied to nine lakes, three rivers and one large coastal area in Finland. In this paper, we present the principles of the method and the results from one case study. In Finland, the method has been applied for the economic analysis required in the WFD.     

The importance of the will to improve: how ‘sustainability’ sidelined local livelihoods in a carbon-forestry investment in Uganda

This paper describes a ‘win–win’ discourse on local sustainable development and global climate change mitigation regarding Kachung, a Swedish–Norwegian climate forestry investment in Uganda certified under the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM). In many ways, this investment is a typical example of how private interests and capital accumulation are prioritised over local concerns in natural resource management under neoliberalism. This study, however, indicated that investors had genuine intentions of creating mutual benefits for the global environment and local people. Drawing on Li (2007), we show that this ‘will to improve’ was nevertheless constructed in ways that resulted in prioritisation of global climate change mitigation over local context-specific concerns.

We identify three core factors making the win–win discourse around Kachung plantation especially resilient: (i) the perceived urgency of climate change mitigation, (ii) the apolitical framing of ‘sustainability’ as an environmental issue that can be fixed through external technical interventions and (iii) the devaluation of local and context-specific knowledge. We end by suggesting that research on the neoliberalisation of nature focus more on analysing the rationales behind specific interventions. This would leave us better equipped to suggest how such interventions should be modified to produce true wins for local contexts.     

From NIMBY to enlightened resistance: a framework proposal to decrypt land-use disputes based on a landfill opposition case in France

Not In My Back Yard (NIMBY) supporters are presented as citizens in opposition to local developments due to their spatial proximity. However, these conflicts have proven much more complex than the NIMBY concept can explain. The objective of this paper is to provide a framework to facilitate the understanding of opposition movements and how they can affect society at large, triggering social change. The conceptual framework is applied to a case of local opposition to a landfill project in Essonne, France. Through the analysis of the structure of the opposition movement and its changes over time, the author shows how it can evolve into a social movement that enriches democracy through the constitution of four types of capital: social, scientific, patrimonial and political. The author argues that scientific and patrimonial capitals allow social capital to evolve into political capital. The shift from being a self-interest to a civic interest movement is called enlightened resistance, which reveals local public interest, called territorial interests. When studying environmental controversies, the author emphasises the importance of recognizing the evolution through time of (1) social landscape, (2) different types of legitimate knowledge, (3) the role of place attachment, and (4) the political dimension of identities.     

Can ISO 14063 be a tool to plan the environmental communication strategy of a territorial area?

Over the past two decades, communication on environmental values, actions and performance has become an essential activity of organisations, because of the increased public concern and legislation related to the environment.

Stakeholders put pressure on companies to take environmental responsibility. In this framework, an effective environmental communication can generate value-added on companies' environmental work, and consequently, their competitiveness and profitability can benefit from communicating their environmental responsibility.

In 2006, the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) launched a standard for environmental communication, ISO 14063. ISO 14063 should not be used for third-party certification purposes. Instead, it is intended to be used as a guideline and support companies to ensure successful environmental communication. The aim of this paper is to prompt a discussion about the applicability of the standard ISO 14063 not only to single organisations but as a tool to plan the environmental communication strategy of a whole territorial area. This is achieved by performing a case study relating to the Interreg IVC-funded project “Progresland”. The project involved three Italian and one Spanish natural areas and demonstrated that ISO 14063 could be a valid support to define and implement an environmental communication plan for a territorial area.     

Is legislation a barrier to the sustainable management of game species? A case study of wild deer in Britain

Wild game management for hunting in Western society has become increasingly complex as stakeholders have multiplied and as ‘sustainability’ influences the contemporary debate. This paper questions whether the current legal framework for game management, which has evolved from early European civilisations to focus on ‘hunting rights’, is relevant to regulate the contemporary environmental, social and economic dimensions of wild game and their management. Employing a narrative analysis to focus on deer, the study identifies key legislative tenets and highlights the pertinence of historical laws to contemporary conflicts. The analysis suggests that current legislation is increasingly divergent from contemporary trends and has created inertia with respect to sustainable deer management. The paper offers four options to redress this: state intervention; voluntary collaboration; financial incentives; and establishing a legal responsibility for management. It is concluded that significant innovation is required in one or more of these four areas to facilitate the contemporary sustainable management of wild deer in Britain.     

Drivers of local people’s participation in sustainable natural resource management: a case study in central Iran

The driving forces behind natural resource management (NRM) vary among countries. Most NRM programmes focus on biophysical drivers such as soil, water and vegetation, with little attention directed towards the nuanced sociocultural and religious drivers of sustainable natural resource management (SNRM) practices. This paper explores those understudied drivers that influence local people’s participation (LPP) in SNRM in Isfahan, Iran. Using a multi-stage stratified sampling method, we selected 200 natural resource experts and natural resource users to complete a questionnaire about their perceptions of SNRM. Results reveal that sociocultural and religious beliefs are the major drivers of SNRM. The results also indicate that subsidiary drivers include: a sense of responsibility towards SNRM; the conviction that natural resources belong to God and should therefore be preserved; participation to preserve natural resources because of training courses and media influence; a long-established custom of preserving natural resources; and the specific impact of environmental television programmes. Demographic analysis finds a significant relationship between educational level and LPP in SNRM. This study’s results therefore suggest that natural resource managers would benefit from a deeper understanding of the local sociocultural and religious contexts that motivate people to participate in SNRM.     

The effectiveness of state of the environment reporting (SoER) at the local government sphere – a developing country's experience

State of the environment reporting (SoER) is a well-established and widely applied environmental management tool in the South African context. Despite a wealth of knowledge about conducting and preparing SoERs, there is a paucity of research on the effect SoER has had on decision-making at the local government sphere. This study investigated the effect of SoER on decision-making for a sample of municipalities in the Gauteng Province of South Africa. The methodology relied on interviews with key role players, which include the ‘‘environmental function’' as well as ‘‘other functions’' responsible for infrastructure development and planning within the municipalities. The results show that notwithstanding the extensive time and resources spent on SoER, it appears to have had a limited effect on decision-making, especially beyond the environmental function. Recommendations to improve the influence of SoER on decision-making in developing countries include improved clarity on the purpose and home of SoER within municipalities, adequate budget and capacity, and effective cooperative governance both within the municipalities, and with other spheres of government.     

Environmental culture change in local government: a practised perspective from the international council for local environmental initiatives—Australia/New Zealand>

Environmental culture change, a seemingly intangible concept, is fast becoming an important indicator of success for organisations delivering sustainable development around the globe. This article provides an analysis of local government's ability to affect culture change within its organisations and communities, and the role the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives—Australia/New Zealand (ICLEI-A/NZ) has in assisting local government with this process. While the impact ICLEI-A/NZ has had on the culture change movement is difficult to define, the methodologies adopted by the organisation have been designed to institutionalise the integration of environmental decision-making concepts and practices in local government. This article discusses the degree to which ICLEI-A/NZ's capacity-building campaigns and other performance-focused initiatives have instilled core environmental values in local government.     

Parks,streets and “just empty space”: the local environmental experiences of children and young people in a Scottish study

This article is concerned with the nature and significance of inequality in the environmental experience of children and young people. We argue that research in this area needs to widen in perspective and address a complex set of environmental attributes that matter to children and young people, and to their development. Discussing a study conducted in three differing locations in Scotland, the paper examines the local places that were important to children and young people, and the factors that affected the benefits they derived from them. The results illustrate that unequal experiences arise partly through different material provision of environmental goods, but also issues of quality and maintenance, and that relational dynamics have a crucial role. An important concern is not just the quality of experiences in the present, but the effects that environmental experiences in early life have on skills and capacities taken forward into adulthood.     

Assessing agricultural vulnerability to climate change in the Nordic countries – an interactive geovisualization approach

Nordic agriculture must adapt to climate change to reduce vulnerability and exploit potential opportunities. Integrated assessments can identify and quantify vulnerability in order to recognize these adaptation needs. This study presents a geographic visualization approach to support the interactive assessment of agricultural vulnerability to climate change. We have identified requirements for increased transparency and reflexivity in vulnerability assessments, arguing that these can be met by geographic visualization. A conceptual framework to support the integration of geographic visualization for vulnerability assessments has been designed and applied for the development of AgroExplore, an interactive tool for assessing agricultural vulnerability to climate change in Sweden. To open up the black box of composite vulnerability indices, AgroExplore enables the user to select, weight, and classify relevant indicators into sub-indices of exposure, sensitivity, and adaptive capacity. This enables the exploration of underlying indicators and factors determining vulnerability in Nordic agriculture.     

Sorption of 17β-estradiol to pig slurry separates and soil in the soil-slurry environment

Contamination of freshwater by estrogens from manure applied to agricultural land is of grave concern because of the potentially harmful effects on aquatic life and human health. Recent developments in liquid manure (slurry) management include partial removal of particulate slurry dry matter (PSDM) by separation technologies, which may also remove parts of the estrogens and enhance infiltration of the slurry on field application and hence the interaction between estrogens and the soil matrix. This study investigated how 17β-estradiol (E2), a natural estrogen commonly found in pig manure, sorbs to agricultural soils, to different size fractions of pig slurry separates, and to soils amended with each size fraction to simulate conditions in the soil-slurry environment. A crude fiber fraction (SS1) was prepared by sieving (<500 μm) the solids removed by an on-farm separation process. Three other size fractions (SS2 > SS3 > SS4) were prepared from the liquid fraction of the separated slurry by sedimentation and centrifugation. Sorption experiments were conducted in 0.01 mol L(-1) CaCl(2) and in natural pig urine matrix. Sorption in 0.01 mol L(-1) CaCl(2) was higher than that in pig urine for all solids used. Sorption of E2 to soil increased with its organic carbon content for both liquid phases. The solid-liquid partition coefficients of slurry separates were 10 to 30 times higher than those of soils, but the organoic carbon normalized partition coefficient values, reflecting sorption per unit organic carbon, were lower for slurry separates. Mixing slurry separates with soil increased the sorption of E2 to the solid phase significantly in the order: SS1 < SS3 < SS2 for both liquid phases. In contrast, SS4 reduced the sorption of E2 to the solid phase by increasing the sorption to suspended or dissolved organic matter. The study suggested that potentially 50 to 75% of E2 in slurry can be removed from the liquid fraction of slurry by physical separation.