The international natural rubber agreement 1979

The International Natural Rubber Agreement (INRA) 1979 is the first, and so far the only, commodity agreement to emerge from the negotiations under the Integrated Programme for Commodities (IPC). The agreement is examined in the context of the issues relating to international stock and as an indicator for future development. The author concludes that while the principle of joint responsibility for financing international stock has been for the first time accepted in INRA, this has been achieved at the cost of reducing the scope of the regulatory mechanism, and that the single-instrument pattern that the agreement has adopted may not be suitable or acceptable in other commodities.     

保护臭氧层谈判中的美欧博弈

臭氧层损耗是重要的全球环境问题之一。最早认识到臭氧层危害的美国率先在国内立法控制相关物质,然而另一大经济体——欧共体,在这一方面却行动迟缓。在保护臭氧层的国际谈判中,美欧之间相互妥协,最终达成了对氟氯烃化合物(CFCs)进行限控的《蒙特利尔议定书》。美欧之间的分歧来自国内化工业巨头的影响,国际经济变动影响外交决策。国际环境问题背后隐藏的经济关系与大国的领导作用是影响国际环境合作的主要因素。     

Troubled waters in the Middle East: the process towards the first Regional Water Declaration between Jordan, Palestinian Authority, and Israel

Water disputes in the Middle East are not a new phenomenon. For the first time, however, three parties in the region, Jordan, Israel, and the PLO for the benefit of the Palestinian Authority have concluded a "regional water agreement" within the framework of the Multilateral Peace talks. For the first time, the rationale behind the agreement is being made public by the author, who was the "neutral" facilitator of the negotiations. The article discusses some of the main elements, including issues related to water scarcity as a driving force of conflicts; application of a "track-two diplomatic" approach; some lessons learned; as well as some ethical questions related to international negotiation.     

TECHNICAL CLARITY IN INTER-AGENCY NEGOTIATIONS: LESSONS FROM FOUR HYDROPOWER PROJECTS1

ABSTRACT: We investigated the effect of technical clarity on success in multi-party negotiations in the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) licensing process. Technical clarity is the shared understanding of dimensions such as the geographic extent of the project, range of flows to be considered, important species and life stages, and variety of water uses considered. The results of four hydropower licensing consultations are reported. Key participants were interviewed to ascertain the level of technical clarity present during the consultations and the degree to which the consultations were successful. Technical clarity appears to be a prerequisite for successful outcomes. Factors that enhance technical clarity include simple project design, new rather than existing projects, precise definition of issues, a sense of urgency to reach agreement, a sense of fairness among participants, and consistency in participation. Negotiators should not neglect the critical pre-negotiation steps of defining technical issues and determining appropriate studies, deciding how to interpret studies, and agreeing on responses to study results.     

The completion of the preparatory work for the UN Convention on the Law of International Watercourses

This article deals with the debate of the UN General Assembly on the establishment of a framework convention on the Law of the Non-Navigational Uses of International Watercourses. The debate took place in two sessions, held in October 1996 and March/April 1997, with the final voting and adoption of the Convention on 21 May 1997.
The present article concentrates on the second part of the negotiations and the finalization of the text. Salient aspects are analyzed, such as the normative function of the Convention, the two important principles of "equitable utilization" and the "no-harm rule", as well as peaceful settlement of disputes. The preparatory work concerning these provisions is examined, and some general consideration is given to the results achieved.
The present article is a sequel to the account by the same author, published in NRF 21:2, which deals with the first part of the debate and outlines the main legal and political issues at stake. The original text of the ILC articles is also included in the Special Issue on Transboundary Waters.
Although the author was a member of the Italian Delegation to the Working Group, the opinions expressed in the present article are his own and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Italian Government. The author apologizes for any inaccuracies in the presentation of the views of other delegations in this article.     

Groundwater resource management and environmental protection

Population and economic developmental pressures will continue to put increasing pressure on the environment, especially on scarce water resources. Meanwhile, large numbers of poor families in the developing countries still lack access to safe water. An integrated water resource planning and policy analysis framework is presented that permits the main issues and alternative options to be systematically considered and prioritized, especially problems arising from groundwater pollution. Basic principles of water resource economics are used to illustrate how the neglect of long-term environmental considerations jeopardizes the availability and quality of groundwater resources in the Greater Manila area. This paper contains a brief overview of drinking water and sanitation issues in developing countries, presents a policy-oriented analysis of a groundwater problem of great relevance worldwide, and demonstrates how the study conclusions might be implemented practically in a constrained developing country context.     

Solving the United States National Park overflight controversy

By mid-1990 the National Park Service (NPS) must present to Congress recommendations for managing overflights of at least ten national parks. The authors examine the potential role of formal negotiation in setting overflight policy in these parks by reviewing the overflight controversy at Grand Canyon National Park (GCNP). Regulations controlling overflights of the GCNP are only now being implemented after a 17-year conflict that culminated in a congressionally mandated solution. The authors review this controversy and find that, contrary to common perception, the number of park visitors bothered by overflights is not small but roughly equals the number of airborne visitors (up to 450,000 per year). On the basis of this investigation, the authors determine that formal negotiation would have been an appropriate policy-making process because of the clearly defined and limited number of parties and issues involved. Considering the number of park visitors that will continue to be affected by this issue, the authors conclude that formal negotiations should be considered for overflight problems involving other parks. Such negotiations should be park-specific. Differences in park size, extent of the problem, and parties involved would prohibit park-wide negotiations.This article has been adapted from Tourist Flights over the Grand Canyon: The Potential for Negotiated Solutions to Similar Problems, Analysis and Management, October 30, 1987. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors; they are not meant to represent the views of the organizations with which the authors are associated.     

The integrated programme for commodities: An assessment of negotiations on minerals and metals

No agreement has yet emerged from the negotiations on mineral commodities held under the Integrated Programme for Commodities (IPC), and there is little, if any, prospect for one in the near future. This article examines the reasons for this standstill and the underlying assumptions on which the IPC is based. The following points are raised: the premise that problems of individual commodities are mutually exclusive and can be dealt with in a single framework of measures is shown to be doubtful; the principle of a commodity-by-commodity approach can no longer remain unchallenged; and structural flaws in the negotiating machinery are manifest. However, results of negotiations have not been entirely negative: the need for two-tier preparatory negotiations has been accepted and a case for a permanent consultative body, perhaps covering several commodities, has been made out. Lack of substantive reciprocity, hence political discord, remains the stumbling-block.     

Beyond accountability: alternative rationales for transparency in global trade politics

ABSTRACT

The conventional view of transparency is that it is a critical tool to combat corruption and ensure the democratic accountability of government. This article argues that the negotiation of mega-regional trade agreements (RTAs) and their content indicates the need distinguish different types of transparency. Trade activists that call for drafts of the text of a mega-RTA to be released while negotiations are ongoing are seeking deliberative transparency, which provides opportunities for meaningful public participation and consultation. The trade advisory systems that could provide opportunities for deliberation instead deliver technocratic transparency; the rationale is to increase the effectiveness of mega-RTAs rather than their democratic legitimacy. Frequent leaks of draft chapters of mega-RTAs provide opportunities for deliberation, but some actors involved in leaking are engaged in disruptive transparency where the aim is to complicate trade negotiations, making a final deal less likely. While these varieties of transparency emerge in the context of the negotiating process, disciplinary transparency – which often becomes a regulatory tool for multinational corporations to influence policy-making – is found in the text of mega-RTAs. Certain forms of transparency increase the likelihood that mega-RTAs will be compatible with strong environmental policy, while others may have a detrimental impact.     

National policies for biosphere greenhouse gas management: issues and opportunities

Biosphere greenhouse gas (GHG) management consists of preserving and enhancing terrestrial carbon pools and producing biomass as a fossil fuel substitute. The discussion of this topic has focused primarily on carbon-accounting and project-level issues, particularly relating to carbon sequestration as a source of emissions credits under the Kyoto Protocol. While international consensus on these matters is needed, this paper argues that an important domestic policy agenda also deserves attention. National policies for biosphere GHG management are necessary to bring about large-scale changes in land-use, forestry, and agricultural practices and can address some of the technical and policy issues that have proven to be particularly problematic from carbon-accounting and project-level perspectives. These policies should minimize land-use and resource-management conflicts, account for collateral benefits, and ensure institutional compatibility with existing resource-management regimes. Issues relating to project permanence, leakage, and transaction costs should also be addressed. A range of policy instruments should be used and biosphere GHG management should be one component of an integrated approach to environmental and resource management. Countries promoting biosphere GHG management as an important element of their climate change strategies should be developing these domestic policies to complement international negotiations and to demonstrate that carbon sequestration and biomass production can make an effective contribution to the stabilization of atmospheric GHG concentrations.     

Troubles on the way: An analysis of the challenges faced by multi-stakeholder platforms

Multi‐stakeholder platforms (MSPs) have been widely promoted as a promising means of resolving conflicts over natural resources, first in developed countries and, more recently, as a global good practice. However, many MSPs have been implemented in an unfavourable context — primarily of social inequities — and have not met initial high expectations. The article analyzes the challenges MSPs face in an unfavourable context, and identifies five main issues:

• ? Power relationships;
• ? Platform composition;
• ? Stakeholder representation and capacity to participate meaningfully in the debates;
• ? Decision‐making power and mechanisms; and finally
• ? Cost of setting up an MSP.

The analysis is mainly based on two case studies of MSPs set up under inauspicious conditions. The first focuses on water user associations in South Africa, the second on a negotiation platform set up to resolve conflicts over a water and sanitation project in Bolivia. It is argued that MSPs should be seen less as an ideal communication process, and more as a negotiation process — always imperfect — but where positive outcomes may nevertheless outweigh negative ones, if and when the above‐mentioned issues are adequately taken into account.     

Who Plans Whose Sustainability? Alternative Roles for Planners

The paper examines alternative roles for planners in planning for sustainable development. First, it outlines the particular context of the task focusing on operational questions, critical issues and sustainable development planning principles. It then explores roles for planners in this context distinguishing broadly among technician, politician and hybrid planners. It evaluates broadly each role's effectiveness and challenges, in particular decision making and political contexts. Finally, it discusses, first, the implications of these roles for planning education and identifies the main groups of skills planning schools should offer. Second, it analyses briefly the implications of these roles for planning practice in terms of the spatial/organizational level of planning, time horizon, functional planning areas, political/decision making system and planning's position in this system.     

The pedagogy of atmospheric issues and the UK Atmospheric Research and Information Centre's Education Programme

Mrs Sue Hare is the education and information services coordinator of the UK Atmospheric Research and Information Centre (ARIC). Professor James Longhurst was recently the director of the ARIC and Joe Buchdahl its global climate change information services coordinator. Professor Longhurst is now head of the Department of Environmental Health and Science, University of the West of England, Frenchay Campus, Coldharbour Lane, Bristol BS16 1QY. Kelvin Williams is a geography consultant and is head of geography at Ysgol y Creuddyn, Penrhyn Bay, Llandudno, Gwynedd LL30 3LB. The pedagogy of atmospheric issues is identified in the context of environmental education in this paper. The UK Atmospheric Research and Information Centre (ARIC) has developed an education programme which has responded to the dynamic issues relating to the atmosphere since the establishment of the ARIC in 1984. The main route for the teaching of atmospheric issues is identified as being through the UK's National Curriculum although public awareness of issues has increased through the media and more recently through government publicity campaigns.     

An overview of Turkish research and education in environmental social science

The article presents an overview of environmental psychology research and education in Turkey within the general context of environmental social science. Brief accounts of the context, issues, ideas and methods of research are provided. Reference is made to relevant key research centres and education programmes. The findings of a survey that aimed to reveal the potential and orientations of such research in Turkey are used to support the arguments.The recent environmental social research reviewed indicates conflicting attitudes to the environment as a consequence of the joint existence of Eastern and Western life styles; contradictory conceptualizations of concepts such as crowding, complexity and privacy in comparison to the findings of Western studies, lack of specialization in use of space in the Western sense and a highly male and adult centred place use.A call is made for international collaboration with the developing and industrialized nations for joint work on theoretical and empirical issues in the field of environmental social sciences.     

Transboundary resource management in the EU: transnational welfare maximization and transboundary water sharing on the Iberian peninsula?

The purpose of this paper is to elucidate the treatment of the value of transnational welfare maximization as based on welfare economics in transboundary river sharing in the EU. The paper draws on theorizing on spillovers and on game theory and it contrasts these with other ways of explaining transnational agreements. The second part of the paper discusses the implications of an approach trying to maximize transnational welfare in a situation of shared resources by means of mutual payments between sharing states and it looks at their treatment throughout the negotiations and at the outcome of the Luso‐Spanish Convention. The conclusions from the case reject a welfare economic evaluation of the negotiations on transnational agreements. In reality, mutual payments as described here might only be applied in the long term and only to specific transboundary spillovers. The negotiations of the Luso‐Spanish Convention were tightly intertwined with developments in the Water Policy of the EU. Some elements of the currently implemented Water Framework Directive favour a future use of mutual payments to achieve an increase in efficiency in the use of shared rivers.     

Understanding urban vulnerability,adaptation and resilience in the context of climate change

This paper introduces a special issue of Local Environment that has arisen through collaboration between academic researchers and the Urban Planning and Design Branch of UN-Habitat, focused on how we can understand and respond to the challenges of urban vulnerability, adaptation and resilience in the context of climate change. The paper establishes the existing state of the art in the field, and considers critical challenges that are emerging in the research-based literature. In this context, it introduces UN-Habitat's Cities and Climate Change Initiative and reflects on the lessons learnt and challenges ahead, drawing on insights from across the papers in the special issue. In conclusion, it identifies the role of international/transnational co-operation, the relation between adaptation and mitigation, issues of multi-level governance and the ways in which change in urban socio-technical systems might be achieved as critical issues across the science/policy interface where increased dialogue and the co-production of knowledge needs to focus in order to advance this agenda.     

生态文明背景下自然资源治理体系的框架设计

长期相对滞后的自然资源治理体系,是造成我国资源环境问题的主要原因之一。目前生态文明建设再次对我国自然资源治理体系提出了新的要求。本文按照生态文明的规范内涵,揭示了生态文明建设与自然资源治理体系建设间的内在联系和对治理体系的现实需要。在对已有自然资源治理体系的相关研究进行梳理的基础上,揭示了我国现行自然资源治理体系中存在的主要问题。本文旨在通过设计资源治理的框架设计填补这些现实需要与主要问题。按照将自然资源系统嵌入动态社会经济-生态系统并纳入相互影响与关联的思路,本文从自然系统与社会经济系统互动、科学的评估体系与信息传递,多主体参与和多中心治理途径以及制度保障等方面设计了有机自然资源治理体系框架的核心内容与结构。     

Immigrant integration models in “illegal” communities: Postville Iowa's shadow context

Immigrant integration models in rural communities are limited because they do not acknowledge the context of illegality that exists within communities that have a high concentration of unauthorised immigrants. In this in-depth case study of Postville, Iowa (the site of an infamous US immigration raid), I examine current rural immigrant community integration strategies under a shadow context of illegality and unauthorised immigrant labour. I find that underground and informal relationships within the towns' employers, immigrants, civic leaders, and native townspeople sustain a shadow context of exploitation and community instability. My research demonstrates that communities with large unauthorised immigrant populations rely on both formal and informal immigrant integration strategies to create “welcoming” immigrant communities. The formal strategies are multicultural approaches that rely on “diversity champions” to instil a climate of inclusion but do not tackle structural issues that place unauthorised communities at risk. The informal strategies rely on tacit understandings of community behaviour that just perpetuate the structural conditions of exploitation present in rural towns. These two forms of immigrant integration strategies support a shadow context that breeds vulnerability and risk for unauthorised immigrants, even in an immigrant “welcoming” environment.     

BIODIVERSITY AND ENVIRONMENTAL ETHICS: A PERSONAL REFLECTION1

ABSTRACT: A forester shares personal reflections on biodiversity, finding he must deal with the question of “What is biodiversity?” before dealing with “What is biodiversity good for?” Even before that, the complexity of the scientific and social aspects of biodiversity must be looked at to set a context. The author believes that biodiversity has scientific, recreational, wildness, natural history, and spiritual values and contributes to sustainability and productivity. Aesthetic values also are found to be very important, and the author concludes “that biodiversity has values that are worth protecting, even in the face of scientific uncertainty.” Personal reflection on environmental issues is necessary to fully understand what one believes, and to be an active participant in issues of environmental ethics.