The road towards sustainable rural development: issues of theory,policy and research practice

Developing a more widespread diffusion of sustainable agricultural practices as part of progressing rural sustainable development is being hampered by different modes of environmental social thought. This introduction to this special issue on ‘Reconstituting of nature through rural development practices’ argues for a realignment of social theory and empirical practice in considering the real potentiality of alternative and emergent rural development cases. The social science of agro-ecology is introduced as an initial framework within which to assess such alternatives and emerging tendencies. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Post-Fordist transformation,the sustainability concept and social relations with nature: a case study of the Hamburg region

Following the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, the concept of sustainability in general and of urban sustainability in particular has become increasingly significant in the course of the 1990s. Even if the environmental problems of cities are far from being solved, one can interpret this development as a change in the relationship between society and nature on both a discursive and a material level. At the same time the transition from Fordism to post-Fordism has given rise to new forms of urban entrepreneurialism, with an absolute priority to economic competitiveness on the one hand and sharpened social conflicts on the other. Looking at the case of the Hamburg region, the article discusses the interaction of these processes. Contrary to the understanding of sustainability as a broadly accepted policy goal it conceptualizes sustainability as a terrain of conflict. As such, we will argue, the sustainability concept and the underlying change in social relations with nature contribute to containing the contradictions of capitalist societalization, which in the transition to post-Fordism have become more visible again. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Implicit beliefs about self and nature: Evidence from an IAT game

Recent psychological research has examined the beliefs that individuals hold about their relationship with the natural world. This article builds on the previous literature on connectedness with nature and we introduce a new game version of the Implicit Association Test (IAT), known as FlexiTwins. The game is intended to facilitate research using the IAT and provides a flexible platform for measuring implicit associations. In this paper, we report three studies in which we use the game to measure self-nature associations. Study 1 reports the development and validation of FlexiTwins with a college sample. Study 2 further validates the game using a known-groups sample of environmental activists. Finally, Study 3 examines the implicit connectedness of a sample of 30 grade school children. Across all three studies, we find good evidence for reliability, as well as theoretically meaningful results.     

Measuring love and care for nature

This study aimed to develop a psychometrically sound measure of the construct of love and deep caring for nature as an expression of people’s personal and explicitly emotional relationship with nature. Expert opinion and pre-pilot surveys were employed for refinement of the item pool, and a sample of 307 university students was used in a major pilot study aiming to further purify scale items. A field trial was conducted using a sample of 261 tourists at leisure with nature. The final 15-item Love and Care for Nature (LCN) scale is differentiated from established measures of similar constructs, and demonstrates high internal consistency and sound validity. This research extends the psychological frameworks of environmental altruism, and has also taken the philosophical concept of biophilia, as love for nature, into the operational realm by making it perceptible and measurable.     

塔里木河下游工程输水后的生态效益分析

以塔里木河下游为研究区域,分析了生态输水工程实施以来该区地下水埋深、水质、植被生长状况的不同响应程度。研究表明:生态输水工程使得原本较低的地下水位在一段时间内得到抬升,局部生态环境得到改善,尤其在输水中期(2003-2005年),植被物种组成发生变化,物种多样性增加,植被盖度提高,地下水水质有所好转;但2007年以后,尤其是2008年,随着输水的间断,下游地下水位开始回落,草本植物物种数量又开始减少,因此,生态输水工程必须持续进行才能真正挽救塔里木河下游生态环境。     

关于建设项目对自然保护区生态影响专题评价的思考

建立自然保护区对保护生物圈及生物多样性具有十分重要的作用。我国已建立各种类型、不同级别的自然保护区2000多处。随着我国社会经济的发展,全国各地各类开发建设项目涌现,一些开发建设项目与自然保护区的保护要求发生矛盾。使开发建设项目避免或最大程度地减少对自然保护区的不利影响,做到保护与建设的双赢,是编写开发建设项目环境影响评价文件的一个重要内容。涉及自然保护区的开发建设项目一般要求编制对自然保护区影响的专题报告,本文根据工作实践,提出编制该类专题报告的主要内容及应注意的问题。     

我国应急预案体系现状及展望——以上海为例

应急预案在自然灾害等突发事件发生时可以起到迅速反应的作用,因此成为突发事件应急管理中重要的一环。我国的应急预案体系已经基本建成,但还存在着预案格式雷同、脱离部门实际、分级体系科学性和可操作性不强、不同预案间接洽性不够、预案建设数量质量不够、缺乏后续管理等种种问题。分析了国内应急预案体系的现状,并探讨了对应急预案体系的改进方法。     

碧塔海自然保护区景观空间格局研究

在地理信息系统(GIS)与遥感(RS)技术的支持下,选择多种定量指数对滇西北高原典型湿地区———碧塔海自然保护区进行了空间格局分析研究。通过分析,揭示了研究区景观空间格局的结构和特征及受扰程度,为研究区的湿地资源利用与保护提供了科学依据和决策支持。     

The Importance of Contexts in Strategies of Environmental Organizations with Regard to Climate Change

2 problem, which brought the issue into the energy debate, as well as the more general definition of the problem in the late 1980s as a greenhouse problem, were very important for determining the strategies of the organizations. It can be concluded that strategies of Dutch environmental organizations with regard to climate change were strongly dependent on the context.     

Nature Reserve and Ecotourism Development in China＇s Wuzhishan Mountain Region

As the protected areas of land and coastal environment, nature reserves are designed to address how to reconcile the conservation of biodiversity, the quest for economic and social development and the maintenance of cultural values. This paper establishes a framework for nature reserve development that seeks to incorporate ecotourism into its strategies. The overall purpose was to identify the information needs required for a comprehensive nature reserve that incorporates ecotourism related values. It also illustrates the utility of this framework in the context of the Wuzhishan Mountain Region of China. A literature review, the first phase of a visionary strategy and a subsequent gap analysis for available management information were undertaken in order to achieve this paper＇s purpose. Finally, recommendations axe pre-sented for integrating ecotourism into nature reserve development in the Wuzhishan Mountain Region.