Moving from agenda to action: evaluating local climate change action plans

Climate change is conventionally recognised as a large-scale issue resolved through regional or national policy initiatives. However, little research has been done to directly evaluate local climate change action plans. This study examines 40 recently adopted local climate change action plans in the US and analyses how well they recognise the concepts of climate change and prepare for climate change mitigation and adaptation. The results indicate that local climate change action plans have a high level of ‘awareness’, moderate ‘analysis capabilities’ for climate change, and relatively limited ‘action approaches’ for climate change mitigation. The study also identifies specific factors influencing the quality of these local jurisdictional plans. Finally, it provides policy recommendations to improve planning for climate change at the local level.     

Realization of participation and spatiality in participatory forest management – a policy–practice analysis from Zanzibar,Tanzania

The efforts in sustainable natural resource management have given rise to decentralization of forest governance in the developing world with hopes for better solutions and effective implementation. In this paper, we examine how spatially sensitive participation is realized from policy to practice in the process of establishing participatory forest management in Zanzibar, Tanzania. Our policy–practice analysis shows that the policies in Zanzibar strongly support decentralization and local level participation has in practice been realized. However, the policy does not emphasize participatory process design nor address the possibilities of using spatial information and technologies to ensure wider participation. Thus, the practices fall short in innovativeness of using site-sensitive information with available technologies. Reflecting the Zanzibari Community Forest Management Agreements (CoFMA) context with examples of participatory use of spatial information and technologies in other parts of the world, we discuss ways to improve the Zanzibari CoFMA process towards increased participation, communication, local sense of ownership and more sustainable land management decisions, and argue for the future implementation of CoFMA as a spatially sensitive participatory process.     

Sustaining local values through river basin governance: community-based initiatives in Australia's Murray–Darling basin

Australia's Murray–Darling basin (MDB) water plan is an ambitious attempt to balance ecological, social and economic benefits, where a key aspect of the reform process has been recovery of water for environmental use. This paper focuses on a set of initiatives established by a local non-governmental organisation and an Indigenous community designed to engage with local values and priorities and incorporate them into this complex river basin governance system. Contrary to expectations that local and basin-scale interests and outcomes will diverge, the case studies reveal the ability for local groups to collaboratively manage both land and water resources to achieve locally important outcomes, and contribute to basin-scale outcomes. The analysis also highlights a progressive style of community-based environmental management for water management that utilises multiple institutional arrangements and planning pathways to protect the values that are important to local communities, and to nest those values within the broader effort to sustainably manage the basin's water resources.     

Neoliberalism and the making of food politics in Eastern Ontario

Despite their opposition to the dominant agri-food system, alternative agri-food initiatives may unwittingly reproduce central features of neoliberalism. Julie Guthman has been a particularly strong proponent of this view, arguing that food activism and neoliberalism have shaped one another dialectically in California in recent decades. This paper responds to her argument, with a view to distinguishing between what it reveals and what it may conceal about the transformative potential of alternative agri-food initiatives in North America. Drawing on primary research on a variety of community-based food initiatives in Eastern Ontario, Canada, we show how a neoliberal lens does help to illuminate some problematic characteristics of these initiatives, including assumptions about market-based solutions and focus on self-improvement at the expense of state involvement. However, this lens underestimates those aspects of community-based food initiatives that may appear commensurate with neoliberal rationalities but which also push in more progressive directions.     

高速公路建设对湖北省地方经济发展的影响分析

以湖北省黄黄高速公路为例，将该高速公路沿线城市与湖北省其它非高速公路沿线城市9年的国民生产总值发展情况进行比较，体现了高速公路建设对湖北省地方经济发展的促进作用，并把其促进作用产生的原因分为施工期和营运期进行了详细的分析。     

A pattern for partnership between LMDH and Perhutani to enhance local community prosperity and preserve the forest: a case study at RPH Besowo,Kediri Regency,Indonesia

The deforestation in Indonesia is already alarming. One of the strategies used by the government to overcome forest deforestation is social forestry. This program is called PHBM (Pengelolaan Hutan Bersama Masyarakat/Joint Forest Management) which is basically a partnership program. This study aims at describing the partnership program between a local organization (i.e. LMDH) and a government unit (i.e. RPH of Perhutani) within the PHBM program. The objectives of this study are to (a) describe the model of partnerships between LMDH and RPH Besowo for sustainable forest management and local community empowerment; (b) determine the contribution of the forest to the national economy and rural household income; and (c) determine the obstacles commonly found in Besowo forest that have to be faced during the implementation of the partnerships. The study shows that with good partnership between these two units, the prosperity of the local community can be enhanced and the forest preservation can be maintained. The model of the partnerships in this particular area in Indonesia is expected to be applicable as well in other rural areas in Indonesia, as well as in other developing countries.     

局部通风机实际特性的近似处理方法及应用研究

针对目前局部风机特性曲线很难得到或应用而导致局部通风研究受限问题,提出一种根据局部风机风量及风压范围近似求解风机特性曲线的方法。该方法采用一次线性插值函数代替风机特性曲线函数,结合风阻特性曲线得到风机工况。基于该方法可进行局部风机选型或预测既定型号风机工况点及风筒出口风量,同时可确定长距离掘进通风中钻孔通风有效风量与钻孔长度、直径的关系,也可确定风库中转位置与风筒长度的关系。应用分析结果表明:用一次函数代替稳定区域风机特性曲线函数不仅简单方便,结果较精确,且方法可靠、实用性高。     

Half full or half empty? Shelter after the Jogjakarta earthquake

The international shelter response to the Jogjakarta earthquake in Indonesia in May 2006 is widely regarded as a success story, especially when compared with the response to the Indian Ocean tsunami 16 months earlier. This evaluation is largely in terms of the international aid system itself, which emphasises statistical measures of ‘success’ and internal coordination and efficiency. From the perspective of those closer to the ground, however, it was less successful, especially in terms of coordination and communication with and participation of local agencies and affected communities. This paper, by an aid worker resident in Jogjakarta and an anthropologist, examines the response from a perspective grounded both within and outside the aid system, local as well as global. It recognises the relative success of the response, but argues for an approach more grounded in local knowledge and responsive to local concerns, while also providing practical suggestions for improvement.     

UNIVERSITY STUDENTS IMPLEMENT PUBLIC POLICY RURAL COMMUNITY ACTION WITH A WATER DEVELOPMENT PROJECT1

ABSTRACT: This report summarizes the findings of a ten week study made by the eight member Urban and Environmental Studies Program student staff of the Rock Creek Area Community Projects Board to assist the Village in its search for funds to improve its inadequate water and sewage systems. The ten year history of the Village of Rock Creek in its previous attempts to secure funding from outside sources is summarized. An analysis of federal funding programs’criteria is developed. Recommendations and a step by step analysis of how to precure these funds by the Village Council is presented. This report highlights the ten week activity which successfully produced earmarked federal funds for the Village's water project.     

In the aftermath of the Qa'yamat:1 the Kashmir earthquake disaster in northern Pakistan

This article explores the local impact of the catastrophic earthquake in northern Pakistan on 8 October 2005. Drawing on field research, including interviews with 40 earthquake survivors, the post-disaster analysis presented here focuses upon risk awareness and the reactions of respondents to the 7.6 magnitude earthquake that devastated areas of Azad Jammu and Kashmir State, and North-West Frontier Province. The analysis provides insights into local perceptions of seismic hazard and exposure as well as survivors' priorities with regard to rebuilding and reconstruction. The article suggests that the tragedy of the devastating earthquake is entangled in a deeper knot of causal factors that are social, economic and political in nature. Rapid population growth, urbanisation, changing building styles, environmental degradation and lack of preparedness and mitigation are associated with the circumstances that place the population at risk. Remarks concerning present and future risk reduction efforts are included.