Moving beyond “mitigation and adaptation”: examining climate change responses in New Zealand

Despite the apparent failure of international negotiations and renewed criticism of the accuracy of climate science, responses to climate change continue in households, cities, fields, and meeting rooms. Notions of “doing something about”, or “taking action on” or “mitigating and adapting” to climate change inform practices of carbon trading, restoring native forests, constructing wind turbines, insulating houses, using energy efficient light bulbs, and lobbying politicians for more or less of these actions. These expressions of agency in relation to climate change provide the focus of our enquiry. We found that relationships or social networks linked through local government are building capabilities to respond to climate change. However, the framework of “mitigation–adaptation” will need to be supplemented by a more diverse suite of mental models for making sense of climate change. Use of appropriate languages, cultural reference points, and metaphors embedded in diverse histories of climates and change will assist actors in their networked climate change responses.     

Technical assessment and public perception of environmental issues: the case of the Municipality of Pisa

The different approach of specialists and general public to environmental topics has often led to contrasting positions. After decades of strong debate, however, there seems to be a growing agreement on the need for overcoming a mere contraposition in favour of an integration of opinions. This paper aims to contribute to the topic by shifting the setting into the urban environment, through the case of Pisa Municipality, Italy. It compares the scenarios described by the latest State of the Environment Report – expression of the technical evaluation – with the perception of citizens measured by a direct survey. Results were first used to investigate any disagreements about quality of environmental matrices, entity of pressures exerted on them and characteristics of determinants. They were then used to identify the range where the integration of the two positions might be pursued and finally collect, in view of future policies, indications on locally adoptable key factors and strategies.     

Multi-level governance for large marine commons: Politics and polycentricity in Palau's protected area network

This paper brings together institutional theories of polycentricity and critical human geography theory on scalar politics to advance understanding of the form and function of nested, polycentric regimes for the governance of large-scale common pool resources. We focus on institutional changes associated with a national marine protected area network in Palau through which national government and NGOs gain influence in local decision-making processes. Influence is gained through an attempt to scale up common-pool resource governance to an ecologically-relevant spatial scale in an effort to protect coral reef resilience and biodiversity across Palau. An institutional approach informed by scalar politics brings into focus potential tradeoffs between organizing governance reform around ecologically versus institutionally relevant scales. Our analysis suggests that prioritization of ecologically-relevant scales in institutional reform resulted in more nested but less polycentric institutional arrangements governing the network. We conclude that less distributed decision-making in the overall nested governance system could threaten the sustainability and resilience of coral reefs in the long-term by constraining institutional innovation and diversity. Results demonstrate the potential for interdisciplinary dialog to advance the research frontier on multi-level governance for large common pool resources.     

Alleviating Poverty Through Ecotourism: Promises and Reality in the Monarch Butterfly Reserve of Mexico

The Monarch butterfly reserve in west-central Mexico attracts more than 250 000 visitors during the four-month annual overwintering period and yet the project has been unable to generate an impetus for local development among the indigenous and peasant communities in the region. This chapter explores the reasons for this failure and evaluates a proposed alternative development strategy. In addition to the usual problems of the paucity of local linkages, the problems involved with property rights and participation in decision-making and management suggest the need to reevaluate the model for successful and sustainable tourist development. An alternative model is presented that might contribute to overcoming the obstacles.     

Using adaptive governance to rethink the way science supports Australian drought policy

In this paper we show how ideas from a longstanding but little recognised literature on adaptive governance can be used to rethink the way science supports Australian drought policy. We compare and contrast alternative ways of using science to support policy in order to critique traditional commentary on Australian drought policy. We find that criticism from narrow disciplinary and institutional perspectives has provided few practical options for policy makers managing these complex and interacting goals. In contrast, ideas from a longstanding but little recognised literature on adaptive governance have potential to create innovative policy options for addressing the multiple interacting goals of Australian drought policy.From an adaptive governance perspective, the deep concern held by Australian society for rural communities affected by drought can be viewed as a common property resource that can be sustainably managed by governments in cooperation with rural communities. Managing drought assistance as a common property resource can be facilitated through nested and polycentric systems of governance similar to those that have already evolved in other arenas of natural resource management in Australia, such as Landcare groups and Catchment Management Authorities. Essential to delivering these options is the creation of flexible, regionally distributed scientific support for drought policy capable of integrating local knowledge and informing the livelihood outcomes of critical importance to governments and rural communities.     

西南喀斯特地区石漠化问题研究综述

喀斯特地区石漠化是在脆弱的生态地质背景基础上叠加了人类活动而出现的。西南地区的石漠化面积现仍约以2500km^2／a的速度进一步扩大。石漠化的生态治理工作的目的就是要在人为作用的干扰下,使这种逆向演替转变为顺向演替。石漠化治理思路设计的科学性、战略性、可行性决定了最后石漠化的治理结果。在喀斯特石漠化的治理中,要根据不同岩溶环境类型区及石漠化发育的不同程度和不同山地的立地条件,针对其特点,选择多种途径,运用恰当的恢复技术,制定出具体的开发治理措施,实行规模治理,以提高资源利用率,促进石漠化生态环境的综合治理。     

印染行业水污染整治升级改造技术措施

做好印染废水的排放提标工作、提高印染废水的综合回用率,是"十二五"期间中国印染行业综合整治、污染总量控制和节能减排的重要抓手。本文简要分析了中国印染废水治理与国外的差距、单厂及集中污水处理厂提标升级的技术措施、印染废水回用的技术措施,以期对印染废水治理升级改造和中水回用实践工作有所指导。     

A study on the dilemmas of resource utilization and tourism in Africa

This paper explores, explains and discusses issues around the dilemma between local conservation of natural resources (often, endangered species and habitats) and tourism needs in Africa. Often and in constitutional terms, local people have a right to exploit and use resources endowed in their local area. However, tourists often are interested in viewing the vegetation and animal resources undisturbed. Inevitably, there is an undeclared animosity of values and interests between local communities and tourists and state agencies. As a result, the dilemma is thus of governance. The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the governance dilemma of resource utilization and tourism in Africa in a bid to create an informed stewardship framework for sustainability. This is achieved by way of case studies and narratives from Africa. As such, this paper will be a review literature on how different communities perceive tourism and derive livelihoods from their immediate environment. It also explains how the external factors influence local needs and interests. A more sustainable and operational framework that reduces friction among stakeholders is suggested.     

Risk,vulnerability, and pragmatic inevitability: the conflict–disaster nexus and urban governance in Johannesburg,South Africa

This paper spotlights post-disaster relief provision in Johannesburg, South Africa, following the floods of 2016 in a bid to explore how local government and non-governmental actors in the country conceive of compounding vulnerability and conflict within urban disaster governance. It reveals the diverse strategies employed to navigate violent conflict during the cyclical occurrence of disaster and reconstruction that the predominantly migrant population experiences in the Setswetla informal settlement, adjacent to the Alexandra township in northern Johannesburg. Rendered visible in moments of disaster and recovery are the spatial politics and multidimensional nature of conflict. These phenomena unfold across various levels of urban governance and in the affected community and effectively construct a disaster citizenship that makes risk reduction and community cohesion impossible in the eyes of disaster managers. This research, based on a set of expert interviews, integrates conflict and disaster studies to shed light on how the conflict–disaster interface materialises, and is operationalised, in an urban setting.     

基于彼得斯治理理论的京津冀协同发展路径重构

基于彼得斯治理理论,分析了京津冀地区的协同发展现状和要求,重构了其协同发展路径。结果表明:①要素禀赋、区域政策分别是区域协同发展的客观基础和主观条件。②区域协调发展新机制为京津冀地区提出了“坚持以北京和天津尤其是以非首都功能疏解为引领,借助市场力量调动各个主体的积极性,同时注重协同方式(机制)建设”的新要求。③京津冀协同发展路径重构可从“由软硬兼施的市场(市场平台和政府效能)、三维协同的主体(地方政府,中央政府和非政府部门)和富有弹性的方式(临时机构和互动机制)”的“3M”策略入手。