Uneven Environmental Management: A Canadian Perspective

Advocates of community-based approaches to environmental management argue that by respecting local circumstances, skills, and concerns we may improve the prospects of achieving environmental sustainability; yet, within nation states such as Canada, environmental conditions, management and enforcement costs and capabilities, and power differentials within and among civic and public sectors may result in a highly differentiated capacity for environmental management across different localities and regions. This article draws on insights of political ecology to 1) create a conceptual framework that identifies key elements shaping regional environmental management regimes and to 2) undertake a comparative analysis to assess how elements interact to generate uneven management outcomes. I compare experiences of two Canadian biosphere reserves designated in 2000: Clayoquot Sound, BC; and Redberry Lake, SK. Analysis reveals that differences in governance and institutional capacities in the biosphere reserves are key to explaining uneven local outcomes. Where the public and civic sectors are strong, a robust and publicly vetted form of management will emerge. Where these sectors are weak and land is held as private property, environmental nongovernmental organizations can set the type and level of management, to the exclusion of effective civic and state involvement. This result may improve environmental sustainability but hinder social sustainability of a management regime and raises questions about the efficacy of community-based management.     

Using Participatory Rural Appraisal to explore coastal fishing in Badagry villages,Nigeria

Fish production and marketing are as old as the rural communities involved in the lucrative occupation in Badagry area of Lagos State, Nigeria. A random sampling of 200 fishermen using Participatory Rural Appraisal techniques (PRA) in five Badagry villages was used to explore coastal fishing and socio-economic development in the study area with a view to enhancing local productivity and sustainability. The findings show that an average fisherman in Badagry is aware of the resources available in his environment, and can affect productivity levels positively if given adequate incentives. There are two lessons from this study; one has to do with what PRA tells us about the fishing community, the other is the importance of facilitators that have, amongst other things, good listening skills. The experience also revealed that field workers’ ability to listen and learn from local fishermen was a critical factor in collecting in-depth information that could be used for rural community planning.     

Rural Poverty Reduction through Business Partnerships? Examples of Experience from the Forestry Sector

At the Earth Summit in Johannesburg in 2002, partnerships were touted as one of the key routes to sustainable development. But can partnerships really deliver improvements to rural livelihoods? This paper reviews one set of claimed partnerships, those between forestry companies and local individuals or communities, to assess the benefits, and the costs, to local livelihoods. Most arrangements between forestry companies and local communities are not equitable enough to be called partnerships, so the term “deal” is preferred. Positive local impacts of company–community deals include sharing of risks, better returns to land than otherwise possible, opportunities for income diversification, access to paid employment, development of new skills, upgrading of local infrastructure and environmental improvement. However, company–community deals have not yet proved sufficient to lift people out of poverty. They remain supplementary rather than central to income generation. Furthermore, while some deals have resulted in greater cohesion and organisation among community groups, there is as yet little evidence of substantial increases in community bargaining power. Ways forward to increase returns to communities (and to their counterpart companies) centre on moving towards more equal partnerships, by raising community bargaining power, fostering the roles of brokers and other third parties, and developing equitable, efficient and accountable governance frameworks.     

Incidence rates and risk factors for injury events in high school students in Lijin County, China

PROBLEM: Most investigations of injuries among Chinese populations are focused on urban or better developed areas, fewer on rural or poor areas. METHODS: From September 21 to 27, 2002, an epidemiological investigation of eight kinds of injury-related events was carried out among 1,944 students in 39 classes randomly sampled from middle schools in Lijin County, a rural area. The eight kinds of events were: (a) traffic accidents, (b) poisoning, (c) fall, (d) burn or scald, (e) blunt or sharp tools contact, (f) electrical contact, (g) animal or insect bites, and (h) non-fatal drowning. RESULTS: The total incidence rate of eight kinds of injuries in the previous year was 21.1%. The incidence rate among boys was 24.2%, while that among girls was 17.4%, which was significant (chi-square=13.4, P<0.05). The incidence rate among junior high school students was 23.1%, while that among senior high school students was 15.5%, which was also significant (chi-square=13.2, P<0.05). A case-control study of 410 students with at least one of eight kinds of injury events indicated that students' gender and their mothers' health status were related to their injuries. CONCLUSION: The injury incidence rate in a rural area was less than other results in urban or developed areas. Students' gender and mothers' health status were important factors associated with the occurrence of injury. IMPACT ON INDUSTRY: In order to improve the surroundings of the growing population of adolescents, some preventive measures should be put forward, especially to the high-risk students of injury.     

Can climate mitigation help the poor? Measuring impacts of the CDM in rural China

This study examines whether investment in climate change mitigation contributes to poverty alleviation. We investigate the impacts of the renewable energy-based clean development mechanism (RE-CDM) projects on rural communities in China. The impacts of RE-CDM projects are estimated by combining propensity score matching with the difference-in-differences approach. We found that the biomass-based CDM projects significantly contribute to income improvement and employment generation in rural communities in China. Our estimation results also reveal that wind energy-based CDM projects have the potential to increase income and the share of labor force in the primary industry in rural areas. These results suggest different channels through which renewable energy sources affect income.     

Trends and sources of particulate matter in the Superstition Wilderness using air trajectory and aerosol cluster analysis

Ambient aerosols adversely affect human health and visibility and impact climate. Identification of sources of particulate matter and its precursors is necessary for developing control strategies. The goal of this research is to utilize long-term speciated particulate matter data and back-trajectory cluster analyses to determine trends and sources of particulate matter in the Superstition Wilderness, a rural area east of Phoenix, Arizona. Twenty-four hour back-trajectories were calculated for every hour of every 24-h particulate matter sample obtained by IMPROVE from 1991 to 2004. Days that included back-trajectories with considerable spatial variance were excluded from further analyses. To minimize uncertainties inherent in single trajectories, all calculated trajectories for each sampling day were averaged to represent the air mass sampled during that day. Cluster analysis of trajectories identified four unique regions, including a region with Phoenix, a region with copper smelters, and one with coal-fired power plants. Yearly averages of sulfate, nitrate, soil, and carbon concentrations were calculated for each region. Statistically significant trends in species concentrations by region and independent of region and differences in concentrations between regions were examined.Sulfate concentrations from the region with smelters were higher than other regions but decreased during the study period. Emissions data from the smelters indicate that much of the sulfate from the region was due to the smelters. The overall 2.2% year⁻¹ decrease in sulfate concentrations at TNM is likely due to decreased emissions from the copper smelters. A 3.6% year⁻¹ increase in nitrate concentrations was driven largely by increasing NO_x concentrations from Phoenix and to a lesser extent the region southwest of the site which includes Tucson and suburban/urban areas between Phoenix and Tucson. Soil concentrations were higher from regions with deserts than the region without desert. This method could not identify trends or source regions of carbonaceous aerosols at this site.     

Perceptions towards solar mini‐grid systems in India: A multi‐stakeholder analysis

This study identifies and assesses the perspectives of four key stakeholder groups towards solar minigrids in rural India. The stakeholders considered are policymakers, minigrid developers and operators, development organizations, and national grid representatives. Recent state and national policies in India have increased the focus on minigrids and their services. In this study, stakeholder interviews were employed to identify the attitudes towards the recent electricity policy, the underlying context for minigrid development, the role of minigrids in rural electrification, and the inclusion of minigrid systems within the larger framework of electricity sector policies by the recent government minigrid policies. Results indicate that stakeholders agree that minigrids, as a rural electricity service, are currently viable to complement the national grid due to their high reliability, performance in remote regions, and diminishing cost per unit. However, stakeholders disagree on the future outcomes, with diverging views on the priority of minigrids as an electrification tool in the face of the expanding central grid, the ideal implementation strategy for minigrids, and the potential for grid‐minigrid interaction. Based on stakeholder feedback, the growth of minigrids in India is likely to be constrained by the confidence in recent policies, necessitating more frequent dialogue among decision makers and a solidified relationship to the national electricity grid.     

郑州市公交车队电动化减污降碳环境效益

公交车队电动化是道路交通部门实现减污降碳的重要手段,评估当前公交车队电动化减排成效,对推进大中型城市公交全面电动化具有重要参考意义.基于燃料生命周期法分析了郑州市公交车队电动化前后CO₂和污染物排放特征,并评估了不同电动化情景下的车队排放.结果表明,本轮电动化使公交车队燃料生命周期内CO₂和PM_2.5排放量分别增长32.6%和42.6%,CO、NO_x和VOC排放量下降了28%,34%和25%.优化发电结构对于电动化过程中的CO₂及PM_2.5减排尤为重要,在全面电动化和发电结构优化的最佳情景下,CO₂、CO、NO_x、VOC和PM_2.5减排可达38.7%、80.1%、84.4%、92.2%、30.2%.在全面电动化进程中,应优先对中长里程线路车辆进行电动化替换,此外,插电混动天然气车型的纯电动化替换对减排利弊兼有,同步推进车队替换和电力结构调整进程才能实现减污降碳协同增效.     

加油站油流静电在线监测技术及应用

为提高加油站安全作业水平,分析了卸油、加油过程中油流静电起电因素和常用检测方法。根据高斯定理从理论上探讨了通过测量输油管道内中心电位得到油流静电电荷密度的检测原理,并基于杆球传感器以及压电传感器技术设计开发了油品静电在线监测仪,实现了对加油枪前后、加油机内部管线及过滤器油品带电情况的在线监测。测试结果表明:基于此静电监测技术,建立加油站油流电荷监测与联锁控制措施,可有效避免油品静电燃爆事故的发生,保障加油站安全生产。     

四川省农村环境空气污染源分布及其对自动监测点位设置影响的研究

将四川省农村地区分成平原和浅丘区、小起伏山地和高丘区、高山峡谷区三种类型区域。利用GIS软件,将四川省划分网格,分别统计每个网格中的工业废气污染点源数量和主要交通线路长度,得出四川省工业废气污染点源密度分级图和四川省主要公路密度分布图,以及结合农村污染面源的情况分析,总结出农村区域的主要污染密度分布类型。结果表明,在一定区域范围内,农村平原和浅丘区的工业源、交通源、农村面源分布均匀;高丘区、小起伏山区、高山峡谷区的污染源分布均具有明显的地理分布特性,山间平地和山谷台地的污染源分布密度高;根据四川省污染源分布规律给农村空气自动监测布点提供了指导。