Microfinance institutions and a coastal community's disaster risk reduction,response, and recovery process: a case study of Hatiya,Bangladesh

Several researchers have examined the role of microfinance institutions (MFIs) in poverty alleviation, but the part that they play in disaster risk reduction remains unaddressed. Through an empirical study of Hatiya Island, one of the most vulnerable coastal communities of Bangladesh, this research evaluates perceptions of MFI support for the disaster risk reduction, response, and recovery process. The findings reveal no change in relation to risk reduction and income and occupation aspects for more than one‐half of the clients of MFIs. In addition, only 26 per cent of them have witnessed less damage as a result of being members of MFIs. One can argue, though, that the longer the membership time period the better the disaster preparedness, response, and recovery process. The outcomes of this study could help to guide the current efforts of MFIs to enhance the ability of coastal communities to prepare for and to recover from disasters efficiently and effectively.     

The Interuniversity Consortium, Chemistry for the Environment (INCA)

The Interuniversity Consortium, Chemistry for the Environment (INCA), was founded in Venice in October 1993. It groups about thirty Italian universities and relies on the research contributions of chemists having different specialities (environmental, physical-chemical, organic, inorganic, analytic, industrial and biochemical), together with researchers coming from other disciplines engaged in environmental research. Consortium INCA has its administrative offices in Venice.     

Still some way to go: institutionalisation of sustainability in German local governments

There is a widespread consensus among sustainability experts about the need for ambitious transformative practices in order for a sustainable development to progress. Agenda 21 emphasised the need for multilevel and multi-actor governance and explicitly focused on the local level. The conceptual and analytical preference of governance beyond government has directed attention towards the interaction between state and non-state actors. The present article focuses on the role of (local) state institutions in sustainability governance. We argue that an effective implementation of sustainability in government institutions is a precondition for a successful multi-stakeholder governance of a sustainable development. The guiding question of this article is: How has sustainability been institutionalised in local governments in Germany in the last 20 years after Agenda 21 was adopted? Based on a conceptual framework, we are presenting the empirical results of a survey of 371 German cities and municipalities in this article, which primarily aims at providing empirical evidence on to what extent sustainability has been institutionalised in German local governments. The article ends with discussing the potential reasons for the institutionalisation deficit observed and gives an outlook on the potential for developing a sustainability state, that is, a state dedicated to institutionalising sustainability.     

Mind the gap: institutional considerations for gender-inclusive climate change policy in Sub-Saharan Africa

This paper positions climate change against the backdrop of gender, premised on the understanding that neither climate change impacts nor responses are gender neutral, therefore institutions need to respond accordingly. Institutions play a central role in facilitating policy effects and forming major nodes of interaction as well as determining the accentuation of risk. Drawing on examples from different parts of Sub-Saharan Africa, the paper seeks to elucidate why women should be placed at the heart of climate change interventions. Establishing the appropriate connections between gender and climate change will enhance the opportunities for problem-solving and can increase the efficiency and effectiveness of policy-making. The gendered aspects of climate change and environmental relations are analysed by using an African feminist approach as the theoretical framework to expand and expound upon this position. This paper also investigates institutional matters pertaining to the management of environmental resources and highlights some of the constraints that need to be overcome in order to ensure the inclusion and empowerment of women in the management of these resources. It concludes by calling for a thorough understanding of the gender-based power relations in the agendas and activities of environmental governance institutions at all levels in society.     

法治国家和风险社会理念下的环境治理机制

面对现代环境问题,我国环境治理需要以法治国家和风险社会理念为基础进一步完善。法治国家要求立法、行政与司法的长期稳定、系统有效运作,而风险管理需要以科学技术进步为基础,对风险有及时认知和科学评估,两方面都是人类社会可持续发展的理念支撑。现代环境行政法首先强化了直接行政监管,不断加强对私权干涉的程度,而且扩展了现代环境规划制度,还创新了环境影响评估制度,同时针对现代环境问题的源头:经济上的外部性,针对性采取多种经济手段。此外在风险沟通和信息公开以及加强程序性权利上,公众参与制度进一步得到细化。这些环境治理行政手段既继承了国家传统行政机制,又都基于法治国家与风险管理理念予以补充,以更有效地、针对性地实现现代环境保护。     

Rights and Conflicts in the Management of Fisheries in the Lower Songkhram River Basin,Northeast Thailand

A complex, pre-existing local property rights system, characterized by overlap and conflict, comprises the local basis for managing inland fisheries in communities of the Lower Songkhram River Basin (LSRB) of Northeastern Thailand. The components, conflicts and changes of the system are analyzed for fourteen communities, focusing on the auction system for barrages, an illegal and destructive, yet tolerated, fishery. These rights, adapted to gear type, seasonality, and habitat of the LSRB fisheries, are a critical social resource and proven management system that should be legitimized. Recommendations are made for both improving general inland fisheries policy and reforming the barrage fishery.     

我国环境管理的发展轨迹分析

在综合分析环境管理相关研究成果的基础上,梳理了我国环境管理的思想、理论、机构、法制建设、制度及其教育宣传六个方面的发展轨迹,探讨了当前环境管理各方面轨迹脉络和目前仍存在的问题。     

中国台湾地区对社会第三方环境检测机构的管理与启示

介绍了中国台湾地区对社会第三方环境检测机构的管理历程与资质认定办法,并借鉴其日常监管方式,提出了完善法律制度,实现行业主管部门的监管,建立质量管理体系,提升第三方机构的能力水平,强调以预防为主的动态管理,促进环境检测市场良性发展等建议。     

Overcoming Contradictions Between Growth and SustainabiUty： Institutional Innovation in the BRICS

The recent accelerated growth rates or efforts to emulate countries that have achieved a rapid pace of economic growth are widely acclaimed as means to uplift millions from poverty. In so doing, however, this rapid economic growth is most likely to coincide with unsustainable levels of consumption, place excessive pressure on life support systems and terrestrial sinks and foreshorten options for the future. Rather than pursuing the ＂Environmental Kuznets Curve＂ （EKC） hypothesis that higher income will bring with it the means to reduce the impacts of greater consumption, ecological economists assert that buying our way out of future scarcity with fast growth is indeed contradictory with sustainability. To better understand these contradictions and explore potential institutional innovations that may enable developing nations to better confront them （in effect, ＂tunneling under＂ the EKC）, this article refers to recent experience in the BRICS countries （Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa）. Beginning with a brief comparative summary of major development and environmental indicators, pressures on resources and society in each of the BRICS are discussed, followed by identification of institutional and policy frameworks each country has evolved to confront the challenges of growth and sustainability. The article closes with general conclusions for further research and information sharing among developing nations.