Public Participation and Effective Water Governance at the Local Level: A Case Study from a Small Under-Developed Area in Chile

The concept of participation in rural development has been evolutionary for the past two decades with those involved, such as development agencies and governments, particularly in rural water supply, re-evaluating their active role. The move towards effective community participation has encouraged a shift from the traditional top-down to a bottom-up approach whereby there is a decentralisation of unevenly distributed resources and power to empower a community and allow mobility of ‘people participation’. The Molinos water project is the first large-scale development project of its kind introduced into the village of Molinos in an under-developed area of Chile, where there has been no tradition of people participation. The project objective was to implement a low technology, low budget water treatment plant to the village of Molinos. Various aspects have hindered the continued development of the project including both technical and financial. In terms of people participation, the initial approach used was the top-down approach. There was a failure to fully integrate the community or inform the community in a formal manner about the project and consult them regarding key project issues. This case study illustrates that the lack of comprehensive consultation and the low level of participation of the community on the participatory scale does not achieve much in terms of people-centred benefits. For governance at the local level to be effective, participation should be inclusive and communicative so as to enhance transparency throughout the project lifetime. Readers should send their comments on this paper to: BhaskarNath@aol.com within 3 months of publication of this issue.     

基于模糊聚类关联分析法的煤与瓦斯突出程度分析

运用模糊聚类分析方法对煤与瓦斯突出的样本集合进行分类,建立了不同突出程度的模糊模式.用关联分析确定待分析样本与模式的关联程度,以此预测预报样本的煤与瓦斯突出危险程度.实例分析表明,与模糊聚类分类后、将模式与待预报样本组成新样本集合进行聚类分析并以此分类结果进行预报的方法相比,这种预报方法不仅可靠程度高,而且能定量描述待报样本与模式的亲和程度.     

石林风景名胜区对乡村经济发展的影响

石林风景名胜区始建于20世纪30年代,旅游开发经历了居民游览、服务中心城市的接待观光型到区域支柱产业的转型。经济体制深刻地影响了石林旅游业,旅游产品延续了计划经济体制下形成接待观光游览型,形成以门票收入为主体的旅游经济收入格局,对不同层次的经济发展带来不同的影响。石林旅游业对县级经济收入、产业结构、财政、税收有积极影响,近5年石林旅游业占当地GDP的9%～11%,占第三产业产值的27.9% ～33%、财政收入的10.8%～0.1%,但对农业生产、农村居民就业和家庭收入的带动力弱,有明显的“距离衰减效应”。获得旅游效益的居民限于风景区旅游中心的村寨,约占风景区人口的15%,中心旅游区的第三产业就业人员比例比其它地区高7%～35%。中心区农民参与旅游业方式的调查表明,居民参与旅游业的方式被动：耕地被征用后,或被风景名胜区管理部门雇佣、或成个体工商户、或被外来企业雇佣,就业领域局限于餐饮服务、环卫和绿化、民族工艺品制作与销售、照相、旅游交通、导游等。风景区农村的基础建设、产业结构、就业领域与风景区功能和旅游业目标的协调存在距离。促进风景名胜区旅游业对所在地的“三农”发展的协调值得思考和解决。     

村镇生活垃圾重金属含量及其来源分析

对全国12个省份72个典型村镇的生活垃圾进行采样调查,系统分析我国村镇生活垃圾中重金属污染特征及其可能来源.结果表明,我国北方典型村镇生活垃圾中重金属As、Hg、Pb、Cd、Cr、Cu、Zn和Ni的含量分别为(7.51±8.89)、(0.64±0.42)、(21.91±12.29)、(4.82±8.37)、(86.36±59.99)、(36.43±15.98)、(62.19±36.61)和(46.07±25.22)mg·kg-1,南方典型村镇生活垃圾中重金属As、Hg、Pb、Cd、Cr、Cu、Zn和Ni的含量分别为(7.43±8.82)、(0.83±0.74)、(21.62±13.76)、(1.84±4.55)、(131.06±74.96)、(37.20±16.80)、(98.04±63.71)和(46.75±25.75)mg·kg-1.与《城镇垃圾农用控制标准》(GB 8172-87)和《土壤环境质量标准》(GB 15618-1995)二级标准相比,重金属Cd和Hg超标较严重.通过聚类分析、Pearson相关分析和主成分分析解析垃圾中重金属污染物的来源,结果表明我国典型村镇生活垃圾中Pb和Cd主要来源于厨余、灰土、橡塑类和纸质等印刷品,Hg主要来源于厨余和灰土,Zn和Cr主要来源于灰土,Cu主要来源于电子、电池类废弃物和尘土、橡塑、纸质等印刷品,Ni主要来源于废弃的电子、电池类产品,As主要来源于杀虫剂等农药和肥料.     

Evaluation of ecotourism development in rural regions of China

The current status of ecotourism in rural China was analyzed in this paper.Empirical surveys covering the whole country indicate that ecotourism in rural China has attracted a large number of tourists who,however,didn’t generate revenues that can match the number.Although the environmental quality of those rural ecotourism destinations is high with little negative impacts,several problems have already appeared,suggesting a need to monitor those areas.The current practice of interpretation in most rural ecotourism destinations did not provide environmental education opportunities to the tourists.And local communities need more effective ways to decide on the prospects of local ecotourism development by themselves.Finally,a few recommendations for improving the sustainability of ecotourism destinations were provided.     

Oil dependency,political institutions,and urban–rural disparities in access to electricity in Africa

In line with the resource curse literature, this paper examines the effect of oil dependency on the disparities in access to electricity between urban and rural areas in Africa, conditional on the quality of political institutions. Based on data from 36 African countries over the period 2000–2017, our investigation suggests that oil rents (% of GDP) increase urban–rural disparities in access to electricity. However, the quality of institutions shapes the effect of oil dependency on these disparities. Specifically, a 10% increase in the institutional quality score reduces the adverse effects of oil rent on electricity access disparity by around 19%, and the negative impact of oil dependency on urban–rural disparities is reversed when institutional quality reaches a score of 52% on a scale from 0 to 100. The robustness tests support these results and call for strengthening the quality of institutions to overcome the resource curse in Africa.     

Impacts of rural to urban migration,urbanization, and generational change on consumption of wild animals in the Amazon

For the first time in history, more people live in urban areas than in rural areas. This trend is likely to continue, driven largely by rural-to-urban migration. We investigated how rural-to-urban migration, urbanization, and generational change affect the consumption of wild animals. We used chelonian (tortoises and freshwater turtles), one of the most hunted taxa in the Amazon, as a model. We surveyed 1356 households and 2776 school children across 10 urban areas of the Brazilian Amazon (6 small towns, 3 large towns, and Manaus, the largest city in the Amazon Basin) with a randomized response technique and anonymous questionnaires. Urban demand for wild meat (i.e., meat from wild animals) was alarmingly high. Approximately 1.7 million turtles and tortoises were consumed in urban areas of Amazonas during 2018. Consumption rates declined as size of the urban area increased and were greater for adults than children. Furthermore, the longer rural-to-urban migrants lived in urban areas, the lower their consumption rates. These results suggest that wild meat consumption is a rural-related tradition that decreases as urbanization increases and over time after people move to urban areas. However, it is unclear whether the observed decline will be fast enough to conserve hunted species, or whether children's consumption rate will remain the same as they become adults. Thus, conservation actions in urban areas are still needed. Current conservation efforts in the Amazon do not address urban demand for wildlife and may be insufficient to ensure the survival of traded species in the face of urbanization and human population growth. Our results suggest that conservation interventions must target the urban demand for wildlife, especially by focusing on young people and recent rural to urban migrants. Article impact statement: Amazon urbanite consumption of wildlife is high but decreases with urbanization, over time for rural to urban migrants, and between generations. Impactos de la Migración del Campo a la Ciudad, la Urbanización y del Cambio Generacional sobre el Consumo de Animales Silvestres en el Amazonas     

合成有机物结构-生物降解性关系的研究

本文综述了合成有机物生物降解性的研究方法.以及定性结构-生物降解性关系(SBR).重点综述了芳香类化合物的结构与生物降解性的关系.研究这一关系有助于有毒化学品生物降解性的预测.     

Social discrimination tuning in ants: template formation and chemical similarity

To investigate the role of template plasticity in shaping nest-mate recognition processes in ants, we constructed experimental mixed-species groups of Manica rubida with either Myrmica rubra, Tetramorium bicarinatum or Formica selysi. Selecting Ma. rubida as the focal species, we observed the behaviour within mixed-species groups and the transfer rates of cuticular hydrocarbons (CHC) onto the focal ants, and we also tested the aggression of the focal species reared either alone or in association with each of the three different species. We show that Ma. rubida workers were always amicable towards their mixed group members, as towards members of the respective parental colonies, irrespective of the associated species. They did, however, express different levels of aggression towards single-species groups of the other species tested, depending on the species with which they were reared. The study suggests that similarity in CHC profiles in two species leads to a narrow template in mixed groups, while dissimilarity is followed by lower levels of aggression (a broader template), at least against species with similar CHC compound compositions (i.e. both a broader template in the focal ants and familiarity with the compound groups of the tested individuals operate together). This refutes the hypothesis that ants reared in mixed-species groups are systematically more tolerant. It also demonstrates that heterospecific information is not treated equally during development. We suggest that post-imaginal learning, template reforming and decision making are more precisely tuned when the two species' chemical complexes are similar.     

The Botanist Effect Revisited: Plant Species Richness, County Area, and Human Population Size in the United States

Abstract:  The "botanist effect" is thought to be the reason for higher plant species richness in areas where botanists are disproportionately present as an artefactual consequence of a more thorough sampling. We examined whether this was the case for U.S. counties. We collated the number of species of vascular plants, human population size, and the area of U.S. counties. Controlling for spatial autocorrelation and county area, plant species richness increased with human population size and density in counties with and without universities and/or botanical gardens, with no significant differences in the relation between the two subsets. This is consistent with previous findings and further evidence of a broad-scale positive correlation between species richness and human population presence, which has important consequences for the experience of nature by inhabitants of densely populated regions. Combined with the many reports of a negative correlation between the two variables at a local scale, the positive relation between plant species richness in U.S. counties and human population presence stresses the need for the conservation of seminatural areas in urbanized ecosystems and for the containment of urban and suburban sprawl.