The Role of Faith-based Organizations in Environmental Governance: the Case of Forestry in Solomon Islands

Faith-based organizations (FBOs) have played a significant role in environment-related forms of development and governance in Melanesia, including the Solomon Islands. Yet despite their centrality, there remain significant gaps in understandings of processes and outcomes associated with FBO engagement in environment-related development interventions. This paper addresses this gap by analysing the place of the Christian Fellowship Church (CFC), an indigenous FBO active in plantation forestry (and other activities) in the Western Province in the Solomon Islands. We find that the CFC possesses impressive income-generating potential and political networks; however this does not always translate into positive social, economic or environmental outcomes at the village level. While FBOs such as CFC are often championed as playing an important role in environmental governance in an under-resourced nation state, the reality is that they can fall well short in delivering appropriate outcomes for poor communities or the environment despite, and because of, their close ties to target communities.     

Implementing the EU Water Framework Directive in Norway: Bridging the Gap Between Water Management Networks and Elected Councils?

To handle the challenge of complex cross-sector and multilevel coordination in the implementation of the European Union Water Framework Directive, Norway has established multilevel governance networks. Observers have pointed to a risk of such governance arrangements being dominated by experts. This article studies the highly complex multilevel governance networks of water management in Norway, and unveils the importance of political anchorage of such governance networks at local and regional levels. The study finds evidence that political anchorage matters for further network achievements. Because the water governance networks are subordinated to the hierarchy of government, they need to ‘talk to' the system of hierarchical government in order to be effective. In this regard, it seems crucial that networks are politically anchored. Furthermore, the study unveils the important role of political leadership and network managers in ensuring political anchorage.     

大气污染治理的“兰州经验”——基于环境保护与国家治理现代化的考察

近年来,我国大气污染防治工作取得了一定成效,但大气环境整体形势仍然十分严峻,如何防治大气污染成为政府和人民高度重视的问题。兰州市在大气污染治理工作取得了瞩目的效果并在治理活动中形成了丰富的经验,大气污染治理的"兰州经验"为环境治理以及国家治理现代化树立了一个可资借鉴的样板。针对生态文明建设过程中的难题,兰州市在大气污染治理过程中较好地了协调经济发展和环境保护之间的关系,抓住了完善能源结构和产业结构调整这一核心环节。更为重要的是,"兰州经验"体现了国家治理现代化的公共性、共治性以及有效性的核心价值理念,突显了国家治理体系和治理能力现代化的重要价值。在切实有效的权力运行机制保障下,兰州市在环境治理工作中运用了法治思维和法治方法,以坚强的执行力确保工作实效,同时还实现了广泛的社会参与,使得治理模式更为科学与民主。     

劳动力外流与农村公共事务治理

新世纪以来,伴随着劳动力的大规模外流,农村公共事务治理呈现出集体经济困难、人居环境恶化和农田水利废弛等各个方面全面衰败的景象。灌溉作为农村典型的公共事务,对于从微观层面揭示劳动力大规模外流与农村公共事务治理衰败之间的因果关系具有代表性意义。关于劳动力流动对农村公共事务治理的影响,在已有的实证研究文献中鲜有讨论。本文基于2014年清华大学中国农村研究院对全国21个省份的调查数据,建立二元logistic回归模型,对1 507个农户的灌溉行为进行计量分析,发现农户家庭劳动力外流对农户参与集体灌溉具有显著的负面影响。这表明,在快速城镇化的过程中,劳动力外流为经济增长做出贡献的同时,也弱化了农村集体行动能力,对农村公共事务治理产生了显著负面影响。同时,计量结果表明:平原地区、水资源自然条件一般的村庄、耕地位于灌渠的中游、农户的承包地经营面积较大、农户的承包地块数较多、灌溉对农户家庭收入的重要性较大以及村庄对私自挖渠取水有惩罚措施等变量对农户参与集体灌溉有显著的正面影响;村庄位于城市郊区、地区经济发展水平较高和灌溉缺水历史等变量对农户参与集体灌溉有显著的负面影响;用水户协会的有无对农户是否参与集体灌溉没有显著的影响,原因是中国农村大多数用水户协会是行政力量推动下的产物,实际作用并不明显。上述结果表明:近20年来的大规模劳动力流动为中国经济高速增长做出贡献的同时,给农村公共事务的治理带来显著的不利影响。研究大规模劳动力流动背景下的农村公共事务挑战及其应对,具有重要的理论价值和实践意义,应作为未来重要的学术方向。由于农村劳动力外流是难以逆转的发展趋势,如何培育新的历史条件下的合作资源,实现农村社会有效的集体行动机制,是未来扭转农村公共事务治理衰败的关键。     

Complementing institutional with localised strategies for climate change adaptation: a South-North comparison

Climate change and disasters pose a serious risk to sustainable development. In the South, local coping strategies are an important element of adaptation to climate and disaster risk. Such strategies have emerged because of the limited assistance provided by urban actors and associated social security and governance systems. In the North, in contrast, local coping strategies are comparatively poorly developed. However, the extent of the changing climatic conditions is also reducing the capacity of Northern institutions to deal with climatic extremes and variability, which emphasises the need for more local-level engagement in the North. This paper analyses the differences in local and institutional responses to climate change and disasters in a Southern and a Northern city (San Salvador, El Salvador, and Manchester, United Kingdom, respectively), and highlights how the lessons learned might be translated into an improved distributed governance system; that is, an 'integrated engagement model', where local and institutionalised responses support rather than hinder each other, as is currently the case.     

水资源项目治理的社会网络动态分析

水资源项目治理中的利益相关方之间相互作用而形成关系网络,这种网络结构会随着项目生命周期发生变化,目前基于单阶段静态网络的研究难以满足这种动态治理角色网络分析的需要。科学合理的分析项目治理社会网络的动态变化,引导其健康发展对提高利益相关方之间的合作水平,进而提高项目成功率意义重大。本文以某大型水资源信息系统项目为例,综合应用社会网络分析与系统动力学方法,分析水资源项目治理社会网络的动态变化过程,构建系统动力学模型,对大型水资源项目系统结构进行仿真模拟,通过敏感性分析,探索控制项目治理风险的有效途径。     

我国环境治理投资效率评价及其关键影响因素

在系统地归纳了环境治理投资效率的相关研究的基础上,依据构建评价指标体系的原则,以环境治理投资总额作为投入指标,以及环境治理投资在水、气、固体等方面控制绩效作为产出,建立我国环境治理投资效率的评价指标体系,构建基于DEA方法的我国环境治理投资效率评价模型,再以环境治理投资效率为母因素,以各评价指标为环境治理投资效率的影响因素,利用灰色关联度分析方法,构建我国环境治理投资效率的关键影响因素分析模型,通过《中国环境统计年鉴2010》和《中国统计年鉴2010》收集2009年我国各省市（自治区）投入产出数据,得到我国各省市的环境治理投资效率及其关键影响因素,证实控制关键因素--环境治理投资总额,能够有效地提高环境治理投资效率     

Multifaceted Value Profiles of Forest Owner Categories in South Sweden: The River Helge å Catchment as a Case Study

Forest landscapes provide benefits from a wide range of goods, function and intangible values. But what are different forest owner categories’ profiles of economic use and non-use values? This study focuses on the complex forest ownership pattern of the River Helge å catchment including the Kristianstad Vattenrike Biosphere Reserve in southern Sweden. We made 89 telephone interviews with informants representing the four main forest owner categories. Our mapping included consumptive and non-consumptive direct use values, indirect use values, and non-use values such as natural and cultural heritage. While the value profiles of non-industrial forest land owners and municipalities included all value categories, the forest companies focused on wood production, and the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency on nature protection. We discuss the challenges of communicating different forest owners’ economic value profiles among stakeholders, the need for a broader suite of forest management systems, and fora for collaborative planning.

Electronic supplementary material

The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s13280-012-0374-2) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.     

Integration and integrated approaches to assessment: what do they mean for the environment?

Integration and integrated approaches are increasingly presented as new and superior ways to consider the environment in policy- and decision-making. If used in an uncritical way, this assertion could become a hindrance to good practice and could undermine efforts to defend or improve environmental quality. The aim of this paper is to provide the missing critical perspective through an investigation of the meanings of integration found in recent literature on assessment. This literature represents a broad survey of European (particularly UK) and US critiques of assessment practices, and proposals for better and usually ‘more integrated’ approaches. These critiques and proposals relate to a range of assessment contexts, from relatively technical issues of data handling, to questions of the design, choice and implementation of policy options. This paper also surveys, and contributes to, literature that questions the central goals and assumptions informing assessment practice and environmental governance more widely. Fourteen meanings of ‘integration’ are presented, with a discussion of the potential synergies and conflicts among them, and with environmental objectives. Integration is argued to be a matter of value judgements concerning assessment design in specific historical and social contexts. Far from providing a panacea, integration would appear to create as many challenges as it might resolve in seeking to achieve more sustainable development. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.