The Deforestation of Rural Areas in the Lower Congo Province

The Lower Congo is one of eleven provinces in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and is located southwest of Kinshasa Town Province. It has an area of approximately 53.947 km² with a population of 1 504 361 at an estimated 237 persons per km². The Province comprises five districts, including Lukaya and Cataracts where rural poverty is severe and the population struggle to make a living through agriculture and woodcutting. These activities result in excessive resource exploitation. The high demand for foodstuffs and the high consumption of wood (for energy, construction and export) in Kinshasa, the capital city of the Democratic Republic of Congo and the expanding towns of Matadi and Boma in the Lower Congo Province, are speeding the deforestation rate and unbalancing forest ecosystems. In addition there is the stress resulting from reduced josher (the rest period for agriculture ground), plus climate change and erosion. The phenomena that that we need to address in these two districts include deforestation, reduced josher, excessive agriculture, erosion, burning and climate change which taken together largely explain the current soil degradation. These areas are marked by excessive post deforestation savannah formation and extended areas of sandy soil, distributed throughout grass and shrub savannahs. This desertification, which is rampant in Lukaya and Cataracts, risks imprisoning the rural population in a vicious cycle of poverty if adequate solutions are not found.     

The livestock revolution, food safety, and small-scale farmers: why they matter to us all

Global consumption, production, and trade of livestock products have increased rapidly in the last two decades and are expected to continue. At the same time, safety concerns regarding human and animal disease associated with livestock products are increasing. Efforts to increase public health safety standards aimed at legitimately reducing the risks of human and animal disease have focused internationally on standards to regulate the movement of livestock products. There is concern, though, that measures to regulate these standards internationally, such as the WTO SPS measures that in part aim to open international markets, may marginalize small-scale poor producers. The cycle of poverty they are trying to escape through livestock production may, in fact, widen, leading to increased global poverty, malnutrition, and disease. Developing and developed nations alike should be concerned with public and private efforts to address appropriate food safety policies to reduce the likelihood of this effect. Analysis of the impact on small-scale livestock farmers is needed, as well as solutions that consider joint public and private sector initiatives. Costly farm to table tracking systems are not an option, but locally orchestrated vertically integrated systems may have merit in reducing food safety risks and in providing small-scale farmers with increased access to markets, locally and internationally. Increased scientific and technical capacity, and training of WTO officials from developing nations is also needed.     

防震减灾与社区建设

本文从建设安全社区，打造平安城市，构建和谐社会的角度，分析阐述了防震减灾工作在构建和谐社会中的基础作用。     

更新观念 转换机制 开创防震减灾工作新局面

本文介绍了海淀区地震办公室几年来在防震减灾工作中，更新观念，转换机制，开创防震减灾工作新局面所做的工作，在防灾减灾科普教育基地，举办“北京海淀首届城市防震减灾（国际）论坛”，建设海淀公共安全馆，建设避难场所、志愿者队伍和社会力量动员等方面取得的显著成绩。对于各地区地震办公室的工作开展，有一定的学习和借鉴意义。     

发挥非政府组织作用推进防震减灾工作

防震减灾工作是一项社会性的系统工程；非政府组织在社会管理和服务中发挥着重要的参与作用。非政府组织参与防震减灾工作，将使防震减灾工作受到事半功倍的效果。本文分析了非政府组织在防震减灾领域的作用，根据我国政府组织发展的实践，提出了在防震减灾管理工作发挥非政府组织作用的思路。     

云南民族贫困地区生态坏境保护研究

由于教育、文化、科技落后 ,人口增长过快 ,资源需求压力大 ,加以环保机构不键全 ,投入不足等原因 ,云南少数民族贫困地区的生态环境状况恶化。必须加强教育 ,控制人口 ,健全环保机制 ,拓宽资金渠道 ,把这些地区的经济建设和社会发展纳入可持续发展的轨道     

Climate change: linking adaptation and mitigation through agroforestry

Agriculture is the human enterprise that is most vulnerable to climate change. Tropical agriculture, particularly subsistence agriculture is particularly vulnerable, as smallholder farmers do not have adequate resources to adapt to climate change. While agroforestry may play a significant role in mitigating the atmospheric accumulation of greenhouse gases (GHG), it also has a role to play in helping smallholder farmers adapt to climate change. In this paper, we examine data on the mitigation potential of agroforestry in the humid and sub-humid tropics. We then present the scientific evidence that leads to the expectation that agroforestry also has an important role in climate change adaptation, particularly for small holder farmers. We conclude with priority research questions that need to be answered concerning the role of agroforestry in both mitigation and adaptation to climate change.     

Poldering vs compartmentalization: The choice of flood control techniques in Bangladesh

The choice of flood control techniques in Bangladesh is reviewed in the context of a case study on the impact of a small-scale polder, the Dhaka-Narayanganj-Demra (DND) Project. The results of a questionnaire survey among the urban floodplain residents, who have settled inside the polder and a control population from outside the polder, indicate that the project has achieved significant flood alleviation but has also induced considerable environmental degradation due to stagnation of water within the enclosed embankment. The project also experienced numerous problems of structural instability of embankments during major flood events. An attempt is made to extrapolate some of these adverse environmental impacts of the polder to the compartmentalization scheme, which has been proposed by a UNDP-sponsored Flood Policy Study as an innovative technique for floodplain management in Bangladesh. The findings of the study, however, do not provide an adequate basis for assessing viability of the proposed compartmentalization scheme. Nonetheless, the study illustrates the usefulness of questionnaire surveys among floodplain residents for obtaining data for project evaluation.     

THE FOREST–HYDROLOGY–POVERTY NEXUS IN CENTRAL AMERICA: AN HEURISTIC ANALYSIS

A ‘forest–hydrology–poverty nexus’ hypothesis asserts that deforestation in poor upland areas simultaneously threatens biodiversity and increases the incidence of flooding, sedimentation and other damaging hydrological processes. This paper uses rough heuristics to assess the applicability of this hypothesis to two montane forested countries in Central America: Guatemala and Honduras. We do so by using simple rules of thumb to identify watersheds at greater risk of hydrologically significant land use change, using information about land cover, slope, and watershed size. The location of these watersheds is compared to spatial maps of poverty and forests. We find plausible evidence for a forest–biodiversity–poverty connection in Guatemala, and to a lesser extent in Honduras.     

关于我校校训的思考

校训是集中反映学校文化和精神特质的高度精炼的词句；校训的理想特征应具有：稳定性、时代性、个性化、导向性、精炼性。我们必须确立校园文化建设的特色与重点；必须认真搜寻并确立在防灾减灾文化之中凝炼出来的具有灵魂象征的学校精神。从“张衡文化”、“张衡精神”以及中华民族传统文化的精神源泉中，提炼出“崇德博智、扶危定倾”的校训。