Land Cover and Use Changes in Relation to the Institutional Framework and Tenure of Land and Resources in Eastern Tanzania Miombo Woodlands

In Tanzania, well-defined land tenure and resource protection apply in forest reserves which account for 30% of forested land, while the remaining 70% (mostly miombo woodlands) are village and general lands with very limited protection. The aim of this study was to determine local peoples ownership rights, knowledge and institutional capacity for sustainable management of resources in forest reserves and general lands. Data were collected using participatory rural appraisal, structured and semi-structured interviews, as well as aerial photographs and landsat images. In general lands, woodlands declined by 50% between 1964 and 1996, bushlands and croplands increased by 599%, and settlements and homegardens increased by 277%. These land use and vegetation structure changes are attributed to harvesting for charcoal production and shifting cultivation. The continued decline in aerial woodland cover in the general lands suggests that common property regimes do not function in the area. Local institutional capacities are weak in enforcing control mechanisms to check the overuse of resources, which tends to approximate open access conditions. The issues of land tenure and village empowerment are not only institutional, but also political in nature. Government institutions should provide and motivate for an enabling environment, including acknowledgement of traditional knowledge, well-defined property rights and operational village by-laws. In order to ensure equity and sustainable development of natural resources, the paradigm shift in management is important whereby communal goods are to be managed for the benefit of the local society.     

A CASE STUDY IN THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE FEDERAL WATER POLLUTION CONTROL ACT AMENDMENTS1

ABSTRACT: A general model of the policy implementation process is utilized to facilitate a discussion of the way Section 208 of PL 92-500 is being carried out on an areawide basis. A study of four “208 areas” in the “New York-Philadelphia corridor” highlights the operation of several variables used in the model. The varying political and socioeconomic conditions in geographic areas which have similar water quality problems are leading to the evolution of vastly different implementing structures, or institutional arrangements. The analysis suggests that these differences may have important implications for the success of the program in each of these areas. A major underlying theme is that such problems are characteristic of the 208 process nationwide and reflect general difficulties associated with managing water quality in a federal system.     

环境容量与排污权的理论基础及制度框架分析

排污权制度是解决环境容量资源配置低效率的重要手段,可以实现环境容量资源的优化配置,已在一些国家运用,并取得一定成效,但在中国其仍处于试点的阶段,亟待理论研究的支撑。研究认为,物质平衡、外部性和产权构成了排污权制度的理论基础;排污权制度的构建和完善应着眼于制度构成的基本要素、制度特征和运行条件3个方面。     

新时期生态监管职能解析及制度体系构建建议

2018年中共中央印发的《深化党和国家机构改革方案》对自然生态系统的保护修复和监管进行了部门划分,但由于生态系统结构、过程和功能的复杂性和多样性,在涉及生态保护修复具体工作时,依然面临着生态监管的职能边界不清晰、制度体系不健全等问题.以习近平生态文明思想为指引,借助于生物多样性和生态系统服务科学-政策平台（IPBES）概念框架,明晰了新时期生态环境部门生态监管职能的内涵,即从维护国家和区域生态安全的角度,通过监测、评估、监督、执法和考核等手段,对有关部门和地方政府所开展的生态保护修复工作进行行政监督和执法.解析了生态环境部门与自然资源部门（包括国家林草部门）在生态保护修复领域的职责关系,主要包括三方面:①二者分别通过间接与直接途径实现促进生态系统服务和产品供给提升的目标.②二者定位分别是外部“专职”监管和中央与地方、上级与下级的内部监督.③二者监督对象分别是督政与督事.针对新时期生态监管制度体系的构建,建议健全生态保护防控制度、建立“1+N”生态监测制度、构建生态评估及预警制度、健全生态保护执法制度、完善考核督察问责制度、健全公众参与监督制度和构建生态监管保障制度等,以进一步提升生态监管效能,推动生态保护修复成效提升,从而为人民群众提供更多更好的生态产品.      

Institutional constraints to adaptive capacity: adaptability to climate change in the Norwegian electricity sector

This article contributes to the understanding of adaptive capacity within national sectors by utilising two perspectives from institutional theory. Resting on data from 21 interviews the paper analyses the Norwegian electricity sector and the influence on adaptive capacity to climate change from changes in formal structure and institutional culture. The sector underwent transformational change between the beginning of the 1980s and mid-2000s, with the reform from 1991 as a watershed, and gradual consolidation from about 2000. From a self-regulated vertically integrated sector with an emphasis on robustness of supply the sector changed into a liberalised and unbundled structure, with economic efficiency as the guiding principle. These changes reduced adaptive capacity to climate change. After 2000, gradually adaptive capacity has increased somewhat. The paper argues that also social contextual factors need to be taken account of, both to understand adaptive capacity to climate change and to provide practitioners with an ability to increase it.     

STATE LEGISLATIVE CONSTRAINTS ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF WATER RESOURCES POLICY1

ABSTRACT: Legislative constraints on the development of water resources policy fit into three broad categories-political, institutional, and informational. The political category encompasses constituency needs and preferences, satisfaction with existing water management practices and policies, and the necessity for legislators to blend political ambition with public problem solving. Constraints fitting into the institutional category include differences in legislative behavior and attitudes that stem from one's location in the legislature (e.g., senate-house, leader-follower, or committee activity), the dynamics of scheduling and organization, and the capability to manage complex issues. Informational constraints refer to the availability of information and the use to which it is put by lawmakers in formulating decisions on waterrelated issues. These constraints are approached from a behavioral perspective by examining several constituency, institutional, and information hypotheses that “explain” legislative involvement with water resources issues. The data are drawn from a recent study of water resources decision making in West Virginia. Eighty-three of the 134 members of the 1975–76 West Virginia Legislature participated in the study.     

Contributing institutional factors of rural environmental pollution in the process of modernization in China —In the perspective of the efficiency of environmental management system

With the development of rural pollution, its characteristic and institutional factor should be studied for pollution control through economics and sociology. Based on the data gathered from investigations by several government sectors, rural environmental pollution can be divided into two types by its sources: internal source type and external source type. The internal source type is the main component of rural pollution at present, which can be further divided into three types. Research shows that the contributing institutional factors of rural pollution issues and the effectiveness of environmental management system over rural pollution can be summarized as distinctiveness. In essence, the rural pollution issue results from the dualism of rural and urban areas’ inadaptability to rural modernization. In detail, the contributing factors can be summed up on three institutional levels. There are obvious loopholes in rural environmental management system which, in the meantime, is incapable and inadaptable to rural pollution control. There exist similar questions in the related public service system, which are intensified by inappropriate reform which brought about incompatible incentive in the recent years. However, in the eleventh five-year plan period, there are advantageous trends in the three institutional levels. Main data sources in this paper: ➀ the surveys on TVEs (township and village enterprises) conducted by Township Enterprise Bureau of Ministry of Agriculture of China in 1997 and 2002; ➁ the partial survey on rural environmental conditions by EPA (environmental protection administration) of Zhejiang Province in 2002; ➂ the survey on the pollution of IPLFs (livestock and poultry farms) in 23 provinces, municipalities, and directly administered cities by the State Environmental Protection Administration of China in 2002; ➃ the research report on Mechanism of Investment and Financing for Environmental Protection by China Council for International Environment and Development Cooperation in 2003; ➄ the third investigation on national hygiene service in 2003; ➅ the regular monitoring of safe quality of agricultural products by the Ministry of Agriculture of China in 2005; ➆ the investigation arranged by the Ministry of Health which finished in 2007 and showed the total situation of rural environmental health and drinking water security of the whole country.     

The multiple ways of behaving creatively in the workplace: A typology and model

Evidence in the literature suggests that employees can engage in other types of creative behavior at work beyond producing something new and useful for their organization. This paper seeks to advance our understanding of these “atypical” creative behaviors. We conceptualize a typology that encompasses both the commonly studied form of employee creativity (conventional steward‐type) and three other types of employee creativity that have not been previously theorized (critical steward‐type, cunning agent‐type, and innocent agent‐type). We then advance a conceptual model to identify situations that may lead employees to use their creative potential one way versus another. Further, we examine the different implications of these creative behaviors for the organization, employee, and society. Our conceptual framework provides a broader perspective of workplace creativity in which a wider range of behaviors, mechanisms, and outcomes must be considered. It provides new directions for future research as well as implications for managing creativity in different organizational and cultural contexts.     

Chronic institutional failure and enhanced vulnerability to flash‐floods in the Cuenca Altadel Río Lerma,Mexico

The dominant paradigm in disaster risk reduction (DRR) policies has been seriously contested because of its reliance on interventions based on technocratic expertise. In the Mexican context, the influence of informal practices such as clientelism and cartelisation of the political system produces environmental degradation and vulnerability to disasters within the communities in the study site. This paper contributes to understanding of failed institutional processes and parallel practices that intensify vulnerability to disasters by contrasting the discourses of agents within a peri‐urban community in central Mexico. Employing the Situational Analysis Approach as a methodological framework, the study identifies divergent views and practices within the community, leading to different responses to disasters and to different perceptions regarding institutional performance. In addition, it finds that institutional decision‐making, based only on scientific and technical expertise, has resulted in unintended consequences that influence ongoing vulnerability to floods in the site under review.     

完善排污许可制度体系,全面服务生态环境质量改善

《排污许可管理条例》的颁布,标志着以排污许可制为核心的固定污染源监管制度体系建设进入法治化发展的新阶段。当前应以《排污许可管理条例》的实施为契机,在抓好排污许可证数量的基础上狠抓质量提高,坚持走好精细化、科学化和信息化发展道路;在建立基本制度的基础上建成核心制度,推动排污许可制与环评、总量控制、生态环境统计、监督执法等相关生态环境监管制度的系统联动,扩大排污单位、环境要素覆盖面,强化固定污染源"一证式"执法监管和贯穿全周期监管,全面服务生态环境质量改善。