Sustainable Health Risk Management and the Role of Cross-Disciplinary Professionals in Developing Countries: Mexican Experience

The paper argues health risk management in Developing Countries cannot be sustainable unless it is conceived, planned, implemented and maintained by community-led multi-stakeholder groups using an integrated capacity building process with five components: (1) education and awareness raising; (2) strengthening information resources and decision making; (3) strengthening regulations and compliance; (4) improving basic sanitation infrastructure; and (5) stimulating the market for support products and services for health and environment sectors. Occupational and environmental health professionals with cross-disciplinary understanding are uniquely qualified to build much-needed bridges between stakeholders, risk science and policy. They should adopt a cost-effective mentality, adapting models/methods used in developed countries to developing country contexts, negotiating political obstacles and understanding cultural differences in risk sources, exposures and perceptions. Stakeholders – health professionals, community representatives, officials, NGOs/advocacy groups, industries, and providers of products/services – collaborate to detect needs, mobilize resources, design, develop, implement, consolidate and maintain interventions to priority problems. Field experience in Mexico supports the argument. This sustainability process is adaptable to other keystone development sectors like soil and water resources stewardship, biodiversity conservation, agriculture and energy.     

IBM公司的职业安全健康管理

简要介绍了国际商务机器 (IBM)公司 ,在职业健康安全管理中取得的重大成效 ,并具体介绍了IBM公司部分有特色的健康安全管理实践 ,以期能够对国内同行们起到一定的借鉴与参考作用     

西部湿地资源现状、问题及可持续发展研究——以四川省若尔盖高原湿地为例

湿地是水陆相互作用形成的独特生态系统,合理的开发利用将对西部开发中的生态环境建设直到巨大的作用。本文主要介绍我国西部湿地资源的基本情况、利用现状及存在问题,并以四川省若尔盖地区为例提出了西部湿地资源保护和可持续利用的科学对策。     

建造循环经济走可持续发展道路

本文论述了建造循环经济是实现可持续发展战略的支持和基础,并提出发展循环经济必须采取的有效措施。     

“可持续生产”与“清洁生产”内涵辨析

就可持续生产在可持续发展中的重要性而言,厘清可持续生产的含义并对可持续生产与清洁生产的内涵进行辨析十分必要.阐明可持续发展的确切含义,将其定义为与人、自然、社会相和谐的生产活动或方式.在此基础上,结合清洁生产含义,指出了可持续生产与清洁生产在实施层面、目标指向和内容维度三方面的区别:①清洁生产的实施层面仅局限于企业层面,而可持续生产却涉及到整个社会层面;②在生产活动对人和社会的影响方面,可持续生产的目标指向比清洁生产更为全面;③可持续生产是在“技术”、“制度”2个维度上的双向拓展,而清洁生产仅是在“技术”维度上的单维延伸.      

黄河三角洲二元结构与多元可持续发展初探

黄河三角洲由石油资源的开发而兴起,其区位条件和油气资源条件都十分优越,但目前仍处于经济发达地区的低谷区。通过对二元结构系数的定量分析,发现该地区具有明显的复合二元结构特征,即“油地+城乡”,二元结构是制约三角洲持续发展的一个重要限制性因素。目前,石油产业的全面改组改制、优越的外部环境和自身基础条件、东营港扩建及其附属加工制造业基地的立项、综合性交通运输网络体系的形成等都是三角洲全面发展的难得机遇。要实现多元可持续发展的目标,必须转变观念,由“以油建城”到“以港兴城”、大力发展资源深加工工业和具有竞争优势的制造业;构建高效生态农业经济体系;推进城市的“内聚式”发展。     

Key role for nuclear energy in global biodiversity conservation

Modern society uses massive amounts of energy. Usage rises as population and affluence increase, and energy production and use often have an impact on biodiversity or natural areas. To avoid a business‐as‐usual dependence on coal, oil, and gas over the coming decades, society must map out a future energy mix that incorporates alternative sources. This exercise can lead to radically different opinions on what a sustainable energy portfolio might entail, so an objective assessment of the relative costs and benefits of different energy sources is required. We evaluated the land use, emissions, climate, and cost implications of 3 published but divergent storylines for future energy production, none of which was optimal for all environmental and economic indicators. Using multicriteria decision‐making analysis, we ranked 7 major electricity‐generation sources (coal, gas, nuclear, biomass, hydro, wind, and solar) based on costs and benefits and tested the sensitivity of the rankings to biases stemming from contrasting philosophical ideals. Irrespective of weightings, nuclear and wind energy had the highest benefit‐to‐cost ratio. Although the environmental movement has historically rejected the nuclear energy option, new‐generation reactor technologies that fully recycle waste and incorporate passive safety systems might resolve their concerns and ought to be more widely understood. Because there is no perfect energy source however, conservation professionals ultimately need to take an evidence‐based approach to consider carefully the integrated effects of energy mixes on biodiversity conservation. Trade‐offs and compromises are inevitable and require advocating energy mixes that minimize net environmental damage. Society cannot afford to risk wholesale failure to address energy‐related biodiversity impacts because of preconceived notions and ideals.     

基于ILBM的太湖饮用水源地管理研究——以苏州市为例

饮用水源地管理是全球关注的热点,安全的饮用水源供给依赖于不断完善的管理机制,湖泊流域综合管理(ILBM)可以为水源地管理的完善提供很好的框架。湖泊流域综合管理框架由管理组织、政策、公众参与、信息、科学技术和资金六要素构成。基于该框架,文章对苏州太湖水源地管理现状进行了分析和诊断。研究发现,苏州市太湖水源地管理存在缺乏有效的管理组织协调机制、缺乏经济激励型和教育与公众参与政策、公众参与水平低、信息可信赖度差、科学技术与地方需求结合不紧密、资金投入不稳定等问题。基于ILBM管理框架,提出了水源地管理优化的政策建议。     

Sustainable tourism management and development of a Greek coastal municipality

A process is presented to facilitate the sustainable management and development of tourist destinations. Based on a specific reforming of the Limits of Acceptable Change planning system and combined with the Tourism Carrying Capacity concept into a common framework, specific steps are described to integrate environmental, social and economic information of a tourist destination into indicators, which are afterwards compared with reference conditions. The Leopold matrix is applied to identify and classify restrictions of development and provide the basis for negotiations between managers, stakeholders and local communities. Through a feedback process of continuous monitoring and adjustment, the aim is to focus developmental activities on restricting factors until all indicators upgrade to reference. A case study at a Greek coastal municipality (Ilida – western Greece) is applied to demonstrate the process. Activity zones are identified and 18 indicators are selected. Results suggest high potential for tourism development of the area. However, low scores are assigned to 8/18 indicators, reflecting restrictions, requiring priority under a sustainable development plan. The proposed process offers managers and stakeholders the ability to easily visualize/identify restrictions and assign developmental priorities within a step-by-step upgrading process, toward the sustainable management and development of tourist destinations.     

Investment and the Policy Process in Conservation Monitoring

Despite decades of discussion and implementation, conservation monitoring remains a challenge. Many current solutions in the literature focus on improving the science or making more structured decisions. These insights are important but incomplete in accounting for the politics and economics of the conservation decisions informed by monitoring. Our novel depiction of the monitoring enterprise unifies insights from multiple disciplines (conservation, operations research, economics, and policy) and highlights many underappreciated factors that affect the expected benefits of monitoring. For example, there must be a strong link between the specific needs of decision makers and information gathering. Furthermore, the involvement of stakeholders other than scientists and research managers means that new information may not be interpreted and acted upon as expected. While answering calls for sharply delineated objectives will clearly add focus to monitoring efforts, for practical reasons, high‐level goals may purposefully be left vague, to facilitate other necessary steps in the policy process. We use the expanded depiction of the monitoring process to highlight problems of cooperation and conflict. We critique calls to invest in monitoring for the greater good by arguing that incentives are typically lacking. Although the benefits of learning accrued within a project (e.g., improving management) provide incentives for investing in some monitoring, it is unrealistic, in general, to expect managers to add potentially costly measures to generate shared benefits. In the traditional linear model of the role of science in policy decisions, monitoring reduces uncertainty and decision makers are rational, unbiased consumers of the science. However, conservation actions increasingly involve social conflict. Drawing insights from political science, we argue that in high‐conflict situations, it is necessary to address the conflict prior to monitoring. Las Inversiones y el Proceso de Políticas en el Monitoreo de la Conservación Sanchirico et al.