Barriers Beyond the Partners: Bureaucratic and Political Constraints to Implementing Joint Forest Management in Tamil Nadu,India

Whereas past research has treated co-management of common pool resources as if villagers and project implementing authorities were the only relevant actors, numerous external factors beyond the control of these two partners create barriers to successful co-management. This paper draws on discussions with Forest Department officials to examine the influence of these forces on the outcomes of Joint Forest Management (JFM) in Tamil Nadu, India. An empirical inquiry into the operational aspects of JFM indicates the important roles of political parties, powerful people, and other state institutions and functionaries as well as the flow of foreign funding. Further, the strong demand by local people for socio-economic development interventions as opposed to improvement of degraded forests belittles the role of the Forest Department relative to other departments. Numerous other conditioning factors and relationships are explored. The authors call for reforms in public governance to allow better participation of all the actors involved for this participatory management approach to succeed and sustain.     

SUSTAINABILITY AT THE LOCAL LEVEL: MANAGEMENT TOOLS AND MUNICIPAL TAX INCENTIVE MODEL

The implementation of sustainable development may seem a simple concept when written on paper. However to carry-out long term actions put forward by the Agenda 21 (AG21) at the local level represents one of the main challenges as municipal governments in general do not have the capacity to effectively implement the process. Regional environmental assessment (REA) has shown to be effective in supporting decision-making not only to correct environmental problems due to past unsustainable social-economic developments but also help local governments to implement sustainable actions. However this requires long-term investments of AG21 plans and projects. The allocation of regular and consistent financial resources is one of the main ingredients for the sustainable development process. But traditional plans and projects financed by national and/or international funds may not be sustainable in the long-term because they become dependent on external funding. Research demonstrate that innovative economic instruments such as ecotaxes represent a feasible alternative to sponsor local sustainability because taxes are collected permanently by the government and could be invested in continuous actions. Ecotaxes experiences have provided important reference to structure a municipal incentive model (MIM) to sponsor AG21’s environmental plans and projects on a long-term (permanent) basis. However sustainable development cannot be solely through economic investments. A comprehensive municipal environmental management scheme (MEMS) has been established to support the incentive model. The scheme seeks not only to improve local institutional framework but also incentive continuous participation of local stakeholders at all levels of society. Participatory events and the provision of incentives (educational and financial) are key to motivate society to protect the environment and support actively the sustainable development process as emphasised in the RIO-92 Conference.     

我国固体废物的管理体制问题分析

随着经济的发展和城市化水平的提高,固体废物的产生量迅速膨胀,其已成为制约社会和经济持续健康发展的瓶颈.以政策过程为主线,主要在责任界定、政策制定、政策执行和效果监督等环节上对城市生活垃圾、工业固体废物、危险废物和进口固体废物这4种重要的固体废物管理中存在的问题进行分析.结果表明,城市生活垃圾和工业固体废物管理中最亟待解决的问题均在于管理责任机制不明确;危险废物管理中最显著的困难在于国内相关法律法规还不健全、存在监管漏洞;进口固体废物管理中关注的重点是电子垃圾非法贸易问题.针对以上问题,给出了相应的政策建议,以促进固体废物管理体制基础的完善.     

瓜尔豆胶废水预处理的方法研究

根据瓜尔豆胶在生产食品添加剂的过程中产生的废水COD的值高迭216000mg/l的特点,分别用如下方法进行处理①调pH=6.84,按0.5%质量比加入活性炭吸附剂,静止20天,此时去除率为87.7%;②用饱和硫酸铝2mL 适量的聚丙烯酰胺絮凝,去除率为36.5%;③原液先蒸馏出1/4体积后在釜液中按3%的质量比加入Ca(OH)2,计算去除率为89.6%④利用铁炭屑以5:1的质量比形成微电池的方法作用两小时后再按3%的质量比加Ca(OH)2絮凝,此条件下去除率高达91.7%.经过比较得出第四种方法是最经济有效的,对该特种废水起到了很好的预处理作用.     

CLIMATE CHANGE AND NATURAL HAZARDS IN NORTHERN CANADA: INTEGRATING INDIGENOUS PERSPECTIVES WITH GOVERNMENT POLICY

A study of the relationship between natural hazards and climate change in the international context provides the background for a discussion of the expected changes. In the context of this global discussion, this paper reviews the current perspectives of those natural hazards that are likely to be influenced by climate change, using northern Canada as a regional case study. The northern implications of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change are examined, including the status of climate change action by the northern territorial governments, the evolving role of indigenous people, and the responsibility for climate change impacts. The difficulties surrounding natural hazards research in remote locations, and the approaches of indigenous people to natural hazards are then presented. The paper concludes with a suggested policy approach for climate change and natural hazards in northern Canada, underscoring the need for more comprehensive adaptive strategies to complement the current tendency to focus on the mitigation of greenhouse gases produced in this region.     

Annual and Diurnal Wind Patterns in the City of São Paulo

The major topographic, mesoscale, and urban influences on the wind patterns of the City of São Paulo are characterized using one year of surface wind velocity data observed at 11 surface stations within its urban limits. The data was used to study the diurnal and annual variations of wind velocity and horizontal wind divergence within the city. Results showed that the circulation over the investigated area is dominated by three major factors: sea breeze; mountain-valley circulations; and urban effects, such as roughness, building-barrier, and urban heat island. The sea breeze was found to be the dominant feature of the monthly-averaged diurnal variation of São Paulo surface winds during the eight warmest months of the year. The sea breeze front induces a velocity minimum at the time of its passage and a post-frontal afternoon velocity maximum. Mountain-valley thermal effects on the flow can be seen in the temporal divergence/convergence patterns. These thermal effects tend to be more important during colder months, at night, and when the wind velocities are low. Nighttime downslope convergent flows are present over the city during winter and spring and daytime upslope divergent flows are present over the city during summer months.     

黄土高原地区生态建设的关键问题

从黄土高原地区水土保持生态建设的实际情况出发,结合历史经验教训,探讨了生态建设与农业发展、农民脱贫致富的关系.指出生态环境问题归根结底是人的问题,减少人类对生态环境的破坏和干扰,因地制宜地进行植被建设和生态恢复,激励广大农民自觉参与生态建设对黄土高原地区水土保持生态建设成败至关重要.     

对火电厂烟气脱硫设计总平面布置的探讨

火电厂烟气脱硫工程往往是在场地或其他条件受到诸多限制的情况下进行的，设计中总平面布置的作用显得尤其突出。以几个电厂脱硫工程的设计为例，探讨如何充分利用已有务件，协调脱硫与整个厂区总平面布置的关系，以使设计合理，经济。     

Significant developments in sustainable development law and governance: A proposal

This article develops a practical proposal for progress on sustainable development law. It examines the prospects for an international sustainable development law to provide a framework for more effective, coherent governance. Sustainable development law is briefly defined and an analytical framework is provided. Different degrees of integration between economic, social and environmental law are described. Certain principles of international law related to sustainable development are also highlighted. It is argued that these principles may serve to guide law‐makers and jurists where social, economic and environmental law and policy conflict or overlap. Continuing, underlying questions of sustainable development governance are addressed and its global frameworks analysed. The article also focuses on the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development, held in Johannesburg in August‐September 2002, and its specific mandate for the United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development (UNCSD) to take related legal developments into account. The article advances a proposal: that governments, economic, social and environmental intergovernmental organizations and other actors establish a ‘network of inquiry’ with members from relevant groups, including legal and academic organizations, and other expert groups, in order to follow, research, analyse and debate legal developments in a balanced way.     

Societal implications of sustainable energy action plans: from energy modelling to stakeholder learning

This article investigates the potential impact of sustainable energy action plans (SEAPs) on local development through a two-step methodology involving participatory planning and quantitative analysis. The first phase relies on a participatory system mapping (PSM) approach and generates a causal structure at the basis of the urban model. In the second phase, we transform the qualitative map into a system dynamic model which evaluates the effect of the SEAP on social, economic and environmental indicators. This methodology was applied to the case of Cascina Municipality (Italy). Through scenario analysis, we show that some indirect feedback can harm the achievement of the 20% emission reduction target. This process allows the local authority and stakeholders to evaluate the impact of emission reduction policies on CO₂ emissions and local development, thereby generating collective learning on the systemic implications of the plan. We show that this method can enhance the ambition of emission mitigation efforts by small towns.