INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR

SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

Weekly Journal Review – Jan. 11,

2008

IISD’s Weekly Journal Review

IISD Research Library – Weekly

Journal Review

Article abstracts from new arrivals to the Information Centre

Jan. 11, 2008

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Fri 1/11/08

The Fall 2007 (Volume 3 Issue 2) issue of Sustainability: Science, Practice, & Policy is now available at http://ejournal.nbii.org/current.html. This issue of SSPP launches a new section called “Policy Debate” as a forum for discussions pertaining to sustainability policy making.

Articles listed here are from journals with a sustainable development focus.

For a full listing of subjects covered see the Research Library homepage

All articles listed can be obtained upon request (see end of message)

Search previous WJR listings using the library database, SD-Cite here

If you have any questions or comments please contact tverry@iisd.ca

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In this issue:

Canadian water resources journal 32 (4, 2007)

Conservation magazine 8 (4, 2007)

Development 50 (4, 2007)

Environmental values 16 (4, 2007)

European journal of international law 18 (4, 2007)

Foreign affairs 87 (1, 2008)

Geographical journal 173 (4, 2007)

Global environmental politics 7 (4, 2007)

Harvard international review 29 (3, 2007)

International environmental agreements: politics, law and economics 7 (4, 2007)

Journal of environmental economics and management 54 (3, 2007)

Local environment 12 (5, 2007)

Natural resources forum 31 (4, 2007)

New scientist 196 (2633, 2007)

Society and natural resources 20 (10, 2007)

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Eghbal Ehsanzadeh

Kaz Adamowskia

“Detection of trends in low flows across Canada”

IN: Canadian water resources journal 32 (4, 2007) : 251-264

A study of trends and variability of low flow characteristics was conducted for the Reference Hydrometric Basin Network (RHBN). A seven-day low-flow index from 57 hydrometric stations was extracted and examined to detect trends and changes in the timing of summer and winter seven-day low-flows. A modified Mann-Kendall (MK) nonparametric trend test was applied to the time series at a 0.05 significance level. The variance of the S statistic was modified if the absolute value of serial correlation was significant at a 0.1 significance level. Numerical analysis indicated that northern Canada (stations located above latitude 60°N) experienced an increasing significant trend in seven-day low-flows.

 

Predrag Prodanovic

Slobodan P. Simonovic

“Impacts of changing climatic conditions in the Upper Thames River Basin”

IN: Canadian water resources journal 32 (4, 2007) : 265-284

This paper presents the application of the inverse approach in the study of high and low flows due to changing climatic conditions in the Upper Thames River basin, southwestern Ontario. The inverse approach is an alternative to statistical downscaling of global circulation model outputs, typically used in climate change studies. At the core of the inverse approach is a weather generator model that uses locally observed climate data, together with outputs from global circulation models, to generate an arbitrary long record of regional climatic conditions. A base case and two climate scenarios are produced by a weather generator, whose output is used as input into: (a) an event hydrologic model (for high flows); and (b) a continuous hydrologic model (for low flows).

 

C. Valeo, et al.

“Climate change impacts in the Elbow River watershed”

IN: Canadian water resources journal 32 (4, 2007) : 285-302

The Elbow River Watershed originates in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains and is a primary source of water for the City of Calgary. Consequently, the long-term protection and investment of this resource is a primary interest to the City of Calgary. While droughts and water shortages are a serious concern to Albertans, spring freshet flooding may lead to enormous costs virtually overnight. The impacts of climate change on spring flooding in the Elbow River Watershed were determined using both a statistical analysis of historical hydro-climatological data and a modelling analysis using the Canadian Regional Climate Model (CRCM) forcing to the SSARR Watershed model, which is used by Alberta Environment for flood forecasting.

 

Lisa A. Grieef

Masaki Hayashi

“Establishing a rural groundwater monitoring network using existing wells : West Nose Creek Pilot Study, Alberta”

IN: Canadian water resources journal 32 (4, 2007) : 303-314

Sustainable groundwater management requires long-term monitoring of aquifer water level, water quality, and water use with adequate spatial and temporal resolution in order to evaluate the response of the aquifer to changes in pumping rates and meteorological conditions. Since existing federal and provincial monitoring programs do not have sufficient spatial resolution, an alternative is to establish locally-based monitoring programs coordinated by municipalities or watershed groups. A network of more than 20 monitoring wells was implemented in the West Nose Creek watershed near Calgary, Alberta using existing water supply wells. The network effectively captured the pattern of seasonal and inter-annual fluctuations of aquifer water level.

 

Tina Neale

Jeff Carmichael

Stewart Cohen

“Urban water futures : a multivariate analysis of population growth and climate change impacts on urban water demand in the Okanagan Basin, BC”

IN: Canadian water resources journal 32 (4, 2007) : 315-330

Climate change is expected to have a significant impact on water availability and demand in many regions. In regions where significant population growth is expected, additional pressure on water resources will likely result. This paper describes a scenario-based approach to integrating climate change impacts with other drivers for the purpose of bridging the gap between global climate change and local water management adaptation. Scenarios of future residential water demand account for population growth, climate change, housing type and demand side management, and compare these demands to licensed supply. Three case studies within the Okanagan Basin of British Columbia were chosen in order to assess regions of differing aridity, current water use, and community size: the Town of Oliver, City of Penticton and City of Kelowna water utility.

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Jim Robbins

“Saint Ursus Maritimus: icons are about simplicity and clarity. No grey areas. But what happens when the real polar bear clashes with the symbol it has become?”

IN: Conservation magazine 8 (4, 2007) : 12-19

Hunting nanuq on the blizzard-prone, wind-whipped ice off the coast of Nunavut in Canada’s far north is not for the faint-hearted. Polar bear hunters travel with an Inuit guide and must use traditional technology to find the bear and ensure a fair chase, which means a team of dogs and a sled and crossing the ice for up to ten days in temperatures that can reach -30 degrees Celsius. Another guide, often a nephew or a son, travels ahead and prepares the evening’s lodging – a tent or a snow house. He might serve char, seal, pork chops, or, once in a great while, narwhal skin, a delicacy that tastes like a cross between almond and coconut.

Ted Nordhaus

Michael Shellenberger

“The vision thing : imagine swapping Tony Blair for Winston Churchill. Would it transform the timid politics of global warming?”

IN: Conservation magazine 8 (4, 2007) : 28-30

On January 27, 2005, standing before the Davos World Economic Forum, Prime Minister Tony Blair put at the center of his vision of global interdependence two issues that had never before played such a prominent role in any geopolitical agenda: extreme poverty and global warming. For environmentalists, Blair’s Davos speech was a breakthrough. In directly challenging the Bush administration and pushing climate to the top of the G8’s agenda, Blair had injected much-needed political drama into what had been the sleeping pill of environmental issues. Would Blair’s crusade be the tipping point environmentalists had long dreamed of? It would not. By the time Blair hosted the July G8 summit, the Bush administration had severely diluted the joint statement on global warming. The prime minister tried to put his best face on the debacle, but clearly he’d been outmaneuvered.

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Lourdes Arizpe

“The world is becoming a more dangerous place: culture and identity among Mexican migrants in the United States”

IN: Development 50 (4, 2007) : 6-12

Lourdes Arizpe analyzes how Mexican migrants are being seen in the United States and how they and their non-migrant family members in their rural villages in Mexico perceive their multi-sited lives. She argues that the existing plural vision of the world in their region, shaped by indigenous, Mexican and religious forms and the political philosophies of different periods of the nation’s history, is, on the one hand being enriched through migration but, on the other, will be impoverished among migrants if they get trapped as a permanent underclass in the United States.

Gale Summerfield

“Transnational migration, gender and human security”

IN: Development 50 (4, 2007) : 13-18

Gale Summerfield examines the gender and human security aspects of transnational migration. Human security is taken here as an emphasis on basic needs, sustainability of a set of core capabilities and agency of people as full participants in society, for which gender equity is essential. Summerfield focuses on two key areas of rapid change: the global labour market for services and remittances for financing development through a case study on gender and human security of Latina/o immigrants in central Illinois.

Katja Hujo

Nicola Piper

“South-south migration: challenges for development and social policy”

IN: Development 50 (4, 2007) : 19-25

The renewed attention paid to the migration–development nexus by both researchers and policy-makers has predominantly focused on flows from South to North, whereas the consequences of South–South migration are under-researched. Furthermore, studies on the developmental impacts of out-migration on developing countries have tended to focus on monetary aspects and specific types of migrants. Katja Hujo and Nicola Piper address the missing linkages between various migrations, social development and social policy.

Rachel Sabates-Wheeler

Ian MacAuslan

“Migration and social protection: exposing problems of access”

IN: Development 50 (4, 2007) : 26-32

The need to manage risk and secure livelihoods can be the main driver of migration decisions; however, at the same time, a derived demand for various forms of social protection, state and non-state, may arise from the migration process. Rachel Sabates-Wheeler and Ian MacAuslan argue that it is in the interests of migrants and both host and source country governments to investigate and fully understand the implications of legal, physical and political access structures to social protection.

Christopher McDowell

Gareth Morell

“Development and displacement: institutionalizing responsibility”

IN: Development 50 (4, 2007) : 33-38

In the context of humanitarian reform, Christopher McDowell and Gareth Morrell examine options for responding to the needs of people negatively affected by the construction of infrastructure development projects in the developing world. They focus on involuntary resettlement considering the similarities between development displacees and conflict displacees conceptually and operationally. They ask whether the international humanitarian or international development structures provide the most fruitful routes for improving legal protection and material assistance.

Laura Agustin

“Introducing Sex at the Margins”

IN: Development 50 (4, 2007) : 39-43

The following are excerpts from Laura Agustín’s book Sex at the Margins: Migration, Labour Markets and the Rescue Industry, London: Zed Books (2007). As in her earlier contributions to Development, Agustín asks us to think differently about migration and sex work.

Alison Crosby

“People on the move : challenging migration on NGOs, migrants and sex work categorization”

IN: Development 50 (4, 2007) : 44-49

Migration policies are a form of population control: the issue is who is controlled, how, and by whom. Alison Crosby examines the categories that define and contain people who move and the possibilities they can have, and argues for a common standard of dignity, rights and security for all who are on the move, regardless of status or category.

Brian Murphy

“Open migration and the politics of fear”

IN: Development 50 (4, 2007) : 50-55

In Spring 2007, an exchange took place on an international online research and reflection network on the Great Transition Initiative, concerning the prospect of including the concept of open borders in its vision of a humane and just global future. The excerpts that follow share elements of that dialogue, edited for flow, from the original exchange stimulated by the comments made by Brian Murphy from Out of the Shadowlands: A Report on an International Learning Circle on Migration & Citizenship (Murphy, 2006) and the Canadian organization, Inter Pares.

Ferruccio Pastore

“Europe, migration and development: critical remarks on an emerging policy field”

IN: Development 50 (4, 2007) : 56-62

Ferruccio Pastore examines the past and recent policy response in Europe to migration and development. He argues that targeted measures are needed in order to mitigate the negative side-impact on development of the current security-centered migration policy approaches. Given the political and economic complexities, he calls for an increase in the scope of migration and policies with institution-building in sending and transit countries as a priority.

Flavia Piperno

“From care drain to care gain: migration in Romania and Ukraine and the rise of transnational welfare “

IN: Development 50 (4, 2007) : 63-78

Flavia Piperno looks at a series of studies conducted by CeSPI over the course of the last few years. Empirical research on transnational welfare has been carried out jointly by the Centre for International Political Studies (CeSPI) in Rome and by the International and European Forum of Migration Research (FIERI) in Turin through qualitative interviews, conducted between the winter and spring of 2006, with 60 Romanian and Ukrainian female careworkers residing in Turin and Rome and with 40 family members of female careworkers (often belonging to the same family units as the women interviewed in Italy) in the countries of origin.

 

Xiang Biao

“The making of mobile subjects : how migration and institutional reform intersect in northeast Chnia”

IN: Development 50 (4, 2007) : 69-74

Xiang Biao examines the increase in outmigration as a result of the emergence of new ‘mobile subjects’. He identifies how institutional reform turned individuals into mobile subjects. He looks at how individuals in northeast China became ‘free labour’, that is, labour disembedded from previous tight encapsulation of work units. The emergence of mobile subjects, however, does not imply a total withdrawal of the state from the social life. Mobile subjects instead result from carefully designed and implemented policies.

Cawo M. Abdi

“The new age of security : implications for refugees and internally displaced persons in the horn of Africa”

IN: Development 50 (4, 2007) : 75-81

Cawo M. Abdi looks at the Somali crisis as the most recent conflict being fought in the name of ‘war against terrorism’. She argues that it entails major implications for migration in general and for migrant women in particular. Her central concerns are to track the new realities in the various forms of migration across the world and to better understand at a policy level how migration and development nexus encourages south – north, south – south social and economic relations with more open and accountable development paths. She tracks how the migration and development nexus challenges concepts of citizenship, trans-national borders, diversity, social protection and security.

Loren B. Landau

Darshan Vigneswaran

“Shifting the focus of migration back home : perspectives from Southern Africa”

IN: Development 50 (4, 2007) : 82-87

Loren B. Landau and Darshan Vigneswaran raise three fundamental critiques about how contemporary migration and development debates are likely to affect sub-Saharan Africa. They suggest that the focus should shift from movements out of Africa to migration, displacement and urbanization within the continent in order to take into account the negative effects of migration on families, conflict and political accountability. They argue that given that the balance of negotiating power rests with Europe and North America, it is unlikely that any future agenda on migration will give priority to African interests.

John O. Oucho

“Migration and regional in Kenya”

IN: Development 50 (4, 2007) : 88-93

John O. Oucho presents the interrelated patterns of development and internal migration patterns and trends, hypothesizing their relationship in Kenya. Much of human activity is limited to the wetter, densely settled parts, the drier parts occupied by forests and national parks or game reserves. In the past four decades, three provinces have been net in-migration regions, the remaining five, net out-migration areas, consistently influencing and being influenced by regional development status.

 

Flore Gubert

“Migration and development : mixed evidence from western Mali”

IN: Development 50 (4, 2007) : 94-100

Flore Gubert examines the investment-oriented initiatives of Malian migrants in their home to illustrate that out migration has a strong impact on poverty reduction in the Kayes area. She proposes that migration-cum-remittances alone do not create the right conditions for genuine development even if the non-productive use of remittances may strongly impact on the mainstays of development such as health, education, culture or the environment.

 

Chinedum Uzoma Nwajiuba

Bertram E. B. Nwoke

Chinyere Augusta Nwajiuba

“Structural adjustment programme and public health issues in relation to migration : Nigeria”

IN: Development 50 (4, 2007) : 101-105

Chinedum Uzoma Nwajiuba, Bertram E.B. Nwoke and Chinyere Augusta Nwajiuba argue from the Nigerian case that international migration is economically induced. Specifically, the introduction of structural adjustment programmes in the mid-1980s in Nigeria and much of sub-Saharan Africa, with its severe negative consequences for livelihood, is the major stimulant for migration away from sub-Saharan Africa and into the more developed and economically stable economies of the OECD. They discuss the public health implications of migration, as well as some unintended negative consequences for family life and stability.

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Nicole Stuart

“Technology and epistemology : environmental mentalities and urban water usage”

IN: Environmental values 16 (4, 2007) : 417-431

This paper examines the mentalities associated with the transformation of ‘nature’ into urban life in industrial societies, with particular reference to the conversion of rainwater into tap water. It argues that industrial technologies dissociate urban dwellers from the natural environment upon which they depend. The paper maintains that this dissociation has contributed to mentalities encouraging the depletion and degradation of water resources and critically examines technological strategies for managing urban water use. The paper argues that epistemological systems must be reformed in conjunction with changing technological systems before environmental management strategies are likely to succeed. It concludes by suggesting ways in which urban water provision could be transformed so as to encourage greater ecological awareness and activism.

 

Anne Chapman

“The ways that nature matters: the world and the earth in the thought of Hanna Arendt”

IN: Environmental values 16 (4, 2007) : 433-445

One of the many sets of distinctions made by Hannah Arendt was that between the world and the earth. I give two different interpretations of this distinction then set out four different ways in which nature matters to us, depending on whether nature is regarded as world or as earth, and whether humans are seen as biological beings or as beings who create and inhabit a world. These different ways are represented in different forms of environmentalism and theories of environmental ethics. The controversy over wind farms in the UK as an instance in which two of the different ways that nature matters come into conflict with each other.

 

Simon P. James

“Against holism : rethinking Buddhist environmental ethics”

IN: Environmental values 16 (4, 2007) : 447-461

Environmental thinkers sympathetic to Buddhism sometimes reason as follows: (1) A holistic view of the world, according to which humans are regarded as being ‘one’ with nature, will necessarily engender environmental concern; (2) the Buddhist teaching of ‘emptiness’ represents such a view; therefore (3) Buddhism is an environmentally-friendly religion. In this paper, I argue that the first premise of this argument is false (a holistic view of the world can be reconciled with a markedly eco-unfriendly attitude) as is the second (in speaking of emptiness, Buddhist thinkers are not proposing an ‘ecological’ conception of the world).

 

Liam Leonard

“Environmentalism in Ireland : ecological modernisation versus populist rural sentiment”

IN: Environmental values 16 (4, 2007) : 463-483

The recent phase of economic growth in the Republic of Ireland has led to an increase in industrial and infrastructural development across the island. One offshoot of this accelerated growth has been a rise in community based environmental movements, as environmentalists and concerned communities have come to mobilise campaigns to protect local communities and hinterlands. This paper examines the contestation of two forms of environmentalism, institutional ecomodernism versus a grassroots ecopopulism within the context of the ongoing dispute between a local community in the west of Ireland and both multinationals and the state, who are attempting to run gas pipelines from the Atlantic Corrib Field through the rural community’s lands.

Ivan Zwart

“Local deliberation and the favoring of nature”

IN: Environmental values 16 (4, 2007) : 485-511

The central contention of theories of deliberative democracy is that deliberative arrangements should encourage (but by no means guarantee) the support of interests that are general to all. Democratic theorists have also suggested that the natural environment will be a likely beneficiary following public deliberation, given the inherent rationality in supporting interests that will lead to the long-term survival of the planet. This paper addresses the question of general environmental interests through two case studies in Australian local government and argues there are at least three factors that affect the ability of notionally deliberative arrangements to deliver outcomes that appear favourable to the natural environment.

Jason Brennan

“Dominating nature”

IN: Environmental values 16 (4, 2007) : 513-528

Something is wrong with the desire to dominate nature. In this paper, I explain both the causes and solution to anti-environmental attitudes within the framework of Hegel’s master-slave dialectic. I argue that the master-slave dialectic (interpreted as a metaphor, rather than literally) can provide reasons against taking an attitude of domination, and instead gives reasons to seek to be worthy of respect from nature, though nature cannot, of course, respect us. I then discuss what the social and economic conditions of moving to a post-domination philosophy appear to be.

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Lorand Bartels

“The trade and development policy of the European Union”

IN: European journal of international law 18 (4, 2007) : 715-756

This article examines the EU’s trade and development policy from the 1950s to the present day. From its origins in France’s demand that the EEC join in its colonial enterprise, this policy has grown to embrace all developing countries in a complex patchwork of trade preferences. However, it would be wrong to see this status quo as the natural evolution of an early interest in assisting developing countries. Rather, the EU’s system of trade preferences represents a compromise between its desire to protect the economic interests of the erstwhile colonies and the demands of non-privileged developing countries for improved access to European markets.

 

Yannick Radi

“The application of the most favoured-nation clause to the dispute settlement provisions of bilateral investment treaties : domesticating the “Trojan Horse”"

IN: European journal of international law 18 (4, 2007) : 757-774

Contracting states bring a ‘Trojan Horse’ into the city when providing for most-favoured-nation clauses (MFN clause) in bilateral investment treaties (BIT). This affects the general equilibrium of the treaties, as recent case law from investment arbitration tribunals illustrates. In these cases the controversial issue is the applicability of the MFN clause to the dispute settlement provisions of the BITs. Arbitration practice and mainstream literature so far have focussed on the specific nature of the dispute settlement mechanism, asking whether the MFN clause should cover it or not. This article analyses the arguments put forward so far on this issue, and argues that by reason of the ‘effet utile’ the MFN clause always covers the dispute settlement mechanism, unless the opposite intention of the Contracting states can be demonstrated.

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John L. Thornton

“Long time coming : the prospects for democracy in China”

IN: Foreign affairs 87 (1, 2008) : 2-22

Is China democratizing? The country’s leaders do not think of democracy as people in the West generally do, but they are increasingly backing local elections, judicial independence, and oversight of Chinese Communist Party officials. How far China’s liberalization will ultimately go and what Chinese politics will look like when it stops are open questions.

G. John Ikenberry

“The rise of China and the future of the West : can the liberal system survive? “

IN: Foreign affairs 87 (1, 2008) : 23-37

China’s rise will inevitably bring the United States’ unipolar moment to an end. But that does not necessarily mean a violent power struggle or the overthrow of the Western system. The U.S.-led international order can remain dominant even while integrating a more powerful China — but only if Washington sets about strengthening that liberal order now.

Stephanie Kleine-Ahlbrandt

Andrew Small

“China’s new dictatorship diplomacy: is Beijing parting with pariahs?”

IN: Foreign affairs 87 (1, 2008) : 38-56

Beijing has recently stepped back from its unconditional support for pariah states, such as Burma, North Korea, and Sudan. This means China may now be more likely to help the West manage the problems such states pose — but only up to a point, because at heart China still favors nonintervention as a general policy.

David D. Hale

Lyric Hughes Hale

“Reconsidering revaluation : the wrong approach to the U.S.-Chinese trade imbalance “

IN: Foreign affairs 87 (1, 2008): 57-66

Politicians in Washington are clamoring for currency revaluation in China to reverse China’s trade surplus with the United States. But the trade imbalance is not the threat they make it out to be, and a stronger yuan is not the solution. Everybody should focus instead on properly integrating China into the global economy.

Michael McFaul

Kathryn Stoner-Weiss

“The myth of the authoritarian model : how Putin’s crackdown holds Russia back”

IN: Foreign affairs 87 (1, 2008) : 68-84

A growing conventional wisdom holds that Vladimir Putin’s attack on democracy has brought Russia stability and prosperity — providing a new model of successful market authoritarianism. But the correlation between autocracy and economic growth is spurious. Autocracy’s effects in Russia have in fact been negative. Whatever the gains under Putin, they would have been greater under a democratic regime.

Vali Nasr

Ray Takeyh

“The costs of containing Iran: Washington’s misguided new Middle East policy”

IN: Foreign affairs 87 (1, 2008): 85-94

The Bush administration wants to contain Iran by rallying the support of Sunni Arab states and now sees Iran’s containment as the heart of its Middle East policy: a way to stabilize Iraq, declaw Hezbollah, and restart the Arab-Israeli peace process. But the strategy is unsound and impractical, and it will probably further destabilize an already volatile region.

Ronald Asmus

“Europe’s eastern promise : rethinking NATO and EU enlargement”

IN: Foreign affairs 87 (1, 2008) : 95-106

After the Cold War, NATO and the EU opened their doors to central and eastern Europe, making the continent safer and freer than ever before. Today, NATO and the EU must articulate a new rationale for enlarging still further, once again extending democracy and prosperity to the East, this time in the face of a more powerful and defiant Russia.

Klaus Schwab

“Global corporate citizenship: working with governments and civil society”

IN: Foreign affairs 87 (1, 2008) : 107-118

Global corporate citizenship means that companies must not only be engaged with stakeholders but be stakeholders themselves alongside governments and civil society. Since companies depend on global development, which in turn relies on stability and increased prosperity, it is in their direct interest to help improve the state of the world.

Robert M. Kimmitt

“Public footprints in private markets: sovereign wealth funds and the world economy”

IN: Foreign affairs 87 (1, 2008) : 119-130

The massive growth of sovereign wealth funds — pools of capital controlled by governments and invested in private markets abroad — should not cause alarm. But it does raise legitimate questions for the United States, pointing to the need for new policy principles for both the funds and the countries in which they invest.

Robert M. Kimmitt

“Stopping nuclear terrorism : the dangerous allure of a perfect defence”

IN: Foreign affairs 87 (1, 2008) : 131-140

The massive growth of sovereign wealth funds — pools of capital controlled by governments and invested in private markets abroad — should not cause alarm. But it does raise legitimate questions for the United States, pointing to the need for new policy principles for both the funds and the countries in which they invest.

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Nigel Watson

“Critical perspectives on integrated water management”

IN: Geographical journal 173 (4, 2007) : 297-299

Integrated water management (IWM) is a concept with a long history dating back to at least the early 1900s, when governments in many parts of the world first became interested in comprehensive development of land, water and other natural resources. However, it is only really in the last 20 years that IWM has attracted global attention, following its ‘rediscovery’ as a key strategy for sustainable development and achievement of the millennium development goals (Young et al. 1994; United Nations Water 2007). Despite (or perhaps because of ) this new-found status, IWM continues to generate a great deal of debate among academics, policymakers and resource managers (see, for example, Mitchell 1990; Newson 1997; Biswas 2004; Hooper 2005; Warner 2007).

Judith Petts

“Learning about learning: lessons from public engagement and deliberation on urban river restoration”

IN: Geographical journal 173 (4, 2007) : 300-311

This paper provides a new discussion of how people learn through deliberative processes, drawing upon empirical analysis of a novel public engagement process for urban river restoration. Such critical evaluation is rare and yet will be crucial to both theoretical development and learning about engagement practice, not least in a policy area subject to strong regulatory drivers for public participation. The analysis supports two important learning mechanisms – the use of ‘gatekeepers’ of knowledge, interests and values, and the privileging of narrative. It provides new evidence of instrumental and communicative learning about shared priorities and criteria for effective river restoration that evolved through the deliberative process and directly informed the restoration scheme.

Sue Kidd

Dave Shaw

“Integrated water resource management and institutional integration : realising the potential of spatial planning in England”

IN: Geographical journal 173 (4, 2007) : 312-329

This paper explores the various dimensions of integration that need consideration in developing appropriate institutional arrangements for integrated water resource management (IWRM), drawing upon both IWRM and spatial planning sources. As a result, a framework of integration in IWRM is set out. This is then used to consider the strengths and weaknesses of the new spatial planning system in England, and its potential to contribute to IWRM activities that are being developed, partly in response to the European Union Water Framework Directive. From this analysis it is argued that, taken overall, spatial planning is well placed to meet these challenges and it could in fact play a much more central role than is currently envisaged.

Jeremy G. Carter

“Spatial planning, water and the Water Framework Directive: insights from theory and practice “

IN: Geographical journal 173 (4, 2007) : 330-342

Land use change and environmental quality are closely related, and the nature and location of development can significantly influence both the generation and resolution of environmental problems. This places spatial planning, which provides a framework for regulating the development and use of land, in a strong position to affect water quantity and quality issues and thus to aid the achievement of the Directive’s goals. In particular, spatial planning has an important function in integrating the use and management of land and water more closely than is presently the case. This paper explores the potential and actual role of spatial planning in addressing challenges associated with the water environment. This enables an assessment to be made of the extent to which spatial planning can help to meet the goals of the Water Framework Directive.

K. L. Blackstock

C. E. Carter

“Operationalising sustainability science for a sustainability directive? Reflecting on three pilot projects”

IN: Geographical journal 173 (4, 2007) : 343-357

This paper will illustrate some of the challenges and emergent understandings that were observed during three research projects that could be characterised as attempting to practice sustainability science. The first two projects focused on designing and developing an integrated assessment approach to analyse possible programmes of measures for the WFD. The third project is an evaluation of a European project that piloted specific measures that might be implemented under WFD. The findings highlight the institutional changes required to deliver sustainability science. To summarise, both the ‘rules-in-use’ and the ‘play-of-the-game’, to use the language of the institutional analysis and development framework, will have to change to provide sufficient incentives to make the transition from traditional science to sustainability science.

 

Francois Molle

“Scales and power in river basin management : the Chao Phraya River in Thailand”

IN: Geographical journal 173 (4, 2007) : 358-373

A political ecology approach seeks to identify and understand the mechanisms that underpin the transformations of aquatic socio-environmental systems. Basin interconnectedness, with its hydrological, ecological and social dimensions, and three instances of the concept of scale are shown to be relevant to the understanding of these transformations. The paper analyses the case of the Chao Phraya river basin, in Thailand, and shows how land and water resources have been appropriated and identifies the different interest groups and their related discourses and power; it examines how they have adapted to socio-environmental changes, and highlights how risks, costs and benefits have been distributed.

Clare Johnson

Edmund Penning-Rowsell

“Natural and imposed injustices : the challenges in implementing “fair” flood risk management policy in England”

IN: Geographical journal 173 (4, 2007) : 374-390

This paper examines the challenges facing English flood risk management (FRM) policy and practice when considering fair decision-making processes and outcomes at a range of spatial scales. It is recognised that flooding is not fair per se: the inherent natural spatial inequality of flood frequency and extent, plus the legacy of differential system interventions, being the cause. But, drawing on the three social justice models – procedural equality, Rawls’ maximum rule and maximum utility – the authors examine the fairness principles currently employed in FRM decision-making. This is achieved, firstly, in relation to the distribution of taxpayer’s money for FRM at the national, regional and local levels and, secondly, for non-structural strategies – most notably those of insurance, flood warnings and awareness raising, land use control, home owner adaptation and emergency management.

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Kathryn Harrison

Lisa McIntosh Sundstrom

“The comparative politics of climate change”

IN: Global environmental politics 7 (4, 2007) : 1-18

The authors use a comparative politics framework, examining electoral interests, policy-maker’s own normative commitments, and domestic political institutions as factors influencing Annex 1 countries’ decisions on Kyoto Protocol ratification and adoption of national policies to mitigate climate change. Economic costs and electoral interests matter a great deal, even when policy-makers are morally motivated to take action on climate change. Leaders’ normative commitments may carry the day under centralized institutional conditions, but these commitments can be reversed when leaders change.

Miranda A. Schreurs

Yves Tiberghien

“Multi-level reinforcement : explaining European Union leadership in climate change mitigation”

IN: Global environmental politics 7 (4, 2007) : 19-46

The European Union has played a leading role in pushing for the establishment, ratification, and meaningful implementation of the Kyoto Protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, although it still has significant efforts to make to achieve its target of an 8 percent cut of greenhouse gas by 2008–2012 relative to the 1990 level. This article explores the political factors behind continued EU leadership in climate change. It argues that a few individual states (including Sweden, the Netherlands, Denmark, Germany, and the UK) played an essential role in establishing the EU’s agenda in this domain.

 

Laura A. Henry

Lisa McIntosh Sundstrom

“Russia and the Kyoto Protocol : seeking an alignment of interests and image”

IN: Global environmental politics 7 (4, 2007) : 47-69

On November 5, 2004, the Russian Federation ratified the Kyoto Protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, effectively saving the treaty. Battling domestic interests, in which a majority of pro-Kyoto voices were countered by a small but powerful minority of Kyoto opponents, had little influence on the decision due to the centralized institutional environment in Russia which allows the President great autonomy in foreign policy. President Putin ratified the treaty because Russia would likely gain leverage in other international negotiations and contribute to an image of itself as a good member of the club of advanced industrialized states. He delayed ratification to clarify evidence about gains versus losses from Kyoto provisions and to secure concessions from other Kyoto ratifiers in other international negotiations.

Yves Tiberghien

Miranda A. Schreurs

“High noon in Japan: embedded symbolism and post-2001 Kyoto Protocol politics”

IN: Global environmental politics 7 (4, 2007) : 70-91

In 2001, the Japanese government committed to ratify the Kyoto Protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Changeagainst industry pressures and in spite of the US decision to withdraw from the agreement. This commitment was crucial for the survival of the protocol. Japan has subsequently introduced substantial – yet, mostly voluntary – measures. To explain the puzzle of Japan’s ratification, this article builds upon the agenda-setting literature and advances the concept of embedded symbolism. During the 1990s, political leaders elevated climate change and the Kyoto Protocol to the level of a national symbol.

 

Kathryn Harrison

“The road not taken : climate change policy in Canada and the United States”

IN: Global environmental politics 7 (4, 2007) : 92-117

In 2001, President George W. Bush confirmed that the US would not ratify the Kyoto Protocol. Despite the US’ withdrawal, its neighbor Canada chose to ratify the Kyoto Protocol the following year. The divergence of these two highly integrated countries is surprising, since Canada and the US accepted comparable commitments in the 1997 Kyoto negotiations, and both could expect the costs of compliance to be significant given the greenhouse-gas intensive nature of their economies. The divergence cannot be explained by politicians’ electoral incentives since Canadian and US politicians alike faced strong business opposition and a relatively inattentive public. A strong normative commitment to international cooperation to protect the global commons was necessary to overcome political opposition to ratification, but still not sufficient.

 

Kate Crowley

“Is Australia faking it? The Kyoto Protocol and the greenhouse policy challenge”

IN: Global environmental politics 7 (4, 2007) : 118-139

While Australia has signed both the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, and the Kyoto Protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, it has failed to ratify the latter. It is nevertheless committed to meeting its 8 Kyoto target for greenhouse gas emissions, and argues that it is on track to doing so. This paper examines Australia’s non-ratification politics and greenhouse policy efforts in an attempt to explain its contrary position of resisting Kyoto, yet embracing and pursuing its emission reduction targets.

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Amine Kherbi

“Development’s security: a new perspective on international security”

IN: Harvard international review 29 (3, 2007) : 14-18

For the past several decades, the need for international security has developed alongside the global economic order that characterizes international relations today. Since the early 1970s, with the New International Economic Order and the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe, countries have been banding together to face security and development challenges, growing global threats, and military antagonism. Despite these initial efforts, however, cooperation must be further strengthened. Given the increasingly interconnected nature of countries’ political, economic, and social spheres, such coordination is growing ever more significant. International security must be based on mutual trust among the countries involved. When nations view themselves as individuals as they work to counter security threats, they ignore the dangers of leaving developing countries to fend for themselves. As a result, there must be an element of trust to allow countries to act as a unified front against global security issues.

 

Grameen Bank

“Credit for the poor : poverty as distant history”

IN: Harvard international review 29 (3, 2007) : 20-24

In our data-driven analysis of economic development and poverty, it is often difficult to remember that poverty was not created by the poor, but is rather a result of the socioeconomic system we have designed for the world. The poor are the victims of the very institutions that we have built and feel so proud of, and their continuous plight stems from our inability to think beyond the dominant theoretical frameworks of macroeconomics. Reliance on flawed concepts explains why the interactions between institutions and people have resulted in policies that produce poverty, rather than alleviate it, for so many human beings. The fault of poverty therefore lies with the top of society, with policymakers and academics. It does not reflect any lack of capability, desire, or effort on the part of the impoverished.

 

Abdoulaye Wade

“Democracy and development : consolidating peace in Africa”

IN: Harvard international review 29 (3, 2007) : 26-29

In a historical approach to the conflicts in Africa, one can distinguish certain outstanding sequences. The first sequence, corresponding to the pre-colonial period, was characterized by the birth and development of kingdoms and empires of limited scopes whose peaceful coexistence could be disrupted by violent conflicts by the whims of conquest and domination. Just like the wars between nations in Europe before the two World Wars, these conflicts resembled, at their core, tribal considerations. A second sequence encompases the period of relative stability the continent experienced, despite the colonial imposition of geographic divisions that would one day spawn a wealth of conflicts. Indeed, the Berlin Congress of February 1885 was devoted to the Balkanization of the African continent, the parceling out of territories and the separation of people according to borders that were fixed along the interests of the colonizers, and without heed to local societies.

 

Killian Clarke

“A modernization paradox : Saudi Arabia’s divided society”

IN: Harvard international review 29 (3, 2007) : 30-33

There is something profoundly paradoxical about the new Al Faisaliah shopping center in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. A sprawling, three-story compound complete with air-conditioning and wireless internet, the bustling shopping mall is chock full of US fast-food chains and swanky clothing shops boasting everything from bras to basketball shoes. And yet, these hallmarks of economic modernity and Western-style mass consumerism are strikingly juxtaposed with the rigidly imposed cultural mores that have changed only marginally since the days when Riyadh was little more than a collection of dirt streets and mud houses.

Indeed, government enforcement of social mores has set Saudi Arabia apart as one the world’s strictest and most traditional societies.

 

Nadira Lalji

“The resource curse revised : conflict and coltan in the Congo”

IN: Harvard international review 29 (3, 2007) : 34-37

The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), also known as “The Congo” and “Zaire,” remains the “heart of darkness” depicted so scintillatingly by Conrad in his novella. A place of conflict, brutality, and exploitation, the Congo documented by Marlow, a Belgian traveler journeying up the Congo River in search of Kurtz, the infamous ivory station chief and Marlow’s fellow colonist, is not that different from its present reality. The faces of DRC leaders may be different, the names of places may have changed, but the Congo’s horror is unchanged. Ongoing armed conflict and strife between groups of varying nationalities, ethnicities, and ideologies overwhelm the lush land. Here, greed for political power and wealth fuels the exploitation of people, their resources, and their homeland.

 

Lake Wang

“The good neighbor : why China cooperates”

IN: Harvard international review 29 (3, 2007) : 38-41

For much of Communist China’s existence, ideology and revolution were cornerstones of the country’s domestic and foreign policies. While aid and support was given to radical groups in Africa, Southeast Asia, and Latin America, wars were fought against India in 1962 and against the Soviet Union in 1969 because of trivial land disputes. The People’s Republic of China (PRC) thus gained the reputation of an unstable and chaotic neighbor. The unpredictability of pre-1976 Chinese foreign policy was epitomized by the Sino-Soviet split in the late 1960s and rapprochement with the “great capitalist devil,” the United States, in the early 1970s. However, in 1976, the death of the PRC’s first leader, Mao Zedong, led to the ascension of Deng Xiaoping, a visionary who aimed to lead China on a path of pragmatism and economic growth in which foreign policy became less confrontational.

 

“Securities insecurity : examining the economic weapon”

IN: Harvard international review 29 (3, 2007) : 42

In 1997 the Indonesian economy was devastated by a financial crisis, sending its currency plummeting and exposing President Suharto’s corrupt and shortsighted policies. The meltdown turned out to be the nail in the coffin for the aging dictator, whose hold on power had lasted for 30 years. What was perhaps more interesting than the resignation of this beleaguered president was the response made hundreds of miles away. On Jim Lehrer’s The News Hour, US Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin remarked, “We are in a new world … It’s a world of enormous opportunities, but it also has new risks … [Recovery] is obviously very much in the interest of the Indonesian people, but it’s also very, very much in our economic and national security interest.” The Asian financial crisis crystallized a notion that has become integral to the policymaking processes of contemporary economic and national security bodies: that globalization of financial markets has made it impossible for countries to fully protect their national security interests without also considering economic factors.

 

Michael Mastanduno

“Rivals or partners? Globalization and US-China relations”

IN: Harvard international review 29 (3, 2007) : 44-48

Classic thinkers as diverse as Adam Smith, Alexander Hamilton, and Karl Marx have recognized that wealth and power go hand in hand. World politics and international economics are intimately connected and should never be treated as separate areas of intellectual inquiry, much less of national policy. Just as designing and implementing war is too important to be left to generals, an understanding of trade, finance, and globalization is too important to be left solely in the hands of professional economists. The links between international politics and economics are as important in today’s post-September 11 world as they were during the balance of power struggles of the 18th and 19th centuries and during the collapse of the world economy and onset of two world wars in the 20th century. The global political economy currently stands at a crossroads.

 

George A. Lopez

“Effective sanctions : incentives and UN-US dynamics”

IN: Harvard international review 29 (3, 2007) : 50-54

As a means for responding to a wide array of national security concerns and violations of international norms, economic sanctions have occupied an increasingly prominent place in the tool kit of US policymakers. Ever since the United States championed UN Security Council Resolution 661 to expel Iraq from Kuwait in August 1990, it has imposed sanctions to restore democratically elected governments, protect human rights, extradite international fugitives, and end inter-state and civil wars. Especially after the Al Qaeda terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, the United States has employed more specialized smart sanctions, both on its own and in conjunction with the UN Security Council, to combat what many claim to be the most serious contemporary threat to US and global security–the spread of international terrorism and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.

 

Robert Mabro

“The oil weapon : can it be used today?”

IN: Harvard international review 29 (3, 2007) : 56-60

In 1973 the Arab oil-exporting countries stunned the world by announcing that they were cutting oil production and placing an oil embargo on the United States and the Netherlands. Now, 35 years later, fears about the security of oil supplies are provoking concern that Iran or a similarly hostile country might have recourse to some form of the oil weapon again. However, upon examination of the historical precedent–the use of the oil weapon in 1973 and 1974–it becomes clear that the oil weapon is a blunt instrument that cannot be applied in a focused manner for any sustained period.

 

Carol Adelman

“Foreign aid : effectively advancing security interests”

IN: Harvard international review 29 (3, 2007) : 62-67

The use of foreign aid as a tool to advance national security interests has been a driving force in US foreign policy since the implementation of the Marshall Plan, the United States’ first official aid program. Critics of using aid for national security purposes, such as Columbia professor Jeffrey Sachs and InterAction President and CEO Samuel Worthington, claim that this geopolitical aid goes to countries that are often wealthier and more corrupt than the nations that do not receive it. Such aid, the argument continues, is not spent on long-term development, but on short-term political gain. Proponents of this view draw the conclusion that foreign aid, so motivated, cannot be effective in reducing poverty. Such contentions are largely unfounded. While there are certainly motivational differences between development aid and security assistance, the natures of these projects are essentially the same, with resources in both cases targeted toward education, health care, agriculture, infrastructure, the environment, and long-term development.

 

William H. Kaempfer

Anton D. Lowenberg

“Targeted sanctions: motivating policy change”

IN: Harvard international review 29 (3, 2007) : 68-72

Economic sanctions are the international relations tool of choice in this day and age. The range of states that have become targets of sanctions is growing month by month, as is the list of organizations applying this foreign policy instrument. Such sanctioners are no longer limited to sovereign nations and multilateral organizations such as the United Nations; today even “small-time” players like state and municipal governments have discovered that economic sanctions provide them with a wonderful opportunity to assert their positions on international issues. And likewise, the sanctionees are no longer just the transgressor nations of yesteryear–now even trade partners are rebuked through the use of secondary sanctions.

 

Robert M. Kimmitt

“Open economies: toward security and prosperity”

IN: Harvard international review 29 (3, 2007) : 74-77

Finance ministries traditionally serve one primary mission: pursuing policies that promote economic growth. In today’s integrated world markets, economies succeed based on their ability to harness the forces of globalization to deliver growth. But the free movement of money and goods in an integrated world economy also creates an opportunity for terrorists and proliferators to exploit the international financial system to advance their dangerous agendas. Recognizing this fact, the US Treasury Department has taken on a new role to combat international security threats. Treasury’s traditional mission of encouraging economic growth and our enhanced efforts to protect national security are usually discussed separately. But these policy priorities should instead be considered as reinforcing objectives.

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Steinar Andresen

“The effectiveness of UN environmental institutions”

IN: International environmental agreements: politics, law and economics 7 (4, 2007) : 317-336

This is a study of the effectiveness of key UN institutions focussing on environment and sustainable development: the global conferences on development and the environment, the CSD and UNEP, primarily its co-ordinating functions. According to the indicators used to measure effectiveness here, it is concluded that the overall effectiveness of these institutions is quite low. This particularly applies to the CSD. UNEP has been quite effective in creating new institutions but has been less effective in co-ordinating them. As to the global conferences, their significance has been reduced over time.

 

Maria Ivanova

“Designing the United Nations Environment Programme : a story of compromise and confrontation”

IN: International environmental agreements: politics, law and economics 7 (4, 2007) : 337-361

The role of the United Nations in global environmental governance was determined in 1972 when a new international body for the global environment was created as a programme within the United Nations rather than as an autonomous specialized agency. A set of political dynamics between developed and developing countries led to the decisions on the functions, form, financing, and location of the new intergovernmental organization—the United Nations Environment Programme. This article traces the historical roots of these choices and exposes the motivations behind them.

 

Pamela S. Chasek

“U.S. policy in the UN environmental arena : powerful laggard or constructive leader?”

IN: International environmental agreements: politics, law and economics 7 (4, 2007) : 363-387

As the world’s one remaining superpower, the United States stands forth as a hegemon in international politics. Within the traditional realist perspective, this means that the U.S. is decisive for the ambition and scope of international cooperation. However, research has shown that there is limited empirical support for this assumption when it comes to environmental cooperation. After a brief look at the U.S. general attitude and perception of the UN, this paper will then review general trends in U.S. foreign environmental policy within the United Nations context, including several key domestic factors that have influenced the U.S. in this area.

 

John Vogler

Hannes R. Stephan

“The European Union in global environmental governance: leadership in the making?”

IN: International environmental agreements : politics, law and economics 7 (4, 2007) : 389-413

For well over a decade, the European Union (EU) has proclaimed its leadership role in global environmental governance (GEG). In this article, we examine both the nature of its leadership and the underlying conditions for ‘actorness’ upon which leadership must depend. The EU’s record in the global conferences as well as its influence on the reform of the Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) are also investigated.

 

Gorild Heggelund

Ellen Bruzelius Backer

“China and UN environmental policy : institutional growth, learning and implementation”

IN: International environmental agreements : politics, law and economics 7 (4, 2007) : 415-438

The focus of this article is on whether, and to what extent, the major UN bodies for environmental issues – the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP), the Commission for Sustainable Development (CSD), and the Global Environmental Facility (GEF)- have had any impact upon how China addresses and approaches its environmental issues. The UN bodies seem to have had some degree of day-to-day influence in a range of fields. UNEP has provided assistance in terms of policy formulation, technical assistance, training of personnel, public awareness and networking. The CSD seems to have made fewer practical and concrete contributions to China’s environmental policies; it serves as an arena for learning and discussion of environmental issues, rather than as a body for policy implementation. The GEF, on the other hand, has been an important source for the implementation of environmental policies in China.

 

G. Kristin Rosendal

“Norway in UN environmental policies : ambitions and influence”

IN: International environmental agreements : politics, law and economics 7 (4, 2007) : 439-455

This is a study of Norway’s ambitions for influencing UN environmental policies and then on the scope for impact. On the whole, it is clear that Norway has not been particularly successful in its general efforts at strengthening UNEP. These proposals have failed, due mainly to opposition from key states. Norway is after all a minor player in global governance issues, even in those pertaining to the environment. Norway has been more successful in efforts that indirectly strengthen UNEP, by supporting UNEP in initiating new MEAs.

 

Steinar Andresen

“Key actors in UN environmental governance : influence, reform and leadership”

IN: International environmental agreements : politics, law and economics 7 (4, 2007) : 457-468

In the introductory article it was concluded that the effectiveness of the UN environmental institutions studied was quite low. Key actors, especially the US and the EU, play a considerable role in explaining the course of development in these institutions. However, this does not mean that these processes are mainly state-driven as a number of other factors matter. The potential for reform and increased effectiveness is limited as the main actors, the US the EU and G-77/China have very different interests and perceptions as to the future directions of these institutions.

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Paul J. Ferraro

Craig McIntosh

Monica Ospina

“The effectiveness of the US Endangered Species Act: an econometric analysis using matching methods”

IN: Journal of environmental economics and management 54 (3, 2007) : 245-261

Diametrically opposed views of the effectiveness of the United States Endangered Species Act (ESA) co-exist more than 30 years after the Act’s creation. The evidence marshaled to date for and against the ESA suffers from a problem common in analyses of biodiversity protection measures: the absence of a well-chosen control group. We demonstrate how matching methods can be used to select such a control group and thereby estimate how species listed under the ESA would have fared had they not been listed. Our results show that listing a species under the ESA is, on average, detrimental to species recovery if not combined with substantial government funds. In contrast, listed species with such funding tend to improve. Our analysis offers not only new insights into a controversial debate, but also a methodology to guide conservation scientists in evaluating the effectiveness of society’s responses to biodiversity loss.

 

Christopher Costello, et al.

“Unintended biological invasions : does risk vary by trading partner?”

IN: Journal of environmental economics and management 54 (3, 2007) : 262-276

International trade is the primary conduit for unintentional and damaging species introductions. But biogeographic heterogeneity, and differences in historical trade exposure across trade partners suggest that not all imports are equally risky. We develop an analytical model linking exotic species introductions and discoveries to trade volumes. The model is estimated using a novel historical data set on global trade and species introductions by region. Our estimates support theoretical predictions that trade from different regions poses different risks and that the cumulative number of introductions from a region is a concave function of imports. For each trade region we then calculate the marginal and cumulative invasion risk from additional trade.

 

Erwin H. Bulte

Richard Damania

Ramon Lopez

“On the gains of committing to inefficiency : corruption, deforesatation and low land productivity in Latin America”

IN: Journal of environmental economics and management 54 (3, 2007) : 277-295

We present a new explanation and empirical evidence showing that rural subsidies to large farmers tend to be associated with low land productivity and excessive deforestation. We develop a lobbying model where wealthy farmers trade bribes or political contributions to government politicians in exchange for subsidies; farmers are able to tilt the terms of the bargaining game with policy makers in their favor by pre-committing to an inefficient choice of semi-fixed inputs. Government proneness to accept political contributions or bribes and its willingness to provide subsidies cause farmers to adopt inefficient modes of production as a mechanism to capture such subsidies.

 

Santiago J. Rubio

Alistair Ulph

“An infinite-horizon model of dynamic membership of international environmental agreements”

IN: Journal of environmental economics and management 54 (3, 2007) : 296-310

In this paper we analyse a simple infinite-horizon version of the static model of self-enforcing IEAs, in which damage costs increase with the stock of pollution, and countries decide each period whether to join an IEA. Using a quadratic approximation of the value function of the representative country we show that there exists a steady-state stock of pollution with corresponding steady-state IEA membership, and that as the stock rises towards steady state the IEA membership falls. Moreover, we find that the greater is the cost of damage, and hence the greater are the potential gains from cooperation, the smaller is the membership of a self-enforcing IEA.

 

Erwin Bulte

Daniel Rondeau

“Compensation for wildlife damages : habitat conversion, species preservation and local welfare”

IN: Journal of environmental economics and management 54 (3, 2007) : 311-322

We develop a model of hunting, farming and defensive action to study the environmental and economic consequences of introducing a program to compensate peasants of a small economy for the damage caused by wildlife. We show that the widespread belief that compensation induces wildlife conservation may be erroneous. Compensation can lower the wildlife stock, and may result in a net welfare loss for local people.

 

Hongli Feng

“Green payments and dual policy goals”

IN: Journal of environmental economics and management 54 (3, 2007) : 323-335

We use a mechanism design framework to analyze the optimal design of green payment policies with the dual goals of conservation and income support for small farms. Each farm is characterized by two dimensions of attributes: farms size and conservation efficiency. The policymaker may not be able to use the attributes as an explicit criterion for payments. We characterize optimal policy when conservation efficiency is unobservable to policymakers, and when farm size is also unobservable. An income support goal is shown to reduce the conservation distortion caused by asymmetric information. The cost of optimal green payment mechanisms is shown to depend crucially on whether large or small farms have greater conservation efficiency.

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Michele Betsill

Harriet Bulkeley

“Looking back and thinking ahead : a decade of cities and climate change research”

IN: Local environment 12 (5, 2007) : 447-456

To many observers of climate change politics, 1997 was an important milestone because of the completion of the Kyoto Protocol negotiations. With considerably less fanfare, 1997 was also the year in which Local Environment published its first article on the topic of cities and climate change (Collier 1997). By 1997, there was a growing movement of sub-national governments and local communities working to place climate change on the local agenda. These efforts were facilitated by the creation of three transnational city networks – Climate Alliance, Cities for Climate Protection (CCP), and Energie-Cite´s – with several hundred members concentrated in North America and Europe.

 

Sofie Storbjork

“Governing climate adaptation in the local arena : challenges of risk management and planning in Sweden”

IN: Local environment 12 (5, 2007) : 457-469

This paper directs attention to conditions for climate adaptation as an important part of governing climate change in the local arena. Empirical focus is put on attempts to manage flood risks by means of risk management and planning in two Swedish municipalities. Following the need to widen our understanding of how, when and under what conditions climate adaptation occurs, three challenges are particularly emphasized from the case studies: facing the safety vs. scenery conflict where political priorities and reducing societal vulnerabilities prove difficult; the process of deciding what to adapt to, in which the troublesome role of knowledge is striking; and finally, taking responsibility for measures of flood protection.

 

Claudia Holgate

“Factors and actors in climate change mitigation : a tale of two South African cities”

IN: Local environment 12 (5, 2007) : 471-484

South Africa, being a developing nation, is faced with many challenges, including poverty and one of the world’s highest HIV/AIDS infection rates. It is within this context that this paper presents an overview of the role played by major stakeholders in climate change mitigation policies, with the focus on two South African cities, namely Cape Town and Johannesburg. This paper aims to identify the internal and external factors that act as barriers to, or promote, climate change mitigation policy development and implementation in South African cities. These may take the form of the city’s internal structures, political interventions and support, and external factors including partnerships with outside organizations, including all tiers of government, non-governmental organizations and academic institutions.

 

Sarah Knuth, et al.

“Universities and climate change mitigation : advancing grassroots climate change policy in the US”

IN: Local environment 12 (5, 2007) : 485-504

While US climate change mitigation policy has stalled at the national level, local and regional actors are increasingly taking progressive steps to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. Universities are poised to play a key role in this grassroots effort by targeting their own emissions and by working with other local actors to develop climate change mitigation programmes. Researchers at the Pennsylvania State University have collaborated with university administrators and personnel to inventory campus emissions and develop mitigation strategies. In addition, they have facilitated a stakeholder-driven climate change mitigation project in one Pennsylvania county and started an ongoing service-learning project aimed at reducing emissions in another county.

 

Paul Parker

Ian Rowlands

“City partners maintain climate change action despite national cuts: residential energy efficiency programme valued at local level”

IN: Local environment 12 (5, 2007) : 505-517

Cities, regional governments and their local utilities are taking leading roles in programmes to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Agenda 21 highlighted the need for such local action to achieve the goals of the 1992 Earth Summit and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. This trend of increasing local action was demonstrated dramatically in Canada in 2006 when the newly elected federal government cancelled many of the previous government’s climate change programmes. The EnerGuide for Houses Program illustrates the growing importance of local decisions where the federal government developed a home energy rating system that was delivered through a range of partnerships across the country.

 

Patricia Romero Lankao

“How do local governments in Mexico City manage global warming?”

IN: Local environment 12 (5, 2007) : 519-535

Cities are both significant emitters of carbon dioxide and centres of innovations that may contribute to de-carbonizing our societies. More voices claim therefore that local authorities should be included in efforts to mitigate climate change. However, few studies have analysed how local authorities manage carbon and climate in urban areas in middle- and low-income countries. Yet, the institutional settings and governance structures of such cities are different from those prevailing in cities of wealthy countries. This paper aims to fill this gap by exploring: (a) whether and – if so – how local authorities in Mexico City actually ‘manage’ carbon emissions; (b) how the city’s evolving governance structures function and whether they ‘fit’ with the problem they address; and (c) how institutional capacity constrains authorities’ management efforts.

 

Mikael Granberg

Ingemar Elander

“Local governance and climate change : reflections on the Swedish experience”

IN: Local environment 12 (5, 2007) : 537-548

The focus of this article is the Swedish experience of local governance and climate change, including mitigation and adaptation. The municipal response to these two challenges is set within a broader policy context that acknowledges Sweden as a pioneer in environmental governance, including its comparatively high ambitions with regard to the reduction of greenhouse ga emissions. Central-local relations in climate policy are analysed, and climate change mitigation and adaptation are exemplified by some snapshots of municipal initiatives, including the popular habit of networking between municipalities within as well as across national borders.

 

Shobhakar Dhakal

Michele Betsill

“Challenges of urban and regional carbon management and the scientific response”

IN: Local environment 12 (5, 2007) : 549-555

How urbanization unfolds in the text few decades and which urban development path we choose are potentially critical to the efforts aimed at stabilizing greenhouse gas emissions. However, our understanding of urban, as a unit or system, and its cross-scale linkages in the context of carbon management is at infancy state. In this context, this article outlines, the key challenges and introduces a new scientific initiative – Urban and Regional Carbon Management Initiative of the Global Carbon Project, which has raised key scientific questions with the aim to find reasonable answers. This article mainly showcases key science questions, past activities and future outlook with the aim to reach out to the related scientific and policy communities.

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Muhammad Chaudhry

“Managing agriculture and rural development for poverty reduction”

IN: Natural resources forum 31 (4, 2007) : 250-252

About three quarters of the world’s poor live in rural areas, often without adequate means to maintain their livelihoods. Rural poverty stems from different sources, but limited economic opportunities and lack of access to social services (such as water and sanitation, healthcare and education etc), basic assets, markets, information and political power are often cited to be the important factors. The figures for 2004 show that in rural areas about 900 million people do not have access to safe drinking water and about 2 billion people do not have access to improved sanitation. More than 65% of the rural population in developing countries is without access to electricity. These are the people who represent the poorest and most vulnerable groups.

 

Abdul Waheed Bhutto

Aqeel Ahmed Bazmi

“Sustainable agriculture and eradication of rural poverty in Pakistan”

IN: Natural resources forum 31 (4, 2007) : 253-262

Poverty is rampant in the rural areas of Pakistan, where people are in a state of deprivation with regard to incomes, clothing, housing, healthcare, education, sanitary facilities and human rights. Agriculture generates nearly 20.9 percent of the country’s GDP and provides employment for 43.4 percent of its workforce. Most importantly, 65.9 percent of the population living in rural areas is directly or indirectly dependent on agriculture for their livelihood. Rising population, shrinking agricultural land, increasing demand for water resources, widespread land degradation and inadequate infrastructure appear to be major concerns of the agriculture sector in Pakistan.

 

Alan Terry

Matthew Ryder

“Improving food security in Swaziland : the transition from subsistence to communally managed cash cropping”

IN: Natural resources forum 31 (4, 2007) : 263-272

The Komati Downstream Development Project (KDDP), based upon the Maguga Dam has enabled 6,000 hectares of semi-arid lowveld, in a region with low and highly variable rainfall to be converted from subsistence to irrigated commercial farming, mainly of sugar cane. This has transformed the Swazi sugar industry from one dominated by a small number of large-scale commercial estates to one where more than 1,500 previously impoverished small-scale Swazi farmers have been able to enter the industry by joining farmers’ associations and creating communally managed farms.

Pascal Sanginga, et al.

“Enhanced learning from multi-stakeholder partnerships : lessons from the Enabling Rural Innovation in Africa programme”

IN: Natural resources forum 31 (4, 2007) : 273-285

Despite increasing interest and support for multi-stakeholder partnerships, empirical applications of participatory evaluation approaches to enhance learning from partnerships are either uncommon or undocumented. This paper draws lessons on the use of participatory self-reflective approaches that facilitate structured learning on processes and outcomes of partnerships. Such practice is important to building partnerships, because it helps partners understand how they can develop more collaborative and responsive ways of managing partnerships. The paper is based on experience with the Enabling Rural Innovation (ERI) in Africa programme. Results highlight the dynamic process of partnership formation and the key elements that contribute to success. These include: (i) shared vision and complementarity, (ii) consistent support from senior leadership; (iii) evidence of institutional and individual benefits; (iv) investments in human and social capital; (v) joint resources mobilization.

Sebastian Chakeredza, et al.

“Managing fodder trees as a solution to human-livestock food conflicts and their contribution to income generation for smallholder farmers in southern Africa”

IN: Natural resources forum 31 (4, 2007) : 286-296

Livestock production is an integral part of smallholder farming systems in southern Africa. While goats and sheep play some role in the smallholder farmer household economy, cattle are the predominant livestock species supplying draught power, milk, manure and meat. Production of cattle is based on range grazing. However, the nutritive value of the range is generally low depending on vegetation type and season. With the rapid increase in human population in southern Africa and the increasing need to produce staple food on a sustainable basis, smallholder farmers are increasingly encroaching onto lands formerly reserved for livestock grazing. Therefore, livestock subsisting on the range require supplementation.

Damaris Achieng Odeny

“The potential of pigeonpea (Cajanus cajan (L.) Millsp.) in Africa”

IN: Natural resources forum 31 (4, 2007) : 297-305

Pigeonpea is a tropical grain legume grown mainly in India. Though largely considered an orphan crop, pigeonpea has a huge untapped potential for improvement both in quantity and quality of production in Africa. More than any other legume adapted to the region, pigeonpea uniquely combines optimal nutritional profiles, high tolerance to environmental stresses, high biomass productivity and most nutrient and moisture contributions to the soil. This article highlights the need for popularizing pigeonpea as a major legume crop in Africa. The main constraints to productivity are discussed and recent breeding efforts in Africa highlighted. Important opportunities for improvement are further provided.

Oluyede Clifford Ajayi, et al.

“Adoption of renewable soil fertility replenishment technologies in the southern African region: lessons learnt and the way forward”

IN: Natural resources forum 31 (4, 2007) : 306-317

Low soil fertility is one of the most important biophysical constraints to increasing agricultural productivity in sub-Saharan Africa. Several renewable soil fertility replenishment (RSFR) technologies that are based on nutrient re-cycling principles have been developed in southern Africa. Some success stories have been recorded (e.g. nitrogen-fixing legumes), but the adoption of RSFR technologies has generally lagged behind scientific advances thereby reducing the potential impacts of the technologies. This paper describes the major RSFR technologies being promoted in the region, synthesizes available information regarding their adoption by farmers, and identifies the challenges, key lessons learnt and the way forward for up-scaling RSFR technologies in the region.

Barbara van Koppen, et al.

“Experts address the question : “In your view, do agricultural subsidies in developed countries benefit or harm the majority of the poor in developing countries?”"

IN: Natural resources forum 31 (4, 2007) : 318-321

Subsidized agricultural exports to developing countries and, worse, food aid kill the output markets of smallholders there, who encompass the majority of the world’s poor. Especially in sub-Saharan Africa, this unfair competition, together with blatant neglect of agriculture in public policy, hampers agricultural growth. Throughout history, agricultural growth has been the engine of overall economic growth. As such, subsidies and public support to agriculture make a lot of sense. In today’s high- and middle-income countries, such support was vital for agricultural growth, which, in its turn, triggered growth in other sectors. Stagnating growth and poverty are the other side of the same coin. Therefore, poor countries should set stiff tariffs for agricultural imports and refuse food aid in kind.

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Bennett Daviss

“Our solar future : it’s been a long time coming, but finally we are on the brink of a new era in power generation”

IN: New scientist 196 (2633, 2007) : 32-37

In theory, solving the world’s energy problems should be pretty straightforward. Locate a piece of sun-drenched land about half the size of Texas, find a way to capture just 20 per cent of the solar energy that falls there and bingo – problem solved. You have enough power to replace the world’s entire energy needs using the cleanest, most renewable resource there is. Can it really be that easy? For years, supporters of solar power have heralded every new technical breakthrough as a revolution in the making. Yet time and again it has failed to materialise, largely because the technology was too expensive and inefficient and, unlike alternatives such as nuclear and wind power, no substantial subsidies were available to kick-start a mass transition to solar energy. This time things are different.

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Troy Hall

Toddi Steelman

“The development of a discipline : a 20-year evaluation of Society & Natural Resources”

IN: Society and natural resources 20 (10, 2007) : 865-881

This article presents an assessment of the first 20 years of Society & Natural Resources (SNR), based on a content analysis of places, topics, and methods published; an electronic survey of the membership of the International Association for Society and Natural Resources (IASNR); and an assessment of various measures of journal impact. Findings are used to determine how well the journal is meeting its original goals including the degree to which it is international, diverse, and authoritative.

Sandra Marquart-Pyatt

“Concern for the environment among general publics : a cross-national study”

IN: Society and natural resources 20 (10, 2007) : 883-898

This research compares concern for the environment across 15 countries, examining the role of measurement cross-nationally. I demonstrate that different rankings of general publics can be distinguished with regard to different measures of environmental concern. I also examine demographic factors typically associated with the expression of environmental concern to determine their cross-national comparability.

Ellen Donoghue

Victoria Sturtevant

“Social science constructs in ecosystem assessments : revisiting community capacity and community resiliency”

IN: Society and natural resources 20 (10, 2007) : 899-912

This article explores the development of sociological constructs in community assessment components of large-scale ecosystem assessments. We compare the conceptual and operational development of the constructs of community capacity and community resiliency used in three community assessments in the western United States: the Forest Ecosystem Management Assessment Team, the Sierra Nevada Ecosystem Project, and the Interior Columbia Basin Ecosystem Management Project. The policy mandates, research goals, and methodologies of the assessments are considered in order to better understand the evolution of these constructs.

Thomas Beckley, et al.

“Snapshots of what matters most : using resident-employed photography to articulate attachment to place”

IN: Society and natural resources 20 (10, 2007) : 913-929

Sense-of-place research has grown in recent years and has attracted interest from a diverse range of disciplines. Beckley (2003) suggests that it may be possible to disaggregate persons’ attachment to biophysical versus sociocultural aspects of sense of place. Stedman (2003) and Beckley (2003) challenge researchers to experiment with new methods for examining the subject. This research addresses the challenges through the use of resident-employed photography. The method was used to elicit sense-of-place values in four communities across Canada.

Daniel Williams

Michael Patterson

“Snapshots of what, exactly? A comment on methodological experimentation and conceptual foundations in place research”

IN: Society and natural resources 20 (10, 2007) : 931-937

Beckley et al. (2007) contribute to place research by proposing a new methodological approach to analyzing attachments to place and exploring the relative importance of biophysical versus sociocultural attributes in determining place attachment. While our thinking has benefited from their contributions to place research, we see an increasing need to clarify the multiple and competing paths for place research easily obscured in the heap of similar-sounding place concepts. Our commentary cautions against philosophically unguided methodological experimentation and offers some critique of their conceptual approach to place.

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Weekly Journal Review – Jan. 11, 2008

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Fri 1/11/08

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Jan. 11, 2008