Local sustainability initiatives in English National Parks: What role for adaptive governance?

Adaptive governance has assumed growing importance in natural resource management literatures, emphasising learning and adaptation among actors at different political administrative levels and geographic scales as a precondition for the emergence of sustainable development. Here we assess this claim by examining five case studies of ‘good practice’ in sustainability, drawn from a national survey conducted in English National Parks. Specifically, we evaluate whether (1) adaptive governance characteristics are present in these ‘good practice’ initiatives, and (2) what governance role, if any, National Park Authorities have played in mediating individual and collective activities and behaviours within these projects at different levels and scales. We conclude with a critical assessment of the capacity of the adaptive governance approach to furnish new understandings of sustainable development initiatives in English NPs.     

Sustainable rural communities? A legal perspective on the community right to buy

Sustainable development is the underlying policy behind the community right to buy land in rural Scotland enshrined in the Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2003, Part 2. The Act explicitly requires communities wishing to exercise the right to buy to have sustainable development at the heart of their community body and all their plans for the land. This paper examines the role and interpretation of sustainable development in the CRB. Since the Act was passed three administrations have headed up the Scottish government and sustainable development issues and strategies for Scotland have been aired in four important and distinctive policy documents showing that it is still very much an evolving concept in Scottish politics. The current administration has adopted the most econocentric approach yet seen in the UK, focusing on sustainable economic growth. Meanwhile, the community right to buy has developed its own sustainable development agenda. This review of decisions taken under the legislation illustrates that a diverse range of community ownership plans have been deemed consistent with sustainable development, from creation of sports facilities to preservation of castles, lighthouses and village greens. A range of economic, social and environmental objectives have been approved. On the other hand, communities that fail to adopt the ‘right’ approach to the principle will not be successful in using the legislation.     

Accelerated restructuring in rural China fueled by ‘increasing vs. decreasing balance’ land-use policy for dealing with hollowed villages

Rapid industrialization and urbanization in China has produced a unique phenomenon of ‘village-hollowing’, shaped by the dual-track structure of socio-economic development. This paper analyzes the phenomenon of ‘village-hollowing’, identifying the processes and influences that have driven their evolution, and highlighting the challenge that the locking-up of unused rural housing land in ‘hollowed villages’ presents for China in the context of concerns over urban development and food security. The paper examines the ‘increasing vs. decreasing balance’ land-use policy has been adopted by the Chinese government in response to the problem, which seeks to balance increases in urban construction land with a reduction in rural construction land. The implementation of the scheme is discussed through a case study of Huantai county in Shandong province, drawing attention to its contested and contingent nature. It is argued that the policy is a top-down approach to rural restructuring that necessarily requires the acquiescence of local actors. However, it is noted that failures to adequate engage with local actors has led to resistance to the policy, including violent protests against the demolition of housing. The paper suggests that lessons might be learned from Europe by incorporating elements of ‘bottom-up’ planning into the process. As such, the paper demonstrates that rural restructuring in China is a dynamic, multi-scalar and hybrid process that shares common elements and experiences with rural restructuring in Europe and elsewhere, but which is also strongly shaped by the distinctive political, economic, social and cultural context of China.     

Wind power,landscape and strategic,spatial planning—The construction of ‘acceptable locations’ in Wales

A number of analysts have argued that decisions about renewable energy technologies and targets need to be reconciled with the social and environmental contexts in which those technologies are adopted. However, an unresolved issue is how the contextually-embedded qualities of landscape might be represented at the national level, alongside other energy policy considerations like resource availability, economic efficiency and technical feasibility. To explore the dilemmas of this enterprise, this work examines the efforts of the Welsh Assembly Government to develop a spatial planning framework for wind energy. The work examines how particular landscapes became identified as ‘acceptable locations’ for wind farms, and the consequences. Four sets of findings are discussed: the selectivity with which landscape qualities enter strategic planning rationalities, favouring qualities that are formally demarcated and measurable ‘at a distance’; the tendency of the identified strategic search areas for wind to reinforce the degraded status of afforested upland areas; the extent to which the planning framework has rendered certain environmental qualities malleable; and the way that drawing boundaries around acceptable locations for large-scale wind energy development may restrict the scope for future reflexivity in energy policy.     

Conceptualising ‘shadow landscape’ in political ecology and rural studies

This paper develops the concept of ‘shadow landscape’ in order to describe the essential otherness and seemingly distinctive if ever contingent properties of in-between rural places characterised by historical depopulation and cultural marginalisation. It does so first of all through a critically sympathetic assessment of how these areas have been portrayed in the fields of political ecology and rural studies. In political ecology, reference has long been made to ‘depopulated areas’ whereas in rural studies there has been recently talk of ‘marginal cultures’. The result tends to be a ‘pre-given socio-spatial container’ (Zimmerer and Bassett, 2003) that often obscures more than it reveals about these distinctive locations. The paper thereafter outlines the concept of shadow landscape as a means by which to understand these areas, and does so via a discussion of marginality, scale, socio-nature and ‘cultures of depopulation’. In the process, some of the key material and discursive issues that surround these ‘imagined communities’ are brought into focus. The conclusion considers a future research agenda based on an understanding shaped by the concept of shadow landscape.     

The ‘Neighbourhood Effect’: A multidisciplinary assessment of the case for farmer co-ordination in agri-environmental programmes

In this paper we present a multi-disciplinary analysis of the potential impacts of undertaking similar environmental actions on multiple farms in a small geographic area, using organic farming as a proxy for a co-ordinated approach. Recent papers have called for more co-ordinated efforts between farmers in terms of their environmental actions, but there has been limited applied research demonstrating the environmental benefits or the economic and social implications to farmers of this approach. Comparative analysis of biodiversity, soil and water, and farm profitability were undertaken in England on 32 matched farms in areas of low and high organic farming concentration; qualitative interviews were also conducted with 48 farmers living in two of the eight areas. Findings demonstrate higher overall levels of biodiversity on organic farms (particularly in “hotspot” areas) but this was not universal across the species groups investigated. Higher water infiltration rates were found in organic grasslands, which could prove to be a useful measure to combat flooding. In terms of the technical efficiency of producing these environmental gains, conventional and organic farms in hotspot areas demonstrated equivalent efficiency from a financial perspective. Socio-cultural research identified the different amounts of trust farmers have in their neighbours, based in part on their performance as ‘good farmers’. We discuss the neighbourhood effect with a multi-disciplinary approach and conclude that encouraging local farmer co-ordination can have clear environmental benefits without high economic cost, but must be undertaken with caution - specifically regarding the trade-offs between benefits, local geophysical and social characteristics, and assumptions made about inter-farmer trust.     

‘Forest governmentality’: A genealogy of subject-making of forest-dependent ‘scheduled tribes’ in India

This paper analyses the historical trajectories of both British colonial rule and independent India to categorise scheduled tribes and to appropriate and legalise forests in tribal areas. It builds upon Foucault's notion of governmentality to argue that the history of the scheduled tribes’ subject-making and the related history of forest demarcation is indispensable for understanding the current politics of decentralised forest management in India. Three dimensions of ‘forest governmentality’ - the history of categorisation, the politics of social identity, and the technologies of forest governance - are discussed to show how recent efforts to politicise forest tenure rights have reinforced political control over the scheduled tribes through new forms of authority, inclusion and exclusion. However, to claim their individual and community right to forestland and resources, the scheduled tribes have internalised their ‘new’ ethnic identity, thereby creating countervailing power and room to manoeuvre within the current forest governance regime. This is supported by a case study of the Bhil, a predominantly forest-dependent scheduled tribe in the semi-arid region of western India.     

Adaptation and change in Queensland’s rangelands: Cell grazing as an emerging ideology of pastoral-ecology

Does the current global political economic framework, or more specifically, the cost–price squeeze associated with primary production, restrict the choices of Australian cattle graziers in moving to more sustainable practices? It has often been argued by primary producers and academics, alike, that current terms of trade have resulted in reduced profitability at the property level, and as such, have made it difficult for landholders to shift to practices which are environmentally sustainable. Whilst there is mounting evidence that this is case, there is also evidence that some graziers have been able to adapt to the prevailing market conditions through an ideological as well as ‘practice’ shift. Findings from qualitative research in Central Queensland, Australia, has highlighted how ‘cell grazing’ departs from the traditional or conventional aspects of grazing which can be described as productivist, to an approach closely approximating Lang and Heasman’s (2004) ‘ecologically integrated paradigm’ [Lang, T., Heasman, M., 2004. Food Wars: The Global Battle for Mouths Minds and Markets. Earthscan, London]. It is argued that cell grazing is, at present, a marginal activity that requires an ideological and cultural shift, as well as an investment in new infrastructure, however, current cell grazing activities may also demonstrate that beef grazing has the potential to be both economically and environmentally sustainable.     

Making the ‘rules of the game’: Constituting territory and authority in Nicaragua's indigenous communities

Indigenous communities, particularly in Latin America, are increasingly winning recognition of rights to lands and forests that they have managed or used historically under customary institutions. If property refers to ‘the rules of the game’, this article uses the constitution of indigenous communal territories in Nicaragua to examine the process of ‘making the rules’. Specifically, the recognition of rights by central governments leads to political contestations over both territory and authority as communities and indigenous political leaders vie for different configurations of both lands and new territorial authorities. That is, the process of constituting large collective territories is intimately related to the constitution of authority, as it involves not only the negotiation of physical boundaries but also the recognition of an existing authority structure – or the creation of a new entity – to represent the beneficiaries. In Nicaragua's North Atlantic Autonomous Region, then, the decision over ‘which configuration of territory’ is ultimately a political negotiation over which ‘authority’ will have the right to control and enforce access to which rights and benefits from land and natural resources.     

Mixed farming in Africa: the search for order, the search for sustainability

This paper examines the interest in the development and promotion of mixed farming in sub-Saharan Africa. For over 70 years mixed farming has been a dominant model for agricultural development despite the limited success of many of the programmes which have specifically promoted it. It is suggested that the establishment of mixed farming as a strong development theme is related to its promise to address a range of environmental and social concerns, and in so doing, help create order out of a ‘chaotic’ African countryside. Mixed farming is again being highlighted with the more recent interest in sustainable, environmentally friendly agricultural systems. However, there is considerable evidence that African farmers have adopted a flexible principles-based approach to the use of component technologies commonly associated with the mixed farming model. This must be fully acknowledged, and the seduction of unitary models avoided, if agricultural research is to contribute efficiently to the development of more sustainable farming systems.     

设立秦巴国家中央公园的法律体系框架分析

秦巴山脉拥有丰厚的自然文化资源,区域内包括多个自然保护区、森林公园、风景名胜区等保护地。设立秦巴国家中央公园,可以优化、整合区域内各类型保护地,有利于保护秦巴地区的生态环境和促进该地区经济可持续发展。分析了我国国家公园的法律体系框架,系统梳理了秦巴地区涉及的现有保护地类型的地方法规。建议制定《秦巴国家中央公园管理条例》,为保护秦巴地区的生态环境提供统一管理、跨省协作的政策依据。     

Municipal commonage policy and livestock owners: Findings from the Eastern Cape,South Africa

The new African National Congress government announced after 1994 that municipal commonage would be a pillar of their land reform programme. The Department of Land Affairs spearheaded this by acquiring new land to complement the existing ‘old’ commonages. The aim of old commonage was to supplement the income of poor urban residents through the subsistence user system whereas new commonage was intended as a ‘stepping stone’ for emergent farmers. We investigated the differences between old and new commonage farmers as well as how they perceived the Makana local municipality's capacity to manage the commonage. The results showed that local institutions were weak. Only 46% of the old commonage farmers were members of a local livestock association whereas 74% of the new commonage farmers were members. Most old commonage farmers (59%) were dissatisfied with local government's management of the commonage. In contrast, only 37% of the new commonage farmers were dissatisfied with the management of the commonage. There were no differences between old and new commonage farmers in terms of livestock owners’ characteristics and mean annual net direct-use value of livestock. There were also no differences in the age of the two types of commonage farmers. Furthermore, there was no association between the type of commonage and level of education. The mean annual net direct-use value of livestock on old commonage was R6308 compared with R9707 on new commonage. Although the income from livestock for new commonage farmers varied slightly from that of old commonage farmers, the annual productive output per farmer on old commonage was R473 ha⁻¹, three times higher than that of new commonage farmers which was R134 ha⁻¹. We suggest that new land policy legislation is needed in which poverty as well as the legal arrangements between all stakeholders is clearly defined. Furthermore, national departments need to be more involved with local municipalities to increase local management capacity.     

A bottom-up ‘Convention-Check’ to improve top-down global protected area governance

This paper introduces the so-called ‘Convention-Check’ as a new bottom-up approach of assessing the contribution of large-scale protected areas to the implementation of Multilateral Environmental Agreements (MEAs) that are introduced from the top down. The assessment consists of three major sub-sequential parts: the current contribution of a protected area to the implementation of the MEAs, recommendations for improvements and – through an ex-post-evaluation – the impact of the recommendations provided. The Convention-Check is carried out in a total of ten methodical working steps. A very first application of the method is presented based on the example of an Austrian National Park. In this example, a Convention-Check was carried out using five MEAs and was evaluated after two years. The results show that there is great variability regarding the number and intensity of implementation measures already taken by the different levels of governance addressed. Potential reasons and perspectives for the example situation, as well as possibilities for future improvement of the method and its global application on large scale protected areas, are discussed. A significant and causal impact of the Convention-Check towards improved protected area governance is already shown by the Austrian example after two years. The Convention-Check combines different working methods from social as well as natural sciences in a new way. Its innovative approach is designed to overcome deadlocks in the top-down implementation of MEAs by means of bottom-up initiatives out of large scale protected areas, and aims to contribute towards improved global protected area governance.     

Intermediate levels of property rights and the emerging housing market in Ho Chi Minh City,Vietnam

Vietnam introduced a Policy of Renovation (‘Doi Moi’ Policy) to restructure the economy in 1986. Under this policy, the Land Use Right Certificate was introduced as a form of tenure for agricultural land and urban land, according to the Land Laws of 1987 and 1993, respectively. However, by 2001, most properties and/or land in Vietnam still did not have a legal title. Although Vietnam's land reforms in the 1990s provided some of the weakest private rights among the transition countries, big cities like Ho Chi Minh City are presently homes to thriving housing markets. Transactions of ‘property without a physical entity and legal title’ in the real estate market show how property ownership can be formed in order to operate within different institutional contexts. This paper highlights that ‘intermediate levels of property rights’ are the driving forces behind the thriving housing market in Ho Chi Minh City.     

Wind power planning,landscapes and publics

Renewable energy is currently undergoing a renaissance. Efforts to achieve national targets that have announced forward invariably impact on the appearance of the physical landscape, and raise issues of spatial planning. Proponents of renewable energy—sometimes, planners themselves—have often taken the support of environmental NGOs and the wider public for granted, as they perceive renewable energy facilities to be ‘clean’, ‘green’ and a continuation of traditional technologies such as wind and water mills. But whilst large sections of the population in developed countries are indeed in principle in favour of renewables, in practice proposed facilities have often given rise to considerable public concerns.     

Implementing Pillar II of the Common Agricultural Policy in England: Geographies of the Rural Enterprise Scheme and Processing and Marketing Grant

This paper examines the geography of two policy instruments – the Rural Enterprise Scheme (RES) and the Processing and Marketing Grant (PMG) – that formed part of the second ‘pillar’ of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) in England between 2000 and 2006. It starts by outlining the ongoing debate over the role of geography in policy research, an outcome of which has been a call for more empirical work that explores the ‘difference that place makes’ in the implementation of public funding mechanisms. The paper argues that the CAP is ripe for geographical analysis, as the Agenda 2000 reforms can be interpreted as moving it away from a ‘sectoral’ (agricultural) approach to a more ‘territorial’ (rural development) one. After outlining the place of the RES and PMG in the reformed CAP in England, the paper discusses three factors – farm size, proportion of land rented and location – that may have influenced their geographies. The distribution of grant approvals under these schemes is then mapped using location quotients. Following this, the potential influence of the factors outlined above is tested using the Kolmogorov–Smirnov statistic. The conclusion revisits the opening discussion by reflecting on the difference that place has made to the implementation of the PMG and RES.     

The quest for a sustainable spatial planning framework in Zimbabwe and Zambia

Over the years, the Zimbabwean and Zambian governments have been facing severe spatial development inequalities. They have therefore put in place various policies and strategies in a bid to ensure equitable spatial development. Spatial planning, which refers to the distribution of land uses and people, not only focuses on the physical aspects of land but also on national economic, environmental and social policies. This paper examines spatial planning frameworks in Zimbabwe and Zambia and how they have influenced spatial planning. The effect of spatial planning frameworks on development reveals a close relationship between spatial plans and spatial planning outcomes. The study shows how changes in institutional and legal frameworks affects development in different sectors of the economy and that a holistic approach to planning promotes sustainable development without neglecting other sectors. The data for the study was drawn primarily from secondary sources through a review of documents such as statutes, local development plans and other statutory instruments. The study found that in order to achieve sustainable spatial planning, there is need for a sustainable framework to guide spatial planning. Sustainable spatial planning frameworks also control and promote spatial development in both Zimbabwe and Zambia. Both institutional and legal frameworks guiding spatial planning should be sustainable for the benefit of future generations.     

中外低碳经济法律模式探析

立足于我国低碳经济发展现状,对我国及一些发达国家的有关低碳经济的法律法规、规章制度进行研究。介绍我国现有的低碳经济法律体系,并从能源立法、环境保护立法、政策规章三方面阐述;通过英国、美国、日本三国低碳经济立法发展进程,总结出常见的几种立法模式,阐述了发达国家低碳经济立法模式对中国的启示及借鉴。     

浅谈我国的环境法制建设

本文从三部分论述了在当前形势下加强环境法制建设的紧迫性和必要性。第一部分简介我国环境法制建设的现状 ;第二部分从环境立法和环境司法两方面论述我国环境法制建设中存在的问题 ;第三部分针对这些问题作者提出了自己的建议。