The scope and scale of the informal food economy of South African urban residential townships: Results of a small-area micro-enterprise census

Growing urbanisation in South Africa is reflected in burgeoning Working class and informal township settlements on the fringes of its major towns and cities. Paired with this is an increasing reliance on cash as the primary means of economic transaction, which has in turn stimulated the growth of micro-enterprise business activities within the township context. This article discusses the findings of an eight-township small-area census which occurred between 2010 and 2013 in Cape Town, Johannesburg, Ekurhuleni and Durban townships representing 250 000 residents. The researchers were able to establish the scope and scale of informal food and drink retailing in these localities. Of the 10 049 micro-enterprises located in the study, some 3966 (or 39% of the total) trade in food. These include enterprises in primary production, fresh produce retailing, grocery retailing from house and spaza shops, and informal foodservice enterprises. Food is the basis for much township informal business and plays an important role in making food increasingly affordable and locally accessible, and in creating cash employment. The article builds on the knowledge base of the township informal economy role in bolstering food security needs for the marginalised.     

Entry into force of the UN Watercourses Convention: why should it matter?

The United Nations Watercourses Convention entered into force on 17 August 2014, following a long and complex journey that dates back to 1970 when the UN referred the matter to its legal arm, the International Law Commission. This article follows the Convention through that long and turbulent road, examines its main provisions and analyses the reasons for the delay of its entry into force. It concludes by answering the question of why entry into force of the Convention should indeed matter.     

The impacts of cattle access points on deposited sediment levels in headwater streams in Ireland

Cattle access to streams has been linked globally with degradation of stream water quality, driven largely by bank erosion and resultant instream, fine sediment deposition. The majority of evidence on such effects is however based in arid and semiarid regions of the United States and Australia, with few studies relating to cool temperate climates such as Northwest Europe. In this study, “Quorer” resuspendable sediment samples were taken from riffle geomorphic units upstream (control) and at two points downstream (pressure and recovery) of cattle access points in headwater streams in agricultural catchments in Ireland to assess levels of deposited stream sediment. Samples were taken in April/May (2016) prior to the grazing season and in October (2016) at the end of the grazing season. Sites in good‐high ecological status catchments and less than good ecological status catchments were included in the study. Higher levels of sediment were found downstream of cattle access points in both good‐high status and less than good status catchments; however, the impacts of access points were spatially confined to, in most cases, the area immediately downstream of the point of access. There was a strong correlation between deposited sediment mass and organic matter (OM) mass, with levels of OM increasing linearly with deposited sediment mass. Levels of measured sediment were negatively correlated with riparian habitat health (measured using a qualitative habitat assessment). The results of this study highlight the need for measures to prevent cattle access to headwater streams where access points can be many in order to manage local habitat quality and downstream water quality issues.     

Shareholder Activism and Voluntary Disclosure Initiation: The Case of Political Spending

Demand for disclosures on environmental, social, and governance (ESG) issues has increased dramatically. Using corporate political spending disclosures as our setting, we conduct a detailed inquiry of 541 political spending‐related shareholder proposals from 2004 to 2012 to highlight the role of shareholder activism as a mechanism to motivate ESG disclosure. Unlike earlier studies, we examine both proposals that went to a vote and proposals that were withdrawn by the activist, allowing us to assess more comprehensively the success of shareholder activism. We find that 20 percent of firms targeted by disclosure proposals begin disclosing in the subsequent year, although implementation rates vary by proposal type—8 percent for proposals subject to a vote versus 56 percent for proposals withdrawn. The sponsor is also important: unions and public pension funds are less likely than other activists to target firms with agency problems and are less successful in having proposals withdrawn, and the implementations they obtain are viewed more negatively by the broader investor base. Our findings highlight shareholder proposals as one mechanism through which investors can successfully express their preferences for corporate disclosure policies. Given activists' long‐standing interest in environmental and social disclosure policies, we believe our findings generalize to a broader set of ESG disclosures.     

Dreissenid veliger dynamics along a nearshore to offshore transect in Lake Michigan

Dreissenid mussel veligers compose a substantial component of pelagic biomass in the Great Lakes, yet their dynamics are poorly understood. To evaluate seasonal, spatial, and inter-annual variation in veliger density, we used a 64-μm mesh plankton net (2008, 2013–2016) and a 153-μm mesh plankton net (2007–2016) to collect dreissenid veligers at nearshore (15–25?m depth), transitional (45?m) and offshore (93–110?m) sites in southeast Lake Michigan during March–December. We also evaluated trends in density of recently settled mussels relative to veliger abundance and the density of the standing stock of adult mussels. Veliger density peaked during both summer and fall at all sites, but peak densities in summer were generally higher nearshore, whereas peak densities in the fall were generally higher offshore. The density of veligers in the 153-μm net was overall 28% of that in the 64-μm net, but there was high variability in this comparison among months. Smaller veligers were much more abundant in the 64-μm net, but there was little difference in the size distribution and abundance between nets for the 210–300?μm size classes. Thus, the 153-μm net could still be a useful tool for assessing density trends of larger veligers just prior to their settlement. Newly settled mussels (≤2?mm) were most abundant in summer or fall at the nearshore and offshore sites but were nearly absent at the transitional site despite the high density of veligers there. Factors other than veliger density must play an important role in mussel recruitment.     

Influence of episodic wind events on thermal stratification and bottom water hypoxia in a Great Lakes estuary

Hypoxia formation and breakdown were tracked during 2015 in Muskegon Lake estuary at multiple locations, and five years (2011–2015) of time-series buoy observatory data were evaluated for the effect of episodic wind-events on lake mixing. Bi-weekly water temperature and dissolved oxygen (DO) profiles at four locations revealed that hypoxia occurred at all sites and persisted for 2–3 months during summer 2015. On one date in late-summer, up to 24% of the lake’s volume was estimated to be mildly hypoxic (DO < 4 mg L^?1) as defined by lake sturgeon requirements. Patterns of wind speed and water column stability in late spring indicated that high winds and low stability delayed the onset of hypoxia while in late summer low winds and high stability delayed degradation of hypoxia. Wind speeds appear to play a great role in the interannual variability of stratification and subsequent hypoxia. Water temperature and DO profiles taken before and after one mid-summer mixing event (wind speed >7.7 m s^?1 for 10 h), indicated that while the wind was unable to completely mix the entire water column, it deepened the epilimnion by ～1.5 m and sheared a thin layer from the upper hypolimnion. By entraining internally loaded nutrients, such episodic wind-events may initiate and sustain algal blooms in nutrient limited surface waters. Quantifying the variable role of wind and mixing events will be key to integrating limnological processes into climate models of the future.     

Flood Risk and Salience: New Evidence from the Sunshine State

A growing literature finds evidence that flood risk salience varies over time, spiking directly following a flood and then falling off individuals' cognitive radar in the following years. In this article, we provide new evidence of salience exploiting a hurricane cluster impacting Florida that was preceded and followed by periods of unusual calm. Utilizing residential property sales across the state from 2002 through 2012, our main estimate finds a salience impact of ?8%, on average. The salience effect persists when we base estimation only on spatial variation in prices to limit confounding from other simultaneous changes due to shifting hedonic equilibria over time. These effects range from housing prices decreases of 5.4–12.3% depending on the year of sale. Understanding flood risk salience has important implications for flood insurance and disaster policy, the benefits transfer literature, and, more broadly, our understanding of natural disaster resilience. JEL Classification: Q51, Q54, R21