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This edited volume examines the changes that arise from the entanglement of global interests and narratives with the local struggles that have always existed in the drylands of Africa, the Middle East, and Central Asia/Inner Asia. Changes in drylands are happening in an overwhelming manner. Climate change, growing political instability, and increasing enclosures of large expanses of often common land are some of the changes with far-reaching consequences for those who make their living in the drylands. At the same time, powerful narratives about the drylands as ‘wastelands’ and their ‘backward’ inhabitants continue to hold sway, legitimizing interventions for development, security, a...
This book provides the first in-depth investigation of how non-timber forest products are an integral part of local, national, and global bioeconomies. While the plants and fungi that produce non-timber forest products are essential to the sustainability of forest ecosystems, peoples' food and livelihood security and sovereignty, and thus the bioeconomy, are often absent from bioeconomic strategies. Presenting a selection of empirical cases from around the world that engage with the bioeconomy and non-timber forest products, this volume reveals how essential these products are to creating a greener and more sustainable future, how to to better integrate them into efforts to transition to and...
This volume offers a holistic understanding of the environmental and societal challenges that affect reindeer husbandry in Fennoscandia today. Reindeer husbandry is a livelihood with a long traditional heritage and cultural importance. Like many other pastoral societies, reindeer herders are confronted with significant challenges. Covering Norway, Sweden and Finland – three countries with many differences and similarities – this volume examines how reindeer husbandry is affected by and responds to global environmental change and resource extraction in boreal and arctic social-ecological systems. Beginning with an historical overview of reindeer husbandry, the volume analyses the realitie...
This book explores how participatory governance processes help to find integrated solutions to resource-based development while protecting ecosystems in UNESCO designated areas. Participatory Governance of UNESCO Biosphere Reserves in Canada and Israel explores how stakeholders’ participation in decision-making processes related to natural resource management facilitates or hinders the obtainment of an acceptable balance between nature protection and sustainable development policies in the eyes of the participating stakeholders. A comparative analysis of nature versus development conflicts in the Megiddo and Mount Carmel biosphere reserves in Israel and the Mount Arrowsmith and Clayoquot S...
This book explores the nexus between natural resources ownership and the right to development in Africa. The right to sovereignty over natural resources and the right to development are recognised and protected in an extensive framework of international, regional and domestic instruments. They guarantee people's entitlement to fully and freely utilise their natural resources as a means of subsistence and for economic, social and cultural development. Yet, despite the abundance of natural resources in Africa a majority of the people on the continent remain largely impoverished. This book articulates the central argument that to achieve the right to development in Africa requires appropriate g...
This book presents a comprehensive study of the role that the Blue Flag beach program has played around the world, considering economic, social and environmental perspectives. Since its creation in the 1980s, The Blue Flag program awards the management of beaches and marinas based on sustainability, services and quality of their management. To date there are currently close to five thousand awards around the world. Forty years on from the program's creation, this book provides a thorough evaluation of the program, to understand how it has evolved over time, the successes it has enjoyed and the challenges it has overcome, and may face in the future. As an international program, this book refl...
This book examines the approaches to climate change adaptation in water governance taken by South Korea and Germany. By comparing their political decision-making processes, this book explores the factors behind their differences. Adaptation to the changing climate is critical to human society and water is the principal medium through which climate change will affect us. Due to high levels of industrialization and population density, flood control is a high priority in both countries’ adaptation plans. While South Korea has maintained its engineering-oriented flood control policy for river management, Germany has turned its direction from its long-standing technical approach to more nature-based solutions. The evidence of this study indicates that policy change and stability is the result of discourse and institutional interaction, and thus emphasizes the validity of discursive institutionalism. This book will clearly explain why certain policies are adopted for water management and will be an invaluable contribution to the expanding literature on the socio-political aspects of climate change adaptation.
There are very serious environmental problems facing the planet. Biodiversity loss has reached unprecedented levels. Climate change is progressing so rapidly that within this century we are likely to see substantial sea level rise. There has been dramatic loss of tropical rainforests. Plastic pollution is killing wildlife and polluting our oceans. Various movements old and new are addressing these green issues. Civil society activism has taken on new strategies with the emergence of new technologies and global networks of green activists have formed. A new generation of green activists are emerging and boldly criticizing the status quo. At the same time, in some parts of the world, green mov...
Balancing the Commons in Switzerland outlines continuity and change in the management of common-pool resources such as pastures and forests in Switzerland. The book focusses on the differences and similarities between local institutions (rules and regulations) and forms of commoners’ organisations (civic communities and corporations) which have managed common property for several centuries and have shaped the cultural landscapes of Switzerland. At the core of the book are five case studies from the German, French and Italian speaking regions of Switzerland. Beginning in the late medieval ages and focussing on the transformative periods in the 19th and 20th Century, it traces the internal a...
The seventh in a series of annual reports investigating the regulations that enhance business activity and those that constrain it, 'Doing Business' presents quantitative indicators on business regulations and the protection of property rights that can be compared across 183 economies--from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe--and over time. Regulations affecting 10 stages of a business's life are measured: starting a business, dealing with construction permits, employing workers, registering property, getting credit, protecting investors, paying taxes, trading across borders, enforcing contracts and closing a business. Data in 'Doing Business 2010' are current as of June 1, 2009. The indicators are used to analyze economic outcomes and identify what reforms have worked, where and why.