'Science', representation and resistance: the Bt cotton debate in Andhra Pradesh, India

Transgenic cotton is promoted in India on the basis that it will improve rural livelihoods, but such claims are contested on the basis that they are 'unscientific'. In this study, discourse analysis is utilized to deconstruct the environmental and scientific narratives employed by two key actors (Monsanto-Mahyco and the Deccan Development Society) in the debate in India. Whilst strong differences in the ideology of the two actors are found to account for their approaches to managing the environment, significant similarities in their approach to science and their recourse to Foucauldian governmentality are also evident. The conclusion considers how the use of discourse analysis could empower the rural poor to take part in the debate in India.     

The History of Recent Limnological Changes and Human Impact on Upper Klamath Lake, Oregon

Hypereutrophic Upper Klamath Lake has been studied for almost 50 years to evaluate the nature, cause, and effects of its very productive waters. Mitigation of undesirable effects of massive cyanobacterial blooms requires understanding their modern causes as well as their history. Knowledge of the pre-settlement natural limnology of this system can provide guidelines for lake restoration and management of land and water use strategies to maximize the benefits of this aquatic resource. This investigation uses a paleolimnological approach to document the nature and chronology of limnological and biological changes in Upper Klamath Lake for the past 200 years, covering the time when the lake was first described until today. A 45-cm gravity core, dated by ²¹⁰Pb and diatom correlations, was analyzed for diatoms, pollen, akinetes (resting spores) of the cyanobacterium Aphanizomenon flos-aquae, reworked tephra shards, and sediment magnetic characteristics. Pollen profiles show little vegetation change during this time. In contrast, diatoms indicative of increased nutrient fluxes (P and Si) increase moderately, coinciding with the settlement of the region by Euro-Americans. Numerous settlement activities, including draining of lake-margin marshes, upstream agriculture and timber harvest, road construction, and boat traffic, may have affected the lake. Magnetic properties and reworked tephra suggest riparian changes throughout the basin and increased lithogenic sediment delivery to the lake, especially after 1920 when the marshes near the mouth of the Williamson River were drained and converted to agricultural and pasture land. Drainage and channelization also decreased the ability of the marshes to function as traps and filters for upstream water and sediments. Akinetes of Aphanizomenon flos-aquae record progressive eutrophication of Upper Klamath Lake beginning in the 20th century and particularly after 1920 when lake-margin marsh reclamation more than doubled. The coincidence of limnological changes and human activities following European settlement suggests a major impact on the Upper Klamath Lake ecosystem, although ascribing specific limnological changes to specific human activities is difficult.     

Mapping the Stakeholders: Using Social Network Analysis to Increase the Legitimacy and Transparency of Participatory Scenario Planning

Participatory scenario planning (PSP) processes rely on accurate stakeholder identification to develop a key set of critical uncertainties. While many stakeholder analysis methods are able to identify stakeholders and describe their relationships, we found these efforts to have limited use in the fast-moving and in-depth approach of PSP research. We find that social network analysis (SNA) is an efficient, objective, and transparent approach to stakeholder identification in highly contested natural resource management issues. We present a case study of our research on Alaska’s Kenai Peninsula to describe how SNA’s ability to contextualize the relations between actors can benefit participatory research.     

The Relationship between Narratives,Wildlife Value Orientations,Attitudes, and Policy Preferences

Overabundance of white-tailed deer is a pervasive problem across the United States. Deer are blamed for increased risk of auto accidents, tick-borne diseases, and overbrowsing of native species. Lethal management techniques, cited as cost-effective and humane, are commonly employed for herd management. However, the approach frequently sparks outrage among various stakeholders who feel killing of animals is unjustified and prefer nonlethal measures. Wildlife managers then face the challenge of communicating with the public to build policy support for lethal management. The Narrative Policy Framework was used to test the effects of differing narratives on public opinion for lethal deer management. Results indicated narratives were influential in shifting attitudes toward and support for a proposed sharpshooting policy even in some cases where respondents were already familiar with the issue and held a previous opinion. This study also supported the utility of the Narrative Policy Framework for examining human dimensions of wildlife issues.     

长江流域全新世环境考古研究进展

长江流域是我国重要的经济区和人类文明孕育、诞生和发展区,也是水旱等自然灾害频繁发生的地区,在该区开展全新世环境考古研究,对弄清全新世10.0~3.0 ka BP无文字记载期的环境演变和人地关系互动影响有着重要的科学意义。近年来,长江流域全新世环境考古主要以古洪水和海面变化事件地层学为依据和线索,从遗址时空分布学研究、典型遗址考古地层学研究,以及区域内自然沉积地层记录的环境演变背景特征研究这三个方面入手,在长江流域的上、中、下游地区均获得了有重要意义的进展,表明长江流域全新世环境考古正在向更深更广的领域发展。同时,国际环境考古研究也在不断深入发展,新出版的PAGES Magazine杂志就特别关注了分辨率高达一年至数月的过去沉积记录;遥感、GIS等技术和DNA等分子生物学技术正不断在环境考古领域得到应用。     

WEST AFRICAN ENVIRONMENTAL NARRATIVES AND DEVELOPMENT‐VOLUNTEER PRAXIS*

ABSTRACT. Environmental narratives in Africa have been examined in a flurry of publications since the mid‐1990s. In this article we seek to offer insights into the role and motivations of volunteer development workers in perpetuating environmental narratives. We examine the factors that led to the questioning or nonquestioning of environment‐development discourses and their influence, if any, on the actual work undertaken by volunteers. As former development volunteers, we also explore the role that the development‐volunteer experience subsequently played in shaping our own research as academics. Our analysis is based largely on our tenure as U.S. Peace Corps volunteers in Mali from 1987 until 1989 and our later experiences as academics. We draw on our memories, interviews with former colleagues, and training materials to describe how volunteers were introduced to, and encouraged to act on, environmental problems in the West African Sudano‐Sahel. We adopt a reflexive approach to explore briefly how our experiences as volunteers influenced our research and writing as academics.     

The Influence of Place on the Willingness to Pay for Ecosystem Services

Sense of place, including an individual’s attitudes toward specific geographic settings, is generally predicted to influence willingness to engage in place-protective behaviors. Relatively little research, however, has empirically examined the influence of people’s attitudes toward a place on their willingness to pay for environmental protection. Using the example of a payment for ecosystem services (PES) initiative in the McKenzie River watershed, Oregon, USA, we found that place attitudes were a significant predictor of respondents’ willingness to pay for a program designed to benefit drinking water quality. These results suggest that connecting conservation actions to landscapes that are meaningful to people may increase their financial support for PES and other conservation programs. While program managers have little or no influence over stakeholders’ political ideology, gender, or income, managers may be able to influence prospective PES buyers’ awareness and attitudes through targeted communications, thereby potentially increasing support for place-based conservation efforts.     

Adaptation of U.S. Water Management to Climate and Environmental Change

This study addresses the current status of U.S. water resource management adaptation at the river basin scale. Four large basins, the Colorado, Platte, and Delaware rivers, as well as the Everglades Basin were examined to gain a diverse national perspective. The research program utilized qualitative methods, including observation, interviews, and questionnaires, to survey diverse basin management participants. Fifty-four participants in the case basins were interviewed on their perceptions and actions concerning the effects of climate variability and change. The research objective was to compare the cases in an adaptation assessment. Water decision makers in the United States make basin resource decisions based on a local physical and sociocultural environment. Therefore, although climate change is a global hazard, the characteristic local responses are unique for each of the study basins. The most employed adaptation method currently cited is a paradigm shift from command and control of basin resources to adaptable, flexible, no-regrets strategies, effective as responses to a wide array of potential effects from global environmental change.     

Policy Contestation over the Ecosystem Services Approach in Sweden

Ecosystem services (ES) is an important approach to biodiversity protection in political rhetoric and policy practice, but it is also highly contested. This paper analyzes the introduction of ES in Swedish environmental policy and how it is contested by key stakeholders and discusses its implications for biodiversity governance. The results show that although ES is widely accepted on an abstract and conceptual level, critical features and functions are highly contested. These primarily concern the valuation of nature, appropriateness of different policy instruments, and institutional structures. The paper concludes that while the controversy surrounding ES fills an important role by reinvigorating debate and stimulating reflections on biodiversity loss, it also illustrates how ES is used to further particular values and beliefs and to challenge traditional biodiversity-protecting strategies. Understanding these policy controversies is central to addressing the challenges of transforming the promises of ES into practical policies.     

Soil fertility management strategies on the Jos Plateau: the need for integrating 'empirical' and 'scientific' knowledge in agricultural development

Tin mining carried out on the Jos Plateau since the beginning of the last century has disturbed some 320 km² of agricultural land. Formal attempts at reclamation of this land failed, but local farmers have developed a successful informal strategy for reclamation. This paper reports on a study undertaken to comprehend the farmers'informal' approach to soil fertility management. Their soil fertility management practices centre on the use of a complex combination of traditional organic manures and 'modern' inorganic fertilizers that they have developed entirely on the basis of experimentation. A central focus of this paper is therefore the empirical knowledge base of the farmers and an assessment of any underlying scientific explanations for their strategies, including an analysis of their assertion that different brands of NPK fertilizers differ in their nutrient value. This discussion is followed by a consideration of the difficulties in accessing and understanding empirical knowledge. It is concluded that farmers' knowledge and understanding of the values of different fertilizers and manures does have a scientific basis. It is argued that for further agricultural development to take place on the Jos Plateau, there must be synergy between farmers' empirical knowledge (which has led to the development of successful and effective soil fertility management strategies, unlike the attempts of the local 'scientific' communities) and scientific knowledge (which can identify health and environmental hazards which may not be immediately visible to farmers).     

Gender and local soil knowledge: Linking farmers' perceptions with soil fertility in two villages in the Philippines

Scientists often turn to farmers to understand soil management. This process reveals differences and overlaps between local and scientific soil knowledge but rarely considers women and gender issues. This paper examines men's and women's local knowledge of soils in upland, smallholder farms in two villages in Mindanao, the Philippines, using focus group discussions, semi‐structured household interviews, field visits, GIS and soil testing. Farmers' field areas were calculated and delineated based on their perceptions of the different types of soils on their land. Men and women chose the same plots for what they considered their best soil but differed on what they felt were their worst. The fertility of the soils that women considered to be the best and worst was not significantly different from that of the men's respective choices. There was a difference in fertility, however, between the best and worst soils regardless of gender. Although soil fertility analyses showed that the women's chosen soils were similar to men's, analyses of qualitative data showed that their knowledge of soils was different and was based in part on a gendered division of labour. A multidisciplinary approach helped bridge the gap between sociocultural and physical research.     

Dissolving the sugar fields: Land reform and resistance identities in the Philippines

The Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Programme (CARP) was introduced in the Philippines in 1988 to facilitate a more equitable distribution of land and heighten agrarian efficiencies. The programme has faced considerable obstacles on the island of Negros, where sugar barons have tried to manipulate the new land laws to retain ownership of their large estates. This paper outlines the response of peasant communities on Negros who, with national scale nongovernmental organizations, have coalesced a social movement in a vision of fair and equitable land reform. Building on recent work by social movement theorists, we focus upon the production of the collective identity that binds geographically isolated communities into a coherent and recognized grouping. Particular attention is given to the promulgation of oppositional histories and narratives through farmer association networks which provide peasants with the means to nurture alternative environmental imaginaries and inspire resistance actions. While the strengths of such identities in resisting more powerful development actors are evident, questions are raised about the longevity of such identities, their role post-land reform and their potential to contribute to more fundamental postdevelopment challenges to imposed development norms and processes.     

长江经济带岸线资源调查与评估研究

岸线资源是重要而特殊的国土资源与国土空间,在江河沿岸地区经济社会发展和生态环境建设中发挥重要的支撑作用。基于遥感解译、部门座谈、实地勘察和采样测试等技术方法,对长江经济带干支流岸线资源开展了系统的调查评估分析。结果表明,岸线资源条件存在较大的空间差异,岸线资源生态敏感程度较高,开发与保护协调困难,岸线利用对滨岸带水环境和水生态产生影响,局部岸段健康风险突出,滨江湿地呈萎缩、破碎化趋势。从岸线资源空间管控等方面提出政策建议,以期为促进长江经济带绿色高质量发展、生态环境保护规划及国土空间规划等战略和工作提供参考借鉴。     

安庆沿江湖泊湿地生态系统服务功能价值评估

安庆沿江湖泊湿地是长江中下游淡水湿地的重要组成部分,是“东亚-澳大利亚鹆鹬类保护网络”中的重要一环,湿地资源十分丰富。本文运用生态经济学中的市场价值法、碳税法、影子工程法等评价方法,依据安庆沿江湖泊湿地特点对它的经济功能价值包括水资源价值、渔业资源价值、土地资源价值等;环境功能价值包括科考旅游价值、涵养水源价值、调节气...     

Lasting Legacies: Conservation and Communities at Huascaran National Park,Peru

This article uses a case-study approach to investigate the challenges of protected area (PA) management for Huascaran National Park in the Peruvian Andes. The park is analyzed by situating the timing of establishment of the park boundaries within the context of two historical Peruvian events: agrarian reform (1969) and an earthquake (1970). Interviews and narratives from community members and stakeholders associated with park delimitation and management were used for the study. Analysis of narratives revealed that the establishment of park boundaries, the legal definition used for the park, and land use restrictions contribute to diminished support for the park from surrounding communities. Community and national institutions negotiate the spatial boundary of conservation in Huascaran National Park while engaging with historical narratives that invoke environmental constraints and acts of resistance.     

2000年以来长江经济带城市职能结构演变特征及战略思考

基于城市职能的专业化部门、职能规模和职能强度三要素,利用全国第五次和第六次人口普查数据,分析了2000-2010年长江经济带城市职能结构与演变特征。结果显示：①工业、建筑业、商业、房地产、科研和其他服务业部门是长江经济带的基本职能部门;②长三角地区是长江经济带的工业重心,城市群和大城市的工业化进程显著,产业梯度转移已经取得显著效果,但尚缺少国家层面分区分级的调控引导机制,生态环境安全面临巨大压力;③建筑和房地产业职能正在由下游向上中游转移,并拉动包括商业、科研、金融、社会服务、其他服务业等生产性和生活性服务业的迅猛发展,但城市产业同构现象严重,中心城市集聚能力不足;④交通通信业职能下降,难以支撑长江经济带国家战略的顺利实施。针对以上特征与问题,建议以管理机制创新培育流域一体化城市(群)职能分工体系,以流域产业准入标准保障协同发展的绿色城市职能体系,以城市群战略和国家级新区链接城市职能互协互补网络体系,以长江经济带综合立体交通走廊优化沿江城市资源配置格局。     

Scientific documentation of crop land changes in the Sahel: A half empty box of knowledge to support policy?

The Sahel has been subject of considerable environmental research and development efforts, specifically since the droughts of the 1970s and 1980s. This article uses a meta-study approach to summarize knowledge of crop land change, the documented driving forces, and the perceived impacts. The analysis of case studies shows that crop land has increased in the majority of cases mainly due to population increase. However, despite population increase, crop land has been stable in some areas, particularly where land availability is a limiting factor or where farmers are able to intensify their farmers from expanding their plots or because households have diversified their activities. The study shows the huge gap in the scientific literature concerning actual measurements of crop land change in the Sahel, which is in contrast to the attention given to crop land changes in theoretical and policy discourses. On the basis of the poor documentation available on crop land change and the contrasting results observed, we point out the need to exercise caution with regard to simple narratives about crop land change.     

River Dog: Re‐imagining and re‐representing the environment and de‐idealising the rural in New Zealand film

The depiction of pristine countryside in New Zealand film has engendered a cultural disconnection with the environmental stories within the landscape. In this essay, we briefly examined the meaning of rural New Zealand landscape and its role in film. This research was done in part by making a short documentary, River Dog, a film about the rural New Zealand landscape. The character, plot and underlying message of River Dog were framed within visually relevant archetypes to form a constructive environmental message. Here, we examined River Dog's use of empathetic storytelling, an approach used to communicate an environmental issue without promulgating science or politics.     

国土整治与自然资源研究

国土整治是保障国民经济与人类社会持续进展的必要措施,以自然资源为主要研究对象。以谋求人类与自然相互适应的地理系统为指导思想,讨论了国土整治研究的目的、任务、方法等问题,以此阐述了自然资源研究在国土规划和国土管理工作中的重要性。     

The scientific legacy of V. B. Sochava,and future prospects of cultural geography

This paper is concerned with the main statements of V.B. Sochava’s theoretical legacy which are currently central to the advancement of modern cultural geography. Among them are the geographical science studies: metageography and geographical tectology, structural-dynamical approach to culture and landscape, and the concept of the geosystem and its invariant. The study brings out the importance of systems approach to culture and landscapes as well as the significance of the theory of geosystems, a catalyst for the emergence of new cultural-geographical knowledge. The problem of geographical tectology as stated by V.B. Sochava is implemented by adjusting the methods and knowledge of related disciplines for the particular purposes of geographical investigation. An outline is given of the specific character of methodological development of cultural geography in circumstances where the postmodernism world outlook platform is dominant as well as of the “drift” of the interests of the scientific community from the material aspect of man–environment interaction to the postmodern “dematerialization” of social geography. These processes which are progressing more intensely in Western science have influence on national geocultural research. Furthermore, the key characteristics of postmodernization, i.e. recognition of the equivalence and uniqueness of cultural-geographical phenomena, the equality of research standpoints, and refusal from the search for a “metanarrative” unfairly push to the methodological periphery the issues related to evolution, hierarchy, and interobjective connections of culture and landscape. The dominant emphasis on the nonmaterial aspects of cultural-geographical phenomena and processes does not imply that their systems side has lost value. V.B. Sochava’s theoretical developments provide a meaningful potential source for a further advancement of cultural geography. Moreover, even the international science has recently shown an enhancement in the tendency toward the “restoration of materialism” in cultural geography. This paper is built upon an integral approach to demonstrate an avenue for a harmonious combination of the “material” and “nonmaterial” sides of the discipline.