Land rights in conservation areas in Tanzania

Conflicts arise increasingly in Tanzania which involve claims in land located in conservation areas. These conflicts arise, in many cases, between members of the local communities and the state authorities in charge of the conservation areas. They concern customary land rights both of pastoral and of agricultural communities, a topic which also touches upon their identities. The article investigates the legal dimension of these disputes by discussing the law governing conservation areas in the wider context of land tenure legislation. Within this context, the legal framework of conservation areas is discussed from both historical and contemporary perspectives. Nature conservation must respect the needs of the local population affected. It is therefore argued that concepts of community-based conservation should be developed further to work towards the goal of integrating nature conservation and the sustainable use of natural resources. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

A political ecology of REDD+: Property rights,militarised protectionism,and carbonised exclusion in Cross River

This paper offers a critical assessment of REDD+ in Nigeria through a political ecology perspective. Focusing on questions of property rights and resource access, it maps the discursive articulations and contestations through which carbon rights are being determined. It also shows how these articulations and contestations are linked to land and forest rights, and how they shape everyday access to the forest. Evidence from the Nigerian case suggests that factors that complicate rights and undermine access to resources for forest communities under REDD+ are immanent to the contested terrain constituted in part by REDD+ proposals, proponents’ discourses and practices geared towards securing the forest for REDD+. Efforts to secure property rights and guarantee the permanence of REDD+ forests align with economic, ecological and ideological aspirations of state and non-state actors to produce a regime of militarised protectionism. I demonstrate how, in addition to its material and symbolic facilitation of the emergent carbon forestry economy, militarised protectionism as a regime of exclusion also constitutes collateral political economies of ‘more-than-carbon’ forest resources (such as timber and non-timber forest products) which perpetuate capital accumulation by the elites. It is this kind of exclusion–accumulation dialectic, legitimised by carbon forestry claims that this paper describes as carbonised exclusion. The paper thus furthers debates on the political ecology of REDD+ and other carbon forestry projects, while productively engaging technocentric literature on REDD+ and property rights.     

辽西中、新生代地质作用对区域土地资源状况的影响

中、新生代地质作用对辽西地区土地资源状况有着重要影响.其一,地质作用决定了土地资源自然状况:构造岩浆活动、区域造山动力等地质作用决定了区域地貌特征及土地资源的空间分布格局;风化作用、河流地质作用形成了不同类型的成土母质,决定了土层结构类型、土壤理化性质等土地资源的物质特征.其二,地质作用在很大程度上影响着土地资源的演化趋势:风、流水、重力等地质作用一直以不同的方式和程度改变着土地资源状况——在人类活动的参与下这种改变正愈演愈烈,如荒漠化、山体滑坡、泥石流、水土流失等.正确认识并科学分析这类地区地质作用与土地资源状况的关系,对于合理利用并有效保护土地资源具有重要意义.     

关于黄河流域环境地学与国土整治的思考

本文从黄河流域的地质与地理,气象与气候,水文与泥沙,植被与土壤,以及人文与人口等方面综述了下游地下悬河与断流的环境地学背景,并从洪水与堤防,决口与改道,分流与运河,以及悬河与充等方面分析了黄河下游河道变迁和现状问题。当前,为解决黄河缺水断流,洪水威胁和环境变化等问题,应及时调整黄河中,上游国土整治对策,其中包括遵从自然规律,调整水土保持思路,倡导就地储水,遏制地面蒸发,控制沟谷发育及全面推进小流域     

REDD+ for Red Books? Negotiating rights to land and livelihoods through carbon governance in the Central Highlands of Vietnam

In Vietnam, initial programs to Reduce Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) have proliferated through international finance and new governance regimes for climate change mitigation. National capacity and legal frameworks have been adjusted to make the country eligible for REDD+ financing. In some local areas, activities have been implemented to ‘produce’ carbon credits intended for the international voluntary carbon market. Through a case study of a pilot REDD+ project in the Central Highlands of Vietnam, we examine how REDD+ has intersected with property rights institutions and agrarian change to influence changing property relations and commodity markets. Our findings show that REDD+ implemented through state and local institutions has articulated with the local political economy to coproduce conditions that embody local norms, needs, and desires. Specifically, local actors negotiate state-sanctioned tenurial instruments used for REDD+ governance, not for the purposes of carbon sequestration but instead in order to reassert their rights to land and forest for the cultivation of boom crops—the antithesis of REDD+ objectives. In the fine balancing act of adjusting local forestland holdings, REDD+ implementation has effectively facilitated increased opportunities for upland villagers to strategically claim land titles from local political authorities in the form of communal land certificates for forests called ‘Red Books’. In securing communal Red Books, villagers redefine or co-constitute the purpose of REDD+ to secure land for cash crop and commercial timber production. As with other forms of environmental governance, REDD+ is thus co-constituted locally in line with state and local institutions and histories and present day realities.     

Re-mapping regulatory space: The new governance of Australian dairying

Despite questions currently raised about the future of neoliberalism, it remains embedded within Australian agricultural policy and practice. This paper explores the strengths and limitations of mechanisms contributing to neoliberalism’s survival through a close examination of the restructuring of Australian agricultural production and governance processes under the influence of both globalising impulses and adherence to neoliberal strategies. We trace the changes in governance flowing from the dismantling of regulatory structures in the Australian dairy industry, and the creation of new forms of governance that have both facilitated this transition and dealt with its adverse, often unintended, consequences. The changing governance of Australian dairying is analysed through the lens of three arenas of governance: state, industry and place. Drought has played an important part in re-spacialising dairying and re-shaping the balance between farmers and industry, demonstrating the contingency at play in emerging governance structures. This study of processes of change within the highly export-oriented dairy sector of Australia focuses attention on resistance and on some of the messy actualities of the interplay between state, place and industry - and nature - in neoliberal agri-food governance.     

Water governance in New Mexico: Adjudication,law, and geography

Water rights adjudications lie at the intersection of law, space, and the geography of resource governance, combining elements of field cartography, archival research, and judicial supervision and decree. However, few geographers have examined the water rights adjudications now active in most western US states. Using case material and ethnographic vignettes from a larger geographic project on water rights and governance in New Mexico, I examine water adjudication as a vital instrument in the state’s pursuit of spatial knowledge. Resources and water users are seen by the state through this process, while at the same time, water users may elude or confuse state legibility. In this process, altered forms of governance are produced. Here, I explore how the formalizing of water rights in New Mexico has articulated new legal-spatial relationships, which are often viewed differently by state and local agents. I then examine the products of adjudications and the tension between local and expert knowledge in natural resources governance over being seen and governed by the state and the struggle to retain local autonomy and governance in water management.     

冲积河流泥沙输移幂律函数指数变化规律

冲积河流泥沙输移幂律函数关系与不平衡输沙理论是对河道不平衡输沙同一物理现象的不同描述,两者既有区别也有联系。比较研究发现:对于恒定均匀流不平衡输沙过程,当输沙位于近平衡态时两者含沙量导函数表达式具有一阶近似等价性,当输沙远离平衡态时前者含沙量导函数中隐含考虑有泥沙恢复饱和系数的变化。基于两者等价性,推导建立了幂律函数指数计算表达式,表明指数随泥沙沉速、单宽流量和沿程距离而变化,且随着输移距离的增大呈指数衰减。基于前者含沙量导函数表达式结构特点,分析建立了相应泥沙恢复饱和系数变化的计算表达式。综合以上成果,改进提出了一种变幂指数的泥沙输移幂律函数计算模型。对库里·阿雷克沉沙池沿程断面输沙指数及含沙量计算结果表明,不同距离过水断面输沙指数的变化规律是合理的,含沙量计算值与实测值变化趋势基本符合。     

An analysis of climatic and human induced determinants of agricultural land use changes in Shupiyan area of Jammu and Kashmir state,India

The economy of the Jammu and Kashmir state depends mostly on traditional forms of occupation. Unaffected and unaltered by modern day industrial developments and changing times, the indigenous traditional occupations of farming, animal husbandry and horticulture forms the backbone of the state economy. But in the last few decades, Agriculture in the state as well as the study area is receiving a set back and Horticulture is flourishing leaps and bounds. The present study aims to analyze various determinants responsible for this change. Climatic as well as field data was thoroughly analyzed to comprehend the situation. A Mann–Kendall test was done on the climatic data to support the hypotheses. It was observed that initially changing climatic trends proved to be the triggering factor supporting this change, but in due course of time, the determinants took an economic and psychological turn. The perusal of Indian Meteorological Data reveals an increasing trend of annual mean maximum temperature from 16.78 °C in 1985 to 17.58 °C in 1995 and an increase from 5.30 °C to 7.00 °C in the annual mean minimum temperature, and as such acting as a triggering factor for the land use conversion. Further, the mean annual rainfall shows a decrease from 100.75 mm in 1981 to 79.43 mm in 1991. The greater economic returns from horticulture as well as the changing behavioral patterns of people over the time further cemented its growth. The farmers have since persisted with the horticulture activity as it has proven to be an economically a much better lucrative enterprise.     

Conflicting rights to the city in New York's community gardens

In the mid-1990s, New York City initiated what would prove to be a long, highly visible struggle involving rights claims related to property, housing, and public space in the form of community gardens. The competing discourses of rights were part of a struggle over the kind of city that New York was to become, and more specifically, whether it would be one in which difference is accepted and in which access to the city and the public realm would be guaranteed. Using interviews with participants in the conflict over community gardens, we evaluate how the resolution to the gardens crisis, which in part occurred through the privatization of what are often taken to be public or community rights to land, transform not only the legal status of the gardens but also, potentially, their role as places where different `publics' can both exercise their right to the city and solidify that right in the landscape.     

Africa in the rise of rights-based development

This paper explores the rise of rights-based development (RBD) and its endorsement by prominent international institutions (such as the United Nations) and International Development Agencies (IDAs) like the World Bank. It situates RBD in global political context and analyses it in relation to the international politics of development, especially the politics of neo-liberal adjustment policies in Africa. The paper shows how RBD emerged against a backdrop of debate about four international issues associated with neo-liberalism and its discontents, namely globalisation and uneven development; capability and good governance; human rights and human development; and NGOs in the politics of development. Debates about those four issues keep repositioning the state as the central actor in RBD, and holding the state accountable for development (or the lack thereof) under international law. The paper’s basic point is that state-centric RBD is paradoxical and highly political. Greater accountability is being demanded of states––especially in Africa––from the same neo-liberal forces (such as the World Bank) charged with weakening state capacity, undermining democracy, and diminishing state authority. In terms of international power relations and the politics of development, RBD does signal something of a willingness to rethink certain aspects of the dominant neo-liberal agenda. And yet adjusted states are being subjected––in the name of RBD––to novel methods of international surveillance and forms of conditionality. States are ultimately held responsible for human rights violations, even when it is non-state actors (and their neo-liberal policies) that caused those rights to be violated in the first place. RBD is, therefore, a partial answer (at best) to the questions of empowerment and change raised by critics of neo-liberalism.     

Curbing the power of developers? Law and power in Chinese and English gated urban enclaves

This article contributes to the legal geography literature through exploration of the contested concepts of power and law and their interconnected processes. Research findings from studies of urban gated enclaves in China and in England are used as a starting point to analyse the spatialisation of power in the creation of gated urban enclaves, with a particular focus on the role of law. Four categories of law are identified. The article suggests an analytical framework for understanding how particular modalities of power intersect with these different types of law. This framework is then applied to temporal stages in the creation of gated enclaves, in the context of the different legal geographies of China and England. In the final analysis, the manipulative power of neoliberalism outweighs law’s authority, for example when developers form alliances with municipal government to circumvent ‘policy’ and ‘regulatory’ law. Property rights as conceptualised through ‘high’ law are shown to be ineffective in resolving problems experienced by residents of specific enclaves, particularly those relating to common property rights. Developers were found to use ‘facilitative’ law to gain control of the juridical field, materialised through property rights allocation and resolution of disputes within urban enclaves.     

Capital accumulation and regional development in France

The paper examines the interlinked development of social process and spatial form in the analysis of the changing patterns of production and employment in France. A major hypothesis is that specific phases of capital accumulation are associated with the use and production of specific forms of spatial diferentiation, and that recent changes in the location of employment in France are connected with the transition from one stage of capitalist development to another. Thus the changing spatial pattern of agricultural employment is seen as part of the decay of petty commodity production and the intergration of family farming into a new capitalist agriculture. Similarly, spatial change in manufacturing employment is also a component of industrial restructuring, and the associated development of new infrastrucural and labour requirements. The French state is one element of these processes and the article concludes with a case study of the relationships between capital accumulation and regional policy.     

Coastal megacities and climate change

Rapid urbanization is projected to produce 20 coastal megacities (population exceeding 8 million) by 2010. This is mainly a developing world phenomenon: in 1990, there were seven coastal megacities in Asia (excluding those in Japan) and two in South America, rising by 2010 to 12 in Asia (including Istanbul), three in South America and one in Africa.All coastal locations, including megacities, are at risk to the impacts of accelerated global sea-level rise and other coastal implications of climate change, such as changing storm frequency. Further, many of the coastal megacities are built on geologically young sedimentary strata that are prone to subsidence given excessive groundwater withdrawal. At least eight of the projected 20 coastal megacities have experienced a local orrelative rise in sea level which often greatly exceeds any likely global sea-level rise scenario for the next century.The implications of climate change for each coastal megacity vary significantly, so each city requires independent assessment. In contrast to historical precedent, a proactive perspective towards coastal hazards and changing levels of risk with time is recommended. Low-cost measures to maintain or increase future flexibility of response to climate change need to be identified and implemented as part of an integrated approach to coastal management.     

产权政策视角下废弃矿井采矿用地再开发模式研究

废弃矿井再利用已成为资源型城市实现功能转型的主要路径,矿井地面生产区采矿用地的再开发属于城市存量工业用地更新的范畴,是一个伴随产权转移的空间转型过程.通过分析相关产权政策与废弃矿井再开发模式之间的关联性,探讨制度对空间的影响,提出对未来发展的政策建议.通过系统梳理自1990年以来国家、地方层面的产权政策,并以该时段内不...     

基于土地发展权的历史文化遗迹所在地区农地保护策略探究

目前我国历史文化遗迹所在地区开发用地失控的原因,从体制方面讲,乃是由于规制手段不够健全、管理体制不够顺畅、城镇化和旅游经济发展进程的阶段性等问题所致;从微观经济层面而言,还在于农民缺乏保护农地的经济诱因、农地转向开发用地收益更高、相关利益集团的势力影响等因素在起作用,故而农地流转成开发用地不可避免。所以应当借鉴海外土地发展权制度,在历史文化遗迹所在地区内落实土地发展权的补偿机制,对开发用地实行有效的管制。具体来说,应当从法律上明确土地发展权的地位,将农地保护与当地的经济社会发展有机协调起来,推行土地使用管制,建立完善土地发展权交易机制,同时有效控制农地流转为开发用地的隐性交易行为。     

Legal aspects of sinkhole development and flooding in karst terranes: 1. Review and synthesis

Structures built within the area of influence of a sinkhole can be affected by collapse, subsidence, or flooding. Unanticipated property losses may be involved, and litigation commonly ensues. Insurance compensation for damages that result from sinkhole collapse or subsidence in a karst terrane are covered by statute only in Florida and by voluntary agreement of companies operating in Tennessee Liability or insurance compensation for damages resulting from sinkhole flooding is not specifically covered by any state or federal statute. Regulations of the National Flood Insurance Program have been interpreted to allow coverage by this program for homes affected by sinkhole flooding in Bowling Green, Kentucky In the present article, case law, legal concepts of groundwater and surface water, liability, and law review articles relevant to sinkhole litigation are summarized The rationales of plaintiffs and defendants are reviewed Liability for damages have been based on allegations of negligence, breach of various water law doctrines, trespass, nuisance, loss of support, breach of contract, and implied warranty of habitability Defenses against these allegations have been based on the merits of each of them and oncaveat emptor Several alternative rationales for claiming liability for losses incurred because of sinkhole development or flooding are proposed and discussed. The little-knownHenderson v Wade Sand and Gravel is highly recommended as an alternative leading case that clearly and justifiably gives protection to adjacent landowners, and ties liability for damages caused by groundwater pumpage to nuisance law and related interference with property rights. Several little-known litigated cases of sinkhole development in response to groundwater pumpage will be summarized in a second article at a later date. Concepts of liability are evolving It can be expected that the professional geologist or engineer will have an increasing number of claims made against him or her which allege responsibility for sinkhole-related damages. Such damages can often be prevented by creative zoning, sound engineering, and better husbandry of land.     

Cumulative Benioff strain-release, modified Omori's law and transient behaviour of rocks

Irreversible thermodynamic theories with internal state variables can be used to derive a general constitutive law for both transient and steady-state behaviours of rocks. This constitutive law can represent the concepts of damage and damage evolution in either the fibre-bundle model or continuum damage mechanics. We have previously proposed an empirically based constitutive law for both the transient and steady-state behaviours of rocks ultimately derived from laboratory experimental data. We show here that this law is concordant with the general constitutive law derived from irreversible thermodynamic theories, and that the relaxation modulus has a temporal power–law that depends on a structural fractal property of rocks. Our constitutive law predicts forms for the cumulative Benioff strain-release for precursory seismic activations and the modified Omori's laws of aftershocks, both aspects of the temporal fractal properties of seismicity. These seismic properties can also be derived by the fibre-bundle model or continuum damage mechanics. Our model suggests that these time-scale invariant processes of seismicity may be regulated by the fractal structures of crustal rocks.     

The legal meaning of Lefebvre’s the right to the city: addressing the gap between global campaign and scholarly debate

There is a growing consideration globally of a right to the city in urban policies, strategies and legislation. The mention of this concept in the UN’s New Urban Agenda vision statement, in relation to human rights, both acknowledges and encourages this trend. It is also a result of lobbying and contestation. In the Anglo-American scholarly literature, there has been caution as to whether Henri Lefebvre intended a legal and institutionalized meaning for his ‘right to the city’. This paper reviews these debates and from that perspective examines Lefebvre’s positions on law, rights and the right to the city. It locates this within his wider political strategy and in particular the three-pronged strategy he put forward in The Urban Revolution to address the urban question—political foregrounding of the urban, promotion of self-management, and introduction of the right to the city into a transformed contractual system. By contextualizing and reviewing Everyday Life in the Modern World (published immediately before Right to the City), the paper examines Lefebvre’s thinking on rights formation, within ‘opening’, or the process of inducing change. The paper engages with meanings Lefebvre provides for rights in his concept of the right to the city, including his later conception of a contract of citizenship. The paper suggests that engagement with a fluid role of law and rights, in combination with Lefebvre’s other strategies, is important in opening the pathway he charts for the realization of this right, whether through local or global initiatives.     

Property matters: Agricultural restructuring and changing landlord-tenant relationships in England

Little research has been conducted on the restructuring activities of tenant farmers in response to changing tenancy legislation and recent CAP reforms. This paper examines the geography of farm tenancy agreements in England since 1995 and presents some findings from postal and telephone surveys on the possible future business trajectories of tenant farmers and the changing nature of landlord-tenant relationships. A clear north-south divide is identified in terms of farm tenancy agreements and a complex array of different tenancy agreements is demonstrated. The relationships between landlords and tenants are changing and the increasing variety of agreements provides evidence of a more fluid (post-feudal) system of agricultural leases. Nevertheless, high levels of uncertainty and negativity characterise tenant farmers’ views on the impacts of CAP reforms. Crucially, the very identity of a tenant farmer is changing, towards an owner-occupier who rents additional land, and there is an urgent need for more detailed research on the ‘consequential geographies’ of farm property rights and the changing nature of landlord-tenant relationships.