The pitfalls and potential of debt-for-nature swaps: A US-Indonesian case study

The vital role of forests in limiting the likelihood of dangerous climate change has precipitated renewed interest in debt-for-nature swaps. This article uses evidence on past debt-for-nature deals and similar debt mechanisms to assess a recent second wave of such swaps. It outlines five typical shortcomings of this form of financial transaction: that they often fail to deliver additional resources to the debtor country and/or debtor government budget; often fail to deliver more resources for conservation/climate purposes; often have a negligible effect on overall debt burdens (and, as such, do not generate more ‘indirect’ benefits); and are often in conflict with principles of alignment with government policy and alignment with government systems (these two last shortcomings being important elements within the new aid delivery paradigm). Our analysis is applied to a recent debt-for-nature swap between the United States and Indonesia. We show that this case, which we consider a litmus test for current swap practice, performs unevenly across the five shortcomings. First, although the US-Indonesian swap does increase available resources to Indonesia at the country level, it does not generate extra budgetary room for the Indonesian government. Second, the extent to which the resources provided by the swap are additional to other donor support and reserved domestic budget lines for conservation goals is unclear. Third, the swap is too insignificant to create indirect (positive) economic effects. Regarding alignment issues, fourth, the swap is very much in line with current national policy, but, fifth, appears at odds with the new aid delivery paradigm's insistence on system alignment. We argue that if a second generation of debt-for-nature swaps is to be pursued then they need to avoid the common pitfalls associated with this form of finance. Moreover, there is a need to debate broader ways of linking debt service repayments to climate mitigation and adaptation.     

The use of monitoring data for identifying factors influencing phytoplankton bloom dynamics in the eutrophic Taw Estuary, SW England

Using the Taw Estuary as an example, data routinely collected by the Environment Agency for England and Wales over the period 1990-2004 were interrogated to identify the drivers of excessive algal growth. The estuary was highly productive with chlorophyll concentrations regularly exceeding 100 μg L⁻¹, mostly during periods of low freshwater input from the River Taw when estuarine water residence times were longest. However, algal growth in mid estuary was often inhibited by ammonia inputs from the adjacent sewage treatment works. The reported approach demonstrates the value of applying conventional statistical analyses in a structured way to existing monitoring data and is recommended as a useful tool for the rapid assessment of eutrophication. However, future estuarine monitoring should include the collection of dissolved organic nutrient data and targeted high temporal resolution data because the drivers of eutrophication are complex and often very specific to a particular estuary.     

Foreword

Destructive earthquakes have caused great damage in China and the United States and collapsing buildings havecaused many deaths and injuries. The field of earthquake engineering studies earthquake hazards, the occurrence ofearthquakes of various magnitudes, the nature of the ground shaking during an earthquake, the vibration of structuresduring earthquakes, the strengthening of existing structures and the design of new structures to be earthquake resistant,and finally, how to cope with earthquake damage and restore a city to normal functioning. Such efforts are in progressin both countries, but unfortunately, the language barrier interferes with the free flow of information between China andthe Untied States. It would be mutually beneficial if some means could be developed to promote the exchangeof information across the Pacific Ocean. This new journal has been established for this purpose and its success willbe an important step in promoting earthquake engineering in China and the United States.     

美国关于气候变化对国家安全影响的研究述评

近年来,美国关于气候变化对国家安全影响的研究成果频出。在概述其研究现状及主要成果的基础上,分析了美国在该领域研究的特点及其对我国开展相关研究的启示。美国关于气候变化影响国家安全的研究成果主要体现在围绕气候变化影响美国国家安全的方式、范围、程度以及美国的应对之策等几个方面展开了全面而深入的讨论。其突出特色是：第一,在研究理论和方法方面,与时俱进,转型较快;第二,在研究内容方面,既视野开阔,又有较强的针对性;第三,在研究水平上呈现逐步提高的趋势;第四,在研究体制上,形成官、学、研三位一体的联合研究体制。当前,我国的相关研究还处在起步阶段,在未来的研究中可以借鉴美国的一些有益经验。     

Western migrants in central Europe: Isolated individuals or members of transnational communities?

Migration flows from western Europe, the United States and Canada to east central Europe have received little attention so far. But numbers are now considerable and in the context of globalisation it seems appropriate to conceptualise communities of Westerners in terms of transnational social spaces as defined by Glick Schiller et al. Study of Americans in Prague reveals three main groups: enterprise managers, lifestyle migrants and entrepreneurs in small and medium-sized enterprises. All are engaged in a variety of different processes of community-building, often with clear trends towards a new transnationalism. Yet, the individual attempt to live in two societies is limited by the marked boundaries of the communities and by the degree of social exclusion which they experience from the majority population. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Interpreting What is Rural and Urban for Western U.S. Counties

The paper examines how rural and urban are interpreted and applied to counties in eleven states in the western United States. After reviewing various conceptual approaches, we turn to a three‐part analysis of county commissioners' perceptions and census data to identify characteristics associated with urban‐ness and rurality. The analysis involves comparing qualitative and quantitative survey and interview data, using a multiple regression analysis to correlate census variables with commissioners' perceptions of their home counties, and using cluster analysis techniques on census variables to identify patterns and unevenness in rurality and urbanness. Three characteristics mentioned by the widest range of commissioners and found to be statistically significant in the regression analysis were population concentration, total population, and the agricultural land base. Population concentration, in particular, was identified most frequently by interviewees as the single most important variable in characterizing an urban county and had the most meaningful contribution to predicting commissioners' perceptions of their home counties in the regression analysis. The cluster analysis identified five county types: largest urban centers, growing regional hubs, high growth rural, dispersed rural, and stable rural agriculture. These county types were widely distributed, reflecting the spatial unevenness of macroscale processes operating across eleven western states.     

BOOK REVIEWS

Book Reviewed in this article: Introduction to Climatology for the Tropics . J. O. Ayoade. Conservation and Management of Natural Resources in the United States . Charles F. Bennett. The Keeping of Animals: Adaptation and Social Relations in Livestock Producing Communities . Riva Berleant-Schiller and Eugenia Shanklin, ed. The Evolution of Geographic Thought in America: A Kentucky Root Wilford A. Bladen and Pradyumna P. Karan, eds. Latin America: Geographical Perspectives , 2nd ed. Harold Blakemore and Clifford T. Smith, ed. The Rural Real Estate Market. Department of Geography Publication Series, No. 18 . Chris Bryant. Urban Geomorphology in Drylands . R. U. Cooke, D. Brunsden, J. C. Doornkamp, and D. K. C. Jones with contributions by J. Griffiths, P. Knott, R. Potter, and R. Russell. Italian Geography, 1960–1980. Meeting of the Status of the Geographic Research in Italy, 1960–1980. Treated under the auspices of Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche and organized by Istituto di Geografia Umana della Facoltà di Lettere e Filosofia dell'Università degli Studi di Milano , Giacomo Corna Pellecrini and Carlo Brusa, eds. The Changing Fenland . H. C. Darby. The Future for the City Centre . R. L. Davies and A. G. Champion, eds. Saudi Arabia, Energy, Developmental Planning, and Industrialization . Ragaei El Mallakh, Dorothea H. El Mallakh, eds. For We Are Sold, I and My People: Women and Industry in Mexico's Frontier . Maria Patricia Fernández-Kelly. The Great Lakes Forest: An Environmental and Social History . Susan L. Flader, ed. Regional Transformation and Industrial Revolution: A Geography of the Yorkshire Woolen Industry . Derek Gregory Crime in City Politics . Anne Heinz, Herbert Jacob and Robert L. Lineberry, eds. Revitalizing Cities . H. Briavel Holcomb and Robert A. Beauregard. Cartographic Relief Presentation . Eduard Imhof. H. J. Steward, Trans. Soviet Union: A Geographical Survey . S. V. Kalesnik and V. F. Pavlenko, ed. Cognition and Environment . Stephen Kaplan and Rachel Kaplan. Environmental Protection: The International Dimension . David A. Kay and Harold K. Jacobsen, eds. Mathematical Programming Methods for Geographers and Planners , James Killen. Gentrification Amid Urban Decline: Strategies for America's Older Cities . Michael H. Lang. The North Atlantic Sulphur System . Risto Laulajainen. The Jerusalem Cathedra: Studies in the History, Archaeology, Geography and Ethnography of the Land of Israel, Vol. 2 . Lee I. Levine ed. Jerusalem and Detroit: Recreation Planning and Management . Stanely R. Lieber and Daniel R. Fesenmaier, eds. Heartland and Hinterland: A Geography of Canada . L. D. McCann, ed. Scarborough Where We Live: The Residential Districts of Minneapolis and St. Paul . Judith A. Martin and David A. Lanegran. California: The Geography of Diversity . Crane S. Miller and Richard S. Hyslop. Palo Alto The Dilemma of Amazonian Development . Emilio F. Moran, ed. Boulder Nuclear Waste: Socioeconomic Dimensions of Long-Term Storage . Steve H. Murdock, F. Larry Leistritz, and Rita R. Hamm, eds. Boulder Communism and the Politics of Inequalities . Daniel N. Nelson, ed. The Los Angeles Metropolis . Howard J. Nelson. Dubuque An Historical Geography of Urban System Development: Tidewater Virginia in the 18th Century . James O'Mara. Procedures and Standards for a Multipurpose Cadastre . East Asia: Geographical and Historical Approaches to Foreign Area Studies . Clifton W. Pannell, ed. Dubuque Mackinder: Geography as an Aid to Statecraft . W. H. Parker. Beyond the Urban Fringe: Land Use Issues of Nonmetropolitan America . Rutherford H. Platt and George Macinko, eds. Recreation Geography of the USSR . V. S. Preobrazhensky and V. M. Krivosheyev, eds. Missouri: A Geography . Milton D. Rafferty The Invisible Farmers: Women in Agricultural Production . Carolyn E. Sachs. Cayman Islands Seashore Vegetation: A Study in Comparative Biogeography . Jonathan D. Sauer. Hillslope Materials and Processes . Michael J. Selby. Housing in Britain: The Post-War Experience . John R. Short The Study of Population: Elements, Patterns and Processes . George A. Schnell and Mark Stephen Monmonier. Columbus The Soviet Union: A Systematic Geography . Leslie Symons, ed. The Ottoman Slave Trade and Its Suppression . Ehud R. Toledano. The Impact of Recession on Industry, Employment and the Regions, 1976–1981 . Alan R. Townsend. Landslides and Their Control , 2nd ed. Quido Záruba and Vojtech Mencl. Translated from the Czech by H. Zárubová and V. Mencl.     

BOOK REVIEWS

Books Reviewed in this article: Lob Trees in the Wilderness . Clifford and Isabel Ahlgren . Satellite Microwave Remote Sensing . T. D. Allan , ed. Sunbelt Cities: Politics and Growth Since World War II . Richard M. Bernard and Bradley R. Rice , eds. Legacy of Minneapolis: Preservation Amid Change . John R. Borchert , David Gebhard , David Lanegran , and Judith A. Martin . Bloomington, MN: Preparing a Historic Preservation Ordinance. Richard J. Roddewig . The Mountains of Northeastern Tasmania, A Study of Alpine Geomorphology . Nel Caine . Introductory Cartography . John Campbell . Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Changing Climate . Manual of Remote Sensing, Second Edition . 2 Vols. Robert N. Colwell , ed.-in-chief; David S. Simonett and John E. Estes , vol. eds. Remote Sensing in Meteorology, Oceanography and Hydrology . A. P. Cracknell , ed. Multidimensional Scaling . Mark L. Davison . Environmental Karst . Percy H. Dougherty , ed. The Urban Environment . Ian Douglas . Geomorphology of Europe . Clifford Embleton , ed. An Introduction to South Asia . B. H. Farmer . Great Geological Controversies . A. Hallam . Hazardous Waste Management: In Whose Backyard? Michalann Harthill , ed. Energy for Subsistence . Margaret Haswell . Perspective on Ratzel's Political Geography . James M. Hunter . Economic Deposits and their Tectonic Setting . Charles S. Hutchison . Energy Risk Assessment . Herbert Inhaber . Discovering the Vernacular Landscape . John Brinckerhoff Jackson . Climate and Energy Systems: A Review of Their Interactions . Jill Jäger . Dilemmas in Regional Policy . Antoni Kuklinski and J. G. Lambooy , eds. California Farmland: A History of Large Agricultural Landholdings . Ellen Liebman . The Spatial Organization of New Land Settlement in Latin America . Jacob O. Maos . Dark Continent: Africa as Seen by Americans . Michael McCarthy . Westport, CT: Climatology: An Introduction . John E. Oliver and John J. Hidore . Columbus, OH: The Geography of Warfare . Patrick O'Sullivan and Jesse W. Miller . The Expanding City. Essays in Honour of Professor Jean Gottmann . John Patten , ed. Scotland's Environment During the Last 30,000 Years . Robert J. Price . Integrated Urban Models . S. H. Putman . Development and the Environmental Crisis: Red or Green Alternatives? Michael Redclift .     

The impact of the US retreat from the Paris Agreement: Kyoto revisited?

The United States’ decision to withdraw from the Paris Agreement (pending possible re-engagement under different terms) may have significant ramifications for international climate policy, but the implications of this decision remain contested. This commentary illustrates how comparative analysis of US participation in multilateral environmental agreements can inform predictions and future assessments of the decision. We compare and contrast US non-participation in the Kyoto Protocol and the Paris Agreement, focusing on four key areas that may condition the influence of US treaty decisions on international climate policy: (i) global momentum on climate change mitigation; (ii) the possibility of US non-participation giving rise to alternative forms of international collaboration on climate policy; (iii) the timing and circumstances of the US decision to exit; and (iv) the influence of treaty design on countries’ incentives to participate and comply. We find that differences across the two treaties relating to the first three factors are more likely to reduce the negative ramifications of US withdrawal from the Paris Agreement compared to the Kyoto Protocol. However, the increased urgency of deep decarbonization renders US non-participation a major concern despite its declining share of global emissions. Moreover, key design features of the Paris Agreement suggest that other countries may react to the US decision by scaling back their levels of ambition and compliance, even if they remain in the Agreement.

Key policy insights

• Increasing global momentum on mitigation since 1997 means that US withdrawal from the Paris Agreement is potentially less damaging than its non-participation in the Kyoto Protocol

• Despite the declining US share of global emissions, greater urgency of deep decarbonization means that the non-participation of a major player, such as the US, remains problematic for global cooperation and achieving the Paris Agreement’s goals

• Differences in the design of the Kyoto Protocol and Paris Agreement suggest that US non-participation is more likely to prompt reluctant countries to stay within the Paris framework but reduce levels of ambition and compliance, rather than exit the Agreement altogether