The Decline of Competition: The emergence of a duopoly in the Australian sugar refinery sector, 1841–1915

The late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries saw the emergence of large single-product organisations whose expansion was stimulated by a desire to control a substantial part of a particular product market. An Australian example is the Colonial Sugar Refining Company Ltd (CSR). By 1915, the company accounted for 90 per cent of refined sugar production in Australia. CSR had achieved this control over the Australian refined sugar market by using underselling, strategies that denied its competitors outlets for their refined sugars and amalgamations with rivals. After 1890, however, CSR was interested in sharing the Australian market for refined sugar with its rivals by forming spheres of influence in marketing areas or adopting production quotas, although the Queensland National Bank was the only organisation to successfully negotiate annual market share agreements with CSR in the 1900s. These agreements ensured the survival of its Millaquin Refinery. Other competitors eventually exited the industry. In 1915, the Commonwealth government institutionalised this duopoly in the sugar refining sector by agreements with CSR and the Queensland government, and allowed it to continue until deregulation of the Australian sugar refining sector in the early 1990s.     

Taking Stock: Farmers' reflections on the deregulation of Australian dairying

On 1 July 2000 significant changes to the regulation of Australian dairying came into effect. These changes eliminated subsidies to milk producers and removed barriers to the inter-State trade of dairy products. Victoria's dairy industry group was a powerful proponent of deregulation, because of the comparative advantage that the State's farmers have in production relative to Australia's other milk producers. However, the deregulation of the dairy industry was contested stridently by many stakeholders, particularly farmers and their representative groups in States other than Victoria. Even within Victoria some farmers were equivocal and some were opposed to the regulatory changes. This paper draws on interviews with informants in the Victorian dairy sector to reveal responses to the regulatory changes. The interviews indicate that opinion was divided before deregulation and remains so. The debate was largely between those who saw the regulatory changes as 'inevitable', some of whom thought it would be a 'good thing' and others who accepted, grudgingly, that it was simply going to happen, and those who thought there had to be alternatives that would avoid the expected adverse consequences.     

Reading Lanyu's tourism landscape: Hybridity and identity on Orchid Island,Taiwan

This article analyses the creation and implications for cultural identity of a hybrid tourism landscape on Taiwan's Orchid Island (Lanyu). It particularly argues that Lanyu's native Tao people have begun to gain a somewhat stronger cultural identity and autonomy through this landscape. Orchid Island underwent rapid modernization within the past 60 years. The article not only shows how tourism was imposed by Taiwan's government, but also how the Tao have made greater use of tourism's landscape over time for their own purposes. Not without sociocultural problems and contradictions, Lanyu's tourism landscape has been polysemic enough to allow for gradually improving relationships between Taiwanese and Tao and for gradually increasing Tao participation in modernity on their own terms.     

The Great Australian Wind Rush and the Devaluation of Landscape Amenity

Up until very recently--and in marked contrast to such countries as Spain, Denmark and Germany--Australia generated hardly any electricity from the wind. Driven largely by the mandatory targets embodied in the Renewable Energy (Electricity) Act 2000 (Commonwealth) this situation is now changing. Australia has several operational small- to medium-sized wind energy power stations in Western Australia, Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland. But--in the face of often strong local opposition--the Australian Wind Energy Association is keen to increase the number and scale of such projects. This paper outlines recent overseas developments in wind energy and then focuses on the environmental and planning dilemmas posed by this form of electricity production. Particular attention is focused on a highly controversial wind energy proposal in south-western Victoria, the Portland Wind Energy Project (PWEP). The argument presented is that wind is only one of a number of possible renewable energy options, that coastal landscapes are an 'endangered species', and that it is time for geographers to revisit methodologies concerned with evaluating landscape beauty and debating the place of landscape values within the ecologically sustainable development paradigm.     

Resident Attitudes to Farmland Protection Measures in the Northern Rivers Region,New South Wales

In-migration to popular ‘sea change’ and ‘tree change’ regions has produced conflicts between rural land users. In the Northern Rivers region of New South Wales, new residential developments have been built on much of what was previously prime agricultural land, while farmers (in particular, those negatively affected by the deregulation of the dairy industry) have sought to secure retirement incomes by subdividing land for sale. Although developers, local councils and individual farmers sometimes see eye to eye on the mutual benefits of in-migration and population growth, land use has none the less become the subject of a hotly contested local political battle. Conflicts occur at the interface of growing urban developments and surrounding farmland, with new residents finding the sights, sounds and smells of rural production intrusive. More generally, there is considerable concern that the best farmland in the region may be lost to urbanisation and rural residential subdivision. This paper discusses the results of a survey that collected opinions from local residents about the pressures on the region's land uses by in-migration, the future role of farmland as both an economic and cultural landscape, and views on proposed measures to protect prime farmland in the region. Results highlighted a strong and consistent ‘pro-farmland’ and ‘pro-protection’ attitude throughout the region, and across social groups. Yet, variations emerged when respondents were asked about why they attribute value to agricultural landscapes. For some, ‘economic’ values dominated, while for others, value was attributed in ways that reflected an emerging ethos of ‘localism’ and village lifestyle. Although values differed, a clear message from this study is that the population of Australia's pre-eminent ‘sea change’ region strongly support measures to curb urban development and the more destructive consequences of a dynamic property market.     

Irrigated agriculture and place‐making in the East Kimberley

This paper explores the way in which lived experiences of farmers in the Ord Valley have intersected with representations of the Ord Valley over time. I contrast the development of Stage 1 of the Ord River Irrigation Scheme in the 1960s with a proposal put forward in the late 1990s for greatly expanding the area of irrigated agriculture as Stage 2 of the scheme. I examine the rhetoric employed in planning documents and public media coverage of the first and proposed second stages of the Ord Irrigation Scheme and explore its connections with social identifications of farmers in the Ord Valley since the 1960s. I then argue the value of this approach for understanding the dynamic relationship between the spatial practices and social identifications of farmers and representations of place and land use in public media and planning processes.     

The dilemma of Malaysian padi policy

Development of Malaysia's rural sector, especially of the padi growing areas, has been a major strand in national policy for over 30 years. During this period substantial increases have been achieved in both production and productivity, thanks particularly to the expansion of double cropping and the widespread use of high yielding padi varieties and associated chemical inputs. Despite this achievement, the incomes of padi households have been declining relative to national income levels, a phenomenon generally believed to be due to the fact that the average farm is too small to support a household growing padi alone, even when yields are improved. Many padi farmers have abandoned their land so that about 20 per cent of Peninsular Malaysia's padi fields now lie idle. The Malaysian government, in seeking near self‐sufficiency in padi production, has few realistic ways out of this dilemma.     

甘肃秦王川灌区农业节水途径探讨

 甘肃秦王川灌区水资源紧缺,兰州新区城镇化建设加速水资源消耗趋势,使灌区水资源供需矛盾日渐突出,农业节水势在必行。根据中国西北干旱地区农业节水取得的成效和灌区农业生产节水试验,提出适宜于秦王川灌区农业节水的5条具体途径:①发展以地面灌溉为主的先进灌溉技术;②渠道衬砌;③农业节水技术与地膜覆盖栽培技术相结合;④推行膜下滴灌技术;⑤倡导节水文化,共建节水型社会。通过这些农业节水技术的实施,使秦王川灌区从简单的农业灌溉,转变为农业、城乡生活、生态、工业等多元用水格局,促进灌区经济可持续发展。     

Household income diversification and the production of local meat: the prospect of small-scale pig farming in Southern Yunnan, China

This paper assesses the viability of small scale, specialised livestock farming led by the local government, to alleviate rural household poverty. In so doing, it reflects upon the prospect of niche livestock farming in an age where, ironically, demand for meat is ever-rising. It also highlights the ambiguous role that local government plays in poverty alleviation. The specific case study is on the Jinuo ethnic minority in Xishuangbanna autonomous region, located in Southwestern province of Yunnan, China. It is argued that thus far the Jinuo minority have had modest success in rearing indigenous pigs due to a confluence of factors. Nonetheless, a growing market will likely result in some degree of intensification in the production process that goes beyond the means of the upland farmers but will be eagerly exploited by the local government. If the pig rearing scheme is to remain an effective income diversification strategy in select marginalised mountainous communities, the march towards commodification, expansion and intensification, as well as the unchecked ambition of the local government, have to be carefully moderated.     

平潭综合实验区海坛岛土地利用变化及景观格局研究

在Rs和GIS技术支持下,以2007年的LandsatTM遥感影像图和平潭综合实验区总体规划主岛发展指引图为基础数据,对未来平潭综合实验区主岛海坛岛的土地利用与景观格局变化进行了分析．结果表明：在规划实施后,人类活动对景观的干扰强度越来越大,将导致建设用地面积大量增加,区域景观类型趋向单一,平均斑块面积增大,斑块数量减少,景观多样性与均匀度降低．景观格局变化的主要驱动力因素是政府政策的影响和人口变化等．     

‘The law is not for the poor’: Land,law and eviction in Luanda

This article investigates how an existing two‐tiered land tenure system creates a hybrid space that blurs, and essentially questions and problematizes the boundaries of the formal/informal divide as presented within Angolan political and legal discourses. It showcases how urban formality and informality exist alongside each other in Luanda and how people take recourse to both formal and informal channels in attempts to secure housing, land tenure and livelihoods in the city. Through case studies, the article describes how small‐scale farmers in Luanda's northern municipality of Cacuaco lost their lands to urban development in 2009–10 and the ensuing circumstances in which formal rights and informal land tenure became intermeshed and ambiguous. As the case studies illustrate, a gap exists between the legal code and practice on the ground. This gap is represented in how Angola's postconflict land strategy, with its forced evictions and demolitions of houses and neighbourhoods, often with little or no compensation, is at odds with the Angolan Land Law, which states that land may only be expropriated by the state or local authorities for specific public use and must be justly compensated.     

A Critical Evaluation of Structural Reform Considerations in ‘Rates and Taxes: A Fair Share for Responsible Local Government’

In its landmark report entitled Rates and Taxes: A Fair Share for Responsible Local Government, the Commonwealth House of Representatives Standing Committee on Economics, Finance and Public Administration (2003 Commonwealth House of Representatives Standing Committee On Economics, Finance and Public Administration [‘Hawker Report’] ( 2003 ) Rates and taxes: a fair share for responsible local government , Commonwealth of Australia, Canberra . [Google Scholar]) considered the plight of Australian local government given its very wide terms of reference involving local government's roles and responsibilities, current funding arrangements, municipal capacity, council expenditure, scope for rationalisation, and the findings of the Commonwealth Grants Commission Review (2001 Commonwealth Grants Commission (CGC) ( 2001 ) Review of the Operation of Local Government (Financial Assistance) Act 1995 , Canberra . [Google Scholar]) of the Local Government (Financial Assistance) Act 1995. The authors of the ‘Hawker Report’ brought down 18 recommendations, two of which dealt directly with the thorny question of structural reform. This paper seeks to provide a critical assessment of those aspects of the Report that concern structural reform in Australian local government.     

Chinese Trade in Latin America Compared to the European Union and the United States: The Case of Technology-Intensive Exports

Using trade data submitted by United Nations member states from 1995 to 2013, this article contributes to understanding China's trade with Latin America. By employing and building on the TECH score methodology, this project highlights China's growing economic connectivity with nine large and important Latin American economies. The analysis conducted here shows that compared with exports originating from other, more traditional foreign investors (i.e., the United States and the European Union member states), Chinese exports to these Latin American countries—although growing in sophistication over time—are relatively less technologically sophisticated during the study period. This work clarifies that in spite of these Latin American economies being highly complementary (for their natural resources and consumer markets) to China's manufacturing-intensive economy and despite the rapid growth in bilateral and biregional trade, China's displacement of traditional foreign actors, in terms of its technology-intensive exports to the region, is not supported by the data to date.     

Three Management Challenges for Protection of Aboriginal Cultural Heritage in a Tasmanian Multiple-use Conservation Area

Protected areas that are created to safeguard environmental values such as Indigenous culturescapes may in fact significantly fail in this task. This study concerns such an instance in far north-west Tasmania, where the government adopted a multiple-use resource conservation-development management model for the Arthur–Pieman Conservation Area (APCA). The model offers protection of cultural heritage values whilst permitting numerous community recreational and commercial uses. One particular objective is to protect ‘an extraordinary richness of Aboriginal cultural heritage’ in one of Earth's great archaeological regions (DPIWE, Arthur–Pieman Conservation Area Management Plan, 2002, p. iii). Yet under the auspices of multiple use, Aborigine and others report unremitting damage and loss of ancestral values. To examine how this is so in an actively managed protected area, perceptions of 16 environmental professionals and local residents engaged in APCA planning and management are used to identify three major challenges for appropriate custodianship of the Aboriginal cultural landscape: Aboriginal–Eurocentric conflicts; limited community governance capacities; and deficient regulatory provisions. It is concluded that APCA multiple-use management of heritage conservation is ineffectual and that an alternative governance model is required urgently. The management challenges examined here offer insights for problematic Indigenous cultural heritage conservation in other jurisdictions of Australia and elsewhere.     

Empowering Freetown’s women farmers

In Freetown, the capital city of Sierra Leone, rapid urbanisation combined with the lingering impacts of the devastating decade long civil war (1991–2002), has left large portions of the population without reliable work or income. One response to this has been an increase in urban and peri-urban agriculture (UPA) which provides participants with employment, income and food security. According to local government estimates, women comprise around 80% of Freetown’s UPA community, and many women rely totally on UPA as a livelihood strategy to feed and support their households. This article focuses on the experiences of these women farmers, and in doing so sheds new light on their vital contribution to Freetown’s growing UPA community who are not thus far represented in published literature. Globally, women are also underrepresented in UPA literature, and as a result their distinct challenges are not well understood. Reporting on field-based research, this article identifies challenges facing Freetown’s women farmers, including land tenure, access to clean water, limited capital for purchasing tools, fertilisers, and pesticides, and difficult relationships with government, NGOs, and other farmers. The manner in which these challenges manifest themselves in relation to women farmers, as distinct from their male counterparts, are identified, and opportunities for Freetown’s UPA community to support and empower women farmers will be highlighted.     

把大柳树灌区建成西北甚至全国粮食基地的建议值得商榷

拟建大柳树灌区所涉及的省区, 过去以牺牲生态为代价达到粮食自给或自给有余, 然而由于特定的自然条件, 单产低, 粮食生产对全国粮食生产安全贡献率不高, 农业效益低, 农牧民生活不富裕。作者从该区农业气候资源、水资源等特点, 生态环境保护与建设要求以及借"南水北调"引水灌溉的高投入、低产出、高耗资源等状况分析, 揭示了拟建大柳树灌区作为西北甚至全国粮食基地不仅不可能, 而且没有必要。     

农田景观空间异质性分析及遥感监测最优尺度选择——以三江平原为例

农情遥感监测需要高时间分辨率的遥感数据,目前这些数据大都为中低空间分辨率影像。在这些尺度下,像元内部往往是异质的,从而影响农情参数反演精度。因此分析和表达农田景观空间异质性和最优尺度选择对遥感农情监测质量的提高具有重要的应用价值。选取建三江农垦区四种典型农田景观为研究点,Landsat/TM NDVI为实验数据,利用实验变异函数对四种景观类型的各向空间异质性进行了分析, 而后通过变异函数模型拟合,定量分析了各个研究点的整体空间异质性,并在此基础上进行了研究区遥感监测最优尺度选择。研究表明:(1) 基于实验变异函数的结构分析方法,可定性地认识空间异质性的大小和方向,进而挖掘出其背后的自然和人为驱动因素。(2) 对实验变异函数进行拟合分析,可定量地刻画不同景观格局各自的空间异质性特性。此外,基于变异函数对空间异质性的定量表达,讨论了利用积分变程A结合Nyquist-Shannon采样定理进行最优尺度选择的方法。     

景电灌区移民对祁连山植被恢复的相对生态价值

近些年来,生态系统的服务价值研究已成为生态学以及生态经济学领域中的一个热点问题。祁连山被称为伸进西北干旱区的一座湿岛,在我国“一带一路”建设中占有重要地位。景电灌区兴建以来从祁连山移出了大量农牧民。那么,景电灌区移民对祁连山植被恢复的生态价值如何呢？以景电灌区移民涉及到的祁连山东端景泰、古浪、天祝3县山区为研究区,用价值工程方法对从祁连山区向景电灌区移民退耕退牧还林还草的生态价值做了分析,并与模型因子当量法的计算结果进行了比较。结果表明：祁连山向景电灌区移民退耕退牧还林还草总的生态价值为37.458 1×10⁸元。其中,退耕还林还草的生态价值为37.438 6×0⁸元,退牧后草场植被盖度增加的生态价值为194.79×104元。计算结果为用COSTANZA和谢高地模型因子当量法计算得的祁连山向景电灌区移民退耕退牧还林还草总的生态服务价值40.054 0×0⁸元的93.52%。两种方法计算结果祁连山向景电灌区移民退耕退牧还林还草总的生态价值为景电工程年总成本1.45×0⁸元的25.8~27.6倍。两种计算结果一致表明,景电灌区生态移民对祁连山植被恢复的生态价值十分突出。由此也可以看出,COSTANZA和谢高地模型因子当量法适用于祁连山的生态服务价值分析。     

天津农地征用中农民土地收益分配机制研究

采用综合分析法和实证研究法,以天津市西青区为例,对土地收益及其分配情况进行了研究。研究结果表明:(1)在土地供应过程中会产生巨额土地增值收益。(2)由于农民处于弱势地位,农民所得份额偏低。如果让农民参与土地发展权价格的分配,农民应得的合理补偿标准会比现行补偿标准高出3～4倍。(3)不公平的土地收益分配关系不利于土地资源的有效利用和保护,且易引发社会的不稳定因素。有鉴于此,应尽快构建合理的土地收益分配机制,切实维护农民合法权益,保证城市化顺利推进。     

EXPANSION OF GOLF COURSES IN THE UNITED STATES*

ABSTRACT. Twenty‐five million Americans play golf on the nation's 16,000 courses each year. These golf courses constitute a significant national landscape feature. Since 1878, when the game arrived in the United States, golf has filtered down the urban, economic, and social hierarchies to become accepted by and accessible to most Americans. During the ensuing thirteen decades the number, location, and layout of the nation's golf courses have responded to many of the same driving forces that impacted the nation, including decentralization, growth of the middle class, war, economic depression, suburbanization, and the increasing role of the federal government. Four epochs of golf‐course growth and diffusion show the growing acceptance of the sport and depict where courses were most likely to be constructed as a result of the prevailing forces of each epoch.