“To Understand the Place”: Geographical Knowledge and Diplomatic Practice

Diplomats produce a great deal of geographical knowledge: By reporting on distant places to their governments, they create particular understandings of political space. Yet these professionals rarely link their work to geography: What a geographer might call a geographical sensibility is labeled cultural knowledge by a diplomat. This article clarifies the relationship between geographical knowledge and diplomatic practice. Empirically, it draws from nearly 100 interviews with foreign policy professionals to offer a more “peopled” or quasi-ethnographic account of diplomacy than is usually available in scholarly literature. Conceptually, the article contributes to our understanding of how geographical knowledge is created inside diplomatic and bureaucratic institutions.     

Collaborative Governance and Conflict Management: Lessons Learned and Good Practices from a Case Study in the Amazon Basin

Abstract

Given the linkages between natural resources and social conflicts, evidence increasingly shows that successful natural resource management requires conflict mitigation and prevention. However, there may be a gap in practice between knowing what processes and tools need to be used to manage conservation conflicts and how to actually implement them. We present learning from a practice-based case study of conflict management in the Amarakaeri Communal Reserve in the Peruvian Amazon that aimed to develop natural resource governance institutions and build stakeholder capacity, including of indigenous groups, to navigate existing conflict resolution mechanisms. Through applying good practices in conservation conflict management and collaborative governance, we generated important lessons on the practical considerations involved in collaborative conservation. These lessons, while specific to our case, could be applied to a variety of protected areas facing complex social-ecological systems dynamics and wicked problems.     

The resilience and sustainability of local wetland management institutions in Illubabor and Western Wellega,Ethiopia

Local community based institutions that coordinate the management of natural resources have been linked to socioecological resilience, adaptation and sustainability within rural livelihood systems throughout the developing world. The resilience and sustainability of related local institutions, however, is influenced by their relationship with external actors and institutions, particularly in facilitating, supporting or hindering local institutional arrangements. From this standpoint, this paper examines the case of local community based institutions involved in wetland management in western Ethiopia. Drawing upon the findings of participatory fieldwork undertaken in eight wetland‐using communities of Illubabor and Western Wellega zones in Oromia Region it is argued that although local institutions do play a key role in coordinating wetland management and sustaining the benefits from wetlands, the sustainability and resilience of the institutions themselves is threatened by a range of factors. Despite their grassroots nature, their effectiveness is influenced by their reliance on local government backstopping that appears to have diminished in recent years, as well as a perceived lack of local government support for collective action over individual rights.     

Sustainable environmental resource utilisation: a case study of farmers’ ethnobotanical knowledge and rural change in Bungoma district, Kenya

This paper examines farmers’ ethnobotanical knowledge, innovation and rural change, and indicates one way in which indigenous technical knowledge complementing scientific knowledge may be documented for use by development planners and agencies. This paper firstly identifies plant species recognised as resources by farmers, and considers the value of these resources. Secondly, the paper documents and assesses the ethnobotanical knowledge associated with the utilisation of plant species, before turning to examine how plant resources are defined by use and culture. It also demonstrates that some components of ethnobotanical knowledge have potential for the sustainable development of plant species. The study shows that farmers have started to domesticate some of the ‘traditional’ plants, and new crops have been introduced associated with corresponding innovations in local agricultural systems. Since the farmers have a relatively strong tradition in natural resources conservation, this study suggests that it will be possible to introduce community-based gene banks linked to formal or government facilities. The paper demonstrates that it is important to combine and interweave ‘modern’ and indigenous knowledges to produce a more realistic and sensitive understanding and management of natural environmental resources for sustainable development.     

Process and Contextual Factors Supporting Action-Oriented Learning: A Thematic Synthesis of Empirical Literature in Natural Resource Management

Despite a long-term focus on learning in natural resource management (NRM), it is still debated how learning supports sustainable real-world NRM practices. We offer a qualitative in-depth synthesis of selected scientific empirical literature (N?=?53), which explores factors affecting action-oriented learning. We inductively identify eight key process-based and contextual factors discussed in this literature. Three patterns emerge from our results. First, the literature discusses both facilitated participation and self-organized collaboration as dialogical spaces, which bridge interests and support constructive conflict management. Second, the literature suggests practice-based dialogs as those best able to facilitate action and puts a strong emphasis on experimentation. Finally, not emphasized in existing reviews and syntheses, we found multiple evidence about certain contextual factors affecting learning, including social-ecological crises, complexity, and power structures. Our review also points at important knowledge gaps, which can be used to advance the current research agenda about learning and NRM.     

Thematic signatures for cleansing and enriching place-related linked data

There has been significant progress transforming semi-structured data about places into knowledge graphs that can be used in a wide variety of geographic information systems such as digital gazetteers or geographic information retrieval systems. For instance, in addition to information about events, actors, and objects, DBpedia contains data about hundreds of thousands of places from Wikipedia and publishes it as Linked Data. Repositories that store data about places are among the most interlinked hubs on the Linked Data cloud. However, most content about places resides in unstructured natural language text, and therefore it is not captured in these knowledge graphs. Instead, place representations are limited to facts such as their population counts, geographic locations, and relations to other entities, for example, headquarters of companies or historical figures. In this paper, we present a novel method to enrich the information stored about places in knowledge graphs using thematic signatures that are derived from unstructured text through the process of topic modeling. As proof of concept, we demonstrate that this enables the automatic categorization of articles into place types defined in the DBpedia ontology (e.g., mountain) and also provides a mechanism to infer relationships between place types that are not captured in existing ontologies. This method can also be used to uncover miscategorized places, which is a common problem arising from the automatic lifting of unstructured and semi-structured data.     

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).     

国内城镇开发边界研究进展的知识图谱

基于知网1996—2019年的文献数据,利用CiteSpace对中国城镇开发边界研究进行知识图谱分析,系统梳理研究动态和发展脉络。结果表明,中国开发边界研究逐渐繁荣,学者彼此间合作呈现“整体分散,局部紧密”的局面,相关研究机构合作不足,研究热点呈现多元化的态势,并受政策导向影响明显。结合国家政策法规和时区图谱,将中国开发边界研究划分为理论初探、认识深化、划定探索、划管结合4个阶段,反映了中国开发边界研究经历了从控制城市蔓延、保护耕地、保障生态安全到塑造美丽国土、控制城市形态、促进城市转型、兼顾平等发展权以及保障城市可持续发展的转变。最后从生态补偿机制、边界划定精度、多样化的管控模式、边界试行期制度、人的需求5个方面提出城镇开发边界的政策建议。     

Understanding pastoral mobility: the case of Senegalese Fulani

Based on a case study from Sahelian Senegal, this paper analyses how various actors perceive the importance of pastoral mobility and presents issues of importance for understanding the use of mobility among Fulani of Ferlo. One knowledge system is a scientific one, the 'new rangeland paradigm'. According to this, pastoral mobility is a means to balance variability in dryland resources; hence, 'nature' is the point of departure. Another knowledge system is local pastoral knowledge. For the pastoralists, the well-being of their animals is the point of departure and mobility is used to ensure that the livestock are in good condition. The paper shows that it is important to distinguish between mobility of pastoralists and of their herd; even though the pastoralists of northern Senegal have become semi-sedentary, their herds are still quite mobile. The pastoralists are willing to move around within a small territory, which they consider their place, but are unwilling to employ large-scale mobility themselves. Mobility is not of importance for their ethnic identity and some use paid herders to care for their livestock. By looking at both knowledge systems, we achieve a better understanding of pastoral mobility and how this may change in the future.     

国家创新系统研究中地理学的视角*

促进知识经济发展的关键是建立和完善国家创新系统,而创新系统中知识流动的效率是解释国家创新能力高低最重要的指标。高新技术企业和知识的生产和传播者在空间上的集聚现象说明知识的流动是一个空间过程。从创新系统的区域层次性、知识流动的区位效应以及知识创新的区域分工等现象中,可以看到从地理学角度研究国家创新系统的切入点。     

Mushrooms in the Mountains: Assessing the Role of Fungi on the Ecosystem-based Adaptation (EbA) Practices in Nepal Himalaya

To achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), thereby meet the post 2020 global biodiversity targets and increase resilience to climate change, nature-based approaches such as ecosystem-based adaptation (EbA) is suggested as a promising and integrated adaptation strategy. EbA comprises adaptation strategies that value the role of ecosystems in reducing social vulnerability to climate change. Among the different biological groups on earth, fungi play not only an important role to maintain the biogeochemical cycle/nutrient cycle in ecosystems (supporting and regulating services), but also contribute to the socio-economic and cultural benefits of societies (provisioning and cultural services). Here, we present our knowledge and scientific understanding on how these neglected groups of biodiversity-fungi are crucial for ecosystem-based adaptation (EbA) approach based on our field experience, review and associated expertise on caterpillar fungus (Ophiocordyceps sinensis), and other wild mushrooms found in Nepal. Several species of fungi are used by local communities as food, medicines, and environmental income. Fungi are important sources of household income for mountain communities in Nepal providing a cushion during shocks and disasters and supporting food security, health care, education and building shelter. For the holistic EbA approach, it is essential to strengthen local institutions as well as indigenous local knowledge which could be an important policy intervention for the identification, conservation, and sustainable management of ecologically, socially and economically useful fungal species.     

In Situ Maintenance of Traditional Ecological Knowledge on Malekula Island,Vanuatu

Traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) guides resource management across the globe, but is at risk amid social and ecological change. This has prompted numerous calls for TEK maintenance efforts, but these remain largely unexamined in the literature. Here, we discuss three examples of in situ TEK maintenance from Malekula Island in Vanuatu, locally known as kastom schools. Based on qualitative data, we find that the kastom schools may create several opportunities to maintain TEK (e.g., establishing local control over education), and argue that they represent the creative and adaptive management of tradition in dynamic social–ecological contexts. However, a number of challenges, both practical (e.g., lack of funding) and epistemological (e.g., changing modes of cultural transmission), threaten the efficacy of the kastom schools. We argue that in situ modes of TEK maintenance have promise, but that issues of power and heterogeneity require serious consideration if such measures are to succeed.     

全球重要农业文化遗产(GIAHS)保护与适应性管理(英文)

世界各地世代居住的农牧民,以多样化的自然资源为基础,通过因地制宜的生产实践活动,创造、形成并保持着许多独具特色的农业系统和景观。这些在本土知识和传统经验基础上所建立起来的农业文化遗产巧夺天工,充分反映了人类及其文化多样性和与自然环境之间深刻关系的演进历程。这些系统不仅维持并适应了具有全球重要意义的农业生物多样性,形成了丰富的本土知识体系,而且更为重要的是,还为人类持续提供了多样化的产品和服务,保障了食物安全和生计安全,提高了人们的生活质量。但是,许多这样的农业生产系统正面临着包括全球化在内的多种影响因素的威胁。2002年,联合国粮农组织发起了一个国际合作计划"全球重要农业文化遗产(GIAHS)保护与适应性管理"。这一全球性倡议旨在建立这些农业文化遗产及其有关的生物多样性、食物与生计安全、景观与文化的保护体系,并在世界范围内得到认可,实现动态保护和可持续管理。     

Are traditional and modern forestry institutions complementary or do they prescribe contradictory rights in Trans-Himalayan Nepal? A lesson to be learned for REDD+ implementation

Rights to forest products are difficult to decide in situations when traditional management institutions exist parallel to formal ones. Such situations raise the question of whether the institutions are complementary or prescribe contradictory rights and management principles. Based on a household survey and key informant interviews, the article focuses on how diverging management principles can be harmonized to satisfy national forestry goals in Nepal. Villages in the Trans-Himalayan district of Mustang used to manage forests according to their traditional institutions but after 1993 they were included in a new management regime called Conservation Area Management Committees (CAMCs). The findings revealed that the villagers appreciated development initiatives undertaken by the CAMCs but three disjunctions regarding forest management existed between the CAMCs and traditional institutions: there was a disjunction between the two sets of rules for forest resource utilization; there were role dilemmas of local residents who were entrusted with CAMC implementation; and there were spatial disjunctions when formal administrative forest borders did not coincide with customary ones. The simultaneous existence of two institutions thus blurred the rights to forest resources. The author concludes that knowledge of the disjunction between parallel institutions is vital for accommodating new management schemes such as REDD+.     

Experts' Perspectives on the Integration of Indigenous Knowledge and Science in Wet Tropics Natural Resource Management

Aboriginal inhabitants of the Wet Tropics of Queensland advocate for greater inclusion of their Indigenous knowledge (IK) in natural resource management (NRM) to fulfil their customary obligations to country and to exert their Native Title rights. Despite a legal and institutional framework for inclusion of IK in NRM, IK has so far been applied only sporadically. We conducted an ethnographic case study to investigate perceptions on IK, science and how they affect integration of the two knowledge systems in the Wet Tropics. Our results show that IK and science are perceived as different concepts; that integration is limited by weak Indigenous internal and external governance; and that stronger Aboriginal governance and more focused engagement strategies are required to further the application of IK in local NRM. We conclude by arguing that NRM in the Wet Tropics needs to be reconceptualised to accommodate IK holistically, by considering its epistemology and the values and ethic that underpin it.     

Knowledge rationales in human geography: Economic,policy, empowerment,and methodological

The article presents a systematic review of 152 articles in which the concept of knowledge is applied and that are published in international human geography journals. As the importance of knowledge in society is increasing, especially economic geography has taken up the task of reviewing the concept or role of knowledge in geography. However, there is a need for a more nuanced understanding of knowledge in economic geography, drawing more broadly on human geographical research. The authors analyse how the concept of knowledge is understood and applied in contemporary human geography. Their results demonstrate four knowledge rationales: economic, policy, empowerment, and methodological. Each rationale and their combinations display a particular role and purpose for knowledge, as well as a distinct approach to space. Separately, each rationale provides several insights into a more nuanced understanding of specific aspects of knowledge. When combined, the four rationales offer a holistic overview of the field. The authors conclude that the empowerment rationale offers novel methodological choices towards a more nuanced understanding of knowledge in economic geography.     

Community clusters in wildlife and environmental management: using TEK and community involvement to improve co-management in an era of rapid environmental change

Environmental change has stressed wildlife co-management systems in the Arctic because parameters are changing more rapidly than traditional scientific monitoring can accommodate. Co-management systems have also been criticized for not fully integrating harvesters into the local management of resources. These two problems can be approached through the use of spatially-defined human social units termed community clusters, which are based on the demographic or ecological units being managed. An examination of polar bear management in Nunavut Territory, Canada, shows that community clusters provide a forum to collect and analyse traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) over a geographic area that mirrors the management unit, providing detailed information of local conditions. This case study also provides examples of how instituting community clusters at a governance level provides harvesters with social space in which to develop their roles as managers, along the continuum from being powerless spectators to active, adaptive co-managers. Five steps for enhancing co-management systems through the inclusion of community clusters and their knowledge are: (1) the acceptance of TEK, science, the precautionary principle and the right of harvesters not to be constrained by overly-conservative management decisions; (2) data collection involving TEK and science, and a collaboration between the two; (3) institutionalization of community clusters for data collection; (4) institutionalization of community clusters in the management process; and (5) grass-roots initiatives to take advantage of the social space provided by the community cluster approach, in order to adapt the management to local conditions, and to effect policy changes at higher levels, so as to better meet local objectives.     

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.     

基于文献计量方法的国内外城市更新比较研究

采用文献计量方法,利用Citespace工具对国内外城市更新研究进行知识图谱分析,从演化过程、发文期刊和研究机构的特征、研究热点等方面对比国内外城市更新研究的差异。研究表明：① 国内外城市更新研究的发文量呈现波动上升的趋势,在快速发展阶段尤为显著,每年发文量分别达到117篇和238篇;② 研究文献多集中在城市规划、区域研究、城市设计、建筑学等期刊。相对于国外,国内发文期刊更集中。国内排名前10的期刊发文量占比达46.65%,国外仅29.84%;③ 国内外的研究机构间初步形成合作网络,但网络联系与合作程度依然较低。相对于国外,国内研究机构间联系更紧密。④ 国外研究热点集中在伙伴关系与公众参与、绅士化、可持续发展、城市转型和文化创意等方面,国内研究热点体现在旧城改造与房地产开发、历史街区和工业遗产的保护与更新、广州?深圳城市更新的探索与实践、公众参与的初步探讨等方面。     

The importance of being reliable – Local ecological knowledge and management of forage plants in a dryland pastoral system (Morocco)

In dryland rangelands with their high environmental variability, local ecological knowledge of forage plants is essential for management decisions. Ecological apparency hypothesis (EAH) predicts plants' availability and visibility to be important criteria for local valuation. However, EAH has mainly been tested in low-variability systems. We ask whether EAH is valid for forage plants in drylands; which other local criteria exist; and how criteria are connected to management decisions.In a Moroccan pastoral system, we applied a novel ethnobotanical method by calculating the Cognitive Salience Index (CSI) for plants' valuation (CSI_antro) and availability (CSI_eco). To evaluate explicit criteria, we correlated palatability and nutritive value to CSI_anthro. ANCOVAs related CSI_anthro to EAH criteria (CSI_eco and lifetime) and to plant occurrence on pasture types. We found EAH criteria to better predict CSI_antro than explicit criteria. Apparent plants from semi-arid pastures were more valued than those from arid pastures (HSD; p < 0.05). We introduce the criterion of reliability into EAH to explain this, and demonstrate how pastoralists adjust management decisions to resource reliability. Linking resource valuation to management decisions can thus improve our understanding of resilience mechanisms. Our study also confirms the validity of EAH for forage species and dryland environments.