Threat economies and armed conservation in northeastern Central African Republic

This article, based on ethnographic and archival research in the northeastern parklands of the Central African Republic (CAR), explores the area’s history of armed conservation. Critical scholarly accounts of armed conservation practices and projects often starkly contrast the people involved in them: there are agents of the state, or state-like actors, who seek to dominate, territorialize, and discipline, often using violence to do so, and there are local populations who are dispossessed of their lands and resources without compensation and forced into new kinds of poverty, despite rhetoric and practices meant to inculcate “local participation”. The case presented here forces us to re-think these accounts. Rather than pursuing authority in the sense of expanding control over other people, people in northeastern CAR (whether putatively in favor of or opposed to conservation) are working to create and maintain access to the status of an income. To do so they engage in practices of threatening and hiding. While the means to use physical force are not equally shared, capacities to threaten and hide are widely held, and organizational and other hierarchies are unstable, making it difficult to describe any of this as a matter of domination and resistance. Expanding on literature that examines processes of green militarization (Lunstrum, 2014), the article focuses on the interactional dynamics of armed conservation to show that threats are as important as acts of physical violence, and that hiding—whether in the bush or plain sight—is critical to understanding armed conservation in an area where the state is largely seen as absent.     

Accumulation by securitization: Commercial poaching,neoliberal conservation,and the creation of new wildlife frontiers

Part of a broader interest in the escalating securitization of conservation practice, scholars are beginning to take note of an emerging relationship between conservation–securitization, capital accumulation, and dispossession. We develop the concept of accumulation by securitization to better grasp this trend, positioning it in the critical literatures on neoliberal conservation, green grabbing, and conservation-security. The concept captures the ways in which capital accumulation, often tied to land and resource enclosure, is enabled by practices and logics of security. Security logics, moreover, increasingly provoke the dispossession of vulnerable communities, thereby enabling accumulation. We ground the concept by turning to the Greater Lebombo Conservancy (GLC) in the Mozambican borderlands. This is a new privately-held conservancy built as a securitized buffer zone to obstruct the movement of commercial rhino poachers into South Africa’s adjacent Kruger National Park. We show how wildlife tourism-related accumulation here is enabled by, and in some ways contingent upon, the GLC’s success in curbing poaching incursions, and, relatedly, how security concerns become the grounds upon which resident communities are displaced. In terms of the latter, we suggest security provides a troubling, depoliticized alibi for dispossession. Like broader neoliberal conservation and green grabbing, we illustrate how accumulation by securitization plays out within complex new networks of state and private actors. Yet these significantly expand to include including security actors and others motivated by security concerns.     

Crocodile crimes: people versus wildlife and the politics of postcolonial conservation on Lake Kariba, Zimbabwe

This article is about the politics of conservation in postcolonial Southern Africa. It focuses on the process and consequences of redefining the Nile crocodile as an endangered species and explores the linked local and international, commercial and conservationist interests that allowed the animal to re-establish itself in state-protected waterways in colonial and postcolonial contexts. It investigates the effects of the animal’s successful re-accommodation by examining conflicts between crocodiles and the fishing communities sharing space on Lake Kariba, Zimbabwe. Fishermen’s hostile representations of the animal emphasize competition for fish, harassment, fear, loss of assets and loss of life. Their fear of crocodiles is heightened by the animal’s entanglement in local social life, through its association with witchcraft. The article emphasizes the importance of considering both hegemonic and marginalized ideas about animals in the light of the material interactions, relations of power and historical contexts that shape them. Understanding the attitudes and circumstances of the local communities who bear the physical and economic costs of living with dangerous animals is important--it threatens the future of conservation programmes and reveals the potential for significant abuses to accompany the conservation of wildlife in postcolonial contexts.     

Magnetochronology of Mid-Miocene mammalian fauna in the Lanzhou Basin,northeastern Tibetan Plateau:Implications for Asian mammal migration

The Quantougou(QTG) Fauna in central Lanzhou Basin is an important late Mid-Miocene fauna on the northeastern Tibetan Plateau margin,but its numerical age remains a matter of debate.Here,we present a new magnetostratigraphic record for a fluvio-lacustrine section to further constrain the age of the QTG Fauna.Results suggest that the studied section spans from polarity chrons C5Cn.2n to C5 n.2n or C5 An.1n,with ages of ca.16.5 Ma to 10 Ma or 16.5 Ma to 12 Ma.The QTG Fauna is located at the top of polarity chron C5r.3 r or C5 Ar.2 r,which corresponds to an age of 11.7 Ma or 12.8 Ma for the fauna.Accordingly,the associated Myocricetodontinae(a subfamily of Gerbillidae,Rodentia) is suggested to have appeared in the Lanzhou Basin at 11.7 Ma or 12.8 Ma,which is the oldest Myocricetodontinae in East Asia but is still much younger than the ～20 Ma appearance of this subfamily in West and South Asia.Our age data support the interpretation that East Asian Myocricetodontinae originated from South Asia.The QTG fauna further suggest a dry and open grassland environment,which is consistent with global cooling after the Mid-Miocene Climatic Optimum.     

Market triumphalism and the CBNRM ‘crises’ at the South African section of the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park

Transfrontier conservation has taken Southern Africa by storm, where the modus operandi remains simple and intuitive: by dissolving boundaries, local benefits grow as conservation and development spread regionally. However, in the case of South Africa’s section of the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park, political and economic change redirects benefits to support ‘modern’ economies at the expense of rural livelihoods through community-based natural resources management (CBNRM). Neo-liberal agendas promoted by government and the transfrontier park derail efforts at decentralizing CBNRM initiatives beyond markets and state control. This paper argues that ‘hybrid neoliberal’ CBNRM has arisen in private and public sector delivery of devolved conservation and poverty relief projects as ‘tertiary production’ for regional development. As a result, ‘CBNRM’ projects related to and independent of transfrontier conservation support private sector interests rather than the resource base of rural livelihoods. Concluding sections assert that CBNRM can counter this neoliberal trend by supporting the land-based economy of local users living near the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park.     

Peace Parks and jaguar trails: transboundary conservation in a globalizing world

An increasingly utilized strategy for expanding conservation in the developing world has been the promotion of protected areas that supersede national borders. Alternatively known as transfrontier biosphere reserves, transfrontier or transboundary conservation areas, or Peace Parks, these protected areas are aggressively advanced by conservation agencies for their purported ecological and economic benefits. This article provides a comparative assessment of two case studies to understand the various impacts of transboundary conservation. The Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park, which unites protected areas in South Africa, Mozambique and Zimbabwe, is contrasted with efforts to protect jaguars along the United States–Mexico border. We argue that while these cases are promising for the purposes of biodiversity protection, they demonstrate that transboundary conservation can minimize political context, contributes to the hegemony of international conservation agendas, and remains closely linked to economic neoliberalism and decentralization in the developing world.

山水林田湖草生态保护修复技术框架研究

面对当前严峻的资源环境与生态压力,习近平总书记提出了山水林田湖草生命共同体的理念,截至2019年底全国共开展了25个山水林田湖草生态保护修复工程试点.虽然已有工作取得了一定成效,但也存在保护修复目标不明确、整体性与系统性不足、人工干预的工程措施过度、缺乏动态监测评价、难以实现人与自然和谐共生等诸多问题.鉴此,本研究在梳...     

山水林田湖草系统治理之水土保持要义

山水林田湖草是一个生命共同体,山水林田湖草的系统治理观是水土流失治理与生态修复的重要指导思想.水土流失的发生、发展和变化是一个复杂的系统,有其自身规律,水土保持是一门多学科交叉学科,有其科学性与不可替代性,防治水土流失应坚持系统思维,整体施策,系统和综合是水土保持学科建立和事业发展的生命力所在.水土流失在中国广泛分布并...     

国土整治生态修复中的农业景观生物多样性保护策略

随着生态文明建设成为国家发展战略,国土整治修复需要更多生态科学和技术的支撑.农业景观生物多样性是重要的自然资源,为人类可持续发展提供了重要的生态系统服务,并提供了应对气候变化等风险的途径.本文分析了我国农业景观生物多样性保护及其对国土整治生态修复的重要性,国土整治生态修复中农业景观生物多样性保护面临的挑战,并总结了欧盟...     

Breaking down fences: Recoupling social-ecological systems for biodiversity conservation in Namibia

Herero communities in northern Namibia recently formed the Ehi-rovipuka Conservancy under a national Community-Based Natural Resource Management Programme (CBNRM) that has received international acclaim for wildlife conservation and poverty alleviation. Nearly a century ago ancestors of the Herero were ousted from Etosha National Park, contiguous to the Ehi-rovipuka Conservancy. The communities have been denied access ever since. Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) methods were employed to elucidate relationships of the Herero and their communal conservancy with the Etosha National Park. Memory mapping and villager interviews revealed a profound sense of lost traditional territory inside Etosha and a strong desire to return to the Park, not to harvest wildlife but to restore cultural practices and reap certain benefits from the Park. We term the separation of the communities from their traditional territory as a ‘decoupling’ of people from their local environment. We further suggest that the potential benefits that villagers identify from the Park represent mechanisms for ‘recoupling’ local social-ecological systems, requiring the literal and figurative breakdown of the Park fence. We describe a model to illustrate decoupling and recoupling mechanisms, and argue that recoupled social-ecological systems are necessary for long-term conservation of biodiversity. We further suggest a collaborative landscape model for biodiversity conservation featuring institutional linkages and integration between community-conserved areas, integrated conservation corridors for connectivity, and dynamic, mobile reserves collaboratively integrated with national parks management. This model may have applicability in Namibia and similar regions elsewhere with low population densities, high species endemism and prevailing or emerging threats to biodiversity.     

Stress and strain fields for overdamped slug tests in aquifer materials,and resulting conservation equation

Two theories may be used to analyze overdamped variable‐head (slug) tests in aquifer materials. The first theory assumes that the solid matrix strain has a negligible influence. The second theory takes into account some elastic and immediate strain. Something is wrong with these theories because they yield different hydraulic conductivity values. This paper explains what is wrong after establishing the strain‐stress elastic equations for a slug test in 2 ideal conditions: plane strain and spherical symmetry. The equations show that the radial contraction (or elongation) and tangential elongation (or contraction) yield a null volumetric strain. As a result, the conservation is described by the Laplace equation, which is used by the first theory. This first theory is the only one to yield correct solutions. The diffusion equation, with storativity, which is used by the second theory, is physically ill founded for slug tests in aquifers. This new proof scientifically confirms previously raised doubts and experimental proofs that the second theory is ill founded.     

小庄矿井采煤对地下水的影响及保水采煤措施

针对煤炭开采易造成地表塌陷及含水层破坏等问题,采用类比法计算了彬长矿区规划新建的矿井——小庄矿井开采导水裂缝带高度,在此基础上分析了采煤对地下水的影响,并提出保水采煤的措施。经计算,采用分层开采时产生的导水裂隙带最大高度为147.84 m,在三盘区将导通安定组隔水层,造成宜君组、洛河组承压含水层破坏,导通区域面积为0.773 6 km²。因此,在可能导通的区域应进行保水采煤以保证安定组隔水层的稳定,从而达到保护具有供水意义的含水层和保障矿井生产安全的双重目的。     

Testing of Sydney dimension sandstone for use in the conservation of heritage buildings

This paper deals with the scientific assessment of the physical properties of sandstone used in the conservation of Sydney's historic heritage sandstone buildings. The local Hawkesbury Sandstone has been widely used for all manner of constructions since the early days of the first settlement. In the nineteenth century, dimension sandstone quarries existed all over the Sydney region, and the demand for the stone was great. During this time, a true ‘freestone’ known as ‘yellow block’ sandstone, in which bedding planes were absent, was quarried extensively. This sandstone is also known as a ‘self-colouring’ sandstone, where the rock, although grey when quarried, turns a yellow–brown after a few months exposure to the atmosphere. It can be easily carved and was eminently suitable for the ornate Victorian architecture of the time. There are very few quarries within the Sydney region today capable of producing ‘yellow block’ sandstone. Whenever possible, sandstone from suitable building excavations, particularly on the Pyrmont Peninsula, is used for this work. Conservation work is extremely expensive and the building elements that most need replacement, the overhanging and decorative elements, are usually those that cost the most. It is essential that the most durable replacement stone be selected. Thus, a strict regime of scientific testing is used for any major conservation project, in order to determine the physical properties of possible replacement stone. This is the province of the geologist and involves visual observation in the quarry or excavation, which is a simple, cost-effective means of weeding out poor quality stones, followed by laboratory engineering tests to establish the physical parameters of a sandstone and finally, petrographic analysis. The results of such tests, combined with careful sampling, ensure the best possible quality of replacement material.     

Political ecology and habitat conservation for endangered species planning in Southern California: Region, places, and ecological governance

The county of Riverside California has a long history of land conservation. In this comparative case study between Western Riverside County and the Coachella Valley area in the county we show how governance institutions that encompass regions that have very different ecologies, are governed by rules and regulations that are undifferentiated relative to those differences. The study argues, however, that what may differ are the workings of the local urban regimes and the metabolic appropriation of ecosystems for economic growth. In this close investigation of the sprawling county of Riverside we find very different approaches to habitat preservation and the enrollment of nature for wealth production by the local urban regimes.     

Using GIS-based distributed soil loss modeling and morphometric analysis to prioritize watershed for soil conservation in Bago river basin of Lower Myanmar

Bago River is an important river in Myanmar. Although shorter than other rivers, it has its own river system, and people along the river rely heavily on it for their daily lives. The upper part of the watershed has changed rapidly from closed forest to open forest land in the 1990s. Since the recent degradation of the forest environment, annual flooding has become worse during the rainy season in Bago City. This paper aims at determining soil conservation prioritization of watershed based on soil loss due to erosion and morphometric analysis in the Bago Watershed by integrating remote sensing and geographic information system (GIS) techniques. In this study, soil erosion of the Bago watershed was determined using the Universal Soil Loss Equation. Such factormaps as rainfall, soil erodibility, slope length gradient, and crop management were compiled as input parameters for the modeling; and the soil loss from 26 sub-watersheds were estimated. Then, the soil erosion maps of the Bago watershed for 2005 were developed. The resulting Soil Loss Tolerance Map could be utilized in developing watershed management planning, forestry management planning, etc.     

U–Pb dating of plutonic rocks involved in the nappe tectonic in southern Cameroon: consequence for the Pan-African orogenic evolution of the central African fold belt

TIMS-ID and SIMS U–Pb dating on zircons from metaplutonic rocks involved in the Pan-African nappe of southern Cameroon allow definition of three groups of subduction-related intrusions: group-I intrusions represented by the Masins metagabbro in the Lomie region yielded 666 ± 26 Ma; group-II intrusions represented by the Mamb metasyenogabbro and the Yaoundé pyriclasite yielded ca. 620 Ma and are broadly coeval with the deposition of the Yaoundé metasediments; group-III intrusions represented by the Elon augen metagranite and the Ngaa Mbappe metamonzodiorite yielded ca. 600 Ma. The onset of the nappe tectonics occurred under high-grade conditions in the range 616 to 610 Ma and continued around 600 Ma with the emplacement of the shallowest nappes. Finally, the construction of southern Cameroon proceeded by a multi-stage evolution characterized by a long-lived development of magmatic arcs associated with rapid opening and closure of sedimentary marginal basins in relation to a northward subduction.     

Evidence for progressive Holocene aridification in southern Africa recorded in Namibian hyrax middens: Implications for African Monsoon dynamics and the ‘‘African Humid Period’’

Presented here are stable nitrogen isotope data from a rock hyrax (Procavia capensis) middens from northwestern Namibia that record a series of rapid aridification events beginning at ca. 3800 cal yr BP, and which mark a progressive decrease in regional humidity across the Holocene. Strong correlations exist between this record and other terrestrial and marine archives from southern Africa, indicating that the observed pattern of climate change is regionally coherent. Combined, these data indicate hemispheric synchrony in tropical African climate change during the Holocene, with similar trends characterising the termination of the ‘African Humid Period’ (AHP) in both the northern and southern tropics. These findings run counter to the widely accepted model of direct low-latitude insolation forcing, which requires an anti-phase relationship to exist between the hemispheres. The combined dataset highlights: 1) the importance of forcing mechanisms influencing the high northern latitudes in effecting low-latitude climate change in Africa, and 2) the potential importance of solar forcing and variations in the Earth's geomagnetic shield in determining both long-term and rapid centennial-scale climate changes, identifying a possible mechanism for the variations marking the AHP termination in both the southern and northern tropics.     

Cross-border conservation in East Central Europe: The Danube-Carpathian complex and the contribution of the World Wide Fund for Nature

Cross-border cooperation in environmental matters has become much more evident since 1989 because open frontiers facilitate contact while common tasks emerge as protected areas in frontier zones lose their isolation. Pollution hazards have been discussed more openly since 1989 while further stimuli arise from the harmonisation process in the run-up to EU enlargement and the finance available from Brussels and other international donors to solve pollution problems and create international ecological networks. The paper examines the progress made in the Danube Valley and the Carpathians which together constitute the core of East Central Europe. Particular attention is paid to the role of environmental non-governmental organisations (ENGOs) – and especially the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) – in the progress of conservation. Along with the World Conservation Union (IUCN), WWF has demonstrated the value of floodplain wetlands and ensured that wetland restoration is an important part of the Strategic Action Plan for the Danube. And by involving local ENGOs in specific projects the role of the non-governmental sector in environment matters is enhanced. Also, with momentum growing for a pan-European ecological network ('Natura 2000'), WWF has attracted the support of international donors for a ecoregion-based conservation (ERBC) in the Carpathians where priority areas have now been identified. Ecological and diplomatic capacities are thus deployed to maximise the scope for biodiversity conservation commensurate with sustainable socio-economic development. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Experimental definition of microclimatic conditions based on water transfer and porous media properties for the conservation of prehistoric constructions: Cueva Pintada at Galdar,Gran Canaria,Spain

Microclimatic parameters and natural materials were studied in order to assess conservation of the cave complex at Galdar, Gran Canaria. Based on the microclimatic data, experimental simulations were carried out to quantify water retention capacity and water vapour transport kinetics under continuously changing extreme temperatures and relative humidity values. The behaviour of natural construction materials is greatly influenced by changes in thermo-hygrometric conditions and is linked to pore structure. The host rock has a complex porous media: high porosity and polymodal pore size distribution, where the smallest pores contribute to water condensation, whilst large pores lead to high water absorption rates. The axial compressive strength of the host-rock decreases between 30 and 70% at water saturation. Stuccos covering cave wall paintings are formed by clay minerals, mainly smectites. These clay minerals cover a large specific surface area, which leads to a high capacity for water condensation and retention. It is also shown that neither water condensation nor vapour transport are noticeably modified by the presence of stucco on the host-rock when rapid, highly variable changes occur in environmental conditions if large shrinkage cracks are present. Results show that safe threshold microclimatic conditions can be found below 75% RH in the natural temperature range and that slight variations in temperature and relative humidity do not modify durability properties.