'Just sustainability': the emerging discourse of environmental justice in Britain?

Environmental justice is both a vocabulary for political opportunity, mobilization and action, and a policy principle to guide public decision making. It emerged initially in the US, and more recently in the UK, as a new vocabulary underpinning action by community organizations campaigning against environmental injustices. However, as the environmental justice discourse has matured, it has become increasingly evident that it should play a role in the wider agendas for sustainable development and social inclusion. The links between sustainability and environmental justice are becoming clearer and more widely understood in the UK by NGOs and government alike, and it is the potential synergy between these two discourses which is the focus of this paper. This paper argues that the concept of 'just sustainability' provides a discourse for policymakers and activists, which brings together the key dimensions of both environmental justice and sustainable development.     

Farming and environmental degradation in Zambia: the human dimension

Farming and environmental degradation are inextricably linked through a complex of political, social, economic and physical forces. A connection is drawn between the initiation and maintenance of distinct farming systems (commercial, emergent and subsistence) by largely human influences, and the effect these farming systems have in turn on the environment. There are important implications for the environment through indirect effects on plant cover, cultivation methods and systems of bush fallowing. In many respects subsistence cultivation is probably the safest.A case study from Mkushi District, Central Province exemplifies the influence of external factors on environmental degradation in general, and soil erosion in particular. In the survey, traditional practices show fewer signs of soil erosion than commercial farming because of rational decisions taken by each group of farmers. The implication for conservation strategies is briefly reviewed.     

人类命运共同体视域中的国家传统疆域与新疆域

领土疆域是现代国家存在和发展的客观地理空间实体,对国家的长治久安和繁荣稳定具有根本现实意义。在人类社会发展的演进历程中,人类社会共同体在有着固定地理边界的领土上建立了现代国家,然而随着人类探索世界的范围因认知能力、科学技术及经济全球化等变化而扩展,国家地理疆域的形态也由此发生了深刻变化。现代国家的地理疆域已经从领土、近海和近空传统地理空间,向深海、远洋、太空、极地和信息等现代地理空间延展。总的来看,现代国家疆域的形态特征的变化主要表现为,由二维空间向多维空间的变化,从确定性空间向不确定空间延展,从地理空间迈向向利益空间发展,从主权空间向战略空间扩展。在现代国家的地理疆域已经发生变化的前提下,中国在构建人类命运共同体中提出了以和平、主权、普惠、共治为治理原则来治理国际关系新疆域,这不仅为治理国际关系新疆域贡献了中国智慧,也有效推动了中国疆域治理迈向更高台阶。     

Crisis in policy, policy in crisis: understanding environmental discourse and resource-use conflict in northern Nigeria

This article explores the emergence and persistence of crisis narratives in the policy environment of twentieth century Nigeria. It finds that environmental crisis narratives have a well-established and traceable historical lineage, initially, as continuity between colonial and post-colonial policy discourse, but more recently with donor agencies gaining increasing importance in influencing and shaping debate. Counter-narratives are identified, but these lack historical 'legitimacy', and often sit uncomfortably alongside donor-funded initiatives. In light of weak governance systems that impede the development and maintenance of robust data-sets, the article argues that flawed 'conventional wisdom' regarding environmental processes and people–environment linkages will combine to produce a policy environment that could actually constrain rather than enable the improvement of rural livelihoods.     

Continuity and change in population movement: the case of Nepal

The author examines internal migration in Nepal, comparing historical population movements with contemporary migration patterns. The impacts of geographic factors and natural resource availability on migration are emphasized.     

西安全新世环境变化及对人类活动的影响

为揭示西安地区全新世环境变化及其对人类活动的影响,论文运用土层元素含量、CaCO₃含量和磁化率等指标研究了白鹿塬全新世各土层发育时的环境变化。结果表明：该区的中全新世古土壤受到中等程度的化学风化,尚未达到脱钾阶段,土壤类型为亚热带黄棕壤。该层古土壤发育时的年均温度约为16 ℃,年均降水量约为920 mm。中全新世夏季风活动占主导地位,夏季风带来的降水量约为570 mm。晚全新世黄土受到低等程度的化学风化,具有碱性褐色土的特点,发育时的年均温度为11~13 ℃,年均降水量为600~700 mm。晚全新世夏季风活动与冬季风相近,夏季风带来的降水量在350 mm左右。在中全新世晚期的6000~5000 a BP之间,发生了气候变冷干的事件,在冷干事件期间土壤侵蚀强烈,当时堆积的黄土在广大地区受到侵蚀消失,仅在少数剖面存留。晚全新世黄土发育时的沙尘暴堆积率至少是中全新世古土壤发育时的2.3倍。中全新世气候温暖湿润,导致古土壤粘化强、持水性较好、含水量充足,非常利于当时温带作物和部分亚热带作物发展与农业生产,这是当时人类活动较强和村落分布较广的主要原因。晚全新世黄土也具有优良土壤的特性,当时降水量和土壤水分含量基本能够满足温带旱地农业生产的需要,这是晚全新世关中平原人类活动逐渐增强的重要原因之一。     

A thousand years of environmental change and human impact in the alpine zone at Mt Kosciusko,New South Wales

This study reconstructs erosion, productivity, fire and vegetation records at Club Lake, in the alpine zone of Kosciusko National Park (the highest mountain region in Australia), and uses them to compare the prehistoric and historic periods. While disturbance in the prehistoric period was found to be minimal and mainly activated by fire, the impact of land uses after European arrival initiated a change in the erosion and fire regime and brought new grazing animals and exotic plant species. These triggered temporal changes in eutrophication and the nature of erosion, and significant vegetation changes. There was a reduction in the stability and persistence of species representation, especially in herbfield vegetation, and little recovery is evident despite the cessation of summer grazing. It is apparent that the area is very sensitive to disturbance by human impact and large fires.     

Laos and the making of a 'relational' resource frontier

This paper seeks to reconsider the contemporary relevance of the resource frontier, drawing on examples of nature's commodification and enclosure under way in the peripheral Southeast Asian country of Laos. Frontiers are conceived as relational zones of economy, nature and society; spaces of capitalist transition, where new forms of social property relations and systems of legality are rapidly established in response to market imperatives. Customary property rights on the resource frontier can be seized by powerful actors in crucial political moments, preparing the territorial stage for more intensive phases of resource commodity production and accumulation. Relational frontier space is understood through the work of geographers such as Doreen Massey, who views the production of space as 'constituted though the practices of engagement and the power-geometries of relations'. In Laos, a twenty-first century resource frontier is being driven by new corporate investments in natural resources, and a supporting array of land reform programmes. The paper focuses on both the material and representational aspects of the production of the resource frontier, through policy and discourse analysis, and village level research in Laos' Khammouane province. By rethinking a dualist and hierarchical-scaled imaginary of frontier places, both rural people and local ecologies are shown to be key actors, in a complex, relational reproduction of frontier zones. An emerging Lao spatial and political assemblage – a form of 'frontier-neoliberalism'– is shown as producing dramatic changes in socio-natural landscapes, as well as new patterns of marginalisation and livelihood insecurity for a vulnerable rural population.     

Economic commodity or environmental crisis? An interdisciplinary approach to analysing the bushmeat trade in central and west Africa

Bushmeat is a large but largely invisible contributor to the economies of west and central African countries. Yet the trade is currently unsustainable. Hunting is reducing wildlife populations, driving more vulnerable species to local and regional extinction, and threatening biodiversity. This paper uses a commodity chain approach to explore the bushmeat trade and to demonstrate why an interdisciplinary approach is required if the trade is to be sustainable in the future.     

Population growth and land use in Nepal: "the great turnabout"

Historically, Nepal has demonstrated a "great turnabout" trend, in which initial immigration from the lowland areas to the mountains has been replaced by accelerating migration from the hills to the plains. The reason for this reversal has been a rapid growth in population within the confines of limited availability of potentially cultivable land. Given Nepal's slow economic development, the overwhelming majority of increases in population have to be accommodated within the agricultural sector, on which 83% of Nepal's households are dependent. Fundamental land use issues in Nepal include rapid achievement of the final limit of land suitability for cultivation and the speed at which land can be brought into cultivation. The Government of Nepal has developed the objectives of increased food production to provide a satisfactory diet for the population, increased per capita income, improved regional balance in income and development, conservation of natural resources such as land and forests, and overall development of the economy through income generation, export earnings, and release of agricultural labor to other sectors. 3 perspective studies have identified a number of policies and programs that could bring Nepal closer to these goals. These studies analyzed potential land use development, agricultural production, and food availability by the year 2005. Most essential is the need to intensify land use not only in crop agriculture, but also grasslands and forest use. Land must be allocated to uses that represent the most productive use of that land without being degrading. Technologies are available for land use in each of the main types of uses--crop agriculture, livestock, and forests--that can provide protection against land degradation. Finally, irrigation is a key element in raising agricultural output. Close cooperation between the government and the people is crucial for the success of the task of finding a balance between population growth and its demand for services of the land.     

Late Quaternary environmental changes in Helambu Himal, Central Nepal, recorded in the diatom flora assemblage composition and geochemistry of Lake Panch Pokhari

This study presents changes in diatom flora assemblage composition, TOC, TOC/N and biogenic opal in a 450 cm core of Lake Panch Pokhari, Central Nepal (4,050 m asl), indicating Late Quaternary environmental fluctuations. Four Diatom Zones (DZ) were detected, with two major changes. The first one was found in ~430 cm depth (~14.8 cal. kyr BP), where the original flora characterized by Navicula digitulus Hustedt, Pinnularia rhombarea Krammer, P. aff. viridiformis var. minor Krammer, Encyonema silesiacum (Bleisch) D. G. Mann, Cymbopleura naviculiformis (Auerswald) Krammer and Nitzschia sp. was fully replaced by an assemblage consisting of Aulacoseira alpigena (Grunow) Krammer, Diatoma hyemalis (Roth) Heib., Tabellaria flocculosa (Ehrenberg) Kützing, Brachysira brebissonii Ross and Pinnularia subgibba Krammer, creating a stable diatom assemblage for ~8 kyr (DZ3). The second change was found at ~70 cm (~2.1 cal. kyr BP) when increased nutrient inputs lead to emergence of new taxa such as Fragilaria construens var. subsalina Hustedt, F. tenera (W. Smith) Lange-Bertalot, Eunotia cf. pseudopapilio Lange-Bertalot and M. N?rpel-Schempp and Gomphonema subclavatum Grunow. In order to evaluate the past environmental conditions in the Lake Panch Pokhari, the detected diatom taxa were subjected to analyses of their autecological preferences and dominance within the specific assemblage. We also assumed that TOC/N ratios >10 indicate accelerated erosion due to the strengthening of the Summer Monsoon starting at ~14.8 and between 13.7 and 12.8 cal. kyr BP. Monsoon intensity was most pronounced during the Early Holocene and at the beginning of the Late Holocene. The fluctuations of TOC and TOC/N in the Late Glacial sediments seem to correlate temporally and climatically with oscillations in the Northern Atlantic region.     

环境地理与人类健康研究成果与展望

中国科学院地理科学与资源研究所倡导和建立了化学地理研究机构,是我国最早从事环境科学研究的单位之一,推动了环境质量调查、环境质量评价、环境背景、环境容量和环境治理等理论和技术的建立和发展;长期进行克山病、大骨节病等地方病的调查及其环境病因与防治的研究,为上述疾病的控制做出了重大贡献;创立和发展了中国的医学地理学研究体系。2000年以后,在持续开展西部地方病地理流行规律和稀土元素生物地球化学循环研究基础上,重点开展了重金属等污染物及全球环境变化的健康风险评价研究,拓展了区域碳、氮、磷等生命元素的生物地球化学循环与温室气体排放的关系研究,强化了环境污染治理和健康保护的技术研究。实现了从化学地理到环境地理、从医学地理到健康地理的转变。未来的环境地理与人类健康研究将以地理环境的化学属性为重点,以人口健康保护为核心,探讨环境保护、社会经济发展和人类健康安全在整体上协调的机制与途径。     

Imagining the borderlands: Contending stories of a resource frontier in Muang Sing

Muang Sing in Luang Namtha province, an administrative district of northern Laos bordering Myanmar and China, has been portrayed by the Lao government and international development agencies as a ‘poor’ rural region in need of development. To developers, Muang Sing's remoteness from major towns and the livelihoods of ethnic people such as the Akha in the uplands based on swidden agriculture and opium production characterized ‘poverty’. To address this rural poverty, state and development agencies devised land use zoning that would demarcate and regulate various land uses in line with a rural development plan for the district. This vision for regulated development began to go awry, however, as farmers and traders in Muang Sing launched their own rapid social and economic changes. In contrast to the official image of a backward rural district in need of outside assistance, this paper portrays farmers and local entrepreneurs of the Muang Sing borderlands as actively transforming their lives and agricultural landscapes. This paper challenges the official version of a remote, poor district untouched by regional trade through a focus on narratives of local people. Ethnographic research reveals the dynamic micro‐processes of agrarian transformation during recent decades to highlight the centrality of borderland people in reworking their lives and agricultural landscapes through cross‐border relationships in China.     

北京大学环境地理研究的回顾与展望

北京大学的环境地理学研究承载于城市与环境学院的环境学系,其前身为北京大学地理系自然地理学专业环境教研室。65年来北京大学的环境地理学研究从传统的自然地理学,到将化学与地理学相结合的化学地理学,再到有地学环保性质的环境地理学,研究领域不断扩大,研究内容不断深入。目前,环境学系依托地理学二级学科环境地理学,在全球或区域环境中有毒污染物的区域环境过程、污染物的生物地球化学循环和界面间的迁移转化、污染物的环境毒理效应及其生态和健康风险等领域取得了一系列具有国际显示度的创新成果,研究水平处于国内这一领域的领先位置,各研究团队还将基础研究和应用研究紧密结合,围绕环境领域的热点问题,开展了一系列面向国家重大需求的应用型研究和咨询工作,为保护生态环境以及实现经济社会可持续发展发挥了重要作用,也为国家培养了大量高水平学术型和实用型人才。未来北京大学环境地理学科将从科学创新和面向国家重大需求两个角度出发,以培养高水平人才为核心,争取在多方面逐步取得较大突破。     

Tourism and deforestation in the Mt Everest region of Nepal

Over the past 50 years the Sherpa-inhabited Mt Everest region of Nepal has become a premier international mountaineering and trekking destination. Tourism development has brought prosperity to many Sherpas. It has also, however, had adverse impacts on regional forests and alpine vegetation because of the use of firewood by camping groups and inns and the felling of trees to construct inns and other tourist facilities. Concern that tourism was causing widespread deforestation helped catalyse the 1976 establishment of an inhabited protected area, Sagarmatha (Mt Everest) National Park, in the Khumbu region and spurred the implementation of a series of forest conservation and alternative energy development measures both within the national park and in a recently declared buffer zone in the adjacent Pharak region. This paper examines the changing pressures that tourism has placed on regional forests and alpine vegetation over the past half century and their role in regional vegetation change. This analysis is based primarily on detailed accounts of past and present forest use and change obtained during fieldwork conducted in all Khumbu and Pharak villages, along with corroborating evidence from early foreign visitors' accounts and photographs. Contrary to some early reports it now appears there has actually been little deforestation since 1950. The continuing use of firewood by inns, however, has contributed to the thinning of forests in some parts of the national park and to the depletion of shrub juniper in the most heavily visited alpine regions. There has been a greater impact on forests just outside the national park, which have been heavily thinned over an extensive area in order to provide timber to build inns within the national park.