WEST AFRICAN ENVIRONMENTAL NARRATIVES AND DEVELOPMENT‐VOLUNTEER PRAXIS*

ABSTRACT. Environmental narratives in Africa have been examined in a flurry of publications since the mid‐1990s. In this article we seek to offer insights into the role and motivations of volunteer development workers in perpetuating environmental narratives. We examine the factors that led to the questioning or nonquestioning of environment‐development discourses and their influence, if any, on the actual work undertaken by volunteers. As former development volunteers, we also explore the role that the development‐volunteer experience subsequently played in shaping our own research as academics. Our analysis is based largely on our tenure as U.S. Peace Corps volunteers in Mali from 1987 until 1989 and our later experiences as academics. We draw on our memories, interviews with former colleagues, and training materials to describe how volunteers were introduced to, and encouraged to act on, environmental problems in the West African Sudano‐Sahel. We adopt a reflexive approach to explore briefly how our experiences as volunteers influenced our research and writing as academics.     

GROSS NATIONAL HAPPINESS AND ENVIRONMENTAL STATUS IN BHUTAN*

ABSTRACT. The Himalayan Kingdom of Bhutan is in the midst of transformation as it moves from an isolated past to a modern nation‐state and participant in the global community. Its development path embraces the concept of “Gross National Happiness,” a philosophy and policy instrument that seeks to promote human development and manage environmental conservation within a sustainable strategy guided by Buddhist ethics. After examining Bhutan's approach to development and the governance and environmental policies stemming from it, this essay assesses its impacts on environmental conditions in the country.     

GENDER,GEOPOLITICS, AND GEOSURVEILLANCE IN THE BOURNE ULTIMATUM*

Generic action‐thriller films, especially The Bourne Ultimatum, the last in a series of three films, provide a useful resource for examining the gendered nature of geopolitics, the specification of place, and the role of geosurveillance in post‐9/11 national security. Using the dialogue of the film as key source material, I show how the private world of Jason Bourne, an assassin, is interwoven with the public sphere of international security, including covert operations: The personal is geopolitical. I conclude with some reflections on how we might use film as a critical pedagogical resource.     

THE TEMPORAL AND SPATIAL PATTERNS OF ENVIRONMENTAL RISK EVENTS IN THE PAST 30 YEARS IN SHENYANG CITY

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RURAL DEVELOPMENT IN EL HATILLO, NICARAGUA: GENDER, NEOLIBERALISM AND ENVIRONMENTAL RISK

El Hatillo is a rural community in the Sébaco valley in Nicaragua, which suffers from an eroding resource base, high levels of poverty and malnutrition, and a high susceptibility to hazards. Structural adjustment policies have been devastating for small and subsistence farmers and have increased the level of economic, social and environmental marginalisation in rural Nicaragua. This paper explores initiatives to promote sustainable development in Nicaragua in the context of structural adjustment and environmental degradation. Drawing on qualitative research conducted in El Hatillo, it outlines the ways in which women in this community are attempting to address the multiple challenges of rural poverty and environmental risk and considers the potential of these strategies for gender equality.     

对中国现行环保投融资现状的反思

环境治理不仅是关系经济可持续发展、人民生活环境质量的民心工程，也是一项耗资巨大的系统工程。近20年来，中国持续加大对环保投资力度，然而仍然存在巨大资金缺口，3月29日在京召开的“2005中国环保投融资国际论坛”上，国家环保总局规划财务司副司长陈斌指出“十一五”期间环保资金投入将达到130000亿，占GDP总量的1．4％-1．5％，然而资金缺口也将过半。由此可见，总量不足的确是制约中国环境治理的重要原因，但通过运用统计学的方法分析中国环保投资的使用现状，借鉴比较法的研究方法，对比各种融资模式的优劣，则可以知道融资渠道狭窄，融资机制落后以及资金使用效率低下，方乃实质性原因。     

HUMAN RELATIONS AND PRIMARY HEALTH CARE DELIVERY IN RURAL NEPAL: THE CASE OF DEURALI *

A preliminary analysis of the primary health care delivery component of a small rural development project in Deurali, Nepal, suggests that personal relations between project personnel and their target population (e.g., implementors'sincerity and commitment to service) can overcome many cultural, geographical, and class-related social barriers to achieving project objectives. The Deurali medical staff's ability to combine their technical skills with sincerity, hard work, and commitment has made the Deurali project reasonably successful in meeting villagers'primary health care needs.     

南充地区北部山地资源的开发利用

本文通过分析南充北部红层低山丘陵的五个特点和以往开发利用中存在的三个问题,提出了以林为主,农牧结合,林农牧全面发展,是该区农业经济起飞的关键。     

西宁市环境问题及可持续发展对策

西宁市现代工业迅速发展,城市规模日益扩大,城市化水平不断提高。与此同时,城市环境问题也日益突出。本文详细论述了西宁市目前发展中所面临的主要环境问题,并分析了其成因,指出走可持续发展之路是西宁市经济发展的迫切要求与必然选择,并提出可持续发展对策。     

苏鲁豫皖接壤地区的环境特征及水环境问题

苏鲁豫皖四省接壤地区环境受人为干扰和黄泛影响严重,环境问题和自然灾害较多,尤其是围绕水环境的旱涝和水体污染问题更为突出,针对四省接壤的特定区位和水环境状况,要通过加强跨地区水资源管理,落实有关法规和实行综合治理等对策进行整治。     

THE HIGHEST POSTGLACIAL SHORE LEVELS AND GLACIO‐ISOSTATIC UPLIFT PATTERN IN NORTHERN SWEDEN

The detailed clay varve chronology and an extensive knowledge of the highest postglacial shore level elevation (HS) in northern Sweden, along the Bothnian western coast, provides opportunities for determining the pattern of isostatic rise and centre of uplift from the early Holocene. The shore level of c. 10 100 cal yr bp (10 ka) for this area is determined by subtracting, from the metachronous HS elevations, the fall in relative sea level between local deglaciation time and the chosen reference time. The area of highest uplift since 10 ka is situated somewhat north of the location with the world‐record HS (Skuleberget in Ångermanland), but south of the area with most rapid current rise. Wave erosion marks in the studied area are seen to be more consistent indicators of HS than glaciofluvial delta levels. The gradients of shore marks at 10 ka are generally small within the investigation area. The regional 10 ka shore level pattern shows considerable irregularity compared to the current uplift. Central Sweden and western Finland show 10 ka gradients that indicate isostatic response to late (13–10 ka bp ) glacial unloading. Indications of a secondary uplift centre west of the present investigation area are reported in previous work; this also suggests rapid isostatic response to unloading. Finally, the possibility of identifying errors in the varve‐dated deglaciation chronology via the 10 ka shore level pattern is illustrated.     

EXPLORING MARKET‐BASED DEVELOPMENT: MARKET INTERMEDIARIES AND FARMERS IN CALAKMUL,MEXICO*

ABSTRACT. Market intermediaries play important roles in the development of tropical‐forest frontiers but are often overlooked in the assessment of land‐change dynamics. Consistent with research beyond land‐change studies, intermediaries are found to be a pivotal element in land‐use and land‐cover change in southeastern Mexico. They have stimulated commercial chili cultivation in this development frontier, providing transportation and other services to smallholders who could otherwise not enter the chili market. This role comes at the cost of a near monopoly on chili marketing. The various roles played by these intermediaries, or coyotes, the means by which they operate, and the consequences for smallholders and land use are detailed for the Calakmul Municipality, Campeche, Mexico.     

MARKET TRADE IN DECENTRALIZED DEVELOPMENT: THE CASE OF CAJAMARCA,PERU *

Decentralized development views market trade and market towns as part of a comprehensive strategy to divert economic development away from major metropolitan areas. Seventy-one traders were surveyed in the central market of Cajamarca, Peru in 1981. Most are women earning minimal incomes, primarily because of price controls and expensive credit. Stimulating market trade as it is currently organized seems unlikely to assist migrants in secondary towns or to stimulate agricultural development in their hinterlands.     

KITCHENSPACE,FIESTAS, AND CULTURAL REPRODUCTION IN MEXICAN HOUSE‐LOT GARDENS*

ABSTRACT. The house‐lot garden in central Mexico is gendered space where changing cultural identities are negotiated, re‐created, and celebrated as “tradition” is continually redefined. No clear boundary separates the kitchen from the house‐lot garden or the private space of the household from the semipublic space of the community. During collective food preparation for religious fiestas, gendered reciprocity networks strengthen community relations and foster alliances between traditional neighborhoods and between communities in the region. At the intersection of everyday life and fiestas, food‐preparation spaces, or kitchenspaces, in the house‐lot garden are fertile areas in which to explore the cultural reproduction of nature‐society relations. They are vital to understanding gender, place, and culture in this region and represent people's symbolic connection with the land in increasingly urban contexts. This article analyzes the sense of place that Mexican women derive from their house‐lot gardens.     

RUNAWAY FIRES,SMOKE‐HAZE POLLUTION,AND UNNATURAL DISASTERS IN INDONESIA*

ABSTRACT. Fires on Sumatra and Kalimantan have taken a heavy toll on Indonesia' remaining tropical forests. Drought exacerbates the fire hazard, but it does not cause the fires, most of which have been the result of inappropriate land‐use policies and practices. Peatland fires have emitted vast quantities of smoke that periodically blanket large parts of insular Southeast Asia, impairing visibility, disrupting travel, hampering economic activity, and posing serious health risks. The development agenda of Indonesia' New Order regime paid scant attention to forest management, including the need to detect, control, and suppress unwanted fires.     

THE NATIONAL ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY ACT IN THE COURTS AND CONGRESS, 1970-1972

This paper tests the validity of general central place concepts in a two-province, government-organized planning region in western Argentina known as Cuyo. Results of trade area surveys for various hierarchical levels and patterns formed by shopping-trip behavior agree well with expectations based on similar central place research in the United States.     

IN THE WAY OF DEVELOPMENT: INDIGENOUS LAND‐RIGHTS ISSUES IN MALAYSIA*

The Malaysian government regards the country's indigenous peoples as “backward” and in need of “modernization.” It aims to assimilate them into the so‐called mainstream society and to incorporate their lands and resources into national and global markets. These policy objectives leave little scope for indigenous groups to pursue their own life projects. Indigenous communities want to share in the benefits of economic development, but they are not prepared to give up their lands, cultures, and identities to obtain them. They have attempted to ward off the negative consequences of development projects by forming advocacy nongovernmental organizations, engaging in various forms of resistance, and seeking redress of their grievances in the courts. Most of all, they want recognition of their rights to land and place. The efficacy of their agency is severely hampered by a battery of repressive laws and by their own political weakness.     

A Geography of Children's Vulnerability: Gender,Household Resources,and Water‐Related Disease Hazard in Northern Pakistan*

Water‐related diseases continue to pose major threats to children's survival and well‐being in many places in the developing world. This article develops a theoretical perspective on the ways in which children's vulnerability to water‐related disease hazard is produced within the everyday circumstances of livelihood and child care. Central to this analysis is the role that household resources play in mediating or shaping particular microenvironments of health risk. Further, the effects of local geographies of gender on how household resources are accessed and on how child care is structured are examined. Children's vulnerability is evaluated in a community in the District of Gilgit in northern Pakistan, a region presently undergoing tremendous social and economic transformation. The case study highlights household‐level response and adaptation to child health risks associated with diarrheal disease transmission and infection in this mountain environment. The case study draws from ethnographic fieldwork involving qualitative household microstudies and interviewing to elicit mothers' resource and risk‐response strategies in the context of changes in livelihood systems and household dynamics.     

西藏左贡县绕金乡地方性氟中毒区环境氟异常及矫正对策

高氟温泉是导致本病区环境氟异常的氟源,人为引高氟温泉作生产、生活用水,加大了氟异常波及的范围和程度,高氟饮水和低氟饮水加高氟粮食是导致居民氟中毒的主要原因,改水降氟是矫正环境氟异常和防治氛中毒的根本对策,分析表明它具有显著的社会效益和间接经济效益．     

南极长城站地区西湖底沉积物化学元素分布规律及其环境意义

利用南极长城站地区西湖底沉积物的化学元素背景值，对西湖底沉积物元素的时序分布规律及其指示的环境意义作了较细致的研究。研究表明，湖底沉积物元素的时序变化规律与站区自然环境变化密切相关。尽管元素的时序变化滞后于自然环境的波动，但对研究长城站地区自然环境演变仍具有一定的指示意义。尤其是Ｓ元素的异常变化，可能揭示出长城站地区两次规模较大的火山活动。