Poverty, hunger and population policy: linking Cairo with Johannesburg

Attitudes to population policy taken by major international institutions display a lack of symmetry. Population-based institutions forcefully set out the effects of population on development and human welfare. In contrast, institutions and lobbies concerned with hunger, poverty and environment, brought together at the 2003 World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg, treat population growth as a given, independent, variable. This paper gives a land resources viewpoint. It includes a case study of Malawi and cross-country statistical comparisons. Official estimates of the extent of spare land, cultivable but not presently cultivated, are challenged. It is concluded that in low-income, food-deficit countries population increase has reduced, in some areas nullified, advances in agricultural development. Following the 1994 UN Conference on Population and Development in Cairo, a set of ethically acceptable measures for reducing population growth received general acceptance. All concerned with poverty, hunger and environment should follow the policy road from Cairo to Johannesburg. If greater efforts are not made to reduce rates of population increase, the targets of the Millennium declaration will not be met, and the suffering which these cause will continue. Statements about agriculture, food security, poverty and sustainability should recognize that population is not an external variable but an integral part of development.     

A disappearing biome? Reconsidering land-cover change in the Brazilian savanna

The Cerrado , the tropical savanna covering 22% of Brazil's territory, or approximately 1.783 million km², has suffered significant human impacts during the past three decades. This paper re-examines estimates of Cerrado vegetation change dynamics using high-resolution satellite remote sensing data from an area of interest extracted from eastern Mato Grosso State. This region has undergone a high degree of typical agricultural development since the early 1970s. Results indicate significant loss of original vegetation as well as high levels of regeneration, suggesting Cerrado vegetation may be more resilient to human impacts than catastrophic estimations suggest. The paper concludes with a critical review of Cerrado land-cover change studies and the implications of evidence for vegetation regeneration, land-cover dynamism and land-use intensification, paying particular attention to spatial scale and research methods. The discussion concludes that Cerrado land-cover change studied at a higher resolution and larger scales (smaller area) is required to represent more effectively the complexity of land conversion for better assessment of human impacts and environmental policy.     

The Fundamental Challenge in Measuring Sprawl: Which Land Should Be Considered?*

Lack of agreement on how to define and measure sprawl has hampered development of policy related to its causes and consequences. We question previous work for two reasons: the use of study areas that overbound or underbound sprawl landscapes, and the failure to account for land unavailable for development. We formulate “extended urban areas,” based on housing density and commuting patterns and argue that they represent a preferable geographic basis for measuring sprawl. We operationalize with satellite imagery a way for measuring land unavailable for development in these areas. We then compute five measures of urban development using the National Land Cover Data Base and decennial census data to assess the extent of sprawl in the extended urban areas of Atlanta, Baltimore, Boston, Los Angeles, and Washington. Our sensitivity analyses reveal that the measurement of sprawl critically depends on which land area forms the basis of the analysis, and, to a lesser degree, how one accounts for land unavailable for development.     

Policy Performance and Brownfield Redevelopment in Milwaukee,Wisconsin*

The redevelopment of brownfield sites has become a central focus of government efforts aimed at developing and revitalizing urban areas in the U.S. This article examines brownfield redevelopment efforts in Milwaukee County, Wisconsin, which gained momentum in the mid‐1990s, in order to determine how Milwaukee is performing in terms of redevelopment activities, what the effects of government support of such activities have been, and how performance outcomes are currently being measured. Through an examination of government data and interviews with key stakeholders, the Milwaukee case reveals that redevelopment is indeed progressing well as government becomes more effective at tackling the barriers to private‐sector redevelopment. However, progress in redeveloping brownfields is still being measured primarily in terms of economic development outcomes rather than in terms of the broader social, economic, and environmental objectives that both policy makers and private‐sector stakeholders associate with such redevelopment.     

Geography's Profile in Public Debate “Inside the Beltway” and the National Academies*

Geographers continue to engage in public debate “inside the Beltway” by participation within and through federal agencies and through the National Research Council. Several examples illustrate the level and kind of this engagement, which has been concentrated on environmental and spatial data and analysis themes. Most professional geographers have the opportunity to engage in this form of public debate through participation in the activities of the National Research Council. The level of this participation has been surprisingly strong, given the small size of the community of professional geographers, and has helped to shape both U.S. and international research agendas relevant to geographic research. Participation, however, is concentrated in a few programs and individuals, raising questions about the sustainability of geography's voice in this public activity.     

国外可持续发展政策研究对我国的启示

详细地剖析了以美、日、欧为代表的发达国家的相关的可持续发展政策,包括经济政策、产业政策和人口政策,并分析了这些政策对我国的启示,最后提出应该借鉴他国经验,从市场和政府两方面着手,不仅要积极发挥市场手段实施可持续发展,而且政府应当创造规则引导市场,同时提出应进一步完善可持续发展的人口政策.     

Serendipity is not a strategy: the impact of national climate programmes on greenhouse-gas emissions

This article examines the efficacy of national climate programmes (packages of policies introduced by governments to meet emissions reduction targets set out in the Kyoto Protocol) by considering emissions trends before and after their implementation. Analysis reveals that only four of 21 countries with defined programmes demonstrate improved emissions trends following their inception and in only one is the change statistically significant. The reasons for this are manifold but serendipity appears to play as large a part as strategy in determining national emissions trends in the early years of climate programmes. Inflated claims of success by national governments are unhelpful for effective policy analysis and development.     

From global politics to local land users: applying the United Nations Convention to combat desertification in Swaziland

This paper explores the relevance of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) and its related National Action Programmes (NAPs) to people affected by land degradation and change in Swaziland. Household data collected from three chiefdoms are examined, together with policy analyses and information from interviews with policymakers and NGO representatives, as the barriers that inhibit successful implementation of the UNCCD at the national level are explored. We demonstrate how the issues addressed by Swaziland's NAP do not always match the environmental challenges that most threaten the sustainability of rural livelihoods, despite the 'participatory' and 'consultative' approach taken in developing the policy. This is because the more powerful members of society restricted the public's access to policy space. We argue that local involvement in environmental policy and decision-making as prescribed from the international political arena is insufficient to ensure empowerment and democracy in dealing with land degradation in national and local contexts, particularly within highly centralized political systems. Although the UNCCD represents a useful global framework in which to situate local anti-degradation initiatives, in centralized political systems, its success depends upon changes being made to the ethos of national facilitating organizations. Only when the power balance is challenged and greater moves are made towards decentralization will local land users be able to assume a meaningful role in combating desertification.     

Modeling and assessing land-use and hydrological processes to future land-use and climate change scenarios in watershed land-use planning

Effective information regarding environmental responses to future land-use and climate change scenarios provides useful support for decision making in land use planning, management and policies. This study developed an approach for modeling and examining the impacts of future land-use and climate change scenarios on streamflow, surface runoff and groundwater discharge using an empirical land-use change model, a watershed hydrological model based on various land use policies and climate change scenarios in an urbanizing watershed in Taiwan. The results of the study indicated that various demand and conversion policies had different levels of impact on hydrological components in all land-use scenarios in the study watershed. Climate changes were projected to have a greater impact in increasing surface runoff and reducing groundwater discharge than are land use changes. Additionally, the spatial distributions of land-use changes also influenced hydrological processes in both downstream and upstream areas, particularly in the downstream watershed. The impacts on hydrological components when considering both land use and climate changes exceeded those when only considering land use changes or climate changes, particularly on surface runoff and groundwater discharge. However, the proposed approach provided a useful source of information for assessing the responses of land use and hydrological processes to future land use and climate changes.     

海南气象影视广告营销及发展对策分析

针对海南气象影视广告业现状和存在问题,分析了海南气象影视广告媒体的优劣势,并提出了相应的解决方法和经营策略,从而推动气象影视广告业不断创新发展。