A safer city centre for all? Senses of `community safety' in Newcastle upon Tyne

In recent years, many city authorities in Europe and North America have sought to attract people back to city centres for leisure, shopping, business and residence. The planning measures commonly adopted take explicit account of issues of crime and safety. The concept of `community safety' as applied to the city centre is problematic, however, as users have diverse lifestyles, interests and values which impact on their own and others' safety. This paper reports on a study of the experiences and perceptions of safety of different groups of city centre users in Newcastle upon Tyne, England. While social identities and roles shaped the extent of concern and subsequent impacts on people's use of the city centre space, the research suggested that many concerns are genuinely shared. The paper investigates the congruence of a range of planning strategies with city centre users' safety concerns. Situational measures were viewed with scepticism, as fear centres on the presence and behaviour of others.     

Participatory selection process for indicators of rangeland condition in the Kalahari

To develop indicator–based management tools that can facilitate sustainable natural resource management by non–specialists, meaningful participation of stakeholders is essential. A participatory framework is proposed for the identification, evaluation and selection of rangeland condition indicators. This framework is applied to the assessment of rangeland degradation processes and sustainable natural resource management with pastoralists in the southern Kalahari, Botswana. Farmer knowledge focused on vegetation and livestock, with soil, wild animal and socio–economic indicators playing a lesser role. Most were indicators of current rangeland condition; however 'early warning' indicators were also identified by some key informants. This demonstrates that some local knowledge is process–based. Such knowledge could be used to improve indicator–based management tools and extension advice on the livelihood adaptations necessary to prevent or reduce ecological change, capable of threatening livelihood sustainability. There is evidence that social background influences indicator use. Communal farmers rely most heavily on vegetation and livestock indicators, whilst syndicate and land–owning pastoralists cite wild animal and soil–based indicators most frequently. These factors must be considered if indicator–based management tools are to meet the requirements of a diverse community.     

Public environmental information: understanding requirements and patterns of likely public use

Public access to environmental information received much attention in the last decade. Recent developments promote access to this information through public telecommunication networks. This paper describes a Web-based survey that explored the requirements and needs of likely users of public environmental information systems for London: educated middle-class members of the public, with high interest in environmental issues and computer literacy. The survey demonstrated current information consumption patterns and the reasons to gather and use such information.     

中国环境影响评价中公众参与的有效性有待提高

环境影响评价(EIA)作为协调经济发展与环境保护的手段，已日益成为国家环境管理的重要工具。公众参与是环境影响评价的重要组成部分。从公众参与的概念及作用出发，分析中国环境影响评价中公众参与的机制，认为存在着参与对象选取不合理、参与形式双向性差、调查内容设置不科学、意见整理分析方法不完善及公众参与时段滞后等影响公众参与有效性提高的问题，最后提出注重参与对象的代表性，形式的有效性，内容的科学性，分析的定量化以及权利的保障等，以提高中国环评公众参与的有效性。     

Communities as the agents of commodification: The Kumbo Water Authority in Northwest Cameroon

In 1991 the people of the town of Kumbo in Northwest Cameroon expelled the national water corporation from town by force. They claimed to be retrieving a network that the community rightfully owned and they began to run the system along community lines. The paper tells the story of that water supply twice. First it reproduces the popular accounts that circulated in the 1990s that emphasize the role played by the community in the development and operation of the water supply and portray recent events as a triumph of community management. Then it retells the story using archive evidence that puts a quite different light on some of the events. It is argued that the emphasis on community management has a tendency to obscure other important aspects of the story, for example its political context and consequences. It is suggested that the widespread admiration for any initiative that is community based often results in an uncritical analysis of this form of development project. In this case the commodification of water accelerates after the community has wrested control of this public service from the state.     

‘Bringing government to the people’: women, local governance and community participation in South Africa

This paper considers the ongoing political transformations in South Africa in the context of debates about good governance and participatory democracy. It first appraises the current transformations of local government in South Africa, focusing specifically on relationships between gender equality and citizenship on the one hand, and local government policy, legislation, and community participation on the other, and then explores meanings of participation and how they inform approaches towards local socio-economic development. The findings of primary research conducted with civil society organisations and black women in communities in the Cape Town metropolitan area are explored through three interrelated themes. First, the model of structured participation that is central to South Africa’s democratic transformation is assessed from the perspective of black women. Second, cultures of alienation, both within local governance structures and amongst black women and the extent to which recent restructuring is combating or contributing to these are explored. Third, how participation policies are dealing with conflict within and between target groups are analysed, whether stakeholder group politics obliterate important differences in interests and whether alternative structures might be more effective in terms of women’s participation and empowerment. Finally, the findings are interpreted in relation to theoretical concepts of good governance and participatory democracy, and the potential and problems of realising South Africa’s transformation process toward developmental local government are assessed.     

梭梭荒漠生态系统：Ⅰ初级生产力及其群落结构的动态变化

通过对梭梭荒漠群落的种类组成、垂直结构、水平结构、季相及梭梭当年生绿色同化枝和草本层的地上植物量的研究，表明在以小半乔木梭梭占主导地位的群落中，丰富的短生植物及长营养期一年生植物均得到较好的发育，说明该群落具有由中亚荒漠向亚洲中部荒漠过渡的性质。而大量单种属或寡种属出现，反映出了梭梭群落具有干旱植物区系的明显特征，与整个新疆植被荒漠植物区系的特征相一致。梭梭群落中建群层片的种类单一，与北疆其它荒漠植被类型相似，而伴生植物的种类组成比其它类型丰富，特别是短生植物及长营养期一年生植物种类较多。初级生产力分别与梭梭当年生绿色同化枝的萌发、生长和脱落，短生植物的迅速生长和死亡，以及长营养期一年生植物的生长有密切关系，分别在５月下旬、６月下旬和８月上旬达到高峰。梭梭当年生绿色同化枝的植物量在其整个群落初级生产力的构成中作用明显。是整个群落初级生产力的７２．３％～８５．８％。     

Public participation in monitoring programmes as a tool for lakeshore monitoring: the example of Lake Pyhäjärvi, Karelia, Eastern Finland

Lake Pyhäjärvi, on the border between Finland and Russia in Karelia, is a very valuable clear-water lake of the Lobelia type. It belongs to the European Union's Natura 2000 programme in Finland, and has been included in regional and national monitoring programmes since the 1960s. The main monitoring station is situated near the outlet of the lake. Deterioration of its water quality was suspected already in the 1980s because of decreasing Secchi depths (transparency) and increasing chlorophyll a.The occurrence of algal blooms on the lakeshores is monitored weekly during each summer at one site on Lake Pyhäjärvi (site 1). This is a part of nationwide intensive algae monitoring programme organised by the environmental authorities together with voluntary observers at some 270 lake sites in Finland since 1998. Since 1997, Secchi depth observations have been carried out by volunteers biweekly or monthly at 17 sites on the lake. In the vicinity of one of these transparency observation sites (station 100), intensive monitoring of algae has been carried out. At this lakeshore monitoring site 69 algal observations were made, ten of which recorded algal blooms during the study period 1998–2002. The observed algal blooms were caused by algae of the Anabaena species, mainly by Anabaena lemmermannii. At Lake Pyhäjärvi the number of algal bloom observations received from the public have decreased from the 1990s to the 2000s. The range of Secchi disc transparency was 5.0–8.4 m with a mean value of 6.2 m at station 100 and 4.3–7.7 m (mean 6.1 m) at the main monitoring station 2 during the open water periods in 1998–2002. During this study period, the maximum values at site 100 seem to have increased slightly, which might indicate some improvement in the water quality due to decreased point source loading.We conclude that the intensive algal monitoring results of 5 years at the lakeshore site and the transparency results — both compiled by trained volunteers — reflect an improvement in the state of Lake Pyhäjärvi in Karelia. This conclusion is in accordance with the long-term water quality and short-core studies of sedimentary diatoms in Lake Pyhäjärvi. We suggest that the intensive algal observations and transparency measurements are both suitable methods for the monitoring of lakeshores and lakes, and that both are suitable for voluntary monitoring. We found public participation a good tool for monitoring lakes and lakeshores.     

Wildlife management and land reform in southeastern Zimbabwe: a compatible pairing or a contradiction in terms?

This paper examines the melding of two discourses in southeastern Zimbabwe: land reform and wildlife management. The former seeks to redistribute large, ‘under-utilized’ landholdings to smallholders whilst the latter needs extensive land holdings to be viable. These two discourses are rooted in very different models of development. The land reform exercise emphasizes direct redistribution, equity and land for crops; whilst the wildlife management discourse tends to stress maximizing foreign exchange earnings, encouraging public-private partnerships and trickle down. Yet there has been a recent flurry of interest in the development of ‘wildlife models’ for land reform which would combine the two. This paper investigates whether the competing discourses about land for smallholders and wildlife-based land reform are compatible or can be successfully reconciled. It traces the ways they have come together in Zimbabwe’s southeast lowveld and examines the ‘science’ and politics underlying their melding. Finally it explores the potential implications for rural people’s livelihoods of this development. It concludes that land reform and wildlife management can be reconciled, but probably not in a particularly equitable way: it is more likely to provide an opening for an equitable land reform agenda to be usurped by local and non-local elites with wildlife interests.