Selling green militarization: The discursive (re)production of militarized conservation in the Virunga National Park,Democratic Republic of the Congo

In recent years, the militarization of nature conservation has intensified, especially in protected areas located in conflict zones or plagued by ‘poaching crises’. Such ‘green militarization’ is enabled by a range of discursive techniques that allow it to be seen as a ‘normal’ and ‘legitimate’ response. This article analyzes these techniques in relation to the Virunga National Park, located in the war-ridden east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where militarized approaches to conservation have a long lineage. It demonstrates that many of the discursive techniques that are currently at play show strong continuities with the past. These include moral boundary-drawing grounded in colonial tropes that accomplish the (racial) Othering of poachers and rebels, and the long-established practice of invoking states of emergency as part of wider mechanisms of securitization. However, the rise of neoliberal conservation, with its emphasis on marketing and marketization, has induced transformations in the employed discursive techniques. Notably, it has intensified the spectacularization of militarized conservation and anchored it in everyday consumer practices, by actively inviting individual supporters to directly fund militarized interventions, thus generating ‘militarization by consumption’. This shows that ‘green militarization’ is not only driven by the growing commodification of nature conservation, but is increasingly subject to commodification itself.     

Greener rivers in a changing climate?—Effects of climate and hydrological regime on benthic algal assemblages in pristine streams

Excessive biomass development of benthic algae is often considered undesirable, but understanding the causes is confounded by complex interactions among driving factors. Pristine rivers allow a benchmark where human interference should be limited to climate change. In this study a time series comprising >20 years of annual benthic algae surveys from two pristine, soft water, boreal stream sites is used to determine whether year-to-year variations in benthic algal assemblages and cover were related to climate (temperature, precipitation, North Atlantic Oscillation) or hydrological regime. Total benthic algal cover ranged from 6 to 100% at Atna (the outflow of the Atna River from Lake Atnasjø), and from 3 to 50% at the headwater stream Li. Climate and hydrological regime explained 18 - 74% of the variability in benthic algal assemblages and cover. Generally, more variance was explained at Li than at Atna, possibly because (i) aquatic bryophytes blurred nutrient-mediated effects of climate and hydrology at Atna, and (ii) the upstream lake buffered hydrological variation. Temperature was more important for explaining benthic algal assemblages and cover at Atna, while hydrology was more important at Li. Climate and hydrological regime had no major impact on benthic algal taxon richness. High temperatures were associated with high benthic algal cover, particularly at Atna, while high suspended particle concentrations were associated with reduced benthic algal cover at Li, possibly due to scouring. Cover of the cyanobacterium Phormidium sp. increased at Li with increasing temperature, and decreased with prolonged periods of high discharge. Current predictions of climate change would lead to a “greener” Atna (increased cover of benthic algae), while Li would become more “bluegreen” (more Phormidium sp. but less filamentous green algae). It would also lead to a slightly more “eutrophic” algal assemblage at Atna (as indicated by the PIT-index for ecological status assessment), while a possible drift of the PIT-index is less clear at Li. The differences between Atna and Li likely reflect differences among river types, and it seems possible to make some generalizations: climate will likely affect benthic algae in lake outlets primarily via temperature, while headwater streams will primarily be affected via altered hydrology and particle concentrations.     

Green‐Ampt Curve‐Number mixed procedure as an empirical tool for rainfall–runoff modelling in small and ungauged basins

The Soil Conservation Service Curve Number (SCS‐CN) method is a popular rainfall–runoff model that is widely used to estimate direct runoff from small and ungauged basins. The SCS‐CN is a simple and valuable approach to quantify the total streamflow volume generated by storm rainfall, but its use is not appropriate for estimating the sub‐daily incremental rainfall excess. To overcome this drawback, we propose to include the Green‐Ampt (GA) infiltration model into a mixed procedure, which is referred to as Curve Number for Green‐Ampt (CN4GA), aiming to distribute in time the information provided by the SCS‐CN method. For a given storm, the computed SCS‐CN total net rainfall amount is employed to calibrate the soil hydraulic conductivity parameter of the GA model. The proposed procedure is evaluated by analysing 100 rainfall–runoff events that were observed in four small catchments of varying size. CN4GA appears to provide encouraging results for predicting the net rainfall peak and duration values and has shown, at least for the test cases considered in this study, better agreement with the observed hydrographs than the classic SCS‐CN method. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Promoting renewable energies under the CDM: combining national quotas in Europe and the CDM

Abstract

In the context of combating climate change, renewable energies are considered to play an important role. As these energies are currently not fully competitive compared with conventional power generation technologies, (minimum) quotas have been proposed as one means of overcoming this problem. However, when implementing any instruments at the national level, one should bear in mind that the efficiency of most types of renewable energies is dependent on the location. Thus, leaving the national perspective and investing abroad may result in improved efficiency. Against this background, the integration of the CDM into the European renewable energy policy is proposed.     

The changing geopolitics of climate change finance

Funding for climate change efforts in developing countries is firmly established in the Articles of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Since the early days of the climate change negotiations, finance has been a key focus of attention and, often, a principal source of tension between developed and developing countries. Understandably, these tensions have led to numerous efforts to reform the financial mechanism of the UNFCCC. The history of reforms of the Global Environment Facility – for some time the only operating entity of the financial mechanism – and the recent establishment of the Green Climate Fund are good examples of such efforts. It is asked here whether these efforts have been sufficient to keep pace with a rapidly changing, more complex and radically different world from that of 1992 when the UNFCCC was signed by most countries in Rio de Janeiro. On the 21st anniversary of the signing of the UNFCCC, the effects that global transformations have had on climate change finance are here explored, and some of the new challenges, as well as emerging opportunities, resulting from the new landscape of climate finance that has emerged as a result are described.

Policy relevance

The climate change negotiations are entering a critical period. The issue of finance is one of the key pillars on which the success of a new deal on a binding agreement depends. A better understanding of the increasing complexity of the climate finance landscape is essential. The world of climate finance and the geopolitics in which it operates have been significantly transformed since the signing of the UNFCCC. A better understanding of this transformation would help policy makers and negotiators find more effective and realistic ways to help unleash the immense amount of financial resources that could potentially be made available for the great challenge that many countries face to address climate change. The need for up-front and significantly scaled-up investments requires effective mechanisms that can leverage and encourage investments into areas where they are most needed to face the challenge of climate change. The role of the Green Climate Fund will be critical in this regard.     

Lessons from JI and GIS for post-2012 carbon finance mechanisms in Russia and Ukraine

The main incentives for Russia's and Ukraine's participation in the first commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol were its mechanisms. The opportunities that the anticipated post-2012 mechanisms will offer Russia and Ukraine are explored in light of the lessons from Joint Implementation (JI) and the Green Investment Scheme (GIS) during this first period. Four key factors that explain the success of these mechanisms are identified: the design of the mechanisms, the role of the private sector in their implementation, the coordination required, and the political will gained. Even though a weak rule of law, problems with policy implementation, and the ambiguous role of private-sector actors are not ‘make or break’ issues, they are likely to defer future mechanisms. Success and failure will, rather, hinge on the priority these factors are accorded by the top leadership. It is likely that simple mechanisms that only involve a few actors will be less complicated to set up and run than, for instance, emissions trading schemes (which require domestic burden sharing). Project-based options in which domestic actors have gained experience may be better suited. However, any lessons prior to the new mechanisms taking a clearer shape must be considered as preliminary.

Policy relevance

The Kyoto Protocol mechanisms, despite their problems, provided Russia and Ukraine with their main incentives for participation in the Protocol's first commitment period. As the chances that these countries will participate in the second commitment period seem slim, the opportunities that the anticipated post-2012 mechanisms will offer Russia and Ukraine are explored in light of the lessons from JI and GIS. The key factors that have determined the success and failure of these mechanisms are likely to be of relevance to future mechanisms. It is argued that – of the post-2012 options available – simple mechanisms with few actors involved should be chosen. Project-based options rather than emissions trading schemes may be more likely to succeed due to experience gained by domestic actors.     

湿地生态景观的审美价值与旅游开发

湿地生态景观构建以水生态环境为基础,它具有原生态环境、动感生态场景、人文生态内蕴等审美特征。湿地旅游的开发建设要特别强调科学,注重生态与文化的保护,产品要主打生态品牌,营销要突出绿色主题,运行要倡导低碳环保,走绿色低碳发展之路。     

A New Inversion Method of Sedimentary Strata For Deriving Double Parameters and Its Applications

The inverse problem of wave equation is the importance of study not only in seismic prospecting but also in ap-plied mathematics. With the development of the research, the inverse methods of 1 - D wave equations have been trending to-wards the multiple parameters inversion . We have obtained an inverse method with double - parameter, in which medium density and wave velocity can be derived simultaneously. In this paper, to increase the inverse accuracy, the method is im-proved as follows. Firstly, the formula in which the Green Function is omitted are derived and used. Secondly, the regulari-zing method is reasonable used by choosing the stable function. With the new method, we may derive elastic parameter and medium density or medium density and wave velocity. Thus, lithology parameters for seismic prospecting may be obtained. After comparing the derived values from the new method with that from previous method, we obtain the new method through which substantially improve the derived accuracy . The new     

Extraction of Phenol and Chlorophenols Using Ionic Liquid [Bmim]+[BF4]− Dissolved in Tributyl Phosphate

In the present work, experiments have been carried out with a focus to reduce the volume requirement of solvent by mixing with imidazolium based ionic liquids (ILs) for the solvent extraction of phenol, p‐chlorophenol, 2,4‐dichlorophenol, 2,4,6‐trichlorophenol, and pentachlorophenol from aqueous solutions. The effect of aqueous phase pH (2–12), agitation speed (100–450 rpm), solute concentration in feed (2–50 mg/L), temperature (303–333 K), treat ratio (1–11), and 1‐butyl‐3‐methyl imidazolium tetrafluoroborate [Bmim]⁺[BF₄]^? volume in tributyl phosphate (TBP; 0–0.7% v/v) on extraction of phenols has been studied and optimized. Parameters like strip phase pH (3–13) and stripping agent concentration (0.001–0.009 N) have also been studied for stripping of phenols from solvent phase. It has been found that 0.5% v/v of ionic liquid [Bmim]⁺[BF₄]^? in solvent TBP extracts more than 97.5% of phenol and chlorophenols from aqueous solutions with a treat ratio (aqueous to solvent phase ratio) of 5. Transport mechanism for extraction and stripping of phenol and chlorophenols using ionic liquid [Bmim]⁺[BF₄]^? has been discussed. The results show that by appropriate selection of extraction and stripping conditions, it is possible to remove nearly all phenols with a treat ratio of 5.     

Scholte waves on fluid-solid interfaces by means of an integral formulation

The present work shows the propagation of Scholte interface waves at the boundary of a fluid in contact with an elastic solid, for a broad range of solid materials. It has been demonstrated that by an analysis of diffracted waves in a fluid it is possible to infer the mechanical properties of the elastic solid medium, specifically, its propagation velocities. For this purpose, the diffracted wave field of pressures and displacements, due to an initial wave of pressure in the fluid, are expressed using boundary integral representations, which satisfy the equation of motion. The source in the fluid is represented by a Hankel’s function of second kind and zero order. The solution to this wave propagation problem is obtained by means of the Indirect Boundary Element Method, which is equivalent to the well-known Somigliana representation theorem. The validation of the results is carried out by using the Discrete Wave Number Method and the Spectral Element Method. Firstly, we show spectra of pressures that illustrate the behavior of the fluid for each solid material considered, then, we apply the Fast Fourier Transform to show results in time domain. Snapshots to exemplify the emergence of Scholte’s waves are also included.