REKREATION I DET DANSKE VADEHAV

Jacobsen, N. Kingo, 1977: Recreation on the Danish Wadden Sea Coasts. Geografisk Tidsskrift 76: 52–58. København, June 1, 1977.

A comparison is made between the quite different positions of the Danish Wadden Sea coasts as to recreational pattern. This is mostly due to the ever varying accessiblility. The Blåvand-Skallingen area can be reached by land. The islands partly by ebbroads (Mandø, Lungli), partly by ferry (Fanø), and partly by a road-dam (Rømø).     

“Forever Hmong”: Ethnic Minority Livelihoods and Agrarian Transition in Upland Northern Vietnam

This article examines how ethnic minority Hmong farmers have adapted to, circumnavigated, or resisted state-sponsored agrarian change and other interventions in the northern Vietnam uplands over the past twenty years. Based on longitudinal research with Hmong informants, I examine to what extent their livelihood strategies have led to wealth creation or differentiation. The article highlights the most important transformations, as farmers conceive and voice them, to Hmong agrarian livelihoods over this period, the importance of longitudinal fieldwork to help unravel endogenous wealth definitions, and the complex impacts of state interventions on ethnic minority ways of making a living.     

Access to reeds and mat making in the lower Volta basin of Ghana

This paper explores the origins of pressures on reeds and sedges used for mat making in the lower Volta basin of Ghana, and their impact on the socially embedded system which dictates access to reed fields. Data for the study were collected through field work employing participatory rural appraisal methods in 18 communities, involving 152 mat weavers. The findings showed that the mat‐weaving industry has contributed immensely in providing poor women a means of livelihood but reed marshes in the basin have reduced in recent years due to hydrological changes in the area caused by the damming of the Volta upstream. The decline in the availability of reed is exerting immense pressure on this once freely available resource, thus inducing landlords to impose a price on the rights of entry into marshlands by reed collectors. The imposition of these charges affected the very people that the mat‐weaving industry is targeted to help. The study recommends the local and central government to play a more active role and civil society groups to broaden the livelihood base of women living in this region.     

An Ecosystem Services Approach to Sustainable Livelihoods in the Homegardens of Kandy,Sri Lanka

ABSTRACT

The Kandyan homegardens, or forest gardens, of central Sri Lanka are diverse, smallholder agroforestry ecosystems that for 2000 years have reflected evolving environmental, economic, and social livelihood needs. An ecosystem services approach interrogated homegarden changes over the last 10 years in 31 Kandyan households. Livelihood strategies favouring homegardens were found to have broader benefits across household, national, and global scales than those favouring commercial simplification or those abandoning cultivation for alternative incomes. Livelihood benefits beyond income included resilience to economic and environmental shocks; food security; and higher stocks of biological and agricultural diversity. This revealed overlooked socio-ecological feedbacks between drivers that frustrated interventions to sustain homegarden livelihoods, including increased wild animal incursions thwarting household climate adaptation and disaster recovery; global organic and fair trade incentives reducing food security and livelihood resilience; and national seed and animal regulations counteracting homegarden sustainability programs. Despite these pressures, households maintained homegarden systems for their cultural, aesthetic and eating preferences. An ecosystem services approach can complement sustainable livelihood approaches by identifying overlooked environmental and cultural benefits; reveal livelihood feedbacks from drivers of ecosystem change; avoid unintended consequences from interventions; and capitalise on synergies between stakeholder priorities.     

‘All my hopes and dreams are shattered’: Urbanization and migrancy in an imploding African economy - the case of Zimbabwe

During the 1990s, urban livelihoods in Zimbabwe began to suffer a series of economic stresses, which accelerated in 1997 and then accelerated again, with the inception of fast-track land reform, from 2000. This has reduced urban living standards significantly and devastated real urban income levels. After a discussion of the economic and political parameters of this period, this paper links these to empirical changes in the urban livelihoods and perceptions of urban living standards of recent in-migrants to Harare. This draws on a longitudinal database of four surveys of recent migrants to the city conducted in 1985, 1988, 1994 and 2001. Among a range of qualitative issues explored in these surveys has been the question of migrants’ future plans in relation to their intended length of stay in town. It is shown that migrants have been feeling increasingly negative or unsure about their urban experience since structural adjustment began in the early 1990s, and that these perceptions had greatly strengthened by 2001. By the last survey only a small minority felt they would remain permanently in town and most of the migrants from rural areas felt that their living standards in Harare were either worse than rural living standards, or no better. While Zimbabwe’s current political and economic crisis is exceptional, serious urban poverty is a feature across sub-Saharan African countries and it is argued that this has had a depressing effect on net rural-urban migration rates.     

Global environmental change: conceptualising the growing challenge for cities in poor countries

Ongoing urbanisation makes cities a key focus for global environmental change (GEC) research, creating an imperative for a new, city-scale, research agenda. The vulnerability of urban populations to the multiple stresses of GEC lies at the core of overlapping domains of knowledge that could be better integrated in advancing research. The urban development, global change and disasters literatures are fragmented and reveal fundamental cleavages over the role that government could play in mitigating vulnerability to multiple threats and challenges. Important empirical gaps exist, especially on cities of the South. While there are significant knowledge gaps and numerous tensions within and between schools of thought, this overview suggests useful entry points for framing an invigorated research agenda on urban GEC.     

Land-cover change and human–environment interactions in a rural cultural landscape in South Africa

This paper presents an historical analysis (1974–97) of associations between land-cover change and socio-economic factors for three villages in a former bantustan region of South Africa. The notion of social–ecological systems is used as the conceptual framework for this analysis, in which the former bantustan region of Bushbuckridge is posited as a cultural landscape. The local landscape showed distinctive modifications over the study period, broad trends including the growth of human settlements and the decrease in woodland cover. However, changes were not uniform across sites, and the direction and magnitude of changes in land cover were often nonlinear and site-specific. Analysis of associations between biophysical and socio-economic changes at different scales revealed a range of important interacting forces such as population growth, drought, shortages of land, grazing and wood resources, weakening institutional governance of natural resources, and the diversification of livelihood strategies, including the sale of fuelwood, concurrent with declining employment security and cattle ownership. Evidence suggests a possible erosion of resilience in these social–ecological systems at various scales, with important implications for socio-economic development and sustainable resource management.     

可持续发展研究方法国际进展——脆弱性分析方法与可持续生计方法比较

自从以布伦特兰德夫人领导的委员会正式提出可持续发展概念以来,可持续发展受到社会各界的密切关注,可持续发展思想已经深入人心。但由于问题的复杂性,既使是今天,可持续的实现依然困难。因此,围绕可持续发展提出了各式各样的研究工具,其中可持续生计方法和脆弱性分析方法可谓是众多方法中的佼佼者。前者强调贫困的消除,后者强调脆弱性的缓解,可持续发展又是其共同的目的。本文对两种方法在概念和实施方案方面进行了比较分析,在明确它们的差异和相似之处的基础上,认为两种方法通过联合可以在实践中相互加强和相互促进。     

Coupling Conservation and Livelihoods for Sustainable Management of Protected Areas in East Africa

Strengthening research efforts to understand the combined impacts of conservation and livelihoods in protected areas (PAs) will increase the collective contribution that PAs can make towards meeting global goals for sustainable development in the next decade. As an example of such efforts, in 2014 the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UN Environment) jointly initiated the “Sustainable Management of Protected Areas in East Africa” project. This paper provides a brief overview of the project’s research background, goals and research tasks. The study is based on a look at the PA management system in East Africa and a review of the literature on the impact of PAs in the region. Results show that East African nations have expanded the coverage of PAs and established a complex set of PA management systems over the past century. The mandate for PAs in East African nations has changed recently from protecting biodiversity to alleviating poverty and supporting livelihoods. However, a combination of human activities and ecological processes inside and outside of PAs may not only impact biodiversity and ecosystem function over the long term, but also pose a threat to the capacity of PAs to maintain livelihoods and alleviate poverty in the local communities around them. The state of existing research in the field suggests there is an enormous need for additional research, the purpose of which is to help PA managers and policy-makers in East Africa understand how to achieve win-win outcomes for both ecosystems and human well-being. Against this background, the CAS-KWS-UN Environment joint research project aims to understand the dynamic interactions between ecosystems and human well-being around PAs in East Africa and identify good practices for PA management to reconcile conservation targets with the livelihood demands of local communities. It is intended that this research be shared with interested parties throughout the developing world. Significant progress has been made in the implementation of the project, in terms of data collection, exchanges of researchers, and the completion of case studies. In the coming year, success stories and examples of failures of PA management in the region will be systematically summarized and shared among scientists, managers and decision makers worldwide. Given its blueprint for building a “Beautiful China”, China can both supplement and benefit from East African knowledge and experience of PA management. This joint research effort promotes Sino-African cooperation on PA research and management.     

扶贫模式可持续减贫效应的分析框架及机理探析

“精准扶贫”是近年中国全面推进建设小康社会的重大战略举措,精准识别扶贫对象、精准安排扶贫项目、精准监测脱贫成效是“精准扶贫”战略的核心内容,如何保障系列“精准”的实现亟需科学、系统的评估方法和评测手段作支撑。为从多维度、动态、一体化角度对扶贫项目的可持续减贫效果进行评估,本文针对中国目前已在执行的各种扶贫项目减贫效果评估多偏重经济维度、缺乏机理解析和可持续性评价等问题,借鉴DFID可持续生计分析的学术思想,提出了适用于扶贫模式可持续减贫效应评估的分析框架,进而对社会保障式、项目建设式、产业化、科学技术、移民与城镇化、易地搬迁与安置、信贷、参与式等8种扶贫模式可持续减贫的作用机理进行了探析。研究结果既能展示扶贫模式的减贫作用机理与贫困群体特征的契合程度,又能分析扶贫模式对贫困群体多维度及可持续的生计改善状况,同时也可为系统、综合、定量地评估可持续减贫效果的方法模型发展提供思路借鉴。