Land tenure and agricultural expansion in Latin America: The role of Indigenous Peoples’ and local communities’ forest rights

Agricultural expansion remains the most important proximate cause of tropical deforestation, while interactions between socio-economic, technological and institutional factors represent the fundamental drivers. Projected population increases could further raise the pressure on the remaining forests, unless agricultural intensification allows raising agricultural output without expanding agricultural areas. The purpose of this article is to understand the role of institutional factors in governing the intensification process towards the goal of preserving forests from agricultural pressures, with a focus on Indigenous Peoples’ and local communities’ rights to forests (as embedded in the various tenure regimes). In this paper we adopt an international dimension and analyse the process of agricultural expansion across eleven Latin American countries over the period 1990–2010 to assess whether, in a context of agricultural intensification, different land tenure regimes impact differently on the realization of land-sparing or Jevons paradox. The results, based on a number of multivariate statistical models that controls for socio-economic factors, strongly suggest that the formal recognition of Indigenous Peoples and local communities’ forest rights has played an important role in promoting land sparing or attenuating Jevons paradox.     

Pow Choon-Piew's contributions to urban China studies

This commentary serves as a tribute to the late Pow, a remarkable scholar in urban geography and urban studies, summarizing his contributions to urban China studies. It aims to showcase the way in which Pow's work manoeuvred adroitly with an implicit comparative gesture—building a bridge between situated Chinese cases and wider theoretical debates in urban studies in order to enrich both domains. The essay then summarizes Pow's work in the field of urban China studies by focusing on two most emblematic topics that he delved into in great depth, i.e., gated communities and eco-city developments. The final section develops a brief quantitative analysis of the impact that Pow's work has generated. Using the software packages CiteSpace and HistCite, I unpack how his publications are cited and used by scholars, journals, and different areas of research.     

北京低收入社区居民社会公平感知的 影响因素研究：基于空间公平视角

随着北京市“国际一流的和谐宜居之都”建设步伐的加快,城市低收入社区居民的社会公平满意度越来越受到重视,居民的居住环境空间公平将受到更多的关注。本研究结合地理学和社会学对居住环境空间公平相关理论,基于2017年北京典型低收入社区的调研数据,实证分析了居住环境主客观条件对低收入社区居民社会公平感知的影响。结果发现：不同类型社区的居民社会公平感知水平差异明显;服务设施、就业可达性和建成环境对个体社会公平满意度也均有不同程度的影响,居住环境满意度对低收入社区社会公平感知的影响中存在调节效应,同时居民社会公平满意度因居民社会经济属性而异。     

Cloning colonialism: Residential development,transnational aspiration,and the complexities of postcolonial India

Within this article, we discuss/unpack a speculative international property development born out of a license agreement between the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) and real estate investment company, Anglo Indian. The proposed building of twelve cloned, MCC branded, cricket communities in India–targeted to the consumption-based lifestyles of India’s new middle class–is addressed within the context relational to the political, economic, and cultural rationalities of postcolonial India, shifting power dynamics within the international cricket formation, and the associated re-colonisation of cricket-related spaces/bodies. Anglo Indian’s proposed communities are understood as part of a complex assemblage of national and global forces and relations (including, but certainly not restricted to): transnational gentrification; urban (re)development; and, revised understandings of historical and geographic connections between places, governance, and the politics of be(long)ing in branded spaces. This analysis explicates how Anglo Indian’s idealized community development offers a literal and figurative space for embodied performance of “glocal competence” for consumption-based identity projects of the new Indian middle-class (Brosius, 2010, p. 13) through the somewhat ironic mobilization of colonial spatial logics and cultural aesthetics.     

Mapping ecosystem services for marine spatial planning: Recreation opportunities in Sub-Antarctic Chile

The ecosystem services approach has increasingly emerged as a core requirement of ecosystem-based management of the marine space. In this context, explicit quantification and mapping of ecosystem services is considered key. This research proposes a methodological framework that combines Geographic Information Systems and participatory techniques to map the ecosystem service of recreation opportunities, provided by coastal and marine ecosystems. Attributes selected to represent the ecosystem service were scenic beauty, unique natural resources, accessibility, cultural sites and tourism use aptitude. High values of the indicator concentrated on areas that combined the presence of unique marine fauna (e.g. Southern Elephant Seal, Mirounga leonina), terrestrial and marine routs, and areas of high scenic beauty, associated to the presence of glaciers. These areas corresponded to the southern part of Almirantazgo Sound, the northern part of Navarino Island on the coast of the Beagle Channel, and to areas surrounding Wulaia fishermen's cove. Zones showing highest values of the indicator 81–100) comprised 0.89% of the study area and a small proportion of them coincided with areas of aptitude for aquaculture, which represents potential use conflicts, as long as aquaculture concessions remain operative. In turn, the areas of lowest values 0–20) were located offshore in open sea, and comprised 0.49% of the study area. Overall, the methodology demonstrated the capacity to identify potential recreation areas to inform regional decision making regarding marine use planning.