Incorporating Māori values into land management decision tools

ABSTRACT

Environmental sustainability and the long-term wellbeing of Māori (the indigenous people of New Zealand) are interdependent and degradation of landscapes risks the progressive degradation of Māori wellbeing. The present study developed an analysis framework based on Ki Uta Ki Tai (holistic-mountains to the sea- management philosophy advocated by Ngāi Tahu) for exploring relationships between landcover and Māori values to enable predictions of cultural values through space and time. We used this framework to predict how two Māori values (Overall Health and Cultural Land Use) have been altered as a result of landcover change between 2001–2012 in three Canterbury catchments. The area of native vegetation declined while exotic pasture increased between 2001–2012, and there were corresponding declines in both cultural health scores. These results suggest that the change in landcover has reduced the ability of the landscape to support Māori values. This framework for assessing changes in Māori values with respect to changing environmental conditions may identify opportunities for Māori to better engage in land use management decisions.     

Rethinking Precolonial Plant Cultivation on the Northwest Coast of North America

The indigenous peoples of the Northwest Coast of North America are widely believed to have been true “hunter‐fisher‐gatherers,” lacking plant cultivation of any kind. This depiction of the region's indigenous inhabitants emerged within early colonial accounts and was perpetuated within the literatures of geography, anthropology, and archaeology. Still, there is ample evidence of plant cultivation available from archival, archaeological, and ethnographic sources. In particular, the peoples of coastal British Columbia created large gardens of edible estuarine plants, using sophisticated indigenous technologies. The oversight of these practices in written representations of the region reveals consistent patterns of bias, emanating from the agendas of colonial agents and early academics alike. In turn, this bias has undermined aboriginal traditions of cultivation and indigenous land claims.     

全球生产网络与本土创新网络的战略耦合动态——以中国生物医药产业为例

构建显示性比较优势指数,分析"走出去"全球化下中国医药产业的国际竞争力;识别企业战略连接类型,分析"引进来"全球化下生物医药全球生产网络(GPN)与本土创新网络(IIN)间的战略耦合过程;运用超效率SBM模型,测度GPN-IIN战略耦合目标实现的达成效率,并从静、动态视角探究其时空变化的原因。发现:(1)中国医药产业通过转口、代加工进入北美市场的难度加大,东盟、金砖国家成为其重要的出口对象,与欧盟加强贸易有助于其形成高标准的自由贸易协定网络。(2) 2000—2006年,多数外商直接投资(FDI)企业形成"两头在外"的产业布局,在GPN中处于被俘虏地位,大多内资企业学习能力不足,处于IIN边缘。2007—2013年,部分FDI企业由GPN价值链末端向高端转移,部分内资企业由IIN边缘向核心转移,但转移过程中具有强松脚性。2014—2019年,GPN-IIN战略耦合克服上一阶段嵌入不足、松脚性等问题,两者间的关系通道日益增多和稳固。(3) GPN-IIN耦合绩效经历了"大分散、小集聚→简单结构孕育→局部结构构建→级联秩序分异"的演变,在此过程中技术进步对其促进效果最强,规模效率次之,纯技...     

Situated knowledges and the spaces of consent

Informed consent has often been presented as a kind of ethical panacea, the best way of guarding against medical and scientific abuses of human rights. However recent empirical research has led bioethicists to question both the feasibility and the value of informed consent procedures. This paper also seeks to critique informed consent, but focuses less on its empirical shortcomings. Instead, this paper questions the assumption that ethics involves engaging in the kind of rational, distanced, objective reflection traditionally considered the basis of both scientific observation and ethical decision making. Drawing on recent insights from ethical geography and geographers studying the biotechnology industry, I wish to argue that ethical reflection is a relational and situated process, less about being distanced and objective, and more about recognizing how our ethical decisions are shaped by our social and material environment.     

Water Flows Toward Power: Socioecological Degradation of Lake Urmia,Iran

Water is an invaluable resource, and equitable access to it is a fundamental human right. Disenfranchised groups often lose access to water resources because their interests are not well represented by decision makers. Excluding these groups from resource management policy often results in myopic decisions that contribute to further ecosystem damage. We describe the ecological degradation of Lake Urmia in Iran, which has recently experienced increased salinity and declining water quantity. The lake is a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve and Ramsar site, and supports unique biodiversity in the region. The lake's decline is driven by the destruction of Zagros forests and the government's water policies, which diverted water to more politically connected agricultural land users, increasing social inequity and prompting more deforestation. The most straightforward restoration solution is to discontinue the diversions and allow critical inflows to recharge Lake Urmia, preserving the lake and wetlands for migratory birds, tourists, and local communities.     

莫莫格国家级自然保护区的鱼类多样性

2008～2010年,在鱼类资源调查的基础上,分析了莫莫格国家级自然保护区的鱼类多样性特征。调查结果显示,莫莫格国家级自然保护区有鱼类物种5目11科42属49种,其中本区土著种5目10科38属45种,包括中国特有种4种,中国易危种5种,冷水种8种,国家II级保护动物1种。土著种群落中,有鲤形目(Cyprini-formes)鱼类32种,鲤科(Cyprinidae)鱼类29种,鮈亚科(Gobioninae)鱼类13种;古北界北方区黑龙江亚区黑龙江分区的物种为22种;源于东部平原和北方平原生态类群的鱼类有27种;适应于江—湖缓流环境和淡水定居生活的鱼类有33种;草上产卵和水层产卵繁殖的鱼类有37种;杂食性和初级肉食性种类有28种,它们均相对占优势。莫莫格国家级自然保护区与嫩江的鱼类群落物种结构Jaccard系数和Morisita-Horn相似性指数分别为0.918和0.838;稀有种(包括中国易危种)和常见种分别为14种和25种;物种多度格局近似于对数正态分布。这些结果表明,莫莫格国家级自然保护区的鱼类多样性与嫩江密切相关,鱼类区系复杂,物种组成与生态类型多样;群落结构相对较稳定,多样性程度相对较高,但仍面临着稀有种(包括中国易危种)尚占有一定比例而导致群落结构脆弱的潜在威胁。保持嫩江鱼类群落结构的稳定,对维护和发展莫莫格国家级自然保护区的鱼类多样性具有特别重要的意义。     

Amelioration of soil fertility by woody perennials in cropping fields: evaluation of three tree species in the semi-arid zone of Nigeria

Soil was sampled from cropping fields in radial patterns from beneathAcacia albida, Parkia bigloboza(Jacq.) Benth. andEucalyptus camaldulensisDehnh. near Zaria, Nigeria. Results of analysis show a significant coarsening of soil texture and a decrease in organic matter and cation exchange capacity with increasing distance from all three tree species at a depth of 0–15 cm. Concentrations of nitrogen and some exchangeable cations decreased significantly with increasing distance from beneath acacia and parkia, and soil pH decreased with increasing distance from eucalyptus. The implication of the results for land management are discussed in relation to increasing productivity and soil use sustainability.     

Competing rationalities in water conflict: Mining and the indigenous community in Chiu Chiu,El Loa Province,northern Chile

Conflict over water is a significant phenomenon in many parts of the world where globally linked neoliberal economic activities encroach on the lands of indigenous peoples. This case study from Chile examines how water scarcity affecting indigenous agricultural communities in the Chilean Altiplano has been exacerbated by legally sanctioned mining‐related practices. Notably, the legal framing of the 1981 Water Code promotes private ownership of water rights and enhanced mining activity usually at the expense of the ancestral territorial rights of indigenous communities. In the case of the Atacameño community of Chiu Chiu, a serious decrease in subsistence and agriculture production has been suffered as a consequence of reduced flow in the Loa River, resulting from the water intensive needs and extraction practices of the nearby Chuquicamata mine owned by Codelco, the National Copper Corporation of Chile. Via an analysis of the political ecology of competing rationalities this paper explores how an economic rationality based on utilitarian and reductionist thinking manifested by Codelco has taken precedence locally over a socionatural rationality grounded in holistic thinking and sustainability concerns as articulated by the Chiu Chiu community.     

Engaging indigenous people as geo-crowdsourcing sensors for ecotourism mapping via mobile data collection: a case study of the Royal Belum State Park

ABSTRACT

Web 2.0 and the proliferation of built-in Global Positioning System (GPS) on smartphones have influenced the increase of geo-crowdsourcing activities in a number of different contexts. The aim of this paper is to evaluate the performance of indigenous people’s use of mobile collection applications that are embedded in a smartphone to facilitate ecotourism asset mapping. In order to achieve this, field usability testing was conducted where structured observational method was used to assess the performance. The findings indicate majority of them can complete the data entry tasks using mobile data collection. The performance of data entries using radio button, icons, camera and audio methods were identified as better than free text and drop-down list methods. There was a correlation between the level of education with the ability of using radio button, drop-down list and image icon as data entry methods. The paper also discusses the extent of local knowledge relating to ecotourism within the community. The findings should be useful in the understanding of the design of mobile geo-crowdsourcing tools for use within other contexts that focus on data collection by semiliterate and indigenous groups.