Green pretexts: Ecotourism,neoliberal conservation and land grabbing in Tayrona National Natural Park,Colombia

While conflict-related dynamics are recognized as causes of land grabbing in Colombia, violent processes of exclusion and expropriation behind ‘greener’ projects are often seen as disconnected from them. The case of ecotourism in Tayrona National Natural Park makes it possible to explore the geographies of violence that sustain tourism in the area and their role in shaping everyday resource politics. This paper shows how green pretexts of paradisiacal spots in need of protection have contributed to privatization and dispossession. Furthermore, it details how land-grabbing dynamics have been enabled by processes of sociospatial demarcation that produce not-green-enough subjects as bodies-out-of-place.     

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正Yangtze River Ecology Oriental Outlook December 19In today’s China,experts on water conservation seem to have become enemies with experts on ecological conservation.In 2013,discussion on the collapse of the ecological system in the Yangtze River once again triggered a conflict between the two groups.     

生态文明是人类自我拯救的必由之路

生态危机是人类自己制造出来的,经济发展的"负外部性"使传统经济发展成为一种自我毁灭的癌模式。生态文明需要系统思维,需要超越传统发展观狭隘的思维模式,科技并不万能,生态文明不能完全依赖科技发展。地球资源的有限性决定了人类社会经济发展是有内在限度的。生态文明是人类别无选择的历史选择。人类未来可持续地生活应该是一种简约的生活。     

集体林地流转限制的合理性和合法性分析——基于林农生存保障和生态保护的思考

集体林地资源承载着多重的社会、经济和生态价值。以集体林地资源所赋有的社会、经济和生态效益为价值坐标,集体林权改革中,集体林地的流转应当通过国家立法和政策对集体林地流转的范围、流转主体、流转期限和流转之后的经营活动进行合理的限制,以真正发挥集体林地在提高林农生活水平和增强国家生态效益方面的双重功能。     

Species identification from dried snake venom

Illegal trade in snake parts has increased enormously. In spite of strict protection under wildlife act, a large number of snakes are being killed ruthlessly in India for venom and skin. Here, an interesting case involving confiscation of crystallized dried snake venom and subsequent DNA-based species identification is reported. The analysis using the universal primers for cytochrome b region of the mitochondrial DNA revealed that the venom was extracted from an Indian cobra (Naja naja). On the basis of this report, the forwarding authority booked a case in the court of law against the accused for illegal hunting of an endangered venomous snake and smuggling of snake venom. This approach thus has immense potential for rapid identification of snake species facing endangerment because of illegal trade. This is also the first report of DNA isolation from dried snake venom for species identification.     

评儒家文化拯救生态论

儒家文化拯救生态论直观、片面地理解生态危机的根源和实质,过高估计传统"天人合一"思想的世界意义和现代价值,明显具有文化自恋倾向,而且始终停留在口号、宣言的层次上,给不出对这种建设性意见本身具有决定意义并可供当代环境保护实践参考的应用方案,因而可疑.探讨生态环境的拯救和保护问题,应当面对时代,放眼世界,充分利用当代的思想文化资源建构起新的人与自然协同进化、和谐发展的现代理论,并加强理论的应用研究.     

Nobody Knows Best: Alternative Perspectives on Forest Management and Governance in Southeast Asia

In this paper we propose a framework for understanding how dominant perspectives, or worldviews, influence the crafting of institutions, and how these, in turn, constrain the functions and goals of knowledge systems. Alternative perspectives carry their own set of assumptions and beliefs about who should be making the rules, where the best knowledge lies to guide decisions, and about where more knowledge is needed. Initially, four contrasting perspectives are elaborated: state-, market-, greens-, and locals-know-best. We illustrate the framework by exploring the recent history of forest governance in Southeast Asia, finding several examples of battles of perspectives leading to a new dominant perspective. In each case the dominant perspective itself, old or new, is shown to be defective in some critical way and was, or should be, replaced. The problem is that each of the perspectives considers the world as knowable, manageable, and relatively constant, or at most changing only slowly. Ecological and socio-political crises, however, are recurrent. Management plans and regulations or policies that aim to establish the land-use allocation, the best crop, the best forest management system or the best price or system of incentives, are doomed to failure. If uncertainties are accepted as fundamental, solutions as temporary, and scientific knowledge as useful but limited, then Nobody Knows Best is a modest, but effective heuristic for forest governance.     

Network Structure and Perceived Legitimacy in Collaborative Wildlife Management

The widespread supposition that collaborative management designs enhance legitimacy must be examined empirically, and the rich diversity of different collaborative arrangements should be better acknowledged in this endeavor. This study adopts a social network perspective and examines three state‐initiated and interest‐based collaborative management arenas in Swedish wildlife management: wildlife conservation committees (WCCs). Is there a link between social network structures in collaborative management arenas and the perceived legitimacy of output by policy stakeholders? This puzzle is addressed through social network analysis combined with survey data and interviews. The empirical results confirm the notion that collaborative arenas consisting of high network closure with many bridging ties across organizational boundaries enjoy a higher level of support among stakeholders directly involved in management, as members of the committees, than networks with a more sparse structure do. This type of well‐integrated network structure seemingly increases stakeholders’ understanding of other actors’ perspectives through deliberation. Contrary to what was expected, though, the empirical analysis did not verify the effect of linking, or outreaching ties between the committee members and the organizations that they represent, on the organizations’ support of WCC decisions. Given the rapid rise of collaborative designs in public administrations, the topic elaborated in this paper is urgent and further research is encouraged.     

Ecosystem Restoration Concessions in Indonesia: Conflicts and Discourses

Approaches and instruments focused on market mechanisms and private enterprises, including private protected areas, are promoted as ways to resolve global environmental and developmental problems. In Indonesia, Ecosystem Restoration Concessions (ERCs) have been developed as a new market-oriented governmental instrument to counter current deforestation processes and to restore forest ecosystems. Conservation and development organizations, along with state authorities, view ERCs as a highly promising instrument in Indonesia and in other countries as well. Experiences with ERCs are still limited, however, and their viability is uncertain. The implementation of ERCs in Indonesia has been controversial and the impact of ERCs on forests and forest-dependent communities has been fiercely disputed. This article explores these conflicts and disputes with a focus on the Harapan ERC and weighs the relevance of ERCs for German development cooperation. The improvement of the accountability of such projects and the implementation of mediation facilities are emphasized as prerequisites to establishing such market-oriented instruments according to international standards of nature conservation, the rights of indigenous and local populations, and sustainable development. The author concludes that decisions about strategies and instruments applied in forest-related development cooperation must involve a reconsideration of the mindsets that currently determine conservation approaches and development cooperation.