Bringing Political Science to Bear on Tropical Conservation

With the renewed international emphasis on governance for sustainable development, political scientists wishing to have an impact on global environmental problems will find significant opportunities to collaborate with practitioners. These collaborations can be very rewarding, but academics should enter them with their eyes open to the associated challenges. Bridging the worlds of research and practice entails tensions between what is true according to the research, and what is possible given the constraints of specific organizations; between the problems that practitioners need solved and the puzzles that researchers find appealing; and, importantly, between the divergent cultures that shape the expectations and incentives of academics and their counterparts.     

关于E-mail的证据效力和保全问题

随着科技的迅猛发展 ,因E -mail引发的纠纷随之出现 ,并逐渐增多 ,因而各国开始重视电子证据的立法工作。我国诉讼法中没有把E -mail列为法定证据 ,但随着实践的发展 ,电子证据立法势在必行。司法实务中对于E -mail成为证据的条件要严格设订 ,同时要注意对于这一高科技证据的保全问题。     

Coalitions and Conservation: Conditional Impacts of Coalitions on Ballot Measures for Open Space

Social scientists have long debated the impact of interest group coalitions on public policies. While views on coalition impacts range from dominance to impotence, an emerging perspective suggests that coalitions have impacts under certain conditions. In this paper, we join and expand that perspective by arguing that coalitions have a conditional impact on public policies through ballot measures. Specifically, we argue that coalitions will have greater impact on ballot measure outcomes in non‐presidential election years, when the stakes involved are high, and when the goals of the measure are diverse. We test these hypotheses with analyses of a dataset of over 2,400 ballot measures on spending for open space at the state and local level between 1988 and 2014. We find strong support for our hypotheses. The findings have implications for scholarly debates on interest groups and coalitions, for the role of ballot measures in American public policy, and for assessments of open space and conservation in American society.     

The ‘green militarisation’ of development aid: the European Commission and the Virunga National Park,DR Congo

To ‘save’ the Virunga National Park, located in the east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the European Commission (EC) allocates development aid to the paramilitary training of the park guards, their salaries, and mixed patrols of the guards together with the Congolese army. Moreover, the ‘development’ projects the EC supports around the park have militarising effects as they are based on a soft counter-insurgency approach to conservation and to address dynamics of violent conflict. This amounts to the ‘green militarisation’ of development aid. This article describes how a personalised network of policymakers within the EC renders militarised conservation-related violence and controversy around the Virunga park invisible, by framing contestations and violence in and around the park as solely caused by economic factors and motivations. Moreover, by ‘hiding’ the fact that the EC aid is used to fund armed conservation practices, policymakers circumvent political debate about the use of development funds for (para)military expenditures. While the existing literature focuses on the importance of securitised discourses to explain the militarisation of conservation, this article indicates that in addition, it is important to focus on these more mundane practices of securitisation within international organisations that ultimately fund the militarisation of conservation.     

Green appropriations through shifting contours of authority and property on a pastoralist commons

The dynamics of customary land rights and displacement among east African pastoralists have been the subject of extensive scholarly inquiry. Displacement to make way for other land uses, government-led privatization schemes, endogenous subdivision to defend land against outsiders, and progressive enclosure of private land in the context of the recent ‘land rush’ are some of the documented trajectories of land tenure change. Less explored is how exogenous authority systems gain traction within common property regimes to re-shape the contours of property. Laikipia, Kenya presents an ideal context for this research given the uniquely ambitious effort to conserve globally significant wildlife on private land. We focus on a group ranch owned collectively by Maa-speaking pastoralists for whom formal title was secured with the support of outside actors vested in conservation, and coupled with efforts to provide financial incentives for conservation. Findings suggest the new governance structure established in the context of land titling has become a pathway through which outside authority gains traction – with consequences for property, sovereignty and the traction of green agendas. Findings deepen understanding of how shifting authority shapes processes of alienation and legitimation, and contribute to ongoing debates about land grabs, tenure formalization and neoliberal approaches to conservation.     

论法律的保守性

法律自身的发展规律决定了保守性是法律的本性,除去政治上的原因,这是由于人行为预期的需要、形成并维持秩序稳定的需要以及确立和维持法律权威的需要。法律的保守性要求国家在制定法律时,必须充分考虑社会传统和现状;修改法律时,以审慎的态度;适用法律时,严格在现有的法律框架下进行。清醒认识法律的保守本性对中国的法治建设意义重大。     

General analysis and recommendations on China＇s legal implementation mechanism for wetland biodiversity conservation

China has not formulated a comprehensive specific legislation on wetland conservation and wise use, however many laws and regulations are relevant to wetland conservation, such as Forest Law （1983）, Law on Land Administration （1986）. The dispersed multi-sectoral management model defined and the single resource element based management reflected in the existing legislation cannot meet the requirement for integrated wetland conservation and the needs to conserve the ecological function of wetlands. Also the major deficiencies of the existing legal implementation mechanism can be found in wetland conservation plan, public participation, operational and enforcement measures. Based on the problems, there should be provision on the responsibility of the forestry department to compile and implement wetland conservation plans, and its responsibility to cooperate with other relevant government agencies in planning. There should be specific or expanded provisions on the procedures and phases of public participation. In addition, there should be provision on litigation channels to expand the form of the public rights, and enabling mechanisms to safeguard the public rights. The improvement of relevant approaches should focus on the shift from administrative regulatory approaches towards multiple approaches combining administrative regulation, economic incentive and administrative supervision. The improvement on establishment of operational and enforcement authority should focus on the shift from substantial authorization towards both substantial and procedural authorization. There should be more specific and clear provision on the awarding measures, to fill the gaps of existing legislation and to strengthen the accountability of government agencies. In addition, this article gives specific recommendations on provisions on the systems of wetland conservation and legal implementation mechanism.     

火化机节能技术研究

随着全社会环保节能意识的不断增强,许多热工设备都相应采用了各种最新的工业技术进行节能改造,以此来降低能耗,减少污染,获得更大的经济效益。本文基于对有效实现火化机节能技术的探讨,试图为火化机生产企业提供一种火化机节能改造的方法。     

Institutional interplay and effectiveness: assessing efforts to conserve western hemisphere shorebirds

Bird conservation agencies and organizations can take credit for a long list of transnational policy accomplishments. This article examines one set, a constellation of arrangements developed over the past three decades by those seeking to conserve western hemisphere shorebirds. At the center of this constellation are the US and Canadian national shorebird conservation plans and a cross-border initiative, the Western Hemisphere Shorebird Conservation Reserve Network. We treat these and associated plans, programs, and initiatives as a nested set of institutions, noting that these are operated by a wide assortment of state and societal actors. Exploring the potential of a framework based on Oran Young’s concept of interplay, we analyze the construction of these institutions and efforts to establish effectiveness. Examining activity in three zones of issue proximity, we conclude that shorebird conservationists have responded well to formative interplay challenges. They have made least progress in engaging remote institutions responsible for threats to shorebird habitat. We note, though, that it is important to distinguish between scientific and political levels of interplay work. On a substantive level we conclude that the shorebird community is well-positioned to move beyond generative and programmatic tasks to focus on establishing policy capability. On a theoretical level, we conclude that a framework based on interplay provides a strong foundation for analysis of the forces shaping the effectiveness of informal conservation institutions such as the ones examined.

“绿色原则”视阈下预重整制度的功能性建构

《中华人民共和国民法典》规定“绿色原则”的基础含义为环境保护,其深层表达为节约资源和可持续发展。“绿色原则”既促进人与自然的和谐发展,也表达了资源、资本的可持续利用。破产法作为市场经济的重要法律,兼具市场出清和挽救再生的双重功能。其中预重整制度因其有效提高破产重整成功率,挽救债务企业于困境,是“绿色原则”在破产法中张力的重要体现。预重整制度一面可以通过简化程序节约司法资源、社会资源,另一面还可以延续债务人经验、商誉,避免浪费、最大化促进债务人可持续发展。