Twenty reasons why local knowledge will remain relevant to development

Local knowledge has continued to gain popularity among development practitioners in the last four decades. However, the future of local knowledge seems hazy to some academics and researchers, perhaps due to the methodological challenges in operationalising local knowledge in development research. Rather than appropriate its full potential for sustainable (global) progress, renditions on the relevance of local knowledge in development research agenda have largely become rhetoric. Nonetheless, this viewpoint outlines 20 pertinent reasons in support of the relevance of local knowledge and why it has a future in development theory and practice.     

Indigenous floating cultivation: a sustainable agricultural practice in the wetlands of Bangladesh

Floating-bed cultivation has proved a successful means to produce agricultural crops in various wetland areas of the world. In freshwater lakes and wetlands, vegetables, flowers, and seedlings are grown in Bangladesh using this floating cultivation technique, without any additional irrigation or chemical fertiliser. No detailed study of this indigenous cultivation technique has been published to date, although the laboratory method, hydroponics, is well documented in the professional literature. Our study is focused on the nature and characteristics of the Bangladeshi system, where local farmers have demonstrated the potential for the sustainable use of such common-property local water resources. We seek to establish a reference point for further research into this technique for its possible refinement and an assessment of its suitability for replication.     

就业困难与影响扩大就业的关键因素探析

扩大就业是构建社会主义和谐社会的着力点,扩大就业必须改善创业环境。当前,我国创业环境现状急待改善,主要表现在创业的思想环境不优、政策环境不优、制度环境不优、产业环境不优、市场环境不优和知识环境不优等六个方面。     

环境纠纷行政解决机制探讨

环境纠纷已成为人类的重大纠纷之一,传统的解决纠纷方式已无法及时、有效的解决问题,于是各国都在积极寻求行政解决途径,我国建立了以行政调解为主行政裁决为辅的行政解决机制,但这种机制存在一定的局限性,有必要在我国制定专门的环境纠纷处理法,建构以行政裁决为主行政调解为辅的新机制。     

Everyday health security practices as disaster resilience in rural Bangladesh

Health security is a relatively new concept in terms of how it is practised in disaster-prone locales. We observed 10 rural households in Bangladesh for four months using informal interviews, field diaries, and observation. The findings suggest that the everyday practises of health security involve the capabilities of “caring for themselves” in resource-constrained contexts. Understanding how households care for themselves prior to and during disasters presents an opportunity to examine how improved health might reduce the effects of disasters, ill health, and poverty. Some interventions are proposed to improve health security for poorer households in general and women in particular.     

当前国际战略形势分析与中国安全环境展望

当前国际形势错综复杂,主要大国加紧战略角逐与战略重组,多边主义渐成大势所趋,传统与非传统安全紧密交织互动,新兴大国引领全球经济增长,亚太局势多变。中国建设性国际作用日益增强,但和平发展与国家安全面临新的严峻挑战。     

区域金融生态环境与金融资源配置的经验分析——以安徽省为例

运用典型相关分析与Granger因果检验等方法对安徽省区域金融生态环境与金融资源配置水平之间进行实证分析。两者存在Granger因果关系。但这种关系是单向的,是从金融生态环境到金融资源配置,而且表现为正向。建议从政府主导型市场经济向政府监管型市场经济的过渡,使两者相互促进的作用得以充分发挥。     

Land restitution and income generation in protected areas in Mpumalanga,South Africa

In many cases protected areas in South Africa have been established with little or no regard for communities living in or adjacent to them. The new challenge to protection of biodiversity is to find an equitable balance between conservation, beneficiation of the new land owners, and “balancing the books”. This article discusses the Blyde River Canyon Nature Reserve as a case study to illustrate some of the potential outcomes that co-management of protected areas can offer towards income generation, and highlights challenges towards success: it asks, can co-management be financially sustainable for both the conservation agency and the land claimants?     

Environment and climate mainstreaming: challenges and successes

This paper examines mainstreaming environment and climate change into development policy, planning, and budgeting. It looks at why we should integrate environment and climate and outlines challenges and successes. One result is that governments’ progress pro-poor and equitable development. Governance gains are important too: co-benefits include more transparent decision making and better cross-government working. Ultimately, the impact of mainstreaming has increased awareness, changed perceptions, and improved the way inter-sectoral decisions are made, especially in climate adaptation. This supports countries to achieve their sustainable development ambitions – lessons which could be applied to a post-2015 development agenda.