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100 Years of Indian Forestry. Volume 1: Souvenir
(Manager Government of India Press, 1961) Forest Research Institute
"This Souvenir is a brief survey of the growth ol Indian Forest Administration from a small beginning and gives a general picture of its outstanding achievements in various fields during the last 100 years. The period between 1856 and 1864 was one of intense activity in the organisation of Forest Department, and the year 1961 has therefore been selected as a representative year for celebrating the Centenary of Forest Administration."
100 Years of Indian Forestry. Volume 2: Forests
(Manager Government of India Press, 1961) Forest Research Institute
"This volume, 'The Forests', which is a companion volume to the Souvenir issued on 18th November, 1961 to commemorate the Centenary of Forest Administration in India, is intended to give a bird's-eye view of forestry in India at the present time. The forest types of India, the protective, productive and industrial aspects of forestry, forest management and working plans, forest education and research, wild like, etc., have all been briefly reviewed, neccessarily in a restricted compass. It will be seen that the achievements of forestry in India have been remarkable indeed, more so in the context of the handicaps, particularly the apathy of the general public, that impedes progress. It is the hope that these achievements will help to inspire added confidence in the workers in the field and spur them on to fresh efforts in tackling the vast problems before us."
Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Writings and Speeches Vol. 1
(Dr. Ambedkar Foundation Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment, Govt. of India, 1979) Ambedkar, Bhimrao; Ambedkar, Bhimrao
"In Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar, we have not only a crusader against the caste system, a valiant fighter for the cause of the downtrodden in India but also an elder statesman and national leader whose contribution in the form of the Constitution of India will be cherished forever by posterity. In fact his fight for human rights and as an emancipator of all those enslaved in the world gave him international recognition as a liberator of humanity from injustice, social and economic. Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru paid a glowing tribute to Dr. Ambedkar while moving a condolence resolution in the Parliament as follows: 'Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar was a symbol of revolt against all oppressive features of the Hindu Society.' There is, therefore, a vital need to preserve the thoughts of this great son of India as expressed by him in his writings and speeches. While some efforts are being made in that direction by some institutions and research scholars, there is an urgent need to bring together all the material available and publish it in a series of volumes.
Evaluation of Annual Runoff in Tropical African Sahel
(ORSTOM, 1982) Rodier, J.A.
"The estimate of the annual total runoff from water courses in the SAHEL which is the object of this study, forms, together with the estimate of the maximum flow rates and volumes of exceptional floods, one of the two problems which are most difficult to salve before any project for the management of water resources may be undertaken."
Odious Debts: Loose Lending, Corruption and the Third World's Environmental Legacy
(Earthscan, 1991) Adams, Patricia
"Patricia Adams opens her seminal work on odious debts, 'Odious Debts: Loose Lending, Corruption, and the Third Worlds Environmental Legacy,' by describing the traditional muang faai water management system along Thailands watersheds. Muang faai--which survives in much of Thailand--amounts to a system of common property rights in which rights and responsibilities have been finely tuned over the centuries to maintain equity, protect the environment, and promote prosperity. Though hardly idyllic, frequently conflict-ridden, and constantly adapting through trial and error and discussion, the political and legal system that emerged worked well to protect those who lived along the river, and the river itself. From such an accountable environment came a degree of security that allowed all who were governed by it to produce amply and diversely for their families, enriching their communities in the process. The muang faai system began to break down in the 1980s when central authorities took charge of the rivers, armed with new laws and foreign money, to build dams along the mainstems of the rivers. By analogy, Ms. Adams examines the centralization of control over the nations other resources that turned sustainable into unsustainable commons and created what became known as odious debts."
The Commons: New Perspectives on Nonprofit Organization, Voluntary Action and Philanthropy
(Jossey-Bass, 1992) Lohmann, Roger A.
"An original theoretical statement of the commons theory of association; the view that nonprofit organizations, voluntary associations, foundations and other philanthropic and third sector institutions can be understood as commons of voluntary participation, shared purposes and common resource pools. Participation in such commons is said to establish the conditions for the production of trust, networks and other forms of social capital and of rules, rituals and other evidence of moral order."
Workshop on Co-operatives in Natural Resources Management
(Institute of Rural Management, 1992) Singh, Katar; Ballabh, Vishwa
"In common parlance, co-operation connotes a form of group behaviour aimed at achieving a goal or set of goals of common interest to the group. In this sense, co-operation is as old as the human civilisation itself. As an ethical norm, co-operation has been stressed in all the major religions and moral systems of the world. As a social structure, co-operation is manifest in innumerable organisations created by man for the purpose of joint action to achieve a common goal. According to the International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences 'Cooperation' is joint or collaborative behaviour that is directed toward some goal and in which there is common interest or hope of reward. In this paper, we use the word 'co-operation' to mean a formal socio-economic structure and the word 'co-op' to imply a registered co-op society. "The main objectives of this paper are; a) to examine the rationale for co-op management of natural resources; b) to present an overview of the evolution and growth of co-ops in the development and management of natural resources;c) to critically review the experience with co-op management of natural resources; d) to identify and analyse major issues and options in creating and nurturing such co-ops; and e) to outline an agenda for future research."
The Virtual Community: Homesteading on the Electronic Frontier
(Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, 1993) Rheingold, Howard
From introduction: "Daddy is saying `Holy moly!' to his computer again!" "Those words have become a family code for the way my virtual community has infiltrated our real world. My seven-year-old daughter knows that her father congregates with a family of invisible friends who seem to gather in his computer. Sometimes he talks to them, even if nobody else can see them. And she knows that these invisible friends sometimes show up in the flesh, materializing from the next block or the other side of the planet. "Since the summer of 1985, for an average of two hours a day, seven days a week, I've been plugging my personal computer into my telephone and making contact with the WELL (Whole Earth 'Lectronic Link)--a computer conferencing system that enables people around the world to carry on public conversations and exchange private electronic mail (e-mail). The idea of a community accessible only via my computer screen sounded cold to me at first, but I learned quickly that people can feel passionately about e-mail and computer conferences. I've become one of them. I care about these people I met through my computer, and I care deeply about the future of the medium that enables us to assemble. "I'm not alone in this emotional attachment to an apparently bloodless technological ritual. Millions of people on every continent also participate in the computer-mediated social groups known as virtual communities, and this population is growing fast. Finding the WELL was like discovering a cozy little world that had been flourishing without me, hidden within the walls of my house; an entire cast of characters welcomed me to the troupe with great merriment as soon as I found the secret door. Like others who fell into the WELL, I soon discovered that I was audience, performer, and scriptwriter, along with my companions, in an ongoing improvisation. A full-scale subculture was growing on the other side of my telephone jack, and they invited me to help create something new."
Livestock Policy Analysis
(International Livestock Research Institute, 1994) International Livestock Research Institute
"Following demand from NARS (national agricultural research systems) and bilateral and international agencies working in sub-Saharan Africa, ILCA developed a training course for senior and middle-ranking staff working in policy analysis and related fields for the livestock subsector within the region (sub-Saharan Africa). This manual has been written to accompany this course. "A major purpose of the manual is to supplement the instructor-based learning for the ILCA training course on policy analysis and the material used in this English edition was originally developed to meet the specific needs of the ILCA course. However, it has been prepared for use by other institutions, particularly universities and regional training centres to support training in livestock policy analysis. Since the manual uses a modular and learner-driven format, it also provides a self-learning package to update the reader's knowledge and understanding of modern principles of policy analysis and policy making."
Farming Systems of the African Savanna: A Continent in Crisis
(International Development Research Centre, 1995) Ker, Andrew
"Farmers in the parts of Africa where population growth is near, or has exceeded, the carrying capacity of the land at current technological levels face a serious crisis. This crisis is the result of the breakdown of traditional farming systems. The consequences are environmental deterioration on a massive scale, widespread poverty, malnutrition, and famine. In some countries, the crisis is contributing to political instability and civil war." "Through an examination of selected case studies, this book highlights some of the problems facing farmers in the African savanna and suggests some possible approaches toward solutions. It will prove useful to farmers, research and extension workers, policymakers, teachers, aid workers, and others who work with, or are concerned for, the future of the African farm and the livelihood of the African farmer."
Tools For Thought: The History and Future of Mind-Expanding Technology
(MIT Press, 1995) Rheingold, Howard
"Tools for Thought is an exercise in retrospective futurism; that is, I wrote it in the early 1980s, attempting to look at what the mid 1990s would be like. My odyssey started when I discovered Xerox PARC and Doug Engelbart and realized that all the journalists who had descended upon Silicon Valley were missing the real story. Yes, the tales of teenagers inventing new industries in their garages were good stories. But the idea of the personal computer did not spring full-blown from the mind of Steve Jobs. Indeed, the idea that people could use computers to amplify thought and communication, as tools for intellectual work and social activity, was not an invention of the mainstream computer industry nor orthodox computer science, nor even homebrew computerists. If it wasn't for people like J.C.R. Licklider, Doug Engelbart, Bob Taylor, Alan Kay, it wouldn't have happened. But their work was rooted in older, equally eccentric, equally visionary, work, so I went back to piece together how Boole and Babbage and Turing and von Neumann -- especially von Neumann - created the foundations that the later toolbuilders stood upon to create the future we live in today. You can't understand where mind-amplifying technology is going unless you understand where it came from."
Forest Law and Environmental Legislation: Contributions of the IUFRO Research Group, Report VI
(Departement Wald- und Holzforschung, Eidgenossische Technische Hochschule, 1996) Schmithusen, Franz; Iselin, Georg; Herbst, Peter
"Report VII of the IUFRO Research Group Forest Law and Environmental Legislation contains member contributions which have been presented at the group's working session during the XXI IUFRO World Congress 2000 in Kuala Lumpur/Malaysia as well as papers which have been submitted in the meantime. The 20 papers published in this volume deal with the dynamic development of law as basis for sustainable forest resources development under different social, economic and ecological conditions and in different parts of the world."
Impact of Pesticides on Farmer Health and the Rice Environment
(Kluwer Academic, 1996) Pingali, Prabhu L.; Roger, Pierre A.
From p. 7: "This study deviates from the controlled experimental paradigm for measuring the effects of pesticide use. Environmental, biological, and health effects of pesticide use are measured by observing actual farmer behavior, monitoring farmers health, and sampling farmer fields. There was no prior agreement with the farmers on the types or quantities of chemicals to use. Variability in pesticide use, and therefore variability in the effects of pesticides, was obtained primarily through a comparison of users and nonusers; and an examination of differences across the cross-section of farmers and across time. The results of this study indicate, however partially, the actual effects of pesticides on the environment and human health rather than simulated effects."
Livestock Management in Grazed Watersheds: A Review of Practices that Protect Water Quality
(UCD Animal Agriculture Research Center, 1996) George, Melvin
"This report reviews the literature that compares management practices--both replicated and unreplicated comparisons. Many of the practices that are used to manage livestock have been learned by trial and error, or evaluated only by common sense; others have been the subject of extensive research or case studies. All have been found to work somewhere, and most also have failed to meet management objectives in specific situations. "Dr. Bill Krueger's opening chapter describes the considerations in developing an effective grazing management strategy. Then Dr. Sherman Swanson discusses some of the factors that determine a stream's need for management and its response to management. Dr. Melvin George and Dr. John Buckhouse review research and case study experiences with various grazing management practices. Dr. Royce Larsen discusses the risk of pathogen contamination of water bodies in grazed watersheds, and practices that are commonly applied to reduce the risk of contamination. In closing, Krueger discusses coordinated resource management as a process to define and accomplish ecosystem management objectives."
Halting Degradation of Natural Resources: Is There a Role for Rural Communities?
(Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), 1996) Baland, Jean-Marie; Platteau, Jean-Philippe
"The present work is concerned with the topical issue of natural resource management. It does not deal, however, with broad-spectrum environmental concerns such as protection of wilderness areas (for example, the south pole), air or water pollution, etc., but focuses on local ecosystems. What distinguishes local-level resources from larger ecosystems is that (1) they are susceptible of appropriation by relatively small units (including individuals) and (2) they can lead to rivalry in consumption in so far as yields of these resources are clearly perceived as subtractable. This book thus addresses the question as to how these local or village-level natural resources (as contrasted with global commons) can be most efficiently and equitably managed. In other words, can we find guidelines or sound theoretical principles for an optimal long-term exploitation of local resources (forests, irrigation water, pastures, lakes and rivers, sea areas, etc.)? Disturbing evidence highlighting rapid processes of resource depletion, particularly so in developing countries, has stimulated a lot of theoretical and empirical works during the last decades. Moreover, relevant theoretical tools (such as game theory) have been developed independently of environmental concerns which have potential applications to this field. The present attempt aims essentially at making a pause in order to take stock of the achievements attained so far. We believe this step is necessary in view not only of the considerable body of literature which has accumulated on the subject under concern, but also of the multidisciplinary nature of the works involved. Due to these two characteristics, there are many gaps to be bridged between various strands of thinking or contributions to the field."
Biology and Management of the Floodwater Ecosystem in Ricefields
(International Rice Research Institute, 1996) Roger, Pierre A.
From Foreword: "In this book, the author focuses on management practices that maintain soil fertility, preserve or even improve the floodwater environment, and provide opportunities for diversifying sources of food and income beyond rice monoculture. An appendix provides details on various methods for conducting ecological studies in ricefields and evaluates the different methods in relation to their suitability for different kinds of studies."
Genetics and Aquaculture in Africa
(Editions de l'Orstrom, 1998) Agnese, Jean-Francois; Agnese, Jean-Francois
"Research to develop aquaculture in Africa was at its peak in the 1960's. Several dozens of cultured species were tested and still are being tested to determine their adaptability or their aptness for rural and urban Mica. The identification of potentially interesting species, the mastery of their biological cycles, and the optimization of culture conditions are the research axes which have progressed the most in the last few years. As a consequence, we have seen all sorts of aquacultural activities appear, from growers with one pond to the largest of industrial projects. We see very simple aquacultural activities like the grow out of harvested wild fingerlings and others more complex requiring specialized knowledge and qualified personnel. Trials have been attempted in all environments, in rivers, ponds, dam reservoirs and lagoons. Despite all these efforts, the development of aquaculture in Africa has lagged behind, especially when compared to that of other tropical particularly in Asia. The example of tilapia culture is very demonstrative on this subject. Even though Africa is the cradle of all the species, it is responsible for only a few percentages of the global production of tilapia. Far from discouraging us, the examples of these other countries give us objectives that we must reach."
Sosyolojik Dusunme ve Metodolojisi (Sociological Thinking and Methodology)
(1998) Birkok, Mehmet Cuneyt
"In this study, the technique of thinking sociologically has been searching by utilizing methodology and philosophy. The main purpose is to conduct a practical scientific thinking methodology to understand whole social phenomena with its ties to all references. There is another matter we must stress that the methodology is beyond any given study techniques and as important as the research itself. Sociological thinking would be very useful for social researchers both as a thinking way and methodology. Thus, social phenomena will be commented very easily, meaningful and as is in reality. "This study is conducted as four main chapters that are thinking and sociology, perspectives and methods, thinking and research, and the structure of scientific work."
Global versus Local Changes in Upwelling Systems
(Editions de I'Orstom, 1998) Durand, Marie-Helen; Cury, Philippe; Mendelssohn, Roy; Roy, Claude; Bakun, Andrew; Pauly, Daniel
"This volume is comprised of 33 contributions, most originally presented at an international conference held on 6-8 September 1994 in Monterey, California, USA under the auspices of the Climate and Eastern Ocean Systems Project."
Conditions for Community-Based Governance of Biodiversity
(Nordland Research Institute, 1999) Sandberg, Audun
"Endangered wild species are an important part of the international environmental discourse. This is institutionalized in a number of conventions and treaties, among them the Bern-convention, the Biodiversity Convention and the Washington convention (CITES). But also the health and life of domesticated animals are protected by international conventions like the European Convention for the protection of Animals kept for farming Purposes (European Council). In addition there are international conventions that protect the material basis for the culture and economic life of indigenous peoples and tribal peoples in independent countries: ILO-convention no. 169. "Taken together, these international environmental obligations places responsibility on the states that ratifies the conventions to protect both endangered wild animals and their natural habitats, to protect domesticated animals kept for farming purposes and to protect the material base for the culture of indigenous peoples. In the case of endangered species of predators, this places the modern state in a number of difficult dilemmas that, if not handled properly, undermines the legitimacy of both national and international environmental policies. Predators, like bears, wolves, lynx and wolverines are in their natural state opportunists who kill the most easily accessible prey. Among these are often sheep and reindeer kept by farmers in small and economically vulnerable mountain communities and by indigenous peoples who rely on pastoralism as the material base both for their economic and cultural life. It is quite obvious that it then is a serious dilemma for the modern state to protect the domesticated animals and the local and indigenous communities from the same predators that it is also protecting, in many cases from angry sheep farmers and reindeer herders who want to exterminate predators. The impotence of many modern states in providing solutions to these dilemmas also have the effect of antagonising the urban and the rural part of the environmental movement, and the growth of anti-environmental political factions. Paradoxically, a number of developing countries have had greater success with socially sustainable ways of conservation (IUCN 1997). "The report goes beyond this obvious political dilemma and searches for deeper reasons behind the growth of this type of conflicts. The motivation for this is that it is an important precondition for a continued meaningful environmental discourse to reach a deeper understanding of a number of similar or related processes at work in many localities in the world that has this character of 'environmental backlash'. If the social sciences cannot provide analytical tools that helps us to understand this phenomenon, they fail in their capacity to address contemporary social problems."
Human Security and Mutual Vulnerability: An Exploration into the Global Political Economy of Development and Underdevelopment (1st edition)
(International Development Research Centre, 1999) Nef, Jorge
"Jorge Nef responds to one of the most pressing intellectual challenges of the post-Cold War era: the search for an analytical framework that will help us understand this turbulent and chaotic period in human history. His lucid and visionary analysis rests on the concept of mutual vulnerability: that in an increasingly interdependent world, global security is only as strong as the weakest link in the chain."
Changes in 'Customary' Land Tenure Systems in Africa
(International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED), 2001) Cotula, Lorenzo; Cotula, Lorenzo
"Across rural Africa, land legislation struggles to be properly implemented, and most resource users gain access to land on the basis of local land tenure systems. These usually involve diverse combinations of 'statutory' and 'customary' entitlements, and multiple and overlapping rights over the same resource. In recent years, earlier emphasis on replacing 'customary' with 'modern' tenure systems has given way to a recognition that land policies and laws must build on local practice. Several African countries have recently adopted legislation that provides (some degree of) protection for local land rights. This shift in policy thinking raises the need better to understand what is happening to land tenure systems on the ground."
Capturing the Commons: Devising Institutions to Manage the Maine Lobster Industry
(Manuscript Draft, 2001) Acheson, James M.
"The 21st century is opening on the specter of worldwide environmental disaster caused by human beings. Stocks of fish, forests, grasslands, agricultural land, wildlife, air quality and water quality have all been seriously degraded either by overexploitation, or pollution or a combination of the two. Marine fisheries are in particularly poor condition. According to FAO analysis 'sixty nine percent of the fish stocks in the world are exploited at a level at or beyond the level corresponding to MSY [Maximum Sustainable Yield]'."
The Future of Ideas: The Fate of the Commons in a Connected World
(Random House, 2001) Lessig, Lawrence
"Discusses how the Internet revolution has produced a powerful counterrevolution. The explosion of innovation we have seen in the environment of the Internet was not conjured from some new, previously unimagined technological magic; instead, it came from an ideal as old as the nation. Creativity flourished there because the Internet protected an innovation commons. The Internets very design built a neutral platform upon which the widest range of creators could experiment. The legal architecture surrounding it protected this free space so that culture and information--the ideas of our era--could flow freely and inspire an unprecedented breadth of expression. But this structural design is changing, both legally and technically."
Public Assets, Private Profits: Reclaiming the American Commons in an Age of Market Enclosure
(New America Foundation, 2001) Bollier, David
"Many of the resources that Americans own as a people - forests and minerals under public lands, public information and federally financed research, the broadcast airwaves and public institutions and traditions - are increasingly being taken over by private business interests. These appropriations of common assets are siphoning revenues from the public treasury, shifting ownership and control from public to private interests, and eroding democratic processes and shared cultural values. "In the face of this marketization of public resources, most Americans do not realize that some of our most valuable assets are collective and social in character - our 'common wealth.' Collectively, U.S. citizens own one-third of the surface area of the country, as well as the mineral-rich continental shelf. Huge deposits of oil, uranium, natural gas and other mineral wealth can be found on public lands, along with rich supplies of timber, fresh water and grazing land. Beyond environmental resources, the American people own dozens of other assets with substantial market value, including government- funded research and development, the Internet, the airwaves and the public information domain. "Our government, for its part, is not adequately protecting these assets. Instead, it is selling them off at huge discounts, giving them away for free, or marketizing resources that should not be sold in the first place. These include, public lands, genetic structures of life, the public's intellectual property rights, and cherished civic symbols. "The growing appropriations of public assets - and the spread of market values to areas of life where they should not go - could be called the 'enclosure' of the American commons."
Social Forestry versus Social Reality: Patronage and Community-based Forestry in Bangladesh
(International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED), 2001) Khan, Niaz Ahmed
"Social forestry has acquired great significance in Bangladesh as a strategy for both forest resource management and rural development. However, the local social relations and networks which dictate the performance of social forestry have largely been ignored by planners of social forestry projects. This paper examines one of the most dominant manifestations of such social relations, the patronage network, and its implications for the performance of social forestry in rural Bangladesh. Three case studies illustrate the varied and profound implications of the patronage network for the functioning of social forestry projects. In these case study areas, farmers participating in social forestry projects (the clients or Kamla) have a deep-rooted dependency on the local elites (the patrons or Murubbi). The patrons are able to offer farmers employment opportunities, access to local government and protection during times of crisis and from harassment by other groups. The patrons, in turn, use the patronage network to influence the selection of the target farmers for the projects, to capture project benefits, and to use the farmers as support bases in local political and 'power' struggles."
Saving the Information Commons: A New Public Interest Agenda in Digital Media
(Public Knowledge, 2002) Bollier, David; Watts, Tim
"Sweeping changes in our nations communications infrastructure and markets over the past twenty years have radically changed the topography of the public sphere and democratic culture. But the mental maps which many people use to conceive the public interest in communications hark back to circa 1975, a time when the traditional broadcast model dominated and there were only three commercial television networks, cable TV consisted of community antennae to reach rural areas and even the VCR had not yet been unleashed. In the 1970s, the public interest in broadcasting was about the Fairness Doctrine, general content guidelines and public television subsidies."
Beneath the Reflections: Fiordland Marine Conservation Strategy: Te Kaupapa Atawhai o Te Moana o Atawhenua
(Guardians of Fiordland's Fisheries & Marine Environment, 2003) Teirney, Laurel
"'This publication is the result of work by a group known as the Guardians of Fiordland's Fisheries. The Guardians' project has provided a multi-interest forum where those involved in the environment and fisheries management of the fiords and surrounding coast have worked together across agency and sector boundaries. There has been a spirit of goodwill and co-operation between tangata whenua, commercial and recreational fishers, tourism operators, environment and community interests. The result is amazing both in the output (the various publications including this strategy) and in the strong relationships that will endure into the implementation phase and beyond. Local interested parties making decisions that affect their own locality is probably the most effective way of implementing government or any other form of policy.' Ted Loose, Chariman, Environment Southland."
Neerkattis: The Rural Water Managers
(DHAN Foundation, 2003) Seenivasan, R.
"'Neerkattis' are traditional water managers in areas irrigated by tanks in many parts of India. They are rural managers in maintaining and managing the tank systems and paid for their services in cash and kind. The traditional institutions of these tanks are in a change and the managers are at cross roads. The study captures the lives of these managers in many tanks."
Contract Farming in India: Impacts on Women and Child Workers
(International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED), 2003) Singh, Sukhpal
"Globalisation and liberalisation are likely to have the greatest impact on the rural poor through their influence on the agricultural sector, terms of trade, availability and cost of inputs, and new investments in the agribusiness sector. Technological progress in farming can help the rural poor by raising farm productivity, lowering food prices, increasing employment, and reducing farming risk. But the role and influence of multinational corporations (MNCs) in food production and trade will, as an institutional mechanism, determine the exact impact of globalisation on the rural poor, who are mostly from the labouring classes. Contract farming (described below) promotes participation of domestic firms and MNCs in farming, and is seen as the ‘new investment’ aspect of globalisation (Ramamurthy, 2000; Killick, 2001). Under contract farming, landowners or tenants have contracts with agribusiness marketing and/or processing firms, who specify prices, timing, quality and quantity/acreage of the produce to be delivered."
Natural Resource Conflict Management Case Studies: An Analysis of Power, Participation and Protected Areas
(Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, 2003) Castro, Alfonso Peter; Nielsen, Erik
"Natural resource conflict management and resolution is a priority area of the Forestry Policy and Institutions Branch (FONP) of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). FONP has been actively involved in this area for more than eight years, including issuing working papers, conducting an electronic conference, devising training materials and holding international, national and regional workshops on the topic. All these activities aim to support diverse and multiple stakeholders in managing conflicts that will inevitably arise in the protection, use and control of forests and other natural resources. A related goal is to strengthen the role and recognition of local resource users, particularly among disadvantaged groups, by building up their capacity to participate in resource management. "FONP continues with these capacity building goals in presenting this collection of case studies focusing on natural resource conflict management and resolution. FONP's experience in addressing natural resource conflict issues suggests that much can be learned through comparison of diverse situations. The 12 cases presented here deal with a range of intervention strategies, methods and tools used to address community-based natural resource conflicts in a variety of social, environmental and regional settings. The collection includes cases from Africa, Asia and the Americas. The cases were selected by FONP as representative of general trends in the field of natural resource conflict management and resolution as identified in its previous publications, including The role of alternative conflict management in community forestry and the proceedings from its electronic conference and the XI World Forestry Congress satellite meeting on natural resource conflict management."
Issues of Water Management in Agriculture: Compilation of Essays
(Comprehensive Assessment of Water Management in Agriculture, 2003) Jinendradasa, Sithara S.
"This book contains essays from lead scientists from partner organizations in these initiatives. Topics include, water and poverty; water rights; agriculture and environment; improving water productivity; water savings in agriculture; rainwater and food production; fisheries; and sustainable groundwater use. We contend that increasing the productivity of water in agriculture--obtaining more value for each drop used in forests, fisheries, livestock and crops--is necessary to bring about change. This is required in both rainfed and irrigated areas. However, increasing water productivity alone is not sufficient to solve the world water crisis. It must be done in a way that maintains important ecosystems and the services they provide. It requires a river basin focus to understand how water use in agriculture affects other users. It needs a focus on poverty, health and nutrition, and a special focus is necessary on groundwater because of the opportunities it provides in food production and poverty alleviation—as well as severe threats from overuse and pollution. Finally, water rights are key to both water productivity and distribution of benefits gained from using water."
Should Africa Protect Its Farmers to Revitalize Its Economy?
(International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED), 2003) Koning, Niek
"All is not well in Africa south of the Sahara. Western experts are looking for the causes in bad governance and insufficient social capital. At present, donors only support those administrations that endorse governmental and market-oriented reform. Results however are disappointing. In this paper I argue that domestic liberalisation is not enough to revitalise the economies of Sub-Saharan Africa. Farmers must also be protected from cheap imports. To explain why, I refer to the historical interaction between Africa and the world economy."
The Major Importance of 'Minor' Resources: Women and Plant Biodiversity
(International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED), 2003) Howard, Patricia
"This paper describes how women predominate in plant biodiversity management in their roles as housewives, plant gatherers, home gardeners, herbalists, seed custodians and informal plant breeders. But because most plant use, management and conservation occurs within the domestic realm, and because the principal values of plant genetic resources are localised and non-monetary, they are largely invisible to outsiders and are easily undervalued. Gender bias has prevailed in scientific research about people-plant relationships, and conservation policies and programmes are still largely blind to the importance of the domestic sphere, of women and of gender relations for biodiversity conservation, and to the importance of plant biodiversity for women’s status and welfare. Traditional knowledge and indigenous rights to plants are everywhere sex-differentiated, and gender inequalities are also implicated in processes leading to biological erosion."
Commons: Old and New
(Department of Sociology and Political Science, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, 2003) Berge, Erling; Olwig, Kenneth; Carlsson, Lars; Jansson, Ulf; Sandell, Klas; Wedin, Maud; Pardo, Mercedes; Oses, Nuria; Sevatdal, Hans; Sandberg, Audun; Brown, Katrina Myrvang; Sellar, David; Humphries, David
"The document is a proceedings from a workshop 11-13 March 2003 in Oslo. It presents case studies on commons in Norway, Spain, Sweden, Scotland, and Wales (UK) along with 3 papers with more theoretical discussion of 1) characteristics of protected areas seen as a type of commons, 2) the symbolic value of commons, and 3) the problem of managing commons across levels of organization."
Protecting the Virtual Commons: Self-Organizing Open Source Communities and Innovative Intellectual Property Regimes
(Asser Press, International Distribution by Kluwer Law International, 2003) Van Wendel de Joode, Ruben; De Bruijn, J. A.; Van Eeten, M. J. G.
"Worldwide, governments and business are recognizing the added value of open source and free software. Unlike other software, this software is developed and continuously improved by volunteers in communities on the Internet. Some of these communities, like Linux and Apache, connect thousands of volunteers worldwide. Question is how these communities are capable to continuously develop innovative software in a world dominated by markets, companies and laws. "Protecting the Virtual Commons tells about the surprisingly creative solutions that explain the long-lasting stability of the communities. It identifies the threats that the communities are faced with and discusses the amazingly innovative strategies developed to neutralize these threats. The book is written with a clear focus on intellectual property rights. "In their analysis, the authors provide answers to the following questions: Why have open source and free software communities created so many different licenses to protect their intellectual property? What influence do licenses have on the organization of the communities and their ability to innovate? What are the differences between intellectual property rights on software in Europe and the United States? What are the tensions between the way open source and free software communities deal with intellectual property and the way that companies protect and use intellectual property? What regulatory arrangements can deal with the tensions between the corporate model and the open source and free software development model?"
Vision for Village Tanks of Tamil Nadu
(DHAN Foundation, 2004) Seenivasan, R.; Arnad Kumar, P.
"A vision for conservation and development of the village Tanks of Tamilnadu is presented. The vision is a product of a series of stakeholders meetings organised across the state of Tamilnadu, India. The document presents the current problems and what can be done for the alleviation and restoration of them."
International Commons at the Digital Age: La Creation en Partage
(Romillat, 2004) Bourcier, D.; Dulong de Rosnay, M.
"Creative Commons is a non-profit that offers an alternative to full copyright to help authors to share and build upon creative works. The book analyses the first questions raised by the introduction of Creative Commons licenses in different legal systems and constitutes an observatory of the accounting of « cultural diversity » through Internet actors self-regulation. Different themes are discussed, such as the adaptation to national specificities and legal systems, Creative Commons licenses on the creation process, the relation of this instrument with traditional copyright management, the originality of using metadata in rights expressions for information retrieval. "These contributions gather testimonies and analysis of project leads in charge of the licenses translation, dissemination and implementation in their national legal systems. These lawyers, law professors, students and Information Technology researchers are enthusiastic with the possibility of sharing and mixing creative works in a context of open access to information and culture for all."
An Ocean Blueprint for the 21st Century: Final Report
(U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy, 2004) U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy; U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy
"It has been thirty-five years since this nations management of the oceans, coasts, and Great Lakes was comprehensively reviewed. In that time, significant changes have occurred in how we use marine assets and in our understanding of the consequences of our actions. This report from the U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy provides a blueprint for change in the 21st century, with recommendations for creation of an effective national ocean policy that ensures sustainable use and protection of our oceans, coasts, and Great Lakes for today and far into the future."
Water For All: Improving Water Resource Governance in Southern Africa
(International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED), 2004) Manzungu, Emmanuel
"This paper assesses prospects for effective stakeholder participation in water resource management in southern Africa. It uses experiences in countries where the process has somewhat progressed, such as South Africa and Zimbabwe, and to some extent Mozambique, Namibia, Swaziland and Tanzania, to draw some important lessons."
Agricultural Commodities, Trade and Sustainable Development
(International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED), 2005) Lines, Thomas
"Talks on agricultural trade liberalization at the World Trade Organization must take into account the needs of commodity-dependent developing countries, to ensure that agricultural trade and commodity production will deliver outcomes that favour both the environment and poverty reduction. Alongside the trade negotiations, there are also hot debates amongst a range of actors and networks on ensuring functioning of domestic agricultural markets, improving governance and sustainability in bulk commodity markets among civil society groups. Environmental and conservation groups seek the application of better management practices (BMPs) organized either through segregated supply chains or through preferential access to markets and finance.This group is focused on private regulation, upgrading of buyer-driven chains, and supply chain management. Elsewhere, a cluster of organizations are revisiting supply management to reduce oversupply and price volatility, focusing on learning lessons from the failures of International Commodity Agreements (ICAs). And a group of farmer and development organizations is concerned about growing corporate concentration in commodity markets and the impact of skewed market power on the small and decreasing share of wealth finding its way back to primary producers.This group is focused on competition policy and corporate accountability."
The Sustainability of Forest Management: Assessing the Impact of CIFORs Criteria and Indicators Research
(Center for International Forestry Research, 2005) Spilsbury, Michael J.
"The Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) Criteria and Indicators (C&I) research responded to an international demand for science to help clarify the assessment of sustainable forest management through development and improvement of C&I. C&I help define standards for sustainable forest management and are now being used by many different groups. Governments are using C&I to help them regulate the practices of forest users and report on the status of their forests to international processes and fora. Forest certification bodies depend on C&I to assess whether forest management companies or groups are managing their forests in a sustainable manner. Forest managers themselves often use C&I to improve the quality of their management, and, similarly, local communities can use C&I to improve their own management practices and hold to account others who share their forests."
Wide Open: Open Source Methods and their Future Potential
(Demos, 2005) Mulgan, Geoff; Steinberg, Tom; Salem, Omar
"This open and collaborative approach to creating knowledge has produced remarkable results, such as the Linux operating system and the web-based encyclopaedia Wikipedia. In defiance of the conventional wisdom of modern business, open source methods have led the main underlying innovations around the Internet. "Other fields have much to learn from open source methods - because they bring principles and working methods which can help to produce better knowledge, goods or services, or make them available on more widely beneficial terms. "From the formulation of public policy to more open forms of academic peer review, setting up mutual support groups for people facing similar health problems to collaborative forms of social innovation, the principles of open source promise to radically alter the we approach complex social problems. "The future potential of these methods is such that they will soon become commonplace in our lives. Just as it is now impossible to think about getting things done without considering the role of the Internet, so will it soon be impossible to think about how to solve a large social problem without considering the role of open methods."
Adapting to Climate Change in East Africa: A Strategic Approach
(International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED), 2005) Orindi, Victor A.; Murray, Laurel A.
"This paper provides an overview of the likely impacts of climate change in three least developed countries in East Africa: Sudan, Tanzania, and Uganda. In the coming decades, climate change is likely to alter temperatures and distribution of rainfall, contribute to sea-level rise and increase the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events in East Africa. In fact, many widespread climatic changes have already been observed in the region. Climate change will have both a direct impact on development of climate-dependent activities (such as infrastructure and agriculture) and indirect consequences for social systems (such as issues of poverty, conflict, health and education). As a result, climate change has the potential to undermine, and even undo, socio-economic development in East Africa and it is imperative that governments and institutions come together to formulate long-term adaptation strategies."
Facing Up to Climate Change in South Asia
(International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED), 2005) Alam, M.; Murray, Laurel A.
"This paper provides an overview of the likely impacts of climate change on three of the least developed countries in South Asia: Bangladesh, Bhutan and Nepal. In these countries, climate change effects will include changes in temperature, distribution of rainfall, sea-level rise, and an increase in the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events. This will have direct impacts on climate-dependent activities in these countries (such as agriculture, hydropower, forest management and nature conservation). Adverse impacts of extreme events, particularly floods (riverine, coastal and glacier lake outburst), droughts, salinity and cyclones are of particular concern. In addition, climate change will have indirect, socio-economic consequences for health, education and security. These least developed countries are most at risk because of their high vulnerability and low adaptive capacity. Weak economies, inadequate infrastructure, poor social development, lack of institutional capacity and high dependence on natural resources all contribute to this vulnerability."
Renewing the Commons: University Reform in an Era of Weakened Democracy and Environmental Crises
(2006) Bowers, Chet A.
"The initial question that prompted the writing of this book was: What is there about a university education that enables so many graduates to make the seemingly seamless transition from the classroom to becoming advisors and supporters of President George W. Bush's policies? This question led to a consideration of the three main themes that set this manuscript off from other critiques of the policies of President Bush. First, the entire analysis, as well as recommendations for reforming universities, addresses how the current misuse of our two most prominent political terms of liberalism and conservatism leads to a basic misunderstanding of the policies that are being pursued under these two labels. I point out that the domestic and foreign policies of the Bush administration, as well as such think tanks as the CATO and American Enterprise Institutes, are based on the market liberal thinking of John Locke, a partial reading of Adam Smith, and more recent libertarian thinkers. Thus, to refer to the policies that give corporations a greater influence over legislation in the areas of health care, energy, and the role-back of environmental protection as examples of conservatism is a problem that has its roots in the failure of universities to expose students to the history of conservative thinkers from Edmund Burke to Wendell Berry, and to the history of liberal thinkers from Locke, Smith, Mill to current libertarians. "The second theme is that the fundamentalist Christians that are part of the president's base of political support hold the view that they know the will of God and that their political mission is to be 'God's regents' until the Second Coming. Their theology, which is not shared by evangelical Christians such as Jim Wallis, leads them to adopt a friend/enemy approach to politics that undermines what remains of the traditions that support a democratic, open, pluralistic society that is able to move forward through compromise and negotiation. I also point out that conserving the traditions of separation of church and state, an independent judiciary, and the separation of power between the main branches of government are not part of the political agenda of these fundamentalists who now number in the millions. As self-identified liberals are not comfortable using the language of conservatism, they continue to emphasize the importance of the autonomous individual and of representing change as progressive in nature. Consequently they are not speaking out on the importance of conserving the traditions that are the basis of our civil liberties and the social justice issues that still need to be addressed. Thus, they are caught in a linguistic double bind. "The third theme is the need for educational reforms that address what students need to know about the nature and importance of the cultural and environmental commons (aspects of the culture and environment that have not been monetized and incorporated into the industrial and consumer-dependent culture) as sites of resistance to the further spread of a market economy that leaves increasing numbers of people vulnerable to the loss of jobs, of health benefits, and of pensions. What remains of the world's diverse cultural and environmental commons (and they still exist across North America-- even in urban areas) hold out the possibilities of a more community-centered existence that involves reliance on intergenerational knowledge and skills that lead to mentoring, mutual support systems, and self-reliant activities that reduce dependence upon a money economy. The book contains a chapter that explains how courses in existing disciplines can be altered in ways that enable students to understand why the importance of the intergenerational knowledge was marginalized by Western philosophers, the history of cultural forces that have contributed to the enclosure of the commons, how different technologies impact the commons, the economics and environmental impact of the cultural commons, and the connections between conserving the linguistic diversity of the cultural commons and conserving habitats and species. The last chapter examines the similarities between the theocracy/market-liberal oriented policies and the characteristics of fascist societies that came to power through a weakened democratic process between the two world wars. While we are not there yet, the forty percent of hard-core Bush supporters, as well as the nearly fifty percent of adults that think that evolution is a liberal-inspired myth suggest that we are further down the slippery slope than many people realize."
Mysteries and Myths: De Soto, Property and Poverty in South Africa
(International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED), 2006) Kingwill, Rosalee; Cousins, Ben; Cousins, Tessa; Hornby, Donna; Royston, Lauren; Royston, Lauren
"Hernando De Soto’s influential book The Mystery of Capital offers a simple yet beguiling message: capitalism can be made to work for the poor through formalising their property rights in houses, land and small businesses. Yet this paper presents evidence from South Africa to suggest that many of de Soto’s policy prescriptions may be inappropriate for the poorest and most vulnerable, and could have negative impacts on their security and well-being. The authors draw on case studies and the literature to show that: • Titling does not necessarily increase tenure security or certainty; in many cases it does the opposite. • Formalisation of property rights does not promote lending to the poor. Rather than turning their property into ‘capital’, formalisation could increase the rate of homelessness. • Formalisation through registered title deeds creates unaffordable costs for many poor people. • Informal property systems currently support a vibrant rental market; formalisa- tion could undermine this, producing unintended negative consequences for the poor. • ‘The poor’ are not homogeneous and those in the extra-legal sector should be differentiated according to income and vulnerability status. • Such an approach does not mesh with rural common property resources which are never exclusive to one person, and which have fluid boundaries and flexible rules."
Better Land Access for the Rural Poor: Lessons from Experience and Challenges Ahead
(International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED), 2006) Cotula, Lorenzo; Toulmin, Camilla; Quan, Julian
"This study highlights lessons from recent policy, law and practice to improve and secure access to rural land for poorer groups. It focuses on Africa, Latin America and Asia, while also referring to experience from Central and Eastern Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States. The study examines the links between land access and poverty reduction, shifting approaches to land reform, different means to secure land rights and to achieve more equitable land distribution, the particular vulnerability of certain groups to losing their land rights, and the role of addressing land rights within conflict resolution and peace building. It concludes with broad recommendations for protecting land rights of poorer and more vulnerable groups."
SANREM CRSP Annual Report: 2006
(Office of International Research, Education, and Development (OIRED), 2006) Sustainable Agriculture & Natural Resource Management Collaborative Research Support Program (SANREM CRSP)
"During the past year, the SANREM CRSP (Phase III) established the Long-Term Research Program that will generate the core of new sustainable agriculture (SA) and natural resource management (NRM) knowledge and development impacts. The overall SANREM CRSP vision is to develop knowledge pertaining to SA and NRM interventions and strategies, organize that knowledge into an accessible on-line knowledge base, place it in its proper development context, and disseminate the knowledge to decision makers. During this past year, the SANREM CRSP: - Completed high-impact, short-term, Bridging Award research activities that capitalized on earlier SANREM Phase II research activities - Initiated five new long-term research activities - Initiated and expanded capacity building activities - Continued development of a book on adaptive management of sustainable agriculture and natural resource management systems; and - Sponsored (in collaboration with the IPM CRSP) the Biodiversity Conservation in Agriculture Symposium, which promoted the integration of biodiversity conservation into agriculture development programs. "The SANREM CRSP promotes stakeholder empowerment and improved livelihoods through the discovery, organization, and dissemination of SA and NRM knowledge. Our approach is participatory, engaging stakeholders at all levels in research problem formulation within priority areas of inquiry, focusing on multiple countries and/or regions to facilitate scaling research findings up and out. Program efforts are competitively driven and organized through a nested landscape systems approach. Gender sensitivity is integral to the SANREM approach and reinforced by gender-sensitive participant training programs that include degree and non-degree training plans. All activities link sustainable natural resources management with the economic concerns of local populations and the promotion of good governance."
The Wealth of Networks: How Social Production Transforms Markets and Freedom
(Yale University Press, 2006) Benkler, Yochai
"A ground-breaking book on the transformative opportunities associated with the evolution of networked social production. The Wealth of Networks was hailed by Lawrence Lessig as the most important book of 2006. In keeping with the subject, Professor Benkler has released The Wealth of Networks under a Creative Commons BY-NC license."
Making Poverty Reduction Irreversible: Development Implications of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment
(International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED), 2006) Bass, Steve
"Development is achieved through growing and managing the portfolio of assets available to a household or a nation. Soils, water, plants and animals often make up the biggest chunk of poor peoples assets. The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MA) has taken stock of these environmental assets worldwide. It reveals that fully sixty percent are being degraded - with poor people disproportionately suffering the consequences such as shortage of clean water, floods and droughts. Yet the MA also identified instances of effective asset management - proven Response Options that deserve scaling up."
Transforming Environmental Education: Making the Cultural and Environmental Commons the Focus of Educational Reform
(Ecojustice, 2006) Bowers, Chet A.
"The book I am asking you to consider has an entirely different focus; with the primary one being the need to integrate environmental education into a more general curriculum that engages students in terms of their daily experiences in their community's cultural and environmental commons, and in terms of providing them the language necessary for articulating what is being lost as more aspects of their commons are enclosed by market forces. If effect, this book is focused on the pedagogical and curricular reforms that are a necessary part of making the renewal of the cultural and environmental commons a central focus of educational reform. The how-to-do-it discussion of fostering the student's communicative competence for articulating the difference between a commons-based experiences and market-consumer based experiences introduces examples that would be appropriate in the early grades as well as how courses at the university level need to be refocused in order to clarify how the development of different disciplines contributed to the marginalization and silences that now characterize most North American's relationships with the commons. The emphasis on pedagogical and curricular reforms are set against a background discussion of how such terms as the environment and environmental education are now being politically contested, as well as against the background of economic globalization, and the rapid rate of global warming and other changes in natural systems' such as the changes in the chemistry of the world's oceans. The book can also be seen as laying out an approach to educational reform that makes the renewing of the cultural and environmental commons the responsibility of classroom teachers and university professors across the disciplines."
Beyond the City: The Rural Contribution to Development
(The World Bank, 2006) de Ferranti, David; Perry, Guillermo E.; Foster, William; Lederman, Daniel; Valdés, Alberto
From p. 1-2: "Most LAC countries are preoccupied about the state of their rural economy, particularly the competitiveness of rural economic activities, poverty, and environmental degradation. While the majority of LAC countries have in place trade policies, sector-specific government support policies, social intervention policies, infrastructure development strategies, and various regulatory regimes designed to respond to demands of various subsectors in the rural economy, most of these have focused on problems affecting the rural economy per se, without paying enough attention to how the rural economies (and policies) contribute to overall national welfare. This report aims to fill this gap by systematically evaluating the contribution of rural development and policies to growth, poverty alleviation, and environmental degradation both in rural areas and in the rest of the economy. Specifically, it uses this broad framework to shed light on five critical policy issues for Latin American economic authorities. For the convenience of readers interested in policy issues, this chapter presents first a summary of the policy implications of our findings. We then turn to the findings themselves, summarizing our methodological approach and main results."
Forest-Based Communities in Changing Landscapes: A Comparative Study Across Four States of India
(SDC-IC Intercooperation, 2007) Smith, Connie; Tiwari, Shailendra; Vyas, Vivek
"Traditionally, indigenous communities in India have been dependent on forest and common lands to fulfil their livelihood and cultural demands. However, land use, access and governance have altered dramatically over the last century, often resulting in conflict, degradation and privatisation of such areas. "Yet beyond this generalisation, processes such as colonial rule, population pressure, land tenure patterns and changing access have had different meanings in different regions and cultures of India. In this way, current common land issues faced by each region and community are the consequence of a unique history, demanding that development initiatives must necessarily be context-specific. "This study is an attempt to understand the specificity of common land-based issues across four Indian states. The four participating NGOs (Non-Governmental Organization) have a shared goal of working towards sustainable rural livelihoods and income security in their reference communities, but work in very different environments. "These diverse contexts have shaped the organisations' distinct approaches and strategies to development work. This study has been an opportunity for each NGO to step outside of its field of reference, to share understanding on the different concerns related to commons and forests as well as the diverse approaches required to address these issues."
Legal Empowerment for Local Resource Control: Securing Local Resource Rights Within Foreign Investment Projects in Africa
(International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED), 2007) Cotula, Lorenzo
"This report draws lessons from experience of using legal processes to secure local resource rights within the context of foreign investment projects in Africa. Security of local resource rights is a major challenge in many parts of Africa. The analysis of relevant law reveals that resource rights associated with more powerful interests (foreign investment) tend to enjoy greater legal protection compared to those held by local resource users. However, legal tools accompanied by adequate capacity-building efforts can help redress this imbalance and strengthen protection of local resource rights. By increasing local resource control, effective use of these tools can help disadvantaged groups gain greater control over their lives ('legal empowerment'). The report will be of interest to development lawyers, development practitioners working at a macro-planning level, and researchers. The report sets out the case for taking law seriously as a tool for empowerment and positive change, it also argues that designing and implementing legal tools that deliver positive change depend not only on sound legal thinking, but also on tackling power relations and other social, cultural, political and economic factors that affect the way the law operates in practice. The report also contributes to ongoing debates on the relationship between law and power, through developing a conceptual framework and through linking this to the empirical analysis of law and power issues within foreign investment projects in Africa."
Participatory Guide to Developing Partnerships, Area Resource Assessment and Planning Together
(International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), 2007) Lundy, Mark; Gottret, Maria Veronica; Best, Rupert; Ferris, Shaun
From Introduction: "CIAT's Rural Agroenterprise Development Project (RAeD) has developed a series of participatory methodologies which aim to assist rural service providers to enable farmers to benefit from improved social structures, learn basic agroenterprise skills, and improve their ability to innovate. This process has been divided into a number of discreet tasks, which when combined, make up a strategy entitled the 'participatory and area-based approach to rural agroenterprise development."
Critical Essays on the Enclosure of the Cultural Commons: The Conceptual Foundations of Today's Mis-Education
(Ecojustice Press, 2007) Bowers, Chet A.
"Humans have been sustained by the cultural and environmental commons from the time of their first appearance on the vast savannas of what we now call Africa. The environment provided the source of food and fiber, wood for fire and shelter, and water. From the earliest times, there were norms that governed the nature of the family unit, the roles of men and women in performing various activities and ceremonies, what actions would be punished, status systems that regulated group decision-making, how the success of the hunt and later the harvest would be shared, how the dead were to be dealt with, and how young were mentored in the performance of various tasks. While the environment that was necessary for sustaining life was not referred to as the environmental commons, and while the cultural beliefs and norms that governed behavior and even led to various expressions of aesthetic judgment and performance were not referred to as the cultural commons, it is important that we make these two phrases a more central part of our thinking."
Approach Towards an Operational Tool to Apply Institutional Analysis for the Assessment of Policy Feasibility within SEAMLESS-IF
(SEAMLESS Integrated Project, 2007) Schleyer, Christian; Theesfeld, Insa; Hagedorn, Konrad; Aznar, O.; Callois, J.M.
"This Deliverable D2.4.2 comprises the work done by Task 2.4 (Activities 2.4.1-3) on the development of indicators characterising policy delivery systems and institutional environments. Task 2.4 addresses, in particular, the issue of the institutional conditions required to implement policies that acknowledge and promote sustainability and multifunctional aspects of agriculture. The final goal of Task 2.4 is to produce ex-ante an institutional assessment of agri-environmental policy options through their impact on the contribution of agriculture to sustainable development. For this purpose, the 'Procedure for Institutional Compatibility Assessment' (PICA) has been developed as a formalised methodology to assess the compatibility between policy options and various institutional contexts."
Pathways to Sustainability: An Overview of the STEPS Centre Approach
(STEPS Centre, 2007) Leach, Melissa; Scoones, Ian; Stirling, Andy
"Who benefits from genetically-modified crops? Will there be enough water for people to survive this century? What are the implications of the HIV/AIDS pandemic? These are just some of the questions that the STEPS Centre--a new global research and policy hub based at the University of Sussex in the UK--is asking. This short document provides an overview of the approach that STEPS is taking as it seeks to grapple with two of the most pressing challenges of contemporary times: linking environmental sustainability with poverty reduction and social justice, and making science and technology work for the poor. Intended for anyone wanting a quick insight into the Centres work, it highlights key elements of the Centres pathways approach, how this approach interweaves the themes of systems dynamics, governance and designs, and the practical implications for the distinctive styles of interactive, engaged research that the Centre is undertaking."
Redes Intelectuales en América Latina
(Instituto de Estudios Avanzados, 2007) Devés, Eduardo
"Analiza el fenómeno de las redes intelectuales en América Latina y encuentra sus primeros exponentes en el acercamiento con la generación del 98 de España."

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