Suchergebnisse

Der Klimawandel ist wahrscheinlich die größte Herausforderung, mit der die Menschheit je konfrontiert war, da die Ernährungssicherheit von Milliarden Menschen bedroht ist. Extreme klimatische Ereignisse beeinflussen die Nahrungsmittelproduktion auf der ganzen Welt. Insbesondere kleine, auf marginalen Flächen in Südasien ansässige Landwirte sind vom Klimawandel betroffen und in ihrer empfindlichen Lebensgrundlage stark beeinträchtigt. Diese Dissertation entwickelt Strategien und Empfehlungen, um die sozioökonomischen und ökologischen Auswirkungen des Klimawandels zu mildern. Die Forschungsarbeit bietet politischen Entscheidungsträgern Erkenntnisse über Optionen, die Widerstandsfähigkeit der durch Klimawandel gefährdeten Bauerngemeinschaften in der nordöstlichen Region Indiens (NEI) zu fördern. Um die sozioökonomischen Dimensionen der betroffenen Interessengruppen im NEI Agrarsektor für die Bewältigung der Auswirkungen des Klimawandels zu untersuchen, werden mehrere sozialwissenschaftliche Methoden kombiniert. Diese Dissertation analysiert Wahrnehmungen, Prioritäten und Perspektiven (der zukünftigen Entwicklung) von Interessensgruppen aus dem Agrarsektor und präsentiert die gewonnenen Erkenntnisse in sieben Kapiteln. Das erste Kapitel liefert Hintergrundinformationen zur Motivation dieser Doktorarbeit, zum Studiengebiet sowie zu den Forschungsfragen und den verwendeten Methoden um diese Fragen zu beantworten. Diese Dissertation konzentriert sich vor allem auf die nordöstliche Region Indiens, welche in acht Bundesstaaten gegliedert ist. Obwohl diese acht Bundesstaaten eine enorme kulturelle und topografische Vielfalt aufweisen, wird die gesamte Region in nur eine agroklimatische Zone eingestuft. Für diese Studie wurden 797 landwirtschaftliche Haushalte durch Leitfadeninterviews befragt. Darüber hinaus wurden 21 Brainstorming-Sitzungen durchgeführt, um Daten von Feldforschern und landwirtschaftlichen Beratern (aus Krishi-Vigyan-Kendra-Zentren) zu erfassen und damit die Stärken, Schwächen, Chancen und Risiken des Landwirtschaftlichen Forschungs- und Beratungssystems (Agricultural Research and Extension System, ARES) im Nordosten Indiens zu analysieren. Außerdem nahmen 21 Experten der Institute des Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) sowie die Leiter von 14 Krishi-Vigyan-Kendra-Zentren an drei Runden eines Delphi-Experiments teil, um mögliche Strategien und Politikmaßnahmen zu bestimmen, welche die klimatische Widerstandsfähigkeit im NEI Agrarsektor verbessern. Das zweite Kapitel analysiert die durch die Befragung von 797 landwirtschaftlichen Haushalten gesammelten Daten, um zu bewerten wie der Klimawandel, seine Auswirkungen und Anpassungsmaßnahmen durch die Landwirte wahrgenommen werden. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass die untersuchten Landwirte sich des Klimawandels durchaus bewusst sind und wissenschaftlich unterstützte Maßnahmen zur Sicherung ihrer Lebensgrundlage für notwendig halten. Die Landwirte verzeichneten wiederkehrende Ertragsverluste aufgrund von Niederschlagsschwankungen und Temperaturerhöhungen. Außerdem beobachteten die Landwirte einen Rückgang der Wasserressourcen für die Landwirtschaft und eine Verschlechterung der allgemeinen landwirtschaftlichen Produktivität aufgrund von klimatischen Veränderungen. Berichtete Anpassungen der Landwirte umfassen den Anbau von Mischkulturen, Sortenwechsel, Bodenschutz, Errichtung von Tierunterständen, Impfungen, Einführung moderner Tierfütterungssysteme sowie weitere Maßnahmen zur Aufrechterhaltung ihres Betriebseinkommens. Diese Maßnahmen sind allerdings nur bedingt geeignet, um die Landwirte nachhaltig gegen die Wirkungen des Klimawandels zu schützen. Mangelndes Bewusstsein für Änderungen, kostspielige Inputs, fehlende Kredite, schlechte Bodenfruchtbarkeit und Transportprobleme in hügeligen Gebieten beeinträchtigen eine wirksamere Anpassung der Landwirte. Das dritte Kapitel der Dissertation untersucht Einflussgrößen der Wahrnehmung des Klimawandels durch Landwirte. Mit einem logistischen Regressionsmodell werden die Einflüsse von 36 sozioökonomischen und biophysikalischen Faktoren untersucht. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass insbesondere das Geschlecht des Hausherrn (männlich), Rinderbesitz, Wahrnehmung ungleichmäßiger Niederschläge, Realisierung von Veränderungen bei Waldprodukten und längere Entfernungen zu Märkten die Wahrnehmung des Klimawandels durch die Landwirte signifikant beeinflussen. Die Ergebnisse zeigen auch, dass die Landwirte den Klimawandel mit Entwaldung, Umweltverschmutzung und übermäßiger Fahrzeugnutzung in Verbindung bringen. Die Mehrheit der Landwirte sieht den Klimawandel durch eigene Beobachtungen bestätigt und ist empfänglich für Interventionen, um durch wissenschaftliche Beratung und Unterstützung (in Form von Technologien und Finanzierung) zukünftige Auswirkungen zu minimieren. Die Landwirte im NEI Agrarsektor empfinden im Rahmen des Klimawandels eine Mischung aus Ackerbau und Viehzucht als verhältnismäßig profitabel. Das vierte Kapitel analysiert Stärken, Schwächen, Chancen und Bedrohungen von ARES (mittels einer Strengths-Weaknesses-Opportunities-Threats-Analyse ) und stellt fest, dass externe Chancen nicht vollständig genutzt werden und interne, auf Organisationsmanagement beruhende Schwächen dominieren. Die Ergebnisse zeigen auch, dass viele Distrikte eine defensive Strategie wählen müssen, da die meisten von ihnen einen höheren Anteil an internen Schwächen und externen Bedrohungen aufweisen. Das System (ARES) sollte deshalb entschlossene Korrekturmaßnahmen ergreifen, um die Bürokratie zu minimieren und die Arbeitszufriedenheit der Mitarbeiter zu erhöhen, indem es gleiche Wachstumschancen, Anerkennung und Anreize für die Leistungsträger bietet und eine Unternehmenskultur schafft, die die Würde des Einzelnen respektiert. Das fünfte und sechste Kapitel der Dissertation verwenden die Delphi-Technik, um mögliche Strategien zur Verbesserung der Widerstandsfähigkeit gegen Klimawandel zu bestimmen. Das fünfte Kapitel zeigt, dass (i) regenabhängige, wissenschaftsferne Landwirtschaft (ii) unzureichendes Angebot an Produktionsfaktoren (iii) geringe landwirtschaftliche Mechanisierung und Lebensmittelverarbeitung und (iv) geringe gesellschaftliche Widerstandsfähigkeit kritische Herausforderungen im NEI Agrarsektor sind. Experten empfehlen massive Investitionen in die Nachernteverarbeitung und den Einsatz von integrierten Agrarsystemen, um die Widerstandsfähigkeit gegen Klimaeinflüsse und die Nachhaltigkeit im NEI Agrarsektor zu fördern. Das sechste Kapitel untersucht den Bedarf an notwendigen Kompetenzen sowohl für Change Agents als auch für indigene Bauern. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass Change Agents ihre Managementkompetenzen (d.h. die Verknüpfung der Landwirte mit dem Markt, Aufgeschlossenheit, Innovation bei der Problemlösung) verbessern sollten. Die Landwirte benötigen Kompetenzen in den Bereichen umweltfreundliche Landwirtschaft, Schutz der biologischen Vielfalt und Problemlösung auf Gemeindeebene. Experten empfehlen auch, dass Krishi-Vigyan-Kendra-Zentren bei der Umsetzung klimaschonender Strategien eine zentrale Rolle spielen sollten, da sie eine institutionelle Verbindung von Behörden zu landwirtschaftlichen Haushalten darstellen. Schließlich fasst das letzte und siebte Kapitel die wichtigsten Ergebnisse der Dissertation zusammen und empfiehlt politische Maßnahmen, um den Bedürfnissen der indigenen Landbevölkerung im Rahmen des Klimawandels gerecht zu werden und Politiken umzusetzen, welche die Klimabeständigkeit im Agrarsektor von NEI fördern. ; Climate change is probably the most alarming challenge ever faced by humankind as food security of billions is threatened. Extreme climatic events continue to affect food grain production across the world. Notably, the small, marginal and natural resource dependent farmers residing in South Asia are highly exposed to impacts of climate change as their fragile livelihood is severely affected. Therefore, this dissertation is designed to formulate and recommend strategies to mitigate the socio-economic and environmental impacts of climate change. This dissertation provides insights and options to policymakers that may foster the climate-resilience among vulnerable farming communities in the Northeastern region of India. This dissertation utilizes a multi-method approach to investigate the socio-economic dimensions of associated stakeholders to manage climate change impacts in the agricultural sector. This dissertation examines perceptions, priorities, and prospects (of future development) of stakeholders sampled from the agricultural sector of NER, which are presented across seven chapters. The first chapter briefly provides background information on the motivation for this study, the study area, the objectives and research questions, and the employed methods to answer these questions. This dissertation is primarily focused on the Northeastern region of India (NER), which is a cluster of eight states. Though, eight Northeastern states of India exhibit enormous cultural and topographical diversity, this entire region is categorized as a single agro-climatic zone. In this study, 797 farm households participated through semi-structured interviews. Further, 21 brainstorming sessions were also conducted to collect data from field level researchers/extension professionals (from Krishi Vigyan Kendras), to analyze strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of Agricultural Research and Extension System (ARES) of NER. Also, 21 experts from ICAR institutes and Heads of 14 Krishi Vigyan Kendras, participated in three rounds of Delphi experiment to forecast strategies/strategy options that would shape policies to foster climate-resilience in the agricultural sector of NER. The second chapter analyses the data collected through the interviews of 797 farm households to assess farmers' perception of climate change, its impacts and adaptation actions. Results showed that sampled farmers were aware of climate change and expressed the need for scientific interventions to support their livelihood. Farmers experienced recurring losses in agricultural yield due to rainfall variability and increased temperature. Farmers also reported a decline in water resource for farming and deterioration of farm fertility because of changes in climate pattern. Farmers have adopted basic adaptations like mixed cropping, change of crop varieties, soil conservation, shelters for livestock, vaccination and scientific feeding of livestock, and similar practices to maintain their farm income that may not provide climate-resilience for a longer time. However, farmers are unable to succeed due to prominent constraints like unawareness of adaptations, costly inputs, lack of credit, poor soil fertility and transportation issues in hilly areas. The third chapter of the dissertation investigated determinants of farmers' perception of climate change using a logistic regression model by analyzing 36 socio-economic and biophysical attributes. Results showed that gender of head of farm household (male), cattle ownership, the perception of uneven rainfall, the realization of changes in forest produce and longer farm to market distance significantly shapes the farmers' perception of climate change. Results also revealed that farmers associate climate change to deforestation, pollution, and excessive vehicle use. Majority of farmers realized climate change through their experience and are potentially receptive to scientific interventions to minimize future impacts for which advisory services and assistance (in the form of technologies and funding) is recommended. Farmers of NER find a combination of crop farming with livestock relatively profitable in climate change scenario. The fourth chapter analyzed strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of ARES of NER (using SWOT analysis) and found that external opportunities are not fully exploited due to the over dominance of internal weakness, which are arising from organizational management issues. Results also revealed that many districts would need to adapt to defensive strategy as the majority of them exhibit a higher proportion of internal weaknesses along with external threats. The system (ARES) must undertake firm corrective measures to minimize the bureaucracy and to enhance the job satisfaction among employees by providing equal growth opportunities, recognition, and incentives for performers, as well as by creating an organizational culture that respects individuals' dignity. The fifth and sixth chapter of the dissertation utilized the Delphi technique to forecast the strategies/strategy options for enhancing climate-resilience. The fourth chapter revealed that (i) rainfall dependent unscientific farming (ii) inadequate input supply (iii) low extent of farm mechanization and food processing and (iv) low societal resilience are critical challenges for the agricultural sector of NER. Experts recommended massive investment for post-harvest processing and integrated farming systems to foster climate-resilience as well as sustainability in the agricultural sector of NER. The sixth chapter investigated the competency development needs for change agents as well as indigenous farmers. Results showed that upgradation of managerial competencies (i.e., linking farmers with the market, being open-minded, innovative in problem-solving) are required among change agents. Farmers need to be competent in the areas of eco-friendly farming, biodiversity conservation, and problem-solving at the community level. Experts also recommended that Krishi Vigyan Kendras have a pivotal role to play while implementing climate-smart strategies, as they are the institutional link to farm households. Finally, the last chapter (i.e., seventh chapter) summarized the key findings of the dissertation and recommended policy measures to cater the needs of indigenous farming communities in climate change scenario by implementing policies that foster climate-resilience in the agricultural sector of NER.

In the light of youth unemployment and increased transnational mobility practice oriented vocational education and training get more and more importance in the international cooperation in education. There is a broad consensus among educational experts, that one of the possible measures to reduce youth unemployment in the world is to provide youth skills and competences, which are needed on the labour market. The school based vocational education needs to be updated with practical skills. The fundament of each practice oriented vocational education and training system (VET) lays in the cooperation between the main actors: the enterprises and vocational schools. Dual systems in countries as Germany, Switzerland and Austria offer many good practice examples on the benefits of the engagements of both actors in the vocational education and training system but nevertheless these examples cannot be taken as "one model fits all" which can be implemented in each country. Therefore each country interested in the redesign of their own vocational education and training system needs to identify possible benefits of and challenges in their system, to be able to specify the opportunities and threat for future development. It cannot be presumed that enterprises can be forced to take apprentices and train them in their facilities. It has to be evident for every educational actor willing to cooperate with enterprises, that enterprises first strive for growth in profits upon others to be able to secure their existence and secondly they may support additional, non-economic activities; for example the vocational education and training of future employee. Although to ensuring the quality of future employees may partly be seen as their social responsibility this fact will still depend on their economic situation and their need for skilled labour. However, making profit does not collide with the idea of the engagement of enterprises in the vocational education and training. It only needs an in depth-analysis of potentials and needs of enterprises and vocational schools and an adequate planning as well as development of the educational programs and activities. The following example on the PR China delivers many interesting basic approaches on how cooperation between enterprises and vocational schools can be built up, managed and preserved. Thanks to the over thirty years of multilateral cooperation between der PR China and other European and Asian countries, the PR China already knows what is needed to modernize the vocational education and training system. Further education of teachers, redevelopment of curriculums and the redesign of the infrastructure of the vocational schools are those activities, which enriched the Chinese vocational education and training system in the last thirty years. There is still backwardness in the economically weak part of the country but within the "go-west-strategy" of the government innovative measures are offered for enterprises to foster the development of the western region; for example cut red tape or tax and duty exemptions. In the course of the bureaucracy development of the east-southeast part of the country and through the increased perception of the country in the international business the quality of labour become more relevant also for the PR China. Products with low-value-added and unskilled labour were not sufficient anymore for the competitiveness of the country in the international environment. More and more enterprises realised the shortage of qualified labour because of the rise of progressing technology and of the availability of qualified labour. The commitment to quality in the vocational education and training laid on the market orientation and therefore on the establishment of cooperation between enterprises and vocational schools. The PR China can consequently show good practice examples from cooperation in the vocational education after more than thirty years of learning from other countries. The constructive element of these cooperation was identified by the actors as the consensus about the mutual benefit of cooperative activities. Although there are many good practices in the cooperation, nevertheless, more persuasiveness is still needed for continuous fostering of quality in the vocational education and training. The cooperation is not only influenced by the interest, need and the level of cooperation between enterprises and vocational schools, but the nature of the directives of the government are crucial for the cooperation too. For example, the decentralized implementation of the directives of the government may endanger the uneven development and quality assurance in vocational training. The transfer of responsibility of the state in the hands of the provinces ensures on the one side more freedom for provinces, for instance, it allows them to adapt the vocational education and training to their specific needs and to implement it to local circumstances. This means, to offer labour market oriented vocational education and training. On the other side it needs in the context of quality assurance to archive the knowledge gained through the fragmented implementation. This implies, that already developed teaching and learning materials should not get lost but it should be used as synergies and transfer these to other provinces, schools or enterprises. One of the exemplary efforts made by good situated "model vocational schools" is their willingness to overtake a sponsorship for other less developed vocational schools that are located mostly in the western region. Previously mentioned schools support the improvement of the teaching quality of latter mentioned schools and help them especially in the initial phase of the redevelopment of their teaching and training system. More concrete, "school sponsorships" allow to share knowledge, experience or to share technical equipment. The further education of teachers, the establishment of training facilities, the adaptation of curriculum to the labour market needs leave space for the consideration of local needs on the one side, and the dynamics of market development on the other side. It is only possible to take over responsibility for less developed schools, if there is financial support through the government too. School sponsorship is mostly subject to model schools therefore there is a significant need for recognition and promotion of education activities of these model schools. The high dynamic of the labour market in developing regions may cause challenges in the cooperation between vocational schools and enterprises, especially in the time of recession. If the cooperation with a vocational school gives rise to concern because of the limited time, personal availability or financial support in the enterprises, than the support of enterprises may decrease. Therefore the model schools strive to mobilise all actors, ask for financial and material benefits during the time of economic growth to be able to implement those benefits targeted and lay a solid fundament for the performance of less developed schools. This fundament may consist of well-educated vocational teachers, well-equipped training facilities as well as practice oriented curricula. A solid basis allows vocational schools in a economically weak period to use previous investments and benefits. Additional created supplementary services, as further educational offers for enterprise employees, well-educated vocational teachers as consulters by building up of new production lines or by doing research on the effectiveness of human resources, are examples for reserves to bear itself. The redefinition of the role of vocational schools as "service providers" in a wide sense, allows setting quality standards in relation with the pedagogical requirements and economical needs in the vocational education and training. The school administration and teachers need to be equipped with additional management skills in addition to their educational and professional skills to be able to initiate, build and maintain cooperation systematically and analytically. Enterprises need to be aware of taking responsibility for future skilled labour while cooperating with vocational schools. The openness of enterprises for cooperation allows determining one's potential within vocational education and training and look for benefits for both actors. It is necessary for a successful cooperation to be a "win-win" situation, so the motivation for all parties should be maintained. Finally each cooperation needs competent teachers, well equipped training facilities also strategic planning (AIOC-strategy) in sense of analysis of initial situation and the possibilities for the implementation of practical vocational education and training, optimisation of available capacities and resources, the interdependence of responsibilities and competences of both actors, and the consolidation of pedagogical quality criteria under economic premises. The PR China has tried in the past thirty years to modernize its vocational education and training system; this happened mostly in the technical occupations. The challenge for the future will be to do the same effort for the service occupations. The reform and open-door policy of the Chinese government since the 1970s brings many opportunities not only for the economy, but also for the society. The rapid development in the technically based fields brought the anticipated economic upswing and leads the PR China from a development country to the second biggest economy in the world. Now, the current government aims more to increase the life standard of the Chinese and strengthen the domestic consumption than to focus on industry production. Through the emerging middle class the quality and necessity of services gain higher importance in the society and it is seen as an integral part of increasing their quality of life. Chinas new generation remained from the destructive revolutions of the 1960s and 1970s, which have slowed down the development in the country. It has now in hand to bring together identity of the country with its traditions and modernity not only outwardly in the perception of the world, but to strengthen it also in the Chinese society.

The present report is an EU-FP7-SOCIOEC Report giving an overview and critical evaluation of the current management measures implemented for the North Sea mixed demersal fisheries and the fish stocks involved in this. Also, this involves review and critical evaluation of the scientific advice supporting the fisheries management for the North Sea mixed demersal fisheries and the stocks involved herein. Management of the demersal roundfish and flatfish fisheries in the North Sea is conducted mainly through the EU Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) and the yearly EU-Norway Bilateral Fishery Agreements. The prevailing management system and principle has been landing quotas (TAC, Total Allowable Catch) mainly based on the EU principle of relative stability in the international sharing of the TAC. Also, general effort limitations and technical measures are set for the EU and Norwegian fisheries on top of the TAC regulations. Technical measures have mainly aimed at reducing the retention and discard of the juveniles through gear measures and to protect the spawners and/or recruits in the fish populations through closures. Furthermore, the management is based on a set of national measures especially concerning control and enforcement measures, national distribution of the overall TAC, individual special technical measures, allocation (distribution) of national TACs to different fisheries and vessels including the share to e.g. Individual Transferable Quotas (ITQs) or Vessel Quota Shares (VQSs). The management of the North Sea demersal fisheries has changed quite a lot over the last decades following the need to rebuild the fish stocks, and in particular the North Sea cod stock in relation to the present case study. The CFP has increasing focus towards implementing multi-annual or long term management plans (MAMPs, LTMPs) partly to avoid the annual political battles over setting the TAC. There has furthermore been a trend during the last decade to move away from the Precautionary Approach and towards Maximum Sustainable Yield as the overarching management objective and Harvest Control Rules (HCRs) based on this. There have been introduced increasingly restrictive fisheries-based effort limitations with possibilities for exemption or for less drastic effort reductions provided that cod avoidance behavior can be demonstrated. Although the decision-makers under the CFP have had a reputation of consistently setting TACs way above the scientific advice, the development in recent years has been towards this gap being reduced. Management of the fisheries has undergone a number of structural and behavioral changes, and these have already yielded some positive results as the state of the demersal stocks in the North Sea have globally improved. The status of main demersal stocks has considerably improved over the last decade. Fishing mortality has globally decreased and biomass has increased, and most of the assessed demersal stocks are now within sustainable limits. Some issues remain with North Sea cod, for which recovery is slower. At present, cod is the limiting species for all the North Sea demersal fisheries. Over a time span from the 1960s landings of demersal stocks have declined with an accelerating decrease since the mid-1990s in line with the falling stock sizes and regulated reductions in total allowable catches (TACs). A clear decrease in the mean fishing mortality (F) is observed in the 2000-2010 period with current F values between Fmsy and Fpa, and the spawning stock biomass (SSB) has on average been above Bpa for the period 1983-2010 for the assessed stocks. The effort in the central North Sea and along the Norwegian waters has decreased as well as the number of operating fishing vessels (capacity). Overall, the nominal effort (kW-days) by European fleets using demersal trawl, seine, beam trawl and gillnet in the North Sea, Skagerrak and the Eastern Channel have been substantially reduced (-20% between 2003 and 2011). Since 2000, the total fish biomass for exploited stocks in the North Sea is about 4-5 million tonnes with an increasing trend in the most recent years. Despite the decrease of landings and fishing mortality in the last recent decade, the overall recruitment has shown a clear decreasing trend from 1985-2010. The recent increase in SSB during the last decase, which is likely due to lower landings and fishing mortality levels in the last 15 years, indicate inclinations of the North Sea ecosystem to recover. However, this has not converted in higher recruitment levels in the most recent years in which there may be a time delay. There is a clear trend that both the gross profit and the net profit has improved from 2008-2010 for the main fleets of the North Sea with the only exception of the Dutch beam trawlers 18-24m, for which the gross profit decreased by nearly 90%. The positive development in economic performance measures can be a result of the structural changes that have recently occurred in many fisheries. There are fewer vessels sharing the available resources (reduction in over-capacity). Especially, the movement towards right-based systems is expected to have had positive effects on reducing the over-capacity and improving the economic performance of many fleets. Historically, EU subsidies over the years have contributed to making the fleet more efficient, so the success of the CFP in the area of developing an efficient fleet has historically contributed to its failure in relation to conserve fish stocks, as overcapacity is consistently mentioned as one of the fundamental reasons for the conservation failure historically. Employment in fishing as a social indicator is shrinking, not least for the North Sea, and has been so for many years. There are multiple explanations for this: i) individual vessels are getting more efficient, ii) consolidation of fleets whereby fewer vessels catch the available resources with noticeable decrease in number of operating fishing vessels, and iii) decreasing fishing opportunities in the shape of lower quotass. The raw number of fishers tells a story of a sector that in reality, at least in the prosperous countries around the North Sea, provides only few jobs. Despite the above trends indicating positive effects of the most recent fisheries management of the North Sea mixed demersal fisheries there are a row of general problems in the present management. Population dynamics with respect to recruitment variations, sub-populations and changes in distribution of several demersal North Sea stocks influenced by environmental factors besides fishery are not fully understood and taken into consideration in management (and management advice). Also, biological multi-species interactions between the stocks are not fully taken into account in the management of the stocks when setting the MSY management and exploitation limits for the stocks. Management is not based on broader ecosystem and multi-species objectives, but based mainly on single stock objectives. Also technical interactions between fisheries are not taken fully into account in management of the North Sea demersal fisheries. The fisheries targeting cod, whiting, haddock, saithe, flatfish and Nephrops in the North Sea and Kattegat-Skagerrak are mixed demersal fisheries for towed gears. Mixed fisheries considerations are of primary importance for the management of North Sea species. Single stock management is a cause of discarding in mixed fisheries, because individual stock management objectives may not be consistent with each other. As such, the TAC of one species may be exhausted before the TAC of another, leading to catches of valuable fish that cannot be landed resulting in over-quotas discard. Overall, present management and fisheries policy is characterized by the CFP having in many ways taken form of a classical intergovernmentalist, state-centric command-and-control, top-down management system, where member states' ministers in the Council have exercised strong control over the fisheries management measures which have been developed and adopted on the background of proposals from the Commission and the Parliament, though since the ratification of the Lisbon Treaty the Parliament has assumed a role of co-legislator alongside the Council. EC has identified the lack of stakeholder involvement as one of the major weaknesses of the CFP, recognizing that this fact clearly undermine its legitimacy. Establishment of the Regional Advisory Councils (RACs) with the 2003 CFP can be seen as the first formal attempt to generate a network of multi-national, multi-interest advisory organizations with a strong regional focus among other involving resource users in the decision making. However, the RACs have at present only an advisory function on decisions and are not formally integrated directly in management on a regional basis, i.e. the RAC system is primarily intended to provide a regional stakeholder perspective to the Commission's deliberations rather than providing stakeholders with real decision-making authority. RACs constitute, nevertheless, a move towards regionalization of the fisheries policy. Present management is, furthermore, characterized by a high degree of complexity, bureaucracy, and examples of micro-management where different management systems and measures are implemented in parallel making evaluation of impact of the individual measures and systems very complicated and the system suffers from lack of transparency. With respect to the complexity the different management measures are acting top of each other with impact on the same fisheries and stocks at the same time (and with time overlap in their implementation) creating a very complex management and associated advisory system, where it is difficult to distinguish specific effects and impacts of each individual measures implemented. Accordingly, it is also very difficult to make scientific management evaluation and advice associated to the individual measures

Most people spend much of their lives working. By working, I mean "wage labor": activity undertaken in exchange for money in a society where money is necessary for survival. This has not always been the case, and it is not the case universally, in all places, or for everyone. But it is now a fact of life so foundational in most parts of the world as to seem a feature of nature rather than history. I begin with truism because I think that the fact of work, in all its bluntness, has never been accorded proper importance in literary criticism or cultural criticism in general. There is, of course, a convenient explanation for the absence: historically, art has been either the province of the leisured classes or something made and experienced outside of the bounds of the workday. Art is, therefore, an exception to the rule of work. And even Marxist critics – those whom one would expect to believe, as Marx did, that production and labor were foundational in capitalism –tend to approach the painting or the poem from the side of the market, consumption, and everyday life, for the understandable reasons outlined above. If they tell a story about capitalism's determinative effect on art, it is usually a story about the penetration of market logics into the realm of art, a story about commodification. Few ask what the work of art might share with work in general or how the constant technological and social refashioning of the workplace might affect the horizon of possibility for artworks.My dissertation, "The Work of Art in the Age of Deindustrialization," attempts to provide one answer to these questions, a historical answer, by a reading of important literary and artistic works from the 1960s and 1970s. These are decades in which twin political and economic crises – the political militancy we associate with 1968, on the one hand, and the crisis of profitability and the dollar we associate with 1973 on the other – force a profound restructuring of capitalism and class relations. In particular, the multiple transformations of the labor process – deindustrialization, the rise of the service sector, the introduction of information technologies into the burgeoning managerial and white-collar sectors – provide a useful vantage from which to investigate the rapid changes in art and writing. Whereas the much-documented aesthetics of objects, things and facticity associated with modernism took its bearings from the factory-system (or, in a variant, anti-industrial form, from the artisanal and craft forms industrialization was in the process of destroying) such a cultural mode becomes increasingly anachronistic in the postwar era. As I argue, the productivist aesthetic of modernism gives way to an aesthetic of administration and distribution that takes signs and social relations rather than physical matter as its primary "material." Instead of the factory or workshop, such a mode draws from the routinized cognitions of office work and the forced conviviality of the service sector.The relationship between the economic and the cultural is not, as it might seem, a case of simple synchronicity or one-to-one correspondence. Experimental poetry, for example, is avant-garde in the sole sense that it is speculative, a laboratorial mode which runs ahead of the work-a-day world rather than simply reflecting it. Such experimental modes elaborated critical responses and forms of technical imagination which aimed to respond to the rigid hierarchies of 1960s society and yet, via a kind of "cunning of reason," laid some of the foundations for the new work relations which became dominant in the 1980s and 1990s. Indeed, part of my argument is that some of the most recognizable of avant-garde devices – erasing, replacing, counting, sorting, arranging by chance or rule – have been thoroughly integrated into the very office machinery (now generalized into the home) which writers use to produce their works.Such recuperation builds upon an uneasy affinity between left- and right-wing critiques of postwar capitalism. If leftists, countercultural figures and artists took aim at the rigid, bureaucratic and hierarchical nature of the corporate form and worklife in postwar society, targeting the managerial layer in particular, they found strange bedfellows in a class of business management theorists and economists who saw in that same layer a hindrance to profitability. In response to the artistic and countercultural critique, businesses concoct a new, flexible, "flattened" and adaptive corporate form that trims the middle-managerial layer by imposing upon workers a set of pseudo-democratic work relations under the sign of such corporate shibboleths as teamwork, flexibility, participation, creativity and self-management. Rather than the industrialization of culture that Adorno and Horkheimer famously bemoan, my dissertation describes the same operation in reverse – the "culturization" (or aestheticization) of industry, where the workday absorbs the resources, faculties and affects associated with the aesthetic. This operation is designed to produce more highly-productive, motivated workers but also to ward off and absorb the countercultural and artistic critiques that might lead to disaffection. The aesthetic, in this regard, becomes a mechanism for the establishment of a pseudo-democracy and a pseudo-autarky. If "self-management" – the ideal of labor militants, communists and anarchists since the 19th century – once meant freedom from the imperatives of the boss it now means, increasingly, in light of this reorganization, an internalization of such imperatives.My first chapter traces the thematics of "management" and "self-management" as they appear in the early poetry of John Ashbery, and in his controversial book The Tennis-Court Oath (1962) in particular. Numerous poems in this collection – developed from an earlier poem, "The Instructional Manual" – take up the position of the midlevel employee, who is both the object of commands and the producer of commands. The contradictions in this standpoint – examined in C. Wright Mills' White Collar and many subsequent studies of "the new middle class"provide insight into this transitional moment in capitalism, in which the extensive growth of deskilled white-collar work created, for large firms and the post-war bureaucracy, a crisis of management. One of the ways in which this appears in Ashbery's poetry is through a subtle and inventive play with free indirect discourse and point of view, in which individual moments and voices manifest as antagonistic fragments in an intersubjective field, requiring the "managerial" intervention of the arranging, organizing poetic voice or mind, a mind that is itself fragmented by its multiple allegiances and responsibilities. The experimental collages of The Tennis Court Oath illuminate the curious ambiguity of that special commodity, labor-power, which is at once object and subject: a thinking object, a commodity that speaks.As I discuss in my second chapter, one site where all of these meanings are contested – a site that again attracts the interest of both artists and business management theorists – is the emergent discourse of cybernetics, Through the central notion of "feedback," cybernetics presents an image of social self-regulation based upon reciprocal, horizontal relations rather than explicit hierarchies. Writers and conceptual artists borrow from this discourse to model utopian social forms, ones where form is embedded less in explicit command than in something like a changeable grammar or syntax – cybernetics calls this "information" – which can be revealed and manipulated by art. To give just two examples, both Hannah Weiner in her Code Poems and Dan Graham in his Works for Magazine Pages follow the founder of cybernetics, Norbert Wiener, by treating information – and by extension, the formative powers of cultural labor – as a kind of anti-entropic, organizing force. Following Benjamin Buchloh, I describe this development as an "administrative aesthetic," since the cultural artifact comes to see its vocation as one of regulating social relations. Though I treat only a handful of figures in this chapter, the list of writers and artists influenced by this conception of information (and its close cousin, entropy) provides a remarkable cross-section of the period. A partial list of figures who help forge these new aesthetic values would include, in fiction, William Burroughs, William Gass, Kurt Vonnegut, Philip K. Dick and Thomas Pynchon; in poetry, Charles Olson, John Ashbery, A.R. Ammons, Hannah Weiner and Bernadette Mayer; and in art, Hans Haacke, Robert Smithson, Dan Graham and Martha Rosler.One of the reasons why it has been difficult to approach the cultural transformations of the 1960s and 1970s from the side of labor rather than, say, consumption– from the side of the workday rather than leisure time – is that increasingly these two spheres commingle, and the values associated with leisure time are invoked to make the workday more tolerable, at the same time as the protocols and routines associated with work colonize the space of leisure time. This crossing of spheres bears in particular upon the relations between unpaid "reproductive" or domestic labor (the housework associated with women) and waged labor. The subject of my third chapter, Bernadette Mayer's project Memory (1972) – performance, installation and epic poem – investigates the crossing and blurring of these spheres, as everyday life is increasingly subsumed by the protocols of office work, and as office work is increasingly colored in the shades and hues of the street or the home. Memory models this process of merger and blurring through its incorporation of multiple media (type, photography, audio recording), artistic genres and techniques. In this sense, Mayer's elaboration of a "total" artwork which merges different technologies into one single apparatus prefigures the coming reorganization of office work around the personal computer.

A Comment on: "Birth of the Leviathan: Building States and Regimes in Medieval and Early Europe" by Thomas Ertman(Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1997, 350 pp.)Understanding the origins of the modern state –and the different forms these political units eventually took- is a central enterprise in the discipline of political science. Relevant not only as a necessary first step in the development of several fields inside political science (e.g. how can we talk of an international, or better inter-state system, if we do not know where this concept of "inter-state" comes from?) but also for the contemporaneity of state-building in the 21st century. Pivotal as it is, the literature still has too many open-ended pathways and many more to discover. It is in this scenario that Thomas Ertman's Birth of the Leviathan appears as a very welcome contribution to the study of the origins of the Modern State.The problem Ertman poses is not entirely new. In his own words: "Why had some states developed in a constitutionalist direction during the formative centuries of European state-building, while others had become absolutist? And why had military pressures driven some states to construct effective, proto-modern bureaucracies, while others remained wedded to administrative methods that seemed highly dysfunctional?" (p. xi). The resemblance to the questions in which, to take a well-known example, Charles Tilly had been working on for a long time is strong. (1) Notwithstanding, three features stand out in the Birth of the Leviathan: a) the type of intra- and inter-state changes that the author discusses along the extended process of state-building (the time frame for the study is circa the fall of the Roman Empire and the French Revolution), b) the complexity of the theory proposed, and c) the impressive empirical research undertaken to support his theory.As Ertman's quote above suggests, the goal of the book is to explain why some states developed an absolutist regime while others came up with a constitutionalsystem. Moreover, and reaching to Max Weber's thought, the author also provides an answer to the diversity (divergence??) in the paths of state infrastructure –that is: why some states ended up with a modern bureaucratic administration while others remained, to their own detriment, with patrimonial systems. Thus four variables define the typology of states presented: patrimonial absolutism (France and Spain), bureaucratic constitutionalism (Great Britain), bureaucratic absolutism (Germany), and patrimonial constitutionalism (Poland and Hungary).There are two sets of dependent variables. The political regime on one side – i.e.absolutism and constitutionalism- respond to differences in the strength of representative institutions. Grosso modo, polities situated inside those territories characterized by large-scale and mostly unsuccessful experiments to install homogeneous political regimes during the Dark Ages will be more prone to an absolutist regime. (2) On the other hand, states on the periphery of these historical processes could "begin their state-building from zero" and thus were more prone to develop constitutional regimes with strong representative institutions that constrained royal power.The other dependent variable is the one concerning state-infrastructure. This can take the form of patrimonialism or bureaucracy. The core of the explanatory or independent variable would be that the states involved in early conflict (3) –"early" being defined as pre-1450- tended to build state infrastructures with "outmoded and even dysfunctional" institutional arrangements (most commonly office-holding and the grant of state functions, such as taxing, to private hands). On the contrary, latecomers to war were able to take a bureaucratic path for two reasons: a) they could benefit from the know-how and learn from the errors of states which had been involved in the expansion of the state-authority for a long time, and b) the exponential increase in the supply of personnel professionally trained to run state affairs. (4)A problem the author encounters is that this scheme cannot explain two of its four cases: bureaucratic-constitutionalism and constitutional-paternalism. Why did Great Britain follow the bureaucratic path given it was a clear case of early state-builder for war purposes? And why is it that Hungary and Poland, two cases of latecomers to war, ended up with patrimonial administrations? The explanation for this anomaly rests in the existence of strong representative institutions that influenced state infrastructure. In the case of Great Britain, redirecting the state in a bureaucratic path (against the attempts of interest groups to impose patrimonialism), in the cases of Hungary and Poland, acting as an agent of patrimonial administration.Let me offer some final comments (in an unjustly oversimplified manner) that follow from the reading. Ertman's book turns out to be a rigorous and intensely (with historical descriptions that might be too dense in some instances) researched study. His comprehension of the subtleties of state-building in modern Europe certainly surpass most of the work this reader has seen in the literature. While the work of a Charles Tilly analyzed the role of war, coercion, and capital in trying to explain why such different paths of state-building ended up with the same outcome -i.e. the nation-state- Ertman's book goes much deeper. The inclusion of the analysis of changes in the domestic structures is particularly welcome. In other words, where Tilly saw a path towards convergence in the form of the nation-state, Ertman disentangles a process that leads to the formation of critically different types of states. This divergence becomes particularly relevant when one reflects on the contemporaneity of this work, since it was not only the convergence in the nation state form, but also the stark differences –especially in state infrastructure- that defined and continue to define the European countries studied. (5)Some final thoughts, that would have to be more developed to do the author justice, will be irresponsibly thrown as questions for further consideration:The author seems to focus too much in the methods of resource extraction (e.g. taxing) without taking seriously the given pool of resources each territory had. A better consideration of this issue –for example benefiting from Tilly's hypothesis on the importance of cities as centers of capital and their interplay with central governments- might be a good idea (Was it the same for a King to have a Madrid than a Ghent?)What is the real role of war? The author measures the effectiveness of state administration by their fighting performance. But, is losing a war, let's say Jena, a valid yardstick to define efficient and inefficient administrations, or as in the case of Jena other things might be in play (Napoleon's mighty army)?Is it acceptable to have such a flexible theoretical model? Are not the explanatory variables modified to fit the cases, thus incurring in a grave methodological problem? In general, how heavy are the costs in parsimony of such a detailed and complex study?In any case, The Birth of the Leviathan is an essential study for anyone trying to understand where the central political unit in international relations comes from, and why has this institution differed, not only in its path –as Tilly tells us- but also in its final form. The interested reader should save some time to seriously engage in a dialogue with Ertman and his Birth of the Leviathan.(1) "What accounts for the great variation over time and space in the kinds of states that have prevailed in Europe since A.D. 990, and why did European states eventually converge on different variants of the national state? Why were the directions of change so similar and the paths so different?" Tilly, Charles, "Cities and States in Europe, 1000-1800"; Theory and Society, Vol. 18, No. 5, Special Issue on Cities and States in Europe, 1000-1800 (September, 1989, p.565). Nevertheless, there is one important distinction between these two questions that will be discussed at the end of this essay.(2) It is not completely clear though, at least to this reader, the logical explanation for this hypothesis. Is it that the post-Dark Ages and its failed attempts to impose working political systems (e.g. the Carolingian Empire) generated such a marked decentralization in the political landscape that the only viable solution for the Crowns was to try to impose a severe centralization over the aristocratic landlords? Or that such decentralization and the pattern of landlord aristocracy that followed were not compatible with the bicameral representative organizations (typical of constitutional regimes)? Or both? This is particularly troublesome since the author defines the variance in political regime as "a ruler who was relatively constrained (constitutionalism) or unconstrained (absolutism)" (p. 19).(3) Here the author wisely sticks to Tilly's maxim "War made the state and the state made war." (4) A phenomenon linked to the proliferation of the University as a social institution.(5) As the author remarks at the end of the book: "…patrimonial institutions can also have nagging long-term consequences. Despite the reforms of the 19th century, patron-client relations, lack of clear boundaries between politics and administration, and redistribution of public funds towards political insiders remain a serious problem in Spain, Portugal, France, and Italy…" p. 322. *Ph.D. StudentDepartment of Political ScienceUniversity of Pennsylvania.Profesor Depto. Estudios Internacionales. FACS - Universidad ORT Uruguay. MA en Estudios Internacionales, Universidad Torcuato Di TellaE-mail: gcastro@sas.upenn.edu

The use of the phrase, 'political economy' originates in Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations and is also found in the writings of David Ricardo and Karl Marx. What is presently understood as 'economics' was, at that time, termed 'political economy'. This was understood to mean 'conditions of production organization in nation-states' (Acemoglu and Robinson, 2012, Beuran, Raballand and Kapoor, 2011). Venerable scholars such as Smith, Ricardo, Mills, Rosseau, Ruskin and de Tocqueville, took a consistently holistic view of the interaction between economics (technical means of production) and politics (relationships of production) in their debates on wealth, prosperity, and international trade, and explanations of development outcomes. However, subsequently, 'economics' and 'political science' developed along parallel tracks, constraining us from fully exploring their interactions and joint contribution to incomes, livelihoods and to economic development more generally. For the forestry sector too, when stakeholders' power and influence is uneven, vested interests get to control the resource, and institutions are weak (or deliberately weakened by the same vested interests) the result is resource plunder, institutional erosion and breakdown of the rule of law and concentration of wealth in a few hands. (In the next section of this chapter, specific examples from forestry will illustrate these challenges clearly). If we are to come to grips with the fundamentals determining sustainable forest management, there is a need to develop a good understanding of stakeholder interests and the complex balance of power relationships, via political economy analysis. Thus, the major objective of this report is to offer preliminary guidance to conduct a practical political economy analysis for the forest sector. The report provides this guidance by considering eight 'front-runner' political economy analysis approaches that have emerged over the last few years. In principle all are capable of being applied to address political economy challenges in forestry and the report develops a set of criteria, geared to political economy considerations for forestry, which would assist a practitioner in selecting among the available approaches.

This paper is one of a series aimed at deepening the World Bank's capacity to follow through on commitments made in response to the World Development Report (WDR) 2011, which gave renewed prominence to the nexus between conflict, security, and development. Nigeria is a remarkable illustration of how deeply intractable the cycle of poverty, conflict, and fragility can become when tied to the ferocious battles associated with the political economy of oil. This paper places the corpus of analytic and programmatic work concerning institutional reform in conversation with a now substantial body of work on resource politics and most especially, the debate over the politico-institutional character (sometimes called political settlements or pacting arrangements associated with the order of power) and reform landscape of the petro-state. Recent institution reform policy writing appears to have little to say about the political and economic conditions in which crises and institutional disjunctures may authorize, and thereby enable, agents to embark on institutional reforms. The authors focus on Edo state for two reasons. First, it does not on its face appear to be an obvious location in which to explore a reform experience, given its entanglement in the Niger Delta conflict and the maladies typically associated with state fragility. Second, Edo is of interest also because of the changes that its experience is contributing to the World Bank country team's effort to engage operationally across all its instruments with the political economy of institutional reform in Nigeria, its largest client country in Africa.

Fifty years ago this week, Egypt attacked Israeli forces in the Israeli-occupied Sinai, with a simultaneous Syrian attack in the occupied Golan Heights, to begin what became known as the Yom Kippur War. The war and its diplomatic aftermath both exhibited and cemented some ways of viewing the U.S. role in the Middle East that are reflected in policy issues today.President Richard Nixon and Secretary of State Henry Kissinger viewed the Arab-Israeli conflict, as they viewed most of their foreign policy, primarily through a Cold War lens. At the level of great power relations, such a view could yield successes such as the opening to China, which counted as a success partly as a way of outflanking the Soviet Union. But imposing the Cold War template on local conflicts could lead to unhelpful misinterpretations of what such a conflict was largely about.An example had occurred two years earlier in 1971, when restiveness of Bengalis in what was then the eastern portion of Pakistan, followed by a Pakistani military crackdown and a flow of refugees into India, caused a South Asian crisis and a war between India and Pakistan. Most observers, including in the U.S. national security bureaucracy, viewed the crisis in terms of humanitarian needs and the satisfying of Bengali aspirations for self-determination through creation of what became the state of Bangladesh while keeping the Indo-Pakistani conflict from escalating further. Nixon and Kissinger instead saw the crisis as a Cold War proxy conflict, with the USSR supposedly instigating a move by the Indian government of Indira Gandhi to crush Pakistan.That interpretation was almost certainly a misinterpretation of the nature of the conflict and of Indian objectives. But it was this interpretation that drove U.S. policy, which included a saber-rattling show of force by a nuclear-armed carrier task force in the Bay of Bengal. Among the ill consequences of the episode were a cementing of the USSR's position as the dominant external power on the subcontinent through its support of India — with Moscow scoring additional points as a champion of Bangladeshi independence — and a tilt of opinion in New Delhi toward developing its own nuclear weapons.By Cold War standards, the crisis surrounding the Yom Kippur War was much more of a U.S. success. An airlift of weapons from the United States helped Israel to ultimately prevail militarily over the Soviet-supplied Egyptians and Syrians. Kissinger was the impresario of subsequent disengagement agreements between Israel and Egypt, shutting out the Soviets. Not least, events related to the war and its aftermath led Egyptian President Anwar Sadat to abrogate Egypt's friendship treaty with the Soviet Union in 1976 and to become more a partner of Washington than of Moscow.The Cold War framework persists in some present-day American visions of the U.S. role in the Middle East — although with China sometimes now seen as the major great power adversary — in ways that exhibit shortcomings of that framework. Promoters of the Biden administration's effort to broker full diplomatic relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia, in the absence of any other explanation of how this effort supposedly advances U.S. interests, contend that a normalization agreement would limit Chinese influence in the Persian Gulf region.Such a contention continues a Cold War type of zero-sum thinking that mistakenly assumes there is a fixed amount of dealing that Middle Eastern states have with outside powers, and that doing more business with one power necessarily means doing less with another. In fact, there is no good reason to believe that even a Saudi Arabia that had exchanged embassies with Israel and been rewarded by the United States for doing so would lose the strong economic and other reasons it has to maintain extensive relations with China. Israel itself is an instructive example. The decades-long U.S. support to Israel, including $158 billion in military and economic assistance, has not kept Israel from building extensive ties with both China and Russia and trimming its policies to maintain good relations with those powers, such as on issues involving the war in Ukraine.To the extent that sepia-tinged memories of the Yom Kippur War move away from Cold War mentalities and focus on what Arabs and Israelis were doing, those memories tend to cement the image of a beleaguered Israel valiantly defending itself against aggressive and hostile neighbors eager to push the Jewish state into the sea at the first opportunity. This image has underlain those many billions of dollars in U.S. military aid to Israel. And it is true that it was two of those Arab neighbors, Egypt and Syria, that launched the war of October 1973.Less prominent in forming lasting and influential images is the fact that Egyptian and Syrian forces were attacking on land that Israel had forcibly seized in a war that Israel started by attacking Egypt on June 5, 1967. The immediate military objective of Egypt and Syria in 1973 was thus to regain land that had been part of those two countries until Israel captured it through force of arms six years earlier.Israel also had fired the first shots in another earlier war against Egypt, in 1956. It later would initiate other hostilities in the region, including an invasion of Lebanon and other actions that collectively constitute more use of military force outside a country's own territory than any other Middle Eastern state has exhibited. Today, ever since Saudi Arabia suspended its air war against Yemen, the most active campaign of cross-border military attacks in the region is the Israeli aerial assault on targets in Syria. Keeping that campaign of attacks unimpeded is one of Israel's reasons for maintaining good relations with Russia.Half a century after the Yom Kippur War, Israel is far from being a beleaguered nation and instead is the most militarily powerful state in the Middle East, with little hesitation to throw its military weight around. But the image of the plucky little state under threat from aggressive neighbors continues to have influence. The political and diplomatic aftermath of the 1973 war is another part of the war's legacy. Although at the time of the cease-fire, Israeli forces were winning and Egyptian forces were losing, the Egyptian military did well enough in the early days of the war to regain some of the honor it had lost in 1967 with its swift defeat by Israel. That gave Sadat the political room to take his peace-making trip to Jerusalem in 1977. That in turn led to the U.S.-brokered Camp David Accords in 1978, one of the signal events in what is still euphemistically called the Arab-Israeli "peace process."It is fitting that the 50th anniversary of the Yom Kippur War almost coincides with the 30th anniversary of the Oslo Accords, another landmark in the same "peace process," because the political aftermath of the former set a pattern that the latter would also exhibit. That pattern is one of Israel pocketing whatever peace agreements it can gain with Arab neighbors while making indeterminate noises about Palestinian self-determination, which is continually kicked down the road and never realized.The first part of the Camp David Accords included specific commitments about an Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty. The second part consisted of vaguer language about eventual resolution of the "Palestinian problem." There was to be a five-year transitional mechanism in which Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza would be given some autonomy, with negotiations on the final status of those territories to begin no later than the third year of the transitional period. A shortcoming of the Accords was that implementation of the first part (Egypt and Israel did sign a peace treaty the following year) was not made conditional on implementation of the second part.Fifteen years after Camp David, the provisions regarding the Palestinians finally seemed to be getting implemented, with the creation in the Oslo Accords of the Palestinian Authority. But the five-year transitional period came and went long ago, and the Palestinians are as far as ever from self-determination. The "transitional" Palestinian Authority is still around, functioning mainly as a security auxiliary to the Israeli occupation and widely discredited among the Palestinian people. "What we have today," observes Daniel Levy, president of the U.S./Middle East Project "is the language of peace in the service of illegal actions, disenfranchisement, and apartheid."There are too many variables to spin out a convincing alternative history regarding what would have happened had Nixon and Kissinger not stepped into the 1973 war with a surge of military assistance to Israel. But Sadat's words and actions both before and after the war made clear that his objective was not to push Israel into the sea but rather to make peace with it, provided that Egyptian territory was restored.Maybe if Israelis had become less conditioned to count on the United States to provide unqualified protection from any difficult situations — even ones of their own making, such as their previous conquests of other states' territory — the subsequent history regarding the "Palestinian problem" would have been different. The U.S. handling of the Yom Kippur War, however much it might be chalked up as a U.S. win on the Cold War scorecard, was a major episode in that conditioning.The actual history has been one of an ever-stronger Israel becoming increasingly self-assured about kicking the Palestinian can ever farther down an endless road. Policies of later U.S. administrations have furthered that process. The Trump administration's policies of showering Israel with gifts and brokering supposed "peace" agreements with Arab countries that were not even at war with Israel convinced Israelis more than ever that they could enjoy such fruits while continuing to push farther out of reach anything that looked like Palestinian self-determination. The Trump policies were an extreme case of tendencies that had roots in U.S. policies in the 1970s, starting with that victory-ensuring infusion of U.S. munitions during the Yom Kippur War. The Israeli response is embodied in the current extreme right-wing Israeli government, which hardly even bothers to make indeterminate noises on the subject anymore and makes obvious that its policy — if not a new Nakba and expulsion of Palestinians from their homeland — is indefinite apartheid.This Israeli policy means indefinitely living by the sword, which is a tragedy mostly for the Palestinians but also for Israel itself, for its patron the United States, and for the cause of true peace in the Middle East.

Tesis por compendio de publicaciones ; Tesis doctoral con la Mención de "Doctor Internacional" ; Programa de Doctorado en Economía y Empresa por la Universidad de Extremadura ; Durante las tres últimas décadas ha surgido en el seno de las universidades lo que se conoce como tercera misión, o lo que es lo mismo, la exigencia social e institucional a las universidades de que sus investigaciones y estudios se conviertan en resultados palpables que contribuyan a la mejora social y económica de la región en la que la universidad se encuentra. Una de las principales vías para ello son las empresas académicas o spin-off universitarias, empresas fundadas por investigadores de las universidades cuya finalidad es la comercialización de los resultados. Pues bien, en este tipo de empresas se centra la presente tesis mediante compendio de artículos. En ella, tratamos de dar respuesta a las siguientes tres preguntas: - ¿Qué características presenta el académico que se transforma en emprendedor y funda una spin-off universitaria? - ¿Qué objetivos personales o grupales persigue el académico que funda una empresa spin-off universitaria? - ¿Qué factores determinan que una empresa spin-off universitaria alcance el éxito? Responder a estas tres preguntas permitiría a los decisores de las políticas universitarias y de las políticas en general, orientar sus decisiones de manera más idónea para poder fomentar tanto la creación de spin-off en el seno de las universidades, como la supervivencia de las mismas, siendo, por tanto, más eficiente la asignación de fondos a la universidad. Para responder a la pregunta sobre las características del emprendedor académico, en el primero de los tres capítulos de esta tesis, se realiza un estudio acerca de las características personales y psicológicas del mismo mediante la técnica de regresión por mínimos cuadrados parciales, combinando indicadores formativos y reflectivos. Para ello, se ha creado un modelo que pretende analizar la intención emprendedora de acuerdo con un perfil de emprendedor basado en las teorías del Big Five, TPB y META. Los resultados obtenidos de la muestra de 799 académicos revelan que las habilidades emprendedoras son los principales determinantes de la actitud y el control percibido, y la actitud es el factor decisivo que determina la intención de emprender. Por tanto, la inversión en formación y el entrenamiento de habilidades y actitudes constituyen los factores más relevantes para lograr un incremento en la creación de spin-off universitarias. Una vez que hemos formulado un perfil de emprendedor académico, pasamos a determinar cuáles son los objetivos que motivan, que movilizan, al académico hacia esa intención emprendedora. Para ello, se presentan en el segundo artículo dos estudios, uno cualitativo y uno cuantitativo, cuyo objetivo es determinar cuáles con los beneficios buscados por el académico en la fundación de una spin-off y cuál es el orden de prelación o importancia de los mismos. El estudio cualitativo, que contó con la participación de 42 expertos académicos, desentraña de entre todas las posibles, cuáles son los beneficios que el académico busca cuando funda un spin-off: beneficio personal, beneficio investigador, beneficio curricular, existencia de programas de apoyo, reducción docente y coste personal. Una vez establecidos cuáles son estos beneficios motivadores que persigue el académico cuando se convierte en emprendedor, se ha llevado a cabo un estudio cuantitativo a través de la metodología del Análisis Conjunto, cuyo objetivo fue jerarquizar dichos factores en función de una serie de condicionantes de carácter sociodemográfico y profesional. Los resultados del estudio, con una muestra de 1.726 académicos, revelan que el beneficio económico es claramente el factor que más eleva la intención de crear una USO. El beneficio investigador, el beneficio curricular, los programas de apoyo, la reducción de la docencia y el costo personal son de menor importancia. El estudio también concluye que existen pocas diferencias según el perfil regional, de género, de categoría, de experiencia o de área de investigación del académico. Para finalizar, y una vez determinados el perfil del académico que mejora las intenciones de fundar una spin-off y los beneficios que le motivan para fundarla, se presenta un tercer estudio que trata de responder a la última pregunta. El último artículo analiza los diferentes factores del ecosistema e institucionales que influyen en la supervivencia o éxito de las spin-off, a través de los datos aportados por 97 spin-off españolas. Con este objetivo, se analizan aquellas spin-off que llevan en el mercado 5 años o más, delimitando cuáles son los factores comunes a aquellas spin-off que han logrado crecer en empleo y/o ventas, utilizando para ello un modelo logit. Entre estos factores se han estudiado aspectos relacionados con las características de la universidad de la que dependen las spin-off y los apoyos ofrecidos por la misma, relacionados con el fundador y el equipo emprendedor, relacionados con el entorno o región donde se ubican y los apoyos que el gobierno regional pone a disposición de las spin-off, factores relacionados con la tecnología (tales como el nivel de protección de la misma o la experiencia en el I+D+i) y el nivel de internacionalización. Nuestros resultados muestran que el tamaño de la empresa y el apoyo público en el campo de la formación y la burocracia son los principales elementos que inciden en el éxito. ; During the last three decades, there has emerged in the heart of universities what is called the third mission, that is, the social and institutional demand for their studies and research to yield tangible results that will contribute to the social and economic betterment of the region in which the university is located. One of the main ways to do this is by the creation of academic companies or university spin-offs, companies founded by researchers from universities whose purpose is the commercialization of their research results. This thesis focuses on this type of company by way of a compendium of articles. In it, we try to answer the following three questions: - What are the characteristics of the academic who becomes an entrepreneur and founds a university spin-off? - What personal or group objectives does the academic who founds a university spin-off company pursue? - What factors determine whether a university spin-off company will achieve success? Answering these three questions would allow university policy makers and policy makers in general to guide their decisions in a manner more conducive to promoting both the creation and the survival of university spin-offs, making for more efficient allocation of funds to the universities. To answer the question about the characteristics of the academic entrepreneur, in the first of the three chapters of this thesis, a study is carried out about the personal and psychological characteristics of the entrepreneur using the partial least squares regression technique, combining training and reflective indicators. For this, a model has been created that seeks to analyze entrepreneurial intention according to an entrepreneurial profile based on the theories of the Big Five, TPB, and META. The results obtained from the sample of 799 academics show that entrepreneurial skills are the main determinants of attitude and perceived control, and attitude is the decisive factor that determines the intention to launch a business. Therefore, investment in training and the cultivation of skills and attitudes are the most relevant factors for achieving an increase in the creation of university spin-offs. Once we have formulated a profile of the academic entrepreneur, we proceed to determine what are the objectives that motivate, that mobilize, the academic toward that entrepreneurial intention. For this, two studies are presented in the second article, one qualitative and one quantitative, the objective of which is to determine what are the benefits sought by the academic in the founding of a spin-off and what is the order of priority or importance of the same. The qualitative study, which had the participation of 42 academic experts, unravels, from among all the possibilities, what are the benefits that the academic seeks when founding a spin-off: personal benefit, research benefit, curricular benefit, existence of support programs, reduction in teaching load, and personal cost. Once the motivating benefits that the academic pursues when becoming an entrepreneur have been established, a quantitative study has been carried out through the Joint Analysis methodology, the objective of which was to rank these factors based on a series of sociodemographic and professional character-conditioning factors. The results of the study, with a sample of 1,726 academics, reveal that economic benefit is clearly the factor that most increases the intention to create a USO. The research benefit, the curricular benefit, the support programs, the reduction in teaching responsibilities, and the personal cost carry less importance. The study also concludes that there are few differences according to the regional profile, gender, category, experience, or research area of the academic. Finally, once the profile of the academic most likely to found a spin-off and the benefits that motivate the academic to found a spin-off have been determined, a third study is presented that tries to answer the last question. The last article analyzes the different environmental and institutional factors that influence the survival or success of spin-offs, through data provided by 97 Spanish spin-offs. With this objective, those spin-offs that have been in the market for 5 years or more are analyzed, defining what are the factors common to those spin-offs that have managed to grow in employment and/or sales, using a logit model. Among the factors studied are those related to the characteristics of the university on which the spin-offs depend and the support offered by it, the founder and the entrepreneurial team, the environment or region where they are located and the support that the regional government makes available to spin-offs, technology (such as the level of protection of the same or experience in R&D&I), and the degree of internationalization. Our results show that the size of the company and the level of public support in the areas of training and bureaucracy are the main elements that influence success.

In 2006 eight municipalities received grants from the Ministry of Children, Equality and Social Inclusion to develop services aimed at potentially excluded youth between the ages of 17 and 23. The money should be used to develop and deliver services and increase interdepartmental and interprofessional collaboration. The work done in this development project as well as the Minstry's focus on transitions, was aimed at developing more systematic knowledge about how these youth may best be helped to achieve successful independence. The project was initiated as part of the general initiative to combat child poverty on the part of the government. The time frame was three years. Six small municipalities and two cities participated. NOVA conducted a midway evaluation of the project in 2008. This elicited great variety with regard to choice of services and how the money was used. One important distinction became apparent, between municipalities developing general youth services and those who prioritized specific and targeted services. In the main respondents were satisfied with the results, but targeted services appeared to be the most successful. The participants were mainly pleased with the results of the project, but the targeted services seemed to be most successful. In particular municpalities with targeted services underlined the significance of having a mentor or pilot to follow the young people closely. All the participating municipalities also initiated new ways of collaborating during the first part of the project periode, and this was also experienced as positive. At the same time some participants had experienced that collaboration could sometimes meet challenges because of different perspectives and expectations among different professions, which could be extra demanding in an already hard-pressed situation. The first evaluation resulted in some recommendations for the next phase of the project, which the municipalities were free to take into consideration. First, NOVA recommended further use of targeted services combined with following the young people closely and the use of individual plans, provided one person could work closely with them. Second, NOVA suggested to the Ministry as well as to the municipalities that services included in the project might well be targeted at those younger than 17 as well. This would increase the preventive potential of the project. Third, NOVA focused on the significance of better documentation and routines as integral parts of the project. This is important in order to give the Ministry proper reports, as well as being a central part of the necessary groundwork if the project is to be continued. This final evaluation builds on the former one, analyzes more closely what has happened in the municipalities since and aims at conducting a final evaluation of the projects in the municipalities. The final evaluation addressed the following issues: 1. How did the project workers experience and assess the work and the services that were implemented? 2. Did the projects change, or lead to better collaboration between professionals dealing with potentially marginalized youth? In that case, in what ways? 3. How are results measured in the municipalities? 4. Which services were successful/unsuccessful and why? 5. How did the young people experience and assess the services they were offered? 6. What is the probability of continued implementation of these services after the end of the project period? It was important to interview central actors with different positions within the projects during the first evaluation. The participants were hand-picked in collaboration with the project leader in each municipality in order to achieve this. This process resulted in interviews with 33 persons, but no users. For the final evaluation we have included 18 of the most central actors from the first evaluation, as well as 16 young people who had received services through the project. At this point in time is was very important to include users' experiences. In addition we have done a documentary study and some observation through participating in seminars initiated by the Ministry. Our analyses have been limited by the fact that the organizations we have studied have changed continuously, and also been incfluenced by the first evaluation (which was part of the intention). Thus it may be difficult to distinguish the changes which have resulted from conscious strategies and those resulting from more unconscious and arbitrary strategies. In addition it is, from time to time, difficult to differentiate between effects from this project and other, state-initiated projects which have been going on in the municipalities at the same time. Thus, we have to a large degree chosen to emphasise how project workers and users have experienced possible effects of this particular state-funded initiative. The interviews with project workers and users informed us about short-term effects of the services in fairly comprehensive ways. However, we have less grounds to judge putative long-term effects as we just interviewed the young people once, towards the end of the project. We found that several changes had taken place between the first and the second evaluation. According to the project workers, most of these were related to the following points: • Services had become more goal-directed • A great deal had seen the need for earlier intervention • All the municipalities now had some kind of mentor or pilot function, and wanted to keep this up after the project had ended • The state-initiated project had led to new and better routines for inter-departmental collaboration with regard to possibly marginalized youth. This kind of collaboration had become more consistent and better to achieve. Most of the young people felt that participation in local projects had contributed to giving them a more meaningful everyday life, and they underlined the good feeling associated with being part of and coping with something. In addition it had been important to be helped with meeting and following up demands made by the bureaucracy of the helping services. Contact with professionals functioning in a role of what we have called the pilot (or mentor) was underlined as decisive, and very valuable. This must be seen in relation to the fact that many of the young people had not had access to a trustworthy adult while they were growing up. In addition many of the young people had participated in the design of the services, which they appreciated, even though the project leaders controlled the final design and authorisasation of the services. Actually one over-arching theme emanating from the interviews with project workers as well as young people was the importance of positive contact between adults and young people. This was the case independently of whether the services were open and general or targeted at specific individuals. However, regarding the latter type of services follow-up on the part of the adults that was characterized by closeness and trust seemed to make all the difference as to whether the young people kept up their participation, achieved their goals and managed to exit the services in a satisfactory manner. Important characteristics of the person acting as a pilot or mentor were, firstly, trust and patience, enabling the building up of mutual trust and the development of realistic goals over time. Secondly, the pilot should combine the ability to be strict and make demands with the ability to listen and be fair. Finally, it is important that the pilot or mentor is solution oriented and flexible. These characteristics were endorsed by project workers as well as users, making the recruiting of pilots with the right characteristics crucial. Since the function of pilot or mentor stood out as so very important, we have chosen to discuss this more in detail in the final part, related to recommendations for practice. Here we compare the pilot function as this could be understood in the project we evaluated with mentoring, where a great literature exists. In addition we discuss some structural preconditions for success. For instance the pilot should be given sufficient education and supervision, preferably by a coordinator who is responsible for several pilots. Vi diskuterer ogsÃ¥ noen strukturelle forutsetninger for at funksjonen kan være vellykket. There should be a an obligation on the part of both the municipality and the pilots that the work is supposed to go on for 2–3 years as a minimum, and one pilot should not be responsible for more than 4–5 young people. Even though several participants underlined the advantages of having a pilot that is not part of the formal system of services, we think that the crucial point is the development of a good relationship between pilot and young person. This will be more important than the organizational position of the pilot. It might, of course, be an advantage for the pilot to be part of the formal system of services, not in the least through knowing the system and having a position to work from. Whether further development of a system of pilots for young people at risk from marginalization from education or work takes place through state-initiated projects or local initiatives, the most crucial factor will be a sufficiently comprehensive investment lasting long enough. ; Rapporten presenterer resultatene fra sluttevalueringen av utviklingsprosjektet «Utsatte unge 17–23 år i overgangsfaser». Det treårige utviklingsarbeidet ble initiert av Barne-, likestillings- og inkluderingsdepartementet, og siktemålet var å utvikle nye tiltak og samarbeidsformer rundt utsatt ungdom. Rapporten bygger på intervjuer med prosjektinvolverte og ungdommer fra de åtte kommunene som har fått midler gjennom satsingen, samt dokumentanalyser og observasjoner. Innledningsvis presenterer vi noen av resultatene fra underveisevalueringen NOVA gjennomførte i 2008, som kommunene har kunnet nyttiggjøre seg i siste fase av utviklingsprosjektet. Deretter beskriver vi de åtte kommunene, tiltakene som ble iverksatt og måten samarbeidet rundt tiltakene ble organisert. Det første resultatkapitlet gjennomgår erfaringene og vurderingene fra de prosjektinvolverte, deretter presenteres ungdommenes vurderinger. Vi har lagt vekt på å presentere gode eksempler. Her har vi spesielt viet oppmerksomhet til det som kan kalles en «losfunksjon» – at ungdommene har hatt tett oppfølging av en person som har kunnet bistå dem på mange ulike måter i prosessen med å nyttiggjøre seg tiltakene.

"Izrada hrvatske poljoprivredne strategije jedan mi je od prioriteta, a ona neće zanemariti ni aspekte ruralnog razvoja, okoliš, proizvode zaštićenog podrijetla, ruralni turizam, obnovljive izvore energije." Ovo je izjava novoga resornog ministra poljoprivrede iz opširnog intervjua kojega je dao Večernjem listu 10. ožujka 2016. god. U nastavku navodi kako je za izradu strategije poljoprivrede i prehrambene industrije, šumarstva i prerade drva rok do kraja 2016. god. Također navodi kako je trenutno u tijeku redefiniranje Programa ruralnog razvoja. O nedostatku strategija Države za gotovo sve resore gospodarstva, kao i očekivanjima da se iste konačno naprave, što se odnosi i na šumarstvo i preradu drva, pisali smo u br. 5-6 Šumarskoga lista 2011. god. Bilo je to vrijeme uoči novih parlamentarnih izbora, pa su se strategije očekivale od nove Vlade. Kao što vidimo, protekao je cijeli mandat sada već stare Vlade i ništa nije učinjeno, pa se stihijski radilo. Bez strategije i uz slabu kontrolu resornog ministarstva, koje bi trebalo biti odgovorno za šumarsku politiku i strategiju, posebice prepuštanje Hrvatskim šumama d.o.o. i nekompetentnom rukovodstvu da provodi svoju šumarsku politiku uz svoju strategiju, iako su uvjetno rečeno samo "koncesionari", evidentno je da su nastale velike štete za šume i šumarstvo. Nestručno vođenje firme i robovanje "profitu" pod svaku cijenu, zahtijeva od nas da postavimo pitanja i na njih tražimo odgovore. Na temelju činjeničnog stanja će se uz ostalo temeljiti, nadamo se, napokon zacrtana konzistentna šumarska politika i strategija. Naravno da ne možemo ovdje postaviti sva sporna pitanja, pa stoga dopunu prepuštamo čitateljstvu. Neka od tih pitanja su: treba li preskočiti jedan etat jer smo dirnuli u glavnicu; da li je narušen omjer smjese sječom vrjednijih vrsta drveća; da li je narušena debljinska struktura sastojina; da li se, gdje i koliko kasnilo s uzgojnim radovima njege i čišćenja koji određuju buduću sastojinu; koje sastojine trebaju ići u prijevremenu obnovu jer su nestručnim gospodarenjem dovedene u stanje da ne koriste optimalno potencijale šumskoga staništa; što je s prirodnom obnovom sastojina; zašto i koliko ostaje drvne sirovine u šumi; što je sa šumskim redom; koliko i zašto imamo toliko oštećenih stabala prouzročenih vučom sortimenata; zašto imamo previše Ad stabala; kako obrađujemo sortimente da ne oštećujemo šumsko tlo; da li su nam i zašto šumske vlake postale vododerine; da li je istina da od ubranih prihoda za korištenje šumskih cesta samo manji dio vraćamo za njihovo održavanje, pa su stoga u vrlo lošem stanju; da li privatnicima plaćamo vuču i dalje tako malo da vozni park obnavljaju kupnjom naših isluženih traktora koji zagađuju okoliš; zašto je nekim pilanskim klasama trupaca cijena niža od ogrjevnog drva; što je s pošumljavanjem opožarenih površina koje su potencijalna opasnost za eroziju tla; kome i zašto je prepušteno gospodarenje (osim sirovinskog) s ostalim gospodarskim potencijalima šume i naposljetku pitanje koliko će šuma i šumarstvo platiti robovanje isključivo novčanom profitu utopljenom u nezajažljivost birokracije? Kada neslužbeno razgovaramo s našim kolegama, pa i s nekima koji su trenutno u vladajućoj strukturi Hrvatskih šuma d.o.o., svi negoduju, pa i čude se nekim naredbama neutemeljenim na načelima šumarske struke i znanjima koje su na Fakultetu polučili. Višekratna eksperimentiranja iz strogo centralizirano ustrojene uprave, a zapravo jednog čovjeka, dovela su šumarstvo gotovo do ruba obstojnosti struke. U ovoj smo rubrici uz ostalo pisali o odstupanju jednog od načela iz 10 sentenci o šumi, uvaženog akademika Dušana Klepca, a ono se odnosi upravo na organizacijski oblik šumarstva od centralističkoga do proklamirano decentralističkoga, koji kao najpovoljniji "omogućuje na istom prostoru i istoj organizacijskoj jedinici korištenje svih izravnih i neizravnih beneficija koje šuma pruža". Rekli smo tada da je to danas strogo centralistički oblik, u kojemu za svaku sitnicu treba tražiti odobrenje centra, gdje upravitelji uprava nemaju nikakvih ingerencija, čime im je ograničena inventivnost i primjena stečenih šumarskih znanja i iskustava te narušen ugled pred zaposlenicima i lokalnom zajednicom, gdje revirnici i ostali inženjeri sve više postaju kancelarijski službenici, a beneficije šume su svedene na isključivo sirovinsku bazu. Time se zapravo želi poništiti i omalovažiti multifunkcionalnu ulogu šume, a šumarske stručnjake svesti na razinu neinventivnih nadničara. Začuđujuće je da su osim središnjice HŠD-a, koja je posebice u ovoj rubrici Šumarskoga lista upozoravala na činjenično stanje, mnogi smatrali da će se nešto samo po sebi riješiti, i što je još gore, ne osjećaju se odgovornima. O svemu tome, pa i po pitanju prerade drva i energetske strategije također smo više puta pisali u ovoj rubrici i još u nekim tekstovima – samo treba "prolistati" Šumarski list i početi aktivno štiti struku, jer inače nemamo pravo prigovarati. Uredništvo ; "Formulating the Croatian agricultural strategy is one of my priorities, which will on no account neglect the aspects of rural development, environment, products of protected designation of origin, rural tourism and renewable energy sources." This is what the new Minister of Agriculture stressed in an extensive interview given to Večernji List (Evening Paper) on 16 March 2016. The Minister went on to say that the deadline for drawing up the strategy of agriculture and food industry, forestry and wood processing was the end of 2016. He pointed out that the Rural Development Programme was currently being redefined. In the Forestry Journal No. 5-6 we already wrote about the non-existence of state strategies for almost all economic sectors, including forestry and wood processing, and about general expectations that they would finally be formulated. Since this was at the time of new parliamentary elections, the strategies were expected to be drawn up by the new Government. As we can see, the entire mandate of the old Government had elapsed without anything being done in this respect, which in a way legitimized disorganized work. Lack of strategies and poor control in the competent ministry responsible for the forestry policy and strategy, and particularly the fact that the company Hrvatske Šume Ltd and its incompetent management were allowed to implement their own forestry policy and their own strategy, despite being, conditionally said, "concessionnaires", resulted in evident and great damage for forests and forestry. In view of how incompetently the company is managed and how its primary goal is "profit" at any cost, we must demand the answers to some questions that will reveal the factual state. These answers will, we hope, finally lay the foundations for a consistent forestry policy and strategy. It is not possible to raise all controversial issues here, so we leave additional issues to the readers. Here are several of these questions: should one annual cut be skipped because we have nipped into the growing stock; has the mixture ratio been disturbed by cutting more valuable tree species; has the stand diameter structure been disturbed; have the silvicultural operations of tending and cleaning, which determine the future stand, been delayed and by how much; which stands should be regenerated prematurely owing to inexpert management which brought them into a state in which they cannot make optimal use of forest site potentials; what about natural stand regeneration; how much raw wood material remains in the forest and why; what about the forest order; what quantity of damaged trees is caused by skidding the assortments and why; why are there too many accidentally cut trees; how do we process assortments so as to avoid damage to forest soil; have forest skidding lines turned into gullies and why; is it true that only a small portion of the money collected from forest road use is spent on their maintenance, leading to their extremely poor condition; do we continue to pay very low amounts for skidding to private entrepreneurs, so that they restock their vehicle fleet by purchasing old tractors that pollute the environment; why is the price of some sawlog classes lower than the price of fuelwood; what about afforesting burnt areas, which are a potential hazard for soil erosion; who has been entrusted with the management (in addition to raw material) of other economic forest potentials and why: and finally, how much will forests and forestry suffer because of blind servitude to monetary profit only, dictated by greedy bureaucracy? In unofficial conversations, our colleagues, including some colleagues who are currently in the managing structure of the company Hrvatske Šume Ltd, express disapproval and wonder at some directives that are not based on the principles of the forestry profession and on the expertise acquired at the Faculty of Forestry. Multiple experiments conducted by the strictly centralized management, or better said, by one man, have led forestry almost to the very brink of survival. Among other things, we already wrote about abandoning one of the principles contained in the 10 sentences on forests by distinguished Academician Dušan Klepac. This principle relates precisely to the organisational form of forestry, from centralist to decentralist, which "allows the use of all direct and indirect benefits of a forest in the same space and in the same organisational unit". We have already pointed out that at present this form is strictly centralist, according to which approval of the centre must be obtained for any little thing, and in which forest administration managers have no jurisdiction over anything. Naturally, this hampers their inventiveness and limits the application of forestry knowledge and experience, as well as undermines them before other employees and the local community. Moreover, forest rangers and engineers are increasingly turning into office clerks, while the benefits of a forest are exclusively limited to the raw material base. In fact, all this is aimed at nullifying and undermining the multifunctional role of a forest and downgrading forestry experts to the level of uninventive labourers. It is surprising that, with the exception of the management of the Croatian Forestry Association, which has repeatedly warned of the factual state in this column, many believe that things will work out by themselves, or even worse, do not feel responsible for any of the above. We have tackled these issues, as well as issues of wood processing and energy strategies, on several occasions in this column and in some other texts - all we need to do is browse through Forestry Journal and start protecting the profession more actively; otherwise, we have no right to complain. Editorial Board

This study investigates the impact of World Bank development policy lending for public sector governance on the quality of public sector management and institutions. The World Bank's Country Policy and Institutional Assessments (CPIA) are used to measure the latter, the study considers only policy conditions targeted at improvements in those areas. The analysis uses a comprehensive country-year panel data set of aid receiving-countries and finds a significant and inverse U-shaped effect of public sector conditions on the quality of public sector governance. For most observed values in the data, the impact is positive, but it turns negative beyond a value of 80 conditions. At that point, the predicted CPIA score is about 0.25 point (0.3 standard deviation) higher than with zero conditions. For most observations, the number of cumulative conditions is below 80, so the estimated effect of more conditions is generally positive. The analysis corrects for potential endogeneity and shows that the results are robust to sample restrictions, the use of an alternative governance measure, and the inclusion of an extended set of control variables. Falsification tests are also consistent with a causal interpretation from conditions to quality of public sector governance. The paper shows that conditions related to public financial management and tax reforms are more effective than those related to anti-corruption or civil service and administrative reform, where progress requires changing the behavior of a larger set of "deconcentrated" actors. The paper concludes by describing some innovative ideas in the Bank's ambitious new public sector management strategy that could improve the effectiveness of its support for public sector governance reform.

In this paper authors argue that the main determinants of differences in prosperity across countries are differences in economic institutions. To solve the problem of development will entail reforming these institutions. Unfortunately, this is difficult because economic institutions are collective choices that are the outcome of a political process. The economic institutions of a society depend on the nature of political institutions and the distribution of political power in society. As yet, authors only have a highly preliminary understanding of the factors that lead a society into a political equilibrium which supports good economic institutions. However, it is clear that it is the political nature of an institutional equilibrium that makes it very difficult to reform economic institutions. The authors illustrate this with a series of pitfalls of institutional reforms. The author's analysis reveals challenges for those who would wish to solve the problem of development and poverty. That such challenges exist is hardly surprising and believe that the main reason for such challenges is the forces authors have outlined in this paper. Better development policy will only come when authors recognize this and understand these forces better. Nevertheless, some countries do undergo political transitions, reform their institutions, and move onto more successful paths of economic development.