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"In print continuously since 1990, Green Development has won a place as a leading account of sustainable development used by generations of undergraduate and graduate students. This authoritative and readable text provides a clear and coherent analysis of sustainable development in theory and practice. The fourth edition of Green Development is fully revised, and up to date. It offers clear insights into the challenges of environmental sustain- ability, and social and economic development. The book has proved its value to generations of students as an authoritative, thought-provoking and readable guide to the field of sustainable development."

This work was funded by the Global Challenges Research Fund, Economic and Social Research Council, UK, as part of the FutureDAMS project (grant no. ES/P011373/1). ; Dam planning and construction is notoriously difficult. It is highly complex, involving a multitude of social, environmental, economic, and technological questions that often become politicised in the process; negative impacts are often concentrated on small, vulnerable groups within society, while the benefits are typically spread in a much more diffuse pattern; it requires changing riverine ecosystems, often irreversibly so; and it takes a very long time, with often harsh consequences if mistakes are made. These challenges have generated decades of debate around dams and development, yet it is not clear how dam planning and management can be improved. To address this question, the present study used Q methodology to analyse the views of social and environmental researchers on dams in Latin America on the principles that should guide dam development. The Q analysis rendered three idealised viewpoints: The first suggested that defending the rights of vulnerable people should be the main priority, as a counterbalance to the natural bias towards economically and politically powerful actors within the political economy of dam construction. The second implied adoption of a holistic and scientific vision towards dam decision-making, and a focus of efforts on perfecting formal procedures and participatory processes to build better dams in the future. The third called into question the need for dams altogether, and concentrated attention on invisible and overlooked aspects of dam decision-making, particularly past injustices, and the rights of indigenous communities to determine their own model of development. Each viewpoint represents an alternative vision for future dam planning and clarifies the choices available to policy-makers and development actors. Moreover, viewpoints give insights on the motivations of those who seek to inform debates on dams and development. While they were identified in the context of dam-decision making, our findings may also be relevant to other fields of sustainable development. ; Publisher PDF ; Peer reviewed

We analyse the debate about the culling of elephants in South Africa's national parks. This pits the need to reduce elephant density and grazing pressure to prevent environmental damage against animal-welfare concerns about the killing of elephants. This complex debate is characterised by factual uncertainty and moral complexity. The procull storyline suggests that high elephant densities pose a risk to biodiversity. The anticull standpoint critiques this position as politically and economically motivated and lacking in adequate scientific support. Both procull and anticull positions draw on science as a source of authority, and on the precautionary principle as a framework for making decisions. They differ in their interpretation of the scientific evidence for serious impacts of high elephant densities, the relations between scientific, ethical, and economic arguments, and the way uncertainty and the idea of a precautionary approach are used. A decision to resume culling of elephants in South Africa was made in February 2008, but debate continues.

Metadata only record ; The thesis of the book is that, based on the evidence presented (gathered over a period from 1992-97), the 'Sahelian crisis' of degradation can be contained, and that in doing so, the resources of rural communities themselves will play a much larger part than is usually assumed. Pre-eminent among these resources is the labour provided by a growing population which, in drawing on a wealth of indigenous technical experience and the best of introduced practices, can create, through an incremental and 'indigenous' intensification of agriculture, more sustainable production systems. Gradualist rather than transformational expectations should therefore underpin the policies of governments and donors, policies which need to be founded both on improved understanding of the diversity and the dynamics of primary production systems, and on a recognition of the need for unimpeded economic integration between the Sahel and West Africa as a whole. Ten chapters examine: introduction; diversity, flexibility and adaptability; four communities, four systems; negotiating the rain; working nature; making the land work harder; when farmers are not farming; women, children and the house; understanding inequality; and managing the managers. Case studies are presented from four villages in north-east Nigeria (Tumbau, Dagaceri, Kaska, and Futchmiram). (CAB Abstract)