Suchergebnisse

Indigenous territorial governments in Nicaragua's North Caribbean Coast Autonomous Region experience ongoing land and resource contests, in many cases building from longstanding disputes or problems, even after titling. I argue that it is naïve to expect that granting titles – a supposed territorial fix – will resolve conflicts created across decades as a result of ineffective policies and economic pressures. As shown with three demarcated Miskitu territories, tenure insecurity arises from challenges with the state, private firms, non‐indigenous colonists, and even from the activities of territorial leaders. These cases suggest the need to move beyond perceptions of Miskitu territories as simple bounded remnants of the past and acknowledge they are complex, porous, trans‐local, and transgressed by processes such as migration, urbanisation, and neoliberal economic integration. Indeed, new territorial governments are encouraged by foreign donors and state laws to mirror government agencies and prioritise market linkages.

Hydropower dates back to the use of waterwheels to grind grain in Greece over two thousand years ago. Modern hydropower is a mature industry that has been used to generate electricity since the 1880s by capturing flowing water with a dam or other diversion structure and channeling it through a waterwheel or turbine. According to a 2012 report by the International Energy Agency, internationally dams are responsible for the largest amount of power generation from a renewable source; yet they have come under scrutiny as a result of environmental and social impacts perceived to be unsustainable (McCully 2001). Specific impacts, and their severity, vary from project to project and are related to social, political, economic, historical, regulatory, and environmental conditions, which also influence benefits such as job creation or watershed management.

Creating international policy to combat climate change is one of the biggest public diplomacy challenges of our time. With slow progress in "state-led" forums such as the annual Conference of the Parties (COP) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), advocacy coalitions of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are pressuring decision-makers and working to build global awareness. The power of NGOs is soft since state actors set emissions targets; nonetheless, climate justice organizations persistently broadcast several important messages, including: 1) industrialized nations along with private sector polluters have an obligation to remedy ecological debt; 2) low-income and marginalized populations are most vulnerable to climatic variations, even though they are generally not high greenhouse gas (GHG) emitters, and; 3) current policy needs to protect the well-being of future generations. This article explores how civil society has been spurred into action by weak state commitments as well as how web-based, bottom-up, and network approaches to influence policy-makers and implement climate change mitigation can broaden our understanding of public diplomacy.

Renewable energy installations are expanding around the globe. Although there is excellent potential for achieving sustainability with multiple types of renewable energy, no energy source is a panacea. There are place-specific costs and benefits from every energy type, and the scale of production influences impacts. Industrial-scale renewable energy sources usually merge into existing energy grids and may often be connected to broader economic and political initiatives. Such as regional integration, development of new growth poles to stimulate economic expansion in areas without infrastructure, job creation, or trade expansion. With the exception of desert solar projects or initiatives in remote areas, most large-scale renewable energy projects tie onto existing electrical grids and infrastructures rather than transforming prevailing systems. To achieve energy sustainability broader changes are likely necessary. Renewable energy projects of all sizes are increasingly paired with efforts to promote energy conservation, improve efficiency, reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, increase energy access for the marginalized, and provide other social and ecological co-benefits .

This paper utilizes geographical and interdisciplinary approaches to analyze changes in human-environment interactions following the Dominican Republic-Central American Free Trade Agreement (DR-CAFTA). It documents spatially and socially uneven patterns of transnational, national and local production and exchange. Negative ecological and social repercussions concentrate among marginalized groups while benefits accrue to regional elite and foreign corporations. Findings from Costa Rica, the Dominican Repblic and Nicaragua build from 2009 and 2010 fieldwork involving interviews with state officials, industry representatives and civil society. Media coverage, governmental and nongovernmental reports, industry data and scholarly articles supplement field sources and demonstrate transitions in Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador. Findings suggest complex patterns of change with direct and indirect consequences for climate and ecology, governance and decision-making and social vulnerability and income.

Although focused predominately on Miskitu politics, this chapter identifies various constraints to multi-ethnic self-determination, while noting barriers exist even among aid programs targeting political empowerment and community development. Nevertheless, I also explore examples of progress toward decentralization at regional and local levels regardless of an overall national context of political containment and economic exploitation.

Known as the Green Mountain State, Vermont underwent widespread reforestation following farm abandonment in the mid-1800s. In addition to the existence of several land trusts, the Green Mountain Club has protected more than 55 mi. (88 km.) along a hikers' Long Trail. There is a strong state environmental movement, with local groups and chapters of national organizations. Vermont hosts one of the nation's leading environmental law and policy programs at the Vermont Law School. The state government has invested in energy efficiency and joined regional efforts to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Climate change and global warming concern Vermonters because of the economic revenue the state gains from nature tourism, particularly during the autumn foliage and winter skiing seasons:

Las mujeres aportan las habilidades y las perspectivas importantes para la conservación, pero menos mujeres completan estudios superiores en campos como la silvicultura y la agronomía. Las mujeres que entran en estos campos profesionales también tienen menos oportunidades de alcanzar las posiciones del liderazgo. Las investigaciones internacionales sugieren que muchas veces los esfuerzos hacia la sostenibilidad son perjudicados por los bajos niveles de participación de las mujeres y la falta del liderazgo femenino. Este estudio conecta los resultados de una revisión de la literatura internacional con experiencias personales de los estudiantes, los docentes, y los administradores en la Universidad Nacional de Ucayali (UNU), así como con los profesionales de organismos gubernamentales y no gubernamentales de conservación en Pucallpa, Perú. Estas perspectivas se registraron durante unas veintitrés entrevistas en junio y julio de 2013. Las fuentes abordaron unas restricciones a la igualdad de género debido a: (1) la internalización de las normas sociales; (2) las limitaciones en redes profesionales y la falta de mentores femeninos; y (3) las dificultades de lograr un equilibrio entre el trabajo y la vida familiar. Basadas en la revisión de la literatura, se proporcionaron unas recomendaciones para mejorar las brechas existentes en la participación y el liderazgo femenino. English: Although women bring important skills and perspectives to conservation, fewer women complete higher education degrees in fields such as forestry and agronomy than men do. Furthermore, those who do enter these fields also are less likely to achieve leadership positions. International research suggests efforts toward sustainability are harmed by low levels of female participation and leadership. This study connects findings from an international literature review with personal experiences of students, faculty, staff, and administrators at la Universidad Nacional de Ucayali (UNU) as well as with governmental and non-governmental conservation agency staff in Pucallpa, Peru recorded during twenty-three interviews in June and July of 2013. Sources addressed constraints to gender inequality in conservation fields from: (1) internalization of social norms, (2) limitations in professional networks and lack of female mentors, and (3) challenges to work-family balance. Drawing from a review of the literature, we provide recommendations to improve existing gaps in female leadership and participation.

EARTH is a private nonprofit international university located in the town of Guácimo in the province of Limón, a lowland region in the east of Costa Rica. EARTH derives its acronym from the Spanish title Escuela de Agricultura de la Región Tropical Húmeda (Agricultural School of the Humid Tropical Region). The W. K. Kellogg Foundation, the U.S. Agency for International Development, and the Costa Rican government worked with other national and international agencies to create this unique university in the mid-1980s. The higher education initiative emerged from recognition that unsustainable agricultural practices were damaging and straining soil, water, forest, biological, and other natural resources across Central America.

In north‐eastern Nicaragua, territorial titling of communal lands conflates particular notions of ethnicity with proprietary conceptions of space to generate new forms of conflict within and between indigenous and black communities, and with mestizo migrants. Notions of rights between competing groups, or within conflicting normative frameworks, become increasingly polemic during demarcation. While analysis of three land titling case studies demonstrates that results are socially contingent and place based, trends include: (a) power disparities; (b) tension between 'traditional' and 'modern' patterns of land tenure and resource rights; and (c) contradictions fed by international conservation agendas and neoliberal economic reforms. Combining critical actor‐based analysis with practical policy critique our work illuminates how contestations over the bounding of communal territories contribute to social injustice.

Overlapping transnational networks attempted to reconcile divergent perspectives— some favoring rejection, others reform—and leverage change in the U.S. government's framing of the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA). The experience of the Stop CAFTA Coalition shows that protest movements cannot be fully understood from the perspective of a single period in time. Core coalition members began organizing decades prior to CAFTA's proposal, generally on a topic other than free trade, and their solidarity-based decision-making model was fundamental to their decision to reject rather than attempt to reform CAFTA—since this was the position of their Central American partner organizations. A split between reforming CAFTA and more radically transforming free trade with the United States emerged as a fault line in CAFTA opposition, but solidarity groups maintained their anti-free-trade position even as they cooperated within networks representing distinct interests.

Esta investigación analiza la participación regional de las iniciativas de Reducción de Emisiones de Deforestación y Degradación Forestal (REDD) en Ucayali, Perú. Utilizamos el enfoque de escala para entender los roles de las agencias gubernamentales, las organizaciones no gubernamentales (ONG), las universidades, el sector privado, y las federaciones indígenas de la región. Nuestra metodología combina la revisión de literatura internacional con entrevistas, encuestas, y observaciones en Pucallpa y Lima efectuadas durante junio y julio del 2013 y 2014. Los resultados sugieren que: (1) existen varias tensiones dentro de los procesos de planificación de REDD en el Perú; y (2) la participación de Ucayali en el diseño de REDD ha sido limitada pero el interés en los servicios ecosistémicos está creciendo. La Mesa REDD y de Servicios Ecosistémicos-Ucayali abre un espacio para canalizar la participación en la definición de la política de REDD regional y busca las maneras de aumentar las oportunidades para obtener beneficios regionales. La toma de decisión regional participativa puede avanzar el desarrollo sostenible más allá de la implementación estrecha de REDD. Exploramos algunos ejemplos regionales exitosos, como la veeduría forestal comunitaria, que pueden proveer una base de desarrollo integral y la protección de todos servicios ecosistémicos y no solamente el carbono. English abstract: This research analyzes the regional participation in initiatives to Reduce Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD) in Ucayali, Peru. We use a multi-scalar approach to understand the roles of government agencies, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), universities, the private sector and indigenous federations in regional REDD projects. Our methodology combines an international literature review with interviews, surveys, and personal observations from Pucallpa and Lima during June and July of 2013 and 2014. The results of our research suggest that: (1) tensions exist in Peru regarding the planning of REDD projects; and (2) local participation for REDD planning has been limited in Ucayali, but there is a growing interest in ecosystem services in the region. The Ucayali REDD Roundtable for Ecosystem Services allows local actors to help define regional REDD policies, and it seeks to increase opportunities for regional benefits from REDD projects. Participatory regional decision-making can increase sustainable development efforts beyond REDD policy implementation. In this paper, we explore successful regional examples of REDD implementations, such as community forestry oversight, which can provide a basis for comprehensive development and protection of ecosystem services beyond carbon.