Suchergebnisse

In 2007, Brazil entered the European Union's (EU) list of strategic partners; a token of recognition of the place Brazil occupies in current global affairs. Although promoting bilateral environmental convergence is a stated priority, cooperation between the EU and Brazil in this policy field is largely under-researched, raising interesting questions as to whether the current state of play could support EU claims for the normative orientation of its external environmental policy. Through an analysis of partnership activities in the fields of deforestation and biofuels, we suggest that while normative intentions may be regarded as a motivating force, critically viewing EU foreign environmental policy through a 'soft imperialism' lens could offer a more holistic understanding of the current state of bilateral cooperation. While the normative power thesis can be substantiated with regard to deforestation, we argue that by erecting barriers to shield its domestic biofuels production, the EU is placing trade competitiveness and economic growth above its normative aspirations. Subsequently, the partial adoption of sustainable development as an EU norm leads to policy incoherence and contradictory actions. Adapted from the source document.

The problem of desertification sits at the interface of environmental and developmental concerns. In this article, we examine the institutional relationship between desertification science and policy through focus on the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) and its subsidiary body, the Committee on Science and Technology. We argue that the UNCCD's limited impact on fighting desertification to date may be partly attributed—among other factors—to an inadequate institutional interface between the political convention process and the scientific community. A huge body of international scientific expertise could help to further operationalize the normative provisions of the convention for on-the-ground implementation; yet the institutional architecture for ideational interplay between the UNCCD and scientific community concerned with desertification restricts the extent to which this potential is harnessed. Decisions adopted at the most recent Conference of the Parties of the UNCCD in 2007 seek to rectify this, and although these mark an important step forward, it remains doubtful whether they are sufficient to curb the root causes of the convention's underlying problems.

Fieldwork often takes place in dynamic, uncertain environments. This is especially true of fieldwork in developing countries. Occasionally events can occur that have significant repercussions for ongoing research involving human participants. For example, political and social unrest, terror attacks, economic crises, epidemics, and natural disasters all have the potential to derail fieldwork plans and to radically alter the circumstances in which researchers operate. However, literature on how to anticipate and navigate these repercussions is limited. While a number of papers have reflected on the difficulties of conducting post‐crisis fieldwork, few have discussed the rather different challenge of dealing with, and adapting to, events that occur during ongoing work. In this paper, we discuss how the 2015 Nepal earthquake – which occurred while we were conducting fieldwork in one of the affected areas – forced us to reassess our research agenda, profoundly affected our relationship with the community we had been working in, and evoked challenging ethical questions in respect to our obligations to our research participants. Based on our reflections, we suggest eight issues that researchers who are engaged in fieldwork in high‐risk or post disaster locations should give consideration to. The issues include matters relating to research design, fieldwork risk and ethics assessment, interaction with research participants, and researcher support.

As river basin authorities and national governments develop policies to achieve sustainable development outcomes, conflicting signals between existing policies are undermining cross-thematic integrative modes of policy planning. This raises fundamental questions over how coherent portfolios of policy interventions across vital themes can best be advanced and managed. Taking the Lake Chad Basin (LCB) as an empirical example, we analyse transboundary policies and intervention documents relating to climate adaptation, water governance and conflict management to ascertain the interdependencies at the adaptation-water-peace nexus. Using a Qualitative Document Analysis (QDA) approach and a set of subjective integration scoring criteria, we assess whether and how integration is planned, setting out ways forward for mutually beneficial integration actions.Despite recent progress in addressing lake drying and recognising cross-thematic challenges, most LCB intervention plans continue to adopt standalone basin-scale agendas and seldom consider action plan preparedness based on local-level assessments. Analysis of a few (existing) cross-thematic, well-integrated initiatives indicates that the timings of societal challenges and funding arrangements appear to play a key role in shaping policy strategies, the manner in which climate adaptation, water or security are treated and the level of integration attained. Based on the notion that integration is inherently desirable, we suggest a new 'policy integration thinking' that embraces a development landscape logic and balances short-term and long-term development priorities.

This article examines lake drying and livelihood dynamics in the context of multiple stressors through a case study of the ''Small Lake Chad'' in the Republic of Chad. Livelihoods research in regions experiencing persistent lake water fluctuations has largely focused on the wellbeing and security of lakeshore dwellers. Little is known about the mechanisms through which lake drying shapes livelihood drawbacks and opportunities, and whether locally evolved responses are enhancing livelihoods. Here we address these gaps using empirical, mixed-methods field research couched within the framework of livelihoods and human well-being contexts. The analysis demonstrates that limited opportunities outside agriculture, the influx of mixed ethnic migrants and the increasing spate of violence all enhance livelihood challenges. Livelihood opportunities centre on the renewal effects of seasonal flood pulses on lake waters and the learning opportunities triggered by past droughts. Although drying has spurred new adaptive behaviours predicated on seasonality, traditional predictive factors and the availability of assets, responses have remained largely reactive. The article points to where lake drying fits amongst changes in the wider socioeconomic landscape in which people live, and suggests that awareness of the particularities of the mechanisms that connect lake drying to livelihoods can offer insights into the ways local people might be assisted by governments and development actors.