Rural depopulation in Spain is forever on the increase. The reduction in the number of inhabitants is causing local public administrations to be incapable of providing the quantity and quality of public services needed by the citizenry, which increases the emigration of the population to other areas with more residents. This research identifies some of the actions that can be carried out by different Public Administrations to correct the situation, especially from the local perspective. ; España se enfrenta a un escenario continuado de pérdida de población en buena parte de los municipios del medio rural. La reducción de habitantes está provocando que las administraciones públicas locales no sean capaces de ofrecer la cantidad y la calidad de los servicios públicos que necesita la ciudadanía, lo que potencia una mayor emigración poblacional hacia otras zonas con más residentes. En esta investigación se señalan algunas de las actuaciones que se pueden llevar a cabo por las diferentes Administraciones Públicas para corregir la situación actual, especialmente desde la óptica local. ; España enfróntase a un escenario continuado de perda de poboación en boa parte dos municipios do medio rural. A redución de habitantes está a provocar que as administracións públicas locais non sexan capaces de ofrecer a cantidade e calidade dos servizos públicos que necesita a cidadanía, o que potencia una maior emigración poboacional cara a outras zonas con máis residentes. Nesta investigación sinálanse algunhas das actuacións que se poden levar a cabo polas diferentes Administracións Públicas para corrixir a situación actual, especialmente desde a óptica local.
Includes bibliographical references. ; Presented at the Building resilience of Mongolian rangelands: a trans-disciplinary research conference held on June 9-10, 2015 in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. ; Mongolia's socio-ecological rangeland systems face a number of critical, contemporary challenges. Climatic change, persistent poverty and growing land use conflicts, especially around mining, pose complex problems both for herders and policy-makers. Furthermore, there is renewed emphasis on meeting Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and Aichi targets, following the publication of Mongolia's 5th National CBD report in March 2014, and the development of a new National Biodiversity Strategic Action Plan. (E)valuation of the contributions of rangeland ecosystem services (ES) to biodiversity and livelihoods/wellbeing are highlighted as priorities for future planning therein. ES thinking, valuation and commodification are becoming increasingly influential in other contemporary policy initiatives, not least through the development of the national REDD+ roadmap, Business and Biodiversity offset programmes and Government commitments to the 'Green Economy'. Nonetheless critical questions remain about the ES paradigm itself, values/ valuation of ES and how these may be enacted and supported through policy. Here we report on a three year Darwin-Initiative funded project, which aimed to 'generate policy and practice relevant knowledge of values of ecosystem services (ES) in Mongolia, and test the efficacy of Payment for Ecosystem Services (PES) schemes, in order to enhance biodiversity and livelihoods'. Aims were realised through i) participatory mapping and analysis of ES, including cultural ES, with 300 herder households across four case study sites, and the development of innovative methods for non-economic valuation; ii) co-development and implementation of a novel rangeland payment for ES (PES) scheme at the four sites, through the Plan Vivo standard; iii) analysis of the impacts ES and of the PES scheme on biodiversity and livelihoods. Methods used included deliberative valuation approaches, mapping, ranking and choice modelling to examine group and individual values and trade-offs between ES across ecologically contrasting areas. We also applied the SOLVES (Social Values of ES) GIS model to highlight spatial, place-specific dimensions of ES values, as part of a series of wider biodiversity, livelihoods and ES assessments. Results highlight spatial and temporal diversities in ES values, importance of cultural ES for wellbeing, and the potential of carefully designed PES schemes to contribute to more resilient socio-ecological rangeland systems in the future.
Includes bibliographical references. ; Presented at the Building resilience of Mongolian rangelands: a trans-disciplinary research conference held on June 9-10, 2015 in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. ; This paper reviews the problems of livestock production in Mongolia and proposes an agent-based meat distribution network composed of multiple players. Agents sell and buy products and services, equipped with intelligent capacity of knowledge and physical capacity of freezing meat stock, livestock, and forage stock. Local governments and communities are the key for enhancing food security. The network, as a whole, is green, clean and resilient to climatic and market disturbance.
In November 2002, the oil tanker Prestige caused a catastrophic oil spill off the coast of Galicia in northwestern Spain. This article discusses the oil spill & the sociopolitical movement that arose from it, Never Again. The analysis begins with an overview of the Galician political system & a chronology of the oil spill & its environmental consequences. The discussion then moves on to the birth of Never Again, with an analysis of its organization, internal debates, & action plans. The development of the movement to the present time is traced, with an analysis of the social & political alliances it has formed, including a discussion of many of the citizens' groups that work with Never Again. The article takes a close look at the political consequences of the movement's work, particularly within the context of the Galician & Spanish political systems. Tables, References. R. Young
Includes bibliographical references. ; Presented at the Building resilience of Mongolian rangelands: a trans-disciplinary research conference held on June 9-10, 2015 in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. ; Property and its allocation are key elements of resilience within socio-ecological systems. This presentation compares ethnographic and survey data on shifting ideas of property from 2008 to similar data gathered in 2014 in a district of southern Khentii aimag. The data illustrate how these attitudes emerged, their underlying logics, and how they articulate with broader historical and political economic conditions. The findings raise concern that dzud events could serve as a possible trigger for formal legal transformations in land rights given the increased political rhetoric and calls for land privatization following dzud events. This paper argues that crossing such property thresholds would pose considerable problems for both rangelands and livelihoods and suggests some future avenues for strengthening pastoral systems.
[Resumo] Facer arquitectura é significar, é un acto político; ten unha dimensión social. O entendemento social da produción arquitectónica significa abordar o estudo dos grupos sociais en relación á disciplina. Nun contexto de desigualdade, identificar os sesgos culturais resulta clave á hora de promover valores contemplados nos dereitos humanos como a igualdade de xénero. Nesta procura, a chegada das TIC supoñen un punto de inflexión: a democratización das tecnoloxías da información e o nacemento de novos espazos globais de comunicación veñen representando unha oportunidade inédita para a difusión e o encontro de arquitectas, investigadoras e activistas na posta en cuestión do discurso oficial da arquitectura.[Abstract] To make architecture supposes giving meaning, it is a political action; it has a social dimension. The social understanding of architectonic production means tackling the study of social groups in relation to discipline. In an inequality context, identifying cultural bias becomes key just to promote human rights like gender equality. In this pursue, the emergence of ICT means an inflexion point: the democratization of information technologies and the appearance of new global communication spaces that represent an unprecedented opportunity for diffusion and meeting of women architects, investigators and activists joined questioning the official architectural discourse
This report describes the results of a household survey conducted in September 2009 in a selected peri-urban subdistrict (bag) in Darkhan city. A total number of 139 randomly selected households were surveyed about the current status of environmental sanitation, including water supply, sanitation, stormwater management and solid waste management. Special focus was placed on socio-economic issues, the environmental sanitation practices and perceptions of the ger residents, and their attitudes towards and demand for improved environmental sanitation services. The results of the household survey are embedded in further research work assessing the water and sanitation sector in Darkhan city, Darkhan-Uul aimag and Mongolia, specifically in regard to peri-urban ger areas. The results reveal a problematic situation: Due to improved access to safe drinking water, water consumption and the corresponding wastewater have increased, leading to environmental degradation and potential health risks. Greywater is discharged untreated into greywater holes, open drainage channels or on open fields. Self-built unsealed pit latrines without cleanouts are used on every household's compound. Thus urine and faeces leak into the ground. Stormwater is collected in a perfunctory manner which can lead to stormwater flooding in the rainy season. Most of the interviewees were quite aware of these problems and were willing to contribute towards improvements. From the point of view of the ger residents, sanitation is the most pressing issue they face, followed by water supply, solid waste management and stormwater management. -- Mongolia ; environmental sanitation ; peri-urban ; ger areas ; household survey ; current status ; practices ; perceptions
Avalíase o impacto en Galicia da implementación do Programa Operativo para e polo beneficio da I+D+i empresarial-Fondo Tecnolóxico 2007-2013, que constituíu un instrumento singular das políticas de innovación financiado polos Fondos Estruturais da Unión Europea e dirixido ás comunidades autónomas españolas do Obxectivo Converxencia da Unión Europea. A través da análise proposta trátase de identificar o impacto deste Programa plurianual –que mobilizou un importante volume de recursos e cuxa execución se estende ata 2015– na evolución do Sistema Galego de Innovación. Con ese fin analízanse os diferentes tipos de medidas e actuacións financiadas e o seu impacto nos principais indicadores de innovación (creación de capacidades, gasto en investigación e desenvolvemento, solicitude de patentes, persoal en investigación e desenvolvemento, infraestruturas, redes de colaboración, etc.), contrastando os obxectivos perseguidos e os resultados observados. Tamén se analizan aspectos institucionais e organizacionais que inciden no deseño, implementación e xestión das medidas e a súa posible incidencia nos seus efectos (fugas de recursos, dificultades de vertebración, concentración das actividades innovadoras nun número limitado de axentes, etc.). As conclusións extraídas permiten formular recomendacións para o deseño e implementación no territorio doutras políticas de investigación, desenvolvemento e innovación. Palabras ; The aim of this study is to evaluate the implementation and the impact in Galicia of the Operational Programme for the benefit of business, Research, Development & Innovation-Technology Fund 2007-2013, which was a unique instrument of innovation policies financed by the European Union Structural Funds and addressed to the Spanish Autonomous Regions of the European Union Convergence Objective. Through the proposed analysis, we identify the impact of this Multiannual Programme –which mobilised a significant volume of resources and whose execution extends until 2015– on the evolution of the Galician Innovation System. To this end, the different types of measures and actions financed and their impact on the main innovation indicators (capacity building, Research & Development expenditure, patent applications, Research & Development personnel, infrastructures, collaboration networks, etc.) are analysed, contrasting the objectives pursued and the results observed. Institutional and organisational aspects that affect the design, implementation and management of measures and their possible impact on their effects (leakage of resources, vertebration difficulties, concentration of innovative activities in a limited number of agents, etc.) are also analysed. The conclusions make it possible to formulate recommendations for the design and implementation in the territory of other Research & Development & Innovation policies. ; Se evalúa el impacto en Galicia de la implementación del Programa Operativo para y por el beneficio de la I+D+i empresarial- -Fondo Tecnológico 2007-2013, que ha constituido un instrumento singular de las políticas de innovación financiado por los Fondos Estructurales de la Unión Europea y dirigido a las comunidades autónomas españolas del Objetivo Convergencia de la Unión Europea. A través del análisis propuesto se trata de identificar el impacto de este Programa plurianual –que ha movilizado un importante volumen de recursos y cuya ejecución se extiende hasta 2015– en la evolución del Sistema Gallego de Innovación. Con ese fin se analizan los diferentes tipos de medidas y actuaciones financiadas y su impacto en los principales indicadores de innovación (creación de capacidades, gasto en investigación y desarrollo, solicitud de patentes, personal en investigación y desarrollo, infraestructuras, redes de colaboración, etc.), contrastando los objetivos perseguidos y los resultados observados. También se analizan aspectos institucionales y organizacionales que inciden en el diseño, implementación y gestión de las medidas y su posible incidencia en sus efectos (fugas de recursos, dificultades de vertebración, concentración de las actividades innovadoras en un número limitado de agentes, etc.). Las conclusiones extraídas permiten formular recomendaciones para el diseño e implementación en el territorio de otras políticas de investigación, desarrollo e innovación.