The voracious appetites of public versus private property: a view of intellectual property and biodiversity from legal pluralism

"This paper argues, from the perspective of legal pluralism, that both private and public properties are voracious. In recent western developments, they each expand by trying to 'eating the other up'. Western property theory promotes this dualistic game of voracious property types. In exporting this game world wide through privatization, international agreements and regulations many other more balanced approaches to property, which fall between the public/private divide, are being consumed as well (as in kin group corporate property, cultural property etc.) Such a dualistic model of property limits our understanding of the ways in which the property rights of different claimants are interdependent. This interdependence arises not only from legal institutions that mediate property rights, but also from social institutions that determine and distribute rights, and how these legal and social institutions interface. The three-tiered model presented in this paper ideological, legal, and social reveals the systemic nature of property rights. Issues concerning 'new' forms of intellectual property, as well as the management of natural resources, highlight the limitations of the ideological approach to property rights, which largely ignores the legal and social relationships embedded in these forms of property. This paper explores the implications of such voracious property for biodiversity. " Author's AbstractProperty, intellectual property, Biodiversity, Natural resources, Legal pluralism, Institutions,

Borrowed From the Future: Challenges and Guidelines for Community-Based Natural Resource Management

Identifies some of the obstacles that thwart the success of community-based programs, in a search for feasible solutions to the combined problems of environmental degradation and increasing human poverty and inequality

China's Engagement With African Countries: Key Findings and Recommendations

Summarizes findings on China's engagement with Africa and implications for the latter's social and economic conditions. Makes recommendations for African policy makers to ensure the engagement is mutually beneficial, broadly distributed, and monitored

Energy efficiency in China: The local bundling of interests and policies

With the end of China's 11th Five-Year Plan approaching, this paper analyzes sub-national governments' implementation strategies to meet national energy efficiency targets. Previous research focuses on the way governance practices and decision-making structures shape implementation outcomes, yet very little attention has been given to what strategies local leaders actually employ to bridge national priorities with local interests. To illustrate how leaders work politically, this paper highlights specific implementation mechanisms officials use to strengthen formal incentives and create effective informal incentives to fulfill their energy efficiency mandates. The analysis is drawn from fifty-three interviews conducted in June and July 2010 in Shanxi, a major coal-producing and energy-intensive province. Findings suggest that local government leaders conform to the national directives by 'bundling' the energy efficiency policy with policies of more pressing local importance or by 'bundling' with the interests of groups with significant political influence. Ultimately, officials take national policies and then frame them in ways that give them legitimacy at the local level. --China,local state,policy implementation,energy policy,governance

Sustainability of Utilizing Renewable and Nuclear Energy in Saudi Arabia Using Different Types of Life Cycle Assessment

Evaluating the global environmental impacts of the current and future energy policies in Saudi Arabia using Life cycle assessment (LCA) method was the main objective of this dissertation. First, the attributional life cycle assessment (ALCA) framework was used to evaluate the Saudi’s air conditioning systems, as they are responsible for about 70% of the total Saudi residential electricity consumption. The ALCA’s results showed that the AC use phase produces the largest share of the environmental impact and the magnitude of the environmental impacts is influenced by the type of primary fuel used for electricity generation. Emerging non-fossil sources of electricity may be the intuitive solution to reduce environmental impacts. Saudi Arabia has an ambitious plan to meet 50% of its electricity needs with renewable and nuclear energy. Implementing this plan will free up more of the Saudi oil for export, affecting the country and the rest of the world, since Saudi is the world largest oil exporter. To predict global economic shifts that would be triggered by that plan, a modified version of well-known computable general equilibrium (CGE) model, the Global Trade Analysis Project (GTAP), was used. The study showed that fossil fuel energy prices and ease of substitution for the fossil fuel electricity technologies are the main drivers for the emergence of renewable and nuclear energy. As the GTAP’s CO2 emissions data only account for burned fossil fuels, there is a need to perform the study using a comprehensive method. That was done by performing a consequential perspective LCA. The results of this LCA showed that harmful environmental impacts would be reduced in Saudi Arabia. For the rest of the world, the impacts were largely negative. Finally, an ex-ante analysis was done to study the economic, social and environmental impacts of large-scale global electricity generation targets to utilize renewable and nuclear energy by 2030. The study showed a deteriorated GDP in most regions. The world would face a loss of 4.45 million jobs. The environment benefits of the targeted renewable and nuclear energy would be slight and not enough to mitigate the global temperature rise

Single-desk marketing: assessing the economic arguments

Single-Desk Marketing: Assessing the Economic Arguments identifies the potential benefits and costs and the strengths and weakness of various arguments in favour of current single-desk arrangements. It does not attempt to quantify the costs and benefits of arrangements in any particular industry.single-desk - marketing boards - deregulation - wheat - cotton - wine - citrus - National Competition Policy

Evaluation of Technological Trends and Demands of the Manufacturing Industry to a Center of R&D&I

The manufacturing industry is fairly representative in the Brazilian economy. The research activities in technology, development and innovation promoted by technology centers are of great importance to boost the competitiveness of this segment. In this context, this work aims presenting the development of the strategic planning for a Center of R&D&I (Research & Development & Innovation), looking 20 years ahead, on a macro level, creating a master plan which summarizes the future focus areas of competence for technology research, development and innovation, coping with manufacturing trends, using a participative workshop approach. Thus, it is expected that this center offer integrated technological solutions with high added value that promote the development and competitiveness of the manufacturing industry, in the prospects for medium and long term. In order to achieve the project objectives taking the principle of strategic planning was followed. On the one hand, focus was placed on the internal perspective analyzing the current status of the Center. On the other hand, the environment of the Center (external perspective) was analyzed. Matching the analysis results regarding both perspectives future competence areas were derived, according to global technological trends as well as national and local industrial demand. Thus, the competencies required to be developed by a technology center to meet the manufacturing industry over the next twenty years would be derived