Examination of the influences of global forest governance arrangements at the domestic level

The ultimate goal of many international and transnational attempts to address global problems is to influence domestic policymaking processes rather than simply constrain or modify the external behaviour of states. This chapter reviews the existing scholarship on the impacts that global forest governance arrangements have had on domestic policymaking processes and decisions. We apply a framework that distinguishes ‘economic globalisation’ – the phenomenon of increasing economic integration – from ‘internationalisation’, in which international and transnational pressures influence domestic policymaking (Bernstein and Cashore 2000). We review the effects of four distinct pathways of internationalisation in shaping domestic policies: international rules; international norms and discourse; markets; and direct access to domestic policy processes. This framework overcomes longstanding debates about whether globalisation forces a ‘ratcheting down’ of domestic standards in a ‘race to the bottom’, or whether increasing economic and political interdependence can create a ‘race to the top’. The application of the framework to cases in Southeast Asia, Latin America, Africa, Europe and North America reveals that economic globalisation is not determinative. Rather, it interacts with other factors (operating internationally, transnationally and/or domestically) that condition its effects. Key lessons emerge from this review on the conditions under which, and interventions through which, the international forest regime has affected domestic forest policies, as well as on the interventions that might be nurtured to influence and nurture future policy development

A Large Number of Protein Expression Changes Occur Early in Life and Precede Phenotype Onset in a Mouse Model for Huntington Disease*S⃞

Huntington disease (HD) is fatal in humans within 15–20 years of symptomatic disease. Although late stage HD has been studied extensively, protein expression changes that occur at the early stages of disease and during disease progression have not been reported. In this study, we used a large two-dimensional gel/mass spectrometry-based proteomics approach to investigate HD-induced protein expression alterations and their kinetics at very early stages and during the course of disease. The murine HD model R6/2 was investigated at 2, 4, 6, 8, and 12 weeks of age, corresponding to absence of disease and early, intermediate, and late stage HD. Unexpectedly the most HD stage-specific protein changes (71–100%) as well as a drastic alteration (almost 6% of the proteome) in protein expression occurred already as early as 2 weeks of age. Early changes included mainly the up-regulation of proteins involved in glycolysis/gluconeogenesis and the down-regulation of the actin cytoskeleton. This suggests a period of highly variable protein expression that precedes the onset of HD phenotypes. Although an up-regulation of glycolysis/gluconeogenesis-related protein alterations remained dominant during HD progression, late stage alterations at 12 weeks showed an up-regulation of proteins involved in proteasomal function. The early changes in HD coincide with a peak in protein alteration during normal mouse development at 2 weeks of age that may be responsible for these massive changes. Protein and mRNA data sets showed a large overlap on the level of affected pathways but not single proteins/mRNAs. Our observations suggest that HD is characterized by a highly dynamic disease pathology not represented by linear protein concentration alterations over the course of disease