The International Portuguese-speaking Countries Children and Youth Conference: one experience, multiple challenges

[Resumo] Entre abril de 2009 e junho de 2010, a Comunidade dos Países de Língua Portuguesa envolveu, sob a coordenação do Ministério da Educação do Brasil, seus oito Estados Membros (Angola, Brasil, Cabo Verde, Guiné-Bissau, Moçambique, Portugal, São Tomé e Príncipe e Timor Leste) na realização das etapas preparatórias para a Conferência Internacional Infantojuvenil (Confint), realizada em Brasília, de 5 a 10 de junho de 2010. A Confint consiste em uma campanha pedagógica e de um processo construtivista no qual os participantes se reúnem, deliberam sobre os temas propostos, tendo como foco as Mudanças do Clima, e escolhem representantes de 12 a 15 anos que levam das escolas, as regiões, e logo às capitais as responsabilidades de jovens para cuidar de suas comunidades. Este artigo pretende descrever as etapas realizadas no contexto da CPLP, além de analisar o processo com base nos critérios desenvolvidos pelo Observatório Internacional de Democracia Participativa. Ao longo deste ano de trabalho, foram muitas as lições aprendidas: o reconhecimento da importância de fortalecer as instituições; o respeito e valorização da riqueza e especificidades culturais, étnicas, educacionais; as diversas formas de pensar e agir, etc. Com a certeza de que não há apenas uma verdade, nem verdades a serem ensinadas, e sim processos a serem compartilhados e dialogados.[Abstract] From April 2009 to June 2010, the Community of Portuguese-speaking Countries carried out the preparatory stages for the International Children and Youth Conference (Confint), held in Brasilia from 5 to 10 June 2010, under the co-ordination of Brazil’s Ministry of Education, in the eight Member States (Angola, Brazil, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique, Portugal, São Tome and Príncipe and East Timor). The Confint is an educational campaign in a constructivist process in which participants meet and deliberate on the topics proposed, focusing on Climate Change, and choose representatives aged between 12 and 15 who are then responsible for young people’s caring for their communities at schools and in different regions and capitals. This article aims to describe the different stages carried out in the context of the CPLP (Community of Portuguese-speaking countries), beyond analysing the process based on criteria drawn up by the International Observatory of Participatory Democracy. Throughout this year of work, many lessons were learned: realising the importance of reinforcing institutions, respect for and assessment of cultural, ethnic and educational wealth and unique characteristics, different ways of thinking and acting etc. We are convinced that there is not just one truth or truths to teach; there is a process and we have to share and talk

Silvopastoral agroforestry for rural environment sustainability and valorization of the region of Guarda and Serra da Estrela, Portugal

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Pre-emptive or Preventive Mediation? High Level Mediation in the Widened Preventive Diplomacy Agenda

The continuing changing nature of conflict and violence in the past two decades, coupled with a decrease in financial resources, catapulted preventive diplomacy to the international community’s security agenda. If originally the preventive diplomacy doctrine aimed at the short-term goal of preventing violence or conflict escalation, today it has come to encompass tasks aimed at resolving the underlying issues that cause and fuel conflict. In parallel – promptly deployable and cost-effective – mediation has become a more and more sophisticated and increasingly deployed instrument of preventive diplomacy. However, there is no consensus in the literature on how high-level mediation serves preventive diplomacy goals. The question of whether preventing conflict means to prevent the onset of (armed) violence in conflict, or whether it makes sense to talk about violence prevention at later stages of the conflict’s cycle, permeates the evolution of the preventive diplomacy doctrine and literature and divides opinion in mediation literature. The following literature review aims to offer an understanding on how mediation works as a preventive diplomacy instrument by synthesizing the literature and bridging it with a contemporary understanding of the concept. It does so through a parallel review of the evolution of the concept of preventive diplomacy and its agenda and conflict mediation literary debates on mediation timing, strategy and outcomes in conflict prevention. It concludes, first, that high-level mediation is better equipped and understood as an instrument of preventive, rather than pre-emptive mediation, and denotes that while the preventive diplomacy agenda has expanded, mediation literature has tended to have a narrow view of the extent to which mediation can contribute to preventive diplomacy goals

Negotiations with Peace Settlement Referendums: Comparing the Annan Plan and Good Friday Agreement Experiences

This thesis investigates how peace negotiation processes influence peace settlement referendum outcomes. It addresses a re-occurring problem in peace processes of settlements being rejected by popular vote after strenuous political negotiations. For this purpose, it investigates and compares how the Annan Plan negotiations in Cyprus and the Good Friday Agreement (GFA) negotiations in Northern Ireland culminated with the acceptance of the latter and the rejection of the former. In doing so, it effectively bridges an existing gap in academic research and literature. Research and theory on peace negotiations and mediation has traditionally focused on uncovering how the process helped the political leaders sitting at the negotiations table reduce military tensions, improve relationships, and come to different types of agreements. It had not yet considered referendum results as a crucial outcome of contemporary peace negotiation processes. Existing research on referendums, on the other hand, traditionally studies voting behaviours through public opinion polls and surveys, or the analysis of referendum campaigns, seldom considering how they are shaped by negotiation processes. The comparative case study analysis of the Annan Plan and GFA negotiations and referendums presented in this thesis provides for unique comparative features and a novel research design. It aims, not only at understanding how the Annan Plan and GFA negotiations led to opposing overall referendum outcomes, but also how they shaped differences in support between and across the four communities. While the Annan Plan was rejected due to the low 23 percent Greek Cypriot 'yes' vote, 65 percent of Turkish Cypriots actually voted for its ratification. The GFA was ratified with a similar difference in support between the local communities, the very high 96-97 per cent vote from the Nationalist community and the 51-53 per cent from the Unionist community. Bridging existing knowledge in peace negotiations and referendums literatures, this thesis compares how specific features of the negotiation process, namely, mediation strategies, political inclusion, civil society inclusion, and the agreement's design, shaped the political parties' support for the agreement in the referendum, the organization and strength of the campaigns, and voter information and uncertainty. Its findings are based on an empirically rich analysis of interviews conducted in Cyprus and Northern Ireland during the first half of 2014, which included key political stakeholders and civil society actors. The thesis demonstrates that the secretive and exclusionist nature of the Annan Plan negotiations, and the comparatively less secretive and more inclusive GFA negotiation process, shaped the referendum campaign periods leading to the opposing outcomes of the two cases. It further shows that support for the peace settlement was higher in the communities where the mediated negotiations included more political parties and where civil society was, directly or informally, included in the negotiations. The findings support existing claims that inclusive and participatory negotiation processes can foster support for the peace process, adding that they can deeply shape peace settlement referendum experiences and outcomes. It argues that referendums are unsuitable for traditional secretive and exclusive peace negotiation practices that fail to educate and engage the public. The contribution is novel in arguing that, as a tool of democratic politics, peace settlement referendums need to be preceded by inclusive negotiations that involve a broad spectrum of political stakeholders and civil society and that, therefore, when referendums are used to seal a peace settlement, the entirety of its negotiation process needs to be adapted from the start

AFINET: agroforestry innovation thematic network

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Target and non-target approaches for food authenticity and traceability

The author acknowledges the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT, Portugal) for financial support by national funds FCT/MCTES to CIMO (UIDB/00690/2020).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Identificação da origem botânica do mel por DNA barcoding

O mel e um produto natural muito apreciado pelas suas propriedades sensoriais, nutricionais e medicinais. Os méis monoflorais são produtos de valor acrescentado por serem considerados de elevada qualidade e com aroma e sabor bem definidos, sendo por isso susceptíveis a adulterações. Tal facto torna importante o desenvolvimento de novas metodologias para a avaliação da autenticidade e origem botânica. 0 método usado atualmente para a determinação da origem botânica baseia-se na analise melissopalinol6gica, que e morosa e requer técnicos especializados [1]. Os métodos de ADN apresentam-se como alternativas promissoras para a identificação de espécies em matrizes complexas e processadas.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Autenticação de produtos cárneos com a designação Halal: Deteção e quantificação de derivados de suíno (Sus scrofa)

Devido aos recentes escândalos alimentares relacionados com adulterações em produtos cárneos, tem-se assistido a uma maior atenção por parte dos consumidores e autorida-des sobre a ocorrência de fraudes neste setor, especialmen-te no que respeita a substituição de carne de espécies ani-mais de valor elevado por proteínas musculares de mais baixo custo. Em particular, devido ao seu baixo preço e ele-vada disponibilidade, a carne de porco e/ou derivados de suíno (gordura, plasma, colagénio, entre outros) podem ser fraudulentamente adicionados em produtos cárneos, tendo por objetivo o aumento de lucros de fabricantes pouco es-crupulosos [1,2]. Para além destas práticas representarem uma fraude económica, a presença de espécies animais não declaradas na rotulagem é algo que causa elevada preocu-pação em certos grupos religiosos para os quais o consumo de determinadas espécies é proibido.Os autores agradecem o apoio financeiro da Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT) através do projeto PEst-C/EQB/LA0006/2013.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Hypericum species identification to assess the authenticity of plant food supplements

In the last years, medicinal plants and derived products have become increasingly available in the EU market as ingredients of formulations sold as food supplements. This type of products is legally considered as food under the Directive 2002/46/EC [l], thus with legal responsibility of its safety relying on business operators as they are not under the control of the European Medicines Agency (EMA).This work has been supported by FCT through grant PEst-C/EQB/LA0006/2013 and project EXPL/DTP-SAP/1438/2013 (Safety of PIant Food Supplements: searching for adulterant pharmaceutlcal drugs and plants)info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Modelo de crescimento para árvores em povoamentos juvenis de sobreiro em Portugal

The juvenile and adult stages in cork oak are distinct because of the periodic debarking of the stem and branches that characterizes the adult stage. This fact implies the use of diameter under bark for the adult stage while diameter over bark is the natural variable for juvenile stands in growth and yield studies. Tree growth in the adult stage may also be affected by the periodic debarking. The differences between the two stages justify the development of different models for each of them. The objective of this paper is to develop an individual tree growth and yield model for juvenile cork oak stands for general application on the cork oak distribution area in Southern Portugal. The most important modules of this growth model were developed using data collected from a large number of trees in the juvenile stage, from several plots distributed around the South of Portugal. These modules were: an individual tree diameter growth model, a height-diameter model and a model for crown diameter prediction