The Continuing Use of Problematic Sexual Stereotypes in Judicial Decision-Making

This article examines the continuing use of problematic sexual stereotypes at appellate level in the English and Welsh legal system. Using five cases as illustrations, it argues that, notwithstanding professional training and guidance on sexual equality matters, certain senior judges in this jurisdiction still at least sometimes openly employ crude and problematic sexual stereotypes in their judgments or fail to deal appropriately with the use of these stereotypes by trial judges. The central point is that there is still a significant problem with the open use of crude sexual stereotypes in legal reasoning at a senior level in this jurisdiction, despite the pressure on all members of the legal system to appear to be ‘politically correct’

Integrating Blue: How do we make Nationally Determined Contributions work for both blue carbon and local coastal communities?

Blue Carbon Ecosystems (BCEs) help mitigate and adapt to climate change but their integration into policy, such as Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), remains underdeveloped. Most BCE conservation requires community engagement, hence community-scale projects must be nested within the implementation of NDCs without compromising livelihoods or social justice. Thirty-three experts, drawn from academia, project development and policy, each developed ten key questions for consideration on how to achieve this. These questions were distilled into ten themes, ranked in order of importance, giving three broad categories of people, policy & finance, and science & technology. Critical considerations for success include the need for genuine participation by communities, inclusive project governance, integration of local work into national policies and practices, sustaining livelihoods and income (for example through the voluntary carbon market and/or national Payment for Ecosystem Services and other types of financial compensation schemes) and simplification of carbon accounting and verification methodologies to lower barriers to entry

A Methodology for Assessing Rural Livelihood Strategies in West/Central Africa: Lessons from the Field

This paper critically evaluates and discusses some of the methodological practicalities of applying a combined participatory and small-scale survey approach to investigating rural livelihood strategies of people living in the humid forest zone of Southwest Cameroon, Southeast Nigeria and Southwest Ghana, with particular reference to assessing the economic importance of non-timber forest products. It describes the sampling methods used to select study zones, settlements and households as well as the participatory techniques and instruments used to differentiate households and gather information on rural incomes. Details of the successes and problems encountered during implementation are presented. The challenges faced by those conducting this study are also encountered by others carrying out comparable research. By sharing our experiences, we hope that the design of similar conservation and development-based research can be improved