The effects of scales, flows and filters on property rights and collective action in watershed management:

Research and policy on property rights, collective action and watershed management requires good understanding of ecological and socio-political processes at different social-spatial scales. On-farm soil erosion is a plot or farm-level problem that can be mitigated through more secure property rights for individual farmers, while the sedimentation of streams and deterioration of water quality are larger-scale problems that may require more effective collective action and / or more secure property rights at the village or catchment scale. Differences in social-political contexts across nations and regions also shape property rights and collective action institutions. For example, circumstances in the Lake Victoria basin in East Africa require particular attention to collective action and property rights problems in specific “hot spot” areas where insecure tenure leads to overuse or under-investment. Circumstances in the uplands of Southeast Asia require analysis of the opportunities for negotiating more secure rights for farmers in exchange for stronger collective action by farmer groups for maintaining essential watershed functions.

Private sector participation in solid waste collection in addis ababa (Ethiopia) by involving Micro-enterprises

__Abstract__ Privatization of urban services focuses often on the involvement of foreign enterprises. This contribution deals with micro-privatization, the partial transfer of government responsibility for solid waste collection to micro-enterprises. It tries to shed light on whether the current private sector participation (PSP) of micro-enterprises in solid waste collection service is the best way to capture the expected advantages of private sector involvement. The article examines the relations of the micro-enterprises with beneficiaries and the public sector by focusing on the contract procedure, the tariff-setting process, the cost recovery mechanism and institutionalizing of market principles for micro-enterprises. The research was carried out using secondary and primary data sources. Primary data were collected through the interviewing of public sector officials at different levels, focus group discussions with community groups and micro-enterprises, and observation. A survey was conducted among 160 micro-enterprises in the city of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, using a standard questionnaire. What are some of the factors contributing to the results of PSP in Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia? Policies at higher levels of government definitely produced an overall climate conducive to micro-privatization and recognized the need to develop micro-enterprises, but it is not clear what role the micro-enterprises are to play in solid waste management. New opportunities were created by formalization and taken up by communities and micro-enterprises. Coverage and waste collected both increased. The initiation and institutionalization of the formalization process was not without problems. The public sector over-stressed the autonomy of micro-enterprises. The fate of the micro-enterprises is largely determined by the reforms undertaken at local government level. The rapid changes in policies at the local level made waste-collecting micro-enterprises lose confidence and more dependent on the public sector. The study shows the continued power of the state and its agents in shaping developments in this domain

Urban environmental and economic performance linked to sustainability: Evidence from big and medium size Chinese cities

This paper is based on research in Chinese cities. It addresses the issues related to urban environmental performance and sustainability in emerging Chinese cities. The result shows that: (1) To basically control the degradation of urban environment the minimum per capita GDP should be about 1000 USD in China. This amount is only one third of that in the developed world; (2) The average share in GDP necessary for environmental investments is 2.9%. Such an amount would help to avoid further urban environmental degradation in Chinese big cities. 1.7% of GDP would be necessary for medium-sized cities. These environmental investments will have a positive impact on local economic growth and social progress; (3) Cities are in different stages from non-sustainability to sustainability, and the major characteristics of cities in these different stages will be presented in this paper; (4) It is obvious that significant differences in urban environmental management exist in cities that were identified and which are at different stages of urban sustainability

Trees and Regeneration in Rubber Agroforests and Other Forest-derived Vegetation in Jambi (Sumatra, Indonesia)

The rubber agroforests (RAF) of Indonesia provide a dynamic interface between natural processes of forest regeneration and human's management targeting the harvesting of latex with minimum investment of time and financial resources. The composition and species richness of higher plants across an intensification gradient from forest to monocultures of tree crops have been investigated in six land use types (viz. secondary forest, RAF, rubber monoculture, oil palm plantation, cassava field and Imperata grassland) in Bungo, Jambi Province, Indonesia. We emphasize comparison of four different strata (understory, seedling, sapling and tree) of vegetation between forest and RAF, with specific interest in plant dependence on ectomycorrhiza fungi. Species richness and species accumulation curves for seedling and sapling stages were similar between forest and RAF, but in the tree stratum (trees > 10 cm dbh) selective thinning by farmers was evident in a reduction of species diversity and an increase in the proportion of trees with edible parts. Very few trees dependent on ectomycorrhiza fungi were encountered in the RAF. However, the relative distribution of early and late successional species as evident from the wood density distribution showed no difference between RAF and forest

Distinct trajectories of disease-specific health status in heart failure patients undergoing cardiac resynchronization therapy

Purpose: It is well known that a significant proportion of heart failure patients (10–44 %) do not show improvement in symptoms or functioning from cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT), yet no study has examined patient-reported health status trajectories after implantation. Methods: A cohort of 139 patients with a CRT-defibrillator (70 % men; age 65.7 ± 10.1 years) completed the Kansas City Cardiomyopathy Questionnaire (KCCQ) prior to implantation (baseline) and at 2, 6, and 12–14 months post-implantation. Latent class analyses were used to identify trajectories and associates of disease-specific health status over time. Results: All health status trajectories showed an initial small to large improvement from baseline to 2-month follow-up, whereafter most trajectories displayed a stable pattern between short- and long-term follow-up. Low educational level, NYHA class III/IV, smoking, no use of beta-blockers, use of psychotropic medication, anxiety, depression, and type D personality were found to be associated with poorer health status in unadjusted analyses. Interestingly, subgroups of patients (12–20 %) who experienced poor health status at baseline improved to stable good health status levels after implantation. Conclusions: Levels of disease-specific health status vary considerably across subgroups of CRT-D patients. Classification into poorer disease-specific health status trajectories was particularly associated with patients’ psychological profile and NYHA classification. The timely identification of CRT-D patients who present with poor disease-specific health status (i.e., KCCQ score < 50) and a distressed psychological profile (i.e., anxiety, depression, and/or type D personality) is paramount, as they may benefit from cardiac rehabilitation in combination with psychological intervention

Agroforestry Interactions in Rainfed Agriculture: Can Hedgerow Intercropping Systems Sustain Crop Yield on an Ultisol in Lampung (Indonesia)?

The productivity of rainfed agriculture land developed on Ultisols is limited by physical and chemical constraints. These problems can be solved and consistently high yields obtained only by the development of comprehensive manage-ment systems. In the 1980s, hedgerow inter-cropping was promoted initially for improving soil fertility and sustainability of crop production on nutrient-depleted soils. However the previous enthusiasm for hedgerow intercropping is unsupported by scientific evidence and its labour demand too high. The question remains, is there a window of opportunity where the biophysical principle of hedgerow intercropping is sound? Research to compare the long-term performance of crops and trees in hedgerow intercropping and monocluture cropping is needed. This research has been conducted at long-term field experiment station at the BMSF-Project, Lampung, Indone-sia. The experiment site had non-nitrogen-fixing peltophorum (PP), nitrogen-fixing gliricidia (GG) and alternate peltophorum and gliricidia (PG) hedgerow intercropping and maize / groundnut monoculture (C) treatments. We concluded that the net interactions related to soil fertility and competition for growth resources in peltophroum were positive for crop yield in PP and PG but negative for GG. Even so, the PP and PG sys-tems resulted in similar yields as monocropping; however, hedgerow intercropping considerably improved soil fertility attributes