Sustainable Development Interfaces: a case of NGO Intervention in a Frontier Settlement in Pará

Embora desenvolvimento sustentável tenha sido popularizado na Amazônia brasileira e a literatura sobre sua prática já seja abundante, pouco tem sido discutido sobre o que realmente acontece com a implementação dos projetos. Este artigo busca preencher esta lacuna utilizando a análise de interfaces, que permite ao analista examinar espaços criados através de interações entre os vários atores envolvidos no processo dos projetos de desenvolvimento sustentável. O artigo baseia-se em um projeto de manejo de base comunitária de recursos naturais iniciado por uma organização não-governamental brasileira no sudeste do estado do Pará e discute a importância de esclarecer os diferentes corpos de conhecimento e exercícios da capacidade de ação dos atores (agência) para a promoção do desenvolvimento sustentável

The Global Environment as Life-worlds: On the Senses of Sustainable Development

Arena da política ambiental foi dominado por duas forces opostas. Por um lado, ambientalistas exigiram conservação do meio ambiente incondicional, e por outro lado, desenvolvimentistas promoviram o desenvolvimento econômico através da exploração do meio ambiente. A normalização do conceito de desenvolvimento sustentável no final da década de 1980 abriu um novo espaço político nesta arena, na qual os decisores políticos e peritos começarom a enfatizar a importância de ‘gestão dos recuros naturais’. No entanto, esta ênface na ‘gestão’ não foi suficientemente tomou conta dos significados sociais e culturais associados ao meio ambiente, gerando mais contestações poóliticas ainda. A arena da política ambiental  foi dominada em seus primórdios por duas forças opostas. Por um lado, ambientalistas exigiam conservação do meio ambiente incondicional, e por outro lado, desenvolvimentistas promoviam o desenvolvimento econômico através da exploração do meio ambiente. O surgimento e aceitação do conceito de desenvolvimento sustentável no final da década de 1980 abriu um novo espaço político nesta arena, na qual os decisores políticos e peritos começaram a enfatizar a importância de ‘gestão dos recursos naturais’. No entanto, esta ênfase na ‘gestão’ não foi suficientemente formulada e eficaz gerando mais controvérsias ainda. Este artigo argumenta que a atual controvérsia deriva do pressuposto persistente de que o ambiente como um conjunto de recursos naturais a ser gerido é destacável das atividades humanas. Os casos examinados, neste artigo, demonstram a hipótese de que os ambientes em questão (floresta e baleias) a serem geridos invocam uma divisão conceptual clara entre natureza e sociedade. Referindo-se  aos distintos sentidos sobre o desenvolvimento sustentável, o presente artigo se propõe a desfazer a divisão natureza-sociedade e considerar o ambiente como um novo cenário de elementos humanos e não-humanos, incorporados nos ‘mundos-da-vida’ dos atores. Environmental political arena was once dominated by two opposing forces. On the one hand, environmentalists demanded unconditional conservation of the environment; and on the other, developmentalists promoted economic development by exploiting the environment. The normalization of the concept of sustainable development at the end of the 1980s opened a new policy space in this arena, in which expert policy-makers began to emphasize the importance of ‘natural resource management’. Yet, this emphasis on ‘management’ has not sufficiently taken account of social and cultural meanings attached to the environment, generating policy contestations furthermore. This article argues that the current contestations stem from the persisting assumption that the environment as a set of ‘natural resources’ to be managed is detachable from human activities. Two examples illustrate this argument: the first example shows the emergence of social development concerns in the Amazon; and the second example shows intensifying cultural politics of whaling. Both instances demonstrate that the assumption of the environment at stake (rainforest and whale) to be managed relies on a clear conceptual division between nature and society concerning the environment, whereas this division has been continuously blurred in the process of political negotiations over time. Drawing on the phenomenology and some aspects of science studies, this article proposes to discard the nature-society division and consider the environment as a re-assemblage of human and non-human elements embedded within the involved actors’ life-worlds.

EFFECTS OF JATROPHA INVESTMENTS ON LOCAL CITIZENSHIP IN GHANA

This paper aims to explore implications of large-scale land investment for local citizenship, with a particular focus on customs and mobility. The concept of local citizenship is a neglected aspect of land investment debates. We argue that the use of the concept helps us to identify how large-scale land investments work to invoke the hegemonic and customary power of indigenes and undermine local citizenship identity of migrants. The paper explores why and how this power invoking happened through a critical examination of experiences of five communities that experienced large-scale jatropha investments. Using survey data derived from 350 informants, this paper confirms the existence of deep-rooted land insecurity of migrants. Indigenes invoked the concept of local citizenship identity in land claim, as large scale agri-investments influenced local citizen status through changing value of rural lands, and exposed the use of hegemonic power of indigenes over migrants’ rights to land access

The violence of involuntary resettlement and emerging resistance in Mozambique’s Limpopo National Park: The role of physical and social infrastructure

Nature conservation turns violent when it leads to enclosure, dispossession and militarisation, causing suffering among people living in the environment that is to be protected. Resettlement projects are meant to facilitate the process of repossession for dispossessed people as the proponents promise improved housing and physical infrastructure outside the protected area. While scholarly attention has been paid to the violence of dispossession, little is known about the ways in which the post-resettlement built environment turns violent for displaced people as well as people remaining in the protected area. Drawing on field research on water infrastructure in two resettlement villages in Mozambique's Limpopo National Park (LNP), this paper analyses how the violence of resettlement is entrenched in the material, ecological and political framework that shapes the resettlement project. It pays particular attention to the process by which the resettled citizens struggle with the everyday sufferings in their new built environment in order to expose how physical infrastructure and the lack thereof led to new social infrastructure, which have enabled the remaining park residents’ resistance against resettlement. The emerging resistance indicates the urgent need to pay attention to the built environment expanding outside the conservation area in order to address the violence of resettlement as well as to pursue nature conservation itself

The Significance of Age and Causative Bacterial Morphology in the Choice of an Antimicrobial Agent to Treat Acute Uncomplicated Cystitis

Differentiating patients by age and causative bacterial morphology might aid in making the appropriate choice of antimicrobial agent when treating acute uncomplicated cystitis. In this retrospective analysis, the non-susceptibility rates of the causative bacteria to cefcapene-pivoxil (CFPN-PI) and levofloxacin (LVFX) were determined after dividing patients with acute uncomplicated cystitis by age group (15-54 and 55-74 years old) and by bacterial morphology: gram-positive cocci (GPC) or gram-negative rod (GNR). The overall non-susceptibility rates for CFPN-PI and LVFX were 19.4% and 15.3%, respectively. When the subjects were divided by age, only the non-susceptibility rate for LVFX in the younger group significantly decreased (to 8.7%). When the groups were divided by both age and bacterial morphology, the younger GNR group had non-susceptibility rates of 6.9% to CFPN-PI and 7.8% to LVFX, whereas the younger GPC group showed 10.2% non-susceptibility to LVFX. The older GNR group showed 9.8% non-susceptibility to CFPN-PI, while the older GPC group showed 7.2% non-susceptibility to LVFX. All the non-susceptibility rates were lower than 10.2% in the sub-divided groups. Differentiating patients by age and the morphology of causative bacteria can aid in making the appropriate choice of antimicrobial agent and may improve treatment outcomes in patients with acute uncomplicated cystitis

The trajectory of extractive urbanism: examining the implications of Vale's presence and withdrawal for the coal frontier and its urban spaces in Tete

Motivated by the increased demand for coal in the first decade of this century, multinational mining firms, including the Brazilian Vale, arrived in Tete province, Mozambique and expanded the coal frontier. The recent global agenda for energy transition made Vale decide to divest from Tete, selling all the mining-related assets to a new company, Indian Vulcan. This divestment is likely to lead to the restructuring of the expanded coal frontier and generate wider implications for the inhabitants than currently assumed in studies, which tend to focus on enclaves and resettlement sites constructed by Vale. In this paper, we argue that paying attention to urban spaces beyond the enclaves and resettlement sites helps us establish a more comprehensive understanding of the potential consequences of Vale's investment and divestment on Tete's coal frontier. Critically engaging with the emerging literature on extractive urbanism and drawing on ethnographic field research in three urban spaces, the paper shows that Vale's divestment following the energy transition agenda has deepened uncertainty and generated scepticism about the future development of urban spaces among the frontier inhabitants

Suppressed Immune System Caused by Exposure to Asbestos and Malignant Mesothelioma

Mesothelioma is the most serious of the asbestos-related diseases. It is caused by exposure to relatively low doses of asbestos and takes a long period to develop, which suggests the enactment of gradual adverse effects other than cellular toxicity. The immune system, which can play a role in tumor prevention, is a presumable target of asbestos by accumulation in lymph nodes and then slowly affecting functions of immune cells. Here, we describe key findings obtained from our studies concerning the immune-suppressive effects of asbestos and functional alteration in immune cells of patients with mesothelioma as well as plaque-positive subjects. Asbestos exposure of cell cultures resulted in decreased natural and acquired cytotoxicity exerted by NK cells and CTLs and the ability of Th1 cells to activate and support antitumor immunity. In contrast, asbestos exposure augmented Treg cell function and generation of fibrogenic/suppressive macrophages. Mesothelioma patients also showed similar characteristics in certain alterations caused by asbestos exposure. Additionally, our recent study established immunological screening devices for mesothelioma and asbestos exposure on the basis of comprehensive analysis of peripheral blood. Those findings underscore the importance of the immunological effects of asbestos and should assist further understanding of the mechanism and early detection of mesothelioma

Understanding the cumulative socioenvironmental impacts of energy transition-induced extractivism in Mozambique: The role of mixed methods

The global energy transition is very resource intense, and scholarship is rapidly increasing to show its impacts in various resource extraction frontiers in the global South. These emerging studies are clarifying the social and environmental impacts of extracting particular energy transition resources (ETRs). However, there is still limited attention on the cumulative socioenvironmental impacts of extracting multiple ETRs from the same region. This paper proposes to mix geospatial and qualitative research methods to examine the cumulative socioenvironmental impacts of ETR extraction. We apply these mixed methods to study the impacts of an expanding frontier of graphite and natural gas extraction in Mozambique. The geospatial results show that patterns in socioenvironmental changes, including a surge in built-up and bare areas and water-covered surfaces, and a shrinkage of vegetated areas – some of which are ecologically sensitive, are starting to emerge in the project areas. In combination with qualitative methods, we identified additional impacts including an increase in solid waste and air and noise pollution, and an inception of extractivism-associated conflict in certain project areas. When single commodities are analyzed, using single methods, some of these impacts may be overlooked or underestimated. In order to fully understand the sustainability implications of the energy transition process, it is instrumental to combine geospatial and qualitative research methods to monitor the cumulative socioenvironmental impacts at its upstream end

Exploring synergies between the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and involuntary resettlement guidelines: The case of Mozambique’s natural gas project

This paper explores synergies between the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, comprised of 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as its roadmap, and existing involuntary resettlement guidelines. On one hand, the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development views displacement as a humanitarian problem but fails to address the potential effects of SDG-induced processes of economic and physical displacement and involuntary resettlement. On the other, involuntary resettlement guidelines pay limited attention to the sustainable development of resettled people as well as to the society in which resettlement becomes embedded. This paper explores possibilities to establish synergies between the SDGs and involuntary resettlement by drawing on the case of Mozambique’s liquefied natural gas (LNG) project, which was showcased in the Government of Mozambique’s 2020 Voluntary National Review (VNR) of SDG progress. The paper will critically analyse how Mozambique as a ‘donor darling’ remains silent about displacement and resettlement processes induced by an LNG project that is used to show its commitment to multiple SDGs. The paper shows that there is a misalignment between how SDGs are used to evaluate a development project and how involuntary resettlement guidelines are applied to the same project. The paper argues that, to truly ‘leave no one behind’, the SDGs and involuntary resettlement guidelines need to be realigned by integrating SDG-induced displacement and resettlement into SDG10 on migration and inequality, into SDG16 on conflicts, and SDG17 on global partnerships