Protecting Nature and Displacing People

We usually think that national parks, wildlife sanctuaries, and other areas reserved for the protection of nature are good things but the displacement effects of protected areas have made them highly controversial in many parts of the world. However, many environmental groups see an expanded protected areas system as central to the preservation of both biodiversity and the "charismatic megafauna" which are the basis of their funding drives. Based on a discussion of the historical roots of protected areas, the globalization of nature protection and local people in conservation, this article offers alternatives to the displacement of rural populations in the name of nature conservation.On se représente généralement les parcs naturels, les sanctuaires de vie sauvage et autres zones orientées vers la protection de la nature comme étant une bonne chose. Il s'avère cependant que l'impact sur le déplacement des populations du à ce type de zones protégées a fait de ces dernières des objets de virulentes controverses dans plusieurs régions du monde. Mais malgré tout, de nombreux groupes environnementaux considèrent qu'un système élargi de zones protégées est crucial pour la préservation de la biodiversité et de la "mégafaune charismatique", qui sont les deux motifs majeurs de leur financement. En s'appuyant sur une discussion des fondements historiques de la mise en place des zones protégées, et de la mise en commun des priorités de protection de la nature et de préseroation des populations locales, le présent article suggère des solutions alternatives au déplacement des populations rurales au nom de la Conservation de la Nature

Shrimp Farmers in Thailand Need to Be Involved in Regulating Their Industry

In Southern Thailand, certification efforts would be more effective if they worked with local residents, communities, and governments who are currently the most effective regulators of shrimp farming.York's Knowledge Mobilization Unit provides services and funding for faculty, graduate students, and community organizations seeking to maximize the impact of academic research and expertise on public policy, social programming, and professional practice. It is supported by SSHRC and CIHR grants, and by the Office of the Vice-President Research & Innovation. [email protected] www.researchimpact.c

WTO accession, the changing competitiveness of foreign-financed firms and regional development in Guangdong of southern China

This paper investigates the changing competitiveness of foreign-financed manufacturing firms and its implications for regional development in Guangdong province of southern China in the run-up to World Trade Organization (WTO) accession. It is argued that transnational corporations (TNCs) and some competitive, large-scale, locally-funded firms in Guangdong will triumph after WTO accession. The crowding-out process of small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) in Guangdong will be accelerated in the near future, as they are competing directly with TNCs, and as their competitive advantages are diminishing, due to bureaucratic red tape and the rigorous enforcement of new government policies. Due to close business linkages with local privately-funded firms, the competitiveness and vitality of foreign-financed enterprises will have profound long term effects on the economic development of Guangdong, before and after WTO accession

(En)countering counterfeits in Bangkok: the urban spatial interlegalities of intellectual property law, enforcement and tolerance

In a Bangkok mall a fibreglass policeman warning against intellectual property (IP) piracy stands just metres away from vendors selling fake DVDs; a scene indicative of incomplete and unsuccessful attempts by foreign governments (the US and EU in particular) and corporate actors at enrolment towards ever-higher IP standards – the ‘IP ratchet’ that Drahos (2004 Intellectual property and pharmaceutical markets: a nodal governance approach Temple Law Review 77 401–24) describes. But the scene also reflects cultural resistance at the local level. Both readings exemplify the range of historical, cultural, and politico-legal factors at play that can only be understood through engagement with vendors and consumers in the markets and malls of Bangkok. IP laws may achieve partial ‘closure’ but are regularly changing, contested, variably enforced, and subject to existing social norms such as the ‘cult of imitation’, cultures of legal informality, and a lack of social contract. We found that this lack of legal closure was most pronounced in the day-to-day operation of the Pratunam Market. Whilst other sites host regular crack-downs by police, the IP-specific DSI force, and the Thai courts, markets like Pratunam are mostly immune despite being a transnational trade node for the production and export of counterfeit garments with other developing countries, and a non-conforming node in the IP enforcement context. In the face of persistent efforts to transpose Euro-American IP laws in countries like Thailand, alternative and resistant nodes representing ‘spaces of interlegalities’ are likely to persevere because of the historical context, and the socio-cultural norms of these places

Heirloom rice in Ifugao: an ‘anti-commodity’ in the process of commodification

We analyse the marketing of ‘heirloom rices’ produced in the Cordillera mountains of northern Luzon, the Philippines, as the commodification of a historical ‘anti-commodity’. We contend that, historically, rice was produced for social, cultural and spiritual purposes but not primarily for sale or trade. The Ifugaos were able to sustain terraced wet-rice cultivation within a system of ‘escape agriculture’ because they were protected from Spanish interference by the friction of terrain and distance. ‘Heirloom rice’ is a boundary concept that enables social entrepreneurs to commodify traditional landraces. We analyse the implications for local rice production and conservation efforts.Templeton Foundatio

Certify Sustainable Aquaculture?

Aquaculture, the farming of aquatic organisms, provides close to 50% of the world's supply of seafood, with a value of U.S. $125 billion. It makes up 13% of the world's animal-source protein (excluding eggs and dairy) and employs an estimated 24 million people (1). With capture (i.e., wild) fisheries production stagnating, aquaculture may help close the forecast global deficit in fish protein by 2020 (2). This so-called “blue revolution” requires addressing a range of environmental and social problems, including water pollution, degradation of ecosystems, and violation of labor standards

Passing the Panda Standard: A TAD Off the Mark?

Tilapia, a tropical freshwater fish native to Africa, is an increasingly important global food commodity. The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), a major environmental nongovernmental organization, has established stakeholder dialogues to formulate farm certification standards that promote ‘‘responsible’’ culture practices. As a preface to its ‘‘tilapia aquaculture dialogue,’’ the WWF for Nature commissioned a review of potential certification issues, later published as a peer-reviewed article. This article contends that both the review and the draft certification standards subsequently developed fail to adequately integrate critical factors governing the relative sustainability of tilapia production and thereby miss more significant issues related to resource-use efficiency and the appropriation of ecosystem space and services. This raises a distinct possibility that subsequent certification will promote intensive systems of tilapia production that are far less ecologically benign than existing widely practiced semiintensive alternatives. Given the likely future significance of this emergent standard, it is contended that a more holistic approach to certification is essential

Policies, Political-Economy, and Swidden in Southeast Asia

For centuries swidden was an important farming practice found across the girth of Southeast Asia. Today, however, these systems are changing and sometimes disappearing at a pace never before experienced. In order to explain the demise or transitioning of swidden we need to understand the rapid and massive changes that have and are occurring in the political and economic environment in which these farmers operate. Swidden farming has always been characterized by change, but since the onset of modern independent nation states, governments and markets in Southeast Asia have transformed the terms of swiddeners’ everyday lives to a degree that is significantly different from that ever experienced before. In this paper we identified six factors that have contributed to the demise or transformation of swidden systems, and support these arguments with examples from China (Xishuangbanna), Laos, Thailand, Malaysia, and Indonesia. These trends include classifying swiddeners as ethnic minorities within nation-states, dividing the landscape into forest and permanent agriculture, expansion of forest departments and the rise of conservation, resettlement, privatization and commoditization of land and land-based production, and expansion of market infrastructure and the promotion of industrial agriculture. In addition we note a growing trend toward a transition from rural to urban livelihoods and expanding urban-labor markets