Biodiversity Conservation: The Process of Economic Assessment and Establishment of a Protected Area in Vanuatu

This article describes the framework adopted for the socio-economic assessment of protected areas intended to safeguard biodiversity. This framework, which can be described as a three-tiered approach to conservation, is applied to the process of assessment and establishment of a protected area (PA) in Vanuatu. The potential benefits that the landowners of the PA could derive from logging activities, and the subsistence values derived from the PA are considered. It appears that if the PA was to be established without the payment of any compensation, the landowners would face substantial net costs. During the research process, it was suggested that the Government of Vanuatu could take up a lease on the land to compensate the landowners for the loss of potential logging royalties. When the benefits accruing to the landowners from a lease agreement are compared with the foregone logging royalties, it is found that the net present value of a seventy-five year lease agreement is approximately equivalent to the net present value of logging royalties.     

Homelessness,nature, and health: toward a feminist political ecology of masculinities

Engaging with feminist political ecology and leveraging experiences from a 16-month critical ethnography, this research explores ways in which masculinities served as both a rationale and an outcome of men facing homelessness living in the margins of an urban municipal public park – a space known as ‘the Hillside.’ Ethnographic narratives point to Hillside residents making their home in nature, connecting experiences in nature with various masculinities, and the gendered eschewing of social services. These portrayals further highlight the perceived feminization of social services within a context of rapidly neoliberalizing urban environments, and illustrate the ways participants positioned and engaged with social services. Entanglements of health and nonhuman nature prompt a feminist political ecological engagement with masculinity. Experiences from the Hillside add textured richness to discourses concerning the ways in which contemporary landscapes are constructed, perceived, experienced, and co-constituted through and with gender.     

Racial vibrations,masculine performances: experiences of homelessness among young men of colour in the Greater Toronto Area

This article explores the connections between race, masculinity and urban space in the lives of Canadian-born young men of colour (aged 17–26) who have experienced homelessness in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA). It is based on ethnographic research including 40 interviews and eight ‘Where-I-Live-Tours’ of the city by the author and participants. This study explores the intersections between racial emergences and masculine performances in the lived experiences of homelessness, drawing connections between spatial representations and material experiences. It utilizes the concepts of affect and ‘racial vibrations’ to show how race emerges differently in different areas of the GTA. There exists a constant racial ‘vibe’ in the suburban areas of the GTA, whereas there is a vibrating whiteness that obscures racial events in downtown Toronto spaces. In both cases, the emergence of race contributes to continued oppression based on the intersections of racialized masculinities and homelessness.     

Canada and colonial genocide

This introductory article offers an overview of debates about genocide and settler colonialism in Canada. The argument is presented that Canada, although a marginal case to genocide studies, provides important insights and challenging questions, particularly with respect to the need to decolonize the field of genocide studies.     

Book reviews

Gunnar Fermann (ed.), International Politics of Climate Change: Key Issues and Critical Actors. Oslo: Scandinavian University Press, 1997. vi + 472pp. US$45.00 (cloth).

Sanjay Chaturvedi, The Polar Regions: A Political Geography. Chichester: John Wiley & Sons, in association with the Scott Polar Research Institute, 1996. xviii + 306 pp. £35.00 (cloth).

G.R. Sloan, The Geopolitics of Anglo‐Irish Relations in the Twentieth Century. Leicester: Leicester University Press, 1997. xii + 320 pp. £45.00 (cloth).

William T. Tow (ed.), Australian‐American Relations: Looking toward the Next Century. Melbourne: Macmillan, in association with the Australian Institute of International Affairs, 1998. xiv + 226 pp. $36.50 (paper).

Paul Earnshaw, Billion Dollar Business: Strategies and Lessons in Australian Arms Acquisitions. Canberra: Australian Defence Studies Centre, 1998. ix + 165 pp. $20.00 (paper).

Derek McDougall, The International Politics of the New Asia Pacific. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner, 1997. xi + 257 pp. US $55.00 (cloth), US $19.95 (paper).

Nicholas Tarling, Nations and States in Southeast Asia. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998. 138 pp. £69.95 (cloth), £24.95 (paper).

David Martin Jones, Political Development in Pacific Asia. Cambridge: Polity Press, 1997. x + 235 pp. $34.95 (paper).

Scott Burchill and Andrew Linklater, with Richard Devetak, Matthew Paterson and Jacqui True, Theories of International Relations. London: Macmillan, 1996. 274 pp. $32.95 (paper).

William Maley (ed.), Fundamentalism Reborn? Afghanistan and the Taliban. London: C. Hurst, 1998. xiii + 25 3pp. £14.95 (paper).

Nancy Viviani, The Indochinese in Australia 1975–1995: From Burnt Boats to Barbeques. Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1996. xvi + 208 pp. $24.95 (paper).

Stuart Harris and Andrew Mack (eds), Asia‐Pacific Security: The Economics‐Politics Nexus. St. Leonards: Allen & Unwin, with the Department of International Relations and the Northeast Asia Program, ANU, 1997. vi + 305 pp. $24.95 (paper).

Andrew Elek (ed.), Building an Asia‐Pacific Community. Development Cooperation within APEC. Brisbane: The Foundation for Development Cooperation, 1997. xiii + 118 pp. $20.00 (paper).

Markus Wolf, with Anne McElvoy, Man without a Face. London: Jonathan Cape, 1997. xii + 367 pp. £17.99 (cloth).

Mordechai Bar‐On, In Pursuit of Peace: A History of the Israeli Peace Movement. Washington, DC: United States Institute of Peace Press, 1996. xix + 470 pp. US $37.50 (cloth), US 24.95 (paper).

Paul Cammack, Capitalism and Democracy in the Third World: The Doctrine for Political Development. London and Washington: Leicester University Press, 1997. 277 pp. £45.00 (cloth), £14.99 (paper).     

An Approach toward Energy Balance Simulation over Rugged Terrain

We develop a digital computer model, based upon equilibrium temperature theory, of the magnitudes of the components of the energy balance for a mountainous topographic surface. The model includes an algorithm for calculating slope, exposure, and horizon information for every point on a digitized grid. Incoming solar and thermal radiation are then simulated for every point. At present the model is designed for clear-sky conditions, but it could be modified for cloudy skies. Air temperature and humidity variations are specified by externally defined relations, and values for albedo and soil thermal properties are specified for every point on the grid. Wind speed variation over the grid is not modeled, but is specified by an empirical function. The model simulates net radiation, soil heat flow, sensible and latent heat flow, and surface temperature at specified time intervals. Output is in the form of contour maps.