Corridors of Power: Assembling US Environmental Foreign Aid

Using the US Agency for International Development's environmental program in Madagascar as a lens, I offer a historically grounded, relational, and multi-sited methodology for understanding the transnational processes that constitute political forests in the contemporary era. I argue that neoliberal reforms conditioned the emergence of a public–private–non-profit alliance, which promoted biodiversity conservation as a US foreign aid priority. As these reforms weakened state capacity and liberalised economies, the downsized Madagascar and US governments became reliant on conservation actors to mobilise political support for their programs. This reinforced the need to maintain strategic relationships with capital-city actors, undermining prior efforts to devolve forest management to local communities. By isolating deforestation as a peasant problem “over there” and by expanding protected areas to meet global biodiversity targets, the conservation alliance created an avenue to be green that did not threaten extractive industries or key constituents. In this manner, saving the environment via protected areas expansion offered politicians a pathway through the inherent contradictions of green neoliberalism.     

Political Decoupling: Private Implementation of Public Policy

Where policy goals can be achieved through regulation of private firms, private provision of public services allows governments to separate public policies from their political costs by shifting those costs to the private sector. Over the past three decades, financial decoupling has emerged as a regulatory strategy for promoting conservation, especially in the energy sector. Decoupling refers to the separation of a firm’s revenues from the volume of its product consumed, which allows companies to pursue resource efficiency free from financial risk. Similarly, when private firms provide public services, they separate public policies from their political costs. This political decoupling allows governments to pursue controversial policies while avoiding their attendant political risks. Applied to environmental policy, this theory implies that potentially unpopular conservation policies are more likely to be adopted and succeed when implemented through private firms. As an initial test of the theory, we analyze California water utilities and their responses to that state’s drought from 2015–2017. Analysis shows that, compared with those served by local government utilities, private utilities adopted more aggressive conservation measures, were more likely to meet state conservation standards, and conserved more water.     

文物的赋存环境及其预防性保护问题

我国是世界上历史最悠久的古国之一,拥有为数众多的具有历史、科学、社会及经济价值的文物。本研究尝试综述了从文物与其赋存环境关系的角度,将文物赋存环境分为全曝露自然环境、半曝露自然环境及人工营造环境,通过分析赋存环境对文物的影响,探讨文物赋存环境的转化过程,提出不同环境条件下文物的预防性保护问题。     

Our land is our voice: First Nation heritage-making in the Tr’ondëk/Klondike

Abstract

The subsistence lifeways of the Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in, a First Nation in northwestern Canada, were radically challenged by the arrival of settler colonialism during the Klondike Gold Rush (1896–98). This Yukon First Nation has subsequently faced down a powerful array of Western heritage activities and commemorations, both local and national, designed to absorb them into modernity. Through a conscious and continuous programme of heritage-making, the citizens of the First Nation have re-asserted their territorial sovereignty and maintained and adapted their cultural identity to changing circumstances. Their heritage-making strategies are illustrated through a review of their call for a treaty, the creation of new instruments for carrying and expressing their cultural identity and their more recent programme of support for the survivors of the Canadian Government’s Indian Residential Schools.     

Injection Grouts for the Re-Attachment of Architectural Surfaces with Historic Value—Measures to Improve the Properties of Hydrated Lime Grouts in Slovenia

In the described studies with the aim of optimizing hydrated lime grout composition, the first measure was to reduce the water content of the grout using a highly efficient polycarboxylate ether-based superplasticizer, whereas the second measure was to increase the content of the inert limestone filler with an adequate grain size distribution. In this way, an attempt was made to achieve the best possible volume stability and strength properties of the hydrated lime grout, while continuing to fulfill the other necessary requirements regarding non-structural grouting works which are reported in the literature.

The results of the tests showed that a non-structural grout consisting of 1 volume part of hydrated lime CL 90-S and 3 volume parts of inert limestone filler, with 0.5% of the polycarboxylate ether based superplasticizer, fulfilled most of the established requirements, so that it is thus potentially suitable for re-attachment interventions on architectural surfaces.     

Identification of Suspected Horn from the Queen Anne's Revenge (1718), North Carolina,USA

Infrared spectroscopy can be a valuable tool for conservators and archaeologists to help identify archaeological artefacts. We present a case‐study on the identification of an artefact recovered by North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources (NCDCR) Underwater Archaeology Branch from an early‐18th‐century shipwreck (31CR314). The wreck is assumed to be the remains of Queen Anne's Revenge, which sank off the North Carolina coast in 1718. A sample of the artefact was analysed by infrared spectroscopy to identify it. Prior to spectroscopic analysis it was speculated that the sample could be animal horn or leather. © 2011 The Authors     

广东“南澳Ⅰ号”明代沉船出水铜器腐蚀产物分析

由于海水环境中含有大量氯化物,海洋出水铜器在出水前已发生腐蚀,生成铜的氧化物及氯化物等。本文以广东"南澳Ⅰ号"明代沉船出水的22件铜器残片为研究对象,运用X-射线荧光仪(XRF)、X-射线衍射仪(XRD)和扫描电镜与能谱仪(SEM-EDS)等分析其腐蚀产物和矿物组成,结果表明腐蚀产物主要为铜的碱式氯化物,如Cu2(OH)3Cl和Cu(OH)Cl等,与国外已有研究成果类似,但Cu(OH)Cl在国外海洋出水铜器腐蚀产物中并不常见。     

Physical Geography and the Geographic Thought Course

The positioning of residential fieldwork early in students' higher education is an established way of attempting to build and engage them in a community of learning. In the study reported here, the benefits of such early residential fieldwork were investigated using Krausse and Coates's seven scales of engagement. These scales consider a number of key indicators – specifically transition, academic, beyond-class, peer, staff–student, online and intellectual engagement. Data on these scales were collected via questionnaires completed by groups of students who did and did not attend such a residential fieldwork event, both before and after the event. A Wilcoxon test of these data showed significant increases in peer and student–staff engagement in the post-fieldwork group only. A Kruskal–Wallis analysis provides evidence that students who had been on residential fieldwork became more involved in a community of learning with both their peers and virtual communities than those who had not. These results support the hypothesis that early residential fieldwork is an effective way of engaging students new to higher education in a community of learning.     

Gendered livelihoods and the politics of socio-environmental identity: women's participation in conservation projects in Calakmul,Mexico

A livelihoods approach positions individuals, situated within households, as active agents within processes occurring at various scales. Environmental conservation efforts represent one such process with direct implications for local sustainable livelihoods and the gendered nature of livelihood strategies. In this article, I examine collective processes of socio-environmental identity construction as gendered sustainable livelihood strategies, articulated in and through the activities of women's agricultural organizations in communities bordering the Calakmul Biosphere Reserve in rural southern Mexico. I present group histories and visual evidence from group activities – adapted from participatory rural appraisal (PRA) methodology – to highlight two important concepts. These are: (1) that gendered livelihood strategies are outcomes of negotiations within households and communities, in response to specific gendered opportunities and constraints; and (2) that gendered livelihood strategies consist of linked material and ideological aspects.     

从“原真性”实践反思中国遗产保护——以宏村为例

原真性是一个建构的概念,中国遗产保护在与国际接轨过程中,没有基于中国文化背景对其加以操作细化。本文通过宏村案例研究发现,在政府以"原真性"为指导思想的自上而下的遗产保护行动中,一直未能就原真性概念本身与社区自下而上的内生力量形成有效的社会互动和共同建构,这导致了原真性概念突出地表现出国际化、行政化、精英化的特征,本土声音特别是当地社区居民的话语权缺失,最终造成了文化遗产保护趋向于表面化、静态化、无机化、旅游化。因此,在遗产保护和管理中,要将原真性理解成一种建构性的标准,充分尊重居民所具有的权力,以确保原真性实践的有效性。