Co‐management in Latin American small‐scale shellfisheries: assessment from long‐term case studies

Co‐management (Co‐M), defined as the sharing of management tasks and responsibilities between governments and local users, is emerging as a powerful institutional arrangement to redress fisheries paradigm failures, yet long‐term assessments of its performance are lacking. A comparative analysis of five small‐scale Latin American shellfisheries was conducted to identify factors suggesting success and failure. In Chile, Uruguay and Mexico Co‐M produced positive effects, including stabilization of landings at low levels, increase in abundance, CPUE, unit prices and revenues per unit of effort, and reduced interannual variability in several fishery indicators, particularly in landings. Co‐M was successful because it was mainly bottom‐up implemented and accompanied by‐catch shares (spatial property rights and community quotas). By contrast, Co‐M implementation was unable to prevent the collapse of the Galapagos sea cucumber fishery, as reflected by a decrease in abundance and CPUE. Negative effects were also observed in the Galapagos spiny lobster fishery during Co‐M implementation. However, recovery was observed in recent years, reflected in a stabilization of fishing effort and the highest CPUE and economic revenues observed since the beginning of the Co‐M implementation phase. The combined effects of market forces, climate variability and a moratorium on fishing effort were critical in fishery recovery. We conclude that Co‐M is not a blueprint that can be applied to all shellfisheries to enhance their governability. These social–ecological systems need to be managed by jointly addressing problems related to the resources, their marine environment and the people targeting them, accounting for their socioeconomic and cultural contexts.     

美国草原本科教育的现状与特征

本研究基于美国草原管理学会（Society for Range Management,SRM）及美国高校网站,对美国草原本科专业开设状况、专业主页简介、人才培养方案等信息进行检索与分析,得到美国草原本科教育的现状与特征。结果表明：美国目前共有21所大学开办草原本科专业,另有17所大学开设草原学课程,其布局特征基本与美国草原地理分布相吻合;各高校的草原专业培养方案根据定位与特色具有较大差异,呈现多样性特点;草原专业的设立凸显了美国对草原资源重要性的认知,本科毕业生也普遍具有较好的就业渠道与职业发展前景。总体而言,美国草原本科的概念和内涵要远远小于我国的“草业科学”,更聚焦于对草原资源管理方向的人才培养,不涉及草坪学与饲草学。     

Sustaining sustainable agriculture: The rise and fall of the Fund for Rural America

Sustainable agriculture has lately madesignificant inroads into US agricultural policydiscourse. An examination of the ``life cycle' of theFund for Rural America, a component of the 1996 farmbill, provides an example of the complex and contestedways in which the goals of sustainable agriculture areadvocated, negotiated, and implemented at the level ofnational policy, in the context of the evolvingpolitical and institutional arrangements of Americanagricultural policy. The Fund, with its relativelylarge endowment of $100 million annually, and itsexplicit emphasis on alternative agriculture research,is emblematic of both the growing politicaleffectiveness of the alternative agriculture movementand the increasing institutionalization of alternativeagriculture representatives in Federal agencies. Theuntimely demise of the Fund in the appropriationsprocess, however, illustrates the extent to whichcertain key spaces within the state remain outsidesustainable agriculture's broadening sphere ofinfluence. This suggests that while some aspects ofthe movement's organizing strategy are indeedeffective, some may need to be rethought in light ofthe experience with the FRA.     

Barriers to Sustainable Forestry in Central America and Promising Initiatives to Overcome Them

Summary

Over the past decades, Central America has suffered some of the highest deforestation rates worldwide. Vast tracts of forest have been converted to agriculture and pasture, encouraged by ill-designed government policies and perverse incentives. Recently, however, progress has been made toward more sustainable use of forest resources by adjusting forest policies, decentralizing forest administration, and providing conducive incentives through environmental service payments and forest certification. Valuable forest management experiences have been gained by indigenous and peasant communities. Community forestry in Central America is being increasingly recognized by national governments. Examples include the community concessions in Peten, Guatemala, and community-based forest operations in Honduras and Nicaragua. Stakeholder networks have been established that strengthen horizontal and vertical alliances among wood producers and manufacturers and that help promote both community development and forest conservation. However, illegal logging, poor law enforcement, and lack of economic viability of forest management involving nontraditional species still provide barriers to the sustainable management of tropical broadleaved forests in the region. Future challenges include improved governance through decentralized forest administration, private sector involvement, and third-party certification. To improve traceability and value adding, development of integrated supply chains of forest and wood products is recommended.     

Integrated management of major wheat diseases in Brazil: an example for the Southern Cone region of Latin America

Wheat is an important crop in the Southern Cone region of Latin America. Some of the common wheat diseases in this region are Xanthomonas streak, spot blotch, tan spot, and leaf blotch and the rusts. Rice blast on wheat could also be a problem in certain years. Disease management through varietal resistance, cultural practices including appropriate fungicidal spraying schedule, levels of tolerance for field and seed infections and seed treatment criteria, have been integrated and used for several years in Brazil. Emphasis in integrated disease management (IDM) is on reduction in use of fungicides and consequently in the cost of production. Wheat productivity in Brazil has almost doubled during the past 10 years, owing mainly to the IDM approach. The IDM practices used in Brazil for each of the major diseases can also be adopted in other Latin-American countries with similar agroecosystems.     

美国进步运动对党魁政治的影响

进步运动是美国 20 世纪初的一次大规模的资产阶级改革运动。改革深刻触及了美国的两党政治, 在市政、州政改革中沉重打击了一度泛滥的党魁政治, 在一定程度上革除了政治腐败的温床, 推动了美国的两党政治的变革, 也推动了美国政治民主化的进程。     

A resource demand model of indigenous production: The Jivaroan cultivation systems of Western Amazonia

This study examines the demand for land resources and agricultural production in the lower Pastaza River Basin of the Ecuadorian Amazon. Specifically, we concentrate on two territories controlled by Jivaroan indigenous groups. First, the analysis compares the structural characteristics of riverine and interfluvial cultivation systems in the region. Second, the study investigates the connections between agricultural intensity, population pressure and composition, and terrain conditions at the household level through the integration of geographic information systems, remote sensing, socio-economic surveys, and regression analyses. The study shows that although cultivation practices and the proportion between consumers and producers at the household level are not significantly different among riverine and interfluvial groups, riverine cultivators produce more intensively than interfluvial landholders. In general, the demand for agricultural production at a household level is positively correlated with population pressure and soil quality. In this region, the extent of cultivation is significantly associated with the proportion between consumers and producers along the household’s developmental cycle. These findings provide support for the view that land use intensification among indigenous peoples is similar to the dynamic among non-indigenous market-oriented producers.     

美国高等教育体制与教育理念对我国高等职业教育改革与发展的启示

本文从美国高等教育的体制、理念、管理模式等方面论述了促进美国高等教育发展的因素以及对我国高等职业教育发展的启示和借鉴作用。     

Victual Vicissitudes: Consumer Deskilling and the (Gendered) Transformation of Food Systems

A considerable literature addresses worker deskilling in manufacturing and the related loss of control over production processes experienced by farmers and others working in the agri-food industry. Much less attention has been directed at a parallel process of consumer deskilling in the food system, which has been no less important. Consumer deskilling in its various dimensions carries enormous consequences for the restructuring of agro-food systems and for consumer sovereignty, diets, and health. The prevalence of packaged, processed, and industrially transformed foodstuffs is often explained in terms of consumer preference for convenience. A closer look at the social construction of “consumers” reveals that the agro-food industry has waged a double disinformation campaign to manipulate and to re-educate consumers while appearing to respond to consumer demand. Many consumers have lost the knowledge necessary to make discerning decisions about the multiple dimensions of quality, including the contributions a well-chosen diet can make to health, planetary sustainability, and community economic development. They have also lost the skills needed to make use of basic commodities in a manner that allows them to eat a high quality diet while also eating lower on the food chain and on a lower budget. This process has a significant gender dimension, as it is the autonomy of those primarily responsible for purchasing and preparing foodstuffs that has been systematically undermined. Too often, food industry professionals and regulatory agencies have been accessories to this process by misdirecting attention to the less important dimensions of quality. JoAnn Jaffe teaches rural, environmental, and development sociology, the sociology of gender, and theory in the Department of Sociology and Social Studies of the University of Regina. Michael Gertler teaches rural sociology, the sociology of communities, and the sociology of agriculture in the Department of Sociology at the University of Saskatchewan. He holds a cross appointment in the Centre for the Study of Co-operatives.