Digital Commons Network^™

Local Environmental Quality And Inter-Jurisdictional Spillovers, John W. Hatfield, Katrina Kosec

Katrina Kosec

Beyond Westphalia: Competitive Legalization In Emerging Transnational Regulatory Systems, Errol E. Meidinger

Errol Meidinger

Published as Chapter 7 in Law and Legalization in Transnational Relations, Christian Brütsch & Dirk Lehmkuhl, eds.

This paper analyzes several emerging transnational regulatory systems that engage, but are not centered on state legal systems. Driven primarily by civil society organizations, the new regulatory systems use conventional technical standard setting and certification techniques to establish market-leveraged, social and environmental regulatory programs. These programs resemble state regulatory programs in many important respects, and are increasingly legalized. Individual sectors generally have multiple regulatory programs that compete with, but also mimic and reinforce each other. While forestry is the most developed example, similar …

Distinguishing Land Change From Natural Variability And Uncertainty In Central Mexico With Modis Evi, Trmm Precipitation, And Modis Lst Data, Zachary Christman, John Rogan, J. Ronald Eastman, B. L. Turner Ii

Zachary Christman

Precipitation and temperature enact variable influences on vegetation, impacting the type and condition of land cover, as well as the assessment of change over broad landscapes. Separating the influence of vegetative variability independent and discrete land cover change remains a major challenge to landscape change assessments. The heterogeneous Lerma-Chapala-Santiago watershed of central Mexico exemplifies both natural and anthropogenic forces enacting variability and change on the landscape. This study employed a time series of Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI) composites from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectoradiometer (MODIS) for 2001–2007 and per-pixel multiple linear regressions in order to model changes in EVI as …

An Assessment Of South China Tiger Reintroduction Potential In Hupingshan And Houhe National Nature Reserves, China, Yiyuan Qin, Philip J. Nyhus, Courtney L. Larson, Charles J.W. Carroll, Jeff Muntifering, Thomas D. Dahmer, Lu Jun, Ronald L. Tilson

Philip J. Nyhus

Human-caused biodiversity loss is a global problem, large carnivores are particularly threatened, and the tiger (Panthera tigris) is among the world’s most endangered large carnivores. The South China tiger (Panthera tigris amoyensis) is the most critically endangered tiger subspecies and is considered functionally extinct in the wild. The government of China has expressed its intent to reintroduce a small population of South China tigers into a portion of their historic range as part of a larger goal to recover wild tiger populations in China. This would be the world’s first major tiger reintroduction program. A free-ranging population of 15–20 tigers …

Evaluating Heterogeneous Conservation Effects Of Forest Protection In Indonesia, Payal Shah, Kathy Baylis

Kathy Baylis

Filipino Journalists Speak Out And Pay The Price, Eric Loo

Eric Loo

There's the shepherd, the flock and the sacristan. Together they drive the media machine with their paymaster, in the back seat brazenly directing the way through the back alleys of Philippine politics.' The 'shepherds' are former journalists turned media publicists. 'Shepherds' take care of reporters covering the election campaign trails - from arranging accommodation to providing food and 'night' entertainment. This can rake in as much as 40,000 pesos monthly (about US$729) for 'shepherding' a presidential election. That's equivalent to how much a broadsheet senior reporter earns in three months. Another story tells of editors pocketing P20,000 to P50,000 a …

Maritime Security Issues In An Arc Of Instability And Opportunity. Security Challenges, Quentin Hanich, Sam Bateman

Quentin Hanich

The Pacific Arc of islands and archipelagos to the north and east of Australia has been characterised both as an ‘arc of instability’ and as an ‘arc of opportunity’. It is the region from or through which a threat to Australia could most easily be posed, as well as an area providing opportunities for Australia to work on common interests with the ultimate objective of a more secure and stable region. Maritime issues are prominent among these common interests. This article identifies these issues and their relevance to Australia’s maritime strategy. It suggests measures Australia might take to exploit the …

Bridging Vs. Bonding Social Capital And The Management Of Common Pool Resources, Kathy Baylis, Yazhen Gong, Shun Wang

Kathy Baylis

Social capital can facilitate community governance, but not all social capital is alike. We distinguish bonding social capital (within a village) from bridging social capital (between villages), and we compare their effects on the management of a common pool resource. We develop a theoretical model and show that bonding social capital can improve common pool resource management, while the effect of bridging social capital is mixed. We test these findings using primary data from Yunnan, China on social capital and firewood collection on communal lands. We find that bonding social capital decreases the consumption of the common pool resource, and …

Market Mechanisms, Ecological Sustainability And Social Equity, Sharon Beder

Sharon Beder

In most cases the use of market mechanisms to protect the environment aim to maximise economic efficiency rather than environmental effectiveness or equity. The use of emissions trading to reduce greenhouse gases in the atmosphere is used as a case study to demonstrate this.

Do Our Conservation Programs Work? A Spatially Explicit Estimate Of Avoided Forest Loss, Jordi Honey-Roses, Kathy Baylis, Maria Isabel Ramirez

Kathy Baylis

China's Strategic Interests In Cambodia: Influence And Resources, Sophal Ear, Sigfrido Burgos

Sophal Ear

Special Journal Issue: "Perspectives On The Recent Past", Brent Fortenberry, Adrian Myers

Adrian Myers

No abstract provided.