Ecological economics and political ecology offer complementary perspectives on economy–society–environment interactions. Although both refer to values and perceptions, ecological economics focuses on what provides benefits and how values can be elicited, and political ecology scrutinizes the socio-political setting within which preferences are revealed. Linking the two areas of study makes it possible to depict socially constructed values that are affected by different discourses and power inequalities, as well as by the stakeholders' geographical distance from the issue concerned. Mining activity is a special case, because the selection of potential sites is restricted by the natural distribution of resources, bringing them to the attention of different stakeholders. Mining interferes with ecosystem structure and function, making the trade-offs between different uses of the environment explicit and demonstrating how difficult it is to protect ecosystem services, especially in some political settings. Two case studies (Kumtor in Kyrgyzstan and Pascua-Lama in Chile–Argentina) illustrate how gold mining interferes with glaciers and how this may be affected by changing perceptions of global warming. In the case of Kumtor, at least 39 million m3 of glacier ice were removed by the end of 2011, but this intervention and the subsequent consequences escaped public attention. Meanwhile, the plans to remove 0.8 million m3 of ice, in the case of Pascua-Lama, led to widespread protests in which local communities were joined by overseas pressure groups and other stakeholders. The factors that led to the disparity of interest and opposition in the two case studies reflect larger market, government and social empowerment failures in Kyrgyzstan. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.
This article examines the relationship between technology and policy change, focusing on shifts in Israel's water regime as a case example. Technologies, especially systems of large-scale infrastructures, have offered an explanation for the stability and stagnation of policy regimes in what has been termed “lock-in” and path dependency. Our paper focuses on the reverse phenomenon: on how technology or change in it can induce policy change. Israeli decision-makers have recently embraced desalination technology as a substitute for natural resources, because earlier policies, characterized by a strategy of environmental brinkmanship, have resulted in degradation of natural sources and risk future supply. This analysis is based on extensive document analysis and in-depth interviews. We suggest that technological breakthroughs that rendered desalination economically feasible also undermined long-lasting hydro-ideological support for agriculture, introduced new ideas about water abundance and engendered policy change. Desalination contributed to these shifts because it allowed the displacement of environmental externalities, economic costs and hard political choices to other policy sectors and levels of governance as well as reallocating them between political actors, bureaucrats and professionals. It is important to make displacements like these more visible in order to emphasize more comprehensive and longer-term problem solving rather than problem avoidance or postponement. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.
The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between the stringency of NOx regulation and environmental technological change in the EU and US glass industry. A time series of patents on NOx primary reduction measures, including oxy-fuel technology drawn from the international patent class ‘glass melting furnaces’, serves as an indicator of technological change. A qualitative analysis based on patent data and face-to-face interviews with glass industry representatives revealed that NOx-related patent registrations, particularly in Germany and the US, are closely associated with early national NOx regulations and to a more limited extent with international regulation. Quantitative analysis of patent citations as a measure of knowledge spillover between patents showed that the strong environmental knowledge of Germany and the US is not only widely used within these countries, and also in other countries where environmental regulation began at a later stage. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.
In this paper, the concept of resilience is extended to the socio-economic domain in order to analyse the relationships between diversity in land use and ability to react to unexpected events. By considering the cocoa crisis of the 1990s, the impacts on economy, migration and land use diversification have been investigated for seven municipalities of the south-east of Bahia (Brazil). Correlation analyses between gross domestic product (GDP) and landscape indices have been performed to analyse the relationships between land use diversification and incidence of the crisis. Variations in the distribution of urban and rural population and in land use diversification have also been considered to analyse the reactions of the different municipalities. Results show that low land use diversification make the system low resilience. Being based on monoculture production, the seven administrative units considered in this paper turned out to be particularly vulnerable to the economic and environmental perturbation. The findings of this paper largely support policies promoting land use diversification as an instrument oriented to promote both economic productivity and environmental protection. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment
The design and implementation of the EU Water Framework Directive (WFD) in Germany has clearly been inspired by the Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) concept. The paper shows, however, that Germany's current river basin management follows a light version of IWRM, by only coordinating groundwater and surface water responsibilities rather than integrating various water related sectors. When assessing the current implementation of the WFD, Article 14 on participation is crucial. This is because the establishment of participatory forums involving stakeholders and the general public is directly related to the question of fit between the administrative and political boundaries of water management and the hydrogeological territory of a river basin. We argue that management concepts that simultaneously aim at integration and participation, such as IWRM, seem to pull in opposite directions. Based on document analysis, an extensive literature review and interviews with key informants, two cases of river basin management in Germany – Ems and Warnow–Peene – empirically substantiate the argument that participation needs to be linked up effectively with the existing, democratically legitimized decision-making structures, which becomes more complicated the more decision-making power and responsibilities are integrated. Moreover, we found that most national, federal and regional state activities are still limited to simply informing and consulting people. The paper ends with recommendations on how to improve governance structures for water management while embracing Germany's approach of light IWRM. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.