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Corruption in Swat Swat , Pakistan is impairing the sustainable management of forest. In this study, we focus on the factors leading to corruption in forest management in Swat Swat : we analyse corruption in a case study setting against the backdrop of the reform options that are most often cited as possible solutions. As we highlight in this study, the ˵crime and punishment crime and punishment ″ approach (Becker 1968), is not feasibly implemented if the overall institutional environment is weak. Since countrywide overhaul of corruption through sweeping reform programs, the other reform approach which we call the ˵holistic approach holistic approach ″, is a difficult and lengthy task, which is seldom accomplished (Kaufmann et al. 2005), we find that there is a need for alternative/complementary kind of reform. In this study, we argue for reforms that are limited in geographical and institutional scope, and which can accompany or precede more sweeping reform programs. In the case of a corruption ridden centralized forest management regime, institutional reform should move away from enforcement enforcement of existing institutions and promote communal management of natural resources by locals. That is not to say that more comprehensive reforms should not be pursued: their implementation could go hand in hand with local reforms. We believe that the lack of implementation of wider reforms cannot be an excuse for inaction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper identifies three key challenges for current energy policies: Internalisation of externalities, efficient operation of markets and investment adequacy in liberalised markets. The corresponding research issues are then discussed, focusing on the simultaneous achievement of efficient market operation and investment adequacy in electricity markets. The paper points at the need for applied stochastic models in this field and provides some directions for the construction of such models. Furthermore it raises the question whether there is an underlying challenge: a trade-off between robustness and efficiency in the design of markets. Robustness as a control-theoretic concept is briefly sketched and its potential relevance is illustrated using several examples from environmental economics and beyond. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Today we are not talking about sustainable development alone, but also about its spatial understanding. This new vision of sustainable development is shaping the modernization of the educational process, which takes the transformation of traditional approaches to modern requirements into consideration. Traditional theories of spatial development basically examine it in a two-dimensional (i.e. territorial) aspect. Generally speaking, the systems' stability or sustainability is a measure of its ability to keep movement, or changes within the system, on the intended trajectory, despite the influence of outside forces. The three forms of stability, inertness, recoverability and plasticity, will be discussed in this paper (Grodzinskiy 1993). The modern approach to understanding the spatial sustain-ability of a system should be based on the ability of the system to meet these forms. This paper will also discuss the properties that each element of a system must have in order for the system to model special sustainable development. The up-to-date educational process should be focused on new understanding of management for sustainable development and on corresponding sets of tools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In general equilibrium theory, it has been shown that market equilibria are socially optimal under certain conditions. However, if the society under consideration does not meet these conditions, market failure prevails. One of the causes for market failure, most prominent in the literature, is externality. Real world examples for the theoretical concept of externality are environmental problems. In this paper it is shown how policy makers can intelligently support individual decisions in order to harmonize individual utility maximization and social welfare maximization, even if externalities exist. Alternative means to internalize externalities are assessed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The UN Convention to Combat Desertification was one of the key conventions emerging from the 1992 Conference on Environment and Development. At this meeting, inter-governmental organisations, NGOs and scientists agreed that desertification and land degradation are `major economic, social and environmental problems in all regions of the world΄ and that they `should be addressed through a United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification΄ (Chapter 12, Agenda 21; UNCCD, 1994). This chapter outlines the early stages of a novel research project that aims to explore the links between this global environmental discourse on desertification and the practical, local socio-economic impacts and responses to land degradation in the Central Asia region. It first explores the changing role of science in combating desertification. Second, it provides some background to the UN Convention to Combat Desertification, highlighting three key features of its approach: decentralisation, participation and the importance of local knowledge in anti-desertification activities. It then reviews the historical links between the environmental, social, political and economic dimensions of land degradation and desertification in Central Asia. A programme of activities is presented next, which is designed to investigate how the international approaches outlined in the UN Convention to Combat Desertification may impact upon national and local projects and policies to reduce land degradation and improve rural livelihoods. The paper concludes that there is a growing need for detailed, empirical case study research which reflects more intently on the tensions between international and local discourses of desertification. This is paramount in order to better understand the local challenges posed by the desertification issue, as well as contributing towards the creation of more appropriate and effective mitigation strategies at a regional level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the past there was hardly any use of economic theory and instruments in environmental policy, mainly command and control measures dominated. More recently, ecological taxes became increasingly popular and have been proposed but not implemented with an ecological effect. Thus, the situation has not changed, and we must ask for the reasons of this situation and the prevailing nonacceptance of these instruments. The purpose of this paper is to give some answers on these questions using the Public Choice approach. The proposition of an ecological tax reform and road pricing measures are taken to discuss how actual environmental policy deviates from economic prescriptions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

All species have limits to their distribution and individuals that demarcate margins demonstrate an end-point in adaptation to a changing environment. Limits to plant survival arise either from a failure to grow or from an inability to reproduce. Consequently, matching climatic data with geographical distribution has to consider the biological causes for the failure of plants to survive outside any given area. Physical factors, such as thermal time (day-degrees) and growing season length, differentiate between the broadly recognised vegetation zones of High, Low, and Subarctic. However, within these zones the limitations to plant distribution are less readily related to climatic factors. In peripheral areas, relating physical climatic factors to species occurrence requires a knowledge of the many interactions between physiology and genetics of populations as they approach their territorial margins. Examination of the extent of variation found in plants growing in cold habitats reveals large differences both between and within populations and at different seasons in metabolic rates, temperature responsiveness and metabolic efficiency. The High Arctic represents a peripheral zone where conditions are prone to large fluctuations. Consequently, plant distribution will be affected by aspects of the environment that are not permanent, but which occur irregularly with varying frequency and intensity. This paper considers the physiological and genetic properties of polar plant populations that may facilitate persistence in uncertain and heterogeneous adverse environments. Particular attention is given to those species that appear to have maintained a presence at high latitudes since pre-Pleistocene times and have therefore survived many past environmental fluctuations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since their adoption in the late 1970s, the various environmental regulations known collectively as the Superfund laws have given rise to a plethora of compliance problems for owners of commercial and industrial properties. Criticism leveled at the Superfund laws has been based upon the widely held view that existing remediation standards are both economically and logistically indefensible. Such criticism appears valid in light of the actual results of the legislation: exorbitant cleanup costs and minimal cleanup. In addition to this much publicized imbalance between cost and result, existing environmental laws have spawned unethical and illegal behaviors which are designed to keep property owners away from the scrutiny of governmental oversight agencies. These behaviors can be described in brief as "hide the problem" (don't remove the contamination), "hide the waste" (dump it illegally), and "hide the clean-up" (keep even valid clean-up efforts secret from the government). This paper argues that the Superfund legislation has cast an inequitable burden upon small firms that do not have the magnitude of resources required to bear the cost of compliance, and that the root of the injustice is a standardized and centralized system of enforcement. The legal and unethical behaviors are a result of this failure of environmental justice. The development of a systematic approach to voluntary environmental compliance, specifically tailored to small commercial and industrial property owners, which would increase equity--and thus compliance--is proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on policy for energy and sustainable development in developing countries. Energy became a major international issue in the 1970's, following the oil crisis. More recently, global climate change induced by excessive greenhouse gas accumulation in the atmosphere has emerged as a potential problem that further complicates energy issues. In this paper, researchers focus on energy related environmental issues in the developing countries. The development related energy needs of the Third World countries, the potential for better energy management, barriers to reducing greenhouse gas emissions and policies that can improve the performance of developing countries are discussed.

Chapter 6 of the book "The Politics of Knowledge," edited by Saw Swee-Hock and Danny Quah is presented. The authors offer a way to examine the economics of climate change and suggest implications for emissions targets, policies, and global action. It provides a brief summary of the scientific process that links climate change to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

Chapter 9 of the book "Chasing the Wind: Regulating Pollution in the Common Law State," by Noga Morag-Levine is presented. It states that industrialization has accompanied with it the problem of pollution and poses adverse affects on the health of the public. It is mentioned that there are two approaches to face the problem reactive and proactive and describes both the methods. It differentiates between the environmental policy of the U.S. and European countries.

Chapter nine of the book "Regulation & Public Interests: The Possibility of Good Regulatory Government," by Steven P. Croley is presented. It explores the implementation of environmental rules in the U.S. issued by the U.S. Environment Protection Agency in July 1997 under the Clean Air Act. It also notes that the rules will be tightening the restrictions on ozone (03) and particulate matter (PM).

Congestion, environmental and health problems are all rising in the transport sector. This article focuses on the contribution of economics, particularly environmental economics, to the analysis, and in particular to the quantitative analysis of transport systems and transport policy in tackling such problems. Starting out with a historical review of transport perspectives, the importance of both overall coherence as well as the time period it may take for a particular vision to materialise are then illustrated. Promising current research issues are identified, and related developments in quantitative modelling and data availability are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

European foreign policy cooperation has expanded considerably since the first tentative steps made under EPC in the early 1970s. Compared to the situation then, the CFSP today involves a far more sophisticated institutional structure and has produced a greater variety of complex common foreign policy actions. Moreover, compared to other regional organizations, such as the Organization of American States or the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, the EU's progressive and determined efforts to cooperate in foreign policy are highly unique. Despite these positive results, however, many observers and EU officials remain dissatisfied with the CFSP's procedural elements and its substantive output. We can describe these limitations as part of the “unfinished business” of the Maastricht era, where certain issues were raised but ultimately sidestepped owing to both general political differences and more specific questions about institutional architecture. These issues have intensified the pressures for institutional change since the late 1990s and deserve some attention here, given the EU's own growing ambitions and the major challenges faced by the CFSP since its implementation. This chapter explores these difficult institutional questions, focusing in particular on the EU's goal to make its external relations functions more coherent. Improving the effectiveness and coherence of the EU's external capabilities was a key motivation behind the TEU and its single institutional framework. As we saw in the previous chapter, substantive coherence in the CFSP has clearly improved compared to EPC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The SEA represented a significant step forward for European foreign policy, yet the EU, like much of the world, was caught off-guard by the momentous events of 1989–91, beginning with the fall of the Berlin Wall and ending with the disintegration of the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia. There is no doubt these exogenous changes prompted major reforms in a number of institutions, including NATO, the EU, the WEU, and the CSCE, and helped create entirely new ones, such as the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (Keohane, Nye, and Hoffman 1993). However, it is also clear that the specific institutional reforms of EU foreign policy resulting from these events largely reflected endogenous, path-dependent processes. Rather than a decisive break with the past, the CFSP represented a natural, logical progression by both clarifying what had been achieved through EPC and building only a few truly innovative goals and procedures onto that mechanism. Virtually all elements of EPC described in previous chapters were affected, and they clearly laid the foundation for the CFSP at Maastricht. Yet a closer examination of both the treaty-based provisions of the CFSP and its early performance suggests that European foreign policy has in fact reached a new level of institutionalization. In particular, we can describe this evolution as moves toward a system of governance, broadly defined for the moment as the authority to make, implement, and enforce rules in a specified policy domain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Comparative risk assessment (CRA) has become an increasingly accepted research tool and has helped to characterize environmental profiles and priorities on the regional and national level. Micro studies in comparative risk assessment are comparisons of interrelated risks involved in a specific policy choice (e.g. drinking water safety: chemical versus microbial disease risks) and focus often on one or a few types of environmental problem. At a larger scale are statewide or nationwide applications of CRA or programmatic CRA that consider multi-risks facing the society by comparing different types of environmental problems. This chapter reviews micro studies and macro applications of comparative risk assessment and then discusses future directions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This chapter predicts the future directions of nonmarket valuation. This is why contingent valuation is by far the most widely applied nonmarket valuation technique the world over. In sum, the construct validity part of the assessment would look for as many tests of prior expectations as can reasonably be expected to have been performed.

The articles presents the results gained over ten years of the Environmental Behaviour Monitor in the Netherlands from 1991 to 2000. Information from the Environmental Behaviour Monitor, together with a new Cabinet minister and continuous discussions on environmental policy have changed the policy of the Ministry of Housing, Spatial Planning and the Environment. It now aims at the integration of policy areas, which is the living, space and environment. The key issue is no longer the environment as such, but also the living climate and, in the end, quality of life. The concept "living climate" will function from now on as an overall concept for the panel, which has therefore been renamed the Living Climate Monitor. The purpose of the Living Climate Monitor is to supply the Ministry of Housing, Spatial Planning and the Environment with information on all sorts of activities people undertake that influence not only the quality of the environment, but also the quality of their living climate and the quality of life itself.

Introduces a study on environmental and energy policies on automobiles in Japan. Reason that automobile has become a source of energy problem; Components of the study.