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The Rio Declaration of 1992 called for states to integrate environmental protection in their process of development in order to achieve the ultimate goal of sustainable development (Principle 4). The paper investigates to what extent the People's Republic of China (PRC) has integrated environmental protection into her fisheries policy. The environment/development nexus is analysed in relation to the adoption and implementation of the Fisheries Law of 2000. Official documents and, more importantly, interviews conducted in several organizations at multiple levels of governance disclose a complex reality beyond the formal commitment to sustainable fisheries. Diverging interests, goals and strategies can be traced beyond formal policy documents in Beijing, Guangdong and between the Centre and the Province. Inter-organizational divergences at the central and local levels, as well as between them, hinder the pursuit of environmental protection in the development of China's fisheries sector. The paper highlights the political complexity of pursuing more responsible fisheries in the multi-actor and multi-level political-administrative system of the PRC. Here, as well as in many other developing countries, economic development constitutes the policy priority. Environmental protection often remains not only an ambitious objective but also an unperceived need. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses the problem of Guaratiba Biological Reserve, located in the western area of the city of Rio de Janeiro. Given its dynamic environment, biodiversity, history of creation, in addition to its environmental outlook resulting from human actions, we will seek to elucidate the role of territorial planning in order to align the socio-environmental and conservation reserves. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The world's most influential development agency, the World Bank Group (WBG), is the leading actor in development finance and plays a central role in global efforts to protect the environment. Following the Rio Earth Summit in 1992, the institution was responsible for all investment projects of the Global Environment Facility (GEF), which was then newly established to serve as the interim financial mechanism for the United Nations Conventions on Climate Change and Biodiversity. The promise that the GEF would lead to the “greening” of development finance remains largely unfulfilled. More recently the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change appointed the WBG as the interim trustee of the new Green Climate Fund which plans to mobilize an estimated US$ 100 billion per year by 2020. While the World Bank Group plays this critical role in global environmental efforts, its main business continues to be lending for development. This includes the financing of large-scale infrastructure projects, agribusiness, large dams as well as investments in gas, oil and mining. This regular lending portfolio for development is often at odds with environmental sustainability. For example, despite the growing area of climate finance, support for fossil fuel projects continues to be dominant in the institution's lending for the energy sector. Another climate-related area is the World Bank's pioneering role in advancing REDD+, an initiative designed to reduce the emission of global green house gases by integrating efforts to protect forest areas into global carbon markets. Ultimately, its success will depend on addressing sensitive questions such as land ownership, forest governance and the equitable sharing of benefits. In conclusion the paper considers the underlying corporate culture and the difficulties in reconciling environmental and social sustainability with the institution's supply-side driven focus on meeting lending targets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper has the objective to propose the participative management of ecotourism and rest to control its development in the areas of greater potentials, in the second largest conservation area of the city of Rio de Janeiro, the Parque Estadual de la Pedra Branca (PEPB). The first methodologies are being evaluated in order to manage and monitor the effects of visitors on the PEPB'S paths. Ast the same time, there other physical-environmental conditionants being considered, which when mapped by using GIS techniques will help to the environmental analysis (diagnostic and prognostic), in the types of geoenviromental activities in the studied region, and the decision making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper compares environmental policymaking in two Brazilian cities, Rio de Janeiro and Cubatão. It examines the formation of state-society synergistic interactions in the public policymaking process and their effect on long term sustainability of social mobilization. It concludes that whereas social capital can be constructed in the context of policymaking, it is critically dependent on a concerted effort from both state and society actors to build trust in their daily interactions. The Cubatão and Carioca River cases show that state-society synergy had little effect on the ability of the policy coalitions formed for pollution clean up to sustain themselves over time. Instead, there are indications that rather than a constraint, the flexible and informal nature of such coalitions may have been a critical factor in their ability to carry out policy successfully. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper intends to distinguish between, on the one hand, emerging ideas, values and representations and, on the other, the actual circumstances in which they are applied by society. For this purpose the juridical field is a privileged place for investigation being at the same time the locus of norms and conflicts. In particular, our attention focuses on environment-related litigation in Rio de Janeiro. The distance between legal discourse and my analysis of lawsuits pertaining to the environment in Rio de Janeiro is a result of the tension between the universal character of the environmental perspective, as embodied in Brazilian legislation and the lack of social mobilisation combined with the complexity of kinds of actors and interests involved in juridical practices concerning environmental protection. It is suggested that this tension be understood in the light of the dynamics of social relations in the urban context of Rio de Janeiro. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]