This book provides an introduction to a fairly new approach to natural resources management practice entitled ecohydrology-based landscape restoration. Ecohydrology-based landscape restoration integrates landscape restoration practices with ecohydrology science and principles in order to help address the limitations of current management practices in developing countries. Focusing on both the theory and practice of implementing new management practices, the book includes conceptual designs and practical demonstrations for a variety of sites, including hillsides, farmlands, gullies, riparian buffers and wetlands, while also drawing on field research conducted in Ethiopia. The book puts forward principles for improving current practices, which include the better integration of hydrological and ecological concerns, the greater involvement of local communities, the adoption of indigenous practices, the establishment of green and semi-grey infrastructure as an ecohydrological systemic solution and the necessity of taking an adaptive approach to managing landscapes. This book will be of great interest to students and scholars of water resource management, ecohydrology and landscape restoration as well as professionals involved in the restoration of landscapes in developing countries.

This book focuses on the regional political ecologies (RPEs) of environmental conflicts in India. It explores broadly, landscape-based analyses of political, economic and social issues, which impact environmental changes, challenges and conflicts at local and micro-local levels. The chapters in this volume examine the intervention of different stakeholders in the management of various regional ecological landscapes in India, including forests, rivers, canals, creeks and wetlands. The volume is an interdisciplinary endeavour, weaving together contextual narratives through a combination of approaches from sociology, anthropology, geography, political studies and environmental history. Using such core approaches, the book studies the place-based dynamisms within the regional environmental conflicts in the selected conservation landscapes. It provides empirical reflections on transboundary issues, rural-urban transitions, middle-class environmentalism, identity conflicts, decentralized natural resource management and the role of political institutions. Regional Political Ecologies and Environmental Conflicts in India will be of great interest to students and scholars of Political Ecology and South Asian Environmental Studies.

Ecohydrology is a sub-discipline which links elements of ecology with hydrology at various points in the water cycle. This book focuses on larger scales of ecohydrology, emphasising the use of this tool in striving towards the goal of sustainable water management.

This book examines the impacts of land tenure reform interventions implemented in Benin, Ethiopia, Rwanda, and Zimbabwe. Since 2000, many African countries have introduced programs aimed at providing smallholder farmers with low-cost certificates for land held under customary tenure. Yet there are many contending views and debates on the impact of these land policies and this book reveals how tenure security, agricultural productivity, and social inclusion were affected by the interventions. It analyses the results of carefully selected, authoritative studies on interventions in Benin, Ethiopia, Rwanda, and Zimbabwe and applies a realist synthesis methodology to explore the socio-political and economic contexts. Drawing on these results, the book argues that inadequate attention paid to the core characteristics of rural social systems obscures the benefits of customary tenure while overlooking the scope for reforms to reduce the gaps in social status among members of customary communities. This book will be of great interest to students and scholars of land management and use, land and property law, tenure security, agrarian studies, political economy, and sustainable development. It will also appeal to development professionals and policymakers involved in land governance and land policy in Africa. The Open Access version of this book, available at www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license.

This interdisciplinary book combines digital technology with Eastern philosophy to examine how the concept of Zhongyong in Confucianism can be used to coordinate digital technology with sustainable agriculture. Zhongyong comes from the connotation of moderate and sustainable in ancient Chinese culture. It is with this concept in mind that this book presents a novel collaboration between philosophy and computer technology to explain how Zhongyong can play an important part in realizing agricultural digitization within a circular economy in order to help solve the current food crisis. The book examines two popular, yet contradictory, digital technologies—blockchain and the green data center. It showcases how the use of traditional Chinese Zhongyong can promote the decentralization of blockchain and the centralization of the green data center and explains the advantages of using both technologies simultaneously. The book puts forward a digital circular agricultural framework that embeds both blockchain and the green data center through an actual case study. While this book specifically focuses on agriculture, it also provides readers with a new perspective for thinking further on how to break down the disciplinary barriers between the social sciences and natural sciences. This book will be of great interest to students and scholars of agriculture, digital technologies, circular economy, sustainable development, and Eastern philosophy.

This book explores how and why innovative climate policies spread across subnational regions and between governance levels in China. Despite the significance of emerging economies in a pathway to a zero-carbon future, research to date on China’s transformation governance remains limited. Drawing on a theoretical framework for policy diffusion and based on extensive data from expert interviews with Chinese decisionmakers and policy practitioners, Lina Li and Maia Haru Hall focus on the policy of emissions trading systems (ETS) and two key case studies: Shanghai and Hubei. The authors examine the role of the national government and how much freedom the subnational regions have in developing ETS policy, as well as pinpointing key actors and the role of policy and knowledge diffusion mechanisms. Overall, this book sheds light on the competition between China and the West in the transition to climate-friendly societies and economies, highlighting opportunities for cooperation between them. This book will be of great interest to students and scholars of environmental politics and policy, climate change, urban studies, and Chinese studies more broadly.

This book analyses the implementation and challenges of using Geographical Indications in Norway. Adapting the modern and global system of Geographical Indications (GIs) to food cultures is a recurring challenge. This text uses Norway as a case study to describe, understand, and explain the socio-cultural adaptation of GIs. The empirical analysis shows that administrators, producers, consultants, and others make a significant effort to adapt the scheme to Norwegian food culture and the food culture to the scheme. Through the development and use of a new conceptual framework, the book continues to show how adaptations occurred and their influence on the development of the Norwegian food culture. The author also reflects upon the status of Norwegian GIs in emerging food cultural contexts related to sustainable and technology change. In summary, this book exhibits the connection between modern global legislative arrangements and traditional local products, providing a springboard for further research on cultural adaptation work of GIs in established and future global food cultures. This book will be of interest to researchers, policymakers, and students in agri-food studies, sociology of food and agriculture, agricultural and rural development, and cultural studies.

This book explores the role of law and policy in circular economy transitions and their impacts on justice, including on distributional equity and recognition and procedural rights, especially for people already marginalised under the current dominant economic system. Amid increasing demand for virgin raw materials, and unsustainable consumption and waste disposal that are driving the global ecological and climate crisis, there are growing calls to urgently transition to circular economies. Despite an increasing number of circular approaches being adopted, implemented, and integrated in national and local laws and policies, the number of commercially successful business stories remains isolated. Moreover, questions about whether circular economy laws and policies are delivering fair and just global outcomes need to be addressed. This book examines this significant knowledge gap to understand legal experiences, including justice and equity issues in the global context, so that these can inform wider design and implementation. The book begins by explaining the concept of a circular economy and its context within wider issues of sustainable development and justice. The first part of the book then examines the legal context of the circular economy by analysing legal forms in practice and those recommended in wider scholarship before considering how these could impact on existing inequity and injustices globally. The second part delivers an empirical understanding of the implications of the law on circular economy approaches and the global equity and justice dimensions through two case studies on solid waste management and forestry. The final part addresses legal opportunities and challenges for wider implementation of circular economy approaches that incorporate justice into its framing. This book will be of great interest to students, scholars, and practitioners of environmental and natural resource law and policy, circular economy, industrial ecology, natural resource management, and sustainable development more broadly.

Focusing on the experiences of Thailand and Australia, this book examines the impact of trade-restrictive measures as related to the EU’s regulations to prevent Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) fishing. It is widely accepted that IUU fishing is harmful, and should be stopped, but there are different approaches to tackling it. Acknowledging this, this book argues that major efforts to fight IUU fishing require careful analyses if the goal is to achieve optimal results and avoid unintended consequences. The book draws on the recent experiences of Thailand and Australia to offer an empirical examination of one increasingly prominent solution, trade-restrictive measures. With Thailand representing direct, active intervention by the EU and Australia a more indirect dispersion of policy narratives and discourses, the book provides a rounded view on how likely it is that different countries in different situations will adapt to the changing policy norms regarding IUU fishing. Understanding the reactions of countries who might be targeted, or otherwise be influenced by the policy, generates new knowledge that helps inform a more effective and scalable implementation of the policy on the part of the EU and a better governance preparedness on the part of non-EU fishing nations. In broader terms, this book exposes a key moment of change in the compatibility between environmental regulations and international trade. The EU IUU policy is a prime example of a policy that uses the mechanisms of international trade to account for environmental and conservation objectives. By way of the unilateral and trade-restrictive stance against IUU fishing, the EU has positioned itself as a major market and normative power, driving its sustainability norms outwards. This book sheds light on the efficacy of this policy setup based on the analysis of country perspectives, which is a key factor influencing its potential spread. This book will be of interest to students and scholars of international fisheries politics, marine conservation, environmental policy and international trade, and will also be of interest to policymakers working in these areas. The Open Access version of this book, available at www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license.

This book examines the social inequalities relating to food insecurity in the UK, as well as drawing parallels with the US. Access to food in the UK, and especially access to healthy food, is a constant source of worry for many in this wealthy country. Crises, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, have coincided with a steep rise in the cost of living, meaning household food insecurity has become a reality for many more households. This book introduces a new framework to examine the many influences on local-level food inequalities, whether they result from individual circumstances or where a person lives. The framework will allow researchers new to the field to consider the many influences on food security, and to support emerging research around different sub-topics of food access and food security. Providing a thorough background to two key concepts, food deserts and food insecurity, the book documents the transition from area-based framing of food resources, to approaches which focus on household food poverty and the rise of food banks. The book invites researchers to acknowledge and explore the ever changing range of place-based factors that shape experiences of food insecurity: from transport and employment to rural isolation and local politics. By proposing a new framework for food insecurity research and by drawing on real-world examples, this book will support academic and applied researchers as they work to understand and mitigate the impacts of food insecurity in local communities. This book will be of great interest to students and scholars of food and nutrition security, public health, and sociology. It will also appeal to food policy professionals and policymakers who are working to address social inequalities and improve access to healthy and nutritious food for all.