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Development Alternatives (development + alternative)
Selected AbstractsFactories, Forests, Fields and Family: Gender and Neoliberalism in Extractive ReservesJOURNAL OF AGRARIAN CHANGE, Issue 3 2007SUSANNA B. HECHT This paper explores the theoretical debates on extraction and development in Amazonia, and the emergence of extractive reserves (ERs) as a tropical development alternative. It reviews the role of women in Amazonian rural economies and then analyzes the (often invisible) tasks of women within the reserves through an analysis of the gender division of labour in the collecting and processing of non-timber forest products and agriculture. It then considers how lack of attention to rural women's labour obligations played out in a development project, Projeto Castanha, that began as an urban factory, but was later recast as a neoliberal decentralized processing and outsourcing programme. The project failed to appreciate the demands on, and the opportunity costs, of women's time and thus had very limited success as women withdrew their labour. The paper argues that there may be many more options for supporting extractive economies (and the women who work in them) in more peri-urban and village projects even though extractive reserves are valuable ecologically and socially in the regional economy. [source] Religious actors, civil society and the development agenda: The dynamics of inclusion and exclusionJOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT, Issue 1 2010Duncan McDuie-Ra Abstract This article uses the World Bank's engagement with religious actors to analyse their differentiated role in setting the development agenda raising three key issues. First, engagements between international financial institutions (IFIs) and religious actors are formalised thus excluding many of the actors embedded within communities in the South. Secondly, the varied politics of religious actors in development are rarely articulated and a single position is often presented. Thirdly, the potential for development alternatives from religious actors excluded from these engagements is overlooked, due in part to misrecognition of the mutually constitutive relationship between secular and sacral elements in local contexts. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Primate conservation: integrating communities through environmental education programsAMERICAN JOURNAL OF PRIMATOLOGY, Issue 5 2010Suzana M. Padua Abstract Environmental education has evolved over the years to respond to the varied complexities found in the different localities where it is practiced. In many parts of the world where biodiversity is rich, social conditions are poor, so educators have included sustainable development alternatives to better the environment and the livelihoods of local communities. Primate conservation education programs, which are often based in areas that face such challenges, have been a vanguard in creating means to integrate people with their natural environment and thus conquer supporters for the protection of natural habitats. In the search for effectiveness they have adopted evaluation methods to help assess what was offered. An example from Brazil is described in this commentary. Am. J. Primatol. 72:450,453, 2010. © 2009 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source] Plant Community Structure and Conservation of a Northern Peru Sclerophyllous ForestBIOTROPICA, Issue 2 2010Susan Aragón ABSTRACT The vegetation near El Bosque Petrificado Piedra Chamana, in the northern Peruvian Andes, is evergreen sclerophyllous forest with significant shrub, epiphyte, and mat components. Important/characteristic genera include Dodonaea, Polylepis, Oreopanax, Oreocallis, Myrcianthes, and the mat-forming orchid Pleurothallis. A vegetation survey including 12 transects and 240 plots in high- and low-grazed areas documented 96 plant species. Compared with low-grazed areas, high-grazed areas had significantly fewer tree species, more herbs, and higher density of individuals. Both grazing categories exhibited high connectedness (as seen in network metrics) and positive biotic associations (nestedness), suggesting facilitation of some species by others, but high-grazed areas showed greater indications of positive associations (as seen in the C-score and V-ratio). These positive biotic associations may relate to the harsh environment and the role of keystone taxa such as Dodonaea viscosa, canopy trees, and mat-forming elements in moderating conditions and promoting species establishment. Only in the low-grazed areas was there any indication of competitive interactions (negative C-score/ less than expected species-pair occurrence). The shift in sign of the C-score, from negative in low-grazed areas to positive in high-grazed areas, indicates a loss of competitive interactions as a factor influencing community structure where grazing pressure is higher. Conservation of the area's natural resources would be advanced by protection of areas where the vegetation structure is more intact, better controls on grazing animals, and identification of development alternatives that would reduce pressure on the area's unique vegetation. Abstract in Spanish is available at http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/loi/btp [source] | |||||||||||||