DP 2.- The Project Cycle in the first stage: Identification

What is “good planning”? Are the tools used for planning in development good tools? Is it important to have every step of a project planned in advance? The answer to these questions is not so simple.

The Project Cycle Management was created in 1970 by Warren Baum, a worker in the World Bank. The initial idea was to develop a simple tool that could summarize the phases that every project had to go through. When I saw the PC for the first time, I thought that it was not a very useful idea, it was to me just pure common sense. After a few years working in development, I realized how common sense is not always so common. Simple tools are basic to put our feet back on the ground and help us go back to the roots, understanding the phases of the work and trying not to rush to the next step. In my opinion, the needs we face in development are sometimes so urgent, that we have a tendency to rush the process, and it can be difficult to have the patience to understand every step before moving forward. The number of steps of the PC is different in every organization, but there are some common phases: Identification of a problem, design of the intervention, implementation and evaluation. In the next lines, I will try to explain every step introducing some psychological variables and cognitive biases that can affect each phase. After all, we are humans, and we need to understand that rationality is not always the  first option that our minds choose to solve a problem.

Step 1.- Identification:

The first stage of the PC is to me the key to success. The identification of a problem is influenced by many variables that are sometimes very difficult to control, such as cultural values, political pressure, social differences, history and many other sociological and psychological differences. What is a problem for me might not be a problem for you. What I consider urgent can be secondary for you. Understanding the basics of psychological differences is a must to develop a good identification.

We have seen that, in many occasions, the identification of a problem comes from developed countries. We tend to think that the way we have solved our problems is shared for everyone, and many people in the so called developed world don´t realize that we have created many other secondary problems by fixing the primary ones. An example of this can be access to credit: Developed countries have somehow solved the problem of access to capital, but in this process, we made many mistakes that are now creating a human drama. Are we sure we want to export this model to other countries? Maybe not, but we still do it.

The identification of a problem must be done by those who are suffering the problem. This is said in every manual for development and every professional of this sector knows it, but the reality is that we have subconscious biases that are hard to manage. The “examiner bias” is a concept very important in the social sciences and one of the most difficult variables to control. This concept is defined as “the bias introduced by an examiner whose expectations about the outcome of the examination can be subtly communicated to the participants”. To get rid of this bias takes a lot of training, but it is an important key to get real results.

When we approach a community for the identification of a problem, even if we use good participatory techniques and methodology, are we affected by our cognitive biases? I have seen myself in this controversy many times, especially when the donors of the project seem to have the solution already in their minds. In many occasions the identification stage becomes very directive and is considered as part of a program that is already designed. We just do it because the PC tells us we have to do it.

Knowing what your problems are is the first stage to solve them… We should get rid of every previous knowledge or expectations, but do we really do it?

 

 

2 comentarios / 13 Jan 2013 por Paloma Andres Urrutia
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DP: Global Population Growth, an issue of humanity?

Continuing the blog, and taking into account the last thought in my earlier post, related to development perspectives, I will focus this post to give an opinion on the Global Population Growth and its implications for the humanity development.

This is an issue that must be taken into account in the international agendas, as in an economic and social development regards, without leaving aside the impact they can have on the planet’s climatic conditions.

The reasons are quite obvious, which is that today we are more than 7 billion people in the world, and if we look at the past we realize that twelve years ago there were 6 billion, and looking further back we can show that in 1975 the world population was 4 billion, so first conclusion we can say that in the last 38 years we have grown to 3 billion people, about an average of 80 million a year, just to say that each year we have a new German state in the world, if every year since 1975.

 

We can clearly show that the growth trend it is unstoppable, so the reality is that over the next 30 years we will be talking a lot about this topic, and that data is devastating, if we note that forecast says that in 2027 we will clinch 8 billion, and if no major changes we will reach 9 billion in 2045. So this is tremendous! And if we take into account that not all who are coming into this world will be able to have their access to basic needs, to have equal rights, in fact many of them will born in areas where conditions for their arrival has not been evaluated, so the path that still ahead looks quite challenging.

If we look in detail global growth, shows that the highest rates of growth, linked to countries “Undeveloped“, “Unequal” or “Highly Polluters”, and this is a cause to keep in mind for the future. The reason is attached to all the prospective efforts we should make to prevent a future collapse, once we received the new generations.

To described the above idea, cases such as Mali, Republic of Congo, Uganda, Afghanistan, among others, where there are growth rates of 3% per year (growth rate average – 1.8%), also in addition to the fact of a large deficit of inequality.  Meanwhile there are countries with high development of economic growth based of industry activities like China and India are highly polluters and have a strong participation in the climate change impact.

So this can be translated in that we will grow much in coming years, but we will not make properly, if we do not change the current conditions of many of these countries with whom we are indebted, the first major hurdle will prepare for this great challenge that is before us.

How we should prepare?, what has to be done, where to start?, This is the point where we could start a book, or an organization, or even your own personal effort to massif this message, to set up groups or tribes to work on this, also to alert people, that this is a problem of everyone, not just those in the most precarious or even those who are not aware, so if we do act all individually, the efforts will have not the desired impact.

From my perception there that have two extremely clear lines of development, in order to be ready for the increase of the Global Growth Population for the coming years, these ideas are described below:

• Eradication of Poverty: It is important to ensure that developed countries, can engage in international efforts to provide assistance to the most needy of economic tools, that can help the internal development of their countries, but the international aid model must evolve and give empowerment to the countries make their own efforts introducing high ethics components.

• Reduce Pollution (Climate Change): In order to make sure that population growth will be received properly, we must take special consideration to our home, we need to continue sustaining our natural resources everyday, water, soil, air and other elements must be use wisely, in addition to all the activities that generate pollutants such as air emissions, waste treatment. All these issues related to climate change should have a major role in the agendas of the countries.

Nowadays, we can see that there are already several organizations from government, non-government and private, making efforts focused directly on the two ideas above indicated, however this efforts have to be aimed to a right path, and additionally meet all transparency and ethical factors that must own to reach the desired goal.

The challenges ahead cannot be different, are not negotiable, and this is basically because the overall population growth is an issue fraught with external factors that are not controllable, and that is why we cannot wait for the situation we come up to act, we need to think preventively and avoid being reactive, because the reality is that global population growth is an issue for humanity.

Soon, a new post.

 

Comments Off on DP: Global Population Growth, an issue of humanity? / 13 Jan 2013 por Carlos Omar Garcia Pascual
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DP: Development needs Women’s empowerment to change theoritical framework

My former entry on gender issue was about the role of woment in development theories and I decide for this entry to ask again in 2013 if woment have the role that they should have in development.

I woul like to start mentioning one intervention of Annika from the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA) during the World Bank seminar “Frontier Thinking on Gender and Development, Emerging Issues & Institutional Responses”, which took place on April 27 2011. She answered a question about the case on gender equity in Sweden and she explained that it was also a process to reach a change. For her, we have to go back at the mid of the 18th century to understand the situation of Sweden. At this time women started to participate in the political life and legislation had followed this progress and gave materntiy and paternity leave. The result was awareness of both sides  and of institutions and commitment of men in the household activites.

This reminds me a discussion we had in our last class of development perspectives. We discussed on how far it is legitimated to include gender perspective in cooperation projects in some countries in which the rights of women are not considered because of tradition and culture. I have thouth recently about the situation in Europe in the 18-19th centuries where Europe has been growing as a patriarchal tradition and the role of women were home except during the second world war and they were working in industries while men were fighting. In this case, the economical situation was the reason of why women worked outside. To give an example I have chosen Switzerland. In 1909 a women movement was created to struggle for the right of vote and they saw this right only in 1971 (at the national level because in some canton was in 1991 because of the intervention of the Federal court.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Without the struggle of a group of women and men, we could have waited. I think these examples highlight this idea of process that Annika have explained. The question to ask ourself should be more in which way and how this process should go on (tools, projects, awareness, research, etc.). Another point of this panel was the criticism on the lack of women in top position in institutions and a lack of political voice. Both of criticism are structural problem which complicate the change. How change could happen in development cooperation when there is no leadership who claims for gender equity on top of institutions or in donor’s institutions, which make the agendas.

These ideas bring me to another point I found very pertinent about theory and theoretical framework in the book of Kabeer, N. Gender Mainstreaming in Poverty Eradication and the Millennium Development Goals, 2003. The first part explains that until recently the theories on which the so-called development countries base their researches or projects are based on male centred theories and are related “to the culture, nationalities, and dominant economic classes of the theorists, who did not take into account the perspectives and experiences of women or the problems and issues that affect women” (Kabeer).

In different theories of development (modernizastion, post-colonialism, marxism, neo-liberalism) we can find a lack of women perspectives, all these theories were centred on economic values. For example, this quote from Kabeer which explains this idea: “With employers seeking to improve their competitive position through flexible labour practices, more jobs have become “feminized”: they have taken on the characteristics of insecure, low-paying jobs with few prospects for advancement. This accounts, in part, for the increase in female labour-force participation, as men are less willing to take these jobs. In many countries, female unemployment rates in the 1980s declined relative to male unemployment rates. Standing blamed this trend on the feminization of labour and the employers’ desire to have a cheaper, more disposable or flexible labour supply.”

I realize also through this book that we (in general societies) don’t know all contexts and history of the countries and their society, for example “In so doing, the often ignored the traditional egalitarianism of many precolonical societies, in which women had greater power and autonomy and life was more in tune with nature and the environment, not based on its destruction.” (Kabber, p.40). Therefore, we are able to say that development theories and societies are not fixed as we think. “The subordination of women and the dominance of men are neither natural nor eternal. A change toward a more egalitarian society is possible, a change that could fulfill the potentials of all human beings – women and men” (Kabber, p.47).

Comments Off on DP: Development needs Women’s empowerment to change theoritical framework / 13 Jan 2013 por Stephanie Barrial
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DP: Defining and Measuring Happiness

In my first blog relating Development and Happiness I suggested that Global Happiness should be considered the ultimate goal for Development. I am inclined to believe that in order to establish policies based on people’s happiness, it is necessary to define happiness and be able to measure its levels.

Since Aristotle’s Nichomachean Ethics the Humanity hears that ‘Money doesn’t bring happiness’. But only in the 1970’s an article entitled Does Economic Growth Improve the Human Lot? by Richard Easterlin presented empirical evidence that there is no link between a society’s Economic Development and its level of happiness (Easterlin Paradox) and EF Schumacher’s Small Is Beautiful proclaimed ‘The substance of man cannot be measured by Gross National Product’.

In the same 1970’s, Bhutan was the first country in the world to reject GNP/GDP as a measure to development. The video below tells the story and is really worth watching.

Click here to view the embedded video.

 

Bhutan is, since then, the only country in the world that adopted its people’s happiness as the ultimate goal for Development. In 1999, local Government established the Centre for Bhutan Studies which is an autonomous research institute focused on ‘promoting and deepening the understanding of Gross National Happiness (GNH)’ and helping policymakers defining development strategies towards promoting population’s happiness enhancement. Based on a sound methodology, the Centre conceived the Gross National Happiness Index which is the result of a sophisticated survey that measured population’s happiness through their individual wellbeing in 9 domains composed by 33 indicators illustrated in the figure below.

Source: A Short Guide to Gross National Happiness Index (2012)

 

So, it is possible to define and measure Happiness!!!

Of course there are many critics to the subjectivity of the GNH Index and about this I prefer to quote The World Happiness Report: ‘A generation of studies by psychologists, economists, pollsters, sociologists, and others has shown that happiness, though indeed a subjective experience, can be objectively measured, assessed, correlated with observable brain functions, and related to the characteristics of an individual and the society. Asking people whether they are happy, or satisfied with their lives, offers important information about the society. It can signal underlying crises or hidden strengths. It can suggest the need for change.’

Regarding the criticism about the complexity of the GNH Index, I agree with Carol Graham who says: “happiness is, in the end, a much more complicated concept than income. Yet it is also a laudable and much more ambitious policy objective.” and “It doesn’t have to be perfect; after all, it took us decades to agree upon what to include in GDP and it is still far from a perfect metric.”

Now, I’m really happy that I’ve learnt that, although Happynomics isn’t considered a science (yet), there are many people dedicating their works to effectively valuing things that don’t have price tags (or material value). So let’s adopt this New Value Paradigm!!

Comments Off on DP: Defining and Measuring Happiness / 12 Jan 2013 por Andrea Mara Hanai
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Environment and Natural Resource Management

Last week we had our first class in Environment and Natural Resource Management.

It is a pretty new subject to me, even though, having a sister working in the water management sector has increased my awareness about the value of the ecosystems, the scarcity we are facing and the need of using the natural resources in a sustainable way..hopefully it is still possible!!

 

I am interested to see how all the sustainable development topics we are studying are interconnected and how human behaviors and choices impact the environment.

The formula I=PAT describes how population growth, affluence and the use of the technology impact the environment.

I= Population × Affluence × Technology

Sustainability, human development, environment, climate change, human progress, technology, economy, natural resource management, growth and scarcity…all interconnected and pieces of the same puzzle.

 

 

Session 1- 10^th of January

The precious value of our natural resources and the need to integrate sustainability in their management

Session 2- 24^th of January

Biodiversity and the resiliency of our planet, too pressure on mother earth.

Session 3- 24^th of January

The sustainable management criteria, is a sustainable resource management possible?

Session 4- 25^th of January

The environment, the human impact and the pollution. How to manage waste for a more sustainable environment?

Session 5- 25^th of January

What is the social impact of the  biodiversity loss?

Session 6- 25^th of January

Certifications and Standards on Natural Resource Management. Are they enough for a development in harmony with the nature?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Comments Off on Environment and Natural Resource Management / 12 Jan 2013 por Veronica Recanati
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DP: A’ohe pau ka ‘ike i ka hālau ho’okahi

A’ohe pau ka ‘ike i ka hālau ho’okahi. Not all knowledge is taught in one school.

Hawai’i is a complicated place. One of beauty, sadness, love (aloha) and disdain. It’s sometimes hard to write about the problems that we have back home to the outside world without thinking that we are the only ones that this is happening to. However, in our case often times Hawai’i is defined by the tourism industry with false images and traditions,  and although it is a beautiful place with some of the most amazing people it has been scarred as many other developing countries have been in the world, caught between traditional and modern society. I’m going to start this blog with this video down by our youth in Hawai’i that although does not necessarily explain the topic that I’m going to talk about, hopefully gives you the sense and feeling of what it is to be from Hawai’i and the passion behind my work.

Click here to view the embedded video.

In my last blog, I spoke about the importance of creating solutions locally with an outlook towards the rest of the world. My main focus was the promotion of locally grown produce and community gardens as a means to create self-sufficiency and integrate traditional knowledge into modern societal norms.

As this year has progressed however my view on this has somewhat shifted. While there is no doubt in my mind that a successful local food system is an integral piece of a self-sufficient society, I believe that rather than the solution to our problem of dependency, it is just one of the many tools that will be needed in the future.

Bridging Traditional and Modern Knowledge

I wrote about the ahupua’a system of the ancient Hawaiians and the importance of integrating their knowledge into modern society in order to build a sustainable future for Hawai’i. Digging a little deeper, it became evident that these practices were not isolated to the ancient Polynesians, but were prevalent among all indigenous societies and people. The knowedge of these indigenous cultures all have one major underlying principle: that of awareness and balance to their ecosystem. Western scholars have come to term this: Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK), although defining this term can be difficult, I believe Fikret Berkes may have summed it up nicely after gathering and combining others definitions, stating that TEK is:

… a cumulative body of knowledge and beliefs, handed down through generations by cultural transmission, about the relationship of living beings (including humans) with one another and with their environment.

As Berkes mentions in his paper, Traditional Ecological Knowledge in Perpective, this is not a new term among scientists and scholars of today, I think it’s obvious that the importance of it is becoming more apparent in today’s world; not only by scientists and anthropologists, but by the public/private sector and civil society and this is where the breakthrough is found.

Although I face an inner conflict through defining traditional ecological knowledge through what seems to me a very western way of thinking, I understand that language is an important piece to this puzzle just as much as it was in the ancient days as well.

Quantifying Values

Previously I had thought that the answer to solving many of our problems in Hawai’i would be to diversify our economy, create value in land through agriculture, rebuild community and cultural pride through food forests and lessen our dependence on imported food by producing locally. All of my answers seemed to come perfectly bundled into one core component of local agricultural systems shaped by traditional and modern farming techniques. However, as the course continued and I thought more about the singularity of my solution, I realized that it will take much more than that to do all of those things that I mentioned above.

So, how do we create a sustainable future for Hawai’i with the knowledge of our past, our resources at present while looking into our future? I have no idea. But I think we could start looking at the roles that the public, private and civil society play and how they integrate and live among one another in the modern ahupua’a system.

 

First of all, as the tourism industry monopolizes our economy in Hawai’i, our politicians line their pockets from developers to build more hotels with headlines that boast job creation for locals. The development over land and natural resources and historical sites is a short sighted irony for the tourism industry as well as our state. We can see the example of this on the island of O’ahu, where Waikīkī has become a mini-Manhattan beach; tourist search for Hawaiian authenticity on the outer islands that have not yet been transformed into a Hollywood-ization of Hawai’i.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Without getting into too much detail of the cultural repercussions that places such as Waikīkī have on the locals and tourists alike, it would also be short-sighted of me to think that the answer to solving this monopoly would be to switch it to an agriculturally based economy. Hawai’i has already seen an agriculturally based economy in its past, which although helped to shape its vibrant local culture and future, it still came with detrimental ecological damage.

No, the answer I’ve realized is to diversify the economy by creating value in the natural resources as they are rather than what they can be made into. The value that is placed on the natural resources of Hawai’i come from the amount of profit that will be generated by a product produced from it, or in unfortunate cases, monetized by the opportunity cost that it once had and no longer does. For example, in the case of James Pflueger in 2001 in violation of the Clean Water Act caused $100 million in damage to 20 acres of reef, which before it was damaged had no value nor asset to the environment or landscape.

Redefining and placing value in our natural resources as they are will be a key component to truly creating a more sustainable Hawai’i. I understand the trickiness of this concept, placing economic value on things that belong to nature, however if we truly want to protect it, I believe that at some point it should be translated into western economic language. Let the tourism industry live and redefine it to emphasize the importance of historical landmarks, locally grown produce and cultural practices. Create an economy that is cyclical, not linear. (Surfing Tsunamis of Change) I don’t think that we will be able to go back to a completely self-subsistent community as the ancient Hawaiians had, but I believe we can find a balance that gives each other value.

Creating ownership and pride

Getting back to why I believe that the local agricultural system shall be a tool rather than a means to reaching a sustainable Hawai’i comes from the participatory approach to development projects that we have learned about in class. Though in an entirely different context, I believe that what I described in my first blog of creating gardens to rebuild a community is an excellent tool to create a link between civil society, the public and the private sector. An amazing example is that of Community Work Day Project on Maui, where their mission was to introduce community gardens around the island. In order to do so they first found a business to sponsor it and then worked with local schools in the area to create it which then in turn the business would be able to use the food from. This creates ownership of the project and healthy relationships between the different sectors. The local politicians helped in funding as well as endorsed the project and even in some cases helped to plant the gardens. This is just a small example of bridging these three sectors together under the agricultural umbrella to further sustainable practices.

When it comes down to it, I see the root of the problem within the lack of bridging of these three sectors: public, private & civil. And in order to grow them together I now see that it will take a participatory approach in order to bring them all to the same level of understanding in order to reach a place that  a redefinition of values for our natural resources in Hawai’i could be positive.

Finding local solutions for all

The most inspiring work done on this subject to me, has come from a local of the island of O’ahu, Dr. Sean W. Connelly. He eloquently creates the flow between TEK and modern systems in his take on Hawai’i Futures.

He explains among other things, how the ahupua’a systems that were once defined on each of the islands by their natural resources were measured from the mountains to the ocean and bordered by streams or mountain ranges. This distribution of land and community made sense as it followed the natural path of the landscape however is in juxtaposition to our management system today of natural resources, which are defined arbitrarily by political boundaries. He concludes that the representatives that we vote for in each area are mal-equipped  to properly manage the natural resources within their communities district because of the political borders drawn and thus emphasizes the fact that our natural resources are again under valued and under managed. (See Hawai’i Futures website for more examples of this)

I would take this point into consideration as I think about how to create a truly self sustaining future for Hawai’i. In addition to the redefinition of political borders in terms of the ahupua’a system, I would add the importance of participatory action of private, public and civil society through diversifying our economy and placing a economic value to our natural resources without modifying it from it’s natural form. This I believe will encompass TEC within modern systems in a traditional sort of way, that rather than defining it, we shall practice and create it.

Comments Off on DP: A’ohe pau ka ‘ike i ka hālau ho’okahi / 12 Jan 2013 por Ivory McClintock Kealani Pan
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Give a man a fish, feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish (sustainably) feed him for a lifetime

Blog post DP3 of 4 for the subject Socio-Economic Development Perspectives

As an international student in Madrid, I don’t get much mail in the post.

When I come home and check my mailbox, the majority of what I receive is junk mail or promotional flyers. Most of it I discard directly into the recycling. However, for the past three weeks, I have started a collection….and I am now up to five different menu-flyers advertising sushi and sashimi. These flyers impact me, because they remind me of something I have witness in the past two decades of my life….

When I was growing up in my area of Melbourne, I remember when the first Japanese restaurant opened in the nearby high street shopping area in the early 1990s. This restaurant became very popular. Not only did this particular restaurant become very popular but as a society, in Australia our demand for sushi (and sashami) has exploded. Delicious and nutritious, sushi has undoubtedly become a regular part of the diets of many lifestyle, fashion and health conscious consumers around the world. Every time I go back to Melbourne, I am shocked at the saturation of sushi restaurants and takeaway places throughout the city and suburbs alike. In my local high street, where there was only 1 Japanese restaurant in the early 1990s, on last count, by 2012…I counted 12 different places now selling sushi – that is, selling numerous types of different fish and seafood, most commonly, Tuna and Salmon but also Eel, Yellow Tail, Swordfish, Prawns…etc.

But this seemingly insatiable appetite and demand for sushi has not just been happening in Australia. In my experience, it is a semi-global metropolitan trend. When I traveled to Rio De Janeiro  in 2006, I was amazed at not only the popularity of sushi but the relatively low price…I remember being able to buy huge platters of Salmon and Tuna for about $20 Australian dollars, something that would have cost well over $60 dollars at the time back in Australia. Similarly, in Berlin, in just the three years I was living there, I witnessed the explosion of availability and demand in “Rabatt Sushi” (discount sushi)…and now in Berlin, it is not just available in Japanese restaurants…many Vietnamese and Chinese restaurants have also started offering sushi specials on their menus in order to capture the trend and meet the demand.

Which brings me back to the numerous flyers I have recently received in my mailbox in Madrid. For an international capital city, Madrid has maintained a very strong emphasis and availability of Spanish food culture. However, even in a city like Madrid, the demand for sushi restaurants has done a pretty good job at market penetration (or at least penetrating my mailbox).

So, let’s take a step back from our mailboxes and a step back from our chopsticks, and ask ourselves, with such a growing demand for sushi, for tuna and for salmon, and for all other types of fish and seafood in general…is there a point where our demand will exceed the supply?

Unfortunately, the answer is yes.

It is hard to imagine, given the immense varsity of the oceans which cover 71% of our planet, that man, thanks to the industrialization of commercial fishing operations is fast reaching this point. And in some cases, this point has sadly already been reached, such as the case of cod fishing in Newfoundland in Canada as mentioned in the below video which exemplifies the current situation with overfishing and the Bluefin tuna:

Overfishing & Bluefin Tuna

This video states several quotes which I find very compelling. These quotes suggest the current state of our oceans and fisheries. They also in turn imply that the majority of the seafood we eat comes from unsustainable sources:

“According to reports by the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization, around 80% of the world’s fisheries are over-exploited, depleted or in a state of collapse”

“half the world’s fishing fleet could be scrapped, with no change in catch”

“overfishing happens because of a lack of management and enforcement”

In addition, not only does the video explain some of the science and industry practices that cause the problem but is also discusses the problem in a broader developmental context, in terms of the knock-on effects and threats towards global sustainability:

“the ocean is an important global common, and its lack of management, dangers the biodiversity of the ocean, as well as the ocean as a valuable food source”

“depletion of predator species, such as the Bluefin Tuna, may cause the ocean to become full of plankton, jelly fish and other small plankton eating fish” (that is, species not edible by man)

” the extinction of species and the environmental degradation caused by commercial fishing, threatens the fragile ecosystem within the ocean and even the humans who rely on the ocean resources”

“fishing is essential to the livelihood and food security of millions of people, especially those in the developing world”

What the above quotes imply, is that the depletion and mismanagement of one species may not only result in the end of sushi for those at the top of the pyramid, but it has much more serious and wider implications for the millions of people at the bottom of the pyramid who depend on the ocean for their survival.

The question then stands. How can we prevent this situation from happening? Can we have our cake/fish and eat it too? Moreover, in this era where land based agriculture represents so many environmental, economic and political challenges, how can we prevent ourselves from depleting the ocean? Depleting what could otherwise be a perfect self-renewing and reliable source of food that requires no input from man at all. As exhibited in the video, unfortunately regulation, monitoring and enforcement of our fisheries is controversial, inefficient and difficult. Therefore, in the absence of effective structural safeguards, do we, the consumers, just sit back, say there is nothing we can do and wait for the point of no return? Or can consumers play a more active role in changing industry practices from the outside? Can we, through our demand, demand better standards?

I believe that the majority of consumers currently do not demand better standards because they are simply not aware of the consequences of their consumerism. Furthermore, we are not aware of our role and power as consumers, who through our uninformed purchases, are ultimately showing support for the current industry practices and unsustainable levels of demand and supply.

So next time you are in a sushi restaurant, in the cafeteria at school or in the supermarket and considering to buy fish and seafood…you should ask for this information: which type of fish is this? Which ocean did it come from? How was it caught and is it coming from a credible certification of sustainability?

While I have given sushi as an example of the relationship between consumerism and overfishing, I would like to strongly emphasis that overfishing is not a consequence of just our demand for sushi directly. Instead, it is indicative of a systemic issue. A systemic issue arising from our current focus on economic growth as the developmental model. Demand and Supply. Supply and Demand. And it is this growth that has seemingly lead to unsustainable, unethical and unimaginable industry practices. Something I will address in my next blog…

 

 

 

 

 

Comments Off on Give a man a fish, feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish (sustainably) feed him for a lifetime / 12 Jan 2013 por Daniel Salter
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Managing the Environment is a challenge, and requires a significant amount of information and careful planning.

In our classes on Environmental Resource Management, our professor has asked us to write mini blogs regarding our thoughts on the subject, and a “tag line” for the classes. So, here goes: class one.

Managing the Environment is a challenge, and requires a significant amount of information and careful planning.

In our first classes, we discussed our goals for the class and spoke about some interesting examples of resource and environmental management.

Did you know that Spain and Portugal are some of the biggest producers of cork? And that the cork, which is the “bark” of the tree, when extracted may actually have some benefit to the ecosystem in which these trees live?

The extraction of the bark, to produce cork stoppers and other cork products does not actually harm the trees, in fact, it regrows, making it a sustainable resource – when harvested properly. Studies have found that is actually is good for the ecosystem to harvest, properly, the think bark layer. Our professor is to try and help maintain the wine industry’s interest in cork stoppers, which are much more expensive than their new, plastic, competitors.

Who would have thought?

We also spoke about several technical terms, and their challenges in terms of environmental management. One that particularly interested me was the idea of habitat fragmentation.

A habitat is the conditions required for one species to survive.When a species habitat is fragmented, often by human infrastructure and development, species can be greatly affected, as groups may be separated or they could lose all together their optimal habitat for survival:

What can we do about it?  Work on making connections between these habitats:

And make sure that connectivity is incorporated in construction planning when infrastructure is placed within animal habitats.

6 comentarios / 11 Jan 2013 por Amy Blyth
IMSD /

Environmental Natural Resource Management – Slogans

For each session of the Environmental and Natural Resource Management we have to think about a slogan to resume what we saw.

Session I

We are part of a whole which is superior to us.

Session II

Fragile link between the resilience of the environment and the assurance of provision of services

Session III

Pollutants and Waste: Its severity and irreversible impact on our ecosystem

Session IV

Natural Resource Management is about social choices

Session V

Make a choice; ensure environmental and social progress through certified products!

Session VI

Certification system: a step to ensure sustainability

Comments Off on Environmental Natural Resource Management – Slogans / 10 Jan 2013 por Stephanie Barrial
IMSD /

Environmental Natural Resource Management – Reflexive quotes

The following post it contains sentences related with the Environmental and Natural Resource Management Sessions that we have in the IMSD, quotes will be published progressively, hopefully you will enjoy it.

Session I

Protect the environment, Enhance the longevity of Earth.

Session II

Natural resources are the Essence of Life, Wise use is appreciate it… The Earth

Session III

The Biodiversity loss will afects proportionally the Resilence the of the existing natural resources.

Session IV

The pollution affects Biodiversity, be aware!

Session V

Ecosystems, basic for mankind

Session VI

Forest Certificartions a sustainable guarantee for protect ecosystems.

The intention of the above statements is to promote the learnings obtained in the sessions of Natural Environmental Resources Management. Those contains  key elements that are taking into account to show you how much  important they are.

Preserve the resources that we have, use them in a sustainable manner, is a great initiave to contribute with the efforts to have a a better world.

Thanks for reading.

CG

Comments Off on Environmental Natural Resource Management – Reflexive quotes / 10 Jan 2013 por Carlos Omar Garcia Pascual
IMSD /