Academic literature on the topic 'Rural Environmental policy Environmental impact charges'

Agriculture continues to be quite a debate for the last two and a half decades at least at the European level and for Romania Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) reforms has a big impact in developing the convergence to the European agricultural model. Agriculture becomes nowadays a multirole economic sector, with major implications on rural community's sustainability and on food security assurance. In this context, the transformations in European agricultural economy, rural communities and food sustainability in context of Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) reforms represent an important research topic in the context of EU-28 policy diversification from the larger context of Romanian approach.

There is evidence local farming systems and short supply chains have more impact on local economies than on long supply chains and have significant impacts on sustaining local employment in rural areas. Short supply chains focus on meeting consumer demands for local products in a guaranteed manner, strengthen local economies, improve carbon footprint, and contribute to food safety, access to natural and healthy nutrition, and sustainability of small producers and their businesses. In this research, case study and interview methods have been applied to evaluate environmental, social, and economic risks for short food supply chain. This chapter reveals decision-making process through accounting in a more regular, consistent, and integrated way by including environmental and economic information which aims to balance human and environmental needs within the framework of the European Union Short Food Supply Chain Policy.

Policy discourse on rural energy transition within developing countries approach the issue of energy transition through linearly structured, causality based models. This work aims to explore, question the authenticity of such an approach through exploring existence of non linearity in the rural energy transition process of India. Energy transition of rural households impact social, economic and environmental domains of sustainability. For instance, a switchover of a household from smoke generating mudstoves to clean cookstoves can reduce smoke generation, chance of respiratory diseases, impacting the economic, environment and social domains of sustainability. Transition to clean cookstoves can be non-linear and such a transition in a non-linear way impacts domains of sustainability. Hence this work tries to contextualize rural energy transition process through econometric methods, spatial theory of chaos. The work concludes with the exploration of non linear aspects of rural energy transition process within the local rural context and connects it to sustainability science.

The world is in the midst of a knowledge upheaval, complemented by opening up an entirely new panorama in Information and Communication Technologies (ICT). The social and economical dividends of ICT appear to be endless with the potential to contribute in achieving significant economic, social, and environmental benefits to challenge the economic recession the world is currently experiencing. Recent and projected developments in the fields of ICT are indeed revolutionary in nature. Their impact in areas such as science and technology, commerce and industry, business, administration, governance, and education will further revolutionize our society. One of the main challenges, however, is in the adoption of these new technologies. This chapter addresses some of these challenges for achieving technological diffusion and for shaping the experience of ICTs and technological innovation that would contribute to a global green economy and a sustainable future. It points to the important role ICT can play in creating employment opportunities, contributing to sustainability, and addressing environmental challenges associated with production, use of, and disposal of products. It is a working hypothesis calling for action by policy-makers, researchers, donors, and entrepreneurs, including social enterprises, to grasp the promises of ICT and conduct further research, policy dialogues, or pilot implementations for contributing to sustainable development and growth enabled by ICT.

Much attention has been given to the issues of sustainable use, sustainable development, and biodiversity conservation, as well as to the relationships among them. Some observers express a sense of optimism that implementing sustainable activities worldwide will lead to the conservation of biodiversity. In the popular media, there are examples almost daily of conservation success stories. But publicity for conservation and attention on biodiversity are being mistaken for solutions. What is perhaps more sobering than equating publicity with actions, or actions with solutions, is that the entire rubric of sustainability, in the rural context, has a set of questionable assumptions that underlies the portfolio of activities being implemented to conserve biodiversity. These assumptions have had a major impact in shaping the range of activities that have been developed to address the conservation of biodiversity— from policies (such as the Biodiversity Convention adopted at the 1992 Earth Summit) to projects implemented by conservation and development organizations worldwide (such as the Global Environmental Facility). The questionable assumptions fit into the following seven broad categories: • Method. Biodiversity conservation can best be accomplished through field-based activities, such as establishing parks and reserves. • Use. Sustainable use is possible under a variety of management regimes ranging from private to communal. Dependence on wildlands resources is most likely to ensure their long-term conservation. • Incentives. Appropriate sets of incentives can be readily defined and will influence people to conserve biodiversity. • Management. Management should be devolved to local control whenever possible. • Technology. Technical and organizational solutions exist to improve resource management and production activities in areas with great biodiversity. • Poverty Mitigation and Development. Rural poverty-mitigation and development strategies will lead to conservation and maintain biodiversity. • Social. Local people are cooperative and live in harmony with one another and with nature. These assumptions, and their implications, are increasingly being questioned as concern mounts that their implementation may lead to serious loss of biodiversity (see Ludwig et al., 1993; Robinson, 1993).

Java is very densely populated since it is inhabited by more than 60% of the total population of Indonesia. Based on data from the Ministry of Forestry, forest loss between 2000-2005 in Java was about 800,000 hectares. Regardless of the debate on whether the different methodologies of forest inventory applied in 2005 have resulted in an underestimation of the figure of forest loss or not, the decrease of forest cover in Java is obvious and needs immediate response. Spatial modeling of the deforestation will assist the policy makers in understanding this process and in taking it into consideration, when decisions are made on the issue. Moreover, the results can be used as data input to solve environmental problems resulting from deforestation. The authors of this chapter modeled the deforestation in Java by using logistic regression. Percentage of deforested area was considered as the response variable, whilst biophysical and socioeconomic factors, that explain the current spatial pattern in deforestation, were assigned as explanatory variables. Furthermore, the authors predicted the future deforestation process, and then, for the case of Java, it was validated with the actual deforestation derived from MODIS satellite imageries from 2000 to 2008. Results of the study showed that the impacts of population density, road density, and slope are significant. Population density and road density have negative impacts on deforestation, while slope has positive impact. Deforestation on Java Island tends to occur in remote areas with limited access, low density population and relatively steep slopes. Implication of the model is that the government should pay more attention to remote rural areas and develop good access to accelerate and create alternative non agricultural jobs in order to reduce pressure on the forest.

Gender equality and information and communication technology are important in the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in policy, planning, and practice. The 2000 Millennium Declaration of the United Nations (UN) formed an international agreement among member states to work toward the reduction of poverty and its effects by 2015 through eight Millennium Development Goals: 1. Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger 2. Achieve universal primary education 3. Promote gender equality and the empowerment of women 4. Reduce child and maternal mortality 5. Improve maternal health care 6. Combat HIV and AIDS, malaria, and other major diseases 7. Ensure environmental sustainability 8. Develop global partnership for development Progress toward gender equality and the empowerment of women is one goal that is important to achieving the others. Poverty, hunger, illiteracy, environmental threats, HIV and AIDS, and other health threats disproportionately affect the lives of women and their dependent children. Gender-sensitive ICT applications to education, health care, and local economies have helped communities progress toward the MDGs. ICT applications facilitate rural health-care workers’ access to medical expertise through phones and the Internet. Teachers expand learning resources through the Internet and satellite services, providing a greater knowledge base for learners. Small entrepreneurs with ICT access and training move their local business into world markets. ICT diffusion into world communication systems has been pervasive. Even some of the poorest economies in Africa show the fastest cell-phone growth, though Internet access and landline numbers are still low (International Telecommunications Union [ITU], 2003b). ICT access or a lack of it impacts participation, voice, and decision making in local, regional, and international communities. ICTs impact the systems that move or inhibit MDG progress. UN secretary general Kofi Annan explained the role of the MDGs in global affairs: Millennium Development Goals are too important to fail. For the international political system, they are the fulcrum on which development policy is based. For the billion-plus people living in extreme poverty, they represent the means to a productive life. For everyone on Earth, they are a linchpin to the quest for a more secure and peaceful world. (UN, 2005, p. 28) Annan also stressed the critical need for partnerships to facilitate technology training to enable information exchange and analysis (UN, 2005). ICT facilitates sharing lessons of success and failure, and progress evaluation of work in all the MDG target areas. Targets and indicators measuring progress were selected for all the MDGs. Gender equality and women’s empowerment are critical to the achievement of each other goal. Inadequate access to the basic human needs of clean water, food, education, health services, and environmental sustainability and the support of global partnership impacts great numbers of women. Therefore, the targets and indicators for Goal 3 address females in education, employment, and political participation. Progress toward the Goal 3 target to eliminate gender disparity in primary and secondary education, preferably by 2005, and in all levels of education no later than 2015, will be measured by the following indicators. • Ratio of girls to boys in primary, secondary, and tertiary education • Ratio of literate females to males who are 15- to 24-year-olds • Share of women in wage employment in the nonagricultural sector • Proportion of seats held by women in national parliaments (World Bank, 2003) Education is positively related to improved maternal and infant health, economic empowerment, and political participation (United Nations Development Program [UNDP], 2004; World Bank, 2003). Education systems in developing countries are beginning to offer or seek ways to provide ICT training as a basic skill and knowledge base. Proactive policy for gender equality in ICT access has not always accompanied the unprecedented ICT growth trend. Many civil-society representatives to the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) argue for ICT access to be considered a basic human right (Girard & Ó Soichrú, 2004; UN, 1948). ICT capability is considered a basic skill for education curriculum at tertiary, secondary, and even primary levels in developed regions. In developing regions, ICT access and capability are more limited but are still tightly woven into economic communication systems. ICTs minimize time and geography barriers. Two thirds of the world’s poor and illiterate are women (World Bank, 2003). Infant and maternal health are in chronic crisis for poor women. Where poverty is highest, HIV and AIDS are the largest and fastest growing health threat. Ninety-five percent of people living with HIV and AIDS are in developing countries, partly because of poor dissemination of information and medical treatment. Women are more vulnerable to infection than men. Culturally reinforced sexual practices have led to higher rates of HIV infection for women. Gender equality and the empowerment of women, starting with education, can help fight the spread of HIV, AIDS, and other major diseases. ICT can enhance health education through schools (World Bank). Some ICT developers, practitioners, and distributors have identified ways to incorporate gender inclusiveness into their policies and practice for problem-solving ICT applications toward each MDG target area. Yet ICT research, development, education, training, applications, and businesses remain male-dominated fields, with only the lesser skilled and salaried ICT labor force approaching gender equality. Successful integration of gender equality and ICT development policy has contributed to MDG progress through several projects in the developing regions. Notable examples are the South-African-based SchoolNet Africa and Bangladesh-based Grameen Bank Village Pay Phone. Both projects benefit from international public-private partnerships. These and similar models suggest the value and importance of linking gender equality and empowerment with global partnership for development, particularly in ICT. This article reports on developing efforts to coordinate the achievement of the MDGs with policy, plans, and practice for gender equality beyond the universal educational target, and with the expansion of ICT access and participation for women and men. The article examines the background and trends of MDG 3, to promote gender equality and the empowerment of women, with particular consideration of MDG 8, to develop global partnership for development, in ICT access and participation.

The ratification of the European Charter of Local Self-Government and the adoption of the Concept of the Reform of Local Self-Government and the Territorial Organization of Power in Ukraine in April, 2014 laid the groundwork for the approval of fiscal decentralization and the creation of fiscal frameworks for the development of rural areas. One of the defining conditions of fiscal decentralization is the provision of the local government with financial resources in an amount sufficient to perform their tasks for development of rural areas. Therefore, the purpose of the article is to study the

The CAP support is mostly focused on the technological modernization of farms, linked with production intensification, and weakly focused on the farms prosperity and resilience. As a result farmers and managers of agricultural companies are only a slightly motivated to produce added value and high quality food products, to use short food supply chains addressing constantly changing consumer needs, or to pay much attention on issues related to climate change. The paper findings are based on the Lithuanian case study carried out as a part of the international research project “Rethinking the lin

The Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) of the European Union has generated a great deal of attention and controversy among research community, practitioners and the wider population. The aim of this study is to overview and to discuss the thoughts and comments on the CAP which have been addressed by both its proponents and its opponents in the scientific publications, political commentaries, official reports, pubic opinion surveys and social-media-based public forums. While on the one hand, recent public opinion poll (Eurobarometer 2016) indicated broad support among EU citizens for the CAP; on

The key idea of the well-being concept strives to answer the question about how well the needs of people in a society are met in different spheres of social life - the physical, economic, social, educational, environmental, emotional, and spiritual – as well as individuals’ evaluations of their own lives and the way that their society operates (Gilbert, Colley, Roberts, 2016). One of the possible suggestions for answering the question: “How well are the needs of people in a society met?” could be the monitoring of citizen’s satisfaction with public services while applying a standardized questi

Cities create an environment that is clearly distinct from their surrounding areas. Urban structures alter the surface energy budget, modify the vertical profile of various atmospheric properties, interact with both local and regional circulation, and introduce anthropogenic heat. As a result, the climate conditions in the urban environment significantly differ from their rural system. Sustainability in planning is a topic of high interest among urban planners, urbanist and policy makers yet lack of scientific knowledge in the field leads to low impact in evolving urban planning decisions. Urb