PRESS-NEWS.org - Press Release Distribution
PRESS RELEASES DISTRIBUTION

Green grabs: The dark side of the green economy

'Green' market initiatives are increasing poverty; local ecosystem stewardship must be nurtured instead

2012-06-15
(Press-News.org) 'Green grabbing' - the rapidly-growing appropriation of land and resources in the name of 'green ' biofuels, carbon offsetting schemes, conservation efforts and eco-tourism initiatives – is forcing people from their homelands and increasing poverty, new research has found.

Ecosystems being 'asset-stripped' for profit is likely to cause dispossession and further poverty amongst already-poor land and resource users, according to a set of 17 new research case studies from Africa, Asia and Latin America, published in a special issue of the Journal of Peasant Studies.

"Green grabs are the dark side of the green economy," said Professor Melissa Leach, director of the ESRC STEPS Centre. "If market-based mechanisms are to contribute to sustainable development and the building of economies that are not only green but also fair, then fostering an agenda focused on distribution, equity and justice in green market arrangements is vital."

This means including meaningful local engagement and consultation based on transparency, accountability and free, prior informed consent. Yet green markets cannot do it all. In the rush to repair a damaged nature through trading and offset schemes, the political-economic structures that caused the damage in the first place must not be neglected.

Responsibility for tackling unsustainable practices in wealthy industrialised settings should not be offloaded by financialising ecosystems in other parts of the world. And if sustainable development is genuinely to be pursued at Rio+20 and beyond, we need to recapture nature from the market's grasp, nurturing and legitimising more interconnected human-ecological relationships and understandings, along with tried-and-tested forms of local ecosystem stewardship based on them.

Examples of green grabs include: in Guatemala, conservation agencies, ecotourism companies and the military are 'protecting' the Guatemalan Maya Biosphere Reserve as a 'Maya-themed vacationland', violently excluding local people. In Eastern and Southern Africa, businesses are revaluing soil systems and farming practices for 'biochar', dispossessing farmers and pastoralists from land and resources important for their livelihoods. Meanwhile evidence is mounting that some Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD and REDD+) schemes are dispossessing local forest users of vital resource access.

INFORMATION:

END



ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Quirky fruit fly gene could point way to new cancer drugs

2012-06-15
MAYWOOD, Il. -- Loyola University Chicago researchers are taking advantage of a quirk in the evolution of fruit fly genes to help develop new weapons against cancer. A newly discovered fruit fly gene is a simplified counterpart of two complex human genes that play important roles in the development of cancer and some birth defects. As this fruit fly gene evolved, it split in two. This split has made it easier to study, and the resulting insights could prove useful in developing new cancer drugs. "Evolution has given us a gift," said Andrew K. Dingwall, PhD, senior author ...

Lessons learned from the 'ethical odyssey' of an HIV trial

2012-06-15
In the battle against HIV/AIDS conditions on the frontlines are constantly in flux as treatment, research and policy evolve. The landmark HIV Prevention Trials Network (HPTN) 052 study, which established that antiretroviral treatment in people who are HIV positive decreases the likelihood of transmitting HIV to their sexual partners, was no exception. One year after publication the study serves as a case study of ethical challenges faced at every stage of the research trial process in the new paper "Establishing HIV treatment as prevention in the HIV Prevention Trials ...

Atomic-resolution view of a receptor reveals how stomach bacterium avoids acid

Atomic-resolution view of a receptor reveals how stomach bacterium avoids acid
2012-06-15
EUGENE, Ore. -- (June 14, 2012) -- University of Oregon scientists have discovered how the bacterium Helicobacter pylori navigates through the acidic stomach, opening up new possibilities to inactivate its disease-causing ability without using current strategies that often fail or are discontinued because of side effects. Their report -- online ahead of regular publication July 3 in the journal Structure -- unveils the crystal structure of H. pylori's acid receptor TlpB. The receptor has an external protrusion, identified as a PAS domain, bound by a small molecule called ...

Elderly prisoners need better medical care, according to report

Elderly prisoners need better medical care, according to report
2012-06-15
Soaring numbers of older, sicker prisoners are causing an unprecedented health care challenge for the nation's criminal justice system, according to a new UCSF report. As the American penal system confronts a costly demographic shift toward older prisoners, the authors call for an overhaul in health care practices for elderly inmates who disproportionately account for escalating medical expenses behind bars. The recommendations include screening for dementia among prisoners, improved palliative care, and standard policies for geriatric housing units for infirm inmates. The ...

Stanford engineers perfecting carbon nanotubes for highly energy-efficient computing

Stanford engineers perfecting carbon nanotubes for highly energy-efficient computing
2012-06-15
Energy efficiency is the most significant challenge standing in the way of continued miniaturization of electronic systems, and miniaturization is the principal driver of the semiconductor industry. "As we approach the ultimate limits of Moore's Law, however, silicon will have to be replaced in order to miniaturize further," said Jeffrey Bokor, deputy director for science at the Molecular Foundry at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and Professor at UC-Berkeley. To this end, carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are a significant departure from traditional silicon technologies ...

Tense film scenes trigger brain activity, CCNY-led team finds

2012-06-15
Visual and auditory stimuli that elicit high levels of engagement and emotional response can be linked to reliable patterns of brain activity, a team of researchers from The City College of New York and Columbia University reports. Their findings could lead to new ways for producers of films, television programs and commercials to predict what kinds of scenes their audiences will respond to. "Peak correlations of neural activity across viewings can occur in remarkable correspondence with arousing moments of the film," the researchers said in an article published in the ...

Environmental factors spread obesity, CCNY-led team reports

2012-06-15
An international team of researchers' study of the spatial patterns of the spread of obesity suggests America's bulging waistlines may have more to do with collective behavior than genetics or individual choices. The team, led by City College of New York physicist Hernán Makse, found correlations between the epidemic's geography and food marketing and distribution patterns. "We found there is a relationship between the prevalence of obesity and the growth of the supermarket economy," Professor Makse said. "While we can't claim causality because we don't know whether obesity ...

Gone fishing: Researchers' imaging technique trolls in quiet cellular seas

Gone fishing: Researchers imaging technique trolls in quiet cellular seas
2012-06-15
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Experienced anglers know that choppy waters make for difficult fishing, so they try not to rock the boat. Thanks to a new microscopy technique, cell biology researchers can heed that same advice. University of Illinois researchers developed a method they call "trolling AFM," which allows them to study soft biological samples in liquid with high resolution and high quality. Led by mechanical science and engineering professor Min-Feng Yu, the group published its findings in the journal Nanotechnology. "We developed a highly sensitive method for high-resolution ...

Take-home methadone maintenance treatment associated with decreased hospital admissions

2012-06-15
(Boston) – A recent study conducted by researchers at Boston Medical Center (BMC) shows that patients receiving "take home" methadone maintenance treatment (MMT) were less likely to be admitted to the hospital as compared to those not receiving take home doses. The findings, which are published online in the Journal of Addiction Medicine, demonstrate the potential benefits of successful addiction treatment, including better overall health and decreased health care utilization. This research was led by Alexander Walley, MD, MSc, physician in general internal medicine at ...

9 out of 10 non-elderly Californians will be covered under Affordable Care Act

2012-06-15
Nine out of 10 Californians under the age of 65 will be enrolled in health insurance programs as a result of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA), according to a joint study by the UC Berkeley Center for Labor Research and Education and the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research. Between 1.8 million and 2.7 million previously uninsured Californians will gain coverage by 2019, when the law's effect is fully realized, the researchers said. The report, which uses a sophisticated computer simulation model to project the ACA's impact on insurance coverage, ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

Metabolically active visceral fat linked to aggressive endometrial cancer, new study reveals

Scientists glimpse how enzymes “dance” while they work, and why that’s important

California partnership aided COVID-19 response and health equity, report finds

University of Oklahoma secures $19.9 million for revolutionary radar technology

Study finds restoring order to dividing cancer cells may prevent metastasis

High-accuracy tumor detection with label-free microscopy and neural networks

Wayne State research reveals fetuses exposed to Zika virus have long-term immune challenges

Researchers deconstruct chikungunya outbreaks to improve prediction and vaccine development

Study finds one-year change on CT scans linked to future outcomes in fibrotic lung disease

Discovery of a novel intracellular trafficking pathway in plant cells

New tool helps forecast volcano slope collapses and tsunamis

Molecular coating cleans up noisy quantum light

From Parkinson's to rare diseases, discovered a key switch for cellular health

Tiny sugars in the brain disrupt emotional circuits, fueling depression

Mini-organs reveal how the cervix defends itself

Africa, climate, and food: How to feed a continent without increasing its carbon footprint

Researchers demonstrates substrate design principles for scalable superconducting quantum materials

How better software choices could cut US health care costs

Concussion history in NCAA athletes yields mixed health outcomes

Counting plastic reveals hidden waste and sparks action

Warming oceans may pose a serious threat to American lobsters

Deaths from drug-induced unintentional injury rise across the US

In car crashes with pedestrians, age and zip code may predict extent of traumatic injuries

AI optimizes evacuation, diagnosis, and treatment of wounded soldiers in Ukraine

Mastectomy linked to worsened sexual health, body image after surgery

Drop in credit score after cancer diagnosis linked to increased mortality, study shows

Use of weight loss drugs before bariatric surgery has soared in recent years, study finds

EMS call times in rural areas take at least 20 minutes longer than national average

Rectal bleeding in young adults linked to 8.5 times higher risk of colorectal cancer

Hospital closures disproportionately affect socioeconomically disadvantaged communities

[Press-News.org] Green grabs: The dark side of the green economy
'Green' market initiatives are increasing poverty; local ecosystem stewardship must be nurtured instead