INESAD’s Ioulia Fenton is currently researching food and agriculture topics at Worldwatch Institutes‘ Nourishing the Planet project (NtP). Check out her latest article that was featured on the NtP website: Five Holistic Alternative Farming Methods: Agroecology at its Best In March 2011, the United Nations Special Rapporteur, Olivier De Schutter, …
Read More »Guest Roast: Mining Companies’ Violations In Developing Countries—Who Is Responsible?
By Grahame Russel Increasingly, over the past few years, information has been published about serious human rights violations and health and environmental harms being caused in Guatemala by (mainly) Canadian mining company operations: Goldcorp Inc., Radius Gold Inc., Tahoe Resources Inc., Hudbay Minerals, and others. It is not possible to …
Read More »Policy Intentions and Policy Consequences
By: Diana Weinhold* Policies designed with the intention of making employment more secure tend to make employment less secure. Policies implemented to ensure that the poor can obtain housing often reduce residential options for low income families. Again and again, we observe that policy intentions and consequences are, at best, …
Read More »Commercializing nature?
By: Lykke E. Andersen* The Bolivian government has taken a strong stance against the international REDD+ mechanism, mainly because it reduces forests to a simple commodity to be traded in international carbon emissions markets. This would not only imply trading an invisible product (CO2 emissions), but – even more complicated …
Read More »Valuing nature?
By: Lykke E. Andersen* “Nature is like love: one of the most beautiful things on earth, but if you put a price on it, it becomes prostitution.” Nele Marien Every time somebody converts a hectare of forest into a hectare of agricultural land, they have – implicitly or explicitly – …
Read More »Could REDD+ Revolutionize Policy to Conserve Forest?
By: Charles Palmer* Reducing emissions from deforestation and degradation (REDD+), if implemented and financed on a broad scale in numerous countries across the world, promises to revolutionise forest and conservation policy. Yet, there remains much uncertainty regarding long-term finance and the mechanisms by which it might be delivered. Uncertainty also …
Read More »The forest, protected areas and deforestation around Rurrenabaque
By: Juan Carlos Ledezma* In the year of 1971, the Regional Corporation for Development in La Paz Region (CORDEPAZ) was created. It’s main development proposal, with the name “March towards the North”, put forward three different production strategies: i) the creation of a regional development hotspot centered in the San …
Read More »The Complex Causes of Deforestation
By: Ben Groom* The causes of deforestation are numerous and vary considerably with the particular context at hand. Despite this some general statements can be made. The actors involved are invariably loggers, farmers or cattle ranchers, and the way in which their activities determine land use and deforestation is governed …
Read More »“You Can’t Fire Your Land”: How the Humble Farmer Dethrones Free Market Economics
One of the primary lessons in Economics 101 is that of the rules of supply and demand in a market economy and their relationship to price. The basics being that the price of a product will adjust depending on the level of demand and level of supply in any given …
Read More »INESAD News: Linking School Food Policy and Children’s Health in America
Over the summer of 2012, INESAD‘s Ioulia Fenton is researching food and agriculture issues at Worldwatch Institute‘s Nourishing the Planet project. In her latest article, she discusses a new study suggesting that school food policy matters when it comes to the health of school kids in America. New Evidence Shows …
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