Analyzing Integrated Wastelands Development Programme in West Bengal: An ecological sustainability perspective

Author(s):  
Saikat Maji ◽  
Surya Rathore ◽  
Kanchan Khati

Ecological sustainability is long term maintenance of the capability of the environment to support human life. It is one of the most important dimensions of the sustainability triad i.e Ecological, economic and social sustainability. Achieving ecological sustainability would be instrumental in reversing the trend of fast degrading natural resources of the country. Integrated Wastelands Development Programme (IWDP) which is implemented in four district of West Bengal from 2004 particularly for development of degraded or potentially degradable land has been analysed for ecological sustainability in terms of parameter like increased vegetation, technological intervention with providing due importance to indigenous technologies etc. and the constraints faced by beneficiaries in different stages of project management. This study was conducted in Taldangra block of Bankura district. Result indicated that consideration of indigenous technologies (weight 0.467) and environmental effects (weight 0.328) were perceived as the most important indicators of ecological sustainability. Use of erosion checking measure and water harvesting measure was the most urgent measure to check natural resource degradation. Overall activities under the project had a medium level of ecological sustainability (overall ecological sustainability index 55.75).

Social Change ◽  
2003 ◽  
Vol 33 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 142-172 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ghazala Shahabuddin

Under the Joint Forest Management (JFM) programme in south-western West Bengal, regenerating deciduous forests are being managed for the extraction of numerous plant products, both for commercial benefits and subsistence-level use, on a large scale. However, there has been little serious evaluation of the long-term biological sustainability of forest produce extraction in these forests or the accompanying ecological impacts. On the other hand, observational evidence indicates biological impoverishment of forest ecosystems and soils as a result of the forest management practices prevalent in the region such as clearfelling, extraction of understorey vegetation and monocultural plantations. The present review brings together the available scientific information on the ecological sustainability of the forest management practices currently prevalent in south-western West Bengal in an attempt to delineate the lacunae in our knowledge regarding the issue and draw up a research strategy that can be used to design long-term management plans for the forests of this region. It was found that currently there is little or no scientific data on the ecological impacts of forest produce extraction either at the species-or at the ecosystem-level. In view of the status of current knowledge on the ecological sustainability of JFM in the study area, (1) critical areas of research, (2) generalised research strategies, and (3) ways to expand the ongoing initiatives in participatory vegetation monitoring for long-term forest monitoring, are delineated for this region, based on interventions carried out in other parts of India and the rest of the world.


2001 ◽  
Vol 120 (5) ◽  
pp. A613-A613
Author(s):  
P BORNMAN ◽  
K RADEBOLD ◽  
H DEBAERE ◽  
L VENTER ◽  
H HEINZE ◽  
...  

Author(s):  
Cymie R. Payne

The principle of ‘environmental integrity’ is a fundamental aspect of jus post bellum. Human life, economy, and culture depend on a healthy, functioning environment. However, environmental integrity is a complex concept to describe. Doctrinal thresholds for legally material environmental damage (significant, long-term, widespread) do not capture it. This chapter interrogates the jus post bellum literature and then turns to scholarship on wilderness management in the Anthropocene era, which also engages with the meaning of ‘environmental integrity’, ‘naturalness’, ‘unimpaired’, or, in the words of the Factory at Chorzów case which sets the international law standard for reparations of damage, ‘the situation which would, in all probability, have existed if that act had not been committed’. Recognition that pristine or historical conditions are often impossible to recover or maintain leads to the legal, ethical, and scientific analysis of evolving environmental norms that this chapter offers.


Author(s):  
J. Jbilou ◽  
A. El Bouazaoui ◽  
B. Zhang ◽  
J.L. Henry ◽  
L McDonald ◽  
...  

Older adults living in long-term care facilities typically receive insufficient exercise and have long periods of the day when they are not doing anything other than sitting or lying down, watching television, or ruminating (Wilkinson et al., 2017). We developed an intervention called the Experiential Centivizer, which provides residents with opportunities to use a driving simulator, watch world travel videos, and engage in exercise. We assessed the impact of the intervention on residents of a long-term care home in Fredericton, NB, Canada. In this paper, we report on the results observed and highlight the lessons learned from implementing a technological intervention within a long-term care setting. Practical and research recommendations are also discussed to facilitate future intervention implementation in long-term care.


Focaal ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 2009 (54) ◽  
pp. 89-96 ◽  
Author(s):  
Projit Bihari Mukharji

The reflections in this article were instigated by the repeated and brutal clashes since 2007 between peasants and the state government’s militias—both official and unofficial—over the issue of industrialization. A communist government engaging peasants violently in order to acquire and transfer their lands to big business houses to set up capitalist enterprises seemed dramatically ironic. De- spite the presence of many immediate causes for the conflict, subtle long-term change to the nature of communist politics in the state was also responsible for the present situation. This article identifies two trends that, though significant, are by themselves not enough to explain what is happening in West Bengal today. First, the growth of a culture of governance where the Communist Party actively seeks to manage rather than politicize social conflicts; second, the recasting of radical political subjectivity as a matter of identity rather than an instigation for critical self-reflection and self-transformation.


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