scholarly journals Agritourism Initiatives in the Context of Continuous Out-Migration: Comparative Perspectives for the Alps and Chinese Mountain Regions

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (16) ◽  
pp. 4418 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Dax ◽  
Dachang Zhang ◽  
Yanying Chen
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Economic Transition ◽  
Population Decline ◽  
Economic Incentives ◽  
Environmental Benefits ◽  
Mountain Regions ◽  
Mountain Areas ◽  
Core Element ◽  
The Alps

After World War II, the economic recovery of Western Europe implied a swift economic transition for all regions, including the area of the Alps, although affecting various parts at different paces and stages. The resulting out-migration led to population decline in some mountain valleys and regions since the 1950s. Such negative population development trends are widespread across mountain areas of the world, including China, where out-migration started after its rural reform in the 1970s. The effect was in some cases even more significant than in the Alps, with the first villages being deserted in the 1980s. Current estimations report about 380,000 rural villages in China being abandoned between 2000–2016, particularly in its mountain regions. While lower population densities might alleviate the pressures on ecology and contribute to environmental benefits, these movements aggravate a spiraling-down process of local economies and culture. In the Alps, many regions that were facing challenges of out-migration and economic weaknesses focused on local initiatives, including agritourism schemes that provided both economic incentives and stability to involved mountain farmers, and the continuation of local land management systems. However, China’s interest for promoting rural action and tourism-oriented farm diversification only started more recently, with a range of rural tourism and agricultural tourism initiatives emerging. This paper focuses on lessons from successful initiatives in the Alps that might induce and strengthen China’s search for elaborating agritourism activities in mountain areas. In consequence, agritourism might be assessed as a contribution to mitigate out-migration from mountain regions and a core element of the future sustainable development of the Alps and the Chinese countryside.

Piemonte. Tra stasi e sperimentazioni, un quadro chiaroscurale / Piedmont. Between stasis and experimentations, a «chiaroscuro» framework

ARCHALP ◽  
2018 ◽  
pp. 66-75
Author(s):  
Antonio De Rossi ◽  
Roberto Dini
Keyword(s):  
Physical Space ◽  
The Other ◽  
Green Economy ◽  
Urban Centers ◽  
Mountain Areas ◽  
Architectural Production ◽  
New Meanings ◽  
The Alps ◽  
Contemporary Situation

The contemporary architectural production in the Alps of Piedmont has to be studied taking into consideration the contrasting phenomena of depopulation and tourism that have involved the mountain areas of the region during last century. In the fifties and sixties the percentage of abandonment of the high valleys reaches even 80-90%. Entire communities move to industrial urban centers in the cities on the plain. On the other side we witness to a strong polarization of the winter stations that become real “banlieues blanches” for the free time of the citizens and where the architecture of alpine modernism, with various forms, shapes. The paradox nowadays is that the rarefaction of abandoned and depopulated territories is necessary to force to start and choose new innovative paths. We witness a contemporary situation with different shades: on one side the well-established touristic territories that need projects to promote the redevelopment and diversification, on the other side the marginal places where are rising new visions are practices of reactivation of the territory in which architecture is fundamental. The topic of quality of the construction of the physical space intersects with the regeneration of places on a cultural basis, new agriculture and green economy, innovative development of the patrimony, sustainable tourism, with inclusive and participative paths of nature, by giving new meanings to places and building new economies and identities.

scholarly journals The Influence of Land Use Change on Key Ecosystem Services and Their Relationships in a Mountain Region from Past to Future (1995–2050)

Forests ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (5) ◽  
pp. 616
Author(s):  
Jie Gao ◽  
Xuguang Tang ◽  
Shiqiu Lin ◽  
Hongyan Bian
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Land Use Change ◽  
Sustainable Land Use ◽  
Mountain Region ◽  
Water Yield ◽  
Mountain Regions ◽  
Mountain Areas ◽  
The Government ◽  
Steep Slopes

The ecosystem services (ESs) provided by mountain regions can bring about benefits to people living in and around the mountains. Ecosystems in mountain areas are fragile and sensitive to anthropogenic disturbance. Understanding the effect of land use change on ESs and their relationships can lead to sustainable land use management in mountain regions with complex topography. Chongqing, as a typical mountain region, was selected as the site of this research. The long-term impacts of land use change on four key ESs (i.e., water yield (WY), soil conservation (SC), carbon storage (CS), and habitat quality (HQ)) and their relationships were assessed from the past to the future (at five-year intervals, 1995–2050). Three future scenarios were constructed to represent the ecological restoration policy and different socioeconomic developments. From 1995 to 2015, WY and SC experienced overall increases. CS and HQ increased slightly at first and then decreased significantly. A scenario analysis suggested that, if the urban area continues to increase at low altitudes, by 2050, CS and HQ are predicted to decrease moderately. However, great improvements in SC, HQ, and CS are expected to be achieved by the middle of the century if the government continues to make efforts towards vegetation restoration on the steep slopes.

Labor’s Cold Warriors: The American Federation of Labor and “Free Trade Unionism” in Cold War Japan

2003 ◽  
Vol 12 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 207-224 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher Gerteis
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Cold War ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
The United States ◽  
Central Intelligence Agency ◽  
United States Government ◽  
American Federation Of Labor ◽  
Intelligence Agency ◽  
American Federation

AbstractDuring the 1950s, the American Federation of Labor (AFL) led a global covert attempt to suppress left-led labor movements in Western Europe, the Mediterranean, West Africa, Central and South America, and East Asia. American union leaders argued that to survive the Cold War, they had to demonstrate to the United States government that organized labor was not part-and-parcel with Soviet communism. The AFL’s global mission was placed in care of Jay Lovestone, a founding member of the American Communist Party in 1921 and survivor of decades of splits and internecine battles over allegiance to one faction or another in Soviet politics before turning anti-Communist and developing a secret relation with the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) after World War II. Lovestone’s idea was that the AFL could prove its loyalty by helping to root out Communists from what he perceived to be a global labor movement dominated by the Soviet Union. He was the CIA’s favorite Communist turned anti-Communist.

Problems of the Duration of the Eemian Interglacial in Europe North of the Alps

2002 ◽  
Vol 58 (1) ◽  
pp. 45-48 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles Turner
Keyword(s):  
Mediterranean Region ◽  
Temperate Forest ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Laminated Sediment ◽  
Annually Laminated Sediment ◽  
The Alps ◽  
The Mediterranean ◽  
Eemian Interglacial

AbstractSuggestions that the duration of the Eemian interglacial was about 11,000 yr, based on annually laminated sediment sequences in Germany, have been challenged in favor of a much longer interval. However, biostratigraphic evidence demonstrates why the Eemian sequences at Grande Pile and Ribains cannot be reliably used for alignment with the marine sequence, as applied by Kukla et al. (2002, this issue) to estimate the duration of this interglacial. The long chronology they propose would imply not just coniferous but, for up to 5000 yr, fully temperate forest in central France coexisting with treeless heath and steppe tundra conditions in northwestern Europe, an unlikely climatic and ecological scenario. The proposal that the Eemian Interglacial in western Europe lasted for 17,000 or even 23,000 yr is rejected. A duration of no more than 13,000 yr is preferred, at least for sites north of the Alps and Pyrenees. The duration of temperate conditions in the Mediterranean region is less certain.

scholarly journals Human development and convergence among the states of former Yugoslavia

2020 ◽  
Vol 70 (3) ◽  
pp. 361-380
Author(s):  
Ivan Vujačić ◽  
Jelica Petrović-Vujačić ◽  
Svetozar Tanasković ◽  
Marko Miljković
Keyword(s):  
Human Development ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Economic Transition ◽  
Second World War ◽  
Former Yugoslavia ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Catching Up ◽  
Independent States ◽  
Eu Policies ◽  
Second World

AbstractAfter the devastation of the Second World War, the federal units of the former Yugoslavia were on their way to catching up with the Western Europe, with different degrees of success. In fact, Yugoslavia was considered a success story among the socialist economies due to its specific self-management system. Nevertheless, among the Federal units that later became independent states, regional differences in development level increased, in spite of the proclaimed policy to narrow them. Enough time has passed since the wars of the breakup and the economic transition to check if this divergence is continuing under a capitalist market system, now that all the countries are on the path to the European Union (EU) accession. The paper tests the convergence hypothesis among the states of the former Yugoslavia in terms of Human Development Index (HDI), as a more complex indicator of country development than GDP per capita. The results of two different approaches to test for the presence of β (beta) and σ (sigma) convergence suggest that the gap between the states of former Yugoslavia is closing, albeit at a slow rate. Given that convergence is slow, the active EU policies aimed at hastening the accession of the currently non-member states of the former Yugoslavia would accelerate the process.

What Future for Human Rights?

2014 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 213-223 ◽  
Author(s):  
James W. Nickel
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
World War Ii ◽  
Cold War ◽  
Labor Unions ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Environmental Movement ◽  
World War ◽  
Early Stages ◽  
Human Rights Movement ◽  
The Cold War

Like people born shortly after World War II, the international human rights movement recently had its sixty-fifth birthday. This could mean that retirement is at hand and that death will come in a few decades. After all, the formulations of human rights that activists, lawyers, and politicians use today mostly derive from the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and the world in 1948 was very different from our world today: the cold war was about to break out, communism was a strong and optimistic political force in an expansionist phase, and Western Europe was still recovering from the war. The struggle against entrenched racism and sexism had only just begun, decolonization was in its early stages, and Asia was still poor (Japan was under military reconstruction, and Mao's heavy-handed revolution in China was still in the future). Labor unions were strong in the industrialized world, and the movement of women into work outside the home and farm was in its early stages. Farming was less technological and usually on a smaller scale, the environmental movement had not yet flowered, and human-caused climate change was present but unrecognized. Personal computers and social networking were decades away, and Earth's human population was well under three billion.

Anatomical Characteristics and Ecological Trends in the Xylem and Phloem of Brassicaceae and Resedacae

IAWA Journal ◽  
2006 ◽  
Vol 27 (4) ◽  
pp. 419-442 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fritz Hans Schweingruber
Keyword(s):  
Western Europe ◽  
Life Forms ◽  
Reaction Wood ◽  
Lower Altitude ◽  
Alpine Zone ◽  
Brassicaceae Species ◽  
Ray Cells ◽  
The Alps ◽  
The Hill ◽  
Vestured Pits

The xylem and phloem of Brassicaceae (116 and 82 species respectively) and the xylem of Resedaceae (8 species) from arid, subtropical and temperate regions in Western Europe and North America is described and analysed, compared with taxonomic classifications, and assigned to their ecological range. The xylem of different life forms (herbaceous plants, dwarf shrubs and shrubs) of both families consists of libriform fibres and short, narrow vessels that are 20–50 μm in diameter and have alternate vestured pits and simple perforations. The axial parenchyma is paratracheal and, in most species, the ray cells are exclusively upright or square. Very few Brassicaceae species have helical thickening on the vessel walls, and crystals in fibres. The xylem anatomy of Resedaceae is in general very similar to that of the Brassicaceae. Vestured pits occur only in one species of Resedaceae.Brassicaceae show clear ecological trends: annual rings are usually distinct, except in arid and subtropical lowland zones; semi-ring-porosity decreases from the alpine zone to the hill zone at lower altitude. Plants with numerous narrow vessels are mainly found in the alpine zone. Xylem without rays is mainly present in plants growing in the Alps, both at low and high altitudes. The reaction wood of the Brassicaceae consists primarily of thick-walled fibres, whereas that of the Resedaceae contains gelatinous fibres. The frequency of sclereids in Brassicaceae bark is an indicator of ecological differences: sclereids are rare in plants from the alpine zone and frequent in plants from all other ecotones.

Peak Pursuits

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Caroline Schaumann
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Sierra Nevada ◽  
Leisure Time ◽  
Mountain Regions ◽  
The Andes ◽  
New Models ◽  
Late Eighteenth ◽  
The Alps

European forays to mountain summits began in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries with the search for plants and minerals and the study of geology and glaciers. Yet scientists were soon captivated by the enterprise of climbing itself, enthralled with the views and the prospect of “conquering” alpine summits. Inspired by Romantic notions of nature, early mountaineers idealized their endeavors as sublime experiences, all the while deliberately measuring what they saw. As increased leisure time and advances in infrastructure and equipment opened up once formidable mountain regions to those seeking adventure and sport, new models of masculinity emerged that were fraught with tensions. This book examines how written and artistic depictions of nineteenth-century exploration and mountaineering in the Andes, the Alps, and the Sierra Nevada shaped cultural understandings of nature and wilderness in the Anthropocene.

From Mass Distribution to Customer-Centric Awareness Tools

2013 ◽  
pp. 498-510
Author(s):  
Bernd Hallier
Keyword(s):  
Applied Sciences ◽  
World War Ii ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Agricultural Sector ◽  
Future Internet ◽  
Practical Experience ◽  
Smart Phones ◽  
Time Period ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Beef Sector

The demand for meat grew in Western Europe after World War II: meat became a mass-product from the 70s of the last century onwards. However, while in the consumer product section “brands” were established, in the agricultural sector food was an anonymous product. Unfortunately, mass-production and discount-prices resulted in many food scandals starting in the 80s. In the beef-sector, especially the British Cow Decease (BSE) created a mistrust of meat. To re-gain “trust” meat-buyers of six German retail-chains started in 1995, together with the Cologne-based EHI Retail Institute, a tracking and tracing system—known later as the EHI-Meat-Label. This private initiative has been rolled out since 1997 by the EU via EU-regulations. Within the last five years, most stakeholders had been built up in the total supply chain in Western Europe with tracking/tracing systems from farm to fork, quite often with the help of IT. The evolution at the beginning of this decade is caused by mobile technology and social media, i.e. apps on smart phones that enable the communication “from fork to farm.” The challenge is a U-turn of info-streams strongly emphasizing consumer awareness. Part one of this chapter discloses what had happened at the backstage of the EHI-Meat Workshop between 1994 and 2001 to create a technical tool for tracing, to intertwine all stakeholders in the market, and to establish politics, both nationally and internationally. This work represents a case study of applied sciences to explain chronologically what happened within that time-period. Part two is an analysis of the marketing-tools and how the mix of the activities of EHI was used so that this success-story could unfold. Part three is a look at how to cope with the new challenge of smart phones and apps by integrating the individual pioneers into an EU-roof of Future Internet and Technologies. The chapter has been developed through an ethnographic observation platform by the author’s practical experience and observation.

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