Criminal Liability against Business Entities Committing Forest Burning in the Perspective of the Development of Environmental Criminal Law

This study aims to investigate issues on how corporate deforestation (by fire) occurs and the responsibilities of business entities for the crime they have committed. Employing the descriptive method, this study relied on secondary data. Destruction of forests has impacted many sectors, e.g., environment, economics, institutional, socio-politics, and others associated with accessibility and biodiversity of forest resources. Such an issue blames factors, such as illegal logging, forest fires, poor monitoring and management of operationalization of the licensing system in forest areas, conversion of forest to plantations, and settlements and other non-forestry development agendas. Corporate deforestation, which is mainly aimed to open new space, is a form of intolerable criminal act given its detrimental effect on the ecosystem and public health. As the one that is responsible for any actions, corporates or business entities are urged to monitor all of their agendas and development. This notion, however, seems insufficient to address the issue of corporate deforestation since legal consequences have little to no effect in reducing primary forest loss.

American Demographers and Global Population Policy in the Postwar World

The twentieth century saw unprecedented efforts to measure, analyze, and control the world's population. Particularly after World War II, population control and demography—the social science of human population dynamics—developed in tandem and largely through the impetus of U.S.-based philanthropies. This article explains how U.S. actors exercised power over population in sovereign nations throughout the Global South and how demographic theory came to shape population policy worldwide. It contends that U.S.-based philanthropies gained global traction for their population control projects by developing demography as an ally and then leveraging its scientific authority to put population control on the foreign policy agenda of the U.S. government and on the nation-building and economic development agendas of countries in the Global South.

Rethinking anti-corruption efforts in international development

Purpose Corruption is commonly seen as a primary impediment to economic development, and its eradication has therefore featured high on development agendas. Most anti-corruption efforts in international development however fail. This paper aims to review recent attempts to unpack the “black box” of corruption to better understand its functioning in developing countries and find ways to combat corruption effectively. Design/methodology/approach The study has been undertaken through a comparative literature and case analysis of some of the primary findings within the field of anti-corruption in international development of the past decade. Findings The research finds that the black-and-white conceptualisation of corruption as an impediment to economic development, which is dominant in development circles, commonly fails to understand corruption as an alternative form of problem-solving in specific institutional settings. This has both hindered anti-corruption efforts and given unwarranted primacy to anti-corruption efforts in international development, to the loss of other priorities. Practical implications Policy-makers need to accept that there are no “magic bullets” against corruption and work in a much more contextual manner, while accepting the fact that corruption might not be the primary impediment to economic growth in their country. Originality/value The paper strengthens recent calls for a more contextualized approach to combat corruption, which have been given insufficient attention in policy design and most of the literature on corruption, providing a novel starting point for “functional”, politically-aware anti-corruption and development efforts.

Environmental Accountability Practices of Environmentally Sensitive Firms in Ghana: Does Institutional Isomorphism Matter?

Operational activities of firms accumulate over time and adversely impact the environment, which, in turn, threaten the earth’s ecosystem and sustainable development agendas. Both internal- and external-specific pressures may play a crucial part in a firm’s decision to conform to environmental accountability practices (EAP). This paper examines the associations between institutional isomorphic forces and EAP among environmentally sensitive firms in Ghana. A representative sample of 166 environmentally sensitive firms were randomly selected and included in this study. A structured questionnaire was used to obtain relevant data for the analysis. Multiple regression models estimated the hypothesized crude and adjusted associations between EAP and isomorphic factors (mimetic, normative and coercive pressures). Initial adjustment with the isomorphic factors revealed significant associations of mimetic pressure which arises when companies engage in competition seeking superior performance and normative force with EAP but not coercive. A further control for the firm’s characteristics found a strong association of normative pressure with EAP. The findings suggest that mimetic and normative pressures may be essential in an attempt to stimulate EAP among environmentally sensitive firms in Ghana. Our results are broadly consistent with the predictions of institutional theory as it applies to EAP. Efforts to ensure environmental reporting among firms should strengthen normative and mimetic forces, particularly in the low- and middle-income settings.

Post Pandemic Covid-19 Economic Recovery: Enabling Latin America and the Caribbean to Better Harness E-commerce and Digital Trade

This report shows that Latin America and the Caribbean faces critical policy challenges going forward. It must accelerate the digital transformation to allow businesses and consumers to adapt to a new normal and leverage pandemic recovery to create stronger economies, and also tackle long-standing barriers to adopting digital technologies and bridging digital divides. These have impeded sustained and equitable economic growth even before the pandemic struck. This crisis should be a wake-up call for governments, the private sector, civil society, and international development partners to come together and take concerted actions to advance on consistent, long-term, and sustainable e-commerce strategies that are at the forefront of national and regional productive development agendas. Just as digital solutions allowed countries to overcome the increased role of distance within the context of the pandemic in shaping consumption and business, they should also be harnessed to increase regional economic integration beyond this emergency situation.

Dialectical Tensions of Sustainability and Health during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Tale from Latin America

The purpose of this article is to discuss the relationship between sustainability and health in the context of the coronavirus pandemic in Latin America, the region with the second highest number of deaths due to COVID-19. After performing a dialectical analysis on mass media discourses about the pandemic, we argue that sustainability must be understood in relation to tensions such as (a) health and economy, (b) isolation and interconnectedness of health management, and (c) access to and excess of information about the pandemic. Based on this analysis, we suggest that if health is to be considered a fourth pillar of sustainability, it needs to be approached in close connection with these inseparable and irreducible tensions in order to broaden the way in which it has been approached in global sustainable development agendas and to recognize the role of individuals and communities in health issues.

Demography as Diplomacy

Chapter 5 demonstrates how, in the 1950s and 1960s, U.S.-based philanthropic organizations invested in the growth of demography, the social science of human population dynamics, and used demography to convince heads of state of developing countries to integrate family planning programs into their nation-building and economic development agendas. The Population Council and the Ford Foundation established population research and training centers at major U.S. universities, to which they recruited graduate students from developing countries, with the understanding that they would return home after completing their education to advocate for the establishment of family planning programs. These organizations also funded fertility surveys by American demographers in Africa, Asia, and Latin America that promoted small-family norms and the distribution of new systemic contraceptive technologies, specifically the intrauterine device and birth control pill, and documented the existence of what demographers termed “unmet need” for family planning services.