The focus of this paper is on identifying some of the key elements of water policy and governance presented at the 5th IWHA Conference ‘Pasts and Futures of Water.’ The paper also explores the challenges and opportunities facing the international community for living up to the principles of democratic water governance in a context of increasing global uncertainty.
This editorial note introduces the four major conference themes of the 5th International Water History Association (IWHA) Conference ‘Pasts and Futures of Water’ in June 2007: (i) water, health and sanitation; (ii) water, food and economy; (iii) water and the city; and (iv) water governance and policy.
This study is an overview of the state-led development projects and local efforts to ‘improve’ local conditions on the Zoige grass and wetlands on the eastern edge of the Tibetan Plateau since 1949 and their impact on the regional ecological and social environment. It focuses on historical state-led development projects, as well as more recent efforts to raise environmental awareness of the importance of Chinese wetlands.
In this paper, Bryan G. Norton and Anne C. Steinemann offer a new valuation approach which embodies the core principles of adaptive management, which is experimental, multi-scalar, and place-based.
Yvonne Rydin examines the different ways in which the significance of environmental discourse is recognized, analyzing its influence.
Bryan G. Norton proposes the pragmatic conception of truth, anticipated by Henry David Thoreau and developed by C.S. Peirce and subsequent pragmatists, as a useful analogy for characterizing “sustainability.”
John M. Francis examines the dilemma that arises from the British application of “voluntary principle” legislation to long-term land management strategies in support of nature conservation.
The article shows how the Sami of northern Norway are creating new openings and opportunities for more localized management systems based on local environmental knowledge.
