This thesis deals with how natural resource teachers in natural resource schools in Sweden work with entrepreneurial learning and entrepreneurship. It is important both for our Government and our agricultural department that entrepreneurship is present in our education. In government´s new reform 2011 for upper secondary schools entrepreneurship is the main theme, but it is not only entrepreneurship as a business company, it is also about entrepreneurship in schools like entrepreneurial capabilities in government´s writ.  The purpose of this study is to examine how a number of teachers in natural resource schools are working with entrepreneurial learning and entrepreneurship. I have also asked how the teachers would like to work with these areas. The method I have chosen to use in order to perform this study is qualitative interviews with six natural resource teachers and a pilote interview. The teachers I interviewed are working to provide students with self-knowledge and teaches students to see possibilities and solve problems, which is required for us to create entrepreneurial students and entrepreneurship in education. This is also stressed in several of the literary sources I used. / Detta examensarbete handlar om entreprenöriellt lärande och entreprenörskap på naturbruksskolor i Sverige. Det är viktigt både för regering såväl jordbruksverk att entreprenörskap finns i våra utbildningar. I regeringens förslag till ny gymnasiereform 2011 finns entreprenörskap med som en röd tråd i utbildningen, det är inte bara entreprenörskap som företag utan också entreprenörskap i skolan såsom entreprenöriella kompetenser det handlar om i regeringens skrivelser. Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka hur ett antal lärare på några naturbruksgymnasier arbetar med entreprenöriellt lärande och entreprenörskap. Jag har också diskuterat hur lärarna skulle vilja arbeta med dessa områden. Metoden som jag valt att använda för att göra denna studie är kvalitativa intervjuer av sex naturbrukslärare samt en pilotintervju. De lärare som jag intervjuat arbetar för att ge eleverna självkunskap och lär eleverna se möjligheter och lösa problem, vilket är vad som krävs för att vi ska få entreprenöriella elever och entreprenörskap i utbildningen. Detta framhålls även i flera av de litterära källorna jag använt.

In this thesis, I take Yunnan and Heilongjiang as a sample to discuss the border trade in China. I find that there are obvious difference between southern and northern border trade because of the demand and supply of natural resource, the industrial structure, the structure of import and export, the step of economic growth of the neighbor countries, as well as the open policy and the foreign relationship among those countries.

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Concerns regarding energy security, resource sustainability, and environmental protection have heightened interests in renewable fuels and sparked the research and development of ethanol as a transportation fuel. This study examines consumers’ willingness to pay for ethanol from various potential feedstocks; corn, switchgrass and wood wastes. Data was collected via a survey of fuel consumers across the United States in 2009. Results show that consumers have a preference for E85 (a fuel blend with 85 percent ethanol and 15 percent gasoline) from corn, switchgrass and wood wastes compared to E0 (gasoline) and a preference for E85 from switchgrass and wood wastes, but not corn when compared to E10 (10 percent ethanol and 90 percent gasoline). Also, consumers have a preference for E85 compared to E10 but not compared to E0. Mean WTP for E85 was insignificant across all models, but significant for all other product attributes; percentage of fuel imported, percentage of greenhouse gas emissions reduced, and the proximity of fuel in driving distance. This suggests a WTP for a combination of fuel attributes associated with ethanol rather than just for E85. Results suggest that price and proximity of the fuel have a greater impact on fuel selection than percentage of the fuel imported and reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. Republicans had a positive WTP for E85 compared to E10 and a negative WTP for E85 compared to E0 regardless of feedstock, which may suggest that Republicans actually have no preference for E85; however, these findings may also suggest that Republicans view E85 as a voluntary “policy” whereas E10 is an example of government intrusion in the free market. Thus, they may ultimately have preferences over the manner in which the blend is being introduced to the market. Across all models, those undecided in political affiliation, those previously familiar with ethanol, and those who prefer to devote U.S. farmland to food instead of fuel generally exhibited a lower WTP for E85 while Westerners, those worried about the environment, and those believe that reducing dependence on foreign oil is more important than environmental protection generally had a greater WTP for E85.

The purpose of this thesis is to explore the relation between national economic ventures, environmental security and community development. It does so through a case study of the implementation process of an iron and copper mine (La Dominga Project) in a “biodiversity hotspot” in central-northern Chile. Using qualitative methods to gather empirical data and a discursive analytical framework, it seeks to understand how the mine affects livelihoods and community development, as perceived by local citizens. The results show that the state, the extractive industries and private landowners constantly contest the local community’s access to land. The state and the industry have an advantage in power, manifested in the decision-making procedure. As a consequence of the deficient participation in this process, the community faces a forced exposure to risk. La Dominga jeopardizes local livelihoods and alternative development plans, which show potential to be long-term ecologically sustainable. Those are 1) the community based- and adaptively co-managed area for exploitation of benthic resources and 2) the tourist activities, based on the bird and whale spotting tours to the closely located protected islands. The thesis further suggests that social mobilization and articulation of local resistance fails because of 1) elements of social control within the community, 2) the discursive role of mining, and more specifically copper mining in the Chilean landscape ideologies and 3) CSR-interventions in form of extensive, individual “grant programs”.

In recent decades, climate change has become one of the most crucial challenges for humanity. Climate change has a direct correlation with global warming, caused mainly by the green house gas emissions (GHG). The Environmental Protection Agency in the U.S. (EPA) attributes carbon dioxide to account for approximately 82\% of the GHG emissions. Unfortunately, the energy sector is the main producer of carbon dioxide, with China and the U.S. as the highest emitters. Therefore, there is a strong (positive) correlation between energy production, global warming, and climate change. Stringent carbon emissions reduction targets have been established in order to reduce the impacts of GHG. Achieving these emissions reduction goals will require implementation of policies like as cap-and-trade and carbon taxes, together with transformation of the electricity grid into a smarter system with high green energy penetration. However, the consideration of policies solely in view of carbon emissions reduction may adversely impact other market outcomes such as electricity prices and consumption. In this dissertation, a two-layer mathematical-statistical framework is presented, that serves to develop carbon policies to reduce emissions level while minimizing the negative impacts on other market outcomes. The bottom layer of the two layer model comprises a bi-level optimization problem. The top layer comprises a statistical model and a Pareto analysis. Two related but different problems are studied under this methodology. The first problem looks into the design of cap-and-trade policies for deregulated electricity markets that satisfy the interest of different market constituents. Via the second problem, it is demonstrated how the framework can be used to obtain levels of carbon emissions reduction while minimizing the negative impact on electricity demand and maximizing green penetration from microgrids. In the aforementioned studies, forecasts for electricity prices and production cost are considered. This, this dissertation also presents anew forecast model that can be easily integrated in the two-layer framework. It is demonstrated in this dissertation that the proposed framework can be utilized by policy-makers, power companies, consumers, and market regulators in developing emissions policy decisions, bidding strategies, market regulations, and electricity dispatch strategies.

The shale gas industry in northeast British Columbia is rapidly expanding and is promoted by the provincial government as a promising economic venture for the entire province. However, the industry is having impacts on the traditional territory of the Fort Nelson First Nation, although they have constitutionally recognized treaty rights to continue to use the land to meet their subsistence needs. I conducted this research in partnership with the Fort Nelson First Nation Department of Lands and Resources, with a focus on critically assessing the challenges they face. This research focuses on determining how the Fort Nelson First Nation can protect their treaty rights by taking control of, or inserting themselves into the data collection and monitoring activities of the shale gas industry. Utilizing a theory of knowledge politics, this research analyzes two strategies that challenge what knowledge should count, and on what terms: (1) the Fort Nelson First Nation’s participation and appropriation of the professionalized science regime and (2) the development of the Fort Nelson First Nation’s community-based monitoring program and its ability to impact decision-making. Drawing on primary research, participant observation, literature reviews and document analyses, I argue that these strategies are crucial and can create – but do not guarantee – links to affecting natural resource management decisions. / Graduate

D. Tech. People Management and Development / The mining industry in Africa faces specific challenges relating to different cultures, beliefs, norms, languages, standards, geographical areas, talent retention, performance management, remuneration, ethics, communication, training and development, black economic empowerment and management relationships. Demand continues to strengthen as reflected in strong growth, and supply is increasingly constrained as development projects become more complex and are typically conducted in more remote, unfamiliar territory. The aim of the study was to build a competitive talent management strategy for a natural resources mining company in selected African countries, by investigating the following objectives: (1) to determine the attitudes of the employees in the mining company towards the five perspectives of talent management, namely procurement, remuneration, performance management, training and development and retention; (2) to determine the main factors that contribute most significantly towards a talent management strategy; (3) to determine whether the citizens of the different African countries differed in their views on compensation; (4) to determine whether the different mine types experienced differences in their views on the importance of compensation; (5) to determine whether the different race groups had different views on the importance of organisational behaviour; (5) to determine whether the different job levels felt differently about career development; and (6) to build a competitive talent management management strategy for Eurasian Natural Resource Company Africa.

Numerous studies have confirmed a statistically significant negative relationship between natural resource abundance and economic growth. This has been labeled “The Resource Curse”. In this paper we try to explain why Botswana, a country heavily dependent on its diamond industry, has managed to generate sustainable growth. Economists have advanced several explanations for the negative impact of natural resources on long-term growth. This paper focuses on the following important problems: First, a boom in a natural resource can pull resources away from other sectors of the economy, thus harming their international competitiveness, a phenomenon called the Dutch disease. Second, abundance in natural resources may lead to poor institutional quality in many countries. Thanks to conservative fiscal policies and accumulation of foreign reserves the local currency did not appreciate during the boom, and Botswana avoided the most severe symptoms of the Dutch disease. Historical tradition of democratic procedures and sound institutions at the time of diamond discovery has contributed to a high institutional quality in Botswana.

<p>This dissertation explores decision problems faced by organizations willing to address or support the incorporation of sustainability aspects on their "business as usual" activities. We study to specific problems. First, we analyze the decision problem of a forest manager who, in addition to selling timber, has the option of selling carbon offsets for the carbon sequestered by the forest. We study both the single-rotation and the multiple-rotations harvesting problems, and develop stochastic dynamic programming models to find the optimal harvesting and offset-selling policy, the expected optimal harvesting time, and the expected optimal reward under different offset-trading schemes. Then, we study the case in which an organization (sustainability buyer) outsources sustainability efforts to another organization (sustainability seller). While buyers cannot directly exert sustainability efforts, they can provide economic or technical support to their sellers in order to incentivize these efforts. We investigate how the effort and support decisions change according to characteristics of stakeholders, buyers, and sellers. Considering that buyers can compete on the sustainability effort exerted by their sellers, we extend our analysis to the case of competing buyers, and we determine conditions under which sharing sellers is preferred by the buyers to having separate sellers for each buyer.</p> / Dissertation