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A study of a poorly understood limestone unit was conducted to contribute temporal information necessary to unraveling a series of cryptic events for a complex geologic region containing economically important natural resources. Secondary objectives included understanding the environment of deposition and regional influences. Biostratigraphic and sedimentologic information observed from the Uitoé Limestone went to reconstructing the paleoenvironment, constraining the age of deposition and indicating the paleogeographic faunal associations. Facies associations indicate a middle ramp depositional setting common in many location in the Tethys Sea. Paleogeographic associations for the microflora and fauna indicate a Tethyan signature present but a lack of Australian influence. A combination of planktic and benthic foraminiferal assemblages for the region constrain the age of the Uitoé Limestone between the middle of the Lutetian and the Early Bartonian. / Department of Geological Sciences

Thesis--Paris V, 1973. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 809-815).

Thesis--Paris V, 1973. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 809-815).

This thesis investigates the impact of France on conflict and stability in the South Pacific from 1985-2006, with a primary focus on France's two largest regional dependencies: New Caledonia and French Polynesia. It is demonstrated that France had a largely destabilising influence prior to 1988, due to its controversial nuclear testing programme in French Polynesia, its repression of the independence movement in New Caledonia, and its failure to act on the pronounced social and economic imbalances between the local indigenous populations and the settler communities. However, France has played a more positive stabilising role since 1988, by factoring local and indigenous concerns into peace agreements in New Caledonia, disestablishing the French Polynesian nuclear testing programme in 1996, and allowing for greater integration of its dependencies into the region by granting increased autonomy to the territorial governments. Nonetheless, France's determination to retain sovereignty of its South Pacific dependencies continues to pose a latent threat to stability. The negotiated peace achieved in New Caledonia through the Noumea Accord's deferred referendum on self-determination contrasts starkly with current political instability in French Polynesia, where the power struggle between Independentist and Loyalist parties has again brought into question the impartiality of the French State. While not a theoretical study, the developed hierarchy of variables helps explain France's reluctance to grant sovereignty to its dependencies, and emphasises the importance of 'emotional interest' in the French approach. It is concluded that France's trend towards playing an increasingly stabilising role in its dependencies will be sustained only through an enduring commitment to rebalance territorial inequalities, tolerate pro-independence sentiment, and mediate impartially in local political disputes. Under these circumstances, the stability provided by France and its dependencies in the region would be preferable to the resource and funding vacuums that would be generated by a French withdrawal.

Thesis (M.D.)--Université de Montpellier, 1887.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Australian National University, 2003. / "April 2003." Title from PDF title screen (viewed Nov. 4, 2004). Includes bibliographical references.

La question de l’autonomie des finances publiques de la Nouvelle-Calédonie, petite île du nickel dans l’océan Pacifique sud, est fondamentale pour cette collectivité sui generis inscrite au titre XIII de la Constitution de 1958. En effet, disposer d’une autonomie renforcée avec de larges compétences (à l’exception des régaliennes), un gouvernement local, des lois de pays, un régime fiscal autonome et un régime propre de sécurité sociale et de santé, n’a de sens juridique et financier que dans le contexte où la collectivité d’outre-mer dispose à la fois de structures administratives publiques et privées fiables, de ressources humaines compétentes et expérimentées mais surtout de ressources financières pérennes et suffisantes pour assumer ses nouvelles responsabilités à partir d’une meilleure gestion du temps.Or entre 2014 et 2019, la baisse des transferts de l’Etat en valeur courante avec environ 1088 M euros en 2010, la réduction progressive des interventions de l’Etat et le financement exclusif de l’Etat pour ses compétences régaliennes vont constituer des hypothèses de fonds à solutionner pour les finances publiques de la Nouvelle-Calédonie. Par ailleurs, il s’agira dans le même temps pour la collectivité de prendre en charge financièrement les transferts de compétences non régaliennes même si un dispositif d’accompagnement de l’Etat est mis en œuvre.Dès lors, la présente thèse se propose d’examiner en première lieu les pratiques pour préparer à l’autonomie financière entre 2000 et 2010. Le constat reste mi-figue mi raisin. En effet, si les politiques publiques menées ont permis de dégager des taux de croissance économiques de 3 % par an avec la construction de trois nouvelles usines de nickel de niveau mondial, il faut constater que plusieurs chantiers de finances publiques ont été reporté sine die. D’une part, la réforme de la dépense publique reste à engager en raison du report implicite des transferts de compétences non régaliennes. D’autre part, la réforme de la fiscalité et des participations industrielles du nickel ne peut plus être mise à l’écart en raison du fort potentiel industriel et fiscal existant. Ainsi, il sera étudié en second lieu le changement de dynamique et de structures des finances publiques. En d’autres termes, l’autonomie renforcée reste à inventer sans doute entre 2014 et 2024.Toutes ces mutations doivent nous conduire à imaginer une Nouvelle-Calédonie du consensus, de la maturité et de l’équilibre au moins des finances publiques. / Pas de résumé en anglais.

This thesis takes an actor-oriented approach to a micropolitical analysis of the engagements of Kanak villagers in the Voh-Koné area, New Caledonia, with the Koniambo Project, a proposed joint nickel mining venture involving a multinational (Falconbridge) and a local mining company (SMSP). In the introductory chapter, I outline my theoretical framework, which expands political ecology by applying insights from micropolitical theory to a focus on intracommunity disputes surrounding natural resource exploitation projects. I argue that such a close examination is necessary if we are to understand local tensions and factions and their multiple influences on the outcomes of development projects. ¶ The Koniambo Project promises to redress some of the economic imbalances prevalent in the archipelago by benefiting the largely Kanak, and historically underprivileged, Northern Province. Thus, this mining project has great politico-economic significance, both for pro-independence leaders as well as for those who wish to maintain New Caledonia as a part of France. However, while people expected benefits for the Kanak people as a whole, the project sparked intracommunity conflicts at the local level. I argue that villagers’ claims to the right to authorize mining activities as well as their desires to receive recognition from the mining company reflected their eagerness to prove a high social position. Meanwhile, in line with the traditionally competitive political climate within Kanak communities, there were many debates about who exactly the ‘landowners’ were. Indeed, the project’s potential to disrupt or reinforce control over land – which, unlike material goods, was a socially acceptable object of overt rivalry – created unexpected socio-political stakes. These differential micropolitical possibilities shaped people’s discourses about the project’s other impacts. For instance, those who expected to be able to access employment opportunities as well as social recognition from the mining project were more inclined not to worry about the project’s consequences for natural/cultural resources. Similarly, Voh-Koné area villagers’ statements and actions regarding dangers from spirits or forbidden places were strongly influenced by their expectations of the project’s ability to strengthen or weaken their social status, as determined by their genealogies and proven through demonstrations of their relationships to their ancestors. ¶ In the final chapter, I provide a summary of my conclusions about the micropolitics behind local community members’ engagements with the Koniambo Project. Next I explain how, while this case itself is unique due to the project’s unusual politico-economic significance, the theoretical framework and methodology outlined in this thesis can help to create balanced, nuanced analyses of intracommunity diversity and micropolitical conflicts that objectively yet sympathetically portray local people as real human beings. Finally, I suggest new directions for further research on the interactions of mining companies and local communities.

Title from PDF of title page. / Document formatted into pages; contains 93 pages / Thesis (M.S.)--University of South Florida, 2003. / Includes bibliographical references. / Text (Electronic thesis) in PDF format. / ABSTRACT: Coral-based climate studies commonly use elemental ratios and stable isotopes of coral skeletons to address seawater temperature and hydrologic balance issues in the tropical surface oceans. Replication, or cross-checking, a standard technique used to assess the fidelity of proxy records in paleoclimatology has not been widely applied in coral-based climate studies, primarily because of the time and cost associated with generating multiple records from a single reef site. Modern and paleoclimate reconstructions based on a single proxy-coral record from a site may contain errors if individual corals from the same reef record different geochemical signals. In this study we perform a replication test using elemental ratios and stable isotopes in three Porites corals from New Caledonia. / ABSTRACT: The reef complex offshore Amédée Island, New Caledonia is an ideal site to perform a coral replication test because instrumental sea surface temperatures (SST) and sea surface salinity measurements (SSS) have been made there for over 25 years. In this study, we compare sub-monthly resolved, geochemical variations (Sr/Ca, d18O and d13C) in three Porites lutea coral heads, located 500 m apart, with the instrumental SST and SSS records over the interval 1992-1967. The monthly coral Sr/Ca and d18O time series are well correlated to each other (r=0.86, p[.0001) and to the monthly instrumental SST record (r= -0.86, p[.0001, coral Sr/Ca to SST; r= -0.77, p[.0001, coral d18O to SST). The three, sub-monthly resolved, 30-year coral Sr/Ca-SST time series have mean SST values that agree within 0.2oC with the instrumental mean SST value. A similar comparison for the coral d18O-SST records indicate a maximum difference between predicted and observed mean SST of 0.5°C. / ABSTRACT: Analysis of the monthly climatological means also indicates that Sr/Ca-SST records closely match the instrumental SST record ±0.4°C; a similar comparison using the d18O-SST record yields an average offset of ±0.6°C between observed and predicted monthly SST. Stacking the three records to form composite Sr/Ca-SST and d18O-SST records does not appreciably improve the goodness of fit between the proxy and instrumental SST records; hence a coral-based proxy climate record from a single coral accurately reflects the observed record of climate variability at this locality. These results support the concept that high fidelity climate records can be generated using a single coral core. / System requirements: World Wide Web browser and PDF reader. / Mode of access: World Wide Web.