There is growing evidence of multiple links between human health and the practice and products of agriculture through a complex set of factors including environmental change, exposure to a variety of natural and human-origin stressors, social position, changing behavior, occupation, and access to services. However, in policy initiatives, agriculture and health are often pursued in an unconnected manner. In India’s context, this has immense significance as nearly seventy percent of the total population is involved directly or indirectly with agriculture. The need to be aware of the health implications is therefore especially important. The objective of the study was to examine the changing agricultural scenario in India and the consequences for health. A survey was carried out in 2009, in six villages in Karnataka state, India. The data were collected by in-depth interviews, focus groups discussion, participant observation, laboratory tests (mercury and pesticide residues in rice, and nitrate and fluoride in groundwater) and secondary materials. India has undergone a rapid transformation in agriculture and has achieved remarkable success in food production. The nation has followed the strategies of the popular ‘Green Revolution’, including promotion of high yielding seeds, monoculture, extensive use of agrochemicals and large scale management of land and water resources. Modern agriculture has improved the socioeconomic and nutritional status of the population. However, the traditional coarse cereals and pulses have been replaced by mill-polished less nutritious rice. Extensive mechanization of agriculture activities has meant reduced physical stress, but fatal accidents and injuries have increased considerably. Along with already existing malnutrition, overweight/obesity has emerged as a new public health challenge. The changing landscape with much standing water and extensive use of nitrogen and phosphate fertilizer has augmented the mosquito population, resulting in greater incidence of vector borne diseases such as malaria and Japanese encephalitis. Agrochemicals, fertilizers and pesticides, are applied in excess and often in an irrational manner, without following any norms. Drinking water is contaminated with nitrate and fluoride. Rice samples contain pesticide residues and mercury. / Thesis (Master, Environmental Studies) -- Queen's University, 2010-08-04 18:17:42.911

The overall aim of the thesis is to contribute with knowledge about the conditions for preschool children’s meaning making with regard to sustainable development. With a focus on critical actions, the thesis explores how education is executed and how a critical action may be conducted in a preschool practice. Different teaching situations in preschool have been analysed in order to determine how and which actions are privileged in the various situations, what the consequences of these actions are, and what kind of conditions that enable children to develop critical action competence. The results show that teachers affect children’s meaning making by directing actions toward a specific learning content. The conditions in which children learn action competences for sustainable development may be affected by which actions are privileged or excluded in the situation. The analyses of conditions for children to act critically in this thesis are when: the teacher aims the attention towards a pluralistic teaching content, where the content consists of value judgments. variations of views are highlighted – by the help of other children or from example different viewpoints in a book. children have the courage or/and feel safe expressing contradicting views. Although the situations in which children act critically are few and far between in the empirical material, they do exist and are important to highlight, especially as few other studies explore what meaning making processes look like when critical actions are privileged. The thesis therefore contributes to the research by providing analyses of situations in which children act critically in preschool.

The aim of sustainable development can be summarized as meeting the needs of the present generation, without destroying the needs of the future generations (Brundtland in WCED :1987:5). The different indicators of sustainable development, as formulated by the United Nations documents, are discussed. These include poverty alleviation, health care, education, security, good governance and trade. The study lists protection of the environment as a sustainable development indicator. This refers to the protection of the atmosphere, the correct usage of land which involves agriculture, the sustainability of water as well as the protection of fauna and flora. It identifies these indicators in the primary sources of Islam. The study shows that sustainable development was a feature of early development in the Muslim World. It then uncovers the major factors that contributed to environmental degradation in Muslim countries in the late twentieth century as well as some of its consequences. Finally, the study looks at some of the major challenges that sustainable development poses to Muslim countries. It delineates the obstacles that Muslim countries themselves have recognised, and identifies proposals by Muslim scholars to promote sustainable development. It suggests measures which could facilitate sustainable development by endorsing what are considered globally as essential principles of sustainable development as well as adopting local processes. The declarations endorsed by Muslim rulers on sustainable development are analyzed. The study suggests that the approaches of the scholars in combination with the declarations could form the basis of a new paradigm of development in the Muslim world based on Islamic principles and values. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2009.

This thesis provides an analysis of a community based conservation project in northern Kenya and also considers broader theoretical questions relating to the establishment of successful environmental partnerships. In East Africa, pastoralist communities are threatened by the erosion of their resource base, delicately balanced ecosystems are being progressively degraded, and the conflict between wildlife conservation and other forms of land use is escalating. The challenge faced by rural communities is to achieve socioeconomic growth in conjunction with environmental conservation and social stability. Integrated Conservation and Development Projects (ICDP's) and Ecotourism projects have been attempted in underdeveloped areas with the objective of enhancing biodiversity conservation through approaches which endeavour to address the needs, opportunities and constraints faced by rural communities. The hope is that communities will develop a vested interest in maintaining biodiversity (wildlife) on their land so as to sustain the income it generates. While some successes have been recorded, critical analysis by researchers suggests that a number of problems beset such projects and few have met their objectives. The case study examined here is both an ICDP and an Ecotourism project. It is a community based conservation effort on the communally owned II Ngwesi Group Ranch, in the Laikipia district, in semi-arid/arid Maasailand in northern Kenya. This area sustains important wildlife populations but as human population pressures increase the future of the permanent and migratory animals that occupy this land is in question. An initiative was undertaken in 1996 by the community in partnership with the neighbouring private ranch to build a lodge on the land and to start protecting an area for tourism use. The aim of this thesis is to examine the project as an example of an environmental partnership and consider what implications the partnership itself might have for future initiatives. The II Ngwesi project is categorised according to the environmental partnership theory, which assisted in describing some of its operating features and success factors. The thesis argues that, in thinking about how to achieve a working management of natural resources in similar contexts, careful consideration must be given to the nature of environmental partnerships that often constitute the basis of ICDP/ecotourism projects. These factors can be taken into account in developing more successful initiatives in the future. / Thesis (M.Sc.)-University of Natal, Durban, 2000.

This study focuses on the viability of locating a company that manufactures high-technology products in South Africa. A small electronics manufacturing company called Nortech is used as a case study, and the results of the case study analysis provide an insight into the state of the high-tech electronics industry in South Africa. The economic models of Heckscher and others regarding factors of production, and the value-chain model of Porter as it related to the strategy of location of business activities, was used as a theoretical basis for the study. A theoretical model was constructed using these classical theories, modified to suit modern Knowledge-based economies, and this was used as a framework with which to analyse the case study. The case study of Nortech is presented by means of a discussion of the company history, mission, and vision, and an analysis of the product offering, competitive environment, and Research and Development skills. The focus throughout the analysis is on the relative advantages obtained through location, and the contribution of innovation and technical skills to the overall product. The context of the company within South Africa is discussed, with reference to the effect of national policy and infrastructure. The case study is evaluated within the framework of the theoretical model developed, and the relevance to the different product lines within the company. It was found that there were significant locational advantages related to high technical skills levels, flexible production methods and efficient value-chain structures. The sustainability thereof, in the light of decreased levels of national spending on Research and Development, and the continued loss of skills to foreign countries, remains a concern. / Thesis (MBA)-University of Natal, Durban, 2003.

Mining has always played an important role in human development. The growing demand for miningnowadays puts under threat biodiversity and ecosystem services, which leads to many conflicts based on choicebetween environment protection and social and economical development. Studying a case of a limestone quarryon Northern Gotland as one of the most representative cases of such conflict, gave an opportunity to investigateand analyze the cost of the decision-making in mining as well as interaction between stakeholders affecting andbeing affected by the decision from the perspective of the group opposing to mining. The research showedweakness of communication between the stakeholders; the weakness of the argument supporting social andeconomical development and giving it higher priority than the environment; and the best possible solution whichwould be turning the whole area of interest into a national park, even though such solution would not fulfilltheinterests of the mining company.

Responsible and prudent use of natural resources has been identified as one of the most challenging globalissues, which makes using sustainability principles in mining an increasingly popular topic. Mining operationsare generally associated with a range of environmental and social impacts negatively affecting localcommunities. There is a growing importance to better understand the environmental, social, and commercialfactors that affect the development of new resources projects. Although innovative resource conservation inmining projects satisfies the aims of corporate sustainability principles, such capabilities are often bypassed infavour of tried and tested solutions that are recognized to have lower technical and financial risks. This is, inpart, a result of a lack of an appropriate methodical and strict framework in project management systems thatallows sustainability to be properly considered, analysed, and assessed in projects. While there are a number oftools and methodologies that incorporate sustainability in design, only rarely can one find a consistent,integrated, and robust method to support mineral projects by incorporating a high level of sustainabilityprinciple into the design process. In an attempt to resolve this issue, a research team has developed theSustainable Operations framework, SUSOP®. SUSOP® is an integrated and robust framework for projectmanagement system through which the sustainability concept can be applied effectively without compromisingfinancial rigor. To demonstrate the robustness of this framework and investigate the opportunities or risks thatcould emerge from applying the SUSOP® framework, a case study on the Fortescue Metals Group SolomonIron Ore Mine Project was conducted. This case study was chosen after investigation of numerous cases allaround Australia. This case study applies the SUSOP® framework retrospectively for integrating sustainabilityconcepts into Solomon Project in design, construction, and operation phases without workshop element. Theframework is applied to identify innovative opportunities and uncover additional risks that do not appear to havebeen identified or mentioned in the public domain and data have been applied on the project.

This study has presented a comprehensive overview of environmental and economic conditions in the Cayman Islands. The project studied the development patterns of the nation's largest island, Grand Caymans. The thesis determines the impact of development and project impacts of future development; the analysis portion clarifies the overall implications of rapid development. The latter half of the thesis, the solution portion, utilizes current theories, which are recommended by the Environment Protection Agency (EPA) such as Smart Growth and Green Development. The combination of the EPA's theories provides a compressive environmental plan that would ensure long-term environmental and economic sustainability. / Department of Landscape Architecture

This thesis is a study of change and adaptability in a social-ecological system. In order to contribute to efforts toward sustainability on the British Columbia coast, the study focuses on the fisheries and aquaculture sector in Ucluelet, BC to investigate four specific issues, including: how coastal communities experience and deal with change; how global environmental change affects coastal communities; the key factors that build or threaten social-ecological resilience in coastal communities; and how resilience and adaptive capacity can be built to adapt to change and, in turn, shape change for sustainability. The findings of this thesis have relevance for systems on the British Columbia coast and at large. Above all, the experience in Ucluelet shows that the resilience of these communities is not in their maintenance of stability, but rather in their ability to turn successive experiences of change into opportunities for new cycles of more sustainable development and renewal. / Graduate

This study develops and tests a method of intervention designed to incorporate the concept of sustainable development into management strategies for the natural tropical forest, in the particular case of forest exploitation by small-scale local sawmilling enterprises. Sustainable development is defined as a development process that satisfies jointly the goals of the biological, social and economic spheres of forest management. A review of orthodox management strategies suggested that they focus on maximizing benefits in only one or two of these spheres, and are inadequate to address the requirements of truly sustainable development. The stakeholder concept, adapted from modern corporate management theory, was identified as one model with the potential to satisfy the requirements of sustainable development. A management strategy based on stakeholder theory, termed the Integrated Management Approach (IMA), was developed for the case of locally-developed sawmilling enterprises dependent on the natural forest. The IMA is an iterative process based on the following steps: (1) the definition of criteria and the collection of information to describe the system as it was intended to operate (i.e., the Technical Limit of the operation) and as the enterprise is found at the time of initial intervention (i.e., the Benchmark Situation of the enterprise); (2) development of Negotiation Aims, based on the information collected, according to which the enterprise can progress towards the Technical Limits necessary for sustainable development; (3) identification of stakeholders and (4) their stakes in the enterprise; (5) assessment of stakeholder satisfaction, and negotiation from that basis towards the Negotiation Aims; (6) monitoring and iteration as necessary. Three East African sawmill enterprises were used as case studies to develop and test the IMA. The case studies exhibit many of the social, economic and biological conditions which have hindered successful implementation of traditional management systems to the natural tropical forest. The outcomes of the IMA process for each case study were compared in terms of the rating accorded criteria for each sphere and across spheres, and of the participation and satisfaction of stakeholders. In general, all parameters increased with successive iterations of the IMA, although a major change of attitude by one of the key stakeholders in the final iteration for one enterprise reversed many of the gains previously made, thereby demonstrating one of the limitations of the strategy. The results of this study suggest that the IMA has considerable potential to progress the objective of sustainable development for the case of local sawmilling enterprises operating under frontier conditions. They also suggest that the IMA should be applicable more generally, in facilitating sustainable development for a variety of enterprises based on natural resource use.