The study was carried out to establish the challenges faced by the formal and informal institutions of water and the extent to which people get access to this water in Rubaga division. It addresses the questions like the nature, functioning and relative importance of agents involved in provision, the mechanisms and modes of accessing water in urban areas, the challenges urban people face while trying to get water, and the adaptive strategies designed by the urban populations to sustain their water supply. The research then revealed that residents of Kampala access water sources differently and often have to combine several sources of different cost and quality. The water utility provider, National water and sewerage corporation(NW&SC) caters for most of the bulk water supplies to the city of Kampala. The research revealed that 52% of the households receive their water directly from NW&SC, 32.7% get water from underground sources, at the same time other sources play a major role in water supply in Rubaga Division.Commonly , households access water from others who have a connection to the public piped water system, or from spring well or they buy from distributing vendors that ferry water by push carts, tanker trucks or bicycles.The research reviewed the role of informal and formal providers in Rubaga Divisison and finds part of the distribution system both piped and un piped to be in private hands. To understand the relationship, the politics of provisioning were probed into. The challenges experienced while accessing water have been discussed. The people of the study area have devised coping methods some of which are deliberate, while others are done unconsciously.

The past decade has seen a growing interest in the application of the Payments for Environmental Services (PES) instrument, in part for its apparent ability to alleviate poverty and inspire sustainable environmental practices. More recently, PES programmes have been advocated for use within marine environments. However, concerns have been raised relating to their applicability in this context, e.g. ill-defined property rights and more fluid environmental services. Yet these issues have received little critical scrutiny. This thesis presents one of the first empirical analyses of the applicability of PES to the marine and coastal context, more specifically its suitability to small-scale artisanal fisheries. The first part of the thesis analyses expert opinions in order to identify what opportunities and, indeed, what obstacles remain for PES more broadly in the marine environment. The second part delves a little deeper in order to identify those determinants which can encourage adoption of marine PES within artisanal fishing communities are reported on, paying particular attention to those characteristics important for low-income and vulnerable groups. In addition, the thesis investigates how PES adoption can be influenced by several key design parameters. Analyses are based on primary data collected from six artisanal fishing villages in Mtwara, southern Tanzania. The thesis presents a number of key findings. Firstly, evidence from expert elicitation suggests that the on-going concerns based on the nature of marine environmental services pertaining to marine PES could be unjustified and solutions for their effective implementation are presented. At the supply-level, fishers’ gender and informal risk mitigation strategies are shown to have significant associations with participation within marine PES and may influence the adoption of marine PES programmes within fishing communities. Moreover, whilst PES design can influence adoption, the initial transition away from current management practices can signify a larger utility cost and be met with resistance. The results have interesting implications for the successful application of marine PES schemes, particularly those hoping to target poor households. The findings are widely applicable due to a global dependence on coastal and marine resources and their continuing degradation.

This study analyses the international environmental relations undertaken by subnational governments, a phenomenon conceptualised as environmental paradiplomacy. Research on paradiplomacy examines subnational governments’ international relations without considering their engagement with environmental issues, while multilevel governance (MLG) theory focuses on the rescaling of governance of environmental problems without addressing subnational engagement in international relations. Combining paradiplomacy studies and MLG theory, the thesis develops an original conceptual framework to investigate a leading example of environmental paradiplomacy. The conceptual framework is applied to the case of the state of São Paulo, a regional government in Brazil that, since the 1970s, has strongly engaged in international environmental activities. In contrast with other findings on paradiplomacy, the state of São Paulo engages in international relations not only as a way of challenging, but also of collaborating with the national government. The major empirical data informing the thesis was gathered through participant observation and semi-structured interviews with key figures involved with environmental governance in the state and at the national level, as well as representatives from NGOs, universities, the private sector and foreign policy-makers. The study furthers the understanding of paradiplomacy offering analytical insight into: (1) how subnational governments engage in transnational relations; (2) the reasons driving them to undertake paradiplomacy; and (3) the outcomes of their actions. It also contributes more generally to research on global environmental governance, offering new theoretical insights on the roles of subnational governments and the changing relationships between different levels of government in national and international policymaking.

This thesis investigates how the ‘spatialisation’ of green technologies influences opportunities to realise green growth from different industrial activities – an aspect of green growth which is currently underrepresented in the literature. The research compiles various datasets representing world-wide indicators of innovation and manufacturing, as well as interviews with researchers and industrial actors in different economies, to investigate the spatialisation of solar photovoltaic (PV) industries. The overarching purpose is to examine whether domestic economies need both innovation and manufacturing in order to supply green technologies. The thesis comprises of four standalone chapters (Chapter 2 to 5) that explore this question by applying evolutionary economic geography (EEG) theory on the concept of green growth. The first chapter (Chapter 2) develops a conceptual framework on how the spatialisation of technologies affects the composition of industrial activities in various economies. It argues the localisation of green innovation enables economies to be resilient to the loss in manufacturing. The second chapter (Chapter 3) demonstrates that both ‘first-mover’ and ‘late-comer’ economies contribute towards solar PV innovation, despite the majority of global manufacturing shifting to China. The third chapter (Chapter 4) finds patterns of research collaboration between different countries based on their respective innovation/manufacturing intensities. The last chapter (Chapter 5) explores how the presence (or absence) of domestic manufacturing influences actors’ commercialisation of different solar PV technologies. The findings seek to advance the competitiveness debate by recognising the tension between the internationalisation of green technologies and the realisation of green growth in domestic economies. First, it argues that economies realise long-term green growth by retaining highvalue activities that other economies cannot reproduce. Second, it recognises that an economy does not need both innovation and manufacturing to commercialise green technologies, but that the propensity to rely on local resources is influenced by the domestic industrial composition and the maturity of a technology. These findings emphasise that industrial policies should consider spatial characteristics in assessing whether domestic green technology supply and/or markets will lead to green growth in the domestic economy.

Post structuralist research is increasingly influencing environmental knowledge – feminist/post-colonial authors have led the path for incorporating subjective and lived experiences of human-nature interactions into environmental discourses. In India's southern context, however, environmental literature, policy and governance are still dominated by structuralist discourses; hence wider environmental knowledge and governance remain detached from everyday life. Using a theoretical framework of "sustainable development" and "ecological citizenship", this PhD aims to rectify this literature gap through a qualitative analysis of agri-tourism in Maharashtra. Within peri-urban Mumbai and Pune, industrialization and urbanization are transforming the agrarian landscape. Although urbanization is displacing farmers from cultivation, it is also creating new opportunities through markets, education, employment and connectivity. These contribute to agriculture's transformation into serving multiple roles beyond food production – towards higher levels of multifunctionality. Agri-tourism is a form of agricultural multifunctionality. Farm owners provide urban visitors with accommodation, activities and entertainment on their privately owned farms. As a rural service, agri-tourism provides urban visitors a flavour of rural life and culture through recreation, farming activities and rural products. While revenue and jobs are created, there are also new opportunities for rural and urban interactions and environmental learning. Even though the news-media often portrays agri-tourism as "sustainable" and a low impact alternative to mainstream tourism, these claims have not been tested on the ground. Through fieldwork in three agri-tourism farms, this research unpacks how sustainability is interpreted in agri-tourism. It analyses how agri-tourism stakeholders (farm owners, urban visitors, employees and villagers) perceive notions of environmental responsibility and entitlements in the farm. Using narratives from over eighty semi-structured interviews, the analysis draws wider connections with neo-liberal policies in India. The study concludes that the most significant factor in shaping people's attitudes and values towards the environment is how they perceive "rurality" and "urbanization" in everyday life.

Tropical forests are being cleared rapidly, causing between 12 and 20% of all anthropogenic CO2 emissions. This process drives climate change and biodiversity loss. A new mechanism called REDD+ is being developed to pay tropical forest countries to reduce deforestation, and thereby to reduce these negative externalities. To be able to do this, maps of forest carbon stocks and change are fundamental. Policy impact analysis is essential too since REDD+ payments are performance-based. Quantify- ing biodiversity benefits of REDD+ is important too for carbon credit buyers. This thesis addresses these needs on Sumatra. As of 2007, a 7.2Mha study area holds 503 x 10 6 Mg of forest biomass, with the largest stocks in protected and production forests. Other land classes have much lower biomass, suggesting legally exploitable forests are already depleted. What forest remains is being cleared rapidly. Between 2007 and 2009, 229 x 103 ha of forest were cleared, a rate of 1.6% yr−1, and loss of >6% of the 2007 forest biomass, creating emissions of 58 ±12.1 x 10 110 6 Mg CO2e. Yet the deforestation is not uniform. On average protected forests reduce deforestation. However at the extreme, one protected forest area had virtually no forest remaining at all by 2007. By contrast the Berbak Carbon Initiative REDD+ pilot project has significant stocks (34.7 ± 17.3 ±3.5 x 106 Mg forest carbon; 380 x 106 Mg peat carbon). It also supports a population of critically endangered Sumatran tigers (occupancy Ψ=0.14; 95% CI= 0.05:0.33). The project developers hope to conserve tigers and carbon simultaneously. However, following the first year of project activities, compared against control sites, deforestation appears to have increased.

This thesis investigates the role that institutional conditions have on policy for Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) by applying a New Institutional Economics perspective and a multimethodological approach. It focuses on three specific institutional conditions: property rights, governance and politics, and applies theoretical and empirical techniques. A single case study of Guyana’s innovative REDD+ programme is used for empirical analysis. The thesis provides contributions to normative and evaluative REDD+ literature, especially with regard to early assessments of the design, impacts and effectiveness of national-level REDD+. It makes subsidiary contributions in the areas of small-scale mining, policy design under political influence and environmental governance. Through analytical modelling the thesis finds that design of REDD+ is significantly altered when placed in a general equilibrium setting, along with when political influence is included. Econometric analysis of a unique data-set from Guyana shows effects from electoral cycles on the holding of property rights relating to the main driver of deforestation, mining, along with the introduction of REDD+. Qualitative analysis of interviews and media sources highlight that governance of REDD+ in Guyana has remained predominantly state-centric, with only some evidence that multi-actor, multilevel governance has emerged. Issues such as capacity, political will, electioneering, the retained control of finance by donors and the introduction of complicated systems of safeguards have all affected the emergence of ‘pure’ REDD+ in Guyana. The thesis provides key conclusions on the importance of a cognisance of the institutional landscape on which REDD+ is to be implemented. Including such an institutional perspective raises questions over the perceived cheapness of REDD+ as a mitigation option. It offers guidance for the design and implementation of national level REDD+ policy and highlights the need for a differentiated approach to REDD+, factoring in the relevant institutional conditions prevalent in each jurisdiction.

This thesis explores the theoretical debate regarding the pursuit of weak versus strong sustainability (SS). It is argued that the choice between these paradigms needs better scientific information plus knowledge of citizen preferences in order to be resolved. The novelty of this research lies in providing an empirical test of Aldred (2002) and Turner (2007) who claim that investment in social capital such as schools and hospitals may be an adequate compensation measure when environmental damages occur. Following Pearce et al. (2006) and Atkinson et al. (1997) the benefits of preserving natural capital are also analysed through a contingent valuation (CV) study in which environmental damages of different sizes and consequences are depicted. The main research questions are: Are the views of elites and citizens as regards sustainability similar. Do citizens exhibit strong sustainability preferences with regards to compensation schemes. Can the use of CV help substantiate the case for strong sustainability. These research questions are answered undertaking a mixed methodological approach. Elite interviews, focus groups and a survey explore expert and non-expert views on sustainability. Statistical analyses confirm Aldred's (2002) and Turner's (2007) claim. However, a significant number of respondents choose natural capital as the preferred compensation option. Multinomial logit models used show the main characteristics that determine the likelihood of choosing a given compensation option. Answers to the compensation question leads to the expectation that respondents to the valuation question will pay significantly more to avoid larger environmental damages. This expectation is confirmed by the statistical analyses undertaken. Interval data models provide information on the variables that determine willingness to pay. The results are encouraging as they signal scope sensitivity but doubts remain over whether CV can adequately capture preferences when evaluating environmental losses as willingness to pay amounts are not proportional to the damages described.

Samples from 121 stations in Tarut Bay, on the Arabian Gulf coastline of Saudi Arabiat were examined for their foraminiferal content. 109 of these contained Foraminifera. The environment is hypersaline (45ýwl up to 75%4) and sampling stations included bare sediment substrates as well as vegetated substrates. Depth of waterl temperature, salinity and substrate were recorded. 43 foraminiferal taxa. were recognizedp 14 of which constituted 9Wo of the dead population and 93% of the living. These 14 taxa are regarded as the common taxa and their distribution plotted on maps. Living and dead specimens of most of these taxa, have a similar distribution. The distribution is patchy because it is controlled by the type of substrate and to a less extent by water depth. 3 assemblage zones have been recognized: Intertidall Shallow Subtidal (0-3 m) and Deeper Subtidal (3-13 m). These are recognized by the relative abundance of the different common taxa. The fauna has a low diversity for both living (CV, = 1-4) and dead (cx-'= 1-5)9 and is dominated by Miliolina (c. 55%) of which the most abundant are Quinqueloculina spp. p Triloculina spp. 9 -SpirolocRlina spp. 9 Spirolina arietina and Peneroplis planatuS. The suborder Rotaliina (c. 39%) is next in abundance with iv Ammonia beccarii varieties and Elphidium spp. The Textulariina (c. 67o) are represented by Textularia spp. and Eggerella scabra. Living/Dead ratios have been examined and taken to indicate no relationship between this ratio and rate of sedimentation. The fauna of Tarut Bay is compared with that of other hypersaline environments in the Arabian Gulf and in the Red Sea. These faunas have certain characteristics which can be regarded as typifying the hypersaline environment: low diversity# dominance of Miliolinat and rarity of Textularina.

Although Holocene climate changes are significantly smaller in amplitude than the Pleistocene Glacial-Interglacial cycles (Dansgaard et al., 1993), they have affected human civilisations over at least the last 4000 years (Buntgen et al., 2011; Lamb, 1995; Mayewski & White, 2002). The study of Holocene climate variations is increasingly important to disentangle climate change caused by anthropogenic influences from natural climate change. Furthermore, Holocene climate change provides the geological context in which to place contemporary climatic observations. Studying sedimentary records stemming from marine biotopes located close to land, such as fjords, affords the opportunity to study marine and terrestrial paleo-climatic variability, and therein linking the two together. Additionally, fjordic environments typically have a higher sediment accumulation rate than deeper ocean sites, facilitating resolution of rapid climate change events. The fjords of Northwest Iceland are ideal for studying Holocene climate change as they receive warm water from the Irminger current, an end member of the Atlantic current, but are also influenced by the east Greenland current, which brings cold polar waters to the region (Jennings et al., 2011). Furthermore, the coring site is located beneath one of the dipoles of the North Atlantic Oscillation (Hurrell, 1995). Therefore, oceanic and atmospheric Holocene variability should be recorded in the sediments studied. Alkenones, terrestrial leaf wax n-alkanes, branched and archaeal glycerol tetraethers and C/N ratios from a sediment core from the mouth of the Ísafjarðardjúp fjord (MD99-2266; location: 66° 13' 77'' N, 23° 15' 93'' W; 106 m water depth) were analysed. These terrestrial and marine biomarkers were used to produce biomarker based palaeoclimatic records with the highest resolution to date (one sample every ~ 32 years), covering the Holocene from ~ 10,700 calibrated years before present (cal. a BP) to ~ 300 cal. a BP. The terrestrial and marine organic carbon contributions to the sediment and the palaeoproductivity of the fjord vary throughout the Holocene forced by changing climate. While the amount of terrestrial organic carbon is primarily controlled by the development of vegetation as glaciers retreat, the primary productivity is controlled by varying influxes of nutrient rich water masses. By combining the reconstructed sea surface temperature, air temperature and precipitation records, climatic changes that affect the terrestrial and marine realm are uncovered. Two periods in the Holocene where major climatic shifts in the North Atlantic region occur, one at ~ 7700 cal. a BP, and one at ~ 2900 cal. a BP, are observed. Meltwater events and decreasing summer insolation drive climatic change throughout the early Holocene. The middle Holocene climate, from 7700 to 2900 cal. a BP is driven by decreasing summer insolation, and meridional overturning circulation. The climate variability is decoupled from insolation change in the late Holocene, and the sea surface temperature and air temperature, and precipitation changes are driven by NAO-type fluctuations and variations in the heat transport via the meridional overturning circulation. The TEX86 palaeo-SST thermometer does not work in Ísafjarðardjúp fjord. The TEX86-SSTs are adversely affected by GDGTs associated with archaea mediating anaerobic oxidation of methane, as indicated by the methane index. Methane indices as low as 0.1 indicate anaerobic oxidation of methane at the site studied. The palaeo-sea-ice proxy IP25 was not detected in the sediments of MD99-2266 even though the northwest Icelandic coast has been affected by drift ice, particularly in the late Holocene. Therefore, the use of carbon isotopic signatures from sedimentary fatty acids, derived from ice and pelagic algae was investigated as a sea-ice proxy. Ice algae, ice core, water column particulate organic matter and sediment samples were collected on the ICE CHASER 2010 research cruise. The carbon isotopic signature of the ice algal C16 fatty acid is significantly heavier than that of the pelagic derived organic matter. Furthermore, the carbon isotopic signature of the fatty acid in the samples from the sediment core located at the ice edge is isotopically heavier, compared to the fatty acid isotopic signature from the sediment core from a pelagic site. It appears that the isotopic signature of algal fatty acids can be used to elucidate sea-ice cover, however, more research is needed.