Characteristics and Driving Forces of Non-Grain Production of Cultivated Land from the Perspective of Food Security

A large proportion of the cultivated land in China has been used for non-grain production purposes. As food insecurity is worsening worldwide, this issue has attracted attention from the Chinese government. In order to curb this trend and to ensure food security, this paper explores the quantitative characteristics and spatial distribution of cultivated land used for non-grain purposes in Liyang City, Jiangsu Province, and discusses the clustering characteristics and mechanisms behind this based on spatial autocorrelation analysis and geographically weighted regression (GWR). The results show that most of the cultivated land in Liyang City has not been used for non-grain purposes, and the cultivated land reserve is abundant. Among all land types, irrigable land has the largest non-grain production rate of cultivated land. There is no significant spatial correlation of cultivated land for non-grain purposes in most towns in Liyang, among which Kunlun Street is in the High-High (HH) zone and Daibu Town in the Low-High (LH) zone. It is also found that the same factor has various impacts on the non-grain production of cultivated land in different towns, and the number of enterprises is the core factor that leads to the non-grain use of cultivated land in Liyang city. Low food prices lead some farmers to plant other crops with higher economic benefits, and also lead to the outflow of the rural labor force. This will not only accelerate the non-grain production of cultivated land, but also cause a large amount of cultivated land to be in a state of unmanned cultivation, further aggravating the proportion of non-grain production in cultivated land.

Fixing Boundaries: An International Review Of Greenbelt Boundaries

The legislation governing Ontario’s Greater Golden Horseshoe Greenbelt is set to be reviewed in 2015. This will be the first opportunity to review the defined boundaries of the protected area. This paper examines four other greenbelt areas to provide insight into how the province should deal with boundaries at the review. The case study areas are Ottawa’s National Capital Greenbelt, British Columbia’s Agricultural Land Reserve, London’s Metropolitan Greenbelt and Portland’s Urban Growth Boundary. Based on lessons from these case studies, the paper concludes with recommendations to provide a structure to the greenbelt review process, including harmonizing boundary definitions and exploring a more flexible approach to boundary definition.

Fixing boundaries: an international review of greenbelt boundaries.

The legislation governing Ontario’s Greater Golden Horseshoe Greenbelt is set to be reviewed in 2015. This will be the first opportunity to review the defined boundaries of the protected area. This paper examines four other greenbelt areas to provide insight into how the province should deal with boundaries at the review. The case study areas are Ottawa’s National Capital Greenbelt, British Columbia’s Agricultural Land Reserve, London’s Metropolitan Greenbelt and Portland’s Urban Growth Boundary. Based on lessons from these case studies, the paper concludes with recommendations to provide a structure to the greenbelt review process, including harmonizing boundary definitions and exploring a more flexible approach to boundary definition.

Fixing Boundaries: An International Review Of Greenbelt Boundaries

The legislation governing Ontario’s Greater Golden Horseshoe Greenbelt is set to be reviewed in 2015. This will be the first opportunity to review the defined boundaries of the protected area. This paper examines four other greenbelt areas to provide insight into how the province should deal with boundaries at the review. The case study areas are Ottawa’s National Capital Greenbelt, British Columbia’s Agricultural Land Reserve, London’s Metropolitan Greenbelt and Portland’s Urban Growth Boundary. Based on lessons from these case studies, the paper concludes with recommendations to provide a structure to the greenbelt review process, including harmonizing boundary definitions and exploring a more flexible approach to boundary definition.

Fixing boundaries: an international review of greenbelt boundaries.

The legislation governing Ontario’s Greater Golden Horseshoe Greenbelt is set to be reviewed in 2015. This will be the first opportunity to review the defined boundaries of the protected area. This paper examines four other greenbelt areas to provide insight into how the province should deal with boundaries at the review. The case study areas are Ottawa’s National Capital Greenbelt, British Columbia’s Agricultural Land Reserve, London’s Metropolitan Greenbelt and Portland’s Urban Growth Boundary. Based on lessons from these case studies, the paper concludes with recommendations to provide a structure to the greenbelt review process, including harmonizing boundary definitions and exploring a more flexible approach to boundary definition.

Recognition of the Indigeneity of the Basarwa in Botswana: Panacea against their Marginalisation and Realisation of Land Rights?

The Basarwa are the most marginalised tribe in Botswana. Their loss of access to land and subjugation is traceable to the arrival of the Bantu in Southern Africa. In an effort to address this historical injustice, the colonial government conceived the Central Kalahari Game Reserve (CKGR) as a ‘Bushmen’ land reserve. Notwithstanding this, the Basarwa have lost access to their historical lands and natural resources to tourism and mining. Consequently, the Basarwa took the government to court which resulted in the judicial pronouncement that that they are lawful occupiers of the reserve and cannot be relocated against their will. The court ruled that the Basarwa are indigenous peoples within the scope of international law. This article investigates the rights indigenous peoples have in the context of protecting the Basarwa. It argues that the Constitution of Botswana confers special rights to the Basarwa equivalent to those of indigenous peoples at international law. It further argues that the Basarwa have rights to access and utilisation of natural resources in the CKGR. This article recommends that the government should desist from approaching the Basarwa in a paternalist manner and respect their right to self-determination. It concludes that the recognition of the indigeneity of the Basarwa is critical in resolving their land issues.

‘Back to the Future' A review of Australian reservation and other natural gas export control policies

Despite record levels of domestic production, forecasters are predicting that the east coast Australian gas market will remain tight in 2019. The introduction of the Australian Domestic Gas Security Mechanism (ADGSM) by the Federal Government in 2017, and the proposal announced by the Australian Labour Party (ALP) to bolster the mechanism, have again thrust the issue of political intervention in the export gas market into sharp focus. This paper provides an overview of the current regulatory intervention at the state and federal level, and looks back at the history of controls imposed upon the Australian gas export market. The paper is divided into two parts: Part 1, which looks at current regulatory controls engaged by various State and Federal governments: (a) the development and implementation of the ADGSM; (b) the development and implementation of the Queensland Government’s Prospective Gas Production Land Reserve policy (PGPLR); and (c) the Government of Western Australia’s (WA Government) domestic gas policy. The paper also reviews policy announcements made by the ALP in the lead up to the 2019 Federal election. Part 2 provides a broad overview of the history of controls on gas exports in Australia, from the embargo on exports from the North West Shelf between 1973 and 1977, through the increasing liberalisation of Australian energy policy during the 1980s and 1990s (and the associated conflict with state concerns of ensuring sufficiency of the domestic supply of gas), up to the removal of federal controls on resources exports (including liquefied natural gas) in 1997.