Sustainable urban development has been receiving growing concerns from both city managers and urban residents across the world. As a yardstick of sustainability, urban carrying capacity (UCC) is an important conceptual underpinning that guides local governments in promoting sustainable urban...

The article looks into lowest-level policy implementers’ (street-level bureaucrats’) role in donor-initiated natural resource governance reforms. The article employs an institutional analysis framework with a specific policy implementation focus. A multiple case study reviews a resource user...

As sustainable production of quinoa (<i>Chenopodium quinoa</i> Willd.) increases and its geographic range of cultivation expands, quinoa breeding will allow use of the crop’s wide genetic diversity for cultivar improvement and for adaptation to new agroecosystems and climactic regimes. Such breeding...

This paper investigates the socio-ecological differences and interactions between upland and lowland areas in Shaxi Valley, Yunnan Province, Southwest China. As an analytical tool we used an extended Human–Environment System Framework by focusing particularly on the dynamics and sustainability...

We consider the factor payment effects of a transition from open access to restricted access in the resource sector in the long-run, i.e., when both labor and capital are mobile between sectors. We show that the transition benefits (harms) the factor that is initially used more (less)...

Today, cities worldwide are engaged in urban projects and activities in a concerted drive towards sustainable development. However, the concept of “sustainable urban projects” is inherently normative, subjective and ambiguous. Furthermore, the popularity of sustainable urban initiatives does...

Observations conducted on the rangelands on the eastern Qinghai–Tibet Plateau (found in He'nan County and Zeku County in southeast Qinghai) indicate that the following conditions result in heavy snowfall and snow disasters. The first factor to consider is the height of the foliage. If the...

Based on field surveys1 conducted in the rural Tibetan-inhabited regions of Gansu, Qinghai and Yunnan Provinces, this chapter has found that radio and television (TV) — compared to other forms of media — currently play an indispensable role in promoting Party and state policies, influencing...

Though market development in Tibetan areas is restricted by unfavorable natural conditions, there have been many cases of farmers and herdsmen participating in market activities. Moreover, examples of their participation can be found from a long time ago. Meanwhile, marketization in inland areas...

Having conducted field research on the ecological resettlement of Tibetan villages in Qinghai, this chapter found that ecological re-settlers face significant risks of impoverishment in host communities, as they can no longer work and live in ways that they are used to, and once they join these...