Sustainable Development Research

Corruption and Embedded Autonomy: A Cross-National Analysis of Forest Loss

Jamie Marie Sommer — 2023-02-06

Previous research finds that the influences of colonial heritage on cultural norms and practices may have an effect on corruption levels. On the one hand, researchers argue that former colonies have higher levels of perceived corruption, due to the patrimonial systems colonizers set up. Others argue that the different legal systems colonizers imposed on nations are more susceptible to corruption than others, and some find this effect diminishes over time or where colonizers remained a minority. Moreover, scholars also suggest that non-colonized nations do not have the legal structures, political stability, and support from colonizers, and thus have higher levels of corruption. While this previous research contributes to our understanding of corruption as embedded in larger, historical structures, it does not consider how colonial processes shape how corruption impacts material outcomes in nations. Building on this previous research, the present study uses ordinary least squares regression (OLS) for a sample of 95 low- and middle-income nations from 2001 to 2014 to test how the impact of colonial forces, measured as domestic and international autonomy (the extent to which a nation is free of the direct control of external political actors), moderates the effect of corruption on forest loss.

Institutional Design for Sustainable Urbanization in the Caribbean

Eris Dawn Schoburgh — 2023-04-02

Essentially, sustainable urbanization is a political choice. Following this proposition, this paper seeks to critically assess the policy-institutional framework that is established or being proposed to shape the urban agenda in the Caribbean. Locating the research activity within a sample of countries in the region, desk analysis of the policies and legislation corresponding to urbanization in these countries is undertaken, complemented by lesson-drawing from case studies of international experience to determine the efficacy of the region’s policy-institutional framework and the extent to which it mirrors international norms. Preliminary findings suggest that sustainable urbanization remains a concept in the Caribbean as policies and legislation either predate ideas of urban sustainability, or do not target sustainability challenges adequately. The paper is part of a larger research project on sustainable urbanization in the Caribbean and therefore is intended to initiate debate and further research towards production of policy relevant information in this area of study.

Ocean Food Systems and Hybrid Seafood Production: Transdisciplinary Case Studies of Cod, Eels, Salmon, and Lobster

Barry Antonio Costa-Pierce — 2023-04-02

Capture fisheries and aquaculture are researched, planned, and managed throughout the world as if they are independent entities ignoring their complex and evolving interdependencies. Global attention on “blue foods” as an important part of United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is focused on the restoration of capture fisheries and the sustainable expansion of aquaculture. Such a binary approach does not fit the current realities, opportunities, and innovations in ocean food systems (OFS), and does not integrate enough of the necessary transdisciplinary knowledge across professions. Integration of knowledge across professions is needed as modern ocean foods enter common marketplaces so interventions to increase sustainability must incorporate data on rural economic development, producers and their mixed ocean/land-based livelihoods and seasonal employment patterns, tourism, data on local to regional and global trade, and consumer behaviors. Four case studies detail the status and evolution of OFS typologies of American and spiny lobsters as fed fisheries, salmon as aquaculture-enhanced fisheries, and the capture-based aquacultures for cod and for eels. Objectives of this review were to examine for four OFS cases if there was adequate evidence to show that they were as productive, economically attractive, and as socially beneficial OFS that rival those of binary aquaculture or fisheries systems alone; and did they have significant potential to accelerate innovations as much as those sectors. For the four cases reviewed, productive, social and ecologically valuable, rapidly evolving OFS existed with demonstrable innovation trajectories. In the early part of this century it was estimated that capture-based aquaculture (CBA) accounted for about 20% of the total quantity of food fish production worth US$1.7 billion. Review of just four case studies having a limited number of participating countries found that annual value of the OFS exceeded US$4 billion: the value of eels as a capture-based aquaculture (CBA) was estimated US$2.3 billion for just two countries; for salmon as an aquaculture-enhanced fishery at $1.7 billion for only one state of the USA; and for lobsters as fed fisheries and a CBA, $825 million for the USA and Vietnam. However, OFS are disruptive as they require radically changed science, education, management, and development policies as current binary fisheries and aquaculture management approaches do not fit their current realities, or opportunities, or accelerate innovations, plus poorly integrate knowledge across professions. This was demonstrated by the example of dynamic management/regulatory situation for cod wild fisheries and the growing CBA for cod in Norway. The coming decades of accelerated climate and social changes will cause concomitant changes to ocean foods markets from local to global, and rural ocean foods livelihoods. These two systemic changes will drive the evolution and development of a greater diversity of OFS that will require much more attention of policy-makers and investors.

Gwal Pahari Acid: Isolation, Characterization of a New Soil Based Plant Growth Promoting Humic Acid

Sujeet Kumar Thakur — 2023-05-03

There are many “Save the Soil” movements highlighting the degradation of the soil due to excessive use of fertilizers, ground water contamination and environmental pollution. An alternative strategy is the use of humic acids from Organic Matter (OM) in soils. Humic acids help grow better vegetables, quality fruits like (peas, potatoes, tomatoes, pomegranates, mangoes), cereals, and pulses. These create supramolecular self– assemblies capable of retaining water and not allowing loss of minerals and ions. Humic acids isolated from soil, lignite and city solid waste are emerging as attractive sources for developing value added products from them. There is much interest in exploiting the commercial aspects in the energy sector of the economy as these new technologies could help in cleaning the environment as well.

In this paper, the isolation of a new humic acid from the soil of Gwal Pahari, Gurgaon, Haryana, India is described. This water soluble, Ninhydrin positive Gwal Pahari Acid (GPA) contains thirteen chiral centers and contains both partly rigid and dynamic systems capable of exhibiting pseudo rotation. The proposed structure of this new humic acid is based on spectroscopic studies (e.g. FT-IR, UV-visible spectroscopy), detailed mass spectrometry, and very challenging ¹H- NMR and 2D-NMR studies. Ion leakage studies on Arabidopsis thaliana have shown that the new compound provides protection to the plant, and greenhouse studies demonstrate that Gwal Pahari Acid brings about substantial growth in the tomato plant.

Development of a Mechanism That Leads to a Psychological Paradigm Shift in Students’ Demand and Enrolment for Various Academic Disciplines in the Tertiary Education in Sri Lanka: Qualitative Analysis

Veronica Kurukulaarachchi — 2023-06-13

Creating a psychological paradigm shift in students’ demand and enrolment for various academic disciplines in the tertiary education in Sri Lanka is important since it is vital for not only for students but also for other stakeholders explicitly employers, community, and government as this paradigm shift provides creative and adoptable graduate. However, those who enter to government universities after a very competitive selection process in Sri Lanka are compelled to be unemployed mainly due to mismatch of employers’ perspectives in the modern world against the skills and competence they developed in the tertiary education. It is therefore timely, to develop a mechanism that leads to a psychological paradigm shift in students’ demand and enrolment for various academic disciplines in the tertiary education in Sri Lanka. Objectives of the study are to explore the student demand side aspects for various academic disciplines and to explore the student supply side expectations for various academic disciplines in Sri Lanka. This qualitative study applied purposeful sampling technique and employers, executives and academics in state and non-state higher education institutes participated in the study and data collection techniques were interviews and other secondary documents. Study revealed that new graduates have issues with the practical skills, attitude problems and soft skills. Many employers, neither possess a mechanism to match graduates’ skills and background to their job and responsibilities nor participation in curriculum revision in institutes. Consequently, a few employers involve with curriculum revision, and this might lead to mismatch of curriculum with demands of existing labour market demands. Only some parents have a clear understanding of their child about selecting the best pathway that suits their strengths and weaknesses. Study concluded that for the improvement of the tertiary education, students’ needs to gain and focus more on practical aspects of education, purposeful learning experience and experiential learning. Moreover, not only knowledge but also attitudes and skills of the graduates should be developed.

Interdependence of Logistics and Tourism: Crafting a Novel Logistics Concept in Tourism

Damsi Dharmaratne — 2023-06-13

A literal gap has been identified between the concepts of tourism and logistics. Tourism Industry is a dependent industry on Transport, logistics and global supply chain. While all transport modes play an almost equal role of moving the tourists from place to place, logistics plays an indispensable role regarding supply of goods required to fulfil the hospitality needs of tourists. As far as cruise tourism is concerned the entire business model is designed through logistics. Therefore, for the tourism sector to run smoothly the efficient logistics service is required. However, the dependency of the logistics services in an active tourism industry is not explicit other than cruise tourism. This paper reveals a novel concept namely, Tourism Logistics that illustrates the interdependence of Logistics and Tourism. Desk research has been conducted to identify the interdependency of two phenomena while taking the contribution of logistics in the overall supply chain is taken to the limelight. The interdependency of transportation, procurement, delivery and warehousing have been shown via analysis of peer reviewed journal articles regarding interdependency of tourism and logistics. A conceptual model has been introduced to identify the interdependency of tourism and logistics functions, delivery, transportation, warehousing and procurement.

Identifying the Factors that influence the Process Optimization of New Investment Appraisal

Hansa Kumudapriya Edirisinghe — 2023-07-02

The FDI approval process is one of the decisive factors of successful implementation of investments in a country. This paper attempts to identify the relationship and association between several factors that involves in new FDI appraisal process by the host country. It identifies factors such as global presence of the intended investor; the type of Industry; expected contribution from the investment; potential for gaining competence regarding human resource; expected developments in the country’s infrastructure. The study suggests that above factors are critical to the relevant authorities who involved in FDI promotion. This research also ranks these factors to make the conclusions more useful in the real-life application. It also highlights the number of employments generated for local workers under the new investment. The new investments bring additional knowledge, skills, and competence that usually not quantified at the appraisal level. The success rate of similar investment in other countries also to be critically evaluated. The findings of this research could be extremely useful for countries who wish to host FDIs. A clear understanding about the key influencing factors and their association with the investment appraisal process would be the key to optimize the process.