Resource Management and Geography - Theses
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ItemThe impact of kangaroo grazing on sediment and nutrient mobilisation( 2000-05)The adverse impacts on vegetation and soils due to livestock grazing have been extensively studied for many years. The extent to which native wildlife may also be causing change to their environment, as a result of local increases in population density, has been the subject of debate in a number of countries. In Australia there has been a growing awareness in recent years that native herbivores, particularly kangaroos and wallabies, may also be causing changes to ecosystem dynamics. Environmmental changes, produced firstly by the aboriginal people and then by Europeans, have favoured the larger macropods, resulting in increased population levels. These impacts can also be seen in areas around cities, where pressure from urbanisation has restricted populations to smaller and smaller patches of remnant vegetation and reserves, increasing the pressure on diminishing food resources within these patches. This study focuses on one of the areas that supplies drinking water to Melbourne, the Yan Yean Reservoir catchment, which is situated 37 km north east of Melbourne. This study adds to our understanding of the impacts of native wildlife populations by investigating the extent of some of these possible changes to ecosystem dynamics.
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ItemInstitutionalizing regional environmental governance in Northeast Asia: roles of actors, knowledge and interests( 2002)This thesis analyzes the institutional process of environmental governance in Northeast Asia by focusing on the dynamics of two main governance factors (national interest and knowledge) and the roles of nonstate actors (international organizations and nongovernmental organizations) in the process. In exploring these governance determinants, this thesis examines the current state of regional governance in Northeast Asia and transboundary environmental governance in the Tumen River Area; the political and institutional implications of major governance mechanisms; links between the progress in understanding of environment problems and the political process of governance; and the potential and limitations of nonstate actors. Two forms of interdependence in Northeast Asia make up the basis of regional environmental governance: ecological interdependence, what links countries geographically and socio-economically in relation to regional marine and atmospheric environments, and complex interdependence, growing webs of political, social and economic interactions, which are the main driving force for institutionalizing collective actions on regional environmental problems. Although states are now politically motivated to create multilateral environmental mechanisms in the forms of meetings and regimes, different national interests, where foreign policy often overrides environmental policy, have delayed the institutionalization of these mechanisms. State actors and their national interests mainly shape the form and content of regional governance in Northeast Asia, but nonstate actors and scientific knowledge also have decisive roles. International organizations have functioned as the main catalysts of various governance mechanisms although their performance declines due to limited administrative capacities. New to the scene, NGOs have not traditionally acted as stakeholders of formal mechanisms, but they have started to expand the scope of environmental governance by executing their own domains of governance. Despite the existence of governance mechanisms, Northeast Asia has insufficient consensual knowledge of the state of their regional environmental problems as demonstrated by varying results of scientific assessments. Building epistemic communities of scientists and other nonstate actors (international organizations and NGOs) is vital to promote the objective role of knowledge in institutional processes, especially in light of the asymmetry between knowledge and each governance mechanism and the politicization of scientific knowledge to justify national interests. The Tumen River Area also exemplifies the pattern of regional environmental governance in Northeast Asia with few exceptions. Despite formal devices of governance addressing transboundary environmental issues such as biodiversity and the pollution of the Tumen River, the outcomes have been meager. Heterogeneities in national interest have essentially impeded governance implementation, while the participation and capacities of local actors have often been restricted despite their importance to the narrowly defined region. International organizations have successfully initiated multilateral mechanisms for environmental governance but face difficulties in implementing them due partly to their organizational nature. Although NGOs mostly remain outside the formal mechanisms of governance, they at least have been able to take concrete actions to protect the environment by acting independently in many instances. This thesis concludes with theoretical and empirical lessons for future discourse.