Conservative Government Research Articles

Negotiating the legitimacy of conservation at mining frontiers: Evidence from Madagascar and the DR Congo

Political ecologists are increasingly interested in the dynamics of power and authority where mining and conservation converge. We contribute to this emerging literature by applying an 'actor-oriented' approach to explore the creation of protected areas in African mining frontiers. Concretely, we look at how 'multiple-use' protected areas have been layered on top of mining frontiers in eastern DRC and northern Madagascar. Both of these mining frontiers include artisanal, semi-industrial, and industrial mining activities and permits. In the DRC case, various state and non-state armed actors are also implicated in mining. Our results show that the legitimacy of conservation at mining frontiers evolves as a process involving indiscrete phases of negotiation, coercion, resistance and cooperation. When authorities and alliances supporting mining interests preclude coercive conservation strategies, conservation authorities need to negotiate their way through different phases of resistance and cooperation. We find that in both cases, local actors living at the extraction and conservation nexus assert their agency and 'forum shop', by switching their allegiances between conservation and mining actors.

Education and the spatial division of labour: further education and prospects for ‘Levelling Up’

ABSTRACT The educational solutions put forward in the 2019 Conservative Government's Levelling Up programme privileged higher-level skills training delivered through further education, sidelining traditional university degrees, reflective of broader critiques levelled at the higher education sector in terms of the value for money of some degrees. It goes without saying that further education provides crucial opportunities for many people and our analyses of Linked Educational Outcomes Data (LEO) presented here support previous research on the returns to further education study. However, it also underlines the way returns are contingent upon race, gender, socio-economic status, subject of study and, most importantly, geographic location of employment. This is reflective of the broader spatial division of labour that is the characteristic of the UK economy, which the educational components of Levelling Up did little to disrupt. We argue that the Levelling Up programme maintained the status quo with economically less prosperous localities seen as ‘places of labour’ – serving the controllers of capital in existing prosperous places, where the degree educated must continue to flock to take up the strategic control functions of economic production.

The UK levelling up strategy and changing the spatial economy

ABSTRACT The United Kingdom is one of the most spatially unequal Western countries. There have been continuing policy efforts to address this issue: the latest was a ‘levelling’ up strategy by the previous Conservative government. At the time of writing a new Labour government has dismissed the strategy as a slogan but the problem remains. The paper examines the detail of the Conservative’s levelling up policy and the theory underpinning it. It queries its basic premise that the problems of localities can be addressed in isolation. The paper argues that promoting mainly low-productivity jobs would not have instigated fundamental change.

Mobilizing Global Change Science for Effective Multi-Actor Governance in the Laguna San Rafael and Guayaneco Biosphere Reserve

The 1950s initiated transformative shifts in human interactions and societal behaviors, exacerbating global environmental challenges—notably, biodiversity loss. The post-2020 Kunming–Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) addressed these challenges with ambitious plans to halt and reverse biodiversity losses. Supported by initiatives like UNESCO’s Man and the Biosphere program, the GBF seeks to enhance sustainability through country-level strategies that will mainstream nature-positive policies and expand multi-actor conservation governance. This study supports the local-level implementation of the GBF through a roadmap for the initial phase of the knowledge-action network creation. Through a case study of the Laguna San Rafael and Guayaneco Biosphere Reserve (LSRGBR) in Chilean Patagonia, this research explores the potential for inexpensive, readily available methods to support local decision makers by increasing access to and the visibility of relevant sustainability research. The study analyzes two decades of global change (GC) research within LSRGBR zones to understand spatial trends and identify applied insights with the potential to inform governance and management strategies. Findings highlight where GC research has occurred, areas of GC research interest, how applied content has manifested, and how existing research can inform and support governance action plans. Ultimately, this research proposes an adaptable knowledge mobilization framework for the LSRGBR that can be applied to a variety of place-based needs and contexts to mobilize science for broader sustainability objectives and enhance the potential for multi-actor collaboration and governance.

Inshore Fisheries and Conservation Authorities: Fisheries regulator or environmental backstop? The complexities of section 153 Marine & Coastal Access Act 2009

Since the introduction of the Marine and Coastal Access Act 2009 (‘MCAA'), fishing within England's inshore marine area has been managed by Inshore Fisheries and Conservation Authorities (IFCAs). The powers and duties of IFCAs are contained in section 153 of MCAA and include a conservation remit; requiring IFCAs to have regard to the sustainability of fisheries activities and to conservation of the inshore marine environment. The inclusion of conservation in the name of these bodies and references to sustainability in their duties leads to questions as to the scope of IFCAs’ remit in relation to conservation. An examination of the parameters of section 153 suggests that the conservation that IFCAs can concern themselves with must relate to the management of fisheries activities, although the precise extent of this duty is not always clear. At the same time, examples from recent IFCA experiences, suggest that some stakeholders are interpreting the conservation duty much wider and viewing IFCAs as a broad conservation authority for the inshore marine area, thereby placing increased pressure on the organisations. The tension this mismatch creates must be carefully navigated by IFCAs if they are to remain within the bounds of the powers given to them by MCAA.

Outdoor recreation contributes to ecological changes along coastlines: Temperate United States cases highlight key impacts and ways forward

Coastal natural areas including sandy and rocky beaches comprise some of the United States’ most critical recreational and ecological resources. Through collaboration, governmental conservation agencies and non-profits forecast that over 2 billion coastline visits occur each year. Under contemporary conditions, coastal resource overuse endangers the integrity of both social and ecological systems. Existing and mounting concerns call for different coastal zone management strategies, including research into poorly understood and emerging disturbances. This work explains how recreational disturbances influence coastal environments through wildlife behavior changes, plant dynamics, and the quality of abiotic ecosystem elements. Atlantic and Pacific cases indicate that some outdoor recreation systems strongly affect habitat quality, sensitive species, and interacting communities. New insight into outdoor recreation’s contributions to ecosystem change will inform how coastal zone management agencies can implement stronger co-existence strategies for people and nature.

Evaluating Sustainability in Social-ecological Systems: 50 Years of Conservation in Florianópolis, Brazil

Abstract This study examines 50 years of land use planning practices in Florianópolis, Brazil, to identify the attributes that resulted in the city’s notable and long-standing commitment to pro-conservation programmes and policies. By analysing key policies, planning strategies, and partnerships that underpin the preservation of forests and green spaces, this research contributes valuable insights to the ongoing discourse on the combined role of conservation governance and collective action in building sustainable and resilient cities. The social-ecological systems framework is applied to evaluate the interactions between multi-level laws, collective action groups, and mid-level government officials to determine the drivers that promoted incremental and accumulative change, ultimately leading to sustainable land conservation practices in Florianópolis. The findings highlight the importance of stakeholder goal alignment, managerial flexibility, and collaboration with diverse actors in achieving long-term conservation goals, particularly in cities adopting an amenity-led growth model. Growing challenges to the continued protection of conservation units in the city resulting from population growth are also raised to advance approaches to evaluating the durability of sustainability initiatives.

UK Labour Party Leaders' Attitudes to Conventional Threats to National Security, 2023-2024

Introduction. The article focuses on the securitisation of power threats in the public speeches of the UK Labour Party leaders (Prime Minister Keir Starmer, Defence Minister John Healey and Foreign Secretary David Lammy) during the 2023-2024 election campaign. An attempt has been made to highlight the commonalities and peculiarities in the approach of the current and previous British governments to countering the main threats to national security. Materials and methods. The paper combines qualitative and quantitative approaches: a critical content analysis of sources and discourse analysis in an electoral context (using data from sociological surveys) are conducted, while the frequency of word usage in the public speeches of the Minister of Foreign Affairs is analysed using the tools of quantitative analysis of big data (R programming language). The methodological basis of the work is the theory of securitisation proposed by the Copenhagen School of the theory of international relations.Research results. It is concluded that the main change in London's foreign policy after Labour's victory in the 2024 parliamentary elections will be the prioritisation of security cooperation with European states. Labour Party leaders do not question the need for ‘dual containment’ of Russia and China, but they give the ‘China threat’ secondary importance: there are noticeable differences within the party on this issue. On the other hand, Labour's position on the ‘special relationship’ with the United States is characterised by a steady continuity with the Conservative government's approach. The need to deepen cooperation in Euro-Atlantic security structures (primarily NATO) and continental formats (EI2, JEF) is stated.Discussion and conclusion. On the basis of qualitative examination of policy documents and statements of the Labour Party leaders, as well as quantitative analysis of big data, conclusions are drawn about the key elements of potential continuity and variability in the foreign policy of London before and after the parliamentary elections on July 4, 2024. The results of the work can be useful in forecasting changes in the foreign policy of Great Britain after the victory of Labour in the parliamentary elections of 2024. The theoretical importance of the work lies in the fact that the article proposes a new methodology for quantitative analysis of the foreign policy of the UK.

Introducing a Novel Initiative for Mitigating the Impacts of Road Mortality on Turtles in Brampton, Ontario Using 3D Printed Models: A One Health Perspective

With 7 out of 8 turtle species in Ontario classified as at-risk, vehicular-reptile collisions on roads pose a serious threat to turtle populations provincially. These species, however, play crucial roles in maintaining the health of humans, non-human animals, and the environment. By providing ecosystem services like nutrient cycling, population control, and pollination, turtles are essential in semi-aquatic ecosystems like wetlands. However, the need for road infrastructure to support human populations, failures in exclusion fencing and eco-passages, and the varied perspectives of numerous stakeholders make this issue particularly difficult to solve. Despite these challenges, a novel initiative taking place at Heart Lake Conservation Area in Brampton, Ontario may provide an alternative solution. Using 3D printed models, Toronto and Region Conservation Authority (TRCA), in partnership with the Brampton Library and Heart Lake Turtle Troopers, is attempting to reduce mortality along roads by leveraging knowledge about the nesting preferences of female turtles. From a One Health perspective, this novel initiative engages multiple stakeholders to create an interdisciplinary solution combining technology, art, and science to protect turtle populations in the region.

Examining the discrepancy and synergy between marine protected areas and fisheries management in the Bohai Sea, China

Marine protected areas (MPAs) and other area-based conservation measures used in conjunction with climate-smart fisheries management approaches are important for safeguarding ecosystem and fish population health. However, spatial management approaches are often implemented separately from non-spatial management interventions due to their distinct legislative processes, management priorities, and administrating agencies. As global ocean governance becomes increasingly spatial in compliance with the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, it is imperative to examine the utility of MPAs as a wider ecosystem approach to complement traditional, single species fisheries management. In this study, we examine current policy and management transformations happening in the Bohai Sea in China and demonstrate the discrepancies and synergies between MPA governance and fisheries management. By evaluating their interactions in objective setting, area selection, and management regulations, we reveal the gaps in coordination and consultancy between the government agencies implementing fisheries and spatial conservation measures. In particular, there is ambiguity or lack of consideration of fisheries management objectives in the framing of conservation area objectives and regulations, and vice versa. In addition, the mismatch between stated objectives of MPAs and their geographic coverage of species distribution ranges suggests insufficient incorporation of fishery expertise in conservation planning. To strengthen the cooperation between fisheries and conservation authorities, we identify opportunities and actions for synergizing management goals and ecosystem-based approaches, improving the design of spatial restrictions, and better integrating spatial management interventions as a critical fisheries and ecosystem-based management approach. These proposed changes will necessitate the creation of processes for engaging the full spectrum of expertise and actors, enhancing collaborations at multiple scales and between different sectors. These findings offer practical insights into bridging the gap between fisheries management and MPAs and could inform further decisions on integrated management in the Bohai Sea and elsewhere.

Fragile legitimacy of multi-academy trusts in England: the case for a clear set of indicators to engender trust in the academised school system

ABSTRACT The UK 2019–2024 Conservative Government’s ambition was for all schools in England to be part of a multi-academy trust (MAT), a publicly funded body outside of local authority control (Department for Education 2022a). The preference for larger, geographically widespread MATs has resulted in a centralised system, where governance and management of schools is potentially detached from local views and concerns, leading to questions over the legitimacy of these organisations as providers of education. Through the use of phenomenology and organisational theory, this paper explores conceptions of legitimacy for stakeholders in four MATs. It highlights the fragility of an education system over-reliant on the reputation and expertise of the founding CEO, and trustees who often lack educational and pedagogical knowledge, with limited understanding of local issues. This article argues that the lack of plurality and representation on trust boards, limits agency for academy leaders and diminishes space for local voices to be heard. The inadequacies of applying organisational theory to identify legitimacy are exposed. A more insightful model is presented, including a set of ‘MAT legitimacy indicators’: appropriate knowledge, expertise and values of those in management and governance; cultural and demographic representation in governance; plurality through diversity of voice and dissensus.

The German insect monitoring scheme: Establishment of a nationwide long-term recording of arthropods

A standardised monitoring is indispensable to identify trends of insect populations. However, until recently, a systematic monitoring of insects in Germany was missing. Therefore, the German federal ministry for the environment funded the conceptualisation of an insect monitoring scheme.Here, we inform about the general concept and structure of the German insect monitoring scheme (GIMS) and the steps taken and still to be taken for the implementation of the scheme. A first step was the development of the objectives, general concept und structure of the GIMS in close collaboration with the nature conservation authorities at the national and federal state levels, as the latter are responsible for the implementation of nature conservation-related monitoring schemes. The GIMS is structured into two sections: section 1 ‘Monitoring of common insects’ and section 2 ‘Monitoring of rare insects’. Both sections contain modules that focus on selected aspects of insect diversity. In section 1, insect communities of the wider countryside will be monitored. Section 2 focuses on insect communities in rare habitats and species of high conservation value (e.g. threatened species). The next step was to develop standardised sampling methods for the modules in collaboration with experts and the nature conservation authorities. Wherever appropriate, synergies with other monitoring schemes were created, e.g. for combined analyses with environmental variables.Parallel to the development of the concept, several federal states have already implemented selected modules of the GIMS. Furthermore, the module ‘Grasshoppers in grasslands’ was tested during a pilot phase. By using the data from the pilot phase and the High Nature Value Farmland Monitoring scheme the relationship between high nature value farmland and grasshopper diversity was evaluated. This indicated the great potential of using synergies among monitoring schemes for joint data analyses and showed that it is worth exploring such approaches in greater depth.

Britain in the Pacific: Staying the Course?

The British Labour Party, after 14 years out of office, is grappling with a dynamic global strategic environment that has been transformed during that period. It has committed to a ‘NATO-first’ defence and security policy and presided over the United Kingdom’s military pullback ‘east of Suez’ in the 1960s and 1970s, raising questions about the fate of the ‘Indo-Pacific tilt’ unveiled by the Conservative government three years ago. With its Strategic Defence Review and its first full budget, the new government has the opportunity to take ownership of the tilt. There may be synergies among capabilities that can add value in both the Euro-Atlantic and Asia-Pacific regions, in particular with respect to aircraft carriers, submarines and new fighter aircraft. The UK’s paramount challenge is to achieve the right balance between integrated and sovereign capabilities so as to add value without overstretching limited resources or descending to mere tokenism.

Genomic Diversity as a Key Conservation Criterion: Proof-of-Concept From Mammalian Whole-Genome Resequencing Data.

Many international, national, state, and local organizations prioritize the ranking of threatened and endangered species to help direct conservation efforts. For example, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) assesses the Green Status of species and publishes the influential Red List of threatened species. Unfortunately, such conservation yardsticks do not explicitly consider genetic or genomic diversity (GD), even though GD is positively associated with contemporary evolutionary fitness, individual viability, and with future evolutionary potential. To test whether populations of genome sequences could help improve conservation assessments, we estimated GD metrics from 82 publicly available mammalian datasets and examined their statistical association with attributes related to conservation. We also considered intrinsic biological factors, including trophic level and body mass, that could impact GD and quantified their relative influences. Our results identify key population GD metrics that are both reflective and predictive of IUCN conservation categories. Specifically, our analyses revealed that Watterson's theta (the population mutation rate) and autozygosity (a product of inbreeding) are associated with the current Red List categorization, likely because demographic declines that lead to "listing" decisions also reduce levels of standing genetic variation. We argue that by virtue of this relationship, conservation organizations like IUCN could leverage emerging genome sequence data to help categorize Red List threat rankings (especially in otherwise data-deficient species) and/or enhance Green Status assessments to establish a baseline for future population monitoring. Thus, our paper (1) outlines the theoretical and empirical justification for a new GD-based assessment criterion, (2) provides a bioinformatic pipeline for estimating GD from population genomic data, and (3) suggests an analytical framework that can be used to measure baseline GD while providing quantitative GD context for consideration by conservation authorities.

How the Resist-Accept-Direct framework is being used by communities for socio-economic climate adaptation: a case study in Australia’s Murray-Darling Basin

Globally, water governance struggles to reconcile increased demands on water resources with climate change–induced reductions in supply, making climate adaptation in water governance a pressing concern. The Resist-Accept-Direct (RAD) framework has emerged as a climate adaptation tool designed to help make adaptation decisions. However, there is limited understanding of social and political factors, which are critical in driving RAD decisions. This paper explores how communities are employing RAD to make climate adaptation decisions, using a case study of the Goulburn-Murray Resilience Strategy (the Strategy); a community-led strategy that uses a version of the RAD framework to build regional resilience in the Goulburn-Murray Irrigation District (GMID) in Australia’s Murray-Darling Basin (MDB). The Strategy focuses on building socio-economic, rather than ecological, resilience, making this research a valuable contribution to RAD literature. To apply the RAD framework to socio-economic adaptation, we adapted the framework to include IPCC language around incremental, transformational, planned, and autonomous adaptation. With the GMID considered a leader of resilience thinking in Australia, the Strategy may help decision-makers address water overallocation and contested governance in the MDB, and provide lessons for water governance globally. Data analysed from 20 semi-structured interviews with people involved with the Strategy revealed two main findings: (1) Communities and governments prioritise different actions under the RAD framework. Governments, particularly at the state level, preference incremental planned adaptation to maintain the status quo (resist), over incremental autonomous adaptation to changing conditions (accept), and transformational planned adaptation at various scales (direct). (2) Community and government actors perceive that factors driving governments’ preference for incremental-resist adaptation include electoral short-termism, linear planning, and conservative government culture.

신문기사에 대한 의미연결망 분석을 통한 의료 시장화 논리와 의료 보장성 논리 분석

There is a lack of research analyzing the formation and change of institutional logics in the Korean healthcare sector. This study examines the major institutional changes that occurred from 1990 to 2018 and explores institutional logics by conducting semantic network analysis on Korean newspaper articles. The analysis identified the 'medical marketization logic' and the 'medical coverage logic' as the main competing logics, and six groups of institutional vocabularies were found to support these two logics. The medical marketization logic has been strengthened primarily during conservative governments, while the medical coverage logic has been strengthened during liberal governments, and large-scale infectious disease epidemics have been shown to be important catalysts for changes in institutional logics. This study contributes to understanding the complexity and dynamics of institutional logics, suggests prospects and possibilities for institutional logic change in healthcare, and suggests directions for future research.

Conservation triage in action: Planning, governance and knowledge co‐production for biodiversity protection

Abstract Conservation triage is an evolving strategy designed to allocate limited resources to address pressures that require urgent actions due to their consequences on biodiversity and essential ecosystem services for human well‐being. This perspective proposes a structured, ethical and inclusive conservation triage‐based framework for efficiently addressing socio‐ecological requirements in biodiversity conservation, leveraging limited resources. Based on three main pillars—conservation planning, policy and governance and co‐production of knowledge—our goal is to promote conservation triage as a pragmatic and comprehensive approach. We explore the application of conservation triage principles in Chile, following the recent establishment of the Conservation and Human Well‐being programme, a science‐based initiative promoting the conservation of Chile's unique biodiversity and informing the development of conservation policies. Synthesis and applications. This perspective offers guidance to scientists and practitioners on how to prioritize conservation efforts while taking resource constraints into account when navigating conservation triage. It emphasizes how crucial it is to integrate ethical issues, fostering a decision‐making process enriched by diverse perspectives and collaborative knowledge co‐production. Through the alignment of strategic resource allocation with socio‐ecological aspects, this approach offers insights for developing equitable and well‐balanced conservation outcomes that are transferable to other geographical and environmental settings.

Playing the CITES game: Lessons on global conservation governance from African megafauna

Playing the <scp>CITES</scp> game: Lessons on global conservation governance from African megafauna

An unstable Union? The Conservative Party, the British Political Tradition, and devolution in Scotland and Wales 2010–23

Abstract While devolution in Scotland and Wales is often established as the settled will, it has been built on unsettled ground, lacking a robust system of intergovernmental relations, and sitting increasingly at odds with the central principle of parliamentary sovereignty. Examining successive UK Conservative-led governments, we evaluate devolution in Scotland and Wales through the lens of the Asymmetric Power Model and the British Political Tradition, documenting changes in the position of successive Conservative governments, from the more plurinationally sensitive respect agenda of David Cameron to the more assertive and intrusive Unionism advanced under those in post after 2016, notably Theresa May and Boris Johnson.

Role of national regime ideology for predicting biodiversity outcomes.

The rapid decline of global biodiversity has engendered renewed debate about the social, economic, and political factors contributing to it. Specifically, there is little understanding of the role that political ideology within a country (e.g., nationalism, conservatism, socialism) plays in determining biodiversity outcomes. We used negative binomial generalized linear models to investigate the importance of national regime ideology in predicting threatened animal species and protected area establishment compared with other factors that affect biodiversity outcomes, such as gross domestic product, inequality, and democracy. For threatened animals, the model with the highest Akaike weight suggested adverse biodiversity outcomes arose from larger gross domestic product (β=0.120, p<0.001). However, nationalism (β=0.371, p<0.01) and socialism (β=0.293, p<0.05) were also significantly associated with increased proportions of threatened species. For protected areas, the model with the highest Akaike weight suggested increases in democracy (β=0.880, p<0.001) led to a rise in relative protected area estate. Conservative regime ideology was also associated with greater protected area estate, although this did not increase the weight of evidence in support of the best models. These findings highlight the relevance of political ideology for predicting biodiversity outcomes at a national scale and illustrate opportunities to tailor policies and advocacy to promote biodiversity conservation more effectively. By targeting appropriate messaging and political advocacy, conservationists can improve the likelihood that politicians and their nations will participate in positive biodiversity actions.