World's Richest Countries Research Articles

BRICS – NEED AND OPPORTUNITIES

BRIC came to light in a 2009 report by Goldman Sachs, one of the oldest investment banks in the world, founded in 1869 in the United States, looking at opportunities for economic development and growth in Brazil, Russia, India and China, as an acronym of the first letters of those countries. In 2010 South Africa joins them and BRICS is obtained. This union, group or bloc represents over 40% of the world's population and over 25% of the world economy. For about a month, BRICS has embarked on a new course of development, accepting as new members Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Iran, Egypt, Argentina and Ethiopia, thus forming a solid and powerful economic grouping that may soon oppose G- 7, and has a serious request to regroup the world economy. Goldman Sachs predicts that by 2032, the total growth of the BRICS economy will exceed the growth of the world's richest countries from the G-7, and according to Russian estimates, the BRICS contribution to the total world economic growth already exceeds 50% and is the largest consumer market with a population of about 2.8 billion.The BRICS group has set out to use local currencies in global trade to reduce its dependence on the US dollar, thus supporting its individual economies. In particular, the Chinese yuan and the Indian rupee were accepted for cross-border transactions, reducing dependence on the US dollar. It also calls into question the security of the dollar, which with further expansion of BRICS will lead to serious losses for the US currency, as well as a decrease in its influence on a global scale, which already seriously worries the US and threatens its economic and global dominance.

Medium and large-sized mammals of a private protected wetland in the Cerrado-Amazon biological corridor, Brazil.

Brazil is the world's richest country in biodiversity, including mammal species. In the Brazilian Cerrado biome, mammalian diversity is vast, with about 251 species, 32 of them are endemic and 22 listed as threatened species. In this work, we investigated species diversity of medium- and large-sized mammals in the private protected area RPPN Pontal do Jaburu (RPPN-PJ) and its surroundings, which is a flooded area located in an important biological corridor in the Cerrado-Amazon ecotone zone, a priority area for biodiversity conservation in Brazil. We used camera-trapping, active search (night and day), and track survey during dry season (Apr - Aug 2016). We recorded 29 mammal species, being the Carnivora order the most representative with 11 species. Regarding threat status, 35.7% of the recorded species were listed as threatened in Brazil and 32.1% worldwide. We highlight the high relative frequency of threatened species records such as Tapirus terrestris, Panthera onca, Blastocerus dichotomus, Pteronura brasiliensis, Priodontes maximus, and other, as well as the presence of the newly described aquatic mammal species Inia araguaiaensis. We stress the importance of RPPN-PJ and its surroundings for mammal conservation, which include complex habitats (wetlands) located in an important ecotone zone.

Can we end hunger and malnutrition and reduce the impact of agriculture on global warming?

The effects of global warming are becoming more visible every day. Droughts, floods, and heat waves that used to occur once every 10 years now occur 4-6 times a decade, increasingly threatening planet Earth and the world's food supply. Climate changes and ongoing conflicts are contributing to a worsening global hunger crisis. If current trends continue, it is estimated that by 2030 the number of undernourished people will reach 840 million. Undoubtedly, expanding the agricultural area for greater food production will also increase carbon emissions, so it would be more beneficial to increase the production of the existing cultivated area. Also, switching to a more plant-based diet will help combat climate change. Responsibility for the global reduction in meat consumption falls overwhelmingly on the shoulders of the world's richest countries. If 10% of people around the world switched from meat to a plant-based diet, or if we all ate 10% less meat, 38 million hectares could be forested. With this in mind, why not adopt the diet recommended by the World Health Organization throughout the world? If we make this change, it will be possible to feed the world population in 2055, 10 billion people, with dignity, without the need to expand the current area occupied by agriculture.

Current prices versus minimum costs of production for CFTR modulators

BackgroundWhile the clinical benefits of CFTR modulators are clear, their high prices render them inaccessible outside of the world's richest countries. Despite this, there is currently limited evidence regarding global access to these transformative therapies. Therefore, this study aims to estimate the minimum costs of production of CFTR modulators, assuming robust generic competition, and to compare them with current list prices to evaluate the feasibility of increased global access to treatment. MethodsMinimum costs of production for CFTR modulators were estimated via an algorithm validated in previous literature and identification of cost-limiting key starting materials from published routes of chemical synthesis. This algorithm utilised per kilogram active pharmaceutical ingredient costs obtained from global import/export data. Estimated production costs were compared with published list prices in a range of countries. ResultsCosts of production for elexacaftor/tezacaftor/ivacaftor are estimated at $5,676 [$4,628-6,723] per year, over 90% lower than the US list price. Analysis of chemical structure and published synthetic pathways for elexacaftor/tezacaftor/ivacaftor revealed relatively straightforward routes of synthesis related to currently available products. Total cost of triple therapy for all eligible diagnosed CF patients worldwide would be $489 million per year. Comparatively, the annual cost at US list price would be $31.2 billion. ConclusionsElexacaftor/tezacaftor/ivacaftor could be produced via generic companies for a fraction of the list price. The current pricing model restricts access to the best available therapy, thereby exacerbating existing inequalities in CF care. Urgent action is needed to increase the availability of triple combination treatment worldwide. One strategy based on previous success is originator-issued voluntary licenses.

Mapping the emerging innovation system in the Indian ethnobotany genomics

ABSTRACT Ethnobotany genomics is gaining popularity, and there is a renewed interest in traditional medicine around the world. Ethnobotany genomics is proving useful not only for the conservation of biodiversity and agricultural productivity but also for drug discovery. In terms of traditional medicine and biodiversity, India is one of the world's richest countries. However, as industrialisation, population pressures, migrations, and urbanisation have increased, socio-environmental changes have become more dynamic and complex. This has raised concerns about sustainable production and consumption, as well as governance. As a result, the current paper is an attempt to map the emerging innovation system in Indian ethnobotany genomics. The paper examines the actors’, agencies’, and institutions’ responses to the emerging innovation system's requirements. Finally, this paper provides new insights into the opportunities and challenges of developing Indian ethnobotany genomics.

Has COVID-19 subverted global health?

For the first time in the post-war history of epidemics, there is a reversal of which countries are most heavily affected by a disease pandemic. By early May, 2020, more than 90% of all reported deaths from coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) have been in the world's richest countries; if China, Brazil, and Iran are included in this group, then that number rises to 96%. The rest of the world—historically far more used to being depicted as the reservoir of pestilence and disease that wealthy countries sought to protect themselves from, and the recipient of generous amounts of advice and modest amounts of aid from rich governments and foundations—looks on warily as COVID-19 moves into these regions.

Tax and Spending in the 2020s

Tax and Spending in the 2020s

China and the Third World are not “catching up” to the rich countries

Income data show there has been no convergence in prosperity or developmental levels between rich and poor states during the neoliberal period. Analysis of per capita income for every country between 1980 and 2015 reveals the widespread idea of a catch-up by the so-called “emerging market” economies, is not supported. Almost all states (98.6% by population) are either rich or poor, with 85% defined as poor. There has also been a widening of the income gap between these two poles. The rise of average Chinese income over the period to a level similar to other large relatively developed poor states such as Mexico and Brazil fits very much within this pattern of global polarization and does not challenge it. What appears to have “emerged” in China and some other regions is a new relative level of development among still poor states, not new rivals to the world's richest countries.

Pharmaceutical Services and comprehensiveness 30 years after the advent of Brazil's Unified Health System.

This article examines pharmaceutical services and access to essential medicines in Brazil during the 30 years since the advent of Brazil's Unified Health System from a comprehensiveness perspective. The following topics are addressed: the "realignment" of pharmaceutical services; human resources in pharmaceutical services; the essential medicines concept; the rational use of medicines; technological advances and drug manufacturing; and ethical regulation. With a strong regulatory focus and a structural framework centered on the National Medicines Policy, the past three decades represent a mixture of progress and setbacks, considering the national complexities of the healthcare system and the political, economic and social changes that have influenced policy and access to medicines, which is a key concern even in the world's richest countries, as the forums of discussion on global health have demonstrated. We show that major steps forward have been taken, highlighting that the recent fiscal austerity measures imposed by the government threaten to seriously undermine social progress.

Trends in Global Assisted Reproductive Technologies Research: a Scientometrics study.

IntroductionThis study illustrated the global contribution to assisted reproductive technologies (ARTs) research in MEDLINE database from 1998 to 2014.MethodsIn March 2015, the MEDLINE database was searched for research publications indexed under ‘reproductive techniques, assisted’ (including the following MeSH headings: in vitro fertilization [IVF]; intracytoplasmic sperm injections; cryopreservation; and ovulation induction), with the following expressions in the fields of title or abstract: intrauterine insemination; sperm donation; embryo/egg donation and surrogate mothers. The number of publications in MEDLINE database was recorded for each individual year, 1998–2014, and for each country. The following countries were arbitrarily selected for data retrieval: United States, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Canada, Italy, Japan (G7 countries), Brazil, Russia, India, China (BRIC countries), Egypt, Turkey, Israel and Iran.ResultsThe absolute number of publications for each country from 1998 to 2014 ranged from 75 to 16453, with a median of 2024. The top five countries were the US (16453 publications), the UK (5427 publications), Japan (4805), China (4660) and France (3795). ART (20277), cryopreservation (11623) and IVF (11209) were the most researched areas.ConclusionGlobal research on ARTs were geographically distributed and highly concentrated among the world’s richest countries. Cryopreservation and IVF were the most productive research domains among ARTs.

Ecotourism Development in Brunei Darussalam

The discovery of oil and gas reserves in the 1920s has made Brunei one of the world's richest countries in terms of GDP per capita. Since then, the country has been using its oil and gas revenues to finance major infrastructure projects throughout the country. Now the Sultanate's critical priority is to diversify the economy beyond its oil and gas sector. The Brunei Government has steadily opened up its economy and called for partnership with stakeholders and the private sector to take advantage of the opportunities offered by its diversification plan as outlined in the Brunei Vision 2035. The government has been looking at non-oil and gas options, and is now increasingly developing its ecotourism sector. Many have conducted ecotourism with looking into the ecotourism practice issues and impediments. Truly, Brunei ecotourism is still in its infancy and has not reached the level of development found in neighbouring areas like Sabah and Sarawak. And this is perhaps attributable to several factors, including poor understanding of ecotourism principles and lack of training. To turn Brunei into a destination for ecotourism is certainly challengeable. In this paper, the authors look into the challenges and suggest solutions turning Brunei into an ecotourism center. The authors aim to assess the recent developments of Brunei's ecotourism. And attention is particularly given to education and training intervention, a major area of interest in increasing the people's understanding of ecotourism. More importantly, the authors discuss the role of government policies and initiatives at national and local levels in the development of ecotourism.

Universal Health Coverage: Solution or Siren? Some Preliminary Thoughts

AbstractIn recent years, there has been a growing groundswell of support for the idea that universal health coverage should be provided even in the developing world. While I wholeheartedly agree with the eventual goal of attaining universal health coverage globally, and the sooner the better, I have worries as to whether the world's rich countries, or institutions like the World Health Organization, should be pushing the world's poorest countries to take whatever steps are necessary to achieve that goal. My fear is that universal health coverage in the developing world is an intoxicating, but potentially dangerous, idea whose time may not yet have come. This article's aim is not to settle the question of whether the developing world should be urged, or pushed, to adopt policies of universal health coverage. It is merely to explore some worries about the wisdom of such a tack.The article is divided into eight sections. In Section 1, I give a brief introduction. In Section 2, I provide some background for my topic. In Section 3, I discuss the notion of universal health coverage, and what the push for such a goal in the developing world seemingly involves. In Section 4, I raise some general worries I have about the push for universal health coverage in the developing world. In Section 5, I present a wide range of possible justifications for universal health coverage in the developing world. In Section 6, I discuss whether any of the purported justifications of universal health coverage in the developing world actually do so. In Section 7, I consider some comments, objections, and responses. Finally, in Section 8, I offer a brief conclusion.

Viewpoint: Reconstruction after natural disasters: the opportunities and constraints facing our cities

Each year many parts of the world are inflicted with one type of disaster or another. In the six months or so prior to the writing of this Viewpoint, media reports covered: the impact of a hurricane in Cairns, northern Queensland, Australia; three devastating earthquakes in Christchurch, New Zealand; and a triple disaster in Japan involving an earthquake followed by a tsunami, followed by a nuclear power plant emergency. The past few years have seen further catastrophic earthquakes that devastated the capital of Haiti (Port-au-Prince) and Kobe, Japan, as well as Hurricane Katrina, which ravaged New Orleans and the southern Gulf states of the USA. The contexts of these and other major events vary widely - from the poor countries of the developing world to the world's richest countries - yet the loss of lives, infrastructure and property damage in each case has been massive. Planning for reconstruction What becomes of these communities and regions afterwards? How long does it take to rebuild? Is there anything planning professionals can do to speed the process, to reduce the losses, to help communities become more resilient? Regardless of the severity of disaster, or the level of assistance from the outside world or higher levels of government, the primary responsibility for recovery ultimately falls on local governments. Little information exists, however, to guide local decision-makers and local planners. The American Planning Association (APA) has recently launched a threeyear research project to examine how planning for reconstructing cities after major disasters might provide ready-to-use information for practitioners (APA, 2010). The World Bank has already compiled a training manual of best practices in post-disaster housing and community reconstruction, aimed at international project managers charged with implementing reconstruction aid (Jha and Duyne, 2010). Recovery of cities after major catastrophes cannot be examined in isolation. The so-called 'Disaster Life Cycle' model developed to help understand how to respond to natural and technological hazards comprises four phases: pre-disaster preparedness; emergency responses (including search and rescue); recovery and reconstruction; and finally mitigation against further known hazards (Mileti, 1999). Many cities now prepare plans that focus on emergency response and preparedness issues, traditionally the ambit of civil defense or municipal emergency officers. Planners, however, give little attention to the likelihood of a major disaster, and even less is given by all professionals to longer-term recovery and reconstruction issues (Meyer et al., 2010; Sandink and Fuller, 2009). This is not to suggest that planning for immediate emergency response and short-term repairs to housing and infrastructure following floods, earthquakes and other disasters are unimportant - they are. But in the case of catastrophic disasters the longer-term rebuilding of cities and regions brings an entirely different set of problems. The desired outcome is for communities to emerge from post-disaster recovery and long-term reconstruction safer and less vulnerable to future calamities. A range of mitigation measures can be usefully incorporated during the recovery phase, including improved building codes and construction standards, as well as more effective land-use regulations and community-planning arrangements. Above all else, planners should use the post-disaster period as a window of opportunity to incorporate sustainable development principles and apply holistic management approaches to rebuilding cities. Research into reconstruction planning The term 'recovery' has been used interchangeably with 'reconstruction', 'restoration' and 'rehabilitation', as well as post-disaster 'redevelopment'. Over the years, researchers studying community recovery have recognised that it is difficult to generalise this component of planning for disasters because of the great variation in localities impacted, as well as the disaster events themselves. …

Classification of natural mineral and spring bottled waters of Portugal using Principal Component Analysis

Considering its area, Portugal is one of the world's richest countries in mineral and spring waters. There are 33 different types of bottled water, 18 of which are classified as natural mineral water and the remaining as spring water. The majority of these waters are of low mineralisation in comparison to most European bottled waters. Principal component analysis was used to identify the main geotectonic interrelationships among physico-chemical parameters, enhancing similarities and dissimilarities, and contributing to a new typology of bottled waters, based on their hydrochemical characteristics and geological occurrence.

Smoking and pregnancy

This issue of the journal highlights an important problem for the health of women and children. In most of the WHO European Region, smoking in pregnancy is the leading cause of poor pregnancy outcome and prenatal death. It can cause serious health problems including ectopic pregnancy, increased risk of miscarriage, complications during labor, preterm birth, stillbirth, low birthweight and sudden unexpected death in infancy. Women smokers are also less likely to breastfeed, tend to wean their babies earlier and have lower milk production than non-smokers. Even being exposed to other people's smoke is especially dangerous for pregnant women, who have a 20% greater chance of giving birth to a low birthweight baby than women who are not exposed to secondhand smoke (SHS) during pregnancy. While smoking is declining among women in some high income countries it is increasing in low and middle income countries (LMIC). Europe contains some of the world's richest countries, but it also is home to many LMICs. Two decades ago, transnational tobacco companies seized the opportunity of the switch to a market economy to buy state-owned tobacco companies, locally produce and heavily promote ‘western’ brands of cigarettes in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe. Much effort was concentrated on creating a market for cigarettes among women. Currently about a quarter of women in LMICs in the European Region smoke and prevalence is still rising. Even in wealthier countries, smoking is stubbornly concentrated among the most disadvantaged. In countries like the UK or Sweden, those who smoke through pregnancy are likely to be among the socially disadvantaged - young, single, of low income and educational attainment. In both disadvantaged populations in richer countries and in LMIC, male smoking rates are high exposing women and children to SHS at home and in public places. Within the European Union, lung cancer deaths are nearly three times higher for female compared to male non-smokers. A smoke free pregnancy is vital to both mother and child. Health professionals should offer advice and information to all pregnant smokers at the first prenatal visit and throughout the pregnancy. Help to quit should also be extended to the fathers or other family members living with the pregnant smoker. They should understand the consequences of their own smoking on the pregnant woman, the child and on themselves. However advantageous a smokefree pregnancy is, health professionals and policy makers should not allow attention on the health of the baby to eclipse the health of the woman herself. Many women spontaneously stop smoking in pregnancy only to return to smoking after the birth of their child. The message to women needs to be clear: quitting smoking now is the best present you can give your baby; staying stopped for life is the best present you can give yourself. Unless policy makers act decisively, smoking will rise among European women in the next decade. An increase in smoking prevalence has already been observed in some countries. The Global Youth Tobacco Survey shows an increase in smoking among 13–15 year old girls in between 2003 and 2008. Moreover, there are indications that the health message is not getting through to girls: a greater proportion of girls had favorable attitudes to smoking and more indicated that they were likely to start smoking in the next year compared to the previous survey. The WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) is our key instrument for effective tobacco control nationally and internationally. The FCTC clearly points out the alarming increase in tobacco use among women and girls, the need for gender-specific tobacco control strategies and the necessity for women to participate at all levels of tobacco policy making. Parties to the Convention are obliged to implement a range of measures, and some of these will be especially important to helping women stay smokefree - tobacco price, smokefree places, pictorial health warnings and promotion and marketing of tobacco. I would urge governments in the WHO European Region and around the world to be proactive in their implementation of the FCTC. They should see their responsibility as not just to satisfy the minimum requirement, but to try to attain the highest standards as part of their comprehensive approach to controlling tobacco use. The world's mothers and children deserve no less than a healthy, smoke free pregnancy and life.

Rich Meets Poor – An International Fairness Experiment

Why do people in rich countries not transfer more of their income to people in the world's poorest countries? To study this question and the relative importance of needs, entitlements, and nationality in people's social preferences, we conducted a real effort fairness experiment where people in two of the world's richest countries, Norway and Germany, interacted directly with people in Uganda and Tanzania, two of the world's poorest countries. In this experiment, the participants were given the opportunity to transfer money to poor persons with whom they were matched. The study provides four main findings. First, entitlement considerations are crucial in explaining the distributive behavior of rich people in the experiment; second, needs considerations matter a lot for some participants; third, the participants acted as moral cosmopolitans; and finally, the participants' choices are consistent with a self-serving bias in their social preferences.

"Clean" Nuclear Energy?: Global Warming, Public Health, and Justice

In May of this year, the governor of Maryland, the state where I live, announced his support for a new nuclear power plant to join the two existing plants on the Chesapeake Bay. is a huge moral challenge and it is a moral imperative, Governor O'Malley said, given what massive new burning of coal will do to the planet if we don't develop better and cleaner technology, including safer and cleaner nuclear, which is what is ... planned and talked about in terms of the third reactor. (1) Governor O'Malley is right that current energy policy presents a huge moral challenge: the combustion of fossil fuels is measurably harming the world's climate, threatening species and low-lying island nations, and facilitating the spread of diseases such as malaria into ecosystems formerly inhospitable to the carrier mosquito. There are vast disparities in the use of the world's finite energy resources. Those of us in the world's richest countries consume sixty times more per capita of the world's nonrenewable energy resources --oil, coal, natural gas, uranium--than do people in the poorest countries. (2) Oil production at the expense of human rights in countries such as Nigeria contributes to regional and global insecurity. Coal mining in Appalachia and in other regions of the world has devastated the landscape, polluted watersheds, and literally undermined communities whose homes and infrastructures collapse into sinkholes caused by mine subsidence. The increase in renewable energy production, particularly the shift of corn from a food crop to the raw material for a fifteen billion gallon fuel mandate in the 2007 U.S. federal energy bill, has contributed to a new global food crisis and to conversion of more and more arable land to monocrops, leading to the exhaustion of soil fertility and increasing reliance on expensive and hazardous synthetic fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides. Although high energy costs are changing behaviors across almost all socioeconomic groups these days, the biggest losers are those without the economic and political power to insulate themselves from the negative consequences of the world's energy production and consumption--not just in higher energy and food costs, but in ecosystem damage and the adverse health effects of water, air, and soil pollution. While the immediate and most acute consequences are felt by the poor, there are long-term implications for future generations of human and nonhuman species, and the earth systems on which all life depends--a moral challenge if there ever was one. I agree with Governor O'Malley that there is a moral imperative for something better and cleaner. The question is whether nuclear power is that alternative. Policy deliberation about the proposed renaissance of nuclear power must take into consideration the disproportionate health risks associated with uranium extraction, processing, enrichment, waste storage, and nuclear accidents, not to mention repurposing for weapons. The history of nuclear power is intimately tied to the history of nuclear arms. It is no coincidence that in the game of cat and mouse that is international nuclear inspection, whether uranium is being used for power generation or military purposes is always a question. In the United States, research on the development of the atomic bomb led, in the post--World War II years, to the establishment of the Atomic Energy Commission, the predecessor of today's Department of Energy. In 1954, the Atomic Energy Act Amendments created a licensing system for private nuclear power operators, and in 1957, Congress passed the Price-Anderson Act, which indemnifies private operators in the event of a nuclear accident. This act, currently extended until 2025, limits a nuclear utility's liability to $10 billion, with the remainder of the liability borne by U.S. taxpayers. Critics, liberal and conservative alike, have criticized the act as an inappropriate government subsidy that externalizes (and thus leads to underrepresentation of) the real cost of nuclear power. …

Natural Resources and Conflict in Colombia

There is a close relationship in Colombia between the political, economic, military, social, and environmental dimensions of the internal conflict. Although the military and social dimensions have been the object of multiple academic studies and political concerns, the environmental dimension has been neglected in both academic analyses and political diagnoses. The object of this article is to identify and analyze the various scenarios in which natural resources (oil, minerals, biodiversity, and fresh water) are connected to the political, economic, and military dynamics of the Colombian conflict.NATURAL RESOURCES AND CONFLICT IN COLOMBIA: GENERAL OUTLOOKIn economic and sociopolitical terms, Colombia is considered to be a medium regional power in Latin America. It is, however, one of the richest countries in the world with regard to natural resources. Indeed, although oil production-mostly located in Magdalena Valley-is important and used to place it as the seventh largest crude oil supplier to the United States, Colombia is one of the world's richest countries in terms of biodiversity, fresh water, and minerals.According to the floristic inventory from tropical countries by Campbell and Hammond, there are an estimated 45,000 to 55,000 species of plants in the country, which corresponds to 16 percent of the earth's total. In addition, there are 3,389 species of reptiles, birds, amphibians, and mammals-of which 42 percent are exclusive to the country.1 It is the world's largest emerald producer with a yearly production of nine million karats and Latin America's largest gold producer, with over one million ounces yearly mined in the departments of Antioquia, Cauca, Caldas, Narino, Tolima, and Choco.2 Large quantities of other minerals, such as silver, platinum, copper, nickel, natural gas, and coal (in the Guajira region in particular) are also heavily exploited. Finally, Colombia has immense tropical forest and fresh water resources thanks to its network of 45 basins grouped in the five hydrographie areas of the Caribbean, Orinoco, Amazons, Pacific, and Catatumbo.Alongside this balance of natural resources as sources of wealth-and therefore, of power-one of the other faces of Colombia is that of a country at war. Three significant insurgent groups seek to acquire control and sovereignty of part of the national territory: the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC); the United Self-Defence of Colombia (AUC), which is currently going through a process of progressive demobilization; and the National Liberation Army (ELN), with which the government is negotiating a peace agreement in Cuba, thanks to international mediation.It is important to stress that the country's important strategic resources have been seen as marginal in political, academic, and even societal approaches to the Colombian armed conflict. Indeed, from the government of President Andres Pastrana to the current government of President Alvaro Uribe, concern for environmental and natural resource issues has always been very weak and was clearly subordinated to both the application of the national security strategy (the so-called defence and democratic security policy) and the interests and priorities of the American government's foreign and security policies in Colombia. Only with the publication of the national report on the state of biodiversity in the late nineties and, later on, with the political emergence of the environmental national forum, were illicit cropping and armed conflict direct causes for the loss of biodiversity on the political agenda.1 Natural resources and their connection to the current armed conflict have not been the object of securitization, except in particular cases, as analyzed below, where illegal groups threaten oil fields-and transportation-where large foreign oil companies are involved.Many border regions in Colombia suffer daily from the plundering, parasitic, and almost symbiotic relationship between illegal armed actors and natural resources. …

Tariffs and Growth: An Empirical Exploration of Contingent Relationships

A large body of empirical research indicates that countries with low policy-induced trade barriers tend to enjoy rapid growth, ceteris paribus. In contrast, alternative theoretical models suggest that the relationship between trade barriers and growth may be contingent on the level of development. Employing a direct trade-barrier measure—ad valorem tariff rates—we find evidence of such a contingency: the marginal effect of tariffs on growth is declining in the level of per capita income. Moreover, evidence of a negative relationship between tariffs and growth is apparent only among the world's rich countries.

Plant Biodiversity in China: Richly Varied, Endangered, and in Need of Conservation

China is among the world's richest countries in terms of plant biodiversity. Besides the abundant flora, containing some 33,000 vascular plants (30,000 angiosperms, 250 gymnosperms, and 2600 pteridophytes), there is extraordinary ecosystem diversity, as well as a large pool of both wild and cultivated germplasms. China is also considered one of the main centers of origin and diversification for seed plants on Earth, and is especially profuse in phylogenetically primitive taxa and/or paleoendemics due to the refuge role glaciation played during the Quaternary period. The collision with the Indian subcontinent significantly enriched Chinese flora and led to the formation of many neoendemisms. However, flora distribution remains uneven, and some local floristic hotspots are found across China, such as Yunnan, Sichuan and Taiwan. Unfortunately, this biodiversity faces enormous threats, which have increased substantially over the last 50 years. The combined effects of habitat destruction and/or fragmentation, environmental contamination, over-exploitation of natural resources, and to a lesser extent, introduction of exotic species, have caused irreparable damage to China's plant biodiversity. Burgeoning economic and population growth have also contributed to this deterioration. It is believed that up to 5000 flora species are currently endangered in China, with some taxa having already become extinct. Although in recent years government authorities have made some efforts to preserve biodiversity, much work remains to be done. While China has established an extensive network of nature reserves and protected areas, encompassing more than 16% of the total land area, insufficient budgetary and staffing commitments are common limitations in their management structures. Ex-situ conservation is also deficient, primarily because the botanical gardens are not representative of several local floras, nor are they often of adequate size or representative of endangered species. The lack of effective and efficient environmental legislation and education are also problems that continue to accelerate the loss of plant biodiversity in China.