Minerva Cordoves-Sánchez, Humberto Aponte, Arturo Vallejos-Romero
et al.
The deployment of renewable energy infrastructures has intensified across Latin America as countries pursue decarbonization goals; however, these transformations often reproduce existing territorial inequalities, especially in rural areas that have been historically affected by extractive industries. In many rural areas, the expansion of wind energy has generated significant socio-environmental tensions linked to landscape transformation, informational asymmetries, and procedural deficits. This study evaluates the interaction between energy development and the ecosystem multifunctionality of rural landscapes, focusing on how local actors perceive and interpret socio-environmental risks, changes in Ecosystem Services, and dimensions of environmental justice. A constructivist framework was performed in addition to qualitative fieldwork in five administrative localities to connect conceptual trends with empirical narratives. Results show that wind energy projects have disrupted both physical and symbolic ecological landscape functions, revealing perceived risk functions associated with procedural injustice and an expression of territorial inequality. Risk perception emerged as a socially constructed and historically rooted phenomenon, shaped by lack of trust, uneven information access, and symbolic disconnection. The findings call for place-based, justice-oriented energy planning approaches that integrate community knowledge, territorial heterogeneity, and the affective dimensions of landscape.
As a critical component of China’s rural reform, the rural collective property rights system reform offers substantial institutional support for advancing rural industrial integration by clarifying and delineating property rights. Utilizing panel data from 763 counties in the Yangtze River Economic Belt spanning 2012 to 2019, this study investigates the effects of rural collective property rights system reform on rural industrial integration, employing a multi-period difference-in-differences model as a quasi-natural experiment based on a pilot reform initiative. The findings indicate that, first, the rural collective property rights system reform significantly enhances rural industrial integration. This conclusion remains valid after robustness testing, confirming the causal relationship between the reform of the rural collective property rights system and the integration of rural industries, while also avoiding model estimation errors caused by sample selection bias and reverse causality. Second, the reform facilitates rural industrial integration by expanding the county-level market scale and elevating industrial agglomeration levels. Third, in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River Economic Belt, the reform significantly promotes rural industrial integration, whereas its effect is less pronounced in the middle and lower reaches; similarly, in major grain-producing areas with a stronger agricultural foundation, the reform markedly enhances rural industrial integration, though its impact is less evident in non-grain-producing regions. Fourth, rural collective property rights system reform has a significant promotional effect on the integration of rural industries in neighboring areas by enabling the sharing of technology, talent, and capital between regions.
Nutrition. Foods and food supply, Food processing and manufacture
The common wealth in China must benefit everyone, and inhabitants of traditional villages should be included in this process. Owing to historical, social, and natural environmental factors, most traditional villages in China have a poor starting point for development. They are relatively economically backward, making the question of shared prosperity even more complex, arduous, and time-consuming. Rural tourism plays a key role in promoting rural economic development, optimizing industrial structure, fostering social progress, and achieving rural revitalization. It is critical in reviving rural economies, preserving and inheriting rural cultural heritage, fostering rural modernization and change, and helping local communities to increase their income and become wealthy. Although academics have recognized the importance of integrating traditional village cultural resources into tourism with the goal of creating common wealth, most have examined traditional village culture and tourism integration strategies while ignoring the impact of social embeddedness on traditional village tourism development. The central question of how to transform the low-market traditional cultural resources generated by the embedded environment into a sustainable development force for the revitalization of rural distinctive industries needs to be addressed. However, existing research has not investigated the endogenous causes of low integration of village culture and tourism, ignoring the impact of social relations on economic activities; second, there has been insufficient attention paid to how to adapt to local social rules during the integration of culture and tourism. Therefore, this paper employs the case study method to study the traditional festivals of Huanggang Dong Village in Qiandongnan, Guizhou Province, to explain two questions: one is the root cause of the non-economic behaviors of villagers in traditional villages under the structure of 'embeddedness' in the integration of culture and tourism, and secondly, whether the endogenous forces under the context of 'embeddedness' can achieve the marketization of tourism development. The main findings of this paper are that Huanggang Dong Village inhabitants' economic behavior in traditional festivals is influenced by multiple embeddedness; structural and institutional embedding affect residents' non-economic behavior, whereas cultural and cognitive embedding influence residents' non-economic behavior. Overall, the conflict of multiple embeddedness impacts the effectiveness of the cultural and tourism integration project, as well as the realization of common prosperity for the people. The main contribution of this paper is to empirically demonstrate the importance of multiple embeddedness in terms of providing local resources for cultural and tourism integration, paving the way for the development of a collaborative economy, and empowering community participation. Moreover, this paper makes recommendations for local governments to consider the social and local nature of the villages in which they are located, to update the village value and target orientation, and to shift from market-driven economic growth to the presence of social human values and practical needs. Furthermore, it is necessary to consider how to employ internal and external forces in the holistic development of traditional villages, as well as to set 'common prosperity' as the ultimate goal of cooperative action, to fully exploit the advantage of 'embeddedness.'
Abstract The worsening issue of CO2 emission coincides with the effort to revitalize rural areas in China. Hence, this study aims to determine the impact of rural revitalization on CO2 emissions in various regions of China and find the key to reducing emissions. The central hypothesis of this paper is that rural revitalization will increase CO2 emissions, but some of these actions will reduce regional CO2 emissions. This paper constructs a spatial Durbin panel model for empirical analysis based on panel data from 31 provinces and cities in China from 2013 to 2023. The results show that rural revitalization can directly promote regional overall and direct carbon emissions, regional indirect carbon emissions, and other carbon emissions. However, developing the Flourishing industry and Ecological livability in rural revitalization can effectively inhibit carbon emissions. It is recommended that the Chinese government promote rural revitalization and economic transformation of emerging industries to optimize the development environment of rural revitalization.
The integration of rural industries is an important way to increase farmers' in-comes and achieve high-quality development of agriculture and rural areas. It is also a key means to consolidate and expand the achievements of poverty allevia-tion and rural revitalization. However, there are some problems and limitations in the development of rural industrial integration, including lack of rural industrial integration; lack of benefit connection mechanism and lack of value sharing mode; imperfect service mechanism of rural industrial integration development; low participation of industrial integration; lack of enterprise innovation ability and insufficient continuity of industrial integration. In recent years, returning home to start a business has been established as a crucial measure to promote rural revitalization and rural modernization process. In the digital age, digital technolo-gies represented by the Internet, big data and artificial intelligence are having a profound impact on traditional entrepreneurial activities. Taking Taobao Village as an example, its successful experience shows that through the empowerment of digital technology, it can effectively solve the ability dilemma faced by returning home to start a business, and thus promote the sustainable and healthy develop-ment of entrepreneurship. At the same time, migrant workers returning to their hometown to start businesses have a positive and positive role in promoting the integrated development of rural industries, and significantly stimulate the genera-tion of the participation behavior of rural industrial integration.
IntroductionIndoor air pollution occurs in a microenvironment such as residential homes, closed working places, or industries in which people spend a large part of their time. Cooking or baking food in traditional or open three-stone cookstoves by using firewood is the cause for kitchen-related smoke indoor air pollution and deforestation. Modifying traditional firewood cookstoves could reduce the emissions of indoor air pollutants. The objective of the present study was to determine the effect of firewood cookstove types on indoor air pollution, emission reduction, and deforestation in selected rural houses of Bure, Ameya, and Dalocha woredas (districts) of Ethiopia.MethodsIndoor air pollutants such as carbonmonoxide (CO), carbon dioxide (CO2), sulfurdioxide (SO2), and particulate matters (PMs) were measured in three replicates for 3 min. within an average cooking time of 1 h using an automatic gas sensor. The amount of wood was separately measured by using graduated weight balance (0.1 gm).Results and discussionThe cooking place was mostly the same room as the sleeping place without a separate kitchen. The improved cookstoves were installed without a chimney (smokeoutlet) and with wider spaces left for a firewood inlet. In improved Injera baking cookstoves, the mean emission of CO was 1004.80 mg/m3, 33.00 mg/m3, and 53.85 mg/m3 in Bure, Ameya, and Dalocha woredas, respectively, which were lower than the emissions from open cookstoves. The mean concentration of PM2.5 in open cookstoves in Bure, Ameya, and Dalocha woredaswas 124.50 mg/m3, 0.53 mg/m3, and 0.04 mg/m3, respectively, which are higher than the emission from improved stoves. In Bure woreda households, the CO exposure was above 26 times the permissible limit of WHO standards. Biomass consumption was positively correlated with the moisture content of wood (p < 0.05). Improved cookstoves reduced indoor air pollution by 13%–81% and carbon emission and deforestation by 20%–41% when compared with the open three-stone cookstoves. Indoor air pollutants are risks to health and cause climate change problems. Therefore, awareness should be created on the health effects of firewood smoke indoor air pollution, ventilation of cooking places, and installation of chimneys with improved cookstoves.
Akbar Nur Rokhim, Jovindi Fernando Kusniawan, Muhamat Hafis
The "Enforcement of Environmental Regulations in Rural Small Industries" case illustrates a situation in a small village in Indonesia where traditional food processing small industries, particularly tofu industries, are a driving force of the local economy. However, complaints from residents regarding the discharge of hazardous wastewater into the river by the tofu industries have raised concerns. The village government and the local environmental agency found that the tofu companies were violating environmental regulations by not having permits and not complying with waste management standards. The role of law becomes crucial in resolving this case. The village government issued a warning to the tofu industry owners to comply with environmental regulations and improve waste management. If the violations continue, further legal action such as administrative sanctions or legal proceedings may be taken. This case highlights the importance of the role of law in overseeing and regulating rural small industries in order to maintain environmental sustainability and community well-being. With proper law enforcement, it is hoped that rural small industries can grow sustainably in accordance with applicable regulations.
Abstract Following the reform and opening up of China, the Pearl River Delta (PRD) region became a center of foreign investment due to its comparative advantages of cheap labor costs and low land use prices. The tide of migrant workers, comprising a large surplus rural labor force that flooded into the PRD region, caused a rapid increase in the urban population. From the 1980s to the 2000s, migrant workers were a key force that drove urbanization in China. The utilization of automation technology in production since the 2010s has increased the number of unemployed laborers and shifted the dynamics of urbanization. This study investigated how automation is applied in production processes and its effects on different industries, namely, those related to textiles, electronic information, and home electrical appliance manufacturing; specifically we sought to examine the complex relationship among automation, the labor forces, and urbanization by illustrating the implementation of automation in production processes and its influence on labor forces and urbanization. This study revealed that companies in different industries implement automation to differing degrees and through varied upgrading paths. All industries can ultimately achieve technological transformation and cross-industry development. For labor forces, automation exerts two simultaneous folded effects, namely, the direct replacement of low- to middle-skilled workers and the creation of new jobs. The penetration of automation into manufacturing industries has changed the dynamics of urbanization and the social spatial structure of cities, leading to a polarization of the labor forces and the emergence of “dual cities”.
Tsrong-Yi Wen, Somporn Chantara, Juliana Jalaludin
et al.
Abstract This paper consists of several topics on aerosol and air pollution in South Eastern Asia countries, including exposure and health effects of aerosol in Malaysia, characteristics/sources of particulate matter (PM) in Surabaya, Indonesia, size fraction of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in Chiang Mai, Thailand, and removal of PMs using sodium hydroxyl and electrostatic precipitator (ESP) in Vietnam. Findings in Malaysia indicated that exposure to PM was associated with respiratory symptoms such as phlegm, coughing, wheezing and chest tightness among children in urban areas. Characterization of PM2.5 and PM2.5-10 samples collected in an industrial area in Surabaya, Indonesia showed that the highest levels of individual elements in PM2.5 were S, Na, Si and K, and in PM2.5-10 were Si, Ca, Cl, Na, and Mg. The main potential sources of PM2.5 were diesel vehicle emission, a mixture of Cu industry and biomass combustion, metal industries using Ni, and construction, with contributions of 33%, 24.1%, 11.4%, and 7.9%, respectively. Meanwhile, main sources of PM2.5-10 were soil dust and port industry, construction, road dust, and sea salt, with contributions of 32%, 28.8%, 14%, and 10%, respectively. In Chiang Mai, the highest PM mass and PAHs concentrations were found in the finest particle sizes (0.65 µm–0.43 µm) in periods of intensive open burning (IOB) and low open burning (LOB), in both urban and rural areas, and the PAHs concentration (5.10 ng m−3) in the fine fraction accounted for 45% to 47% and 32% to 37% during IOB and LOB periods, respectively. The study of particle removal from a charcoal kiln in Vietnam using a water and sodium hydroxyl solution sprayed in a top-down direction with fine droplets showed a removal efficiency of total dust of about 47.5% on average, while an ESP removed PM with high collection efficiency and low-pressure drop.
Manikandan Dhayalan, Sheikdawood Parveen, Sathiyapriya Thirumalaisamy
et al.
Herbal plants have been used, in light of their responsiveness and wide availability, for the construction of a pioneering nanomaterial. In this study, a colloidal suspension of gold nanoparticles (GNPs) was synthesized from an extract of Madhuca longifolia (ML) using chloroauric acid. For biomedical applications, Madhuca longifolia (ML) was used as a bioreductant as well as a capping agent The formed ML-GNPs were analyzed using different analytical techniques, antioxidant assays, and thiazolyl blue formazan assay against A549 cell lines to evaluate clinical relevance. They were further evaluated for their influence on antimicrobial activity using a disc diffusion test against two different microorganisms, Proteus vulgaris and Micrococcus luteus. The ML-GNPs produced had good antioxidant, antibacterial, and anticancer activities. The conformation of the XRD spectra with prominent characteristic planes was indexed to the face-centered cubic (fcc)-structured GNPs. Surface morphology analysis was used to determine the particle size of the GNPs. Fourier transform infrared spectra of the samples were used to determine the analogs for strong H bonding. The MIC values of biogenic GNPs against both strains of Proteus vulgaris and Micrococcus luteus was calculated as 0.29 and 0.96 g/mL, respectively, and triclosan was considered as 0.4 and 2 g/mL, respectively. The findings of this study will be beneficial for future studies of the therapeutic potential of ML-GNPs. Actively, ML-GNPs can be a capable material for formulating nanomedicines after subsequent clinical experiments.
Abstract Although Australia's population is concentrated in major urban centres along its coastal fringe, its less populous rural communities are important to society and the economy—supporting sectors like agriculture, which occupies over half the continent's land mass and accounts for 2.2% of value added gross domestic product (GDP) (Jackson et al., 2020). The vast distances between urban and rural centres present challenges to the provision of essential infrastructure like roads, transport, energy – and telecommunications. Within this last category, internet connectivity and skills are both increasingly necessary and historically less available to the regional and rural agricultural sector in comparison to other industries and geographic communities. The digital inclusion agenda in Australia aims to address such gaps by promoting and supporting people and communities to use technology to improve social and economic well-being. This article builds on research underpinning the Australian Digital Inclusion Index (ADII), which defines digital inclusion as the capacity of people to access, afford and use online technologies effectively. The article focuses on the nature and extent of digital inclusion for Australia's farmers (identified as farmers and farm managers) based on analysis of a customised set of primary data extracted from the ADII dataset. This analysis reveals generally low levels of digital inclusion in rural communities, particularly among farmers, with distinctive and complex characteristics across measures of Access, Affordability and Digital Ability. Our findings highlight a perplexing scenario in which farmers score poorly on the Index when compared to Australians who live in similar circumstances but are not employed in the farming sector. We attribute lower levels of access to limited internet technology options, lower data speeds, inadequate reliability and lower data allowances. Less affordability is associated with individual-level socioeconomic factors, along with lack of competition between service providers in sparse population areas, the comparative cost of building telecommunications infrastructure in the bush, and the need for redundancy in rural and remote solutions. Finally, lower digital ability scores reflect social, cultural and material practices on farms that have produced distinctive orientations to technology. We conclude the article by explaining the contributions of the paper to digital inclusion research and by making recommendations for policy development.
The regional information program specializes in spatial development, economics, land and housing economics, sustainable planning, information management and marketing in the agriculture/food business. research and education in spatial economics, regional and development finance, spatial development and planning, urban and rural information, spatial analysis, Management Information Systems (MIS) of agricultural and food industries, e-Business, Information management and marketing in the food business. Students in the regional information program can study understand, analyze, and propose theories for urban and regional structures in terms of the regional and spatial economy and information systems. Students also learn to use diverse statistical and econometric tools such as Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and Management Information Systems (MIS) for analyzing regional/agricultural information and food business.
Karen Cristine Bezerra da Silva Santos, Elizabeth Frost, Ulrika Samnegård
et al.
Almond is one of the world's most economically valuable crops and many varieties require cross pollination for optimal fruit set. For this reason, western honey bee (Apis mellifera L.) hives are often placed in almond orchards. However, little is known about the usage of almond and other pollen sources by individual hives during almond bloom. Here, we investigated the timing, identity and quantity of pollen collection associated with almond floral abundance and spatial location of individual hives by sampling 440 individual pollen tray samples and counting 45,072 pollen grains from 13,200 pollen pellets collected from 80 individual hives across the flowering season in Victoria, south-eastern Australia. A large proportion of hives collected non-almond pollen in addition to almond pollen (63/80 = 79%). The weight of almond pollen collected by the hives at each sampling time was positively related to the number of concurrently open almond flowers. However, non-almond pollen richness and abundance was not related to the number of almond flowers but had a positive relationship with the weight of almond pollen collected. There was no relationship between the distance among hives and identity of pollen collected. Yet, three plant families in the study area were found to account for a high percentage of the non-almond pollen collected, Euphorbiaceae, Fabaceae and Asteraceae. Understanding crop and non-crop pollen collection could inform honey bee diet needs and identify the plant species of importance to inform best practice bee management during almond flowering.
Forestalling a large-scale reemergence of poverty is a basic task in the 14th Five-Year Plan period, which entails consolidating and expanding the achievements in poverty alleviation. This means we should manage the risks of people returning to poverty and enhance tiered and targeted assistance of various types to low-income residents, striving for a robust long-term mechanism of poverty reduction. In this paper, we first analyze the main challenges faced by consolidating and expanding the achievements of the battle against poverty in the new development stage. Among others, populations that have been lifted out of poverty falling back into it is complicated in causes, and industries in rural areas are short of sustainable development capacity. Other challenges remain, such as deficient rural medical services, drinking water safety in areas that have shaken off poverty, and outdated rural governance that is out of tune with the new situation. Subsequently, we summarize the basic logic of consolidating and expanding the achievements in poverty alleviation. We put forward three key tasks concerning increasing the institutional supply, relieving resources and environmental constraints, and stimulating endogenous impetus for those who have been lifted out of poverty. Lastly, we propose policy suggestions on consolidating and expanding the achievements in poverty alleviation from five aspects, including building an identification mechanism of low-income rural residents, promoting the performance of rural industries, improving governance capacity in rural areas, conducting rural doctors training programs, and ensuring drinking water safety.