Yuta Uchiyama

The governance of geographical indications: Experiences of practical implementation of selected case studies in Austria, Italy, Greece and Japan

Purpose n n n n nPlace-based foodstuffs have gained salience in markets worldwide and geographical indication (GI) products are prominent examples. The purpose of this paper is to focus on the governance (formal and informal institutions) of the European and Japanese GI schemes, discuss the variety of procedures of implementing the features of the governance system (inclusion and exclusion of actors) for six GI cases and reflect on future GI governance. n n n n nDesign/methodology/approach n n n n nThe criteria for assessing the six cases were descriptive and analytical and the information and data come from official documents, literature (scientific and “grey”), interviews, observations and personal communications with key-informants of the GI systems. Three of the cases are categorized as “failures” and are included to provide more insights on the diverse dynamics of GI systems. n n n n nFindings n n n n nRegistration of GIs seems to be a process rather than a single step, requesting coordination and consensus and an interplay between internal and external actors. “Success” and “failure” are relative and related to self-governance processes and the openness of the social system of the GI to establish transparency on inclusion and exclusion. GI systems require constant management and re-definition of production quality or geographical boundaries to adapt to market, climate or technological change. n n n n nOriginality/value n n n n nThe paper introduces GI systems categorized as “failures” (either products that did not register as GIs in the end or did register but failed to keep the registration) which provides more insights on how to design and manage complex GI systems.

People in Non-Urban Areas are Richer than those in Urban Areas? A Comment to Ghosh et al. (2010)

In environmental studies, different types of system boundaries are needed. Disaggregated GIS data are crucial because they can be flexibly converted into the target boundaries. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) data of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) should be highly evaluated as a valuable GIS data. We, however, show the problem that GDP per capita in urban areas is lower than that in non-urban areas, based on the NOAA data of GDP. This is inconsistent with the fact derived from other relevant data. We discuss possible causes of the problem: continuous linear relationship between night-time lights and GDP; leakage effects of night-time lights from urban areas to their peripheral non-urban areas; excessive infrastructures in non-urban areas as compared with their economic output; and bias in the allocation of estimated GDP data in informal sectors. We would rather contribute to the potential correction of the data than criticize the data in this paper.

Methods for specifying spatial boundaries of cities in the world: The impacts of delineation methods on city sustainability indices

The purpose of this paper is to analyze how different definitions and methods for delineating the spatial boundaries of cities have an impact on the values of city sustainability indicators. It is necessary to distinguish the inside of cities from the outside when calculating the values of sustainability indicators that assess the impacts of human activities within cities on areas beyond their boundaries. For this purpose, spatial boundaries of cities should be practically detected on the basis of a relevant definition of a city. Although no definition of a city is commonly shared among academic fields, three practical methods for identifying urban areas are available in remote sensing science. Those practical methods are based on population density, landcover, and night-time lights. These methods are correlated, but non-negligible differences exist in their determination of urban extents and urban population. Furthermore, critical and statistically significant differences in some urban environmental sustainability indicators result from the three different urban detection methods. For example, the average values of CO2 emissions per capita and PM10 concentration in cities with more than 1 million residents are significantly different among the definitions. When analyzing city sustainability indicators and disseminating the implication of the results, the values based on the different definitions should be simultaneously investigated. It is necessary to carefully choose a relevant definition to analyze sustainability indicators for policy making. Otherwise, ineffective and inefficient policies will be developed.

Analysis of the Distribution of Forest Management Areas by the Forest Environmental Tax in Ishikawa Prefecture, Japan

Forest management approaches vary according to the needs of individual municipalities with unique geographic conditions and local social contexts. Accordingly, there are two types of subsidies: a unified national subsidy and a prefecture-level subsidy, mainly from forest environmental taxes. The latter is a local tax. Our focus is on examining forest management using these two types of taxes (i.e., central and prefecture-level) and their correlations with social and natural environmental factors. In this paper, we examine the spatial distribution of management areas using subsidies from the central government, the Forestry Agency of Japan, and prefectural forest environmental taxes in Ishikawa. In concrete terms, the spatial correlations of the management areas under two tax schemes are compared with the natural hazard areas (as a natural environmental factor) and areas with high aging rates (as a social factor). The results are tested to see whether the correlations of areas with the two factors are significant, to examine whether the taxes are used for areas with natural and social needs. From the result, positive correlations are identified between the distribution of management areas and natural hazard areas and between the distribution of management areas and areas with high aging rates.