During our final meeting with Deputy Mayor He Bin, we discussed how the challenge of balancing human and environmental needs is further complicated by both the fragility of the ecosystem and a poor understanding of environmental carrying capacity. However, how do you prioritize conservation efforts if human needs are not met? His answer was that for meaningful change to occur with regards to environmental protection, attitudes about development must change in order to create a culture of prevention and not reaction.
He Bin then asked the University of Michigan and Tsinghua University case teams to assist him in meeting these challenges by developing effective solutions as well as to learn from and teach this case.
Photo credit:
Edward Waisanen
case.sppm.tsinghua.edu.cn:9090 ›
Case Assignment Instructions
Write an evidence- and systems-based recommendation for one improved, and/or alternate strategy to improve water quality and balance livelihoods for one or more of the lakes in the Yuxi district. Your recommendation could be to support an existing strategy, or to suggest a change to how it is implemented, or to provide an alternate strategy. You can choose a strategy based on the topic you prepared for discussion or a different one.
1. After stating clearly what your one specific strategy or action is, you should provide evidence in your response to each of the following three sets of questions about your strategy:
A. Ecological impact– What makes this strategy effective ecologically? How will it work – be specific about what threat(s) is addressed, correctly identifying the threat(s) as ultimate or proximate and the strategy’s impact on the problem (reduce source, etc.).
B. Human livelihood impact – How does your strategy meet the ecological civilization directive of also supporting human livelihood? That is, how does your strategy allow for or encompass economic growth? What are the social impacts for different communities of humans of this strategy? How do you ensure that people benefit or are not harmed? Be specific about who is benefitting (and maybe who is not) and how. It should be clear that your strategy is not only ecologically effective, but balances that with meeting human livelihood or well-being goals.
C. Considers context (applies ecosystem landscape principles) – Is your approach feasible and appropriate for the socio-ecological system or context of the Yuxi district? How have you taken into account the landscape, governance structure, market, culture, or even value systems of this place that would influence the implementation and/or success of this strategy?
2. You must also include a small diagram that maps how your strategy addresses threats towards goals (as we did in class, but just for your one strategy) that provides visual support for the logic of your arguments.
3. In terms of how it is written, your recommendation should:
- be brief (less than two typed pages, 1.5–spaced, 12pt font)
- be well-structured (outline it first and break it up by the parts above – e.g. you may use subheadings, and you must use topic sentences!), and
- integrate the use of at least four legitimate sources to support your argument with evidence, instead of relying on your opinion. Sources should be encompassed logically and clearly within text, not just listed or mentioned
4. In addition, on the third page of your recommendation, respond briefly to these two questions (less than 1 page total):
- ) How do you think your own cultural biases or values influence what you initially thought was feasible and/or desirable management in this case?
- ) What have you learned about potential solutions to the challenge of balancing livelihoods/economic development and ecological protection from this case?
Photo credit:
Edward Waisanen