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Large Scale Land Acquisition
No full textNatural resources are likely to become, over the 21st century, the focus of an intensified
competition among different uses, competition triggered by the rapidly increasing demand for
water, energy, food and minerals related to population growth and urbanisation, and by changing
lifestyles and diets. The availability of any kind of resource has a strict dependence on land. This
dependence is very high for agriculture and water, and very significant for energy and minerals.
Land ownership and use adds layers of complexity in the nexus relating water, energy and food,
which are the key pillars of human well-being and societal development globally. In global this
context, it seems to be important to increase understanding of the converging global dynamics that
have spurred a global rush for agricultural land in Africa, Latin America and parts of South-east
Asia, which has intensified after the food price crises in 2007-2008, after many years of little
investments in the agricultural sector. This trend is generally referred to as land grabbing and is
characterised by purchases or long-term leases (which typically run for 50 to 99 years) of farming
land by either private or public investors.
In the first part of the thesis, I have reviewed the literature, explaining the drivers and the trends of
Large-Scale Land Acquisitions (LSLAs). It is easy to see that the majority of such investments are
targeting Africa continent. This because at the first sight the continent presents the most available
land in the world ready to be cultivated. “Available”, “degraded” and “underutilized”, have became
epithets in common usage among proponents of large-scale land acquisitions, rendering landscapes
as commodities ready for the taking. Foreign and local investments offer crucial opportunities to
recipients in terms of access to capital, technology and innovation, foreign market access and
infrastructure development. However there are development risk associated with insecure property
rights and land concentration. Hence, concern for the recent capital flows is linked to the likelihood
that it may shift the path of agricultural development away from smallholder strategies, with the
possible negative implications extensively discussed in the development and agricultural economics
literature.
In the following part, using a beta regression, I have investigated the determinants of land
acquisitions for large-scale agriculture. Results confirm the central role of agro-ecological potential
as a pull factor, and also that such investments in Africa are targeting forested areas. During the
1980 – 2000 period, more than half of the new agricultural land across the tropics came at the
expense of intact forests, and another 28% came from non intact forests, raising concerns about
environmental services and biodiversity globally. Intensive farming, which continues to increase,
has resulted in loss of natural habitats and species living in them. Forest and mixed-use woodlands
are often targeted by government for agriculture expansion in order to avoid the displacement of
crop land.
In the third part of my thesis, I have analysed the link between inequality access to land and growth,
given that the large size of foreign and domestic capital flows in conjunction with state landlordism
in Africa may result in a development path that is geared towards large farms and land
concentration. The average size of a farm in Africa is 2.2 ha, namely a very small size if compared
to investments in land that are at least 200 ha large. In order to analyse the above link I have used a
meta regression technique to review the land inequality literature. A large literature on inequality
and growth has firmly established a strong role of land inequality as determinant of income
inequality, and the negative impact of land inequality on long term growth; long term analysis also
clearly shows that inequality in asset ownership once established is very difficult to reverse. The
policy implications are that smallholder or outgrower strategies should be encouraged also in a
context of large-scale deals, the degree of legal protection of land rights is crucial, elements of land
related corporate social responsibility could usefully integrate public regulation in the domain of
protection of user's rights.
In the last part, I have done a preliminary assessment of loss of carbon following the conversation
of land use from forest to crop land. Converting a forest to crop-land, for example, for biofuels
production can result in much more global warming pollution than the amount that can be reduced
by the biofuels grown on that land. Thus, I have assumed that 30 per cent of such investments are
happening on forest land, unfortunately the inaccuracy of localization data do not allow an
assessment more precise
Endocrinologia riproduttiva e fisiologia dello stress nelle iguane terrestri delle Galápagos
No full textFree-living animals must struggle against a variety of challenges and man-mediated alterations that can cause
high stress conditions. Among the most hostile consequences of prolonged stress are disruption of behaviour and
reproductive physiology and the alteration of population fitness. Understanding if and how threatened free-living
populations reproduce and respond to changes is necessary for determining vulnerability and setting
conservation priorities.
Conolophus marthae (Critically Endangered, IUCN Red List) and Conolophus subcristatus (Vulnerable, IUCN
Red List) are two land iguana species living in syntopy on Volcán Wolf (Isabela Island, Galápagos Archipelago,
Ecuador). Little is known about the reproductive biology of these two species, and data available are based only
on circumstantial observations. As these two congeneric species may compete for nesting sites, comprehending
species-specific times of reproduction can be crucial to understand interspecific interactions. Thus, in the first
part of the thesis, plasma levels of progesterone (P4) and 17b-estradiol (E2) were examined and explained
through enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), a methodology never applied to iguana species before.
Overall, the endocrinology allowed the description of a specific breeding season for Conolophus subcristatus on
Volcán Wolf. Reproduction appeared still ongoing in June to finish in July. Unfortunately, for Conolophus
marthae the description of a breeding season was not possible with the same precision. Reproduction in this
species seemed hampered, determining attrition.
This aspect of reproductive endocrinology was combined with the analysis of the stress physiology in relation to
parasitic infection. Indeed, in the Galápagos Islands some populations of land iguanas are strongly impacted by
ticks, ectoparasites vectors of the apicomplexan haemoparasite Hepatozoon (Hepatozoidae, Hemogregarines). In
general, ecto- and endoparasites are important stressors for wild animals; they may affect individual health and
fitness-related traits. These stressors may cause endocrine and immunity variations and the glucocorticoids
hormones are key mediators of the stress response. In vertebrates, glucocorticoids, whose synthesis is regulated
by the hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal axis (HPA), are involved in the responses to a variety of stressors and are
often used as a hormonal measure of stress. Parasites and glucocorticoid hormones interact and affect a
multiplicity of processes, such as immune response and reproduction. However, the nature of the relationship
between parasitic infection and levels of glucocorticoids and their possible covariation with haematological
profiles has received relatively little attention in wild animals, even with equivocal results especially in reptiles.
In the second part of the thesis, the relation between ecto- and endoparasites and the stress physiology of these
two land iguana species were analysed by using: (i) leukocyte profiles as haematological markers and
specifically the heterophils/lymphocytes ratio (H/L), commonly used as diagnostic tool for assessing stress in
vertebrates (ii) endocrinological markers as baseline corticosterone plasma levels, the primary adrenal
glucocorticoid hormone produced in response to stressful events in reptiles. For a comparative approach, a
population of C. subcristatus from Bahia Urbina, an area where notoriously ecto-parasites and haemoparasites
are marginally present, was used as a control for haematologic and hormonal comparisons.
Overall, thanks to haematologic profiles, it was described how Hepatozoon caused an activation of immune
system especially of phagocytic heterophils forms; nevertheless it was also clarified that both reproduction and
parasites infection contributed to the observed leukocytes’ profiles. In this study, the physiological capability of
iguanas to modulate the activity of the immune system in response to different stressors (reproduction and endoparasitic
infection) emerged explicitly for the first time in reptiles. Moreover, the H/L ratio appeared to be a
more persistent indicator of stress by parasites than the more sensitive corticosterone levels. It was suggested
that baseline corticosterone and H/L ratio cannot be used interchangeably as indicators of stress by parasites, but
together can provide a comprehensive picture about the stress status of iguana species in in-situ studies. In fact,
the stress hormone levels rose exclusively as a response to a natural and life-threatening situation as reproduction.
These results confirmed that the interaction between adrenal and gonadal systems could be important for
reproductive efficiency, dispelling the assumption that adrenal activation is necessarily deleterious
L'informativa nei servizi d'investimento: dalla fase delle trattative agli obblighi contrattuali
No full textIl lavoro oggetto della presente ricerca dottorale si propone di analizzare, nei cinque capitoli di cui si compone, le forme di tutela spettanti all’investitore “tradito” in conseguenza dell’inosservanza, da parte degli intermediari finanziari, degli obblighi informativi su di loro incombenti nella prestazione dei servizi di investimento. Nel primo capitolo, ci si sofferma, preliminarmente, sulla disciplina speciale del mercato mobiliare, sempre avendo a riguardo il tema dell’informativa: infatti, prendendo le mosse dalla prima disciplina organica dell’intermediazione mobiliare (legge 2 gennaio 1991, n. 1), l’analisi normativa esamina i vari istituti tesi alla riduzione del “gap” informativo esistente tra le parti contrattuali. Seguendo tale filo conduttore, si valutano, poi, le innovazioni apportate dagli interventi legislativi successivi, come ad esempio il decreto “Eurosim”, e si procede alla rilevazione dei profili critici della materia in esame, così come consolidata, dapprima, dal Testo unico delle disposizioni in materia di intermediazione finanziaria (TUF), e, poi, dalla disciplina MiFID, finanche trattando i temi della nuova normativa comunitaria di riforma mediante il sistema di prossima introduzione della direttiva MiFID II e del regolamento Mifir. Dopo aver esaminato il quadro normativo di riferimento, la trattazione prosegue con l’analisi dei rimedi esperibili dall’investitore in caso di violazione dei doveri informativi, suddivisa appositamente in due capitoli, ove le tutele sono prese in considerazione a seconda degli effetti che comportano: restitutori, trattati nel secondo capitolo, ovvero risarcitori, trattati, invece, nel terzo. La ricerca, in tale fase, tiene conto anche degli orientamenti giurisprudenziali che si sono susseguiti nel corso degli ultimi anni, analizzando, in particolar modo, le autorevoli sentenze “gemelle” delle Sezioni Unite del 2007, che hanno comportato un processo di adesione, pressoché unanime, da parte delle decisioni a queste successive. Nel
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quarto capitolo, invece, seguendo una linea di continuità con i primi tre, si analizza la tenuta giuridica degli orientamenti assunti dalle Sezioni Unite, soprattutto con riguardo alle forme finanziarie evolute, invalse nei tempi recenti, quali, ad esempio, i contratti derivati. L’ultima parte del lavoro – quale sintesi conclusiva delle argomentazioni sviluppate durante tutta la ricerca – tenta di far emergere il punto focale della disciplina di tutela dell’investitore in tema di informativa: il passaggio dalla trasparenza all’educazione finanziaria. In tale contesto, si esaminano i programmi di educazione finora posti in essere a livello nazionale, europeo e internazionale, analizzandone, congiuntamente, la loro rilevanza ed efficacia, in uno con un esame critico dei relativi profili problematici, nonché delle prospettive finali, giungendo fino a prospettare un auspicio de jure condendo in punto di tutela dell’investitore
Activity report
No full textActivity report on the rehabilitation projects of the European Commission in Somalia.Warbixin ku saabsan hawlaha mashaariicda dibuhabaynta oo guddida Yurub ay ka qabatay Soomaaliya.Rapporto sulle attività dei progetti di riabilitazione della Commissione Europea in Somalia
Fotografia M19
No full textTratto da "The sphere", 10 aprile 1948Laga soo qaaday "The spere", 10 abril 1948Taken by "The sphere". 10th april 194
Mogadiscio - Arabo - Somali
No full textImmagine tratta dal sito "Mogadishu: Images from the past" (https://mogadishuimages.wordpress.com/) e inclusa nell'Archivio Somalia con il consenso del curatore della collezione Rick Davies.Sawir laga soo qaatay mareegta "Mogadishu: Images from the past" (https://mogadishuimages.wordpress.com/), waxaana lagu biiriyay Kaydka af Soomaaliga, kaddib markii oggolaasho laga helay qofka diyaariyay oo ah Rick Davies.Image taken from the website "Mogadishu: Images from the past" (https://mogadishuimages.wordpress.com/) and included in the Somali Archive with the permission of the owner of the collection, Mr. Davies
Mogadiscio - Campo militare
No full textImmagine tratta dal sito "Mogadishu: Images from the past" (https://mogadishuimages.wordpress.com/) e inclusa nell'Archivio Somalia con il consenso del curatore della collezione Rick Davies.Sawir laga soo qaatay mareegta "Mogadishu: Images from the past" (https://mogadishuimages.wordpress.com/), waxaana lagu biiriyay Kaydka af Soomaaliga, kaddib markii oggolaasho laga helay qofka diyaariyay oo ah Rick Davies.Image taken from the website "Mogadishu: Images from the past" (https://mogadishuimages.wordpress.com/) and included in the Somali Archive with the permission of the owner of the collection, Mr. Davies
Programma di formazione dei quadri intermedi 1984-'85
No full textProgramma di formazione dei quadri intermedi e del personale tecnico-amministrativo dell'Università Nazionale Somala.Barnaamijka Tababarka shaqaalaha farsamada iyo maamulka ee Jaamacadda Ummadda Soomaaliyeed.Training program for technical and administrative staff of Somali National University
Subject Clitics and Subject Extraction in Somali
No full textThis M.A. Thesis studies the subject clicic pronouns and subject-verb agreement in Somali language, at the light of Chomsky's government and binding theory.Buugga qalinjebintani wuxuu darsayaa magacuyaallada yeele ee gaaban iyo iswaafaqsanaanta yeelaha iyo falka ee af soomaaliga, iyadoo laga eegayo figradda iskuxirnanta ee keenay Noam Chomsky.Questa tesi di laurea si propone di studiare i pronomi clitici soggetto e l'accordo soggetto-verbo nella lingua somala, alla luce della teoria della reggenza e del legamento di Noam Chomsky.M.A. Thesis. Department of Linguistics, McGill University, Montrea
Radio Mogadiscio: Radiodramma 4
No full textMasraxiyad raadiyeed oo laga soo daayay raadiyo Muqdisho 80meeyadii.Radiodramma mandato in onda da Radio Mogadiscio negli anni '80.Radio drama broadcast by Radio Mogadishu in the 80s