Recent debates within political ecology have motivated new field. In the introduction to this special issue, we vital challenges faced today, and present a new set of studies that respond to these concerns. We conceptualize power as a social relation built on the asymmetrical distribution of resources and risks and locate power in the interactions among, and the processes that constitute, people, places, and resources. Politics, then, are found in the practices and mechanisms through which such power is circulated. The focus here is on politics related to the environment, understood as biophysical phenomena, together with human knowledge and practice. To apply these concepts, we promote multiscale research models that articulate selected ecological phenomena and local social processes, together with regional and global forces and ideas. We also advocate methods for research and practice that are sensitive to relations of difference and power among and within social groups. Rather than dilute ecological dimensions of study, this approach aims to strengthen our ability to account for the dialectical processes through which humans appropriate, contest, and manipulate the world around them.

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The success of conservation efforts does not depend just on having a good project design. The national and international resource management infrastructure plays an important role in enabling projects to meet their goals or in presenting barriers to effective implementation. A study of the institutional infrastructure for resource management in Madagascar has revealed that certain factorswith regards to communication between institutional levels, the integration of national-level players at all phases of project design, and appropriate institutional development, for example-may encourage positive institutional interactions and as a consequence, effective integrated conservation and development projects (ICDP). This article considers the interlinked levels of political analysis, examining the relationship between institutional structure and effectiveness in meeting conservation objectives. It advocates the fuIl participation of nationals in conservation initiatives and that individual projects be given the flexibility to develop innovative schemes and confront unintended circumstances at the local level.

Khat is a bushy plant whose leaves are chewed for their stimulant effect. Although khat has been a boon to the local economy, a suspected disadvantage is that there has been a decrease of land dedicated to rice and vegetable crops. Concerns about khat stem from genuine issues of food security but also from a moral panic targeted at this recreational drug crop. The major finding is that a decrease in vegetable production has not been primarily caused by khat but instead by a decline in the market for vegetables and decayed local infrastructure supporting vegetable production and transport. We also found that most farmers prefer to grow food crops alongside their khat, and many grow khat on marginal lands. Furthermore, khat helps many individual farmers increase food security because of the income it provides. The general significance is to point out that drug crops have a unique place in discussions of food security because of both the high amount that buyers are willing to pay and because of public condemnation of recreational drugs. [food security, drugs, livelihoods, Madagascar, khat, vegetables] Culture, Agriculture, Food and Environment Vol. 34, Issue 2 pp. 124-135, ISSN 2153-9553, eISSN 2153-9561.