Accounting for unintended consequences of resource policy: Connecting research that addresses displacement of environmental impacts.

Natural resource policies enacted to protect environmental integrity play an important role in promoting sustainability. However, when resources are shared ecologically, economically, or through a common, global interest, policies implemented to protect resource sustainability in one domain can displace, and in some cases magnify, environmental degradation to other domains. Although such displacement has been recognized as a fundamental challenge to environmental and conservation policy within some resource sectors, there has been little cross-disciplinary and cross-sectoral integration to address the problem. This suggests that siloed knowledge may be impeding widespread recognition of the ubiquity of displacement and the need for mitigation. Here, we connect research across multiple disciplines to promote a broader discussion and recognition of the processes and pathways that can lead to displaced impacts that countermand or undermine resource policy and outline a number of approaches that can mitigate displacement.

Causes and consequences of rural pharmacy closures: a multi-case study.

Local rural pharmacies provide essential pharmacy and clinical services to their communities. Pharmacists play a critical role in the continuum of care for rural residents, and the loss of a local pharmacy may impact access to prescription drugs and clinical care. This policy brief identifies factors that contributed to the closing of six pharmacies and describes how the affected communities adapted to losing locally based services. Key Findings. (1) Five out of the six pharmacies studied closed due to retirement and/or difficulties in recruiting a successor. (2) In five of the six communities, residents now either drive to the nearest pharmacy or use mail-order to receive their prescriptions and, in some instances, receive their prescriptions through a courier service from a pharmacy in a nearby town. (3) Access to pharmacy services in these communities is of most concern for individuals with limited mobility and those who lack a support system that can pick up and deliver their prescriptions (e.g., the elderly and people with acute conditions).