The Employment and Output Effects of Changing Patterns of Afforestation in Scotland

This paper considers the economy‐wide output and employment effects of the shift in forest expansion away from coniferous plantations towards broadleaf and native species. Four different woodland types are distinguished within a Scottish input‐output table and demand and supply multipliers estimated to show the total effects on the economy of a 100 hectare increase in the land area devoted to each type as well as a switch in land from agriculture. Results suggest that the output and employment effects of new native woodlands and farm woodlands are greater than those generated by planting additional coniferous woodlands of equivalent size. In addition, an increase in the area of these policy‐driven woodland types is likely to have positive effects, even when the expansion impinges onto agricultural land of average productivity. It is thus argued that the traditional economic objectives of forestry policy have not been compromised in the drive towards multi‐benefit woodlands.     

基于线性优化模型的土地利用结构优化研究——以六安市为例

线性优化模型方法是一种在具有确定目标又有一定约束限制条件下,从所有可能的选择方案中寻找最优方案的模型方法,是应用于土地利用结构优化的方法。本研究以六安市为例,通过运用线性优化模型分析六安市2014年土地利用现状和2015-2020年期间社会经济发展趋势,并且对主要的社会经济指标作了预测,在此基础上提出了优化的土地利用结构是六安市2015-2020年土地利用战略与目标的直接表达。研究结果表明,2020年优化的土地利用结构中,农村居民点用地有较大减少,因此可以预见,"十三五"期间,六安市国土资源管理重点是推进农村居民点整治,释放潜力,以补充耕地面积及为城镇扩张置换指标;并且有计划的科学指导农业产业结构调整,增加园地与林地面积。     

基于土地类型的西峡县农用地适宜性评价

目的 土地类型反映了自然地理特征的同质性。为做好农用地保护工作,贯彻落实党中央、国务院及自然资源部关于“宜耕则耕”“宜园则园”“宜林则林”等要求,有必要开展以土地类型为单元的农用地适宜性评价研究。方法 文章首先,在构建的西峡县土地类型的三级分类框架的基础上,采用自上而下的叠置法与自下而上的合并法划分土地类型。其次,以土地类型的最小单元为评价单元,综合自然条件、社会经济和生态环境因素,分别建立了针对耕地、园地和林地的适宜性评价体系。最后,运用层次分析法和加权求和法相结合的方法评价西峡县各类农用地的适宜性。结果 （1）西峡县的土地类型有3个等级,包括14个土地类、299个土地亚类和570个土地单元。（2）西峡县86%以上的区域为林地适宜区,约47%的区域适宜园地,而只有13%的区域适宜耕地。（3）各类农用地的高度适宜区（S1）主要分布于研究区南部河流谷地地带。各类农用地的勉强适宜区（S3）在空间分布不均匀,且研究区北部的大部分山地区域均不适宜（N）作为耕地。结论 基于土地类型的适宜性评价可以识别潜在适宜作为农业利用的土地,并可为农用地的布局优化提供参考。     

中国农业土地利用结构及其优化途径

我国农地利用的结构性障碍在于耕地和林地所占比重偏低，而牧草地比重偏高：优质高产地比重偏低且减少较快；林牧用地结构不合理，植被覆盖率低一我们应往农产品供给和生态环境建设相协调的目标导引下．本着以林地为基础，以耕地为中心，以园地为辅助，以草地为依托，以水域为保障的原则进行农地利用优化配置。还必须通过对农业用地空间布局进行优化调整，进一步改善土地景观格局．增加环境容量．实现农业土地利用在产业发展和生态重建方面的双重功效。     

The introduction of Entry Level Stewardship in England: Extension or dilution in agri-environment policy?

Agri-environment schemes were introduced in the mid-1980s. Their primary objectives have developed from initially aiming to hold back intensification towards stimulating environmental enhancement. The introduction of Entry Level Stewardship (ELS) in England represents a third stage in seeking to extend the coverage of schemes across the majority of agricultural land. This aims to influence land use along the whole of the intensive margin. The ELS offers a wide range of options for which farmers are awarded points. Selection of options equivalent to 30 points per ha in lowland areas entitles farmers to a payment of £30 per ha. By September 2007, 4.4 million ha had been entered into the scheme, equivalent to 47% of the agricultural area. From amongst the options on offer, 34% of points were for boundary options, 20% for intensive grass options, 16% for management plans and 13% for options taking arable land out of production. The choice of options varies across the country with a higher proportion of the agricultural area entered in the East. Entry into the scheme is associated with total agricultural area, cereals farming, larger farms, a lower proportion of area in Environmentally Sensitive Area and Countryside Stewardship schemes and grazing livestock numbers. While the ELS has introduced a large number of new entrants into agri-environment schemes, the extent of the environmental impact is uncertain. Given the large number of options available, it is likely that farmers will have chosen options that involve relatively little change and incur limited cost. At the same time, it would be surprising if the environmental gains were of the types most valued within local areas. The ELS approach implies that public goods provided from agricultural land should be paid for irrespective of what would have happened in the absence of the scheme. While this may be a fairer approach, it may also undermine the idea of land stewardship and imply that payments will continue to be required in the long term in order to sustain provision. The ELS does establish a framework within which incentives could be targeted to deliver specific benefits within particular contexts and suggestions are made as to how policy might be developed for this.     

鄂尔多斯市农地资源调查及效益评价

[目的]文章分析了2007—2016年10年来鄂尔多斯市农地数量变化情况,同时从经济、社会、生态3个维度入手,对此期间内鄂尔多斯市农地资源利用效益进行测度。[方法]建立鄂尔多斯市农地利用效益指标体系,采用极差法、熵值法确定指标权重,进而对经济效益、社会效益、生态效益及综合效益进行测算。[结果]鄂尔多斯市农地主要包括耕地、园地、林地和牧草地4种类型,占比分别为2.97%、16.23%、43.81%和31.86%;2007—2016年鄂尔多斯市农地数量逐年上升,以园地增长面积最大,耕地增长面积最小,形成以草地、园地为主,林地、耕地为辅的分布特征;10年来鄂尔多斯市经济效益、社会效益、生态效益呈上升趋势,经济效益、社会效益上升幅度大于生态效益,且经济效益、社会效益优于生态效益;除社会效益外,鄂尔多斯市农地利用综合效益、经济效益、生态效益于2012年皆处于"低谷期",但综合效益整体处于上升态势,4种效益上升斜率逐渐趋于一致,农地利用效益步入稳定上升阶段。[结论]鄂尔多斯市农地利用效率逐渐趋于协调稳定上升状态。     

PROPERTY INSTITUTIONS AND ENVIRONMENTAL IMPROVEMENT

Pressures to limit levels of agricultural production create opportunities for the provision of new environmental benefits from rural land. However, the public good characteristics of these benefits mean that they are unlikely to be provided by conventional profit-maximising firms. This paper examines the role of land ownership by public interest demand groups in the form of Conservation Amenity and Recreation Trusts. This form of ownership can establish incentives for the consideration of the external benefits of land use in land management decisions.     

The Governance of Rural Land in a Liberalised World

Liberalisation of agricultural policies reduces the influence of policy on land‐use decisions, but environmental policy objectives remain. Governance provides an approach that recognises the role of institutions and collective action. The formulation of environmental policy objectives in terms of the provision of public goods raises questions as to the role of economic valuation and as to whether the definition of ‘goods’ may misdirect policy attention. An alternative approach relates to ecosystem services and sees management issues in terms of ecosystem resilience and the adaptive governance of socio‐ecological systems. Governance involves a mix of regulation, markets, government incentives and collective action. Regulation sets the domain within which markets operate and social judgements as to property rights are required as a basis for exchanges. Depending on commodity prices, agri‐environment schemes may be required either to reduce agricultural production intensity or to keep land under production. The diffuse nature of the environmental benefits and costs of land uses, the complexity of ecosystems and the need to co‐ordinate land management decisions indicate a role for local adaptive co‐management of land resources. Governments play a major role in supporting the institutional framework within which this can take place.     

Does private income support sustainable agroforestry in Spanish dehesa?

Oak woodland dehesa suffers from the aging of trees without a natural regeneration of young oaks coming in to replace them. Recent European Union (EU) policy reforms for rural development focus on supporting multifunctional agriculture that complies with the EU's environmental goals, such as mitigating biodiversity losses and climate change. Such reforms could result in government support for natural woodland regeneration practices in European agroforestry systems, which are recognized for providing valuable environmental services. Managing dehesa cork oak and holm oak woodlands to stimulate the growth of new oaks could be an efficient option for maintaining, and even increasing, the dehesa's current carbon stock and biodiversity. Here we develop and apply a new agroforestry accounting system based on the concept of Hicksian income to a dehesa in the Monfragüe area of western Spain, using primary microeconomic data from a large case study. Private total income and profitability rates are measured for individual goods and services, and for the entire dehesa in a steady state. Our application extends the EU system of accounts for agriculture and forestry by including private amenity consumption by landowners and the gain or loss in human-made and natural capital. We compare an actual typical unsustainable woodland management scenario with an ideal sustainable management scenario in which there is a continuous regeneration and recruitment of holm and cork oaks as predicted by silvicultural models. The results show that, given current land use policy incentives, allowing a slow depletion of oak trees is more profitable for a dehesa private landowner than maintaining the dehesa's trees. As a result many dehesa environmental services are gradually lost. This market failure requires new land use policies that induce private land owners to invest in the renewal of aging oak woodlands. To evaluate the impacts of this new policy, we show how private landowner income is affected when changes are made to achieve sustainable management of dehesa oaks. More research is needed in order to understand how the dehesa's landowner market income and private amenities trade-off can affect the owner's land use preferences and decisions.     

关注攀西地区土地生态问题

攀西是典型的干热河谷地区，生态环境极为脆弱，是长江上游生态屏障的核心地段，同时又是四川省特色化、产业化农业(水果、蔬菜)工程基地和全省农业用地的重要土地后备资源。在分析攀西地区土地利用及保护的矛盾及隐患的基础上，针对攀西地区土地生态状况不断恶化的巨大隐患，提出采取在保护中进行土地开发、在开发中加强土地保护，加强土地综合治理，强化林地种植和管护，杜绝原始迁徙耕作，加强水利建设和水土保持，推行节水技术等相应对策以保护其土地生态。     

Enhancing ecosystem services through afforestation: How policy can help

We employ an integrated spatial economic model to assess the net private and public benefits of converting marginal agricultural land into forest plantations (afforestation) in New Zealand. For numerous locations, we conduct policy analysis considering the magnitudes of net private and public benefits of land use changes to determine whether a policy response is justified and, if so, to identify the appropriate policy instruments to encourage adoption of afforestation. Net private benefit is commonly negative, so much so, that in most cases no policy response is justified. However, in certain cases, net private benefits are slightly negative and public benefits are significantly positive justifying the use of positive incentives as the most appropriate policy instrument to encourage afforestation in New Zealand. The most commonly used policy instruments for afforestation in New Zealand, extension and awareness training, are found to be appropriate in only a minority of situations.     

Peasant household modelling: Farming systems evolution and sustainability in northern Zambia

Chitemene slash-and-burn cultivation continues to be a dominating cropping system in northern Zambia even after the introduction of modern technologies such as hybrid maize and fertilizer. The rationale of farming systems evolution in northern Zambia where labour markets have been absent or highly imperfect, has been analyzed by goal programming based on the theories of Chayanov (1966) and Nakajima (1986). Carrying capacity estimation is incorporated in the models and discussed in relation to the sustainability of land use systems in the area. The major changes in agricultural technologies in northern Zambia during this century has been the introduction of cassava, maize and fertilizer technologies. Cassava has had the most significant impact since the land could support much higher population densities and since the dependence on the chitemene system no longer was critical for the survival of peasants. By switching from finger-millet to cassava as the main staple the peasants could reduce their total labour recquirement to meet their basic food needs by as much as 40%. The results also show that the maize-fertilizer technology has been unable to replace the chitemene system because economic incentives to continue the system exist as long as there is suitable woodland available. Nevertheless, the introduction of the maize-fertilizer technology may have resulted in reduced chitemene cultivation. The rapid expansion of maize production in northern Zambia from the late 70s to the late 80s depended critically on the government policy of equity pricing and input subsidisation. The models predicted that the removal of fertilizer subsidies would result in a dramatic reduction in maize production.     

Playing musical chairs with land use obligations: Market-based instruments and environmental public policies in Brazil

In Brazil, market-based instruments focusing on land use dimensions are increasingly promoted as a means to make public environmental policies effective. Landowners and farmers call for more flexible regulations and economic incentives to adopt ecologically sound practices, while public agencies and conservation NGOs seek new ways of financing and legitimising legal standards. Market-based instruments are considered by these actors as having the potential to both achieve their own goals and conciliate all interests. As a result, legal frameworks (including cap-and-trade systems, biodiversity offsetting and payments for ecosystem services) are being designed which allow to exchange land use rights and obligations. Under a sociolegal approach, this article provides an overview of such instruments. It shows to what extent they may entail a reconfiguration of the burden sharing and the priority setting of nature conservation. Depending on how actors use legal standards, their responsibilities may be eased and the level of conservation may be lowered, both facts that raise significant controversy.     

Measuring soil quality dynamics A role for economists, and implications for economic analysis

Measuring soil quality is extremely difficult, yet it has clear economic importance. In particular, there is a great deal of empirical interest in the dynamics of soil quality evolution when land managers respond to policies and other incentives. Yet current methodologies for measuring changes in agricultural land quality are largely static and rely heavily either on incomplete measures such as proxy variables, or ad hoc indexes of selected soil characteristics. Moreover, much empirical work relies on static econometric techniques or simulation models. In this paper, we develop a means to infer soil quality changes from input and output data using a dynamic production function model. Using data from field experiments, we estimate the model in a way that allows the recovery of a dynamic measure of soil quality whose evolution depends on variations in management practices. Our methodology and findings will help provide firmer empirical foundations for analyses of the economic implications of land degradation and the soil quality implications of agricultural policies.     

Tare land in Flemish horticulture

The annual agricultural census in Belgium delivers quantitative data of net and additional areas of land used for agriculture and horticulture. We introduce the term ‘tare land’ to indicate the latter as the area of land fragments not directly supporting crops or fodder, at farm level or at higher (landscape, region) level. For spatial planning and zoning purposes data on gross agricultural area (being the sum of net and tare areas) are required. However, the quality of the tare data is not documented or even questioned. In Belgian and international scientific and grey literature, little information on tare is available. In this paper we define two classes of tare, functional tare (fTare) and plan tare (pTare). fTare encompasses the sum of the area of all additional land used by farmers for professional purpose or closely associated to the net agricultural area but not directly used for the production of food, fodder or industrial crops. Plan tare (pTare) is defined as these parts of the statutory agricultural area not specifically used in farming, such as public roads and inclusions of non-farming buildings. By means of a GPS-survey and interviews with farm managers, we used two methods to survey net and tare areas of land. On one hand we surveyed the land within farm enterprises: 3 open air horticultural farms, 6 greenhouse horticultural farms and one mixed farm (open air horticulture and greenhouse). On the other hand we surveyed 10 segments of 25 ha, all situated in one municipality within a major horticultural region of Flanders (northern region of Belgium). fTare areas account on average for 21% of the total farm area in the case of open air horticulture whereas the fTare area is 39% in case of greenhouse horticultural farms. These averages are significantly different. The mixed farm had an fTare area of 32%. Within areas designated for agriculture plan tare is 44%. Hence only 56% of the land with an agricultural destination is effectively used for agriculture. These figures illustrate the spatial importance of tare areas and the spatially extremely scattered organisation of horticulture in the study area. Knowledge on quality and nature of tare areas is important for multi-objective spatial planning in which economic and ecological sustainability of agriculture is considered.     

Assessment of relation of land use characteristics with vector-borne diseases in tropical areas

Land use and land cover changes play an important role in the occurrence of vector-borne diseases. It is highly essential to identify the prominent changes responsible for its occurrence so that suitable measures can be adopted. An attempt was made to identify the prominent land use and land cover changes responsible for the spread of chikungunya, malaria, and dengue fever in the State of Kerala, India, using hierarchical cluster analysis and multiple regression analysis. Large extent of water bodies, low land and agricultural land played a significant role on the incidence of chikungunya and malaria. High population density, built-up area and agricultural area favoured dengue fever. Vector-borne diseases were found to be the lowest in places where there is no low land and with higher forest area. Inappropriate disposal of wastes generated in the built-up area might be the reason for the spread of dengue fever. Freshwater in drains of these areas is polluted and form breeding grounds for mosquitoes. Hence much attention is to be paid to provide appropriate treatment and disposal of wastes generated in the built-up area of the State In an evolving urban policy, priority is to be given to the installation of safe treatment and disposal facility of wastes especially, sewage, sullage, and solid waste. The protection of forest land also plays an important role. Economic policy instruments such as Payment for Environment Services (PES) schemes, may constitute a useful tool to encourage an improved land use management through appropriate price signals, such as, for instance, for the preservation of forested areas especially in proximity of highly populated urban environments.     

Assessing the environmental impact of 3D public law restrictions

The needs of modern societies require, on the one hand, the most efficient exploitation of land by individual stakeholders and, on the other hand, have set up a variety of restrictions and regulations for the public benefit. Such restrictions are steadily growing in number and apply in various areas. Given the technological development in the construction sector, complex proprietary relations emerge in overlapping private and public rights. Cadastres constitute the core of land administration systems, gradually evolving to development tools that provide multi-purpose land related information. Within this context, incorporation of Public Law Restrictions (PLRs) to cadastral systems is considered a step towards the development of integrated land administration systems. Internationally, PLRs are usually registered in separate registries, under different types and formats, depending on the competent body/authority. These PLRs include, among others, restrictions regarding environment and nature protection, water protection, spatial and land use planning zones, cultural heritage, public infrastructure corridors and zones, public easements/servitudes and mining rights. Until today 3D registration and visualisation of such PLRs is mostly discussed at research level, mainly due to the variety of fields related to each PLR, the need of quantifying qualitative components or “translating” physical attributes to legal restrictions and 3D volumes, as well as to the variety of responsible authorities and types of regulations. This paper focuses on identifying PLRs that pertain either explicit or implicit 3D characteristics, emphasising on the PLRs related to the development of the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) project. This paper aims to identify the nature of 3D PLRs, based on the legal requirements regarding environmental components’ analysis and mapping defined in Environmental Impact Assessment (ESIA) studies, and to investigate the possibility of compiling 3D environmental models from recorded ESIA data. Economic implications of 3D PLR approach is also considered, at qualitative level, in terms of impact on land value when 3D restrictions are imposed, and regarding the cost-effectiveness of drafting ESIA studies showing 3D PLRs.     

Impact and implications of price policy and land degradation on agricultural growth in developing countries

In many developing countries, a high proportion of the population resides and works in rural areas. Agriculture is the dominant sector in rural areas and has the greatest concentration of poverty: landless workers, small tenant farmers, and small farm owners. Thus, any development strategy that is directed towards increasing employment and alleviating a country's hunger must concentrate on sustainable agricultural growth. Historically, economic development in most countries has been based on exploitation of natural resources, particularly land resources. Soil erosion and land degradation have been serious worldwide. Due to reasons such as high population pressure on land and limited fossil energy supplies, land degradation is generally more serious in the developing world. Empirical studies show that soil erosion and degradation of agricultural land not only decrease the land productivity but they can also result in major downstream or off-site damage which may be several times that of on-site damage. In promoting industrialization, governments of many developing countries adopt a package of price and other policies that reduce agricultural production incentives and encourage a flow of resources out of agriculture. Increasing evidence shows that these policies cause a substantial efficiency or social welfare loss, and a great loss in foreign exchange earnings. In addition, a World Bank study on the effect of price distortions on economic growth rates concluded that neither rich resource endowments, nor a high stage of economic development, nor privatization are able to make up the adverse effects caused by high price distortions. This analysis is primarily concerned with identifying the factors that determine the agricultural production growth rate and in testing the effects these factors have on agricultural growth in developing countries. Specifically, this study involves statistical estimation of an aggregate agricultural growth function based on cross-country data for 28 developing countries. Special attention is devoted to land degradation and agricultural pricing policy, and to the policy implications resulting from the effects these variables have on agricultural and food production growth. The overall results of this study show that price distortions in the economy and land degradation had statistically significant negative impacts while the change in arable and permanent land was positively related to the growth of agricultural production and food production in 28 developing countries from 1971 to 1980. These results emphasize the importance of ‘getting prices right’ and implementation of sustainable land and water management practices if future growth in food and agricultural output is to be realized and sustained in developing countries.     

基于产权与利用视角的台中市土地变化分析

[目的]以我国台湾省台中市为研究对象,利用多源统计数据,对其2011—2015年土地产权变化及土地利用变化进行分析,以揭示台中市几年来土地产权变化和土地利用变化的主要特征。[方法]文章主要采用描述性分析和统计分析方法。[结果](1)2011—2014年台中市共计增加登记土地产权面积621 hm2,公私共有产权土地面积先减少后增加,至2014年达到643hm2。(2)已登记非都市土地总面积,从2011年起处于先减少、后增加的趋势,特别是2014年已登记非都市土地总面积增加较多,相对于2013年增加了1.4196万hm2。(3)都市发展区中的住宅用地、商业用地、文教用地、特定专用区的面积皆有增长,而工业用地、公共设施用地、其他区的面积有所下降;非都市发展区中的保护区面积比较稳定,而农业区、风景区和河川区的面积处在调整的状态。[结论](1)台中市私有土地面积占比处于下降趋势,但整体不是非常明显;土地所有制包括公有、私有和公私共有等多种形式完全可以共存;东南亚人取得的土地所有权数量在总体上增减变化不大;(2)台中市都市发展区用地虽有增长但增幅较小,而都市区土地、非都市区土地内部的用途竞争导致了各类用地功能区的面积此消彼长;土地所有制对城市用地扩展没有构成制约,即土地所有制不是城市发展的分歧所在;(3)非都市土地转换为都市土地,不仅取决于各类土地竞租能力的差异,还取决于都市发展计划与土地使用分区管制,土地用途转换应以经济高质量发展与居民社会福利增进为目标。最后,提出完善土地权利结构体系,增加公有土地面积占比来保障社会公共福利等政策建议。     

美国农地保护及其借鉴

经过数十年的探索与积累,美国农地保护取得了一些经验和成果。美国农地保护的方法与措施大体可分成四大类型:法律法规调控型、激励机制型(市场经济手段)、政府参与型及其他配套型。美国农地保护的突出特点:(1)保护的方法多样,体系完善,具有互补性和互换性,在保护的同时注意保护农地所有者的合法利益;(2)特别注重公众的参与性;(3)美国的农地保护成功之处在于使土地所有者和农民都能成为受益人。文章在借鉴美国农地保护相关经验的基础上,提出了中国农地保护的建议。