A study on the protection of biodiversity resources in Micangshan Forest Park in northeast of Sichuan Province

The Micangshan Forest Park is located in the northeast edge of the Sichuan Basin. The wild animals and plants resources are rich and the ecosystem is integrity. There are well-preserved areas of native biological communities. Its strip and the region decided that on the one hand biological diversity is rich; on the other hand, there is its unique ecological fragility. Once it is destroyed, it would be very difficult to restore. In order to protect the ecological environment of wild animal and plant habitats and wild animal and plant resources, this paper uses quadrat survey procedure to carry on the investigation. In the Micangshan Forest Park＇s typical land sector the author establishes the sample area of 20 m×20 m to invest the tree layer of plant species and builds five 2 m×2 m the small quadrats along the type place＇s diagonal line machinery to invest bush level and the field layer floristic component. Again according to the Micangshan Forest Park＇s terrain, the vegetation and the difference humanity interference condition, the autor builds the different quantities separately the line transect to invest the animal type. This article through to eastern Sichuan Province north the Micangshan forest park biodiversity resources investigation, has analyzed the biodiversity protection work present situation and the existence question, and put forward the proposal to the next protection work.     

Impacts of Sloping Land Conversion Program on the vegetation in loess hilly and gully area of northern Shaanxi

Aiming at alleviating the serious soil erosion, the Chinese government initiated the Sloping Land Conversion Program （SLCP） in 1999. Now; after 8 years of project implementation, the ecological recovery effects of the SLCP have become the hot issue of academic circle. This paper; raking the loess hill and gully area of northern Shaanxi as an example, presents a methodology for assessing the vegetation restoration effect of SLCP with normalized difference vegetation index （NDVI）. The key components include calculation of the Growing Season NDVI （GSNDVI）, and estimation of the NVDI change induced by climate and SLCP, respectively. Based on the method, the NDVI change between 2000 and 2006 was obtained using the GSNDVI that excluded the noise from snow and ice. After the part of total NDVI change caused to： climate variation was estimated using empiric formulae, we obtained the part induced by human factors, i.e. the SLCP The human induced part of ND VI change was considered as an approximation indicating the effect of the SLCP on the vegetation. Finally, we analyzed the ND VI change characters of the whole study area, different slope lands and different land use types by spatial statistics method. Results show that the vegetation condition is significantly improved by the SLCP, particularly land types that directly involved in the SLCP, such as steeply slope farmlands, degraded grasslands, etc.     

Sustainable livelihoods in a Coptis-planting based rural community: a case study in Shizhu County, China

Coptis chinensis is a medicinal herb used in traditional Chinese medicine.This research features a case study in Shizhu County,China.Participatory Rural Appraisal（PRA） is used as the main tool for data collection.The study demonstrates that the current method of Coptis planting leads to forest destruction.Even with reforestation measures,it leads to the loss of biodiversity in the forest.It also shows that farmers cannot get satisfactory economic returns from Coptis planting,as the return is unstable and unpredictable.One alternative to the current Coptis planting mode is to incorporate it into the agroforestry system.Water shield planting also serves as a good alternative to Coptis planting itself.Improved methods of management,post-harvest processing,and marketing of Coptis are also proposed and analyzed.The intended contribution of this paper to the theoretical debate of sustainability shall be the provision of an example showing how agricultural production affects forest conservation.It also presents redressable measures to the negative consequences.Besides,one alternative livelihood pathway for the rural community in this case study is suggested.     

Culture phenomenon analysis on the forest tour activity of China

1. Introduction The forest tour is the mankind’s returning to the forest and nature and the mankind’s aesthetic emo tion of the forest. Our country is still relatively defi cient in the culture phenomenon of forest tour tha is studied at present. This paper tries to analyze the cultural factors of the forest tourist activity in terms of culture. 1.1 Culture connotation In Chinese “Wen” means a variety of lamination that is interlock, and “Hua” means that changes eas ily or brings good …     

Measuring economic loss caused by ecological damages： a case study of China＇s forest ecosystem in 2005

At present about 60% of ecosystem has been damaged and degraded severely, resulting in enormous ecological loss globally. The essential cause is the irrational utilization of ecosystem by humankind, so it is tire key to changing improper environmental performance of humankind so as to prevent ecosystem from being damaged The quantitative valuation on the loss of ecological damage is an effective tool to guide human eco-environmental performance. In this paper, the concepts related to the valuation on ecological damage cost are introduced,＂ uncertainties that might arise in the valuation on the loss of ecological damage such as area coverage of valuation, ecological damage quantity, borders of ecological damage cost and data support are analyzed and the valuation approaches for the loss of ecological damage are also discussed As a case study, the economic losses of ecological damage of forest in 2005 in China are valuated.     

Resettlement＇s impact on the domestic economy in lake restoration： a case study of Poyang Lake region

The Chinese government started a take restoration project in Poyang Lake region 10 years ago, and the expost mOnitor of the migrants＇ livelihoods was limited, This paper compares the composition difference of domestic income and domestic consumption between migration and non-migration villages in Poyang Lake region. The results show that the migrants＇ domestic income has increased in the last 10 years, which originated from the tncreasing trend of active and extensive rural labor migration, while the resettlement has not influenced the domestic income significantly. The resettlement stimulates younger farmers to work.far away from home whose wages contribute nearly 80% of domestic income, The resettlement decreases their savings due to higher expenditure of daily life for those who work far away from home, and higher expenditure of food for those who stay at home, losing cultivated lands with irrigation system for vegetable. On the other hand. the increase of rural labor migration leads the migrants who stay at home to have access to more cultivated lands for rice and cotton, and the farmers also apply more fertilizer in the same cultivated land for more agriculture products. The resettlement makes most of migrants spend their savings on the improvement of their housing conditions due to not enough governmental financial support for new building. After the analysis, some factors that influence migrants＇ income and consumption are discussed. The paper may contritbute to the building of Poyang Lake Ecological Economic Zone.     

Orientation and community participation of ecological development： a case study of Hutuo River in Shijiazhuang City, China

Entrusted to by Shijiazhuang municipal Party committee and government,Shanghai Tongji University finished ＂The General Planning of Ecological Development Project of Hutuo River in Shijiazhuang City＂.It aims to build Hutuo River into a wind-breaking and sand-fixing barrier and ecological protect district in the north of Shijiazhuang based on the recovery of natural ecology to improve the environment of Shijiazhuang city.It also intends to develop the district lightly and build it into a nature beauty spot and big park.After the construction for several years,the general environment of this district has been greatly improved.But during the development,the man-made landscapes are highlighted excessively,which deviates from the construction of nature landscape.The currency of constructing big leisure park gradually comes into being,so the recovery of nature ecological is slow.So,this paper intends to make the orientation to ecological development of Hutuo River in Shijiazhuang city and puts forward the community participation to promote the future development of ecotourism in Shijiazhuang.     

A study on state-owned forest area stakeholders’ behavior

The development of state-owned forest area plays a very important role in the development of Chinese forest industry, and even in the construction of national economy. As the backbone of Chinese forestry development, it contributes to Chinese economic development, ecological environment protection and social progress. How to balance all stakeholders’ interest and behaviors remains as one of the focuses in the study of sustainable development of forest areas. On this basis, researches were carried out and described in the paper. Firstly, the paper goes through the concept and scope of state-owned forest area in China; Secondly, it defines the stakeholders of state-owned forest area, and discusses over the problems in stakeholders’ behaviors from the aspect of responsibility, rights and interests; and Finally, it designs the stakeholders’ behaviors on the basis of existing problems and provides constructive suggestions on deeper reform of state-owned forest areas.     

Forest eco-compensation mechanism： a survey

China is a country with a vast territory and a large population but limited forest resources, which is mainly distributed in the economically less developed regions. Therefore, it is particularly important to address the issue to establish forest eco-compensation mechanism to overcome the problems of inequity between the people and promote the public incentive for forest management and conservation. The definition of eco-compensation is deeply discussed based on the literature review of national and international initiatives. According to summary and analysis of the empirical work of forest eco-compensation at international level,some significant inspirations are duaw on this paper. Based on them, this paper focuses on the forest eco-compensation mechanism of china. Firstly, integrating with the actual situation of china, the paper puts forward the policy framework of eco-compensation .The institutional framework of eco-compensation should be established among the multi-departments with different temporal and spatial scales. Secondly, the types and ranges of forest eco-compensation are further studied, that is three levels of forest eco-compensation such as micro-level, macro-level as well as media-level, and then the standards of eco-com-pensation are primarily estimated which include the three factors, namely direct expense of plantation opporiunity cost for forests protection and benefits of forest ecosystem services.Finally the recommendation is created in terms of above research conclusions, which is provide the vital important references for government policy making in the forest eco-compensation domain.     

The Accounting Reform in the Brussels-capital Region： New Tool for Financial Analysis

In the last 20 years, public administrations in Belgium have completely reformed their accounting systems. The new system consists in combining double-entry general accounting with budgetary accounting, which is traditional in the public sector. The accounting reform of 2003 marks a turning point in the history of accounting of the federal State and federated entities （regions and communities）. The Brussels-capital region is the first federated entity to embark on the adventure and implement the new accounting system in 2006. The aim of this article is to introduce the legislative framework and the different implementation steps of the accounting reform in the Brussels-capital region and to provide a financial analysis of the region. The objective is to see if the region has a good financial situation. To do this, this paper analyses the data from the balance sheet and the income statements from 2008 to 2011. On one hand, it analyzes the evolution of the region＇s different results; and on the other hand, it presents different financial ratios. It also analyzes the evolution of the regional debt. This paper concludes that, although expenses and the debt are increasing, the situation of the region is not worrying, because of good budgetary performances, sophisticated financial management, and law loans rates. Even if the results of the analysis don＇t have to be interpreted as the same way as for a private company, the annual accounts provide interesting information that can be used to improve public finance.     

土壤种子库在生态园林工程中的应用潜力 研究

土壤种子库作为自然生态系统的基因库，是传统生 态修复的主要手段之一，但在生态园林建设中并未引起足够 的重视。以广东省深圳市为例，选取梧桐山自然保护区2种 具有代表性的群落类型(常绿阔叶混交林和荔枝纯林)，研究 了土壤种子库的萌发特征，以及覆盖物(椰糠和园林废弃物) 对常绿阔叶混交林土壤种子库演替初期群落生长的影响。结 果表明：1)2种林型土壤种子库物种丰富度相当，分别为常 绿阔叶混交林9种、荔枝纯林8种，荔枝纯林土壤种子库密度 和覆盖率分别为576.29粒/m2 、15.31%，明显高于常绿阔 叶混交林236.93粒/m2 、7.57%；2)覆盖物能显著提升常 绿阔叶混交林土壤种子库种子萌发的数量及早期演替群落的 覆盖度，具体表现为：椰糠组(密度：648.58粒/m2 、覆盖 率：13.74%)＞园林废弃物组(密度：368.56粒/m2 、覆盖 率：11.11%)＞对照组(密度：236.93粒/m2 、覆盖率： 7.57%)；3)2种林型土壤种子库与地上植被的物种相似度均 很低，分别为常绿阔叶混交林0.16，荔枝纯林0.19。结果表 明，从土壤种子库的物种丰富度、密度和早期演替群落盖度来 看，梧桐山土壤种子库在生态园林工程中的应用潜力很大，可 以作为深圳乃至华南地区生态园林建设的重要手段。同时，在 实际工程应用中，可以运用椰糠等覆盖物促进种子的萌发及演 替早期群落的形成。     

开矿对四川马边白家湾河流域植物多样性格局的影响

开矿导致地表植被破坏,并使植物群落结构发生改变。以零星矿井式开采的四川马边白家湾矿区为研究区域,通过群落调查,采用重要值和物种多样性指数,结合除趋势典范对应分析(DCCA)排序和多元回归进行数据分析,研究了开矿对植物多样性格局的影响。结果表明:(1)随着开矿干扰减弱,植物群落分为明显的四个群丛,依次由草本向灌木、乔木顺序演替;(2)开矿干扰与DCCA轴紧密相关,是影响植物多样性的重要环境因素,导致乔木层盖度变化且对多样性有直接影响;(3)群落间相似性与开矿干扰负相关,而物种替代速率与开矿干扰呈U型关系。     

Drivers of Forest Ecosystem Change in Purnapani Area: Empirical Evidence and Policy Suggestions

Purnapani area of Sundargarh district of Indian state of Odisha was primarily dominated by tribal people with natural forest ecosystems. The local tribal people were mostly depending upon forest and agriculture for their livelihood. During 1958 Purnapani Limestone and Dolomite Quarry (PL&DQ) started mining of lime stone and dolomite in the area. The total land contributed by Purnapani villagers for mining, township and railway line construction was 569.64 acres. In 2003, the mines were closed and about 2000 mine workers lost their livelihood. During the last 50–60 years, unsustainable mining activities and then their abandonment have degraded the forest ecosystem and livelihood resource base of local communities in the Purnapani area. Thus in order to identify the major drivers of degraded forest ecosystems we have conducted primary surveys in Purnapani area. Using regression analyses we find that both mining activities and passenger transport services are the drivers of population growth in Purnapani area. Livelihood of local tribal people is being positively impacted by mining activity and passenger transport services operating from Purnapani area. Fuel wood consumption increases over time due to population growth which put great pressure on forest ecosystems to change. Both mineral production and population size have impacted human well-being negatively by positively impacting health expenditure. The amount of decline of community welfare in terms of net present value derived by the communities from extraction of forest resources is due to mine spoiled degraded forest ecosystem services. From our analysis we recommend that large-scale ecological restoration is necessary to protect the environment and to restore the resilience of ecosystem services in this area.

     

Gender and forest conservation: The impact of women's participation in community forest governance

Would enhancing women's presence in community institutions of forest governance improve resource conservation and regeneration? This paper focuses on this little addressed question. Based on the author's primary data on communities managing their local forests in parts of India and Nepal, it statistically assesses whether the gender composition of a local forest management group affects forest conservation outcomes, after controlling for other characteristics of the management group, aspects of institutional functioning, forest and population characteristics, and related factors. It is found that groups with a high proportion of women in their executive committee (EC)—the principal decision-making body—show significantly greater improvements in forest condition in both regions. Moreover, groups with all-women ECs in the Nepal sample have better forest regeneration and canopy growth than other groups, despite receiving much smaller and more degraded forests. Older EC members, especially older women, also make a particular difference, as does employing a guard. The beneficial impact of women's presence on conservation outcomes is attributable especially to women's contributions to improved forest protection and rule compliance. More opportunity for women to use their knowledge of plant species and methods of product extraction, as well as greater cooperation among women, are also likely contributory factors.     

黄土高原生态环境建设与土壤质量演变

土壤质量高低对植被恢复具有重要作用，它不仅影响植物群落的发生、发育和演替的速度，而且也对生态系统过程、生产力和结构等具有重要影响。植物演替过程．也是物种对土壤肥力逐渐适应、改造及不同物种在不同肥力梯度下相互竞争和代替的过程。因此，植被恢复过程也从多个方面影响着土壤质量，植被是土壤质量改善的重要驱动力之一。黄土高原地区实施退耕还林还草后土壤质量将在某种程度上得以恢复．不同类型植被土壤质量恢复还具有明显差异，并且在一定时间范围内，随恢复时间延长，土壤质量不断改善。     

让自然参与设计：一种基于自然演替的 城市自生群落改良设计途径

城市自生群落具有重要的生态服务功能与潜力，但因其外貌不被公众所接受而难以在城市公共空间中应用。将群落生态学和设计学相结合，探索一种介入栽培植物对城市自生群落进行改良，最终形成具有一定美学价值的植物群落的途径。实验以植物群落设计美学原理和种间竞争原理为依据，向已经演替1年的城市自生群落中引入63种栽培植物，按照分层的方式对群落进行改良。3年的观测结果表明，有61.9%的栽培植物可以在城市自生群落中定居并建立优势，能对76.7%的自生植物起到抑制作用，使55.8%的自生植物消失。相比城市自生群落，改良后的群落美观度提高29.4%，公众接受度提高24%，群落的物种丰富度提高至2.29倍。相比一般的人工植物群落，改良后的群落可以节约58.2%的建植成本，降低83.9%的浇水成本和67.8%的除草成本。实验证明改良设计是一种可行的群落设计途径，能有效提高群落的物种丰富度和美学价值，同时让自然参与群落设计过程，实现人与自然的合作。     

Economic cost of deforestation in semi-deciduous forests — A case of two forest districts in Ghana

The ecological, economic and socio-cultural roles of forests are under threat in Ghana due to the high rate of deforestation. Efforts are being made to combat this problem through rehabilitation measures. However, the costs of deforestation and restoration benefits are not adequately estimated. This paper fills in the gap in knowledge by providing an empirical estimation of the cost of deforestation in monetary terms. Primary data collected regarding timber, non-timber forest products and soils in semi-deciduous forests were analyzed using opportunity cost and replacement cost techniques. The results emphasize differences in the value of these forest goods and services lost annually. The largest losses were in stumpage fees, edible fruits, and avoided carbon emissions values. The results show that US$133,650,000 gross revenue, equivalent to 2.6% of the 2008 agricultural sector Gross Domestic Product, is lost annually. It can be concluded that restoring the degraded forest lands would bring benefits particularly to the local communities through increased stumpage revenues and harvest of non-timber forest products, as well as additional funds from carbon credits. It is recommended that stakeholders of forest resources are made aware of these costs in order to raise awareness of what they are losing through deforestation.     

REDD+and community-controlled forests in low-income countries: Any hope for a linkage?

Deforestation and forest degradation are estimated to account for between 12% and 20% of annual greenhouse gas emissions and in the 1990s (largely in the developing world) released about 5.8 Gt per year, which was bigger than all forms of transport combined. The idea behind REDD + is that payments for sequestering carbon can tip the economic balance away from loss of forests and in the process yield climate benefits. Recent analysis has suggested that developing country carbon sequestration can effectively compete with other climate investments as part of a cost effective climate policy.This paper focuses on opportunities and complications associated with bringing community-controlled forests into REDD +. About 25% of developing country forests are community controlled and therefore it is difficult to envision a successful REDD + without coming to terms with community controlled forests. It is widely agreed that REDD + offers opportunities to bring value to developing country forests, but there are also concerns driven by worries related to insecure and poorly defined community forest tenure, informed by often long histories of government unwillingness to meaningfully devolve to communities. Further, communities are complicated systems and it is therefore also of concern that REDD + could destabilize existing well-functioning community forestry systems.     

Management strategies for tropical rain forests: Results of ecological models and requirements for ecological-economic modelling

In this study, we use two ecological forest models, namely FORMIX3 and FORREG, to analyse the impact of logging on tropical rain forests and to discuss needs for and problems of an economic extension of these models. The FORMIX3 model simulates spatial-temporal dynamics of tropical forests using an individual and process based approach. The main processes included are growth, mortality, competition, and regeneration of trees. The FORREG model simulates wood growth of tropical forests at landscape scale based on differential equations. Regeneration capabilities of logged forests are analysed and compared for different logging strategies. While conventional management strategies with a short logging cycle (here 20 years) produce low yields and cause severe changes in tree species composition, a reduced impact logging strategy with a longer cycle (here 60 years) leads to relatively high yields and causes moderate changes in species composition. Thus, longer logging cycles are preferable from an ecological point of view. However, also economic aspects influence logging decisions, thus a closer analysis of additional economic aspects of forest management is inevitable. We discuss which economic shortcomings of present rain forest models should be dealt with in the future and which additional data is needed as a consequence.     

Harvest Decisions and Spatial Landscape Attributes: The Case of Galician Communal Forests

In recent years, forest management has moved towards a landscape approach reflecting a mix of social, environmental and economic values. In this paper, we evaluate the effect on harvesting decisions of the spatial attributes of communal forests in Galicia. We first model the forest landscape management problem within a bioeconomic framework, which allows the identification of optimal clear-cutting strategies. This framework makes it possible to model a Faustmann-type rotation at the landscape level. The empirical analysis uses data from communal forests in Galicia, Spain. Under communal ownership, members of a rural community have rights to forest resources, but not rights to the forest itself. The management of communal forests integrates multiple forest uses within the decision making process. Given the communal nature of forest rights, and given these multiple uses, we show that landscape patterns—fragmentation, diversity and clumpiness—determine rotation periods.