Policy of giving rewards and subsidies for grassland ecological conservation in Tibetan Plateau

This paper aims to explore the impact of policy of giving rewards and subsidies(GRS) for grassland ecological conservation in Tibetan Plateau implemented by the Chinese government since 2009.Taking Gerze County in Ngari Prefecture in the Tibetan Autonomous Region(TAR) as an example,it discusses the objective,implementation and outcome of that policy with regard to the ecological reconstruction and problems that have ensured.Located in the northern part of the Qiangtang Plateau,Gerze is the largest county in Ngari Prefecture.It covers more than 7.8 million acres of pastureland,of which 6.2 million acres are usable for pastoralism; 3.4 million acres,however,lack water source.In recent decades,due to the increased population and other reasons,pastures of the area have shown signs of overgrazing,thus leading to serious degradation,desertification and salinization of the grassland.Since 2009,when neighboring Coqin County was chosen as a pilot site for the national ecological incentive and subsidy policy(or: ecological compensation policy),Gerze has also started to adopt this policy and brought ful implementation in 2010.Its purpose is to solve the problem of overgrazing.But like other policies carried out in Gerze,its implementation is faced with many challenges.First,it is difficult to define the types and scopes of the incentives and subsidies,which have become a major source of complaints of the local herdsmen.Second,the local herdsmen are also concerned with the fairness of assigning rewards and subsidies.Third,the high cost of the policy’s implementation and supervision reduces its effects.Fourth,the fact that the herdsmen are not willing to reduce livestock population makes it difficult for the policy to achieve actual results.The author thinks it’s necessary to revise and improve the current ecological incentive and subsidy policy.     

Economic Growth： Theoretical Arguments about Resources, Environment and the Limit Issue ＆ the Choices Faced by the Human Being

The relationship between man and nature seems highly diverse during the evolving process of human society. Numerous destructive consequences incurring from the carly stage of the industrialization led to man＇s severe concern about ecological and environment issues. In 1972, a book entitled “The Limits To Growth” ushered in a worldwide argumentation campaign, and forced man to realize that the bearing capacity of ecological surroundings is finite, and the quantity of resources is numbered as well. Admittedly, the human advance in science and technology, from the long-term viewpoint, is capable of discovering new types of energy and resources. However, each specific period of human history is always endangered due to the crisis of energy and resources. Therefore the core of the retainable development lies in variation of the outdated pattern of economic growth as well as pursuit to the new substitutes.     

Generational Gap： Intrinsic （Non-monetary） Versus Extrinsic （Monetary） Rewards in the Workforce

Traditionally, organizations assume that compensation/pay and monetary benefits are what all employees need to work harder, be productive, or remain with the company. According to Abraham Maslow, within every person is a hierarchy of five needs： physiological needs, safety needs, social needs, esteem needs, and self-actualization needs Organizations must be able to identify what employees desire to secure optimum performance and to meet the needs of both employees and employers. This research focuses on the generational gap and the significance of intrinsic and extrinsic rewards in the workforce. The purpose and objective of this research are to test the significance of monetary versus non-monetary rewards among the different generations in the organization. A self-designed questionnaire distributed to a multi-generational group of employees of selected organizations was used to collect the analyzed data. Sixty-five （65%） responses were obtained. Secondary data were used to elucidate the needs in this area of study. Because the workforce is predicted to become more diverse in terms of age, organizations will be unlikely to implement one set of rewards for the multiple generations. This is due to the differing expectations and requirements among the generations. However, the results indicate no significant difference in monetary versus non-monetary rewards among the different generations in the workforce.     

Review on Chlorobenzoic Acids Biodegradation and Their Environmental Impacts

Chlorobenzoic Acids are toxic organic compounds largely distributed in soils and sediments. They can be degraded to various products by microorgans. This paper is a review of the literature on biodegradability of the chlorobenzoic acids. The degradation pathways, degradation genes, role of transposable elements, and construction of strains are discussed. A brief introduction is given on the environmental impacts and the pollution control.     

Eco-certification of non-timber forest products in China： addressing income generation and biodiversity conservation needs

Non-timber forest products（NTFPs） can play a key role in sustainable rural development due to their ability to support rural livelihoods while of their role and potential in conservation and development remains weak. Studies have pointed to important knowlidge gaps that may lead to serious exploitation and unsustainable use of the nanral resource ＂NTFP＂ in China. such as（I） lack of basic lknowledge on germplasm and non-existing or incomplete inventory.（2）no in-depth and long-term monitoring and institutional arrangements to ascertain sustainable extraction levels,（3）insufficient market transparency for communities.（4）incomplete knowledge of NTFP domestication and ist effects on product quality and price and the conservation of wild sources, and （5）no existing research on the full length of the commodity chain for major non-timber forest prochucts and the various actors in the chain. remote mountain regions through the sustainable management of NTFPs. The potential and challenges of oraanic,ecological and Fairtrade certification schemes in the context of smallholder farmers are discussed in more detall.     

Agility evaluation in public sector

Agility metrics are difficult to define in general, mainly due to the multidimensionality and vagueness of the concept of agility itself. In this paper, a knowledge-based framework is utilized for the measurement and assessment of public sector＇s agility by A. T. Kearney model. In this research, the authors used Z2 test in SPSS software. So, the authors discovered that the General Office of Standards ＆ Industrial Research of Sistan ＆ Baluchestan Province in Iran is agile. Finally, the authors determine the weakness points of organization by Friedman test.     

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.     

Identity in a World of Scarcity： The Book of Eli

This paper examines the construction of identity in Hugue＇s brothers movie, The Book of Eli setting in an America post-apocalyptic world destroyed by nuclear war and environmental disasters. Economic relations in this world without time or history and without production of goods and commodities, are based on ancient practices such as barter. The goods are exchanged for goods according to the need and the currency lost its meaning before the supreme usefulness. Essential items to human life like water now have a very high value due to its complete scarcity. Eli （played by Denzel Washington） toured the United States for 30 years westward circling the wasteland leading the only existing copy of the King James version of the Bible. Then he reaches the town, which is under the control of Carnegie, the villain, whose ambition is to have the holy Bible in order to exercise power. In this world full of shortages, power belongs to the old that has the memory of the past. Texts of Giddens, Beck, Lash, Benveniste, and Marx compose the theoretical apparatus that allow understanding how to reconstruct the identity in a world in crisis, and no shortage of complete story without memory card with the movement of goods excluding currency.     

Sino-European Trade Competition in Latin America and the Caribbean

The article studies trade in goods between China and the Latin American and Caribbean （LAC） countries and between the European Union （EU） and LAC during the years from 2000 to 2013. From the beginning of the 21st century, big changes in LAC＇s trade patterns have been observed. The article contains possible explanation of them. The analysis is based on the ECLAC （Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean） data. Merchandise trade between China and LAC grew significantly over the period from 2000 to 2013. In 2013, the value of merchandise exports from China was higher than from the EU-28 in the case of 12 LAC countries. Chinese imports of goods surpassed the European ones in five countries in the region. In order to increase its exports of manufactured goods and imports of natural resources and agricultural commodities, China combines trade arrangements with foreign aid policy. Besides, a rapid development of bilateral diplomatic ties between China and LAC is observed. The EU-LAC trade relations have worsened during the last decade mainly due to financial crisis and development of the EU-Asia trade relations.     

Competition and monopoly of Chinese rural groundwater market：structure and determinants

China is facing severe problem of water scarcity.Agricultural sector,the main consumer of water resource,has remarkably changed its institutions on water resource deployment,due to heavy environmental pressure.As a new and spontaneous institution,groundwater market has developed rapidly in northern China,and has impacts on waterusing behaviors and benefits of farmers.Using household survey data from Hebei and Henan in 2007,this paper attempts to pin down the development and operating of groundwater market in rural China.We focus on the monopoly and competition in the market.Empirical analysis reveals that Chinese farmers are trying to make rational decision when they compete with others in groundwater market.In general,monopoly is not fierce in Chinese rural groundwater market,with great variations among different villages and even different tubewells within one village.Tubewell costs,regulation and the density of tubewells are the main determinants that affect monopoly level of groundwater market.To make water market benefit more and more farmers of low income,corresponding policies are needed to modify its development in the future.     

Basic Needs, Property Rights and Degradation Of Commons

A major problem in many developing countries is the degradation of commons. This degradation has occurred on account of the lack of fulfilment of the basic needs of the poor, free riding and ill–defined property rights. As these goods are essential for the survival of these people, they have to access these items from commons. This results in regular raids to common land for resources and also to private houses (for example, in New Delhi) which are not guarded for water. A variant of the agricultural household model is used to analyse the above problem. Several propositions are established and it is demonstrated that degradation can occur at both a low and high price of basic needs. This result has important policy implications as it demonstrates that land or common degradation cannot be solved by just using the price system. Properly defined property rights and provision of basic goods in kind may resolve the problem of degradation of commons.     

Assessing poverty-deforestation links: Evidence from Swat, Pakistan

This paper contributes to the debate on the links between poverty and forestry degradation; the view that due to poverty and the meeting of subsistence needs the poor use natural resources more intensively and hence cause them to degrade. Using the case of the forest rich Swat district, Pakistan, the paper addresses the issue empirically, historically, and institutionally. We do not find empirical support for the “poverty-environment nexus”, in that the poor and other income groups are equally resource dependent and also show that resource degradation is not associated with poverty. Our historical and institutional analyses provide alternative explanations for resource degradation. Selective and rotating ownership patterns, starting with the 17th century, provided limited incentive for resource conservation. It also created tension between de jure and de facto owners, that has persisted, and is one source of forest degradation. Ill-defined resource rights have also exacerbated the impacts of several other factors contributing to forest degradation which is compounded by poor management, corruption, and perverse incentives.     

农户过度放牧行为产生原因分析--来自黑河流域肃南县的农户调查

我国草地资源位居世界第二位,但目前退化非常严重,已经成为牧区生态环境保护和经济发展的主要制约因素。导致草地退化的原因多种多样,自然因素是不可调控因素,并且在近50年内并非是导致草地大面积退化的主要因素,实际上,人为因素才是最为主要的因素,其中过度放牧是最主要因素之一。农户作为草地使用和经营行为的微观主体,其行为可直接或间接地响应所有管理行为和制度的最终效应。通过针对肃南县草地退化进行的农户问卷调查进行详细剖析,并结合有关统计资料,尝试从农户角度阐释过度放牧行为产生的内在机制,认为农户的支出需求增加、收入的增幅减缓与缺乏稳定的收入预期、收入渠道单一以及生态支付意愿不高是导致农户过度放牧行为产生的根本原因。     

Environmental Degradation and Population Movements: The Role of Property Rights

This study examines the linkages between environmental degradation (viewed primarily as deforestation and land degradation) and the movement of population from one region to another within a developing country. The hypothesis postulated is that the link between population and environmental degradation is mediated by the nature of property rights in land. This hypothesis is examined with the help of two alternative methodologies. Firstly, a simultaneous equations model using data for the arid and semi-arid region of Western India illustrates that outmigration from the region is largely the consequence of push factors such as environmental degradation and decrease in common land. Alternatively, micro experiments in environmental protection and the creation of common property rights on open access land in the same region indicate that the association between migrational change, creation of common property rights and participation indices is high. It can be concluded that once property rights are well defined with the help of appropriate institutional arrangements, labour moves towards the creation of common assets and an improvement in the environment takes place. Out migration is prevented and higher levels of population are supported by the same resources. The authors wish to thank Ms. Seema Bathla and Dr. Suresh Sharma for assistance in documentation, data collection and analysis.     

The global loss of net primary production resulting from human-induced soil degradation in drylands

Land degradation, the temporary or permanent reduction of land's productive capacity resulting from poor land management, has gained considerable attention as an environmental and development issue of global importance, in particular in the Earth's drylands. This study presents a global estimate of net primary production (NPP) losses caused by human-induced dryland degradation. Due to the large uncertainties related to international databases on dryland degradation, we compiled a world map of the extent and degree of desertification based on existing regional and global maps. Two distinct approaches were followed in order to estimate NPP losses due to degradation on drylands: in the first approach, we combined these maps with model results on global potential NPP, determined with the LPJ-DGVM, with a set of factors on NPP losses per degradation degree, derived from the literature. In a second approach, we made use of spatially explicit information on potential and current NPP of agricultural areas obtained from a global HANPP assessment [Haberl, H., Erb, K.-H., Krausmann, F., Gaube, V., Bondeau, A., Plutzar, C., Gingrich, S., Lucht, W. and Fischer-Kowalski, M., 2007. Quantifying and mapping the human appropriation of net primary production in earth's terrestrial ecosystems. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 104: 12942-12947.]. We used the difference between potential and current NPP on croplands situated in drylands in order to quantify the effect of dryland degradation on NPP. NPP losses were found to range between 799 and 1936 Tg C/yr in the first approach, and to amount to 965 Tg C/yr in the second approach. Overall, approximately 2% of the global terrestrial NPP are lost each year due to dryland degradation, or between 4% and 10% of the potential NPP in drylands. NPP losses amount to 20-40% of the potential NPP on degraded agricultural areas in the global average and above 55% in some world regions. The results reveal that the contributions of dryland degradation to the total HANPP in drylands is of similar dimension than the overall annual socioeconomic biomass harvest. Accordingly, strategies aimed at reducing dryland degradation could present promising options to sustain future population numbers without putting further pressures on dryland ecosystems.     

南海地区红树林资源的利用现状及生态保育对策

南海地区是全球红树林分布的中心之一,该区红树林面积大约占全球的28%,红树植物的多样性为世界最高,共有46种真红树分布于此。由于人口增加和经济发展的巨大压力,南海地区红树林资源破坏严重,退化趋势明显。本区红树林的平均年损失率为1.7%,比全球平均损失率高35%。本文在对南海地区红树林资源的利用现状和退化原因进行分析的基础上,提出南海地区红树林资源保护与管理的对策,以期能在双边和区域的层面上共同协作,采取适当的措施去扭转南海地区红树林生境的退化趋势。     

Irreversibilities and the timing of environmental policy

The standard framework in which economists evaluate environmental policies is cost–benefit analysis, so policy debates usually focus on the expected flows of costs and benefits, or on the choice of discount rate. But this can be misleading when there is uncertainty over future outcomes, when there are irreversibilities, and when policy adoption can be delayed. This paper shows how two kinds of uncertainty — over the future costs and benefits of reduced environmental degradation, and over the evolution of an ecosystem — interact with two kinds of irreversibilities — sunk costs associated with an environmental regulation, and sunk benefits of avoided environmental degradation — to affect optimal policy timing and design.     

乡村收缩背景下乡村景观价值衰减现象 及机制研究——以重庆市大足区玉峰村为例

当前快速城镇化伴生的“乡村收缩”现象对乡村 景观产生巨大冲击，威胁其价值维持。立足乡村景观价值衰 减现象和机制的解读，通过质性分析方法对重庆市大足区玉 峰村的半结构访谈数据进行编码和解译，以实证方式论证乡 村景观价值的衰减感知与作用机理。研究发现，乡风民俗淡 化、空间风貌衰败、田园景观破损及生态环境退化在村民关 于景观价值衰减的现象感知中呈现强度递减趋势，而社会结 构退化、文化土壤消解、生产关系弱化和土地利用转化等作 用机制则是由深入浅地诱发乡村景观价值衰减的关键因素。 据此，建议后续应从历史保护、文化再生、产业构建和规划 管控等角度加强乡村景观价值的保护和提升工作。     

Optimal Management of Soil Quality Stocks and Long-Term Consequences of Land Degradation for Smallholder Farmers in Malawi

While soil degradation has long-term consequences, static models which form the bulk of studies on this topic in Africa, do not account for the inter-temporal dimensions of optimal resource management. This paper used an inter-temporal optimisation framework, which considered soil in a time-dependent resource extraction perspective. We have demonstrated that soil degradation is causing an enormous reduction in productive value of smallholder land in Malawi. Current user cost of soil quality among smallholder farmers, which represents annual loss in productive value of land, was estimated to be US$21 per hectare. Based on this value and land area under smallholder agriculture in Malawi, economic costs of soil degradation among smallholder farmers were estimated to amount to 14% of the agricultural GDP for Malawi. Although smallholder farmers’ current practices are sub-optimal to Steady State solutions, they are above static solutions. This demonstrates that smallholder farmers have some private incentives to invest in the soil quality stock. Smallholder farmers internalise some of the dynamic costs of soil degradation under the current practices. However, a sensitivity analysis on a slightly higher discount rate indicates that SS solutions closely resemble the prevailing smallholder farming practices. This suggests that smallholder farmers may be overexploiting soil quality stock because they have a high time preference. That is, they value the current consumption more than their future consumption and wellbeing. High levels of poverty in Malawi and serious lack of viable alternatives to subsistence farming may be influencing such behaviour. Promoting more viable land use alternatives than subsistence farming and formuling policies that help transform smallholder agriculture into a profitable enterprise will not only increase the cost of degrading the soil, but also encourage farmers to invest in the soil quality stock.     

北方农牧交错带经济发展与生态环境作用机制探析

北方农牧交错带生态环境脆弱,经济发展与生态环境严重失调,贫困与环境恶化不断加剧。为了寻求北方农牧交错带经济与生态环境协调发展的途径,文章在系统分析北方农牧交错带的概念、分布、生态环境退化的现状及其原因的基础上,探讨了经济、资源、环境系统作用机制,提出了建设生态补偿机制、调整产业结构、统筹生态环境建设与经济建设,发展循环经济等可持续发展方面的战略措施。