An Organisational Discussion of Incomplete Contracting and Transaction Costs in Conservation Contracts

Conservation in the agricultural sector is difficult to achieve. A primary complicating factor in achieving conservation is the large number of public good environmental services provided by large numbers of individuals acting under diverse economic and ecological conditions. The complexity of the problem implies that additional consideration must be given to transaction cost economics and the theory of incomplete contracting. Drawing on insights from organisational economics, this paper argues that conservation policy and research could be improved with explicit consideration of the effects of ‘holdup problems’, transaction costs and trust on the provision of conservation services. ‘Bottom‐up’ approaches are promising as they directly incorporate these organisational issues, and the paper concludes with an example of a ‘bottom‐up’ conservation programme, the Ontario Environmental Farm Planning programme.     

水蓄冷空调技术的运用与经济性分析

文章论述了蓄冷空调与常规空调相比所具有的优越性。蓄冷空调的一个主要特征是比传统空调多了一套蓄冷设备。它主要在电网用电低谷时段开机蓄冷,在电网用电高峰时段释放冷量,以缓和电网峰段时的电力供应矛盾,达到移峰填谷的目的。同时,指出利用不同时段的电价差可节约大量电费。     

试述园林树木养护的措施与方法

随着环境建设的备受重视,各地园林绿化建设步伐的加快,很多好的园林建设已能将人与大自然很好地协调,将历史文化内涵再现出来,对园林设计的各项要求把握得恰到好处,体现出设计者的聪明才智及社会责任感。但是园林树木栽植后,需要良好的养护管理才能保证树木成活和健康地成长发育,达到绿化规划设计的效果。本文从一年养护管理工作的划分、浇水、施肥、整形修剪、病虫害防治、中耕除草、防寒等多方面进行了论述。     

节能型围护结构的设计与应用

节约能源是我国的基本国策,建筑节能则是国家节能工作的重中之重。文章论述了建筑节能的原理,从节能角度分析了建筑设计须重视的若干问题,并重点分析了屋面与墙体等外围护结构中主要的节能技术应用。     

Ekistics,ecumenopolis and the wilderness

In this paper, threats to the world's wilderness areas are reviewed. The author argues for a global approach to this encroachment, so that countries struggling against adverse social and economic conditions are not forced to pay the price of mistakes made due to genuine ignorance or the greed of the more advanced nations. A classification of wilderness areas is given, and the threats facing them are outlined. The author then moves on to explain how ekistics, the science of human settlments, can be applied to the problem. In this way, he suggests, man's need to develop and the environment's need for protection can be united. The paper concludes with a plea for a multi-disciplinary approach and, more important, a general awareness that all environmental issues are related.     

Community views of ecotourism

Ecotourism can be an incentive for conservation, especially when it triggers positive economic change. Yet it introduces many changes to communities:positive and negative, social and economic. The full range of change is seldom evaluated in direct relation to conservation at the local level. In this study of three Amazon ecotourism projects, local leaders discussed changes from ecotourism in their communities. Economic benefits were mentioned, but so were new restrictions on time, decreased reciprocity, and social conflict. Other changes included heightened self-esteem and greater community organization. Such shifts should be considered in relation to conservation as they affect the stability of local institutions and the prospects for long-term collective action for resource management.     

Social capital and soil conservation: evidence from the Philippines*

The formation of social capital is hypothesised to enhance collective efforts for soil conservation. The Landcare Program in the southern Philippines promotes simple conservation practices in upland environments by supporting community landcare groups and municipal landcare associations, thus augmenting social capital. A study was conducted in 2002–2003 to evaluate the Landcare Program, using a mix of quantitative and qualitative techniques. In the present paper, the relationship between social capital formation and adoption of soil conservation in the Municipality of Lantapan is investigated. It is concluded that the Landcare Program as a whole created a valuable stock of bridging social capital, rapidly accelerating the adoption of contour farming measures, but that on‐going support is needed to maintain this capital stock.     

Gains from configuration: The transboundary protected area as a conservation tool

Nearly two hundred transboundary protected areas comprise a portion of the global conservation landscape the size of India, with further expansion anticipated. Proponents claim that transboundary protected areas outperform isolated protected areas in achieving conservation objectives, while regional case studies have led critics to challenge this claim. Empirical investigation into the relative performance of transboundary protected areas is fundamentally limited since these areas cannot be directly compared to the isolated protected areas that might otherwise have emerged in the same location. This paper develops a game theory model of park formation to compare counterfactual transboundary and isolated protected areas. The model suggests that under certain conditions, transboundary protected areas can achieve greater conservation and production objectives, even in the absence of international cooperative park management. The paper establishes five sufficient conditions for transboundary protected areas to provide greater national welfare, domestic conservation value, or global conservation value than counterfactual isolated protected areas. These conditions are tested for three common conservation objectives. The results suggest that when the objective of conservation is species persistence or interior habitat, conservation groups should encourage transboundary protected areas. However, when the objective of conservation is to extend reserve coverage to the maximum number of species, conservation groups should encourage protected areas where species richness is greatest, whether or not these areas span international borders.