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。     

环境退化、市场非均衡与创业

文章提出了一种新的创业观,解释了环境问题创业。奥地利学派的创业理论认为,市场非均衡提供了创业机会。环境退化作为一种市场非均衡,为创业者提供了潜在机会。但是对这种机会的利用存在一系列障碍,文章将针对其中的不对称信息、不完全信息与公共产品,介绍创业者如何克服这两种障碍,利用环境退化所产生的机会进行创业,缓解环境退化。     

Socio-economic and biophysical determinants of land degradation in Vietnam: An integrated causal analysis at the national level

Recognizing the socio-economic and biophysical causes of land degradation at the national level is important for cause-targeted strategies when designing policies for combating land degradation. This study aims to identify the biophysical and socio-economic factors that significantly affect land degradation across Vietnam and to interpret the causalities underlying the effects. The dependent variables considered in the study are spatial, the extent and intensity of degradation in three land-use zones (agriculture, forest and severely degraded abandonment). The hypothesized explanatory variables are common economic and demographic drivers and bio-physical factors such as soil, terrain constraints, and neighborhood land-use structures that are often neglected in many large-scale land degradation assessments. Instead of using a single inferential statistic technique, we used multi-linear regression and binary logistic regression in a complementary manner to increase the detectability and credibility of the degradation cause analyses. The results showed agricultural production growth had strong and consistent effects on land degradation extent and intensity. Population growth, especially in rural areas, had a strong effect on the extent of overall land degradation. The importance of a neighboring forest was revealed for its ability to reduce land degradation intensity in abandoned, unproductive lands. The concrete faceting of the causal analysis for each land-use zone as social–ecological stratum allowed us to combine the defined social–ecological contexts, contemporary theories, and hypotheses in the field to clarify the causal factors of a complex phenomenon like land degradation. The study demonstrates these contemporary inferential statistics can be complementarily used to sufficiently detect and understand land degradation causes at the national level. The results suggest implications for national land management policy: internalizing land degradation costs in the farming system evaluation for payment for ecosystem services policy, restricting forest conversion, and improving extension services and education in agrarian communities.     

Knowledge management through the development of knowledge repositories: towards work degradation

This paper questions the consequences of the use of electronic knowledge repositories for work and employment. Drawing on critical research suggesting that knowledge management associated with such tools presents similarities to scientific management principles, it proposes to examine the following key research question: how do employees experience the transformation of the employment relationship when a knowledge repository is introduced to the workplace? The inquiry is grounded in an exploratory qualitative case study of a knowledge management system designed to foster knowledge‐sharing in a Belgian public administration. The findings illustrate two complementary outcomes: this system resulted in employees experiencing deskilling and work degradation, and was met with resistance. Significantly, this paper considers work degradation as a reflexive phenomenon in the context studied, where knowledge‐sharing systems produced deskilling and resistance as part of a specific re‐regulation process.     

Assessment through socioecological abstraction: The case of nutrient management models in Sudano-Sahelian West Africa

The sustainability of smallholder agriculture in the drylands of West Africa is a topic of long-lasting concern. This paper is focused on the scientific assessment of nutrient (mis)management affecting the long-term productivity of cropland. “Nutrient mining” is seen as a major mechanism for land degradation in the region. Two models will be the focus: that tied to the rangeland-to-cropland metric and the nutrient balance model. These tools of assessment follow a long history of environmental assessment and modeling that purposefully abstracts from the heterogeneity of the same farming practices that modeling efforts seek to assess. Abstraction is always part of modeling but the form of abstraction described here ignores any detailed understanding of farming practices and in so doing, demands very little information about farming practices. In this way, models serve as both the symptom and cause of continued ignorance of farming practices by most agronomists and soil scientists working in the region. The variables used in these models will be described and how these same variables are strongly influenced by the variation of farmers’ practices will be discussed. In addition, it will be shown that needless model abstraction results in research outcomes that provide very little insights to guide land policy formulation and agricultural extension. In short, these models point to the ultimate resource limits of the regional agricultural system but provide few insights of what could be changed to reduce rates of land degradation. The paper concludes by presenting alternative approaches that through their engagement with the diverse positionalities of farmers, provides insights useful for the development of effective land policies.     

Erosion mitigation in the Waikato District,New Zealand: economic implications for agriculture

Soil erosion, in its various forms, is caused or aggravated by agricultural activities. Mitigation of surface erosion comprises the construction of shelterbelts, fencing, riparian buffering, and stock reduction. Mitigation of mass‐movement erosion, in turn, takes the form of spaced planting of trees to maintain a persistent, healthy, and complete ground cover. In this article, we assess the economic implications to agriculture of the adoption of mitigation alternatives for erosion control in the Waikato District, New Zealand. The Waikato District presents a spatial pattern of erosion that affects profitability of dairy, and sheep and beef enterprises. We use the Universal Soil Loss Equation and the New Zealand Empirical Erosion Model to estimate erosion figures that are then fed into an economic‐focused, nonlinear, partial equilibrium mathematical programming model of New Zealand land use. Different scenarios are constructed for surface and mass‐movement soil erosion targets ranging from 0% to 50% below baseline levels. We find that achieving surface erosion targets is more expensive than mass‐movement targets, and results in different responses in regional‐level costs, land use, enterprise net revenue, and adoption of mitigation alternatives.     

氯离子对苯酚电化学氧化降解过程的影响分析

高级氧化技术是有机污染物处理的重要技术,而电化学氧化法是有机物降解中最理想的方法之一。本文研究了氯离子的存在环境下,苯酚在不同氧化物涂层的阳极上所发生电化学降解过程的分析,深入探讨氧化法降解有机物质中氯离子的作用。     

陕西经济增长与环境退化脱钩的实证分析

陕西在实现经济快速增长的同时,面临着越来越大的资源环境压力。文章利用陕西1995--2009年的样本数据,对其经济增长与能源消耗、污染物排放的脱钩状况进行了实证分析,探讨了阻碍脱钩的原因。提出通过产业结构优化与升级,降低高耗能行业产值比重,加大企业技术改造力度,健全节能减排激励约束机制等措施,实现经济发展与持续脱钩的双赢。     

“进步话语”与人性的沉沦——论康拉德的丛林小说

约瑟夫·康拉德的小说创作常常蕴含着深刻的道德主题,他的“丛林小说”更是着力于探讨欧洲文明社会所谓的“进步话语”的实质。文章将以《海隅逐客》、《进步前哨》、《黑暗的心》等三部小说为研究对象,以小说中主人公的形象分析为切入点,揭示出“进步话语”背后殖民掠夺的本质,展现在“物”的诱惑下人性的沉沦。     

Shifting cultivation and forest pressure in Cameroon

Shifting cultivation is often blamed as a principal cause of deforestation in tropical Africa. It is claimed that the practice is unsustainable because shortened fallow lengths result in soils too degraded to support forest vegetation. The decline in fallow lengths is often attributed to increases in population density and greater market participation. The conventional wisdom makes several claims that are as yet unsubstantiated. This article investigates whether there is evidence to support two of these claims in southern Cameroon. First, using both cross‐sectional and panel data, I find that there is indeed a robust negative association between fallow lengths and population density in the study area and weaker evidence for a negative relationship between fallow lengths and market participation. Second, a stochastic frontier production function approach is used to investigate the marginal contribution of fallow to output. Results indicate that fallow lengths are not low enough to be affecting yields and therefore do not appear to be resulting in declines in soil fertility. Thus overall, while some of the assumptions of the conventional wisdom appear to be true, there is little evidence to support its dramatic conclusion that shifting cultivators are causing deforestation in the forested region of Cameroon.