Tree farms: Driving forces and regional patterns in the global expansion of forest plantations

People have planted trees in rural places with increasing frequency during the past two decades, but the circumstances in which they plant and the social forces inducing them to plant remain unclear. While forests that produce wood for industrial uses comprise an increasing number of the plantations, most of the growth has occurred in Asia where plantations that produce wood for local consumption remain important. Explanations for these trends take economic, political, and human ecological forms. Growth in urban and global markets for forest products, coupled with rural to urban migration, may spur the conversion of fields into tree farms. Government programs also stimulate tree planting. These programs occur frequently in nations with high population densities. Quantitative, cross-national analyses suggest that these forces combine in regionally distinctive ways to promote the expansion of forest plantations. In Africa and Asia plantations have expanded most rapidly in nations with densely populated rural districts, rural to urban migration, and government policies that promote tree planting. In the Americas and Oceania plantations have expanded rapidly in countries with relatively stable rural populations, low densities, and extensive tracts of land in pasture. If, as anticipated, the growing concern with global warming spurs further expansion in forest plantations in an effort to sequester carbon, questions about their social and ecological effects should become more pressing.     

云南南部地区耕地变化时空特征及成因分析

研究目的揭示云南南部地区20世纪80、90年代土地利用/覆被变化规律,以及耕地格局变化的驱动机制.研究方法应用ArcGIS将研究区域不同时期的土地类型图进行叠加,并将得到的土地覆被变化图进行空间相关分析;运用SPSS软件对耕地变化影响因子进行相关分析.研究结果本区的土地利用/土地覆被格局变化以林-草及林草-耕地转换为主,耕地分布随海拔、坡度的不同有明显的变化规律,且耕地分布格局存在着较为显著的时空差异.研究结论本区的土地利用/覆被格局及其演变受自然、社会、经济等各方面因素的影响,尤以政策和人口经济发展压力为主,这从一个侧面反映了加强本区土地管理的重要性.     

认真落实科学发展观 努力推进水利产业化进程

阐述湖南省水利经营发展新阶段的形势和要求，介绍湖南省水利经营的成就和经验：领导重视，真抓实干，发挥优势，突出重点，依靠政策，加大投入，艰苦创业，开拓市场，深化改革，强化管理。分析湖南省水利经营存在的问题和困难：缺乏充分体现科学发展观的规划，政策落实难以到位，水利产业化水平低，开放意识不强，改革力度不大。针对水利经营存在问题和困难，提出按照科学发展观推进水利产业化进程的对策与措施：制定切实可行的中长期发展规划，着力实现规模化经营，落实产业扶持政策，建立多元投资体系，营造良好的发展环境。     

Driving forces and rates of landscape change as a promising combination for landscape change research—An application on the northern fringe of the Swiss Alps

Landscape change is driven by various actors and forces which trigger a specific rate of change. Today, many landscapes change in a direction and with a rate considered unsustainable. Historical insights on actors, driving forces and resulting changes can provide a valuable basis to efficiently control or direct changes. In this paper actors and driving forces of landscape change of the last 120 years are studied in five areas on the northern fringe of the Swiss Alps. Rates of landscape change were reconstructed based on maps. Expert interviews with farmers, politicians, planners and historians as well as historical documents helped in identifying actors and driving forces of the detected landscape change. The contributions of actors and driving forces to landscape change were analyzed by type of driving force (political, economic, cultural, technological and natural/structural). The analysis revealed some key forces, like technological innovations and attitudes and beliefs, operating on several institutional levels and influencing landscape change on a broad basis. Comparing the municipalities disclosed no significant differences regarding the relative contributions of different actors. However, a comparison of the time period before and after World War II revealed distinctive differences in relevant actors and driving forces. Thus, decision-making, policy, and planning must be aware of changing actors and driving forces over time.     

Study on the abandonment of sloping farmland in Fengjie County,Three Gorges Reservoir Area,a mountainous area in China

The farmland abandonment phenomenon in mountainous areas is a recent change in relationships between man and land that emerged in China's land-use transition. Revealing spatial distribution characteristics and influence factors of sloping farmland (SF) and abandoned farmland (AF) in mountainous areas is conducive to rational allocation and optimization on local land resources. This paper investigated regional distribution features of SF and AF in the hinterland of the Three Gorges Reservoir Area (TGRA) using high-resolution remote sensing images, ArcGIS spatial analysis, and statistical methods. The results found that the spatial distribution of SF and AF has an approximate characteristic under different topography, location, or accessibility backgrounds. However, within different spatial coupling relationships between SF and AF, influencing mechanisms of farmland abandonment are significantly different. The diversity of geographical locations reflecting natural and social contexts is an essential reason for this differentiation. Moreover, dominant influencing factors of farmland abandonment in the study area are natural factors such as slope and farmland quality. Socioeconomic factors, including distance to road, peasant income, and labor force proportion, guide the distribution and trend of farmland abandonment to varying degrees. Finally, four modes of farmland abandonment in TGRA have proposed and suggested that the corresponding plans for SF consolidation should be proposed based on fine classification, which is of great significance for farmland utilization and rural revitalization in underdeveloped mountainous areas.     

低碳视角下环渤海地区海洋经济与生态环境协调性研究

海洋经济低碳化转型需要与生态环境协调发展.本文通过构建评价海洋经济与生态环境发展的指标体系,运用主成分分析和回归分析对环渤海地区的海洋经济与环境之间的协调性进行测度,并与长三角和珠三角地区进行横向比较.分析表明:环渤海地区的海洋经济与生态环境之间的协调等级为优质协调,珠三角地区和长三角地区呈现不同程度的失调,且长三角地区失调程度较严重.基于低碳化的视角提出促使海洋经济与生态环境协调发展的对策建议.     

Geographic disparities in rural land appreciation in a transforming economy: Chile, 1980 to 2007

This paper reports on a research effort to gather and analyze rural land value data during a period of unprecedented growth in Chilean agriculture. This information is important to understand the geographical distribution of gains associated with the transformation of the rural sector during a period of rapid development, trade liberalization and transition toward a predominant emphasis on export earnings in agriculture. A large set of data of rural land transactions for 1980, 1990, 1997 and 2007 were collected from a sample of land registry offices. Results show notable declines in the physical size of transactions, significant average annual rates of increase in real per-hectare values, and a small-parcel premium for rural land associated with non-farm land use. Overall real land values have increased faster than the average annual growth rates in the agricultural sector’s value added, suggesting that land owners have gained proportionately more than other claimants to sectoral income. Tests show significant geographic disparities in annual rates of land appreciation across regions and municipalities. Consistent with differential net gains due to integration into world markets and the geographic heterogeneity of suitability for different land uses, northern areas, with greater emphasis on export-oriented crops, have experienced the highest average rates of annual real per-hectare value growth, in the order of 7 percent, while southern areas, emphasizing traditional crops and pastures/livestock, have experienced growth rates of half that. Geographic disparities are also explained by proximity to urban population and income centers.     

水产品出口促进山东渔业经济增长的机制分析

论文利用出口依存度、贡献率和拉动度等统计方法,测算出近十年来山东水产品出口依存度超过30％,对渔业经济增长贡献率超过100％,年均拉动度近5％,结论表明水产品出口对山东渔业经济增长起着正向的拉动作用。根据研究结论并结合山东省渔业经济和水产品出口现状,这种拉动机制具体表现为,在渔业经济生产部门存在闲置资源的基础上,水产品出口通过需求扩大、规模经济和技术进步三条途径来实现对渔业经济的拉动。     

发展渔业循环经济促进台州渔业可持续发展

本文指出了台州渔业经济在环境、捕捞强度等因素的影响下,渔业发展面临的问题和困境,并探讨了发展渔业循环经济的具体措施加强捕捞业的管理;加快生态养殖业的发展;深度开发水产品加工业,提高原材料的利用;积极发展节约型、节能型渔业;加快人工鱼礁建设、开展人工增殖放流.     

Trade liberalization in the bio‐economy: coping with a new landscape

Multilateral trade liberalization has made little progress over the last period, but preferential agreements have multiplied. Recent economic literature helps understand the current negotiation game. New economic and political conditions, in particular the gaining influence of emerging countries, make a multilateral agreement more difficult. Developed countries have given up many of their bargaining chips in previous rounds of negotiation and their remaining agricultural tariffs are not sufficient for extracting the concessions from emerging countries on services, procurement, and intellectual property that would make an agreement possible. The risk of a more fragmented world calls for a revised negotiation agenda and a change in the status of developing countries. Research issues are outlined in order to help revitalize the Doha negotiation agenda.     

激励农户持续有效参与退耕还林工程的机制创新分析

通过剖析当前退耕还林工程农户参与程度状况,指出了农户参与层次和参与深度有待提升;进而提出了一套激励农户参与的机制创新体系,包括可持续的农户自我发展机制、参与式的工程运行机制和公平有效的配套保障机制,并重点分析了多元补偿激励机制、林权安全保障机制、退耕生态林国家收购机制等政府配套保障机制。     

A trait-based model of the potential demand for a genetically engineered food crop in a developing economy

We predict the potential demand of smallholder farmers for genetically transformed varieties of a food crop, the cooking banana of the East African highlands. Farmer demand for planting material is derived in an agricultural household model that accounts for variety traits and missing markets. The demand for candidate host varieties is predicted using a Zero‐Inflated Poisson (ZIP) regression system. The fitted model is used to illustrate the sensitivity of farmer demand for improved planting material to (a) investments in research and development, represented by the effectiveness of gene insertion and expression, and (b) other public investments in education, extension, and market infrastructure that support diffusion. By comparing the characteristics of agricultural households we demonstrate that the choice of host variety can have social consequences, favoring one rural population compared with another. Clients for transgenic banana planting material are likely to be poorer, subsistence‐oriented farmers in areas greatly affected by biotic constraints. A model of this type might be useful in assessing the investments needed to support the systematic dissemination of improved planting material. The approach can be generalized to other crop biotechnologies for smallholder farming systems, particularly in developing economies.     

海岛经济可持续发展模式探究——以浙江省六横岛经济建设为例

随着《海岛保护法》的颁布实施、第一批开发利用无居民海岛名录的发布,全国掀起了海岛开发热潮,越来越多的人关注海岛、探秘海岛,争当“岛主”。但是海岛开发是一项系统工程,除“天时、地利、人和”外,还需科学的发展思路和全方位的基础保障,唯有此,才能实现开发与保护并举。文章通过六横岛建设的成功经验与存在问题两方面进行分析,对我国海岛开发提出对策建议,以其在我国海岛开发的新一轮热潮中为各沿海地方海岛开发政策、规划制定提供一些启示,以促进海岛合理开发,实现海岛经济的又好又快发展。     

黄山市重点小流域水土保持综合治理成效

针对黄山市水土流失严重以及由此产生的一系列社会经济问题，提出退耕还林等一系列水土保持综合治理措施，有效地控制了水土流失，恢复了生态环境，减轻了自然灾害。     

生产要素演进规律及其对我国农村经济发展的启示

解决"三农"问题需要依靠什么作为根本动力?这是研究"三农"问题必须首先回答的问题。本文以生产要素理论为基础,从经济发展的纵向视角,对不同经济发展阶段主导生产要素演进规律进行了研究。发现:主导生产要素在不同的经济发展阶段发生着演进,其演进的实质是人力资本结构的演进。现在经济发展背景下,人力资本是农村经济发展的核心要素,构建农村人力资本积累机制,制定以增加农村人力资本存量为核心的农村经济发展政策,是解决"三农"问题长远性的根本措施。     

明确任务突出重点狠抓落实努力推进兵团经济社会又好又快发展

本文主要就兵团2006年的发展和改革工作进行了回顾，并分析了2007年兵团经济社会发展面临的环境和总体要求，进而提出了2007年兵团发展改革工作的主要任务和具体措施。     

Going beyond landscape change description: Quantifying the importance of driving forces of landscape change in a Central Europe case study

Over the past decades, urban sprawl and agricultural intensification have enormously changed the traditional cultural landscape of the Swiss lowlands. This research aims to analyze the driving forces of urbanization, agricultural intensification, and greening in five municipalities of the periurban Limmat Valley, near Zurich, Switzerland. The main objectives of the paper are (1) to quantify the change in urbanization, agricultural intensification, and greening, (2) to determine the driving forces of landscape change, (3) to determine the relative importance of socioeconomic, political, cultural, technological, and natural/spatial driving forces, and (4) to establish from which administrative levels and spatial scales the most important driving forces originate. Changes for the periods 1930–1956, 1957–1976, and 1977–2000 are documented based on a comparison of cartographic maps. A list of 73 potentially relevant driving forces is established based on document analysis. Based on further document analysis and expert interviews, 52 of them were found to be relevant primary driving forces for the documented landscape changes. We found that in all three periods, urbanization was the most important process of change. Greening is steadily increasing in importance and surpassed agricultural intensification in the last period. Overall, as well as for urbanization, the economic driving forces, followed by political driving forces, are most important for landscape changes in all three periods. Cantonal driving forces are most important, followed by the national, local and international driving forces. By presenting an approach to quantify the contribution of major driving forces groups to landscape change this study contributes to method development in land change research.     

Family farmers' strategies to develop autonomy through agroecological and solidarity economy practices: The case of BioVida in the Ecuadorian Andes

Considering the global restructuring affecting agrarian landscapes, we build on the concept of autonomy proposed by van der Ploeg and colleagues (but extended and critically complemented) to analyse how family farmers can build this autonomy to face rural capitalist tendencies and maintain their activities and identity. We offer insights from a case study in the Ecuadorian Andes, the BioVida organization that is linked to agroecological and social and solidarity economy movements. Our findings show that family farming autonomy is not being achieved homogeneously for the whole household but must be analysed through an intersectional approach. Furthermore, there are simultaneous processes to achieve different degrees of autonomy and (inter-)dependency, which are co-constitutive along gender and age lines and are conditioned by structural constraints. Therefore, for our case study area, agribusiness and family farming processes and spaces seem to operate co-constitutively rather than antagonistically in practical terms. Agroecology-based achievements so far act as a localized buffer against adversity rather than an emancipative territorial project of autonomy.     

Comparing the Profitability of a Greenhouse to a Vertical Farm in Quebec

Rapidly growing demand for year‐round fresh food, regardless of the weather or climate, is driving demand for controlled environment agriculture systems. Sales from greenhouses (GHs) are growing at 8.8%, while sales from vertical farms (VFs) are growing at 30%. It is commonly believed in industry circles that a VF cannot economically compete with a GH, due to the high cost of powering artificial lighting. Nonetheless, researchers have yet to analyze the economics underlying a VF, let alone compare the profitability of a VF to that of a GH. This research gap is particularly relevant to Canada, as it is uniquely positioned to be a leader in the VF market. Below, we report the results of a detailed simulation of the profitability of growing lettuce in a VF and in a GH located near Quebec City. Surprisingly, we find that the costs to both equip and run the two facilities are very similar, while the gross profit is slightly higher for the VF.