江苏省相对资源承载力与可持续发展问题研究

本文采用相对资源承载力的研究思路和计算方法，计算分析了1978-1995年江苏省相对土地资源承载力，相对经济资源承载力和综合承载力及其演化过程。研究表明：①江苏省的经济资源对综合承载力的贡献大于土地资源，是江苏省人口的主要承载资源。②从1982年开始，江苏省的综合承载力超过实际人口数量，进入相对富余状态；③相对资源承载力的地区差异较明显，南部地区处于富余状态，而北部地区处于超载状态；④相对土地资源承载力与相对经济资源承载力的不协调发展是江苏省可持续发展战略中需要重点解决的问题。     

南通市相对资源承载力与可持续发展研究

以南通市为例,采用相对资源承载力的研究思路和计算方法,计算分析了南通市1978～2004年相对土地资源承载力、相对经济资源承载力和综合承载力的发展演化过程;研究表明:①以全国为参考区域时,南通市经济资源承载力始终处于富余状态,土地资源承载力则始终处于超载状态,而综合承载力存在由超载变富余的趋势;②以江苏省为参考区域时,南通市经济资源承载力、土地资源承载力以及综合承载力均处于超载状态;③以长江三角洲地区为参考区域,南通市土地资源承载力、综合承载力富余,而经济资源承载力处于超载状态;指出转变资源的管理方式,促进经济建设与资源环境的和谐发展是南通市实现可持续发展的必由之路。     

湖北省相对资源承载力与可持续发展问题研究

采用相对资源承载力的研究思路与计算方法,分别计算出1995～2004年间湖北省自然资源、经济资源的相对承载力和综合承载力,并分析了其动态变化过程;①湖北省人口承载力一直处于超载状态,经济资源成为湖北省的主要承载资源;②相对土地资源承载力与相对经济资源承载力的不协调发展是湖北省在可持续发展战略中急需解决的问题;③湖北省内发展存在着较明显的区域差异,有效协调省内区际关系保证整体可持续发展是湖北省亟待解决的难题。     

榆林市相对资源承载力与可持续发展研究

以全国和陕西省为参照区域,计算了1997-2004年榆林市相对自然资源承载力（包括相对土地资源承载力和相对水资源承载力）和相对经济资源承载力,分析结果表明,无论是相对于全国还是陕西省,榆林市相对自然资源承载力都处于略微富余的状态,自然资源在综合承载力的构成中占有非常大的比重;榆林市相对经济资源承载力都处于严重超载状态,且对综合承载力的贡献严重不足;榆林市综合承载力都处于超载状态,说明榆林市社会经济发展处于不可持续状态;对榆林市可持续发展问题进行了原因分析并提出了几点建议。     

武汉城市圈相对资源承载力分析

采用相对资源承载力的研究思路和计算方法,计算了武汉城市圈九个地区的相对资自然资源承载力,相对经济资源承载力和综合承载力,并分析其区域差异。结果表明:(1)以全国为参照区,城市圈总体资源承载力处于超载状态;(2)以湖北省为参照区,城市圈9个地区资源承载力处于超载的地区明显多于富余的地区,且存在很大的区域差异,其中武汉市综合承载力富余度最大,黄冈市资源承载力超载最严重。因此协调区域自然与经济资源的分配与利用,提高整体的资源承载力水平是武汉城市圈和谐快速发展的难题与关键。     

从相对承载力视角看湖北省水资源可持续利用

采用相对资源承载力的研究思路与方法,研究了湖北省2000～2007年相对水资源承载力、相对经济资源承载力和综合承载力的情况及其变化过程。结果表明:与全国平均水平相比,湖北省相对资源承载力处于超载状态;与中部其他5省相比,除湖南省外,湖北省相对资源承载力处于富余状态;湖北省的水资源对综合承载力的贡献率高于经济资源对综合承载力的贡献率,是湖北省人口的主要承载资源;与湖北省的平均水平相比,湖北省17市(州)相对资源承载力的地区差异较为明显。建议采取综合措施,促进湖北省水资源的可持续利用。     

东北地区相对资源承载力演化过程分析

运用相对资源承载力的研究思路和计算方法,选取传统的三次产业,分别以全国、东部地区和西部地区作为参照区,计算并分析了东北地区1980-2008年三次产业的相对资源承载力及其演化过程.研究表明,无论是相对于全国、东部地区还是西部地区,东北地区第一产业资源承载力均处于富余状态,表明第一产业是支撑东北地区人口发展的主要产业;相对于东部地区,东北地区第二、第三产业资源承载力均超载,表明第二、三产业发展水平与东部地区有较大差距;与西部地区相比,东北地区三次产业资源承载力和综合承载力均有较大富余,表明东北地区仍有很大发展优势.未来东北地区应着力优化经济结构,向集约化、现代化及可持续方向发展.     

山东省相对资源承载力与可持续发展

采用相对资源承载力的方法,分析了山东省1978～1998年相对土地资源承载力、相对经济资源承载力和综合承载力及其变化过程,表明,山东人口承载力处于富余状态,经济资源成为山东主要承载资源;1982年以后,山东省的综合承载人口超过实际人口数量,进入相对富余状态。     

惠州市相对水资源承载力研究

采用相对资源承载力的研究思路和方法,计算1980-2002年惠州市相对水资源承载力、经济资源承载力和综合承载力及其变化过程。研究表明：与全国和广东省的区域对比,惠州市相对资源承载力都处于富余状态,而与珠江三角洲地区相比则处于超载状态,除1993年外,惠州市相对水资源承载力和经济资源承载力保持了较协调的发展,水资源还有较大的承载潜力。     

黄河三角洲高效生态经济区土地资源承载力研究

在分析地区土地资源特点的基础上,从耕地保障能力、生活空间、经济和生态承载力等方面建立起评价区评价指标体系,并采用层次分析法确定指标权重,对黄河三角洲高效生态经济区土地资源承载力进行了研究。结论表明,评价区土地资源承载力整体较强,寒亭区、昌邑县和博兴县承载能力相对较弱,在单项评价中,土地承载能力整体较弱。通过单项评价和综合评价,掌握了地区土地资源的承载能力以及土地利用的特点,最后根据评价结果对土地开发提供一些建议。     

Price transmission between products at different stages of manufacturing in forest industries

The theory of demand and supply implies a positive relationship, or “price transmission” between the prices of products at different stages of manufacturing. This relationship was investigated with quarterly prices of softwood stumpage in the US South, and national prices of forest products, from 1977 to 2002. All prices, net of inflation, were found to be nonstationary and there was no evidence of co-integration between prices. Vector autogressive models, augmented by Granger causality tests and multiplier analysis showed that there was a one-to-one permanent positive response of the southern sawtimber stumpage price to a permanent change in the national lumber price. There was also a one-third permanent positive response of the national paper price to a permanent change in the national pulp price. There was no relation between regional pulpwood prices and national pulp or paper prices. When price transmission was significant, the full adjustment took about 2 years.     

Application of an ecosystem function framework to perceptions of community woodlands

Owners, local residents, government, and conservation organisations can express divergent preferences in the development and management of local woodlands. The perceptions of these four groups were examined, in the context of three community woodlands in Eastern England, using an ecosystem function framework. In a pilot study, residents were able to allocate a relative importance to woodland ecosystem services which were then related to “regulation”, “habitat”, and “production” or “information” functions. However residents also placed importance on negative services or “dis-services” associated with the woodland ecosystem. Therefore a fifth category of “dis-services” was included in the main survey which included 84 local residents, three woodland owners, three government institutions, and six representatives from conservation groups. Each of the four groups placed greatest importance on services associated with habitat (16–39% of the total importance) and information (30–50%) functions suggesting, in this example, mutual interest in the use of woodlands as a habitat or recreational resource. By contrast a potential area of difference was the particularly high importance placed by one owner on dis-services such as fly tipping. In addition the woodland owners placed higher importance (10–20%), than local residents and conservation groups (7–9%), on the productive services of the wood. This suggests a need for communication when production-related operations affect recreation. The ecosystem function framework appears to be a useful approach for highlighting potential tensions and areas of mutual interest in the management of semi-natural ecosystems.     

In Vino ‘No’ Veritas: impacts of fraud on wine imports in China

China is one of the largest wine importing countries in the world and is poised for continued import growth in the future. Increased wine purchases throughout China have given rise to persistent fraud where fake wines are packaged and sold with counterfeit contents and labels. For exporting countries like France, counterfeit wines displace market share, damage foreign brand reputation, and cause distrust in consumers who are aware of counterfeiting problems throughout the country. We examine the impact of fraudulent wine events (as measured by negative media reports) on Chinese wine demand differentiated by supplying country. We employ the Rotterdam demand system and a switching regression procedure to estimate import demand and compare results across different media variable specifications. Results consistently show that negative reports disproportionately affect French wine regardless of how the media variable is specified. This is not surprising because most fraudulent events involve French wine counterfeits.     

An evaluation framework for earthquake-responsive land administration

In recent years earthquakes and their secondary hazards have claimed the largest number of lives of all large natural disasters. Some of the world’s most earthquake-prone zones are also areas of high population density. The impact is magnified by vulnerability factors including non-enforcement of building codes, knowledge gaps, urban poverty and poor governance capacity to manage and reduce earthquake risks. Poor security of land tenure and property rights increases the vulnerability of people and affects their ability to respond to natural disasters.Earthquake recovery and reconstruction provides very significant challenges for land agencies, with these challenges differing from one country to the next due to differences in the local context. Drawing on contrasting case studies in Haiti, Nepal and New Zealand this paper identifies the common post-earthquake land administration functions and challenges that may apply to many contexts. These lessons provide land agencies and other key stakeholders with a summary of the challenges an earthquake poses for land administration at different post-disaster stages. We also discuss the policy and regulatory, institutional, operational and preparedness lessons for land administration. From these lessons we propose a framework for evaluating the earthquake-responsiveness of a land administration system. This framework can be used by a land agency in an earthquake prone region, or where an earthquake has recently occurred, to assess what challenges to land administration might occur in the event of an earthquake, and the preparedness of their land administration system.     

Agrarian Poverty,Nutrition and Economic Class – A Study of Gujarat,India

This paper analyses poverty and calorific undernourishment in the Indian state of Gujarat, where high and market‐led industrial growth has resulted in rapid economic improvement. The study is carried out through a combination of secondary and survey‐based data. We conclude that the neoliberal agenda of uncontrolled, outward‐looking growth has not resulted in significant reduction of poverty or malnourishment in rural areas. Furthermore, while land ownership is officially used as a proxy for wealth distribution, class position appears a better predictor of poverty status in the rural areas than landownership per se. At the policy level, there is a need to revive the agrarian economy and create new non‐agricultural assets, and the primary focus in the state must shift to the distribution of created assets rather than a single‐minded focus on growth.     

Does sustainable agricultural growth require a system of innovation? Evidence from Ghana and Burkina Faso

This paper tests the ‘systems of innovation’ hypothesis for a selection of crops in Ghana and Burkina Faso that have shown significant growth in production over an approximately 20-year period. The question is whether such growth can only occur if supported by a system of innovation. Using two indicators (a common understanding on objectives and priorities, and a high level of interactivity), we find little evidence for the existence of anything that might be considered a high functioning system of innovation.     

Local impacts of industrial tree plantations: An empirical analysis in Indonesia across plantation types

The values ascribed to industrial tree plantations are often controversial. Hence knowledge of their perceived impacts is important for improving their integration in rural landscapes. In 2016 we conducted household surveys with 606 respondents living in villages adjacent to acacia, teak and pine plantations across three islands in Indonesia (Java, Borneo, Sumatra). Results show that perceptions toward pine and teak plantations tend to differ from those toward acacia pulpwood plantations in several ways. Pine and teak plantations are perceived to have a higher number and variety of benefits and services, a higher number of positive impacts, a better environmental record, and to present more opportunities to local people for use of plantation land and products for improving rural livelihoods. In addition, we find that villagers around acacia pulpwood plantations tend to seek economic development and infrastructure to open up remote areas, yet their expectations were often only partially met. Recommendations from our analysis include: the role of the State in plantations must be clarified and potentially reinforced; the role of institutions as intermediaries is fundamental; and contributions by communities to design of management plans should be accommodated.     

Upstream demand for water use by new tree plantations imposes externalities on downstream irrigated agriculture and wetlands*

Large‐scale tree plantations in high rainfall upstream areas can reduce fresh water inflows to river systems, thereby imposing external costs on downstream irrigation, stock and domestic water users and wetland interests. We take the novel approach of expressing all benefits and costs of establishing plantations in terms of $ per gigalitre (GL) of water removed annually from river flows, setting upstream demands on the same basis as downstream demands. For the Macquarie Valley, a New South Wales sub‐catchment of Australia’s Murray‐Darling Basin, we project changes in land and water use and changes in economic surpluses under two policy settings: without and with a policy requiring permanent water entitlements to be purchased from downstream parties, before plantation establishment. Without the policy, and given a high stumpage value for trees ($70/m³), upstream gains in economic surplus projected from expanding plantations are $639 million; balanced against $233 million in economic losses by downstream irrigators and stock and domestic water users for a net gain of $406 million, but 345 GL lower mean annual environmental flows. With the policy, smaller gains in upstream economic surplus from trees ($192 million), added to net downstream gains ($138 million) from sale of water, result in gains of $330 million with no reduction in environmental flows. Sustaining the 345 GL flow for a $76 million (406–330) reduction in gains to economic surplus may be seen to cost only $0.22 million/GL; but this is much lower than the market value of the first units of that water to agriculture and forestry.     

Underpayment of Small Producers of Coffee and Cocoa in Sierra Leone

Fieldwork shows that many Sierra Leonean producers do not receive the official producer price for their coffee and cocoa, due to the concentration of buying stations, credit relations, the small quantities offered for sale, and the lack of marketing knowledge of the numerous and unorganized farmers. To the traders underpayment may seem economically justifiable to a certain extent, but to the farmers it means poverty and debt. A new village marketing centre project aims at remedying this situation and has already led to higher prices. Although no longer allowed to take their "just" share from the producers, traders are still willing to deal with the new centres.     

Malaria incidence and agricultural efficiency in Uganda

The cost of accessing healthcare can be a major determinant of disease prevalence, which in turn has short‐ and long‐term welfare implications on poor households. In response, governments in developing countries often resort to subsidizing the cost of drugs, which, while perhaps easier to administer, may not always be the most effective way of addressing healthcare cost. In this regard, we analyze the impact of different types of household level health expenses on disease incidence and agricultural production efficiency. We use data from the 2006 Uganda National Household Survey, which covered approximately 7,400 households. The results suggest that a 10% increase in consultation, medicine, and hospitalization expenses would reduce malaria incidence respectively by 35.6%, 20.5%, and 21.3 %, which translates into a 1.1%, 0.6%, and 0.6 % decrease in agricultural inefficiency, respectively. The results indicate that helping poor households meet expenses for consultation through subsidies or eliminating consultation fees has a larger impact on malaria incidence and agricultural productivity among poor rural households than subsidizing the cost of medical drugs, the most common avenue chosen by developing country governments in the fight against the disease.