From natural resources and environmental accounting to construction of indicators for sustainable development

Norway has a long history in trying to develop management tools for sustainable development. From the early development of natural resources accounts in the 1980s, through discussions of the usefulness of indices like “green GDP” to efforts of developing sustainable development indicators, experiences have been gained. The paper seeks to both describe the landscape and discussions associated with the key terms, and to communicate some lessons drawn from the Norwegian experiences. The conclusion focuses on the fact that whatever information is collected and organised to support the relevant decision-making processes, the final outcome should always be judged in terms of its impacts on policy processes. Thus, we issue a warning against large-scale development of information systems, without due regard to the final utilisation of the output.     

西北地区自然资源可持续开发的对策

西北地区已被列入21世纪中国经济发展的重点地区及资源接替区。本文主要针对西北地区自然资源富集、经济相对落后、生态环境脆弱等现状，提出西北地区自然资源可持续开发的对策。     

Theory and practice of value management and its innovation for natural resources from the perspective of sustainable development

The supreme obstacle for sustainable development of natural resources is the scarecity, bottleneck. So how to promote the sustainable utilizing and increase the using efficiency of natural resources is worth studying. This paper suggests that we should improve the model and means of evaluating method and value management based on th~ theory of natural resource compensation. This paper discusses the User Cost Method based on the microeeonomicaspect which can change the evaluating method for natural resources. From the perspective of value managemen model, we should use the User Cost Method to realize the linkage and integration of micro and macro eompensation for natural resources. Based on the evaluating and aecounting idea User Cost Method, this paper presents a theo. retical framework to harmonize and link micro and macro compensation for natural resources. At present, we should seek the new approach and method to manage natural resources, so can we realize the capitalization managemen focusing on the vahte management for natural resources.     

互补优势互利共赢--合理利用和开发非洲资源

中国与非洲国家虽然远隔千山万水,但中国人民和非洲人民之间自古以来就怀有深厚的情感,双方友好交往已有2000多年的历史。随着新中国的诞生和非洲国家相继独立,中非关系掀开了新的一页。自1956年中国与埃及首开中国与非洲国家建交纪录以来,中国先后与53个非洲国家中的51个国家建立了外交关系,目前同中国保持外交关系的非洲国家有46个。近50年来,中国与非洲的经济技术合作取得了卓有成效的发展,有力地支持     

Theory and practice of value management and its innovation natural resources from the perspective of sustainable development

The supreme obstacle for sustainable development of natural re,sources is the scarcity bottleneck.So how to promote the sustainable utili-ing and increase the using efficiency of natural resoures is worth studying.this paper suggests that we should improve the model and means of evaluating method and value management based on the theory of natural resource compensation.This paper discusses the User Cost Method based on the microeconomic aspect which can change the evaluating method for natural resources.From the perspective of value management model,we should use the User Cost Method to realize the linkage and integration (ifmicro and macro compensation for natural resources.Based on the evaluating and accounting idea of User Cost Method,this paper presents a theo retical framework to harmonize and link micro and macro compensation for natural resources.At present,we should seek the new approach and method to manage natural resources,so can we realize the capitalization management focusing on the vahte management for natural resources.     

Redistributive policies with heterogeneous social preferences of voters

There is growing evidence on the roles of fairness and other-regarding preferences as fundamental human motives. Call voters with fair preferences, as in Fehr and Schmidt (1999), fair-voters. By contrast, traditional political economy models are based on selfish-voters who derive utility solely from “own” payoff. In a general equilibrium model with endogenous labor supply, a mixture of fair and selfish voters choose optimal policy through majority voting. First, we show that majority voting produces a unique winner in pairwise contests over feasible policies (the Condorcet winner). Second, we show that a preference for greater fairness leads to greater redistribution. An increase in the number of fair voters can also lead to greater redistribution. Third, we show that in economies where the majority are selfish-voters, the decisive policy could be chosen by fair-voters, and vice versa. Fourth, while choosing labor supply, even fair voters behave exactly like selfish voters. We show how this apparently inconsistent behavior in different domains (voting and labor supply) can be rationalized within the model.     

给自然资源算笔账

我们平常所说的宝贵的大自然，在某种意义上，其宝贵程度是可以“计算”的。在经济学家和环境科学家眼中，一项自然资源所提供的产品和服务的价值是很多方面的。比如，一大片淡水或咸水湿地所提供的服务是这样计算的：许多鱼类在湿地中产卵，小鱼在那里度过生命的开始阶段，全世界每年捕鱼量为1亿吨，价值500亿到1000亿美元。湿地可能会有助于生产这种利润十分丰厚的产品。但是，一个湿地为全球捕鱼量所做的贡献可不只是这些。仅美国的淡水消遣性垂钓业的鱼类价值就高达160亿美元，另外还有460亿美元由该行业的相关雇员产生。因此，除了为你…     

The cost of natural capital consumption: Accounting for a sustainable world economy

The System for integrated Environmental and Economic Accounting (SEEA) has been criticized in this journal for ignoring the benefits of ecosystem services for human well-being. This paper argues that extended national accounts should not attempt measuring economic welfare. Rather, they could and should assess the environmental sustainability of economic activity as the cost of natural capital consumption. The global application of SEEA concepts and methods demonstrates the feasibility of international green accounting. For the world economy, sustainability costs run to about 3 trillion US$ or 6% of world GDP. Large variations at national and regional levels suggest that conventional economic indicators may significantly overstate economic progress in some parts of the world. Data gaps and lack of data comparability affect these first estimates. National and international statistical services should be more aggressive in greening the national accounts. More prudent and more sustainable economic policies might be the result.     

Soviet methodology for the valuation of natural resources

The article discusses recent changes in the methodology for valuing natural-resource products and resource deposits in the Soviet Union and discusses the probable efficiency consequences of the changes. It concludes that improved methods for monitoring and policing stock draw-down and the imposition of efficiency rents are equally important as potential sources of improved use of natural-resource stocks.     

Incentives,regulations, and sustainable land use in Costa Rica

Deforestation in Costa Rica has proceeded at a rapid pace. Of the remaining 2,700 km² of virgin forests on privately-owned land, over 300 km² are being deforested each year. Pressure on National Parks, which cover about 27 percent of Costa Rica is likely to increase in the future. Preliminary information indicates that, contrary to our expectations, most of the deforestation at present is not being done by squatters, but driven by profit and asset maximization motives of the timber industry, banana companies, and large cattle ranchers. Setting aside 27 percent of the country's land as parks and reserves was a major policy decision. Aside from the removal of some perverse incentives operating inside park areas, the main issue there is one of sound management, including protection from intruders, strengthening enforcement, and controlled tourism. On the remaining primary and secondary forest areas on privately-owned land outside the parks, a key question is whether public interests connected with external costs of deforestation warrant public intervention. The paper suggests that a differentiated approach to this and other questions is needed, depending on the costs and benefits involved, and it discusses incentives and regulations which influence land use, and makes proposals for reforms.     

Demographic pressure and natural resources conservation

A field survey was carried out in the villages of Nlobesse'e at the Western periphery of the Dja Biosphere Reserve, South Cameroon, to evaluate the various effects that the increase in the local populations exert on the conservation of the natural resources of the reserve. Survey results show that the population was increasing rapidly at 40.00/00 per annum, with 61.54% of the total inhabitants originating from other parts of the country. Despite the rapid population growth, the population of the Kaka and Baka ethnic groups also known as the pigmies who have been noted by ECOFAC (Ecosystème Forestière d'Afrique Centrale) for having a marked negative impact on the conservation of the natural resources (because they depend mostly on the natural resources of the reserve for their livelihood and practice very little or no agriculture) were decreasing at a rate of 6.2%. Probably they sought better hunting, gathering and collecting conditions elsewhere in the reserve. Animal proteins originating from the reserve provide most of the animal proteins consumed by the households and the entire population of Nlobesse'e demands 44.4 kg of “bush meat” per day. It was also noted that the local population practiced very little agriculture in the reserve. Hunting and fishing, activities that have been noted for having a negative influence on the conservation of biodiversity contributed 15.2% and 11.2%, respectively, of the total income of the households. Other sources of income included: wages earned from the agro-plantation that contributed 40.3%, farming 24.2%, commerce 3% and others 4.58%. Merchant middlemen also referred to as “buyam sellam” and individuals with no commercial interest were the two main relay agents responsible for transporting natural resources out of Nlobesse'e. It would have been expected that the increasing population combined to the high incidence of poverty in the region (per capita income of 225 FCFA or $0.3 per day) would have exerted a high sustainability pressure on the conservation of reserve resources. However, this was not the case because of an agro-plantation in the area that provided the local population with the necessary income to buy foodstuff and other needed resources from far away areas. To maintain this trend, it is recommended that other sources of income such as the creation of small-scale enterprises and ecotourism should be encouraged in and around biospheres reserves.     

Integrated water resources management： for： sustainable development of in western rural China

Management in water resources development of Jinghe watershed of western t：ural China is examined with Participatory Rural Appraisal method -- a rare applied method in China and questionnaire survey of stakeholders Combination of these two survey methods derives good restlts as it coutd avoid personal bias in identifying and ranking the issues on a concrete bas＇is in following up households＇ survey. Statistic Package for Social Sciences gSPSS） was used for data analysis. Results indicate that since the early 1980s, issues of water scarcity, river pollution, soil erosion, insufficient participation of stakeholders in water resources use and management, as well as centralized water planning and management system have created difficulties for Sustainable development of the watershed. The stakeholders and local governments are fully aware of the challenges and are committed to achieving a solution through integrated water resource management （IWRD）. The concept anti the application of IWRD for rural China are reviewed and analyzed, and a fram cessful implementatio involvement and capacity building in water sector, which heed to fully, integrate various management functions within the watershed.     

Search, migration, and urban land use: The case of transportation policies

We develop a search-matching model with rural-urban migration and an explicit land market. Wages, job creation, urban housing prices are endogenous and we characterize the steady-state equilibrium. We then consider three different policies: a transportation policy that improves the public transport system in the city, an entry-cost policy that encourages investment in the city and a restricting-migration policy that imposes some costs on migrants. We show that all these policies can increase urban employment but the transportation policy has much more drastic effects. This is because a decrease in commuting costs has both a direct positive effect on land rents, which discourages migrants to move to the city, and a direct negative effect on urban wages, which reduces job creation and thus migration. When these two effects are combined with search frictions, the interactions between the land and the labor markets have amplifying positive effects on urban employment. Thus, improving the transport infrastructure in cities can increase urban employment despite the induced migration from rural areas.     

自然资源价值核算浅析

长期以来人们一直认为自然资源没有价值,所以93年以前的SNA体系没有把自然资源和环境核算包括在内。但是随着环境恶化和自然资源越来越稀缺,自然资源无价值的观点无法继续立足。本文首先就自然资源的价值观进行了讨论,然后阐述了自然资源价值论的理论依据,即劳动价值论,最后讨论了自然资源的估价方法。     

Further development and sustainable utilization mode of grassland tourism resources: a case study of Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, China

Tourism resources are important foundation for the development of tourism industry. Grassland is not only a kind of important resource but also a great attraction to visitors. Therefore, the integrated development and sustainable utilization of grassland tourism resources are of great significance. This paper, based on the analysis of literatures and the current problems existing in grassland tourism, summarizes the speciality of grassland tourism development, deals with the problem of speciality, and raises the modes of regional development, product development and management. This paper takes Inner Mongolia, the famous grassland tourism destination as example and carries out empirical research. Based on the status quo of grassland tourism resources in Inner Mongolia, this study analyzes the character- istics of grassland tourism resources, the necessity and feasibility of integrated development, then proposes the following suggestions: idea for development, mode of development, regional cooperation, tourism products development, espe- cially the three modes of development based on the resources conditions - the mode of relying on market, the mode of combination aggregation and the mode of relying on quality.     

Economic principles and fundamental model of the sustainable utilization of ecological resources

1. Introduction The mainstream of present economy is the green eco-economy, including green products, green production, green consumption, green market, green industry, and so on. These are the concrete demands of sustainable development for economic life. With the development of economy, society and science and technology and the increase of the population, the abundant ecological resources become more and more scarce [1]. So the quantity and quality of eco- logical resources can’t increasin…     

Further development and sustainable utilization mode of grassland tourism resources： a ease study of Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, China

Tourism resources are important foundation for the development of tourism industry.Grassland is not only a kind of important resource but also a great attraction to visitors.Therefore,the integrated development and sustainable utilization of grassland tourism resources are of great significance.This paper,based on the analysis of literatures and the current problems existing in grassland tourism,summarizes the speciality of grassland tourism development,deals nation as example and carries out empirical research.Based on the status quo of grassland tourism resources in Inner Mongolia,this study analyzes the characteristics of grassland tourism resources,the necessity and feasibility of integrated development,then proposes the following suggestions： idea for development,mode of development,regional cooperation,tourism products development,especially the three modes of development based on the resources conditions - the mode of relying on market,the mode of combination aggregation and the mode of relying on quality.     

浅谈民营企业资源经营与可持续发展

民营企业一般都要经过漫长、痛苦的原始资本积累,才逐渐发展起来,而且其经济实力普遍弱小,金融部门不太可能给予大量的信贷支持,在政策方面比较受限制,很多重点行业,政府将资源都配置给国有企业,民营企业得不到平等的对待,甚至受到限制。同时,由于民营企业自身实力问题,也不大可能承受大额资金的长期占用,其抗风险能力相对很小,因此,对民营企业而言,资源显得尤为重要。民营企业应该很好地发挥自身的优势和特点,比如经营机制灵活,决策速度快,创新强、贴近市场,能够及时地对环境做出反应,它可以抓住一些未被国有企业注意或者重视的机会,获得优势资源;同时组织结构扁平化,工作流程简洁,完成同样的任务,投入成本上具备很大的竞争优势。抓住资源的获取、培育、整合、利用环节,促进企业持续不断的发展。