Methods and tools for integrated assessment of land use policies on sustainable development in developing countries

For stimulating sustainable development in developing countries, land use patterns and land use changes are considered critical, and therefore effective and efficient land use policies are needed. In this paper we present a methodological framework that has been developed in a joint European and developing countries project (LUPIS – Land Use Policies and Sustainable Development in Developing Countries), to assess the impact of land use policies on sustainable development in developing countries. An illustrative application is presented for a case study in China, where water pollution due to agriculture in Taihu Basin is a major problem.     

Impact of national policies on patterns of built-up development: an assessment over three decades

Globally, built-up development is taking place at unprecedented rates. To mitigate and limit its effects, recent scientific and spatial planning communities call for built-up management to be addressed on broader scales, from regional to national, and coordinated with multiple policy domains. In this paper, we aimed to analyze the evolution and impact of Romania’s national policies on built-up management during the entire period from the fall of the communist regime to the present. The new perspective offered by our study concerns the use of spatiotemporal built-up development assessment with policy analysis and visualization. Moreover, policies and built-up land changes are addressed in direct relationship with major political events and global economic influences. Our findings reveal that policies were influenced by the communist legacy, accession to the EU and the global economic crisis. Most effective were the policies adopted during the pre-EU accession period and after the economic crisis. The strongest impact on patterns of development came from policies in the domains of transportation, regional development, public administration and the environment.     

森林可持续经营方案编制和数据库建设国际经验——瑞典、立陶宛、德国考察报告

介绍了瑞典、立陶宛、德国在森林经营方案的编制、实施和数据库建设等方面的经验和做法。其管理科学、多元发展、体制顺畅、机制完善等经验值得我们借鉴。同时对我国森林资源经营方案的制定提出相关建议。     

Technology,market policies and institutional reform for sustainable land use in southern Mali

To identify appropriate interventions that support sustainable land use; a farm household modelling approach is applied to analyze micro-economic supply reactions to various policy measures. The modelling framework links agro-technical and economic data, and takes both production and consumption decisions into account, allowing land use and production technology adjustments in accordance with farm household objectives. Different types of farm households are distinguished on the basis of their resource endowments, savings coefficients and time discount rate. Actual and alternative (sustainable) cropping and livestock activities for different weather regimes are defined for southern Mali. The effects on sustainable land use and expected farm household welfare of adopting alternative technologies and modifying prices, transaction costs, access to credit and land taxes are demonstrated. Even with full information on sustainable technologies, strong policy interventions are required to halt soil degradation. Structural policies proved to be more effective than price policies to reduce soil degradation while maintaining positive income effects. When prices are determined endogenously, structural policy loses some effectiveness as an incentive for sustainable land use due to the effect of additional supply on local cereal and meat Prices.     

草畜平衡管理与草地资源可持续利用

结合目前载畜量管理的理论发展和我国国情，指出目前实行的草畜平衡管理并不能抑制超载过牧和控制对草地资源的过度利用，所以建议草畜平衡管理由饲草量和牲畜数量之间平衡的管理改变为以草地生态系统的质量变化为主要依据的生态系统管理。     

Subsistence and semi‐subsistence farming in selected EU new member states

Factor analysis and cluster analysis are used to analyze the attitudes and perceptions of agricultural households toward farming, commercialization, and barriers to and drivers for increased integration in agricultural markets. Data come from farms in five EU New Member States. The contribution of unsold output to total household income is valued. Stepwise linear regression is employed to detect variables useful in explaining the degree of agricultural market integration of farm households. The analysis indicates that subsistence farming is of utmost importance for the rural poor, particularly in Bulgaria and Romania. The proportion of consumption from own production, manual cultivation techniques, and distance to an urban center are negatively correlated with output sales. Rural development policies targeted at rural physical and market infrastructure might relieve some of these constraints.     

An assessment of the policies and practices of selective logging and timber utilisation: A case study from natural forests of Tarai Nepal and Queensland Australia

Selective logging (SL) contributes nearly 15 percent of the global timber needs. Considering its role in sustainable timber production, biodiversity conservation and forest carbon enhancement, assessment of SL policies and practices is crucial. This paper assesses the policies and practices of SL in natural production forests of the Tarai region of Nepal and Queensland Australia to explore the key differences in such policies and practices and their possible implications in achieving sustainable forest management objectives. The primary methods applied in the study were review and synthesis of key policy documents and qualitative analysis of the information gathered from key informant interviews and stakeholders’ workshop. Altogether, 53 respondents from a wide range of stakeholder groups (government organizations-15, non-government organizations/networks-15, private sector including the individual landowners-13, local political leaders-3 and independent forest experts/scientists-7) were consulted. Findings suggest that: (1) frequent and inconsistent changes in policy provisions, lengthy administrative procedures and heavy engagement of state forest agencies in forest product harvesting and sales processes play key roles in sub-optimal forest production in Nepal, whereas lower dependency on forest-products, higher labour costs, lack of species-wise royalty rate and flexibility in selecting optional logs are the key factors for increased wastages of forest products in Queensland; (2) recovery and utilisation of the harvested forest product is better in Nepal but policy and practical considerations on biodiversity and environment are better in Queensland; and (3) Forest harvesting specific codes of practice, occupational health and safety standards, and their compliance mechanism of Queensland could be beneficial for Nepal to minimise operational harvesting risks and to attract professional harvesters that support promoting sustainable use and management of natural forests, as we found this aspect almost neglected in Nepal.     

Toward the sustainable development of urban areas: An overview of global trends in trials and policies

Achieving sustainable urban development (SUD) remains one of the most important goals for many countries. Numerous nations have made attempts to attain sustainable development (SD) by fixing one or more of the problems facing urban development, which has resulted in various approaches to SUD. However, a main issue that could help decision-makers deal effectively with SD needs to be emphasized.This study covers 10 topics that have recently become highly relevant to SUD:(1) A balanced approach to SUD, (2) Socio-cultural awareness, (3) Urban sprawl, (4) Economic urban development, (5) Transportation, (6) Urban renewal, (7) Mitigating greenhouse gases (GHG), (8) Urban vegetation, (9) Assessment systems, and (10) City structure and land use. The methodology is based on an overview of these themes via a critical reading of different publications, mostly from the last five years. This study classifies these topics both quantitatively and qualitatively in order to highlight hot-button issues at the domestic and international levels. The publications that were analyzed showed that Asian countries, especially China, are making changes towards SUD more than nations of other continents. The study concludes that transportation is the most prominent challenge in the field of SUD, followed by socio-cultural awareness. The concern of transportation and socio-cultural conscious issues can propel SUD forward and improve other problems related it.     

走向可持续城市生态系统管理的国土空间规划方法与实践——以烟台市为例

研究目的:探索走向可持续城市生态系统管理的城市国土空间规划编制方法和应用实践。研究方法:综合分析与实证分析方法,空间分析与大数据分析方法,综合评价与生境质量模型、生境风险评估模型结合方法等。研究结果:(1)明确了走向可持续城市生态系统管理的国土空间规划目标与编制方法,以及规划编制的空间边界;(2)构建了"底线约束—区域协同—多目标优化—空间管制—功能提升"的国土空间规划编制技术架构;(3)以烟台市为例,探索了走向可持续城市生态系统管理的国土空间规划方法应用与实践。研究结论:生态文明背景下的国土空间规划走向可持续城市生态系统管理成为必然,研究提出的国土空间规划方法和应用实践,可为市级国土空间规划编制提供新的思路与方法。     

中国沿海地区海岸带可持续发展的现状分析

本文简要概括了中国沿海区域范围内海岸带生态系统和沿海资源管理方法的现状。为今后海岸带可持续发展管理项目的实施提供一定的参考。全文由两大部分组成：第一部分是对海岸带的生态健康状况，人类发展、活动所带来的环境威胁以及其背后的驱动因素的描述。第二部分主要是分析问题后所提出的几点参考对策及方法。     

Integrating Aspects of Ecosystem Dimensions into Sorghum and Wheat Production Areas in Kinmen,Taiwan

Balancing conservation and development with ecosystem services is a popular topic for the sustainable development of agricultural land today. This study establishes an evaluation framework to explore the heterogeneous preferences of tourists and residents for the ecosystem functions of agricultural land in Kinmen, Taiwan. The results showed that respondents preferred to transform the current farming type into sustainable agriculture, increase species habitats, plan wheat and sorghum landscape areas, and combine ecotourism with local cultural activities. Tourists had a higher marginal willingness to pay for farmland conservation than residents. People who supported the conservation program of agricultural land in sorghum and wheat production areas tended to 1) be female, 2) be tourists, 3) have higher education, and 4) have higher monthly income. The results suggest that policymakers must improve ecosystem functions with agricultural ecosystem function support funds, consistent with the guaranteed-price purchase policy in the Kinmen sorghum and wheat areas, for sustainable development.     

Adoption of conservation agriculture in Europe: Lessons of the KASSA project

According to KASSA findings, conservation agriculture is less adopted in Europe compared to other adopting regions and, reduced tillage is more common than no-tillage and cover crops. Currently, it is not popularised and it is less researched. The lack of knowledge on conservation agriculture systems and their management and, the absence of dynamic and effective innovation systems make it difficult and socio-economically risky for European farmers to give up ploughing which is a paradigm rooted in their cultural backgrounds. In Norway and Germany the adoption of conservation agriculture has been encouraged and subsidised in order to mitigate soil erosion. In the other European countries the adoption process seems mainly driven by farmers and, the major driving force has been the cost reduction in machinery, fuel and labour saving. Soil and water conservation concerns did not appear as main drivers in the European farmers’ decision to shift or not to conservation agriculture.The shift of European farmers to conservation agriculture is being achieved through a step-by-step attitude, large scale farms are the most adopters. This adoption trend may grow in the future. Indeed, the need to improve farms’ competitiveness, the market globalization and the steady increase of fuel cost will likely contribute to arouse European farmers’ interest in conservation agriculture as it slashes significantly the production costs.Conservation agriculture is not equally suitable for all the European agroecosystems. The need of soil and water conservation in Europe requires anticipating the ongoing process in order to improve its ecological and socio-economic sustainability. Priority would be to define which regions in Europe are the most suitable for conservation agriculture taking into account climate and soil constraints, length of growing period, water availability and quality, erosion hazards and farming conditions. Policy favouring the use of soil cover and profitable crop rotations as management strategies for weed, pest and diseases control will certainly allow developing and disseminating efficient and acceptable conservation agriculture systems.     

森林经营与林业可持续发展

林业是为进行森林经营组织起来的 ,以进行木材、林产品生产和保护性资源经营而以后者为基础的基础产业和公益事业。林业发展必须以森林经营为基础 ,林业可持续发展的前提是森林的可持续经营 ,面对当前我国的林业形势和实际 ,要确立“生态林业”的发展思路 ,放开商品林经营 ,改革林政管理制度和税费制度 ,改革和完善法规体系     

An institutional evaluation of sustainable forest management in Flanders

The aim of this paper is to evaluate the existing Flemish institutional framework of sustainable forest management (SFM). The evaluation was performed using criteria and indicators that were based on the four-dimensional structure (discourse, rules, power and actors) of the policy arrangement approach. The data collection and analysis were done using a single representative case. The conclusions of the evaluation are mixed. The introduction of sustainable forest management is hampered by different perspectives on SFM and a fragmented network of many different owners with a clear asymmetrical distribution of trust and power. It is, however, enabled by the way that the most powerful and trusted actors in the network – the forest group and the forest service – have the same perspective on SFM perspective as the government. We expect that SFM can be achieved in the near future, although it remains a vulnerable situation.     

Causal chains,policy trade offs and sustainability: Analysing land (mis)use in seven countries in the South

The need to enhance sustainable development of land use is more urgent than ever; specifically in developing countries where poverty and land degradation are often interlinked. To promote a common understanding of land use problems by experts, stakeholders and decision makers, it is essential to understand the system characteristics, including the complex feedbacks between drivers and impacts. To enhance sustainable development, appropriate policies need to be identified. In this paper, we analysed and compared seven case studies in Kenya, Mali, Tunisia, China, India, Indonesia and Brazil, representing different biophysical and socio-economic conditions and challenges. We analysed Driver Pressure State Impact Response (DPSIR) story lines of the land use problems, policy priorities and value trade-offs as identified by stakeholders and experts in National Policy Forums. Important drivers of land use change impacting main land use problems among the case studies were economic growth, technological development, immigration and agricultural intensification, in addition to existing policies. Of the latter the most important were related to domestic support through various forms of subsidies or access to credit, land tenure polices and liberalization policies. In the policy prioritization, the value trade-offs made by the National Policy Forums emphasize the environment rather than increased economic production. It is recognized that the environment needs to be improved to maintain and improve economic production in the long term, both in agriculture and in other sectors.     

Green infrastructure and public policies: An international review of green roofs and green walls incentives

Worldwide, green infrastructure is increasingly used to mitigate the impacts of dense urban areas, contributing towards the naturalization of the built environment. However, for investors, these systems often emerge as requiring substantial upfront cost (high installation costs) and, depending on the solution, might also have significant maintenance costs. On the other hand, policymakers are placing green infrastructure on the agenda, as a solution to consider in urban planning and design. There is a mismatch between the economic/social/environmental value of green infrastructure and their financial analysis. As the quantified benefits of these solutions may not compensate the high implementation costs, discouraging building owners to invest in them. The alignment of both expectations, public and private agents, regarding the development of green infrastructure, is done through the use of incentives, with distinct configurations and nature, that promote and facilitate the adoption of green infrastructure by private investors. This research aims to identify and analyse the incentive policies used by several municipalities to promote the installation of green roofs and/or green walls. The data set includes 113 cities in 19 countries. The incentive policies were classified into six different categories: tax reductions, financing, construction permit, sustainability certification, obligations by law and agile administrative process. The results show that incentive policies are mainly concentrated in Europe and North America, and most incentive policies focus on the promotion of green roofs, as no exclusive incentive policies for the promotion of green walls were found. From all incentive policies studied, financial subsidies and obligations by law are the most used ways to promote green infrastructure worldwide.     

西部典型资源型城市矿产资源可持续发展能力评价及途径选择——以甘肃省白银市为例

本文在对资源型城市可持续发展问题的理论研究进行概述的基础上,以甘肃省白银市为例,从经济、资源、环境和智力四个维度,构建了一套白银市矿业特色的矿业可持续发展评价指标体系,运用主成分分析法对资源型城市的矿业可持续发展能力进行了实证分析,探讨了白银市矿产资源可持续发展的关键问题和发展思路。     

Blocking,attracting, imposing,and aligning: The utility of ASEAN forest and environmental regime policies for strong member states

International institutions, including ‘global regimes’ and ‘regional regimes’, address an increasing number of environmental issues. While in the past much attention was given to global regimes, a plethora of regional institutions and organizations (regional regimes) and their environmental policies have recently gained more momentum in political practice and attention in scholarship. The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) is one such regime, and is actively developing its own policies relating to (e.g.) forests and the environment. These policies necessarily have to be useful for the regime’s member states; however, we further argue, that within the member states the regime’s policies especially have to be useful for specific member states’ bureaucracies, because it is they who actually develop the policies on behalf of the member states. Further, this paper aims to analyse the utility of ASEAN’s forest and environmental policy for specific member states and their responsible bureaucracies. Our analytical framework builds on regional regime theory, bureaucratic politics, and concepts of actor’s utility and interests. It differentiates the utility of the regional regime policies into several functions: (i) blocking unpleasant international initiatives, (ii) attracting international political or financial support, (iii) imposing rules on other member states, and (iv) aligning the interests of member states against external political opponents. Our results indicate that ASEAN’s environmental and forest policies serve all four functions. For instance, through ASEAN structures, Indonesia is blocking strict CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) regulation of ramin wood to maintain existing ramin protections and business, and the ASEAN Biodiversity Centre is found to be instrumental in blocking ambitious claims towards biodiversity from international actors. In addition, Malaysia and Singapore have imposed an ASEAN wildfire haze pollution agreement onto other member states in order to protect their directly affected interests in air quality and air traffic. ASEAN is also attracting to its members various international environmental funds in areas including climate change, community-based forestry, and sustainable peatland management. Last, member states under ASEAN actively align their positions in international climate negotiations as well as global forest deliberations to enhance their influence. We conclude that policies developed within regional regimes such as ASEAN are aligned with the interests of stronger member states, and their bureaucracies in particular. It remains unclear, however, how powerful these actors need to be in order to make this customization of regime policies valid for them. The results suggest that not only a potential hegemon, but also second or third powers may have this option. At the same time, member states’ activities do not seem to be conducted by states as unitary actors; instead, issue-specific actions are based on the interests of issue-relevant bureaucracies, which are in charge of representing a given member state in a given field of a regime’s policy.     

林业企业可持续人力资源管理的目标与激励

提出林业企业可持续人力资源管理的理念,深入探讨林业企业可持续人力资源管理的三个目标和五个层面的激励。