美国以自然资源保护为宗旨的土地休耕经验

美国土地休耕制度包括一系列水土保持计划和以土壤侵蚀度为主要指标的水土保持评价标准,它通过一系列耕地保护计划来推行。回顾美国农业耕作土地采取休耕政策及其实施情况,讨论了值得我国学习和借鉴的土地休耕计划的政策的成本费用等问题。     

Toward a systemic monitoring of the European bioeconomy: Gaps,needs and the integration of sustainability indicators and targets for global land use

The contribution of the EU bioeconomy to sustainable development depends on how it is implemented. A high innovation potential is accompanied by considerable risks, in particular regarding the exacerbation of global land use conflicts. This article argues that a systemic monitoring system capable of connecting human-environment interactions and multiple scales of analysis in a dynamic way is needed to ensure that the EU bioeconomy transition meets overarching goals, like the Sustainable Development Goals. The monitoring should be centered around a dashboard of key indicators and targets covering environmental, economic, and social aspects of the bioeconomy. With a focus on the land dimension, this article examines the strengths and weakness of different economic, environmental and integrated models and methods for monitoring and forecasting the development of the EU bioeconomy. The state of research on key indicators and targets, as well as research needs to integrate these aspects into existing modeling approaches, are assessed. The article concludes with key criteria for a systemic bioeconomy monitoring system.     

Spatial Targeting of Conservation Tillage to Improve Water Quality and Carbon Retention Benefits

This paper develops a GIS-based modeling framework that integrates a farm model, a hydrologic model, and a soil organic matter model to examine spatial targeting of conservation tillage to jointly improve water quality and carbon retention benefits in agricultural watersheds. Previous studies have examined the targeting of conservation tillage, land retirement, and riparian buffers at watershed scale to achieve water quality benefits but not considered carbon retention benefits. An empirical application of the framework in the Fairchild Creek watershed in Ontario shows that targeting conservation tillage based on sediment abatement goal can also achieve comparable carbon retention benefits in terms of percentage reduction of its base carbon losses. The targeted subcatchments for conservation tillage vary across the watershed based on benefit to cost ratios. The pattern of conservation tillage targeted based on carbon retention goal is similar to that with a sediment abatement goal but slight differences are found because of different carbon content in the soils. The modeling results have important policy implications for the design of conservation stewardship programs such as setting sediment abatement goal as an indicator to achieve joint environmental benefits and direct public fund to locations that can achieve environmental goals at least costs.     

Impacts of Adjusting Environmental Regulations When Enforcement Authority Is Diffuse: Confined Animal Feeding Operations and Environmental Quality

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has recently adjusted regulations governing confined animal feeding operations (CAFOs), significantly increasing the number of regulated firms. A theoretical model is developed to analyze how changes to the number of regulated firms, monitoring effort, and compliance standards affect environmental quality. The model suggests increasing the number of regulated firms, ceteris paribus , has an ambiguous effect on environmental quality, and may actually reduce it. The impact of increasing compliance standards depends on how violations are prosecuted and sanctions are set. Greater monitoring effort increases environmental quality.     

The Potential for Cross‐Compliance in Canadian Agricultural Policy: Linking Environmental Goals with Business Risk Management Programs

Environmental cross‐compliance links agricultural program payments to producer commitments to achieve agri‐environmental policy goals. The objective of this study is to determine the feasibility of using cross‐compliance to achieve environmental goals in a Canadian policy context. While Canadian policy makers have flirted with cross‐compliance, with the exception of phosphorus regulations for Quebec hog farms, they have never adopted this approach. The potential for effective cross‐compliance depends on producer participation, producer compliance with regulations, environmental performance, and overall welfare implications. This study reviews the application of cross‐compliance in the United States and EU with regard to the potential application to Canadian agriculture. Policy options are considered which link current business risk management (BRM) programs to alternative environmental regulations (wildlife habitat preservation, nutrient management plans, and beneficial management practices for nutrient management). In general, individual Canadian agricultural support program do not provide sufficient incentives for farmers to participate in cross‐compliance. However, if support programs are combined, it is better to link programs that redistribute income with environmental programs than to link agriculture programs that already address specific market failures.     

Towards the implementation of the European Water Framework Directive?: Lessons learned from water quality simulations in an agricultural watershed

The main objective of the European Water Framework Directive (WFD) is the achievement of a good ecological and chemical status of the water environment (water bodies). This status corresponds to the limit value of Germany's Working Group of the Federal States on Water Problems Issues (LAWA) for water quality class II (3 mg/l total nitrogen). The rivers in the intensively cropped Upper Ems River basin (northwestern Germany) show total nitrogen concentrations in excess of 5–10 mg/l. Hence, the objective of our study was to find a land use and land management scenario that would reduce the total nitrogen concentration to meet the WFD requirements for good ecological and chemical status. We developed consecutive land use and management scenarios on the basis of policy instruments such as the support of agro-environmental measures by Common Agricultural Policy and regional landscape development programs. The model simulations were done by using the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT). Results of SWAT scenario calculations showed that drastic measures, which are unrealistic from a socio-economic point of view, would be needed to achieve the water quality target in the basin (reduction of arable land from 77.2% to 46% [13% organic farming], increase of pasture from 4% to 15%, afforestation from 10% to 21%, increase of protected wetlands from 0% to 9%, etc.). The example shows additionally that the achievement of the WFD targets is only possible with a consideration of regional landscape and land use distinctions. A related problem yet to be addressed is the general lack of measured water quality data with which to calibrate and validate water quality models such as SWAT. This adds considerable uncertainty to already complicated and uncertainty situations. Thus, improved strategies for water quality monitoring, and data accessibility must be established.     

What lies beneath: Climate change,land expropriation,and zaï agroecological innovations by smallholder farmers in Northern Ghana

Large-scale land acquisitions (LSLAs) are increasing in Ghana amid a weak legal and regulatory framework. This paper explores the impacts of this phenomenon on farmer innovations under recurrent environmental changes. Using a case study of zaï, an indigenous innovative farming practice, the paper makes two interrelated arguments. Firstly, it shows that the pervasive enclosures coerced by the Ghanaian state undermine how indigenous knowledge could be proactively deployed for climate risk management. Secondly, LSLAs produce a social barrier to climate change adaptation, as they lead to heightened uncertainty and apprehension among farmers, which affects decisions on climate risk management. More specifically, land expropriation is an example of how adaptation could be hindered by governance, institutions, and policy at the extra-local scale, including not only existing land use laws, but also the constitutional guarantee of private property. The evidence supporting these arguments come from survey data on 619 plots, 70 in-depth interviews, village-level transect walks, and participant observations. Overall, the paper contributes to emerging debates at the interface of land use policy, climate justice, and sustainable adaptation. Theoretically, it also contributes to understanding State-society relations, as well as the political economy of eminent domain, often justified through discourses of “public benefits.”     

Land contamination risk management in Cameroon: A critical review of the existing policy framework

Land affected by contamination from human activities has been identified as a major environmental problem in developed countries and there are established mechanisms for identifying, prioritising, characterising, assessing and remediating the land so that risks to human health and environmental receptors are minimised. However, comparative mechanisms and approaches for sustainable land management are often lacking in developing countries such as Cameroon. This paper presents a critical review of the existing policy framework in Cameroon in relation to environmental management, particularly land contamination.It is established that in Cameroon, there is an acute lack of comprehensive information on land contamination from economic development and industrialisation, inadequate legal and institutional framework, weak enforcement capacity and unsatisfactory coordination between various stakeholders towards sustainable land management practices. The coastal town of Douala, which has the highest level of industrial activity in the sub region is used to demonstrate how dealing with land contamination is a public health priority and requires attention in the context of sustainable development. The United Kingdom (UK) regulatory policy framework on land contamination risk management is used to show how land contamination issues and risk management approaches, including conceptual site models, could be introduced into the sustainability discourse in Cameroon. A number of recommendations including proposals for a radical overhaul of the current regulatory policy framework are formulated and presented. Specifically, the creation of an independent Cameroon Environment Protection Agency (CEPA) that will be the main regulatory body responsible for developing and implementing the policy proposals in this paper is advocated.     

Using proportional modeling to evaluate irrigator preferences for market‐based water reallocation

Irrigators’ policy preferences for water reallocation programs usually take the form of proportional data, where one option will be relatively more or less favored than another in the composition of a government's total budget apportionment to address water reform. This study applies a zero‐one inflated beta regression to model Murray–Darling Basin irrigators’ preferences for market‐based water policy programs. Market‐based arrangements are more likely to provide efficient solutions to water reallocation problems, particularly where future uncertainty and appropriate pricing induce irrigator preferences for such programs. Our modeling of drivers of irrigator preferences for government expenditure on market‐based programs identified different determinants of zero (a corner solution) and proportional outcomes for the reallocation of Murray–Darling Basin water. In addition, the proportional modeling identifies some variables (namely, state regional influences, the type of farm production and recent debt, low income, or water allocation stressors) that increase engagement with market‐based programs. Interestingly, while price variables are important and statistically significant, they appear to be less relevant to program engagement than other influences.     

Uncertainty awareness in urban sprawl simulations: Lessons from a small US metropolitan region

Land use change modeling and simulation is a popular tool in land use planning and policy formulation. However, the outputs of land use change simulation are not always accompanied with information on uncertainty. The goal of this paper is to demonstrate the inherent uncertainty in sprawl simulation, which is attributable to error in the input parameters and to limitations in our understanding of land use systems. To reach this goal, the paper determines sprawl simulation accuracy and uncertainty for a small US metropolitan region as produced by the CLUE-S modeling framework. The model simulates sprawl location in the region accurately, but the certainty of sprawl location projections decreases with time. This uncertainty in the simulation suggests that modelers should report uncertainty with their output over all time horizons so that, on the one hand, land use planners and decision makers do not place too much confidence in any single sprawl simulation (which could lead to unwarranted and expensive urban growth management policies) and, on the other hand, do not place too little confidence in sprawl models (which could have severe socioeconomic and environmental consequences). Thus, reporting uncertainty with simulation output provides planners and decision makers with a platform for more informed land use policy.     

The effectiveness of state preferential property tax programs in conserving forests: Comparisons,measurements, and challenges

Forest property taxes have been identified as one of the major driving forces behind forest loss and parcelization. Among various policy alternatives for reducing the burden of forest property taxes on landowners, preferential property tax programs have been widely used across states. Existing research has mostly focused on individual property tax programs, particularly those based on current use valuation, while little has been done to document, analyze and compare programs across states. By examining survey data from state preferential property tax program administrators across the United States, this paper describes the commonalities and differences among states regarding their preferential property tax programs, provides a preliminary understanding of the relationship between state preferential property tax policy and trends in private forest conditions, and identifies issues related to the effectiveness of state preferential property tax programs and private forest land management and conservation. Our analysis revealed three fundamental disconnects: (1) Program attributes that were previously considered to be important for preferential property tax programs to be effective in retaining forest land and fostering management did not consistently correlate with program effectiveness as viewed by the administrators of these programs; (2) These program attributes did not consistently correlate with actual program effectiveness as measured at the state level by forest trend indicators used in this study (i.e., change in private forest land cover, change in average size of private forest holdings, extent to which private forest land is being actively managed); and (3) The self-assessed program effectiveness did not consistently correlate with actual program effectiveness, either. The various ways in which the effectiveness of preferential property tax programs is defined and measured contribute to explaining these disconnects. It is particularly important for researchers and policy makers to be explicit about how they define and measure effectiveness and the scale on which they conduct their analysis before assessing and comparing programs or suggesting improvement strategies.     

Agreement based land consolidation – In perspective of new modes of governance

A comparative study on the performance of new modes of governance in selected Central and Eastern European countries stated the problem that the emergence of new modes of governance in environmental policy is impaired by weak governance capacities in state and civil society and lack of mutual trust among stakeholders (Börzel, 2009a). The purpose of this article is to draw attention to agreement based land consolidation for implementation of area based environmental policies. The article contends that land consolidation exclusively based on agreements can cope with capacity constraints in state and civil society and at the same time apply the principles of new modes of governance. The research questions are: (i) how are principles of new modes of governance applied in agreement based land consolidation? (ii) what are the incentives and the technique in agreement based land consolidation? and (iii) what are the capacity building requirements for an agreement based land consolidation approach? The Danish land consolidation procedure is used as an example of an agreement based approach. Transaction technique, planning technique, and incentives are exposed with reference to transaction cost theory. The impact on trust is illuminated with reference to theory on social capital. The wetland projects serve as an example of area based environmental projects and is illustrated by a case. Data, however incomplete, indicate that agreement based land consolidation has been and is used as an important implementation tool in land related environmental policies in Denmark. The article concludes that the agreement based approach displays key features of new modes of governance. The principle of voluntary agreements grants the affected non-state actors a strong position to influence the final policy outcome and they contribute with local knowledge and mediation. The approach avoids conventional enforcement. Agreement based land consolidation is possible but relies on demanding preconditions. The investment in incentives and capacity building can be justified by a broad range of benefits.     

Impact of local payments for ecosystem services on land use in a developed area of China: A qualitative analysis based on an integrated conceptual framework

Payments for ecosystem services (PES) have increasingly been applied as economic incentives for improving ecosystem services around the world. However, due to difficulties in measuring and attributing ecosystem services provisioning, a land-based approach has been popularly adopted as a proxy for the desired ecosystem services. In this study, we demonstrate the impact mechanism and outcomes of locally financed PES programs on conservation-based land use in a developed area of China. We present this work using a PES-land use proxy framework that is examined empirically through a variety of qualitative assessments. Our framework illustrates that, within the ecological, socioeconomic, and institutional conditions of developed areas, land use class, pattern and function would be impacted by (a) conservation effect, (b) stakeholder response, and (c) institutional adaptation mechanisms of local PES programs, with multiple land use trends as potential outcomes. We examine the framework using materials from Suzhou, China, which has implemented a top-down, partly involuntary (ecosystem services supply side), land based PES program. Our results show that, expected land use class, land use pattern and land use function are observed in areas where the PES programs were implemented. We also find that the conditions of developed areas and locally financed payments mechanism indeed played a crucial role in promoting conservation-based land use in Suzhou.     

Moral Hazard,Targeting and Contract Duration in Agri‐Environmental Policy

This article extends the multi‐period agri‐environmental contract model of Fraser (Journal of Agricultural Economics, Vol. 55 , (2004) pp. 525–540) to include a more realistic specification of the inter‐temporal penalties for non‐compliance, and therefore of the inter‐temporal moral hazard problem in agri‐environmental policy design. It is shown that a farmer has an unambiguous preference for cheating early over cheating late in the contract period based on differences in the expected cost of compliance. It is then shown how the principal can make use of this unambiguous preference to target monitoring resources intertemporally, and in so doing, to encourage full contract duration compliance.     

Estimating the environmental effects and recreational benefits of cultivated flower land for environmental quality improvement in Taiwan

The main purpose of this study is to measure environmental effects and recreational benefits under different hypothetical scenarios program, involving quality improvement in Tien‐Wei Highway Garden, which is the biggest cultivated flower land in Taiwan. The contingent behavior model was adopted. The data combined actual number of trips under current quality of environment combined and the intended number of trips for expected scenarios of environmental quality improvement and congestion mitigation. For the empirical model, on‐site Poisson model was performed to correct truncated and endogenous stratification issues from on‐site surveys. The results show that the estimated average consumer surplus is greater in contingent behavior method than the one in the traditional travel cost model. Also, the estimated recreational benefits in contingent behavior method are more precise than those in the traditional travel cost method. The environment benefits to consumers are communicated with the programs that changes in environment quality. Meanwhile, the incremental economic benefits comprise the gain associated with the improvement of environmental quality.     

Evaluating the use of an environmental assurance program to address pollution from United States cropland

Voluntary market-based programs have been proposed as cost-effective means to reduce environmental impacts associated with agriculture. This study examines a relatively new program in Michigan USA, the Michigan Agriculture Environmental Assurance Program (MAEAP), and explores how it might serve to reduce nutrient pollution associated with intensive corn production. Interviews with corn farmers were used to explore reasons for program participation, the extent of management changes, and opinions regarding program effectiveness. Results indicate that most farmers enrolled in the program had already satisfied the majority of the requirements, therefore few changes were made that would result in environmental improvements. Interviews also revealed that in almost all cases, corn farmers were unable to market their products as MAEAP verified. Participation was largely driven by goals to avoid law enforcement and minor financial benefits through insurance discounts. Farmers indicated that a lack of monitoring and enforcement reduced the perceived effectiveness of the program. Most farmers favored direct payments through government conservation programs over MAEAP. This case illustrates the limitations of voluntary and market-based programs to address agri-environmental problems and supports the use of multiple policy approaches.     

Using scenario planning to assess governance reforms for enhancing biodiversity outcomes

Governance arrangements frame and direct how land managers respond to the multiple demands and challenges of conserving biodiversity. Biodiversity conservation requires attention to how social-ecological systems (SES) change and can be influenced over time. It is important that governance settings within these systems can support achievement of biodiversity outcomes. Two questions then arise. Will current arrangements lead to desirable biodiversity outcomes, and if not, are there other arrangements that plausibly might do better? However, methods for answering these questions in collaboration with critical stakeholders such as policy makers and land managers are not evident in the literature. The aim of this paper is to explore the use of a participatory scenario planning process to test the efficacy of proposed governance reforms for enhancing biodiversity outcomes in two contrasting landscapes in Australia. A workshop process was used to consider the effect of the reform options on key drivers of change, and thus how these affected drivers would in turn modify future scenarios, and the biodiversity outcomes of these scenarios. In both landscapes, there was a preference for reforms that retained governmental influence or control, in contrast to academic calls for adaptive governance that emphasises the importance of self-organisation and devolution of authority. The workshop process, although complex and cognitively challenging, was regarded by participants as suitable for testing the utility of alternative governance options for biodiversity conservation. Challenges for the future include designing and considering reforms based on what is possible rather than probable or preferable, and engaging participants over time to build knowledge, engagement and trust. The paper concludes with suggestions for addressing these challenges.     

Learning through practice? Learning from the REDD+ demonstration project,Kalimantan Forests and Climate Partnership (KFCP) in Indonesia

Despite a growing recognition of the importance of social learning in governing and managing land use, the understanding and practice of learning has received limited attention from researchers. In global environmental programs and projects aimed at supporting sustainable land use in developing countries, learning is often promoted but without explicit learning goals. The focus may be on capacity building and community participation, and on testing policy tools, rather than on collaborative social learning. In this study, we looked behind the rhetoric of learning in the Kalimantan Forests and Climate Partnership (KFCP), a large demonstration project for Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) in Indonesia. The novelty of such mechanisms, linked to international forest carbon outcomes, means that learning lessons provides a rationale for REDD+ pilot activities. We used a qualitative approach to examine the nature and type of learning that occurred in the KFCP. While the stated project aims were to support policy experimentation and apply learning, the project design was highly technical, and project decision-making did not explicitly encourage joint problem solving. Despite the project’s shortcomings, we identified that learning did occur by the end of the project in ways that were different to the initial goals. Our findings suggest that flexibility and openness in project design and implementation can enable different local actors to define shared learning agendas in ways that are meaningful for them. Designing and implementing environmental projects, and learning goals within them, should attend to the needs and aspirations of those who will have to live with their long-term consequences. Learning should be integrated into international environmental programs and projects at all levels, including for policy and funding bodies, rather than focusing on local capacity building and similar project ‘benefits’. Interviewees’ eagerness to learn suggests that building approaches to social learning into program design has the potential to yield opportunities for learning beyond REDD+ to other forms of policy experimentation and governance innovations.     

The role of legal protection in forest conservation in an urban matrix

Establishing forest protection standards is essential for biodiversity conservation and for ensuring the public water supply. This study evaluated whether compliance with environmental legislation aimed at protecting the Atlantic Forest is sufficient to minimize the negative effects of urban pressure on the conservation of biodiversity in the water source area of the Billings reservoir in the municipality of Diadema. To assess the effectiveness of environmental legislation, we created a current land use and land cover map as well as maps for an expected legal scenario and evaluated both using landscape metrics. Our findings indicate that forest resource availability in the area is critical but can be improved by compliance with legal obligations, which have complementary effects and the potential to promote less fragmented landscapes. On the other hand, they do not prevent the tendency of fragmentation caused by the surrounding urban matrix, which can reduce the positive effect of the legal compliance on forest conservation in cases of consolidated urban areas.     

耕地质量监测预警研究进展

耕地质量是人类社会赖以生存与发展的物质基础,是农业发展的基本生产资料。为发挥监测预警体系在耕地质量建设中的主体作用,实现耕地质量的可持续利用,本文采用文献综述法和系统分析法综述了耕地质量监测和预警体系在国内外的研究进展,并着重对时间序列分析模型、灰色预测模型和回归分析模型三种耕地质量预警模型进行阐述。耕地质量监测预警体系具有实时、动态、全方位的监测与预警功能,对监测预警指标体系、方法、周期、模型和理论实践探究还需要进一步完善,同时还需要借助应用大数据,以期为耕地质量精准化监测预警提供实时的数据及模型支持服务。