Applying a capitals approach to understand rural development traps: A case study from post-socialist Romania

Rural development models to date have failed to adequately explain why development stagnates in certain regions, and have often focused on single policy areas. This paper proposes a more holistic approach by combining the concept of traps with the sustainable livelihoods approach, applied to a case study in Central Romania. Based on semi-structured interviews with rural inhabitants from 66 villages in 2012, we analyze the barriers creating and maintaining a lock-in situation characterized by an apparently stable low-welfare equilibrium state. By clustering development barriers into livelihood capitals we find that barriers to rural development are multiple and interacting, and are strongly mediated by the institutional context. We show that while financial, social, human, and built capitals are inadequately developed, the region's rich natural and cultural capitals stand the best chances to foster rural development. Yet, these capitals are likely to deteriorate, too, if all other capitals remain under-developed. Given this interconnectedness of development barriers we argue that one-sided interventions cannot help ‘unlock’ the trap-like situation of Central Romania. Instead, multiple barriers will need to be tackled simultaneously. The development of social, human and financial capitals should be of priority concern because of their potentially positive spill-over effects across all other capitals.     

The impact of collaboration on research about rural buildings and landscape: A case study in Italy

The importance of collaboration among peers in science is widely investigated: an essential issue is the relevance of credits shared among scholars for the good faith and cooperation in research projects. Despite its significance, so far in Italy the usefulness of collaboration in research activities is not taken in due consideration by both scientific community and research assessment bodies. In this study, the main aim is at investigating the actual up today extent of scientific collaboration among colleagues belonging to the Italian Scientific Disciplinary Sector (SDS) “AGR10 Rural buildings and agro-forest land planning”. We focus on research projects dealing with territory, landscape and rural buildings with the scope of raising consciousness on the key role of collaboration with other SDSs, international institutions or organizations. We harvested data through an on-line questionnaire about several research projects, scrutinized the responses, and found that the core area of current research developed by AGR10 colleagues includes topics concerning the analysis and planning of landscape. Furthermore, we found that the design of international project proposals attains mostly rural buildings and rural heritage analysis, reuse and enhancement, rural buildings and landscape integration, and rural buildings design. While the size of partnerships on international research activities is still limited, as for external synergies the SDS AGR01 ‘Agricultural Economics and Rural Appraisal’ is the most representative, and other SDSs involving ‘Ecology’ and ‘Informatics’ deserve to be mentioned. So, this study has been designed with the secondary aim of stimulating Italian -as well as other international- scientific communities in promoting similar investigations concerning the importance of collaboration and cross-fertilization for successful research activities. As a major output, official national or international research assessment authorities would be provided by a method for better appreciating the usefulness of collaboration and interdisciplinarity.     

Impacts of fragmentation and neighbor influences on farmland conversion: A case study of the Edmonton-Calgary Corridor,Canada

Under heavy development pressure, farmland is rapidly being converted to non-agricultural uses such as houses, roads, and industrial uses. A great deal of research has investigated these farmland losses and their associated drivers. However, the existing empirical studies have neglected two important issues related to farmland conversion: spillover effects from neighboring areas and the impacts of farmland fragmentation. This study incorporates fragmentation and neighboring impacts into the farmland conversion analysis and provides new insights for the land-use/cover change literature. Empirical results indicate that increases in fragmentation further encourage farmland conversion to urban uses, but the effects are not linear with decreasing marginal influences. Land-use activities and decisions have strong spillover effects on neighboring areas. Ignoring this externality could result in biased estimates and marginal effects and thus misleading policy decisions and recommendations.     

Telecoupling mechanism of urban land expansion based on transportation accessibility: A case study of transitional Yangtze River economic Belt,China

Several studies have explored the drivers of urban land expansion (ULE), but disregarded the influence of distant spatial effect on ULE at a large regional scale. This study contributed to a tele-coupling relationship framework between spatial spillover of ULE and transportation accessibility to find the influence of distance spatial effect on ULE. Drawing upon land-use remote sensing data from 1990–2015 and transportation network data, this study assessed the relationship between transportation accessibility and ULE, and developed a second-order spatial autoregressive model (SO-SAR) to explore the spatial spillover mechanism of ULE in the Yangtze River Economic Belt (YREB). The results find that ULE exhibits a significantly positive spatial correlation when the connection criterion of accessibility is 2 h≤hour≤3 h. The SO-SAR model results show that ULE is affected by the historical ULE, which presents a significant path-dependence effect. Moreover, the ULE in most local cities has a weak inhibition on the ULE of the surrounding cities where the connection criterion of accessibility is 1 h. However, the spillover effects of remote city’s ULE have a slight positive impact on local ULE due to the improvement of traffic accessibility from 2005 to 2015. In addition, openness, labor flows, institutional hierarchy, and economic structure had a significantly positive effect on ULE during the period 1990–2015 in the YREB. Policy reforms are suggested to encourage the development of integrated transportation and urban land use at a large regional scale in China. Moreover, there is a need for a mindset shift from cities competing competition over land to cooperation between the cities in YREB.     

Un-forgetting walls by lines on maps: A case study on property rights,cadastral mapping,and the landscape of the Kowloon Walled City

This paper demonstrates that the framing of post-war Kowloon Walled City through photos has been dominated by the maps commonly used to represent this Chinese enclave in colonial Hong Kong as a place. Inspired by and extending Wylie’s (2009) argument that emptiness and presence are equally important, this paper uses basic GIS techniques and hitherto unpublished archival materials to help (a) argues that the colonial government’s mindset of clearly defining the spatial boundary of the city, which is a subtle admission of an officially and diplomatically denied otherness in ownership, created the city as a quasi-cadastral unit; and (b) explains how this shaped the framing of the landscape of the city by promoting investment and trade in high-rise housing development units. The government did not destroy its walls. When these were physically destroyed, it did not ignore the walls’ original alignments but treated the city as a planning unit, as if they still existed.     

Potential for co-management approaches to strengthen livelihoods of forest dependent communities: A Kenyan case

Many natural resource management researchers have focused either on institutional design and evaluation or on livelihood outcomes per se without explicitly acknowledging and rigorously examining linkages between the two. Thus, a major gap in the current literature on co-management institutional arrangements is the extent to which co-management has strengthened the livelihoods of poor forest-dependent communities. This gap is addressed in this paper by developing and testing an argument that well-designed co-management arrangements have strengthened the livelihood outcomes of poor forest-dependent communities in a Kenyan case study. The hybrid analytical framework developed for this analysis situates Ostrom's (1990) design criteria for co-management institutions in the broader context of the Sustainable Livelihood Framework. It then uses this analytical framework to evaluate the Arabuko-Sokoke Forest Reserve (ASFR) co-management initiative in Kenya, based on a three-step process. First, the paper provides an overview of current institutional arrangements for governance of the ASFR co-management regime. Second, it evaluates the extent to which these governance arrangements can be characterized as devolved collaborative governance, informed by Ostrom's (1990) design principles and; third, it evaluates the extent to which the livelihood outcomes of forest dependent communities that are participants in the co-management project have had their livelihoods strengthened as a result of the ASFR co-management governance arrangements. The paper demonstrates that the institutional arrangements for ASFR co-management are relatively nascent and emerging because the governance arrangements for the ASFR co-management project cannot be characterized as fully devolved de jure collaborative governance. Notwithstanding this, the findings reveal that participant forest-dependent communities in the co-management project had improved livelihoods compared to forest-dependent communities outside the co-management scheme. It is suggested that this is due to the de facto co-management arrangements.     

Farm size,productivity and returns to scale in agriculture revisited: a case study of wine producers in South Africa

The inverse relationship between farm size and productivity has almost become a ‘stylised fact’ in the economic development literature. Most of the studies contributing to this preception have been Hawed by methodological shortcomings and the request is that these studies be treated with caution. Using recent farm survey data from the wine producing areas of the Western Cape of South Africa, this study attempts to overcome some of the methodological problems, distinguishing between partial and total productivity measures. Using data envelopment analysis, most of the wine grape producers were found to operate under constant returns to scale. Co-operative membership seemed to overcome the economies of scale associated with processing and marketing. The inverse relationship between farm size and both land productivity and total factor productivity is weak, not consistently negative and differs between regions. Thus, caution must be used when advocating rural development policies based on the inevitability of an inverse relationship existing in all sectors and production regions of agriculture.     

Landscape properties as drivers for farm diversification: A Dutch case study

Farm diversification is stimulated by the societal demand to transform production countryside into consumption countryside. In most empirical studies on farmers’ decision making for diversification, geographical information is either omitted or reduced to a variable that links the farm to an administrative unit. Therefore, the influence of the exact farm location on farmers’ decision making is often lacking. The paper addresses the role of location, in terms of site specific natural conditions as well as neighboring dynamics, in influencing farmers’ decision making to diversify. Moreover, it investigates to what extend low returns from primary production stimulate farmers to find new survival strategies, and therefore explains diversification. The Gelderse Vallei area, a region in the center of the Netherlands, is used as a case study. For this area an extensive farm survey data could be combined with topographic data and soil maps (GIS). Both the number of activities as well as the kind of activities that are taken up are analyzed. Landscape attractiveness turns out to be a driver of diversification. Daily recreation most frequently occurs close to national parks, green services are more likely to occur on relatively wet soils. Activities resulting from diversification might produce positive externalities: new activities have the tendency to emerge next to already existing ones, therewith explaining the formation of “hotspots” in the landscape. Finally, diversification was found to be sensitive to returns from primary agriculture production.     

Land management for erosion prevention: A case study for a Turkish nature reserve

As a result of landslides and soil erosion, a substantial amount of soil has been lost in Turkey. Particularly, fertile lands have long been faced with the threat of erosion, largely as a result of traditional (unplanned) land use practices. This threat is more evident in the Black Sea Region with its rough topography and rainy climate. The basic reason for this threat is the lack of organization in land use planning and control. Although proposals, in the context of this requirement, are included in national development plans, they have not been implemented. Accordingly, in this study research based on spatial data evaluation was carried out for Sera Lake located in Akcaabat, Trabzon, Turkey. For this purpose, temporal area, depth and volume changes of the lake were determined by utilizing topographic maps, aerial photographs and hydrographical measurements. To evaluate determined changes in the size of the lake and to produce suggestions to legislators for required sustainable land management activities, information on land use/cover types, land ownership and climate in the vicinity of the lake was utilized. As a result, it was determined that the area, depth and volume of the lake were significantly decreased during the last decades, as a consequence of erosion mainly caused by traditional land use practices; thus, the lake is threatened with the danger of extinction due to erosion. Precautions required for the alleviation of erosion and other adverse environmental effects which largely seem to be caused by harsh physical properties (caused basically by topography) of the region were discussed. In support of the information inherent to the region, traditional arable land use was logically determined as the basic non-natural factor (which is directly prone to erosion) to be rearranged in the context of sustainable land management. In this context, beyond nationwide actions (national agricultural policy and Soil Protection and Land Use Law), which may provide the required land management tools in the long term, it is proposed that planning and accordingly land management activities specific to the study area (Sera Valley) should immediately be commenced in close collaboration with the related public (owners or farmers). However, behaviours of different types of land users (engaged in commercial, subsistence and semi-subsistence farming) and also high number of owners and/or farmers (caused by small pieces of land parcels owned/used in shares) make the desired collaboration almost impossible. This socio-economical problem may be solved by further developing the current land registry and cadastre system in terms of customary land use rights, land use/cover changes and updating procedures.     

Developing a Territory Balanced Scorecard approach to manage projects for local development: Two case studies

This paper applies Kaplan and Norton's Balanced Scorecard theory to propose a tool to compare twin local development projects implemented under international cooperation schemes. This tool, called the Territory Balanced Scorecard (TBSc), allows the competitive potential of the territorial system to be measured by means of a rating. Consequently, using the TBSc, it is possible to interpret the characteristics of the supply territory and, by an ad-hoc approach, plan the required increase in headquarters functions and the competences linked thereto. This paper follows a rationale grounded on the territorial setting and offers a methodological decision support tool that enhances the ability of decision makers acting at Local Authority level. A feature of the TBSc model is the fact that, although it is designed for the public sector (mission-oriented), it does enable us to obtain profit-driven indicators that are designed to highlight the economic and territorial strategic ancillary benefits in terms of competitiveness. The TBSc can be considered a valuable strategic tool in management and local development systems and the result also implicitly contains the plan for creating a potential network (in this case among islands in the Mediterranean) in order to delineate a set of principles and analytical and programming devices that would assist in reshaping local economic systems.     

Environmental protection and management: A water pollution case study within the Greater Blue Mountains World Heritage Area,Australia

The Grose River is contained almost entirely within a World Heritage Area. While sewage pollution in the area has been addressed, pollution at damaging levels continues from a disused coal mine, closed in 1997. Despite some surface rehabilitation, no action has occurred to remediate zinc polluted waters emanating from the mine. We examine the historical regulation and management of the Australian Commonwealth and New South Wales governments and highlight gaps in both regulatory systems. We conclude that there is an urgent need to improve regulation of water pollution, mining and management of the environment in highly valued world heritage areas.     

Identifying the internal structure evolution of urban built-up land sprawl (UBLS) from a composite structure perspective: A case study of the Beijing metropolitan area,China

Differences in the internal composite structure during urban built-up land sprawl (UBLS) will generate different effects, and thus, a city’s spatial structure has important bearings on urban sustainability. This study investigates the spatial and temporal characteristics of the internal structure and allocation relationship of UBLS using multivariate spatial correlation and the Weaver-Tomas composite coefficient based on site data of granted built-up land parcels. Moreover, the composite structure evolution process of UBLS and its driving mechanism are examined in this study. The results reveal that the amount structure of the three types of UBLS (i.e. industrial land sprawl, residential land sprawl and commercial land sprawl) tended to be balanced during the study period. Following the transformation and upgrade of the urban industry structure, the overall composite structure of UBLS ranged from single residential land-use structure (Res.) to industrial-residential land-use structure (Ind.-Res.) In the early period of land marketization, the marketization land granting mechanism caused low spatial correlation between the various types of UBLS and a single composite structure, i.e. Res., single commercial land-use structure (Com.), and residential-commercial land-use structure (Res.-Com.). Subsequently, a dual-driving force including the market economy and government interventions caused a relatively high degree of spatial correlation and a multiple composite structure, i.e. Ind.-Res. and industrial-residential-commercial land-use structure (Ind.-Res.-Com.). However, the evolution characteristics of the composite structure in various regions illustrate some problems, such as the spatial isomorphism phenomenon of the composite structure and the dislocation of urban built-up land allocation. The urban internal built-up land spatial layout pattern is the embodiment of two dominant driving forces, the market and the government, interacting with each other according to natural and socioeconomic conditions. Therefore, we suggest that it is necessary to reform the future urban built-up land granting mechanism based on market guidance, and the composite structure of UBLS should be adjusted according to the regional function. The government should reinforce the macro-control of land-use planning for the dispersed granted land parcels so as to optimize the urban land-use structure.     

Regional erosion risk mapping for decision support: A case study from West Africa

Effective soil and water management strategies require regional-scale assessment of erosion risk in order to locate prioritized area of intervention. Our study focuses on the Atacora mountain and surrounding areas (covering more than 18% of the total land area of Republic of Benin) which face a serious erosion threat despite their ecological and economic importance. To appraise the level of soil erosion risk of large area, we rely on the Instituto Nacional para la Conservación de la Naturaleza (ICONA) erosion model and use data from geographic information system (GIS). The erosion risk model requires four main inputs, namely, information on slope, lithofacies, land use and vegetation cover. The slope layer computed from ASTER digital elevation model (DEM) and the lithofacies layer inferred from digital pedogeological map are combined to draw soil erodibility map. To build soil protection map, we use land use/land cover layer extracted from LANDSAT 7 ETM + images in addition to vegetation cover layer derived from MODIS NDVI product. The final erosion risk map (with a resolution of 1 arc second) is obtained by overlapping erodibility and soil protection maps. We find that 21.8%, 58.5%, and 19.5% of the study area presents very low to low, medium, and high to very high level of erosion risk, respectively. Moreover, our findings are aggregated at the district-level (administrative unit). We observe that erosion risk is more acute in Boukoumbe district. Kerou, Kobli and Natitingou districts are mildly affected by erosion risk, while Kouande, Materi, Pehunco, Tanguieta and Toucountouna districts face a low risk. Ultimately, the proposed erosion risk map can help researchers and decision makers design and implement effective soil and water management interventions in the study area.     

A Livelihood and Farming System approach for effective conservation policies in Protected Areas of Developing Countries: The case study of the Niassa National Reserve in Mozambique

Effective conservation requires that conservation policies and management decisions first target local actors who are dependent on natural resource use in Protected Areas (PA) of Developing Countries (DC). In rural areas of DCs, these actors are mainly farmers who also rely on off-farm activities such as harvest of Non-Timber Forest Products (NTFPs) to complement their livelihoods. Here, we propose a novel approach to support the development of policy interventions aimed at achieving conservation goals through the sustainable development of local people in PAs of DCs. The approach consists in identifying the main Livelihood and Farming Systems (LFS) and select those that are more conservation-friendly, and that may contribute to solve conservation and development problems such as Human-wildlife conflict. Identifying the existing LFS can also help in searching for conservation-relevant improvements that can contribute to local people wellbeing, considering the existing FS as the starting point for a sustainable development strategy in PAs of DC. Data from the Niassa National Reserve (NNR), the largest PA in Mozambique, were used to develop this LFS approach. Measures of effort applied in harvesting NTFPs and in managing agricultural inputs and outputs were collected from 329 households through a structured survey. Cluster analysis was performed to identify and characterise the main LFS in the NNR. Based on the cluster results, we have identified four livelihood systems (LS): gatherers, hunters, farmers and employees; four farming systems (FS): specialized in maize, rice and sorghum, and a mixed FS. A Multinomial Logistic Model was also applied to understand the drivers of LFS choice. Livelihood systems were mainly driven by household-level socio-economic factors, while FS were driven by village-level biophysical conditions. Households who were employed and had diversified farming and off-farm activities were better off and more resilient to climate change and crop-raiding animals. Intensification appears to occur gradually but has found to be limited by rainfall availability. Based on our findings, we propose that conservation experts and policy-makers should use a LFS approach to re-frame the conservation narrative in PAs of DCs and promote the existing practices that can better protect biodiversity while improving livelihood and welfare of local people.     

Smallholders' demand for and access to private‐sector extension services: A case study of contracted cotton producers in northern Tanzania

This paper examines demand for and access to private‐sector extension services by contracted cotton producers in northern Tanzania. Data from a non‐random survey of 520 smallholders show that only 21.9% received any extension and only 4.6% received extension from the cotton ginnery. Wealthier households were three times more likely to receive extension from any provider. While the public sector remains the main source of extension and is prioritized by smallholders, almost all households demanded extension from firms and are willing to invest 3 days per month mainly for advice on cotton and maize production. The involvement of third parties in the supply of extension from ginneries could not only meet smallholders' demands but could increase cotton supply and repayment rates to the firm, and thus finance the provision of missing extension advice.     

An analytical model proposal to design urban open spaces in balance with climate: A case study of Gaziantep

A significant decline has been experienced in the quality of life of people living in cities due to the deterioration of the ecological balance, decrease in biodiversity, together with air, noise and water pollution occurring as a result of population growth and urbanization. All of these factors have triggered global warming, which is one of the biggest problems in recent years. For this reason, the climate has become one of the most important factors in urban design works. The purpose of the present study is to determine the microclimatic contribution of urban open spaces to the city in the context of climate-balanced physical planning criteria, and to propose an analytical model, which may constitute a basis for planning and design works. Firstly, the climatic requirements of the city of Gaziantep were examined by creating bioclimatic comfort maps. In the following stage, monthly wind roses were created by determining the dominant wind directions for the summer and winter seasons. Optimum location and directions that were balanced with climate were determined and slope and aspect maps of the area, land use types and area selection criteria were also created. In light of these data, ecological compatibility and feasibility maps were prepared. In the feasibility map, the temperature and humidity maps were created with ENVI-met, which is a climatic simulation software, for the most extreme days in an area where there were residential areas and educational institutions, multi-storey residential areas, working areas, social and open green areas, and afforestation areas. The results that were obtained with the simulations were subjected to Regression Analysis to determine the relationship among the climate parameters and the design criteria. As a result, the increase in the quantity of urban green spaces and equality on the spatial distribution of these areas will improve bioclimatic comfort (the warmest hour of the hottest period regression analysis’ result is β= -0.384). It has been determined that planning high-density plantation in green spaces and selecting dense and broad-leaved plants will provide a cooling effect (on average 2−3 °C less). Furthermore, adding more green spaces in cities will increase the thermal comfort within city blocks, especially where high-rise buildings are common. It is confirmed that high-rise buildings cause thermal stress (the warmest hour of the hottest period regression analysis’ result is β = 0.472). Hardscapes have a negative effect on the temperature (the warmest hour of the hottest period regression analysis’ result is β = 0.425). In addition to these data, it was found that the mean radiant temperature values, instead of temperature values, would yield more accurate results in microclimate analyses and interpretations.     

Land suitability evaluation for development using a matter-element model: A case study in Zengcheng, Guangzhou, China

Land suitability evaluation can assist in the efficient use of land resources at a regional level. This is an important issue because of the pressures that an increasing population and economic growth have put on limited land resources. Matter-element theory, which was first put forward by the Chinese mathematician Cai Wen, has shown potential for solving incompatibility problems. Based on the matter-element model, this paper uses land use, roads, water bodies, population density, distance from center of the city, geodetic height, and slope as factors in modeling land suitability for development. Zengcheng, an urban-rural administration was used as a case study for applying the matter-element model to assessing the suitability of land for development. The model was cross referenced with local urban plans for verification and the results of this study show that the model constructed was effective at assessing the suitability of land for development. According to both the classification map created using the matter-element model and the statistics on the of land suitability classes, the study area was found to have a considerable amount of land which is highly suitable for development. After the category ‘highly suitable’, the next largest total land area was in the category of ‘not suitable’ for development, while there was relatively little land classified as moderately and marginally suitable. The percentage of the total land area of each class of suitability was 41.80%, 34.22%, 16.35% and 7.64%, respectively. Apart from this, the study also demonstrated the advantage of matter-element models over fuzzy theory, as they provide much more information. For example, all integrated degree of all classes in the paper had ranges from −1 to 1, but differed from each other by percentage. In the category of ‘highly suitable’ only 45.51% of matter-elements fully conformed to the criteria (those within a range of 0-0.5925), while the remainder (54.49%) did not corresponded to the requirements of the category, but did have the potential to do so with relatively few changes (those within a range of −0.3923-0 degrees). This data provides us with an understanding of the potential and limitation to development of the land in the region.     

Changes of livelihood due to land use shifts: A case study of Yanchang County in the Loess Plateau of China

Studies of land use policies are commonly based on the environmental impacts or on people's direct responses to the policies. However, research on the impact of policy implementation on people's livelihood and activities and the subsequent economic development of an area is incomplete. We selected Yanchang County as an example to track land use changes and their effects on the livelihood of the local population following the implementation of a new land use policy known as the Grain for Green Project (GGP). The data were collected from statistical yearbooks, questionnaire surveys, and satellite imagery from 1990, 2000, and 2008. We found that dramatic land use changes have occurred in Yanchang County. The vegetation coverage improved significantly from 1990 to 2008, as the grassland and forest areas increased from 44.1% to 60.1% and from 17.7% to 18.4% of the total land area, respectively. The cultivated land declined from 37.3% to 20.7%. With the agricultural area and grain production decreasing from 64 × 10³ tons to slightly over 20 × 10³ tons per year, an increasing number of local people sought employment in towns and cities. The non-farm income increased, and the local income structure shifted. Migrant and orchard worker income contributed the most to the balance of the total household income. We narrowed our focus to discuss how the GGP accelerated the changes in the participants’ lifestyles and what might be done to sustain the long-term effects of the GGP. While the GGP has brought about considerable environmental benefits, a comprehensive study of environmental–social systems is still needed to achieve a more efficient land use policy. The research results presented in this paper demonstrate that changes in land use and people's activities were triggered by policy changes. We aim to pave the way for studies on the “policy-land-use-social development” chain and to provide references for new policies.     

Recent trends in the supply of land for industrial development in Hong Kong: A case study in planned decentralization

Summary

Although free enterprise remains the dominant characteristic of the Hong Kong economy, new land supply is controlled largely by the Hong Kong Government. Rather than establish a detailed system of development plans and controls, the Government has been able to achieve substantial decentralization of housing and industry through the location of new land release. The evidence suggests that industrial developers have been willing to build and industrialists to locate in decentralized areas, especially those close to the main urban areas. Furthermore, although vacancy rates are generally higher and rental levels lower in decentralized compared to centralized locations, the extent of the differences over time is not as pronounced as might be expected. Indeed, the overall strength of demand for industrial land, other than in the recent slump, has necessitated special policies to protect land for low‐density industrial users in decentralized locations. As planned decentralization approaches completion, attention is beginning to focus upon redevelopment in the older urban areas and upon the consequences of the Sino‐British Joint Declaration of 1985. Overall, recent land policies in Hong Kong offer the British observer some useful indications of the impact of government intervention in land use on existing property markets.     

Designing afforestation subsidies that account for the benefits of carbon sequestration: A case study using data from China's Loess Plateau

This paper presents a method for determining the subsidy required to motivate farmers to participate in timber afforestation programs designed to maximize social well-being. The method incorporates a carbon sequestration benefit function into the land expected value model in order to quantify the social benefit arising from carbon sequestration by the planted trees. This is used to calculate the optimal rotation age for newly planted forests that maximizes social utility. The minimum subsidy required to motivate farmers to participate in the afforestation program was calculated using a modified decision model that accounts for the subsidy's impact. The maximum subsidy offered by the government was taken to be the NPV of the carbon sequestration achieved by afforestation. Data on Robinia pseudoacacia L. trees planted on the Loess Plateau were used in an empirical test of the model, which in this case predicts an optimal subsidy of 254.38 yuan/ha over 40 years. This would guarantee the maintenance of forest on land designated for afforestation until they reached the socially optimal rotation age. The method presented herein offers a new framework for designing afforestation subsidy programs that account for the environmental service (specially, the carbon sequestration) provided by forests.