坚持集体林改与灾后重建相结合 努力提升湖南林业发展水平

湖南把林业灾后恢复重建作为全省重建工作的重中之重来抓,并纳入了省委"救灾补损保目标、改进作风促和谐"专项活动。全省筹措林业灾后恢复重建资金13.56亿元,落实恢复重建措施。着眼长远注重让林农掌握科学植树技术,注重提高森林抗风险能力,注重快速恢复森林植被,注重强化森林经营,高质量恢复森林生态系统,高起点改革林业发展机制,高标准防控次生灾害。尽全力争取省委省政府的重视和支持,提升林业部门的形象和地位。     

重庆市林业灾后重建的若干问题与建议

这次雨雪冰冻天气给重庆市林业造成巨大损失。天保工程公益林损失4.7万hm2,退耕还林受损面积12万hm2,受灾林业职工3607人,基础设施毁损严重。林业直接经济损失8.3亿元。灾后重建工作面临进一步核灾林业灾情、受灾林木清理、林业基础设施恢复重建等问题,并提出相应建议。     

特大雨雪灾害对林业的影响及恢复重建思路

概述了2008年1月中旬以来特大雨雪冰冻灾害给林业造成的巨大损失,分析了灾情特点及对今后林业发展的重大影响,介绍了各级林业部门全力应对灾害取得的成绩和初步效果,提出了灾后恢复重建的工作思路和重点。林业因灾直接经济损失573亿元,受害森林面积1860万hm~2,受冻苗木近100亿株,冻死冻伤重点保护野生动物3万头。灾后重建的主要环节:保民生、保林木售价、科学清理、调剂种苗、争取补贴、减免税费、恢复重建和防止次生、衍生灾害。     

明确任务 增添措施 努力推进四川粮食工作又好又快发展

今年是四川地震灾后恢复重建,促进粮食事业加快发展的关键之年.全省粮食工作的基本思路是:坚持以科学发展观为指导,紧紧围绕"保障供给,稳定市场,确保安全"的要求,加强宏观调控,增强粮食收购、储存和加工能力,促进粮食生产与流通协调发展;抓住灾后重建机遇,加强粮食流通基础设施建设.加快现代粮食物流和市场体系发展步伐,构建新型城乡购销网络体系;大力推进粮食产业化经营,增加农民收入,发展壮大企业,推进粮食事业持续健康发展.     

做好灾后调查评估 科学组织灾后重建——广西壮族自治区灾后林业恢复重建调研报告

广西壮族自治区这次雨雪冰冻灾害造成林业直接经济损失215.75亿元。其恢复重建面临的主要困难是资金和政策两个方面,需政府进行扶持。目前急需在深化对灾情认识、组织实施灾情调查评估、做好灾害竹林清理、编制恢复重建规划等方面做好工作。     

在全国林业贴息贷款项目管理业务工作会上的讲话

这次林业贴息贷款项目管理业务工作会议,是在全面推进集体林权制度改革和积极开展林业灾后恢复重建的形势下召开的,对于我们深入探索利用国家信贷政策和贴息政策推进林权制度配套改革,积极开展林业灾后恢复重建具有十分重要的意     

在全国林业贴息贷款项目管理业务工作会上的讲话

这次林业贴息贷款项目管理业务工作会议,是在全面推进集体林权制度改革和积极开展林业灾后恢复重建的形势下召开的,对于我们深入探索利用国家信贷政策和贴息政策推进林权制度配套改革,积极开展林业灾后恢复重建具有十分重要的意义.     

在全国林业贴息贷款项目管理业务工作会上的讲语

这次林业贴息贷款项目管理业务工作会议,是在全面推进集体林权制度改革和积极开展林业灾后恢复重建的形势下召开的,对于我们深人探索利用国家信贷政策和贴息政策推进林权制度配套改革,积极开展林业灾后恢复重建具有十分重要的意义。会议的主要任务是：深入贯彻落实全国林业厅局长会议精神和要求,     

财政部、农业部预拨农民培训资金16亿

为抓好灾后农业恢复重建、春耕生产,促进农民增收,近日,财政部、农业部预拨农民培训资金16亿元,提前启动实施今年的新型农民科技培训工程和农村劳动力转移培训阳光工程,全面开展灾后恢复生产和春耕备耕培训工作。     

财政部、农业部预拨16亿农民培训资金

为抓好灾后农业恢复重建、春耕生产,促进农民增收,财政部、农业部已预拨农民培训资金16亿元,提前启动实施2008年新型农民科技培训工程和农村劳动力转移培训阳光工程,全面开展灾后恢复生产和春耕备耕培训工作.     

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

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

Application of an ecosystem function framework to perceptions of community woodlands

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

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

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

An evaluation framework for earthquake-responsive land administration

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Underpayment of Small Producers of Coffee and Cocoa in Sierra Leone

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

Malaria incidence and agricultural efficiency in Uganda

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