Biofuels and ecoagriculture: can bioenergy production enhance landscape-scale ecosystem conservation and rural livelihoods?

Global development of the biofuel sector is proceeding rapidly, driven by national policy mandates, government subsidies, and profit opportunities for farmers, agribusiness and energy companies. To date, most investment in—and dialogue on—biofuels has focused on large-scale production of liquid transport fuels. A smaller set of efforts has explored the potential of biofuels to promote rural development by reducing energy poverty among the world's two billion poorest people. Here, we consider the potential of these diverse approaches to promote the goals of ecoagriculture: namely, sustainable agricultural production (including biofuel feedstocks), conservation of biodiversity and ecosystem services and viable rural livelihoods. Using a landscape planning framework, we review empirical evidence and identify criteria for designing biofuel production systems that promote this trio of goals. Biofuel development has the greatest potential when biomass production is an ‘interstitial’ activity and when processing and use occurs at the local level. Larger scale production for regional or global liquid fuel markets may be beneficial under some circumstances, but a stronger policy framework is needed to guide this approach. To advance biofuels for sustainable development, while avoiding serious risks, investment must shift to include a variety of ecoagriculture-compatible pathways. Supportive public policies and market incentives must be developed before the biofuel sector develops strong path-dependence toward unsustainable outcomes.     

西澳矿业督察员行政执法制度及启示

西澳矿业督察员制度对预防和解决涉矿纠纷起着不可低估的作用.通过介绍和研究西澳矿业督察员制度的有关督察员的任命及行政职能、管辖、程序、送达、非正审命令、审理、证据等内容,指出了该制度对我国矿权管理的启示:重视矿权争端的事前行政规制、保障矿业和谐发展,强化司法审查、规范矿业行政执法的裁量权,采用利益激励机制、发挥当事人的主动性、积极性与配合作用,立法完备周延、确保矿业执法部门依法行政将为我国矿业管理规范提供有效途径.     

安徽省生物多样性的保护

安徽省地处亚热带与暖温带的过渡区,是多种动植物区系成分的交汇之地。境内生物丰富,珍稀涉危物种比较多,在分析安徽省物种多样性主要特征地基础上,着重探讨了生物多样性保护的对策问题。     

都江堰市生物多样性保护现状、问题及对策

分析了都江堰市生物多样性的特点、保护现状及存在问题;认为种类丰富、特有种多、显示度高是其物种多样性特点;物种的吉毒性和珍稀濒危性是其遗传多样性特点;类型多样、结构复杂则体现了生态系统多样性特点;目前,全市已成功开展了生物多样性的就地与迁地保护。但在保护区管理与人类活动的影响方面仍存在不少问题;提出了加强宣传教育、加大监测力度,促进科学研究、加强地方立法与执法和加强国际合作与交流等生物多样性保护的对策措施。     

洞庭湖湿地生物多样性及其保护的研究

洞庭湖生物多样性及其保护所受到的影响主要来自3方面：湿地类型面积变更、环境污染及大型工程等方面的影响;提出若干生物多样性保护措施。     

野生动物利用,贸易与生物多样性保护

生物资源是人类赖以生存的物质基础。而当今人类的活动加剧了动物资源的破坏程度。该文就动物资源的利用、贸易、保护和持续 作了一较系统为的阐述。     

论生物多样性保护在岩溶环境开发中的意义——以金佛山岩溶区为例

岩溶环境由于其特殊的水、土、结构组合特征,生态系统具有明显的脆弱性,这极大地阻碍了所在区域的经济发展,金佛山岩溶环境除具有岩溶环境的共同特点外,还具有生物多样性;重视生物多样性的保护,在此基础上逐步展开经济开发工作,有利于金佛山岩溶区的经济、生态、社会的可持续发展。     

Promoting nature conservation by Dutch farmers: a governance perspective†

Reconciling productive agricultural practices with nature conservation is not only an ecological challenge, but also a demanding matter of governance. This paper analyses the potential as well as the limitations of various governance arrangements, and explores ways to enhance the governance of nature conservation in agricultural landscapes. We assume four conditions to contribute to the performance of these arrangements: farmers should be motivated, demanded, enabled, and legitimized to participate in arrangements that promote nature conservation by farmers. We analyse 10 distinct Dutch governance arrangements in the period 2000–2016, including agri-environment schemes but also privately initiated arrangements. The arrangements target a large but unknown share of farmers and farmlands, but nature conservation ambition levels are generally low to moderate. The expected low-to-moderate performance is associated with a low-to-moderate motivation, demand, and ability. Underlying are stronger forces driving towards intensification and problems farmers face in recuperating the cost of nature conservation. New greening requirements in the EU Common Agricultural Policy and in agri-food supply chains are first, cautious steps addressing these fundamental drivers of ecological degradation. More ambitious greening requirements may contribute to a higher motivation and ability of larger groups of farmers to implement nature conservation measures.     

达赉湖湿地生物多样性保护及对策

论述了内蒙古达赉湖湿地的自然概况及其形成原因,分析了该湿地的主要生物多样性特点及价值;人类活动频繁、过度放牧、破坏植被,已引起局部沙化,使生物多样性减少;提出了相应的生物多样性保护和可持续利用对策、协调人类活动与生物多样性保护的关系;严控载畜量,发展人工草场;发挥本地优势,防沙治沙,加强湿地保护.     

Targeting Incentives to Reduce Habitat Fragmentation

This article develops a theoretical model to analyze the spatial targeting of incentives for the restoration of forested landscapes when wildlife habitat can be enhanced by reducing fragmentation. The key theoretical result is that the marginal net benefits of increasing forest can be convex, in which case corner solutions—converting either none or all of the agricultural land in a section to forest—may be optimal. Corner solutions are directly linked to the spatial process determining habitat benefits and the regulator's incomplete information regarding landowner opportunity costs. We present findings from large-scale empirical landscape simulations that support our key theoretical results.     

Reducing agrochemical use for nature conservation by Italian olive farmers: an evaluation of public and private governance strategies

A variety of public policies and private strategies have been implemented to stimulate farmers to implement nature conservation measures. Examples include publicly funded agri-environment schemes (AES) but also eco-labels and Alternative Food Networks; strategies that have been implemented in response to the continuous decline in species abundance and diversity due to agricultural intensification and scale enlargement. Whereas AES as a distinct governance strategy has been evaluated in detail, less is known about other strategies. In this paper, we assess the relative importance of the variety of public and private strategies aimed at enhancing species abundance and diversity in Italian olive farming through a reduction in agrochemical use. In a survey of olive farmers in the region of Tuscany, we found that although farmers are exposed to a variety of public and private strategies, personal motives to reduce agrochemical use are most important. Moreover, having a Corporate Social Responsibility plan or engaging in direct sales to consumers are the only strategies that are related to a reduction in agrochemical use. These findings suggest self-governance is a powerful strategy for enhancing species diversity and abundance in agricultural landscapes. Yet it also means contributing to nature conservation and restoration is a voluntary act. Olive farmers who do not voluntarily contribute to nature conservation by reducing agrochemicals need to be incentivized by show-casing farmers who did reduce their agrochemical use, by critical consumers or by stricter rules in AES or in generic agri-environmental legislation.     

Agri-environment scheme protects diversity of mountain grassland species

Most evaluations of agri-environment policies conducted in Europe have focused on biodiversity improvement effects. Their effectiveness with respect to protecting existing biodiversity has been less investigated. Biodiversity and landscape protection effects can be expected in marginal agricultural areas, where farming has been less intensive.We investigated (i) the effectiveness of the Ecological Compensation Area (ECA) scheme for biodiversity protection according to different evaluation criteria and (ii) how the effectiveness of the scheme was influenced by climate, socio-economic conditions and farming structures. Vegetation surveys were carried out in 18 municipalities across the Swiss Alps on 162 randomly selected meadows managed as ECAs and on 162 conventionally managed meadows. Average species richness of ECA-meadows per municipality ranged between 27 and 46 vascular plant species per 25m² (conventionally managed meadows: 16-35 species per 25 m²). In lower altitude municipalities (mainly fulltime farming) where ECA meadows constituted 20% of farmland, the difference in species richness between the two land-use types was highly significant and the contribution of ECA-meadows to the grassland species pool was highest. In higher altitude municipalities (mainly part-time farming) where ECA meadows constituted at least 40% of farmland, higher species richness was found. This was associated with a strong botanical similarity of ECA and conventionally managed meadows.We conclude that at lower altitudes, where farming is relatively intensive, the ECA scheme protects a few, economically marginal, species rich and botanically complementary sites, important for maintaining the species pool. At higher altitudes the ECA scheme contributes to protecting existing biodiversity at the landscape scale. As it is more efficient to protect than to restore biodiversity, the protection effect of agri-environmental schemes needs to be adequately recognized.     

Environmental policy integration: Towards a communicative approach in integrating nature conservation and urban planning in Bulgaria

As urban areas continue to expand, the need to consider nature conservation objectives in planning is growing. Policy makers across Europe recognize that effective nature conservation requires an integrated approach to land use planning that includes relevant ecological and spatial knowledge. Although a number of such integrated approaches have been developed, many local authorities in Europe encounter important institutional barriers to this integration. This is particularly true for countries in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) like Bulgaria. The post-socialist transformation in Bulgaria led to intensified urban growth and local authorities struggle to find a balance between environmental and socio-economic interests. Meanwhile, the Environmental Policy Integration ‘principle’ (EPI) has been gaining prominence in Europe, aiming to address the trade-offs between environmental and economic incentives. Research highlights that successful EPI depends on institutional processes within different economic sectors and across governmental scales. These processes have not yet been comprehensively studied in the CEE and in Bulgaria. This article assesses the EPI process in urban planning in Bulgaria and identifies the institutional approaches that may contribute best to EPI in urban planning. Using the example of the “Corner Land” project in the city of Burgas, we discuss the key challenges that the local authorities face in addressing nature conservation in land use plans. The findings indicate that EPI is to a high degree constrained by the lack of an efficient communicative process across fragmented organizational structures throughout the entire planning process. While a procedural approach to EPI appears to be prevalent it is concluded that a communicative approach is urgently needed if the sustainability of urban plans is to be safeguarded and negative impacts on nature prevented.     

Optimisation and the selection of conservation contracts*

This paper explores alternative techniques for the selection of conservation contracts under competitive tendering programs. Under these programs, purchasing decisions are often based on the benefits score and cost for proposed projects. The optimisation problem is to maximise the aggregate benefits without exceeding the budget. Because the budget rarely permits all projects to be funded, there is a binary choice problem, known in the operations research published work as a knapsack problem. The decision‐maker must choose which projects are funded and which are not. Under some circumstances, the knapsack problem can be unsolvable because computational complexity increases exponentially with the number of projects. This paper explores the use of several decision rules for solving the optimisation problem including the use of advanced meta‐heuristics. It is shown that commonly applied techniques for project selection may not be providing the optimal solution. Improved algorithms can increase the environmental programs benefits and staying within budget. The comparison of algorithms is based on real data from the Western Australian Conservation Auction.     

Economic Analysis of Animal Genetic Resources and the Use of Rural Appraisal Methods: Lessons from Southeast Mexico

Livestock diversity provides genetic alternatives that facilitate sustainable agricultural development. Despite this, animal genetic resources (AnGR) are being depleted at alarming rates. Subsidises available to production systems based on imported breeds are of several orders of magnitude greater than the costs of local breed conservation. Economic arguments for the conservation and sustainable use of threatened AnGR can be an effective means of establishing support for the development of appropriate enabling environments. Despite the importance of the economics of AnGR conservation, the subject has received limited attention. Reasons include: methodological difficulties inherent in valuing genetic resources; limited knowledge about appropriate analytical techniques; and lack of data regarding local breeds. As recent advances in economic valuation have eased methodological/analytical constraints, the issue of data availability has become critical. Data related to livestock keepers' preferences for different genetic resource attributes and the value placed on these across species, breeds and production systems are needed. Based on a study of a local pig breed in Mexico, this paper shows how the use of rural appraisal methods, in conjunction with recently developed analytical techniques, are capable of providing the data required for understanding the type and costs of interventions necessary to promote the conservation and sustainable use of AnGR.     

On‐Farm Conservation of Rice Biodiversity in Nepal: A Simultaneous Estimation Approach

This paper presents an empirical case study about farmer management of rice genetic resources in two communities of Nepal, drawing on interdisciplinary, participatory research that involved farmers, rice geneticists and social scientists. The decision‐making process of farm households is modelled and estimated in order to provide information for the design of community‐based conservation programmes. A bivariate model with sample selection examines the simultaneous process of whether farmers decide to plant landraces or modern varieties, and whether the landraces they choose to plant constitute the genetic diversity of interest for future crop improvement. Findings show that the two landrace choices are affected by different social and economic factors, but in certain cases the decision processes are interrelated. Policies to promote the conservation of local rice diversity will need to take both processes into account.