拯救我们的农村生态环境

发展循环经济是实现可持续发展的一个重要途径,同时也是保护环境和削减污染的根本手段。我国农村经济必须改变“资源—产品—污染排放”的传统模式,逐步将“先污染,后治理的末端治理”模式转型到“资源—产品—再生资源”的环状反馈式循环经济模式。     

湖泊富营养化的生态修复策略

由于工业化的发展和人类生产活动的加剧,大量有机污染物不断排入湖泊并在其中积累,致使湖泊产生了富营养化现象,当前我国湖泊污染及富营养化问题非常严重。文中论述了湖泊富营养化的现状及危害,分析了产生的原因,指出生态修复是治理的最佳途径。因此,湖泊治理应该遵循先控源截污、后生态恢复,即先改善基础环境,后实施生态恢复的战略路线。     

长江经济带外商直接投资的 环境效应研究

外资对环境的影响分为规模、结构和技术效应。虽然2003年至2016年期间外资与环境之间呈倒U型关系,但总体规模效应为正,结构效应为负,技术效应不确定。污染治理投入对环境改善产生了负效应,说明长江经济带正在弥补以前先污染后治理的过错,但还存在"越治理越污染"的怪象。外资专利申请对环境的正向作用有限,建议在继续扩大外资规模的同时,注重优化产业结构,提高技术引进层次。     

我国农业面源污染现状、发生机制和对策研究

文章综述了我国农业面源污染的定义和发展现状,从宏观、中观和微观三个层面分析了我国农业面源污染发生机制。认为追求增长的发展观、城乡二元经济社会结构、农业面源污染的负外部性、治理成本高及多元化的农户生产行为是造成农业面源污染的主要原因。在分析我国目前农业面源污染治理的技术环境和制度环境基础上,提出了农业面源污染控制的政策建议。     

我国农田和水体污染及微生物修复前景

重金属以及化学农药(除草剂)残留和多化芳烃等有机污染是造成我国农田复合污染的主要污染物,是影响到我国农业可持续发展和粮食安全、农业生态环境安全的重要问题。水体氮磷污染和富营养化也是我国目前的主要环境问题之一。微生物在农田污染治理和水体富营养化修复中显示出越来越重要的作用。该文分析了我国农田的重金属污染和有机污染,以及我国水体富营养化的严峻形势,讨论了微生物资源在农田与水体污染修复中前景。     

农村工业源重金属污染:现状、动因与对策——来自企业层面的证据

我国耕地和农产品重金属污染形势严峻,工业排污是重要来源之一。本文通过对第一次全国经济普查和近期全国规模以上工业企业数据的分析,发现我国农村地区重金属污染企业数量多、增长快,技术水平低,布局分散。土壤重金属污染具有不可逆性,各级政府必须彻底转变"先污染、后治理"的常规思路。重金属污染企业须集中布局,从源头上扭转土壤重金属污染的扩散态势;加强对企业重金属污染排放的监测,激励企业通过治污革新技术工艺;治理农村污染须多部委协作和地方政府切实转变发展观念。     

治理焚烧秸秆污染与科技创新

近年来,在我国一些粮食主产区出现了焚烧秸秆污染.焚烧秸秆污染已经影响到我国农业和国民经济的可持续发展,成为严重的社会经济问题.治理焚烧秸秆污染,已经成为摆在我们面前的紧迫任务.焚烧秸秆污染是我国农业发展到新的历史阶段出现的新问题,我们必须通过发展经济的手段来治理.大力开展秸秆的综合利用,发展秸秆经济,推动秸秆利用产业的发展,是治理焚烧秸秆污染的有效途径.而科技创新是推动秸秆利用产业化,彻底治理焚烧秸秆污染的根本措施和关键.     

农业污染的现状、规律及治理思路——基于“十二五”规划及农业经济结构调整的研究

我国农业污染排放问题形势严峻,其治理已被列为“十二五”时期的一项重要任务.本文通过实证分析得出,农业污染排放与农业总产值高度正相关,且两者间关系更符合“倒N型”假设,这意味着农业污染水平并不会随着农业经济的发展而自动下降,因而需要积极实施治理.从农业经济结构的角度来看,随着多种经营的发展,农业污染排放有一个先升后降的过程.这要求我们更加注重推进农业的集约经营.最后,本文基于实证分析并结合“十二五”规划,提出了相应的政策建议.     

城市大气颗粒物污染治理方案

随着中国经济的快速增长,不断增长的能源消耗和机动车辆加重了城市大气环境的负担,城市空气污染作为一个主要的环境问题正迅速地凸现出来。本文从我国城市大气颗粒物污染现状、特点出发,提出有效、可实施的大气颗粒物污染管理建议和工业治理大气颗粒物污染的实施设备、方法及建议。     

治理焚烧秸杆污染与科技创新

近年来 ,在我国一些粮食主产区出现了焚烧秸秆污染。焚烧秸秆污染已经影响到我国农业和国民经济的可持续发展 ,成为严重的社会经济问题。治理焚烧秸秆污染 ,已经成为摆在我们面前的紧迫任务。焚烧秸秆污染是我国农业发展到新的历史阶段出现的新问题 ,我们必须通过发展经济的手段来治理。大力开展秸秆的综合利用 ,发展秸秆经济 ,推动秸秆利用产业的发展 ,是治理焚烧秸秆污染的有效途径。而科技创新是推动秸秆利用产业化 ,彻底治理焚烧秸秆污染的根本措施和关键。焚烧秸秆污染的出现 ,实际上就是我们在相关领域的科技创新相对滞后的反映。焚烧…     

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.