Fiscal transfers for biodiversity conservation: The Portuguese Local Finances Law

Biodiversity loss is a serious and ongoing global environmental problem. Economic instruments in biodiversity policies can contribute towards reconciling the conservation costs encountered at local level with the benefits of biodiversity conservation at higher levels of governance, from regional and national levels up to the global level. This paper outlines the theoretical foundations of fiscal transfers in conservation policies and also offers a concise account of existing international experience and future prospects. The recently amended Portuguese Local Finances Law (LFL) of 2007, with its groundbreaking new article on the promotion of local sustainability, is analysed in terms of the significance of fiscal transfers for municipal budgets. It is compared with its predecessor law, highlighting changes in fiscal revenues for selected municipalities in the country in relation to their designated conservation areas. The analysis shows that these ecological fiscal transfers can be significant for those municipalities with a large proportion of land under protected status. However, because it also introduces a considerable number of changes to the Portuguese fiscal transfer scheme, the ecological impact of the new LFL is difficult to grasp due to the presence of several crossover effects. The results obtained offer significant insights both for improving the Portuguese LFL and for designing new ecological fiscal transfer schemes.     

Economic evaluation of ecosystem goods and services under different landscape management scenarios

Human-induced changes in the natural environment are affecting the provision of ecosystem goods and services (EGS). Land use plans rarely include the value of public ecosystem services such as climate regulation and biodiversity due to difficulties in valuing these services. In this study, we assessed total economic value for five important ecosystem goods and services under five future land-use scenarios using varying levels of costs, prices and discount rates. Results indicated that at higher discount rates normally applied to commercial activities, and assuming the current prices for goods and services, net present value (NPV) was highest for landscape management scenarios aimed at maximising agricultural production. Potential income from services such as carbon and biodiversity does not offset projected income lost from agriculture due to land-use changes. At higher discount rates, NPV was negative for the two scenarios aimed at enhancing the longer term ecological sustainability of the landscape. These results indicate that income from carbon sequestration and biodiversity conservation would need to be considerably higher than current levels in order to justify focusing management of this landscape on ecological outcomes. At lower discount rates (at levels normally associated with public investments), the more ecologically appropriate ‘mosaic farming system’ had the highest NPV, indicating that this type of system might be attractive for investors interested in longer term return horizons or wider public benefits. Higher income from carbon or biodiversity, or increased return from timber by using high value tree species, could potentially make more ecologically appropriate systems profitable at higher discount rates.     

Major issues in Indonesia's urban land development

This article addresses issues of urban land development in Indonesia, including urban land use; ownership and transfers; land taxation; and land information systems. Until very recently, urban land-use planning in Indonesia was largely top-down in character and neglected to include the public as a stakeholder. This article argues that the role of government in urban land-use development needs to change at all levels and that the capacity of local government in land-use management needs to be strengthened. The presence of private developers in urban development should be encouraged. Land development permits—as a means of urban development control—while they may still be necessary should be granted primarily in relation to urban land-use plans (RUTR). Land taxation instruments have not been effectively applied to control land utilisation in the cities. Data and information on land affairs are lacking.     

建立公益林生态效益补偿制度的理论依据

本文引用国内外专家对森林生态价值问题的研究成果 ,说明森林具有生态价值。可是 ,由于目前公益林所发挥的生态效益被无偿享用 ,使公益林的生态价值得不到补偿 ,投入的成本也无法回收 ,因此必须给予补偿。同时 ,本文运用公共物品和外部性理论论证了公益林属于公共物品 ,具有明显的外部经济性 ,市场机制无法保障公益林的有效供给 ,所以公益林补偿必须由政府干预。     

建立适应土地资源市场配置的国家宏观调控体系

研究目的:构建适应市场配置的国家宏观调控体系,保障土地资源市场配置的顺利实施。研究方法:系统分析法,政策分析法。研究结果:在市场配置下,政府可以通过以下措施实现对土地市场的宏观调控:(1)改革现行土地利用规划、计划制度,建立适应市场经济的规划、计划体系;(2)改革并建立能够促进土地集约利用、优化配置、收益公平分配的土地财税制度;(3)实行土地用途管制分区,限制土地使用权,克服土地利用的负外部性;(4)为实现公共利益征收土地所有权、使用权,由国家确定其土地用途;(5)改革现行行政审批制度,简政放权;(6)尽快制定《土地基本法》。研究结论:目前应首先改革财税制度,把建立稳定的、与地方政府事权相匹配的地税体系作为土地管理制度改革的切入口,为全面开展土地管理制度改革奠定基础。     

节水财税金融政策模式创新研究

我国节水管理的财税金融支持政策较为薄弱。节能与节水同样具有显著公益性和外部性,其财税金融政策经验可供节水领域借鉴。从政策手段、支持目标和实施效果等政策要素角度,对比分析我国节水与节能财税金融支持政策存在的差距。在政策手段上,支持节水的财政、税收、贷款、基金、债券等政策工具尚未得到系统应用,上市融资、保险、证券等金融手段还处于探索阶段。在政策目标上,对节水灌溉设施运行维护、节水技术与产品研发及推广、节水示范等支持较弱。在政策效果上,节水行业发展规模和效率水平都明显落后于节能行业。基于政策要素对比,将所需完善的政策手段和支持目标进行组合,得到需要创新实施的10项节水财税金融政策模式。     

Accounting for farmers’ production responses to environmental restrictions within landscape planning

Environmental planning aims to safeguard and foster the ecological functionality of agricultural landscapes. In order to reach a sustainable development of agricultural landscapes, in addition to ecological objectives socio-economic ones also need to be considered. In this context, the authors draw attention to three points. First, whenever ecologically sensitive areas (“ecological sites”) are used for agricultural production, it is necessary to take account of the fact that farmers tend to adapt to environmental requirements by production responses outside the ecological site itself. Second, in order to identify the socially most “desirable” land-use responses it is necessary to supplement the above-mentioned environmental objectives by socio-economic ones. Third, when choosing an appropriate model for such multi-criteria decision analysis, the question of substitutability between criteria is of utmost importance. The paper discusses the above-mentioned issues against the background of a case study of environmental planning for an ecologically very valuable agricultural landscape in Germany, the Bayerisches Donauried. Two models of multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) are applied, one based on the “single synthesizing criterion” method, and the other one based on the “synthesis by outranking” method. The models serve to evaluate four different land-use options, using criteria mainly derived from landscape functions and weights gained from interviews with major stakeholders. The paper presents the models’ results concerning the ranking of the different land-use options and discusses the implications for agri-environmental policies and rural development planning.     

Modeling farm households for estimating the efficiency of policy instruments on sustainable land use in Haiti

Degradation of natural resources in Haiti has been a growing concern to foresters, environmentalists, and local populations. Various approaches based on “participatory”, “fines and taxes” and “command and control” regulations, have been unsuccessfully implemented to persuade farm households to adopt conservation measures. Negative impacts on the welfare of farmers limit the efficiency of these approaches for forest conservation. This paper investigates alternative solutions to the problem of deforestation of Haiti using linear programming (LP) models. More specifically, this study evaluates the role of various policy instruments on large-income farm households and low-income farm households’ welfare and forest conservation in Haiti. Data from 243 farmers inside the Forêt of the Forêt des Pins Reserve are used in the empirical analysis. Results suggest that agricultural subsidies tied to environmental conservation would promote a more sustainable resource use in Forêt des Pins Reserve.     

Public preferences for biodiversity conservation and climate-change mitigation: A choice experiment using ecosystem services indicators

Potential conflicts exist between biodiversity conservation and climate-change mitigation as trade-offs in multiple-use land management. This study aims to evaluate public preferences for biodiversity conservation and climate-change mitigation policy considering respondents’ uncertainty on their choice. We conducted a choice experiment using land-use scenarios in the rural Kushiro watershed in northern Japan. The results showed that the public strongly wish to avoid the extinction of endangered species in preference to climate-change mitigation in the form of carbon sequestration by increasing the area of managed forest. Knowledge of the site and the respondents’ awareness of the personal benefits associated with supporting and regulating services had a positive effect on their preference for conservation plans. Thus, decision-makers should be careful about how they provide ecological information for informed choices concerning ecosystem services tradeoffs. Suggesting targets with explicit indicators will affect public preferences, as well as the willingness of the public to pay for such measures. Furthermore, the elicited-choice probabilities approach is useful for revealing the distribution of relative preferences for incomplete scenarios, thus verifying the effectiveness of indicators introduced in the experiment.     

Safeguards for enhancing ecological compensation in Sweden

Ecological compensation (EC) is being explored as a policy instrument for the European Union’s ‘No Net Loss of Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services’ initiative. EC is commonly associated with the Polluter-Pays Principle, but we propose the Developer-Pays Principle as a more comprehensive principle. Safeguards that are relevant to local and national contexts are needed when addressing social-ecological resilience in the face of risks associated with EC. The operationalisation of EC in Sweden is assessed through two case studies: the E12 highway and Mertainen mine. The institutional design and implementation procedures are investigated through semi-structured interviews as well as an analysis of legal and other written documents. Using a multi-level governance framework, we examine four key disputed issues within compensation. Our results suggest that (i) Risk of a license-to-trash can be minimised; (ii) Complementary quantitative and qualitative ecological valuation methods are needed to achieve additionality and No Net Loss; (iii) Compensation pools may be a promising strategy to secure land availability; and (iv) Social safeguards are vital for EC in high-income countries as well, where they are currently understudied. We conclude that EC cannot be the main instrument for nature conservation, but rather complementary to a strong legal framework that protects biodiversity and ecosystems in addition to the sustained and equitable benefits of ecosystem services.     

自然保护区管理体制创新:两个维度的思考

自然保护区是典型的生态型公共产品。经过多年的发展,自然保护区在保护生态环境,促进生物多样性的作用日益突出。当前需要从宏观及微观两个维度完善自然保护区管理体制。宏观层面需要调整不同级次政府自然保护的职能,加强和完善环境保护行政主管部门的综合管理职能,同时明确自然保护区主管部门的管理职能。微观层面需要发挥管理机构、当地居民、市场主体及社会组织的协同作用,提升自然保护区管理的有效性。     

Sensitivity evaluation and land-use control of urban ecological corridors: A case study of Shenzhen,China

Constructing an urban ecological corridor system is a major component and critical factor of forming an effective network within an urban ecosystem. Shenzhen, as a highly urbanized area in China, is facing the dual pressures of urban development and ecological conservation. The ecological corridors in Shenzhen are being constantly eroded by urban expansion, resulting in an urgent need to carry out sensitivity evaluations and ecological land management studies. By identifying the spatial range of planned ecological corridors in Shenzhen, we develop a GIS-based ecological sensitivity evaluation model from the perspectives of soil environment, habitat conditions, geological hazards, and human disturbance. Management strategies are proposed with regard to macroscopic protection guidance and microscopic land-use control. The results show that there is little difference in the sensitivity grade of ecological corridors in Shenzhen. With regard to spatial distribution, the sensitivity level is high in the north and low in the south, with moderately sensitive corridors being the dominant type. Meanwhile, we design the land-use control program by taking into account the present management and new land demand and provide the path for implementing the withdrawal, reservation, occupation, and avoidance polices. The results of the sensitivity evaluation objectively reflect the eco-environmental condition of ecological corridors in Shenzhen. The classified and graded protection guidance and space regulatory framework proposed in this study are of significance for guiding the ecological conservation, land use, and sustainable development in urban contexts with similar issues.     

土地财政区域差异研究综述

[目的]进一步揭示土地财政已存在的区域差异规律,为构建更为科学、切实可行的政策建议,推动"征地→批租"地方政府土地财政模式转型提供新的研究视角。[方法]文献资料方法和比较研究方法。[结果]现有研究证实了土地财政规模及依赖程度、财政收入激励下地方政府土地出让方式、土地财政推动经济增长、土地财政影响居民收入消费及公共品供给、土地财政与城市用地规模联动关系等方面,在全国范围内都存在东部、中部、西部的区域差异。国外保有环节的房地产税是地方政府持续的财政资金来源;同时,是促进房地产市场有序发展、抑制城市蔓延的有效政策工具。[结论]未来研究方向是以地市为单元,探明各类土地财政构成要素对于经济增长、居民收入与消费及产业服务化、城市公共品供给、城市各类用地规模增长的影响内在机理;构建区域差别化的保有环节房地产税征收管理政策方案。     

Auctions as a Means of Creating a Market for Public Goods from Agriculture

The paper looks at the possibility of creating a market for environmental goods and services in the countryside by awarding conservation contracts to farmers on the basis of competitive bidding. Auctions have several theoretical advantages over alternative allocation mechanisms (such as standard-rate payments) because they allow the participants to deal with informational asymmetries and the uncertainty about the value of the (non-market) goods being traded. A formal model of bidding behaviour in ‘green auctions’ shows that bidding strategies are determined by the individual farmers' costs of implementing the conservation contracts and their beliefs about the maximum acceptable payment level, making the auction an imperfect cost revelation mechanism. Auctions can reduce the information rents accruing to farmers and can increase the cost-effectiveness of public goods provision. Strategic bidding behaviour in multiple-signup auctions as well as high transaction costs are potential sources of reduced efficiency.     

土地利用类型变化与生态系统服务价值分析——以赤峰市农牧交错带为例

随着经济的快速发展,土地利用变化频繁,生态问题日益凸显。为了探究土地利用与生态系统的密切联系,为生态建设提供理论依据,以内蒙古赤峰市农牧交错带为研究区,基于1997年、2004年和2011年的三期TM影像数据,运用土地利用动态度分析土地利用类型变化,并参照中国陆地生态系统服务价值的计算方法估算出研究区的生态系统服务价值。结果表明,研究区3期的耕、林、草面积均占土地总面积的90%左右;土地利用类型变化明显,在1997~2011年耕地面积先减少后增加,林地面积一直持续增加,草地面积不断减少;研究区的生态系统服务价值呈增长趋势,草地和林地对生态系统服务价值贡献最大,占总价值的85%左右;各土地利用类型的敏感性指数均小于1,说明研究区生态系统服务价值对所采用的生态服务价值系数缺乏弹性,研究结果具有一定可信度。土地利用变化对生态系统服务价值具有直接影响,科学合理利用土地对生态系统具有重要意义。     

The ‘squeezed middle’: Identifying and addressing conflicting demands on intermediate quality farmland in Scotland

The growing demand for a wide range of private and public goods and services from a finite land resource is increasingly challenging for planners at local, regional, national and international scales. The Scottish Government's development of a Land Use Strategy has given salience to resolving conflicts and enhancing synergies in land use. In Scotland, the poorest quality farmland is often designated for nature and landscape conservation and the highest quality farmland often protected for food production. This means that many of the competitive pressures on land are experienced in what we term the ‘squeezed middle’. The paper identifies the multiple (and not exclusively economic) drivers of land use choices and, through an ecosystem services lens, explores three particular areas of land use conflict. These are (i) the continued high level of public support for farming, which has done little to address the problem of low farm incomes; (ii) the pressure to increase woodland planting on farm (and other) land; and (iii) conflicts associated with intensive game management, especially on sporting estates. Using the Scottish situation as an example, the heterogeneity of land use pressures means that there is a danger of the principles of the Land Use Strategy becoming lost in translation from national policy to practical land use decision-making. The appropriate scale for delivery of integrated ecosystem services may therefore be more local than current pilot projects, and may require more active participation of land managers. It may also require policy instruments that are more flexible in adapting to the local context, including payments for ecosystem services.     

State corporatism and environmental harm: Tax farming and desertification in northwestern China

Research on environmental governance in China has shown that centre–local relations often influence the implementation and efficacy of environmental regulations. By examining changes in resource allocation and rural development between 1982 and 2005 in the region worst affected by desertification in China—the Minqin oasis in Gansu—we argue that changes in macro‐level fiscal and commodity grain policies contributed to severe regional disparity and a reduction in local state capacity in hinterland China. Intergovernmental competition over fiscal revenue encouraged cash cropping and land reclamation, and the continuous decline of the oasis ecology further reduced legitimacy in rural governance. These institutional and ecological constraints shaped the behaviour of grassroots cadres and formed the conflicting interests of the state in resource distribution and environmental conservation that continued to exist until the implementation of a centralized conservation program in 2006. The data came from 157 interviews and 628 policy documents from local archives in Gansu.     

Renewal of land-use term for urbanization in China: Sword of Damocles or Noah’s Ark?

Since early 2016, the expiration of a part of the land-use rights in China has elicited widespread public concern because of the ambiguous interpretation of relevant legal clauses. Land-finance-based urbanization is the primary fiscal source of Chinese local governments, but it has been considered unsustainable by many scholars. Numerous studies have been conducted on these two issues, but a comprehensive study that combines both issues is needed. This study attempts to analyze the relations between the two concepts from the perspective of demographic change in the following decades. It proposes a compensatory mechanism based on land-use term and property tax to deal with the renewal of land-use term and the unsustainability caused by land finance. Results provide an alternative approach for the local government to realize sustainable urbanization in the future.     

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.     

Downward sloping demand for environmental amenities and international compensation: elephant conservation and strategic culling

Conventional wisdom holds that monetary compensation for positive transboundary externalities will promote conservation of resource amenities. We demonstrate that, in the case of elephant conservation, international transfers may also result in strategic behavior by host countries, with adverse implications for global welfare and in situ stocks.