Managing China's pastoral lands: Current problems and future prospects

China has the second largest area of pastoral land in the world, and these lands and their peoples play a very beneficial role in the global environment. Because of China's huge population, rate of social reform, and economic development, the pastoral ecosystems are at a critical turning point. There is a conflict between national benefit and the land users (mainly herders) benefit. This paper introduces the scale of pastoral land, the history of its management institutions, past and current projects and programs, as well as the current framework of policy and law as relevant to land management. The challenges for pastoral management in terms of institutions, administration, technology and their shifting role in regional economies of scale are also analyzed. Opportunities for sustainable development in China's pastoral lands are presented. Finally, this paper highlights the available approaches for enhancing livelihoods and conserving pastoral land, including establishment of law and policy framework at the national level, redefining use rights for community management, promoting Integrated Ecosystem Management (IEM) as a basis for natural resource utilization, preserving and respecting cultural aspects of pastoral peoples, and shifting the focus from GDP generation to environmental protection.     

Methods and tools for integrated assessment of land use policies on sustainable development in developing countries

For stimulating sustainable development in developing countries, land use patterns and land use changes are considered critical, and therefore effective and efficient land use policies are needed. In this paper we present a methodological framework that has been developed in a joint European and developing countries project (LUPIS – Land Use Policies and Sustainable Development in Developing Countries), to assess the impact of land use policies on sustainable development in developing countries. An illustrative application is presented for a case study in China, where water pollution due to agriculture in Taihu Basin is a major problem.     

What lies beneath: Climate change,land expropriation,and zaï agroecological innovations by smallholder farmers in Northern Ghana

Large-scale land acquisitions (LSLAs) are increasing in Ghana amid a weak legal and regulatory framework. This paper explores the impacts of this phenomenon on farmer innovations under recurrent environmental changes. Using a case study of zaï, an indigenous innovative farming practice, the paper makes two interrelated arguments. Firstly, it shows that the pervasive enclosures coerced by the Ghanaian state undermine how indigenous knowledge could be proactively deployed for climate risk management. Secondly, LSLAs produce a social barrier to climate change adaptation, as they lead to heightened uncertainty and apprehension among farmers, which affects decisions on climate risk management. More specifically, land expropriation is an example of how adaptation could be hindered by governance, institutions, and policy at the extra-local scale, including not only existing land use laws, but also the constitutional guarantee of private property. The evidence supporting these arguments come from survey data on 619 plots, 70 in-depth interviews, village-level transect walks, and participant observations. Overall, the paper contributes to emerging debates at the interface of land use policy, climate justice, and sustainable adaptation. Theoretically, it also contributes to understanding State-society relations, as well as the political economy of eminent domain, often justified through discourses of “public benefits.”     

Management of petroleum hydrocarbon contaminated sites in Nigeria: Current challenges and future direction

Sites affected by petroleum hydrocarbons from oil exploitation activities have been identified as a major environmental and socio-economic problem in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria. The current Nigerian regulatory instruments to manage these contaminated sites are fragmented and the roles and responsibilities of government agencies, such as the Department for Petroleum Resources (DPR), and the National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA), are not well defined. This lack of coordination has led to ineffective land contamination policy and poor enforcement more generally. Appropriate, risk-based policy instruments are needed to improve regulatory capacity, and to enhance the regulator's ability to manage new and existing petroleum hydrocarbons contaminated sites. Lessons can be learned from countries like the United Kingdom (UK) and the United States America (USA) that have experience with the management and clean up of historically contaminated land. In this paper, we review the status of petroleum hydrocarbon contaminated sites management in Nigeria and identify the gaps in existing policy and regulation. We review the contaminated land policies and regulation from the UK and the USA, and identify lessons that could be transferred to the Nigerian system. Finally, we provide a series of recommendations (e.g. source – pathway-receptor approach, soil screening criteria, clean-up funding, liability) that could enhance contaminated land legislation in Nigeria.     

Towards sustainable rural development in Central and Eastern Europe: Applying land consolidation

Over the past twenty years, social and economic decline in rural areas has intensified in the Central and Eastern European countries. A precondition for the reversal of this decline is the implementation of new policies in relation to the fundamentals of land ownership and management. In addition to addressing the problems of land ownership fragmentation, these should include measures to improve agricultural production and employment, taxation policy, and legislation to protect land ownership rights, within the context of acknowledging environmental and sustainability considerations. In Europe, the requirement for readjusting unfavourable land fragmentation and promoting the appropriate use of land combining with positive environmental solutions is expected to create new sustainable land management systems. The consolidation of land ownerships may be an effective and active land management instrument which not only addresses the problems of land fragmentation, but also, if applied sensitively, may be an instrument for delivering sustainable rural development in a wider context. The aim of this research is to investigate land consolidation as an essential tool to create sustainable rural areas in Lithuania.     

Developing policy guidelines for the management of public natural lands

Policy guidelines are important decision aids which suggest how, in principle, the land, time, equipment and funds controlled by a public land manager should be committed to fulfil the long term purposes of management programmes. This article identifies several types of policy guidelines, and some approaches to the task of developing a set of such guidelines (a policy plan) for the management of a specific tract of public land.     

Relevance of sustainable remediation to contaminated sites manage in developed and developing countries: Case of Brazil

The sustainable remediation emerged as a paradigm shift within contaminated sites management. However, this approach still has difficulties and therefore its application is quite limited. Thus, this paper aims to present and analyze the characteristics and trends of sustainable remediation approach in developed and developing countries, with an emphasis on Brazil case. Firstly, the background to sustainable remediation approach is presented. The discussion is carried out through a contextualization of the main barriers and challenges in sustainable remediation consideration and application in worldwide. The main perspectives and recommendations about the sustainable remediation were contextualized. Finally, approaches of sustainable remediation in developed and developing countries context was presented and analyzed, with emphasis on Brazilian situation. It is concluded that sustainable remediation is of great importance and that many advances have been made; however, the use of the term is still in adaptation process, especially in developing countries. In Brazil, at the same time as it is verified that has the regulatory structure focused on the management of contaminated sites is fairly recent, the sustainability considerations in this context are almost nonexistent.     

中国土地复垦监管体系问题与对策

研究目的：类比提出中国土地复垦监管体系的概念,总结分析中国土地复垦监管体系的阶段特征和存在的问题,提出构建完善中国土地复垦监管体系的对策。研究方法：文献分析,典型调研,专家咨询和类比分析法。研究结果：中国土地复垦监管体系基本框架已形成,但仍然存在监管机构不健全、监管机制不完善、矿业用地政策存在缺陷、监管手段薄弱和监管技术标准不完备等。研究结论：建立专业化和层级化管理机构、加强部门协同、单列矿业用地指标、加强信息化监管、研制土地复垦实施与监管系列标准是构建完善中国土地复垦监管体系的重要方向。     

A systematic framework of location value taxes reveals dismal policy design in most European countries

Location values have long been recognized as an attractive instrument to raise municipal revenues. First, they increase fiscal efficiency and equability compared to traditional property taxes. Second, they can be used to enhance sustainable urban planning. The question of how to design a location value tax has long been discussed in various strands of literature, but there are few efforts to create multidisciplinary approaches. This lack of reconciliation hampers the discussion on optimal designs that includes all economic, social and environmental considerations. Here we combine literature on public finances, urban economics and value capture with that of sustainable urban planning to narrow this gap. We develop a framework to assess the design characteristics of location value taxes from a sustainability perspective, and apply this framework to assess current practices in Europe. The analysis reveals severe shortcoming in policy design in most European countries, although Denmark provides a more promising example. Nonetheless, location value taxes have a high potential for improving sustainable urban planning.     

State of national land survey and large-scale mapping

There is still a dearth of appropriate and adequate land survey and large-scale mapping coverage in many countries to facilitate more effective land-related planning, development and management. This situation, in relative terms, applies to both developed and developing countries. Fortuitously, technology is now available and accessible to expand land surveys and the production of large-scale maps at the scales required to support planning and sustainable land development and management. What is now required is official public policy recognition, the attribution of a higher level of priority to this issue, and the allocation of adequate resources to implement an expanded production programme of large-scale maps of cities, towns and villages to facilitate more appropriate settlements and other related land development planning.     

中国建设用地配置中政府失灵的理论解析及其改良框架设计

研究目的:剖析中国建设用地配置中不同政府失灵的成因、影响与相互关系,探索相适宜的综合性改良框架及实现路径,为国家建设用地配置优化改革提供参考。研究方法:文献研究、逻辑分析与框架设计。研究结果:中国当前的建设用地配置存在两种政府失灵,并且这两种政府失灵涉及不同类别的政策问题,因而单一的技术性对策无法达到理想的解决效果,故需要依据不同的问题特征,设计构建综合性的政府失灵改良框架进行指导作用。研究结论:中国建设用地配置同时存在政府失灵Ⅰ与政府失灵Ⅱ。前者发生于政府内部,以央地关系失衡下建设用地计划管理机制失效为特征;后者发生于政府外部,以政府过度干预市场机制、扭曲土地资源配置为特征。对应于这两种政府失灵,本文设计涵盖6类调控工具的综合性改良框架。其中,针对政府失灵Ⅰ,主要有观念性调控、规划性调控和经济性调控3类,其可行路径包括转变形成目标相容的管控理念、构建国土空间规划体系、引入指标交易与管理平台等;针对政府失灵Ⅱ,主要有规则性调控、探索性调控和产权性调控3类,其可行路径包括健全土地市场运行规则、探索创新存量土地开发模式、构建现代土地产权体系等。     

公众对地方政府土地生态行政认知的调查和分析——以L市为例

由于中央政府和地方政府土地利用及其管理目标的差异性,导致部分地方政府在土地生态行政的过程中存在相关问题.通过问卷调查和访谈的方式对L市公众进行了调查,运用因子分析找出土地生态行政认知的影响因素,深入分析地方政府土地生态行政问题,进而提出完善地方政府土地生态行政的相关对策建议,为地方政府加强土地可持续利用与管理,确保社会经济持续发展和保护土地生态环境提供参考.     

Technology change as a policy response to promote changes in land management for environmental benefits

A previous study developed a framework for choosing among groups of policy mechanisms for encouraging environmentally beneficial land-use change. The framework highlights that these choices should depend on the relative levels of private (or internal) net benefits, and public (or external) net benefits. Incentive-based mechanisms (polluter-pays and/or beneficiary-pays) and extension need to be targeted carefully to appropriate projects—where private net benefits are close to zero, and/or public net benefits are more extremely positive or negative. This article focuses on policy mechanisms that alter the net benefits of changing land management, including R&D to develop new technologies, and training to improve the skill of landholders at using existing technologies. These policy options are now treated more comprehensively within the public benefits: private benefits framework. Benefits of technology-change projects can include reductions in the opportunity cost of compliance with environmental programs, increases in the public benefits of a particular type of land-use change, or improvements in private net benefits, resulting in public benefits through greater or more rapid adoption by private landholders. From an environmental management perspective, technology development is most relevant where public net benefits of land use change are positive and private net benefits are negative, but not highly negative. There is a set of projects for which technology change is the only viable alternative to no action, highlighting the importance of technology change in these cases.     

Modelling Deforestation and Land‐Use Change: Sparse Data Environments

Land‐use change in developing countries is of great interest to policy‐makers and researchers with diverse interests. Concerns about consequences of deforestation for global climate change and biodiversity have received the most publicity, but loss of wetlands, declining land productivity and watershed management are also problems facing developing countries. Analyses of these problems are especially constrained by lack of data. This article reviews modelling approaches for data‐constrained environments that involve discrete choice methods including neural nets and dynamic programming, and research results that link individual household survey data with satellite images using geographic positioning systems.     

Impact and implications of price policy and land degradation on agricultural growth in developing countries

In many developing countries, a high proportion of the population resides and works in rural areas. Agriculture is the dominant sector in rural areas and has the greatest concentration of poverty: landless workers, small tenant farmers, and small farm owners. Thus, any development strategy that is directed towards increasing employment and alleviating a country's hunger must concentrate on sustainable agricultural growth. Historically, economic development in most countries has been based on exploitation of natural resources, particularly land resources. Soil erosion and land degradation have been serious worldwide. Due to reasons such as high population pressure on land and limited fossil energy supplies, land degradation is generally more serious in the developing world. Empirical studies show that soil erosion and degradation of agricultural land not only decrease the land productivity but they can also result in major downstream or off-site damage which may be several times that of on-site damage. In promoting industrialization, governments of many developing countries adopt a package of price and other policies that reduce agricultural production incentives and encourage a flow of resources out of agriculture. Increasing evidence shows that these policies cause a substantial efficiency or social welfare loss, and a great loss in foreign exchange earnings. In addition, a World Bank study on the effect of price distortions on economic growth rates concluded that neither rich resource endowments, nor a high stage of economic development, nor privatization are able to make up the adverse effects caused by high price distortions. This analysis is primarily concerned with identifying the factors that determine the agricultural production growth rate and in testing the effects these factors have on agricultural growth in developing countries. Specifically, this study involves statistical estimation of an aggregate agricultural growth function based on cross-country data for 28 developing countries. Special attention is devoted to land degradation and agricultural pricing policy, and to the policy implications resulting from the effects these variables have on agricultural and food production growth. The overall results of this study show that price distortions in the economy and land degradation had statistically significant negative impacts while the change in arable and permanent land was positively related to the growth of agricultural production and food production in 28 developing countries from 1971 to 1980. These results emphasize the importance of ‘getting prices right’ and implementation of sustainable land and water management practices if future growth in food and agricultural output is to be realized and sustained in developing countries.     

The impact of forest management plans on trees and carbon: Modeling a decade of harvesting data in Cameroon

By 2010, about 25% (180 million ha) of The International Tropical Timber Organization (ITTO) producer countries’ permanent forest estate was being managed using an approved forest management plan (FMP). While the existence of a FMP is often used as evidence of sustainable forest management (SFM), State officials mandated to monitor and verify FMPs’ implementation often lack the technical knowledge and political incentives to assess the changes that have been introduced, notably in terms of harvested volumes and species. Among tropical timber producers, Cameroon is considered to be exemplary for its progressive forest regulatory framework. Here we aim to estimate for the first time in sub-Saharan Africa the causal impact of the implementation of FMPs on harvested volumes, species and carbon stocks. We do so by using a 12-year (1998–2009) unbalanced longitudinal data set of a detailed, official harvesting inventory of 81 concessions in Cameroon. Results provide evidence to the theoretical expectations that for many years many practitioners have had on the implementation of SFM, i.e. that FMPs show a substantial opportunity to reduce carbon emissions from forest while presenting logging companies with acceptable financial trade-offs. We explore the technical and political reasons for our findings and conclude that these analyses are important for countries that are underwriting carbon-related schemes in which they propose to reduce their emissions through the effective implementation of SFM. We also demonstrate that producer countries do record useful information that, when effectively used, can help them to inform their policies and improve their sustainable development strategies.     

Environmental impact assessment of urban land use transitions—A context-sensitive approach

Land consumption due to residential development, economic growth and transportation belongs to the most serious environmental pressures on landscapes worldwide, in particular in urbanised areas. Accordingly, the aim of containing the development of land is rated increasingly high on the agenda of environmental policy, at least in densely populated countries such as Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands or the UK. As a result, different strategies and instruments to prevent excessive land consumption are being discussed. However, many of these strategies and instruments adopt a rather general approach, while it seems more effective to define the particular areas where the goal of reducing land consumption is to be pursued. Such an approach must draw on information about how detrimental specific land use transitions are with regard to, for instance, the functionality of soils, water balance or habitat quality at specific locations. This paper introduces a conceptual framework for the impact assessment of land use transition in urban areas which highlights how such information can be acquired. This framework includes the differentiation of two levels of impact assessment: the level of the single land unit and the context level which takes into account regional and aggregated impacts of land use transition bound to the spatial context. The conceptual framework provides a basis to disaggregate (supra-)national policy targets regarding land use, to scale them down to the regional level, and thus to clarify the spatially explicit implications of land use policies.     

林业政策的制定与创新文献综述

搜集大量相关文献,分析比较了世界各国学者在林业政策方面进行的研究,介绍了世界主要国家林业政策的特点,就林业政策的制定、检验、评估的相关研究以及在森林管理实践中发展起来的社区森林模式、REDD机制和可持续森林管理理念进行了综述,最后阐述了少量学者在林业政策理论方面所做的研究。通过综述发现,对林业政策的评估与检验未形成有代表性的方法,对林业政策在实施环节的问题亦缺乏深入研究。     

Learning through practice? Learning from the REDD+ demonstration project,Kalimantan Forests and Climate Partnership (KFCP) in Indonesia

Despite a growing recognition of the importance of social learning in governing and managing land use, the understanding and practice of learning has received limited attention from researchers. In global environmental programs and projects aimed at supporting sustainable land use in developing countries, learning is often promoted but without explicit learning goals. The focus may be on capacity building and community participation, and on testing policy tools, rather than on collaborative social learning. In this study, we looked behind the rhetoric of learning in the Kalimantan Forests and Climate Partnership (KFCP), a large demonstration project for Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) in Indonesia. The novelty of such mechanisms, linked to international forest carbon outcomes, means that learning lessons provides a rationale for REDD+ pilot activities. We used a qualitative approach to examine the nature and type of learning that occurred in the KFCP. While the stated project aims were to support policy experimentation and apply learning, the project design was highly technical, and project decision-making did not explicitly encourage joint problem solving. Despite the project’s shortcomings, we identified that learning did occur by the end of the project in ways that were different to the initial goals. Our findings suggest that flexibility and openness in project design and implementation can enable different local actors to define shared learning agendas in ways that are meaningful for them. Designing and implementing environmental projects, and learning goals within them, should attend to the needs and aspirations of those who will have to live with their long-term consequences. Learning should be integrated into international environmental programs and projects at all levels, including for policy and funding bodies, rather than focusing on local capacity building and similar project ‘benefits’. Interviewees’ eagerness to learn suggests that building approaches to social learning into program design has the potential to yield opportunities for learning beyond REDD+ to other forms of policy experimentation and governance innovations.     

Neighborhood socioeconomics,food environment and land use determinants of public health: Isolating the relative importance for essential policy insights

Recent literature has advocated the connection between land use policies with public health promotion. In this regard, examining the land use determinants of public health and isolating the relative importance with other influential factors should provide essential policy insights. However, very limited efforts have been made in this aspect, particularly for the developing countries. Using a case of Wuhan (China), this paper attempts to capture the land use determinants of obesity prevalence among middle-aged adults and to compare the relative importance with neighborhood socioeconomics and food environment. A conceptual framework is first proposed to guide the analysis within a land use policy context. Data are then collected during the China’s National Physical Fitness Survey in 2010 and multivariate linear regression is applied to analyze the district level determinants. Results show that neighborhood socioeconomics, food environment and land use all have significant effects on obesity prevalence among the middle-aged adults. The men obesity is associated with the occupation, education and housing, while women obesity is correlated with income and housing. Women obesity associates with healthy food environment, while men obesity correlates with unhealthy food environment. Open public space is negative to women obesity, and institutional land is negative to men obesity. Greater walkability and street connectivity associate with lower obesity risk for both genders. The variance decomposition demonstrates that food environment is the most important determinant of men obesity, while land use is the most essential determinant of women obesity. For the obesity prevalence among total population, neighborhood socioeconomics are key determinants. Based on our analysis, we finally provide some insights for land use policies that aim at addressing the obesity issue in developing countries.