Nature conservation for future sustainable shorelines: Lessons from seeking to involve the public

The soft coastline of eastern England is dynamic, with much of it subject to the risk of erosion or flooding. A number of internationally important coastal nature conservation sites are under threat. This paper explores the character and reasoning behind changing coastal management policies and governance practices in England. It reveals how Natural England is tackling these changes, notably with regard to establishing reconstituted nature conservation sites and re-designed coastlines. Such an approach requires the close involvement of policy leaders, agency officers, local maritime authorities and local residents. This paper explains how participatory processes play a critical role in the design of new coastlines that are ecologically and geomorphologically sustainable yet enable local communities to survive and flourish. A case study involving a visioning exercise at Winterton-on-Sea in Norfolk, UK, highlights the many practical difficulties around planning for the uncertain future of internationally important nature conservation sites, and local economies and communities. Future moves toward sustainable coastal alignments will have to involve a wide mix of public and civic bodies, as well as local communities, and will be underpinned by risk-based planning and well-researched adaptation and relocation arrangements.     

国外野生动物旅游研究综述

非资源消费型野生动物旅游活动已经吸引了越来越多的人们关注和参与其中,而且这种形式的旅游活动从长远来看,有利于解决经济发展和野生动物保护这一矛盾.国外关于野生动物旅游的研究比较系统而深入.文章通过对国外有关野生动物旅游的文献进行梳理,认为从野生动物旅游产品的角度,文献主要集中在非资源消费型、半资源消费型和费源消费型野生动物旅游的研究;基于利益相关者的角度来看,文献主要集中在动物旅游的影响研究、游客满意度的控制、社区居民的态度这三个方面.最后,文章还对国外该领域现有文献的研究局限作了简要分析,并展望其未来可能的发展走向,以期能为国内相关研究提供参考和启示.     

浅析生态公益林与高保护价值森林的区别

从判定标准的尺度、范畴两方面对生态公益林与高保护价值森林进行比较,分析得出:两者都服务于森林可持续发展,但前者的判定标准从国家层面上制定,属于宏观尺度,后者的判定标准从森林经营单位层面上制定,属于微观尺度;范畴上,两者具有交叉性,两者都涵盖对方的部分森林类型,但不是全部森林类型。将生态公益林与高保护价值森林加以区别,将有利于社会公众及林业工作者更好地认识高保护价值森林,为高保护价值森林类型的判定提供借鉴。     

解说:一种重要的遗产保护策略

遗产保护是一项复杂而系统的工程,不同历史时期面临的主要任务不同。20世纪90年代以来,中国旅游业的高速发展引发了众多问题,如何降低和消除旅游业对遗产资源的负面影响成为当今遗产保护的一项重要工作。解说,作为一种重要的遗产保护策略,有着非常重要的作用。解说能够通过影响游客的知识重组和行为意图,帮助达到旅游可持续发展和遗产资源有效保护的双赢目标。     

Land Tenure and the Adoption of Conservation Practices

We use a logit adoption model with data on 941 U.S. corn producers from the 1996 Agricultural Resource Management Study to analyze the influence of land tenure on the adoption of conservation practices. We extend previous analyses by distinguishing renters according to lease type and by distinguishing practices according to the timing of costs and returns. We find that cash-renters are less likely than owner-operators to use conservation tillage, but share-renters are not. Both cash-renters and share-renters are less likely than owner-operators to adopt practices that provide benefits only over the longer term (grassed waterways, stripcropping, and contour farming).     

对青海“生态立省”发展战略的思考

青海生态立省战略的实施是保护与建设高原生态系统的重要举措,不仅关系到高原的经济社会可持续发展,更关系到全国的生态安全。通过对生态立省内涵的认识,提出了生态立法、生态保护、生态建设、生态经济和生态文化具体做法和建议。     

辽宁东部水源涵养林计量指标体系及其效益评估

对辽东山区水源涵养林产生的各种效益进行计量评价研究,制定了水源涵养林计量效益评价指标体系,包括3级结构、16项指标、49项因子;依各功能因子的重要性并经测算,对各项指标赋予权重和排序,森林的蓄水、减少径流、改善水质功能的权重值较高;采用条件价值法,估算辽东山区水源涵养林的各种功能价值,森林的林副产品和木材收益的功能价值较高。辽东山区水源涵养林按整体处在一般经营状态下计算,年均创造功能价值约为30.2亿元。     

How well do conservation auctions perform in achieving landscape‐level outcomes? A comparison of auction formats and bid selection criteria

This paper studies the performance of auction design features regarding pricing mechanisms and bid selection criteria for securing wildlife zones across different holdings. We compare two pricing mechanisms: a discriminatory‐price auction and a uniform‐price ascending auction, and four bid selection criteria on the basis of: total bid, bid‐per‐value ratio, bid‐per‐area ratio and a mixed criterion where bids are formed on the basis of cost but they are selected based on the bid‐per‐value ratio. We develop a best‐response group‐bidding model for a discriminatory‐price auction where bidders form optimal group bids for individual wildlife zones. In the uniform‐price ascending auction, individual landholders respond to prices, which are successively raised by the auctioneer and whenever all the landholders from a single zone agree to participate (i.e. the first zone is formed), the auction stops. Based on numerical simulations using a bio‐economic model of malleefowl conservation, we observe that the discriminatory‐price auction is more cost‐effective than the uniform‐price ascending auction. However, the budgetary cost‐effectiveness of a discriminatory‐price auction is sensitive to bidder uncertainty about the number of competing bidder groups and the highest cost of establishing a wildlife zone among these groups. In terms of bid selection, the mixed bid selection criterion performs best. We discuss the policy implications of these findings.     

Further participatory adaptation is required for community leaders to champion conservation agriculture in Africa

There is a recognized need for the participation of local communities in designing and implementing agricultural interventions for the sustainable intensification in smallholder systems. This study examines the perspectives of local community leaders towards the widely promoted, but not widely adopted, practice of Conservation Agriculture (CA) in African smallholder systems. Perceptions from 47 community leaders (both from traditional local authorities and farmer organizations) across six African countries are documented regarding how CA matches the wants, needs and capabilities of farmers in their communities. While community leaders generally perceived CA as potentially beneficial, they also indicated that CA is not currently perceived as feasible within their communities and hence has limited relevance. Three key themes were identified that limit both CA use and sustainable intensification more generally: [1] a perceived reluctance of farmers to engage with the community platform as part of a higher input, market-oriented production system; [2] informational constraints due to non-functional exchange mechanisms; and [3] a lack of local adaptation of CA underscored by the persistence of top-down, linear research and extension approaches. Through greater understanding of local perspectives, a clearer picture emerges of the need for greater participatory engagement and local adaptation if sustainable intensification of African smallholder agricultural systems is to be achieved.     

The impact of conservation tillage on maize yield and input demand: the case of smallholder farmers in north‐west Ethiopia

This study analyses the economics of conservation tillage (CT) with respect to its effect on maize yield and chemical fertiliser, herbicide, and female and male labour demand. We estimate production and input demand functions using seemingly unrelated regressions on plot‐level cross‐sectional farm household data collected in the north‐west of Ethiopia. A two‐step control function is applied to address potential endogeneity bias due to the inclusion of the CT adoption decision as an explanatory variable. Our results show that CT increases maize yield and chemical fertiliser demand. Additionally, the results show that the adoption of CT reduces female and male labour required for crop production. However, this is achieved through the increased use of herbicides, which might have an undesirable health and environmental effects.