Diversity of incentives for private forest landowners: An assessment of programs in Indiana, USA

 Many government and private programs provide incentives for non-industrial private forest (NIPF) owners. Due to the complexity of this web of programs, the incentives of the programs are unclear. We focus on four specific programs that represent different rule structures—a federal cost-share program, a state tax incentive program, a nationwide private stewardship program, and a local private conservation organization. We perform institutional analysis of the formal and informal rules of the programs based on literature review, discussions with officers, and formal guidelines of the programs. We classify different types of rule structures, and explain them in relation to goals and organizational structures of the programs.     

Hub-and-Spokes Free Trade Agreements in the Presence of Technology Spillovers: An Application to the Western Hemisphere

Using a comparative-static general equilibrium model in the context of the Western Hemisphere, this paper compares the economic effects of a “hub-and-spokes” type of bilateral trade configuration (with Chile being the hub) with those of a more comprehensive regional FTA (namely, the FTAA). The model is augmented to account for the possibility of technology spillovers and its effective assimilation among participating economies. In particular, absorptive capacity, governance factor, proximity and socio-institutional congruence conjointly determine an economy’s capacity to capture the technology that is transmitted from the developed spoke United States to other regions. JEL no. D58, F13, O33     

新疆新农村建设中农村固定资产投资增长机制研究

投资是拉动经济增长的“三驾马车”之一,农村固定资产是拉动新疆农业和农村经济增长的动力。本文从经济和社会两大层面深入分析了新疆农村固定资产投资对新农村建设的促进作用,剖析了现阶段农村固定资产投资结构存在的问题,并对扩大农村固定资产投资规模,完善固定资产投资增长机制,加快新农村建设提出了相关的政策建议。     

新疆县域城乡发展差距探讨

经过多年发展,新疆县域经济取得了较大发展,已成为新疆国民经济的基础层次,在新疆经济社会的全面健康发展中起到了重要的作用。但新疆县域城乡发展差距却在不断扩大,表现在城乡经济增长速度、居民收入水平、居民消费水平等方面。因而,应通过加快农村社会事业的发展、加快解决县域农村剩余劳动力、推进城市化进程等措施进一步统筹新疆城乡协调发展。     

新疆农村基础设施建设对农业产值影响的实证分析

本文从实证的角度分析了新疆农村生产性公共基础设施建设对农林牧渔业生产总值是否有显著影响以及贡献度的大小,进而检验新疆乡村生产性公共基础设施建设在提高农业增产方面的作用,最后提出了几点建议。     

制约林权抵押贷款发展的问题及对策建议

吉林省实施集体林权制度试点改革以来,银行业围绕改进＂三农＂服务,积极创新担保方式,通过开办林权抵押贷款等举措支持社会主义新农村建设,取得一定成效。但也遇到了一些难点和问题,文章对这些难点问题进行了详细分析,并结合实际情况提出政策建议。     

基于游憩者视角的游憩环境教育实证研究——以福州国家森林公园为例

以游憩者为主体的游憩环境教育是实现游憩可持续发展的重要保障。文章以福州国家森林公园作为案例进行实证研究分析,通过对到访森林公园的游憩者发放问卷和现场访谈的方式,在运用EXCEL和SPSS软件对获取的调查数据进行辅助分析的基础上,揭示游憩者的游憩环境感知现状以及游憩区的游憩环境教育现状,探讨实现游憩区游憩环境可持续发展的优化措施与策略。     

谈伊春实施天然林保护工程的意义

森林不仅为人类提供资源,而且还具有涵养水源、保持水土、防风固沙等多种作用,给人们提供了一个优美、安逸的生活环境。然而,随着人类贪婪的破坏,森林以惊人的速度减少,已严重危及人类的生存环境,同时也制约了经济的发展。     

Object-based,multi-sensor habitat mapping of successional age classes for effective management of a 70-year secondary forest succession

Multi-temporal change detection over decades including the pre-satellite era is challenging due to the different image types available over time, and this explains the scarcity of long-term studies of vegetation succession which can play a pivotal role in the restoration of biodiversity in regenerating forests. This study describes a semi-automated, object-based habitat classification method for change detection of tropical forest succession since 1945. The study uses a set of black and white aerial photographs and high-resolution satellite images which differ in quality and resolution, to investigate forest successional patterns and their implications for informed ecosystem and land rehabilitation management. For optimized habitat boundary delineation from black and white aerial photographs and panchromatic satellite images, three levels of hierarchical image object primitives were created. The minimum object sizes of 50 m², 500 m², and 1000 m² maximized inter-object and minimized intra-object variability according to the scale of habitat patches and imagery used. Object-Based Image Analysis (OBIA) provided additional Grey-Level Co-occurrence Matrix (GLCM) textural features of segmented objects which helped to incorporate knowledge-based rule-sets into the final habitat classification which was done manually. Results show accuracies for grassland greater than 94%, monoculture plantations were distinguished from natural forest with 95% accuracy, and isolated mature stands of natural forest achieved 75% accuracy. Consideration of multi-date images increased the accuracy of distinguishing between mixed plantations and natural forest as well as between shrubland and young secondary forest. The resulting maps of vegetation structure at five time periods from 1945 to present gave new insights into the ecological processes of secondary forest succession. These include the surprising rapid rate of natural forest regeneration, at an annual rate of 7.7% from 1945 to 2014, and an even faster rate of 11% during a period when hill fires were controlled. The last areas to succeed to forest are those which are still, or at some time have been under exotic mono-cultural plantations. This suggests that long term protection from hill fire would be a better option for assisting natural succession in the landscape than plantations, which are both costly, and act as barriers to natural succession. Overall, with more than 92% mapping accuracy, the method can be adapted for other multi-temporal, multi-sensor studies as it enables inclusion of spatial theories by dividing the satellite image into time-consistent geographic entities according to the scale of target objects and image resolution. The accurate maps of forest cover patches at different successional stages can also help in site specific management of the recovering forest, such as introduction of shrub seedlings to bridge bottlenecks in seed dispersal according to shrub density and dispersal distances for forest birds. Late successional tree species can also be introduced in areas where only early successional species are present after 50 years of succession.     

Using a Delphi approach to identify the most efficacious interventions to improve Indonesia’s forest and land governance

Improvements to forest and land governance are key to addressing deforestation and degradation of peatlands in Indonesia. While this is a priority area, the steps to achieving good forest and land governance have been under-researched. There is a need for better links between theoretically informed academic analysis and work in the field. This study drew together a panel of experts on forest and land governance using a Delphi method to discuss the underlying drivers of deforestation and peatland degradation, and correspondingly, to identify interventions to improve land and forest governance in Indonesia. Seventeen panelists with an average of more than 12 years’ experience reached agreement over four governance interventions: increasing the capacity of local communities to manage and monitor forests and natural resources (65% of panelist’s votes); identify strengths and weaknesses of community organisations and institutions, and develop strategies to improve their performance (65% of panelist’s votes); gazetting forests to clarify land boundaries and determine which areas should be village, community and state forest zone (59% of panelist’s votes); and, integrating participatory community maps into spatial plans to protect local communities and indigenous peoples’ development needs (53% of panelist’s votes). They also supported action research involving the government, private sector and communities, and political economy approaches to researching forest and land governance issues. Panelists indicated that community level approaches such as securing community forest tenure through clarifying land claims and integrating local land tenure into spatial planning had an important role in sustainable forest management.