北京跨界水源地生态可持续发展模式比较研究——以官厅水库流域延庆怀来两县为例

水资源短缺和水环境污染的现状使得北京跨界水源地发展模式受到各界的关注。以官厅水库流域的北京市延庆县和河北省怀来县为例,运用指标体系进行对比分析,得出了延庆县符合生态可持续的发展模式,其生态可持续发展水平也接近或达到相关标准;而相对而言,怀来县的发展模式和发展现状距离生态可持续的目标差距较大。而行政区划是导致北京跨界水源地境内外发展模式不同的重要原因。     

基于新疆生态补偿的财政转移支付制度的建立

我国现行财政体制中,财政转移支付制度和专项基金对建立生态补偿机制具有重要作用。但现行转移支付制度还不能完全适应作为国家重点生态功能区的西部地区转移支付的需要,西部地区依然面临着保护和发展的现实困境。本文以生态补偿与财政转移支付理论为基础,对新疆生态补偿与财政转移支付的现状和存在的问题进行了分析,进而提出了生态补偿视角下新疆财政转移支付制度的优化设计。     

新疆棉花产业可持续发展的困境——以家庭为单位的经济学研究

棉花种植业在新疆区域经济发展中居于重要地位。日益突出的棉花种植、采收中的污染问题,水资源短缺与病虫害问题,棉花生产成本的上升、棉花收购价格风险的存在,以及棉花种植中形成的路径依赖,使新疆棉花生产的可持续发展面临严峻挑战。本文通过对2002年以来农户家庭棉花种植成本与收益变动趋势的分析,提出应加大棉花生产补贴力度,保证国家棉花生产安全;以生态农业生产促进新疆棉花产业的可持续发展。     

System of crop intensification for more productive,resource-conserving,climate-resilient,and sustainable agriculture: experience with diverse crops in varying agroecologies

With continually increasing demand for food accompanied by the constraints of climate change and the availability and quality of soil and water, the world’s farmers are challenged to produce more food per hectare with less water, and with fewer agrochemical inputs if possible. The ideas and methods of the system of rice intensification which is improving irrigated rice production are now being extended/adapted to many other crops: wheat, maize, finger millet, sugarcane, tef, mustard, legumes, vegetables, and even spices. Promoting better root growth and enhancing the soil’s fertility with organic materials are being found effective means for raising the yields of many crop plants with less water, less fertilizer, reduced seeds, fewer agrochemicals, and greater climate resilience. In this article, we review what is becoming known about various farmer-centred innovations for agroecological crop management that can contribute to agricultural sustainability. These changes represent the emerging system of crop intensification, which is being increasingly applied in Asian, African, and Latin American countries. More research will be needed to verify the efficacy and impact of these innovations and to clarify their conditions and limits. But as no negative effects for human or environmental health have been identified, making these agronomic options more widely known should prompt more investigation and, to the extent justified by results, utilization of these methodologies.     

Taking agricultural technologies to scale: experiences from a vegetable technology dissemination initiative in Tanzania

One of the widely suggested approaches to meet the increasing food demand of a substantially growing world population is sustainable intensification. We present a unique agricultural research and scaling programme in Tanzania, focusing on the key elements necessary for results related to: gender analysis; private sector engagement; social capital; improvement and adaptation; and programme performance monitoring and evaluation. Since 2014, more than 6000 farmers have benefited from either the adaptive research or the scaling component of the programme. Preliminary impact analysis results from six pilot locations indicate that programme participants realized significantly higher yields compared to non-participants. In addition to productivity improvements, introducing resistant and drought-tolerant elite vegetable varieties improved the resilience of the existing farming systems. Finally, considering the needs of both male and female participants had a positive impact on technology adoption rates and reach.     

Beyond the agroecological and sustainable agricultural intensification debate: Is blended sustainability the way forward?

With the sustainable development goals has come a renewed global interest in ending hunger and achieving food security, while preventing natural resource degradation. Despite this renewed interest and increased commitments to invest in agricultural development, there is an outstanding debate over the technological trajectories to sustainability. The debate centres on sustainable agricultural intensification (SAI) and agroecological intensification (AEI) pathways to agricultural sustainability. Using a systematic literature review approach, this study examines the debate over AEI and SAI. This study employs a theoretical framework based on the economic, social, and ecological dimensions of sustainable agriculture within a policy and institutional space. Based on the sustainability dimensions, a discourse analytical technique is applied to unravel the debate. The results reveal differences in actor composition in the SAI and AEI pathways. Both pathways aim to promote food security with optimal and sustainable use of inputs; however, the actors differ on discourse relating to the concept of farming, the role of genetic engineering, the scale of operation, land use and soil health. Resolving these differences requires a blended sustainability approach that moves beyond the current AEI and SAI debate by acknowledging the tradeoffs and synergies of the socio-economic and ecological dimensions.     

Mapping historical and contemporary agrarian transformations and capitalist infiltration in a complex upland environment: A case from eastern Nepal

The relationship that mountain communities have with global capitalism are complex, being mediated by a diverse topography and ecology, both of which provide opportunities for capital accumulation, while also isolating older, “pre‐capitalist” modes of production. This paper takes a case study valley from Nepal's eastern hills, tracing over two centuries of agrarian change and evolving interactions between “adivasi” and “semi‐feudal” economic formations with capitalism. In recent years, the expansion of markets, rising demand for cash, and climate stress have solidified migrant labour as a core component of livelihoods, and the primary mechanism of surplus appropriation from the hill peasantry. Through a focus on three altitudinal zones, however, it is demonstrated how the trajectory of this transformation, including the interactions with persisting pre‐capitalist formations, is mediated by both political–economic processes and the local agro‐ecological context.     

Designing and evaluating sustainable development pathways for semi‐subsistence crop–livestock systems: lessons from Kenya

Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in African agriculture requires a better understanding why high levels of poverty and resource degradation persist in African agriculture despite decades of policy interventions and development projects. In this article, we hypothesize that policies need to account for the key features of the semi‐subsistence crop–livestock systems (CLS) in the region to become effective. The semi‐subsistence CLS are characterized by a high degree of biophysical and economic heterogeneity and a complex, diversified production system involving a combination of subsistence and cash crops with livestock. We investigated the potential for interventions proposed by the Government of Kenya to meet the SDGs by 2030. The analysis uses an integrated modeling approach designed to deal with the key features of these systems. A strategy that stimulates rural development, increases farm size to a sustainable level, and reduces distortions and inefficiencies in input and output markets could lead to a sustainable development pathway and achieve the SDGs for rural households dependent on CLS.     

Crowding standards at Petra Archaeological Park: a comparative study of McKercher's five types of heritage tourists

To achieve sustainability in heritage tourism, tourists should be placed at the heart of the management and planning processes. Indicators and standards-based frameworks were developed in the field of outdoor recreation management to manage and measure crowding and other problematic issues in parks and related areas. Using normative theory and visual research methods, this article aims to examine crowding standards of tourists at Petra Archaeological Park, and compare these standards between the types of heritage tourists suggested by a model developed by Bob McKercher. Results showed that tourists’ acceptability levels go down with an increasing number of tourists, and tourists who are highly motivated to visit heritage sites (i.e. purposeful and sightseeing heritage tourists) had the most restrictive acceptable number of tourists at the park. The normative standards formulated in this article provided a guidance to manage crowding at Petra.