Combining management plans and payment schemes for targeted grassland conservation within the Habitats Directive in Saxony,Eastern Germany

As central policies for biodiversity conservation in agricultural landscapes in the European Union (EU), the Habitats Directive and Agri-environmental programmes (AEP) have largely failed to halt biodiversity loss. In response, the German federal state of Saxony combined the instrument of management plans with AEPs to support the implementation of the Habitat Directive. In this study, we investigate the determinants of a farmers’ decisions to adjust their farming practices. Our data set consists of a quantitative survey with 131 farmers conducted between 2004 and 2011, complemented by implementation data from 333 grassland-plots. Determinants of farmers’ decisions to conserve grassland were estimated using a multinomial logit model. Our results show that a combination of management plans and AEPs can increase farmers’ disposition to adopt nature conservation measures. As central determinants, structural and location factors as well as the complementary provisiion of specifically designed AEPs increase farmers’ willingness to adopt conservation practices for grassland management. It can be concluded that additional costs are a major barrier to farmers’ adoption, particularly to those farms directing their farm management towards the optimisation of productivity and profitability . The findings highlight the complementary potential of integrated policy packages to incentivise specific measures of nature conservation within the framework of the Habitats Directive.     

新农村建设之“合村并居”改革刍议——基于浙江省“合村并居”改革试点的思考

"合村并居"是推进农村城镇化进程、加快社会主义新农村建设、整合开发与集约利用土地的一项重要举措,在一些经济发达地区已经进行试点。浙江省的"合村并居"试点工作启动于2003年杭州地区各县市部分乡镇及其他地区的个别乡镇。"合村并居"是否真正有益于新农村建设,关键在于"合村并居"后村级领导班子的构建。然而,"合村并居"后村级领导班子构建的不尽理想及由此带来的在村级民主管理、村民民主参与等的不足也是显而易见的,从"合村并居"之于中国农村实际、村民民主意识、村干部素质、村级管理重点等角度剖析个中原因,据此提出相应的完善"合村并居"有效治理模式的对策思考。     

德州市“合村并居”建设新型农村社区的经验与启示

"合村并居"建设新型农村社区,是德州市推进城乡经济社会发展一体化制度创新的重大探索。本文结合实地调研,梳理德州市"合村并居"建设新型农村社区实践的主要做法,分析其经验与启示。     

农田中非耕作生境对耕地多功能影响研究

[目的]从耕地的生产功能、生态服务功能、社会保障功能和景观文化功能角度出发,探讨耕地系统中非耕作生境对这些功能的影响的方向和程度,以期为今后耕地系统中生态网络优化以及绿色土地整治提供参考。[方法]文章运用3S技术法提取非耕作生境数据,按照非耕作生境比例由低到高在辽宁省沈阳市沈北新区水田区选择调查点。运用层次分析法计算调查点耕地多功能值,运用统计分析法研究非耕作生境比例变化对耕地生产、社会保障、生态服务及景观文化功能的影响。[结果](1)当非耕作生境比例低于22.54%和17.16%时,随着非耕作生境比例增加耕地生产、社会保障功能呈增强趋势;当其比例大于22.54%时和17.16%,随着非耕作生境比例增加耕地生产、社会保障功能呈减弱趋势。(2)随着非耕作生境面积比增加,耕地生态服务和景观文化功能均呈增强趋势。(3)当非耕作生境面积比低于22.54%时,随着非耕作生境比例增加耕地多功能呈增强趋势;当其比例大于22.54%时,随着非耕作生境比例增加耕地多功能呈减弱趋势。[结论]非耕作生境比例对耕地生产、社会保障功能影响均呈现先增后减趋势,对耕地生态服务功能、耕地景观文化功能的影响趋势均呈现递增趋势,对耕地多功能综合影响呈先增后减趋势。     

Current agri-environmental policies dismiss varied perceptions and discourses on management of traditional rural biotopes

Traditional rural biotopes (TRBs) are threatened habitats that host significant biodiversity and several ecosystem services, and depend on active management such as low-intensity grazing. The current study explores private landowners’ decision-making on TRB management and abandonment within a social-ecological system framework. We provide insight into supporting resilience of TRB systems in the face of agricultural modernization. Using a mixed methods approach with content analysis and Q analysis, we demonstrate that TRB management fosters cultural, biological, aesthetic, and utilitarian values. These are reflected in different ways through conservationist’s, profit-oriented farmer’s, landscape manager’s, and landscape admirer’s discourses on TRB management. Overall, management reinforces landowners’ place attachment, and reflects an approach to landscapes as spatial representations of cultural heritage and identity over multiple generations. Landowners consider TRB pasturage and its social-ecological outcomes motivating and rewarding. Giving up grazing cattle and perceived bureaucracy of national agri-environment scheme contribute to TRB abandonment. Landowners point out that current policies detach TRB management from what is seen as “regular agriculture”, and the focus on monetary compensation bypasses the multiple values tied to TRB management. Based on our results, we suggest that promoting TRBs requires reconfiguring the current arrangement of remedial management payments and adopting a more participatory governance approach. Locally, resilience of TRB systems relies on the connections between landowners and landscapes that foster sense of place and landscape identity, which can be supported by knowledge sharing and collaborative grazing efforts among landowners.     

Conservation of biodiversity and economic development: The concept of transferable development rights

For ecological and economic reasons it is more cost effective to conserve habitats rather than species, and hence biodiversity conservation becomes a land use issue. Since in developing countries, land is the most important productive asset, the opportunity costs of conservation are forgone development, while the benefits from conservation are distant and largely external to the host country. The concept of transferable development rights (TDRs), which has been extensively applied to conservation of historical buildings in urban areas, is extended and adapted here to the conservation of biodiversity, both within a country and globally. Creation of a market for TDRs makes effective the latent demand for and supply of biodiversity conservation and generates benefits for both the supplier (developing countries) and the demander (developed countries). The paper explores the conditions and public interventions necessary for the creation of an active market for TDRs. It also proposes a number of mechanisms such as credits and offsets for purchase of TDRs against domestic regulations and conservation taxes in the developed countries.