生态文明思想指导下的秦皇岛滨海湿地保护

秦皇岛滨海湿地是本地区生态环境的重要组成部分,具有特殊的地位和特征,发挥着不可替代的生态功能。但在自然和人为双重退化因素的驱动下,滨海湿地出现不同程度退化,威胁着本地区的生态安全。习近平生态文明思想是习近平新时代中国特色社会主义思想的重要组成部分,为秦皇岛"生态立市"战略的实施和滨海湿地的保护提供了理论基础和根本遵循。秦皇岛市应在习近平生态文明思想八大内涵的指导下,切实加强滨海湿地的保护,促进本地区的可持续发展。     

中国湿地生态补偿的利益博弈分析

我国采取了一系列加强湿地生态环境保护的措施,推进了湿地生态状况的改善.但在实践过程中,生态保护仍存在着结构性的政策缺位,湿地生态补偿作为调整损害与保护生态环境主体间利益关系的一种制度安排,是保护生态环境的有效措施.从博弈论的角度出发,分析湿地生态补偿的利益相关者,通过建立湿地生态补偿主体和客体的博弈模型,得出湿地生态补偿主体、客体的纳什均衡策略,并提出针对性的建议.     

洱海湿地生态系统服务功能价值评估

通过对洱海湿地的调查,应用资源经济学和生态经济学的理论和方法对洱海湿地的生态服务功能价值进行了货币化评估,得出洱海湿地生态系统价值总量丰富、保护价值意义巨大.     

辽宁沿海经济带滨海湿地资源的开发与保护研究

辽宁省拥有丰富多样的滨海湿地资源.随着辽宁沿海经济带升级为国家战略,滨海湿地资源将面临不同程度的开发影响.从辽宁滨海湿地资源禀赋与开发现状人手,分析了滨海湿地资源开发与保护中存在的主要问题,探讨了滨海湿地在沿海经济带开发中的重要功能与地位,并提出实现滨海湿地资源可持续开发利用的对策建议.     

浅谈南大港农场滨海湿地保护对策

湿地与生长、栖息的生物种群构成了独特的生态系统。本文对南大港农场滨海湿地的建立和发展做了简要介绍，并针对目前湿地保护面临的突出问题，提出了湿地的保护措施。     

白云湖湿地生态功能区规划及保障措施

在实地调查的基础上,根据资源经济学、生态经济学的理论和方法,针对白云湖湿地资源的主要功能特点,对其各个区域的生态服务功能价值--直接利用价值和间接利用价值进行了货币化评估,由此进行湿地功能区域划分,并对各个区域进行了现状分析,从而得出最优目标,以期达到在保护好湿地生态环境的基础上进行资源的合理开发,实现湖区湿地资源的可持续利用,保证湖区经济和社会的可持续发展.     

青海湖景区草地与湿地现状及其保护对策

环湖草地、湿地是青海湖旅游开发的重要资源，同时也是青海湖其它资源的重要载体，均为独立的生态系统，在当地生态保护中具有重要的作用。文章对青海湖景区草地、湿地的生态环境问题进行了分析评估，并对环湖旅游开发中草地、湿地的保护提出了对策建议。     

安徽省沿江湿地资源现状、问题与对策

分析了安徽沿江湿地资源现状,揭示了沿江湿地资源丰富、生态价值高的特征,探讨了湿地开发利用过程中引发的生态环境问题,认为围湖造田和水土流失造成河湖淤塞是沿江湿地洪涝灾害频繁、湿地被破坏的主要原因,生物资源利用过度、追求经济快速发展和缺乏有效监督协调机制是生态系统退化的重要原因,最后提出调整产业结构、改变利用方式、建立湿地保护政策体系和协调机制、恢复湿地系统的生态功能等相应的对策与措施.     

我国湿地生态保护法律机制的问题与完善

随着城镇化的发展,我国湿地生态环境日益恶化,污染严重,湿地生态环境面临的形势严峻,近年来湿地问题逐渐受到党和国家的重视。然而我国的法律建设严重滞后于湿地保护的需要,缺乏关于湿地的专项保护立法,湿地范围界定模糊,湿地生态补偿方式单一、产权和补偿主体不明,湿地恢复缺乏法律依据和有效监管,征收征用湿地过程中缺乏合理的拆迁安置补偿办法等问题突出。因此,亟须在国家层面出台湿地保护法,建立健全我国湿地保护法律体系,全面规范湿地保护过程中存在的多项问题,从而推动湿地生态保护工作的有效开展。     

油田开发对湿地的影响及合理利用湿地问题

协调好湿地保护与石油、天然气资源开发的关系已经越来越受到人们的重视。针对油田在开发过程中对湿地所产生的直接或间接的影响,重点讨论了将不利影响降到最小、保护湿地资源、保护湿地的生态环境及充分发挥湿地的各种功能等问题。指出了湿地保护和合理利用湿地的必要性,并提出了相应的保护和利用湿地的措施。     

Land use in Korean tidal wetlands: impacts and management strategies

The coastal landscapes in southwestern Korea include a diverse array of tidal wetlands and salt marshes. These coastal zones link the ecological functions of marine tidal wetlands and freshwater ecosystems with terrestrial ecosystems. They are rich in biological diversity and play important roles in sustaining ecological health and processing environmental pollutants. Korean tidal wetlands are particularly important as nurseries for economically important fishes and habitats for migratory birds. Diking, draining, tourism, and conversion to agricultural and urban uses have adversely affected Korean tidal wetlands. Recent large development projects have contributed to further losses. Environmental impact assessments conducted for projects affecting tidal wetlands and their surrounding landscapes should be customized for application to these special settings. Adequate environmental impact assessments will include classification of hydrogeomorphic units and consideration of their responses to biological and environmental stressors. As is true worldwide, Korean laws and regulations are changing to be more favorable to the conservation and protection of tidal wetlands. More public education needs to be done at the local level to build support for tidal wetland conservation. Some key public education points include the role of tidal wetlands in maintaining healthy fish populations and reducing impacts of nonpoint source pollution. There is also a need to develop procedures for integrating economic and environmental objectives within the overall context of sustainable management and land uses.     

Climate Change Adaptation: Putting Principles into Practice

Carrying out wildlife conservation in a changing climate requires planning on long timescales at both a site and network level, while also having the flexibility to adapt actions at sites over short timescales in response to changing conditions and new information. The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB), a land-owning wildlife conservation charity in the UK, achieves this on its nature reserves through its system of management planning. This involves setting network-wide objectives which inform the 25-year vision and 5-year conservation objectives for each site. Progress toward achieving each site’s conservation objectives is reviewed annually, to identify any adjustments which might be needed to the site’s management. The conservation objectives and 25-year vision of each site are reviewed every 5 years. Significant long-term impacts of climate change most frequently identified at RSPB reserves are: loss of intertidal habitat through coastal squeeze, loss of low-lying islands due to higher sea levels and coastal erosion, loss of coastal freshwater and brackish wetlands due to increased coastal flooding, and changes in the hydrology of wetlands. The main types of adaptation measures in place on RSPB reserves to address climate change-related impacts are: re-creation of intertidal habitat, re-creation and restoration of freshwater wetlands away from vulnerable coastal areas, blocking artificial drainage on peatlands, and addressing pressures on freshwater supply for lowland wet grasslands in eastern and southeastern England. Developing partnerships between organizations has been crucial in delivering large-scale adaptation projects.     

Assessing and Prioritizing Ecological Communities for Monitoring in a Regional Habitat Conservation Plan

In nature reserves and habitat conservation areas, monitoring is required to determine if reserves are meeting their goals for preserving species, ecological communities, and ecosystems. Increasingly, reserves are established to protect multiple species and communities, each with their own conservation goals and objectives. As resources are always inadequate to monitor all components, criteria must be applied to prioritize both species and communities for monitoring and management. While methods for prioritizing species based on endangerment or risk have been established, approaches to prioritizing ecological communities for monitoring are not well developed, despite a long-standing emphasis on communities as target elements in reserve design. We established guidelines based on four criteria derived from basic principles of conservation and landscape ecology--extent, representativeness, fragmentation, and endangerment--to prioritize communities in the San Diego Multiple Species Conservation Plan (MSCP). The MSCP was one of the first multiple-species habitat conservation areas established in California, USA, and it has a complex spatial configuration because of the patterns of surrounding land use, which are largely urbanized. In this case study, high priority communities for monitoring include coastal sage scrub (high endangerment, underrepresented within the reserve relative to the region, and moderately fragmented), freshwater wetlands, and coastal habitats (both have high fragmentation, moderate endangerment and representativeness, and low areal extent). This framework may be useful to other conservation planners and land managers for prioritizing the most significant and at-risk communities for monitoring.     

An assessment of urban development into coastal wetlands using historical aerial photography: a case study

Like many other states in the USA, Virginia passed legislation to protect coastal wetlands with limited information on the rate and location of past wetlands conversions. This information, however, can be useful in the design of cost-effective and flexible programs for wetlands management, particularly when such information is used in combination with studies of the socioeconomic value of wetlands. This paper reports on the use of photogrammetric and interpretive methods to determine historical changes in wetlands use for Virginia Beach and Accomack counties, Virginia. Conclusions are drawn as to the use of such information in policy design and program monitoring.     

Irrigated Agriculture and Wildlife Conservation: Conflict on a Global Scale

/ The demand for water to support irrigated agriculture has led to the demise of wetlands and their associated wildlife for decades. This thirst for water is so pervasive that many wetlands considered to be hemispheric reserves for waterbirds have been heavily affected; for example, the California and Nevada wetlands in North America, the Macquarie Marshes in Australia, and the Aral Sea in central Asia. These and other major wetlands have lost most of their historic supplies of water and some have also experienced serious impacts from contaminated subsurface irrigation drainage. Now mere shadows of what they once were in terms of biodiversity and wildlife production, many of the so-called "wetlands of international importance" are no longer the key conservation strongholds they were in the past. The conflict between irrigated agriculture and wildlife conservation has reached a critical point on a global scale. Not only has local wildlife suffered, including the extinction of highly insular species, but a ripple effect has impacted migratory birds worldwide. Human societies reliant on wetlands for their livelihoods are also bearing the cost. Ironically, most of the degradation of these key wetlands occurred during a period of time when public environmental awareness and scientific assertion of the need for wildlife conservation was at an all-time high. However, designation of certain wetlands as "reserves for wildlife" by international review boards has not slowed their continued degradation. To reverse this trend, land and water managers and policy makers must assess the true economic costs of wetland loss and, depending on the outcome of the assessment, use the information as a basis for establishing legally enforceable water rights that protect wetlands from agricultural development.     

The Role of Wetlands for Mitigating Economic Damage from Hurricanes

Coastal communities along the United States coast often experience significant economic damage resulting from the impacts of tropical storms and hurricanes. Research suggests that certain factors that affect economic damages are increasing the vulnerability of coastal communities. Population growth, which increases vulnerability by placing valuable lives and assets in the path of storms, is expected to increase. Climate change has the potential to cause more frequent and intense storms, and coastal wetland loss is contributing to the vulnerability of coastal populations. Wetlands conservation and restoration is often advocated for as a means of reducing the impacts of coastal storms. The relationship between wetlands and storm surge energy is understood relatively well in physical terms, but very little economic analysis has been conducted to estimate the degree to which wetlands reduce economic impacts. Using factor analysis, the relationships among coastal populations, wetlands, storm intensity, and economic damage are explored. The factor analysis suggests that wetland presence is associated with a reduction in economic damages from coastal storms. Factor score analysis suggests that the proportion of damage explained by wetland presence is smaller for more intense storms. These results are consistent with those found in the physical science literature and have potentially large consequences for how wetlands are used in risk reduction.     

An Ecological Integrity Index for Littoral Wetlands in Agricultural Catchments of Semiarid Mediterranean Regions

The main goal of the present study was to develop an ecological integrity index for littoral wetland management and conservation in semiarid Mediterranean areas that have been highly impacted by agriculture, including the selection of pressure and state indicators at landscape and wetlands scales that reflect the status, condition, and trends of wetlands ecosystems. We used a causality framework based on the relationship between pressure of anthropogenic activities and the ecological state of wetlands and their catchments, integrating environmental, biologic, economic, and social issues. From the application of 51 indicators in 7 littoral wetlands in the southeastern Iberian Peninsula, we selected 12 indicators (5 at catchment scale and 7 at wetland scale) to constitute the ecological integrity index proposed. The potential nitrogen export per area at catchment scale and the potential relative nitrogen export from the area surrounding the wetlands were the best pressure single predictors of state indicators with a causal relationship with environmental meaning. Wetlands in catchments with more agriculture had less ecological integrity than those in less impacted areas. A wide riparian zone in some wetlands acts as a buffer area, diminishing the effects of intensive agriculture. The index of ecological integrity developed here has a number of essential characteristics that make it a useful tool for ecosystem managers and decision-makers. The index can be used to (1) assess and control ecological integrity, (2) diagnose probable causes of ecological impairment, (3) establish criteria for protecting and restoring wetland ecosystems, and (4) integrate catchment management. Published online     

CLIMATE CHANGE: POTENTIAL IMPACTS AND INTERACTIONS IN WETLANDS OF THE UNTTED STATES1

ABSTRACT: Wetlands exist in a transition zone between aquatic and terrestrial environments which can be altered by subtle changes in hydrology. Twentieth century climate records show that the United States is generally experiencing a trend towards a wetter, warmer climate; some climate models suggest that this trend will continue and possibly intensify over the next 100 years. Wetlands that are most likely to be affected by these and other potential changes (e.g., sea‐level rise) associated with atmospheric carbon enrichment include permafrost wetlands, coastal and estuanne wetlands, peat lands, alpine wetlands, and prairie pothole wetlands. Potential impacts range from changes in community structure to changes in ecological function, and from extirpation to enhancement. Wetlands (particularly boreal peat‐lands) play an important role in the global carbon cycle, generally sequestering carbon in the form of biomass, methane, dissolved organic material and organic sediment. Wetlands that are drained or partially dried can become a net source of methane and carbon dioxide to the atmosphere, serving as a positive biotic feedback to global warming. Policy options for minimizing the adverse impacts of climate change on wetland ecosystems include the reduction of current anthropogenic stresses, allowing for inland migration of coastal wetlands as sea‐level rises, active management to preserve wetland hydrology, and a wide range of other management and restoration options.     

Regional priorities for wetlands conservation in West Asia and North Africa

Though characterized by a scarcity of water, West Asia and North Africa region has a large number of wetlands of various types supporting a rich biodiversity. However, the government efforts to reverse the trend of wetlands degradation fall short of the policy goals due to various reasons. The paper outlines the priorities for wetlands conservation in the region.     

Greenhouse effect and coastal wetland policy: How Americans could abandon an area the size of Massachusetts at minimum cost

Climatologists generally expect an anthropogenic global warming that could raise sea level 30–150 cm in the next century and more thereafter. One of the impacts would be the loss of coastal wetlands. Although the inundation of adjacent dryland would enable new wetlands to form, much of this land is or will soon be developed. If developed areas are protected, wetlands will be squeezed between an advancing sea and the land being protected, which has already happened in China and the Netherlands, where people have built dikes for centuries. Unlike those countries, the United States has enough land to accommodate the landward migration of wetlands; but governments lack the funds to purchase all the coastal lowlands that might be inundated and the legal authority to prohibit their development. We propose a third approach: allowing property owners to use coastal lowlands today as they choose, but setting up a legal mechanism to ensure that the land is abandoned if and when sea level rises enough to inundate it. Although compensation may be required, this approach would cost less than 1% as much as purchasing the land, and would be (1) economically efficient by enabling real estate markets to incorporate expectations of future sea level rise; (2) constitutional by compensating property owners; and (3) politically feasible by pleasing people who care about the long-term fate of the coastal environment without disturbing people who either are unconcerned about the distant future or do not believe sea level will rise. This article demonstrates that it would be irrational to delay policy formulation until sea level rise projections are more precise. The cost will be small if we act now but great if we wait, and sea level is already rising along most coasts. The US government should develop a strategy in the next three years. The opinions expressed in this paper do not necessarily reflect the views of EPA and no official endorsement should be inferred.