Mainstreaming sustainability into biodiversity conservation in Lesotho

Biodiversity conservation is critical for the continued supply of ecosystem services to secure the sustainability of livelihoods, especially for poor rural people in developing countries. Current rates of biodiversity loss need to be curbed by using effective interventions and decision-making that again require timely information. Undertaking a community sustainability assessment to generate and structure this information for grassroots levels is critical for decision-making and actions. This paper presents insights from a community sustainability assessment initiative undertaken in Lesotho within a trans-boundary project area known as the Maloti-Drakensberg Transfrontier Project. A qualitative case study approach was employed through a combination of several data collection techniques, including a literature review, field observations, key informant interviews, group discussions and key informant workshops. Study participants consisted of members of the community conservation forums from three districts that had been established by the project. Regarding progress towards the sustainability of biodiversity in the study area, the results indicated that current practices are unsustainable, more from the point of view of the socio-ecological components than the socio-cultural and spiritual or the socio-economic components. Consequently, there is a need to raise awareness at the community level and implement action plans to realize changes that support the sustainability of biodiversity in the long term.     

Understanding Human Development Potentials and Demands for Greenhouse Gas Emissions:with Empirical Analysis using time series and cross-sectional data

Based on an investigation of the meaning of development, the neo-classical economic approach to development, and the post-welfarist theory of development, this paper proposes a conceptual framework for understanding human development potentials, while undertaking empirical analysis using cross-sectional and time series data on human development. Human development is associated with basic necessities for subsistence, the quality of life, and political and civil rights, in addition to income indicators. Our analysis suggests that the concept of human development potentials has two dimensions: the rights of development and limits to human development. Both are largely ignored in the neoclassical theory of development. However, human development is not unbounded, which approaches to a relatively fixed constant at given economic, technological and institutional conditions. This conceptual understanding is supported by results from the empirical examination of the relationships between demands for carbon emis     

区域环境质量与经济发展关系模型研究

环境库兹涅茨曲线是目前环境经济领域被广泛引用的一个计量模型。针对当前人们大多通过实际观测资料,利用回归分析,估计环境质量转折点,而理论研究相对较少的现状,从社会福利最大化角度出发,通过设定物品消费偏好指数,建立了一个两物品模型。通过数学推理,首先推导出了区域环境最佳投资水平,在此基础上从理论上证明了环境库兹涅茨曲线存在的依据,以及在环境质量最低点和环境质量发生根本性好转的转折点的社会总投资水平。研究表明,环境质量演化过程曲线取决于社会经济发展状况,它与非环境物品生产函数和排污生产函数的技术参数,居民收入水平以及对环境物品和非环境物品的消费偏好,国民收入分配政策等有关,而非仅仅与经济增长状况有关。因此,在经济发展过程中适时地调整产业结构和国民收入分配政策、采用新技术、提倡合理的消费观念等是加速环境质量演化过程的重要措施。     

SUSTAINABILITY AT THE LOCAL LEVEL: MANAGEMENT TOOLS AND MUNICIPAL TAX INCENTIVE MODEL

The implementation of sustainable development may seem a simple concept when written on paper. However to carry-out long term actions put forward by the Agenda 21 (AG21) at the local level represents one of the main challenges as municipal governments in general do not have the capacity to effectively implement the process. Regional environmental assessment (REA) has shown to be effective in supporting decision-making not only to correct environmental problems due to past unsustainable social-economic developments but also help local governments to implement sustainable actions. However this requires long-term investments of AG21 plans and projects. The allocation of regular and consistent financial resources is one of the main ingredients for the sustainable development process. But traditional plans and projects financed by national and/or international funds may not be sustainable in the long-term because they become dependent on external funding. Research demonstrate that innovative economic instruments such as ecotaxes represent a feasible alternative to sponsor local sustainability because taxes are collected permanently by the government and could be invested in continuous actions. Ecotaxes experiences have provided important reference to structure a municipal incentive model (MIM) to sponsor AG21’s environmental plans and projects on a long-term (permanent) basis. However sustainable development cannot be solely through economic investments. A comprehensive municipal environmental management scheme (MEMS) has been established to support the incentive model. The scheme seeks not only to improve local institutional framework but also incentive continuous participation of local stakeholders at all levels of society. Participatory events and the provision of incentives (educational and financial) are key to motivate society to protect the environment and support actively the sustainable development process as emphasised in the RIO-92 Conference.     

政府主导、人口流动与城乡收入差距

中国经济增长具有典型的政府主导特征,通过构造一个包含城镇和农村经济产出的社会福利函数来分析政府主导型经济增长对城乡收入差距的影响关系,并基于中国城镇化发展实际分析了人口流动对城乡收入差距的影响,在此基础上提出研究假说,统计中国1997—2014年省际面板数据,采用泰尔指数测度城乡收入差距并分别进行静态和动态回归分析与检验。静态研究发现政府主导和人口流动显著地拉大了城乡收入差距,但是二者的交互项对城乡收入差距的确具有收敛效应,即随着人口流动的增加,政府主导对城乡收入差距的边际贡献会降低,同样随着政府主导的提升也会降低人口流动对城乡收入差距的边际贡献,这种影响关系在分区域的回归中依然成立,并通过了稳健性检验;动态研究发现全国和分区域中城乡收入差距的变动存在显著的正向路径依赖特征,全国层面政府主导显著地拉大了城乡收入差距,而人口流动及其与政府主导的交互项则显著地缩小了城乡收入差距,但分区域来看政府主导和人口流动对城乡收入差距的影响存在显著的区域异质性,并通过了稳健性检验。因此缩小城乡收入差距不应设置单一的政策目标,需要建立多方面的政策配套体系,逐步矫正政府主导型经济中造成的政府职能异化,精准识别地方财政收支量的规模和结构条件,扩大涉农业务投资的规模,激活农村经济发展活力;在城乡户籍制度改革中进一步打破城乡分割藩篱,大力发展非农产业,增加农民的非农就业机会,促进农民的非农化就业和城镇化迁移,提升城镇化发展质量;最终通过一系列的配套性制度安排,旨在加强支持农业发展和农村建设,促进农民收入增长的制度供给,实现城乡共享发展。     

农村合作经济组织发展的制度分析

农村合作经济组织是将农民组织起来进入市场、参与竞争的桥梁和纽带,是新时期推动农村经济发展和提高农民收入的重要因素之一。在制度层面运用新制度经济学理论从实现土地规模经营、节约市场交易费用和维护农民利益等三方面分析了合作组织发育的需求诱致性动因;接着从制度环境状况、现有社会科学知识的积累、现存的制度安排、组织的制度变迁成本、非正式制度安排等外部制度供给方面以及产权和组织制度等组织内部制度方面分析了其存在的缺陷;最后提出了推动合作组织发展的政策建议：其一,只要是以“三农”服务为宗旨,政府在政策上都应允许和指导合作组织灵活地创新产权制度、因地制宜地进行多种形式的组织创新;其二,政府要力所能及地为合作组织提供一些制度服务。     

A happiness Kuznets curve? Using model-based cluster analysis to group countries based on happiness,development, income,and carbon emissions

This exploratory study uses model-based cluster analysis to group sixty-one countries based on statistical similarities in terms of happiness, development, income, and carbon emissions. Model-based cluster analysis is appropriate for an initial identification of a pattern that is worthy of further investigation. A key finding is that there may be a Kuznets curve for happiness. The Kuznets curve graphs the proposition that, as an economy develops, economic inequality first increases and then decreases. Similarly, the authors find that clusters of countries at the extremes of the lowest and highest average levels of development and income have the highest self-reported levels of happiness. Clusters of countries in the middle of the development and income spectrum have the comparatively lowest average levels of happiness. Further, carbon emissions are not perfectly associated with happiness. For example, between two clusters with the highest average levels of development, income, and happiness there is a 43 % difference in carbon emissions. A highly developed cluster has roughly the same mean carbon emissions as a cluster with 83 % less income, and the least developed cluster has 93 % of the happiness as the most developed cluster yet 86 % less carbon emissions. Despite limitations of both data and methodology, the overall pattern—that there may be a happiness Kuznets curve and that development, income, and carbon emissions are not associated lockstep with happiness—contributes to the literature on decoupling development from growth in emissions.     

Sustainable livelihoods development by utilization of geomorphological resources in the Bai Tu Long Bay,Quang Ninh Province,Vietnam

Located in the humid tropical zone and endowed with carbonate sedimentary formations, Vietnam has unique karst landscapes where caves, limestone, and dolines are common. If well managed, these are valuable geomorphological resources for a sustainable socio-economic development. Although publications on sustainable livelihoods associated with conserving biodiversity and local culture are plentiful, there is still a lack of studies linking livelihood quality with the conservation of geomorphological resources, in particular in karst areas. This study assesses the geomorphological resources in Vietnam’s Bai Tu Long Bay and studies the relationship between livelihood and these resources. The current research area Bai Tu Long Bay is adjacent to the natural World Heritage site of Ha Long Bay in the Vietnamese part of the Gulf of Tonkin. Bai Tu Long is characterized by a karst landscape, which is at the same time similar but also different from Ha Long Bay. A field survey and interviews with 153 households allowed assessing people’s perception of the value of the geomorphological resources and their importance for local income. The results show that Bai Tu Long Bay has abundant, diverse, and unique geomorphological resources, which are valuable for tourism development. However, the local people are unaware of these values likely because they have no direct benefit from them. Further a sustainable development strategy for Bai Tu Long Bay is recommended. The outcome is a proposal for tourism initiatives aiming at realizing more sustainability in the area.     

Overcoming Contradictions Between Growth and Sustainability:Institutional Innovation in the BRICS

The recent accelerated growth rates or efforts to emulate countries that have achieved a rapid pace of economic growth are widely acclaimed as means to uplift millions from poverty. In so doing, however, this rapid economic growth is most likely to coincide with unsustainable levels of consumption, place excessive pressure on life support systems and terrestrial sinks and foreshorten options for the future. Rather than pursuing the "Environmental Kuznets Curve" (EKC) hypothesis that higher income will bring with it the means to reduce the impacts of greater consumption, ecological economists assert that buying our way out of future scarcity with fast growth is indeed contradictory with sustainability. To better understand these contradictions and explore potential institutional innovations that may enable developing nations to better confront them (in effect, "tunneling under" the EKC), this article refers to recent experience in the BRICS countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa). Beginning with a brief comparative summary of major development and environmental indicators, pressures on resources and society in each of the BRICS are discussed, followed by identification of institutional and policy frameworks each country has evolved to confront the challenges of growth and sustainability. The article closes with general conclusions for further research and information sharing among developing nations.     

Poverty and the Deterioration of Natural Soil Capital in the Peruvian Altiplano

The Peruvian altiplano is a marginal agricultural region with limited infrastructure, climate constraints, and high levels of poverty. Data were collected from 265 farms in four different agricultural regions, and data from three of those regions are analyzed here. Regressions were run with soil nutrient loss, soil depth loss, and yield loss over the past 20 years, as perceived by farmers. Location, topographical and management factors were considered. Additional regressions were run to examine the determinants of two agricultural management practices which were found to affect soil quality, namely fallowing and ploughing vertical furrows. Use of traditional fallowing (aynoca) was associated with helping to preserve soil quality, and was practiced by households with more education, with higher non-farm income, and in villages which had benefitted from natural resource development projects. Vertical furrowing similarly was associated with helping preserve soil quality, and was practiced by households with fewer unmet basic needs. These results have implications for the agricultural and development strategies to be followed in the region.     

自然资源、技术进步与环境库兹涅茨曲线

不可再生自然资源的约束和环境质量的不断恶化是经济可持续发展必须要面对的挑战。就环境问题而言,现实中一个特征事实是,在不同的收入水平下人们对环境质量的需求不同,只有当收入达到一定水平之后,人们才会注重生活质量的改善。基于现有研究,在考虑非再生自然资源的约束条件下,本研究将环境质量作为生产要素的一部分引入最优增长理论的分析框架,探讨了在环境污染和自然资源双重约束下的长期经济增长问题。在非再生自然资源和环境污染的双重约束下,本研究表明解决环境问题必须要采用的手段是促使技术进步的创新研发,因为技术进步是环境库兹涅茨曲线出现拐点的不可或缺的一个必要条件。在市场竞争的环境下,由于知识的非竞争性质使得研究部门的研究是次优的。因此,政府应当通过适当的财政政策和法制安排以激励私人投资者研究与开发新技术的积极性。     

Population Growth,Available Resources,and Quality of Life:China’s Post-Reform Economic Development

Two opposing intellectual traditions and their contem-porary developments regarding the relations among population, available resources, and quality of life as reflected in economic growth are reviewed. What is at issue is whether population growth is detrimental to or beneficial for economic development. Neither of the extreme views gives a complete picture of the interplay among population, resources, and quality of life. Following previous literature on the topic, this paper establishes a more balanced approach that considers the function linking population and quality of life not constant but variable and regards the limitedness of resources as not absolute but relative to regions and societies. The proposed approach is more flexible in better explaining the relation between population and economic growth. China is examined as a case in point to shed light on the interaction of population growth, economic development, and available resources, and its recent post-economic reform experiences showcase the appropriateness of the synthetic approach.     

Exploring decentralized forest management in Ethiopia using actor-power-accountability framework: case study in West Shoa zone

Decentralized forest management is a pivotal approach in Ethiopia for balancing biodiversity conservation with demand for economic development, and for improving forest-dependent local peoples’ livelihoods. With the aim of filling the literature gap on Ethiopia, this paper explores the dynamics of decentralization in the forestry sector using the actor-power-accountability framework. Generally, three forms of decentralization are practiced: deconcentration to government administrative branches, devolution of selected decision-making power to local people, and delegation to enterprises. Although transfer of meaningful discretionary power to local people or to downwardly accountable lower-tier governments is a precondition for achieving positive outcomes from decentralization, this prerequisite has been realized in none of the three forms decentralization. Overall, three important trends emerged from the latest decentralization reform, which was a switch from the conservation-oriented deconcentration form of decentralization to the income generation-oriented delegation form of decentralization. Those trends are as follows: monetary income generation for local people through enterprise, albeit with possible risk of being deprived of income and subsistence opportunities on which local people depend for their livelihoods; moving decision-making power away from the grassroots; and lack of incentive to manage natural forests, a major source of biodiversity.     

绿色防控技术对稻农经济收益的影响及其作用机制

中国农业正在向绿色发展转变,绿色防控技术在确保粮食安全和保护生态环境方面发挥着重要作用。文章基于四川省623户水稻种植户的微观调查数据,采用倾向得分匹配法消除了样本选择性偏差,分析了绿色防控技术对农户经济收益的影响及其作用机制,并对研究结果进行了一系列的稳健性检验。研究结果表明:①绿色防控技术的采纳能够显著改善稻农的经济收益。与未采纳绿色防控技术的状态相比,采纳绿色防控技术能够使农户每亩水稻的毛收入增加104.96%,每亩水稻的净利润增加40.45%。②从作用机制上看,采纳绿色防控技术使稻农获得了更高的市场溢价,同时有利于激励稻农扩大水稻种植规模,并增加对农地的投入,包括提高有机肥和种子的投入费用。③尽管采纳绿色防控技术带来了一定的消极影响,即提高了病虫害损失率,导致一定程度的减产,但整体而言,采纳绿色防控技术所带来的价格溢价弥补了因病虫害引致的产量损失,改善了稻农的经济收益。④绿色防控技术对稻农经济收益的影响会由于教育水平的差异以及互联网的应用而存在明显的异质性。最后,研究从加大农村人力资本投入、完善农村互联网设施、强化绿色防控技术政策支持以及加强对农用化学投入品的监管等四个方面提出对策建议。     

人力资本积累、企业创新与中等收入陷阱

中国经济长期向好的基本面虽未改变,但2010年以来经济增速不断回落,一些阻碍经济可持续发展的不利因素不断积累,落入"中等收入陷阱"的风险有所上升。揭示中等收入陷阱的产生机制,显然对于政府形成规避中等收入陷阱的有效政策具有重要意义。本文根据社会再生产理论,建立了"世代交叠"模型,对中等收入陷阱的产生机制作出理论解释,并运用中国1998—2014年各地区经济数据进行了验证,结果表明:(1)人力资本积累和企业创新会在不同程度上促进经济增长,并且二者存在协同效应;(2)上中等层次人力资本积累与企业创新的协同效应可以带动经济增长;(3)下中等层次人力资本与企业创新的协同效应对经济增长的作用不显著。这意味着现阶段中国经济发展不仅应注重人力资本量的积累,更要保证质的提升。基于此,应从下三个方面着手推动中国经济实现中高速增长:(1)着力提升科技创新能力,科学构建产权保护法律体系,促进形成企业家倡导企业科研创新的机制,激发企业创新的主观能动性,维护创新企业对于运用和转让科研成果的合法权益;(2)着力培育高素质人才的教育体系,稳步提升高等教育入学率和办学质量,鼓励教育培训机构适度创新,推动培训方式项目化,针对岗位需求扩充劳动者知识和技术储备;(3)着力降低初中及以下人口的规模与比例,延长义务教育年限,鼓励优质教育资源向不发达地区适度转移,关注偏远地区贫困人群的入学情况,努力为穷人提供公平发展的机会。     

Impact of Growing Income Inequality on Sustainable Development in China： A Provincial-level Analysis

A growing body of literature has documented the rapidly increasing income disparities that accompanied China＇s economic growth in the 1980s and 1990s, and the driving factors behind this. Growing income inequality in its turn may have important implications for the accumulation of physical capital, human capital, and natural capital and as a consequence for sustainable economic development. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the potential impact of income inequality on savings, human resources and the environment in China. It starts with an overview of the different causal mechanisms through which income inequality may affect the accumulation of physical capital, human capital, and natural capital, and discusses to what extent these causal relationships may be relevant in the case of China. Next, provincial data for the year 2002 are used to explore the relationship between income inequality and different elements of sustainable development in China. It is found that income inequality does not affect aggregate savings levels. Rising inequality, however, contributes to lower health and possibly also to higher fertility levels. It also lowers the use of chemical fertilizers in agriculture and therefore is likely to reduce water pollution. Other types of environmental degradation are not affected.     

Impact of Growing Income Inequality on Sustainable Development in China: A Provincial-level Analysis

Abstract

A growing body of literature has documented the rapidly increasing income disparities that accompanied China's economic growth in the 1980s and 1990s, and the driving factors behind this. Growing income inequality in its turn may have important implications for the accumulation of physical capital, human capital, and natural capital and as a consequence for sustainable economic development. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the potential impact of income inequality on savings, human resources and the environment in China. It starts with an overview of the different causal mechanisms through which income inequality may affect the accumulation of physical capital, human capital, and natural capital, and discusses to what extent these causal relationships may be relevant in the case of China. Next, provincial data for the year 2002 are used to explore the relationship between income inequality and different elements of sustainable development in China. It is found that income inequality does not affect aggregate savings levels. Rising inequality, however, contributes to lower health and possibly also to higher fertility levels. It also lowers the use of chemical fertilizers in agriculture and therefore is likely to reduce water pollution. Other types of environmental degradation are not affected.     

Increasing tree cover while losing diverse natural forests in tropical Hainan,China

To protect biodiversity and improve environmental conditions, China has invested billions of dollars in reforestation and payments for ecosystem service programs. Here, we examine the Sloping Land Conversion Program, the largest such program in the world and found that after 13 years of implementation at our study site, it has had negative impacts on natural tropical forests. GIS and remote sensing techniques revealed that both natural forests and natural shrub and grasslands were replaced by non-native monocultural plantations on Hainan Island, China, a key tropical biodiversity hotspot. Under current Chinese policy, these plantations are classified simply as “forests”, with the assumption that they are equivalent to natural forests. This lack of a distinction in forest quality has led to substantial deforestation and plantation expansion, including encroachment into protected areas on Hainan. Additional social and economic drivers of these changes were identified by examining the participants in this program and their actions. Without a new ecologically based definition of forests and new goals for reforestation, such programs designed to improve ecosystem services, and forest quality may actually threaten remaining natural forests and other vegetation types in Hainan and in other areas of mainland China.     

Economic costs of reduced irrigation water availability in Uzbekistan (Central Asia)

Reduced river runoff and expected upstream infrastructural developments are both potential threats to irrigation water availability for the downstream countries in Central Asia. Although it has been recurrently mentioned that a reduction in water supply will hamper irrigation in the downstream countries, the magnitude of associated economic losses, economy-wide repercussions on employment rates, and degradation of irrigated lands has not been quantified as yet. A computable general equilibrium model is used to assess the economy-wide consequences of a reduced water supply in Uzbekistan—a country that encompasses more than half of the entire irrigated croplands in Central Asia. Modeling findings showed that a 10–20 % reduction in water supply, as expected in the near future, may reduce the areas to be irrigated by 241,000–374,000 hectares and may cause unemployment to a population of 712–868,000, resulting in a loss for the national income of 3.6–4.3 %. A series of technical, financial, and institutional measures, implementable at all levels starting from the farm to the basin scale, are discussed for reducing the expected water risks. The prospects of improving the basin-wide water management governance, increasing water and energy use efficiency, and establishing the necessary legal and institutional frameworks for enhancing the introduction of needed technological and socioeconomic change are argued as options for gaining more regional water security and equity.     

ECONOMIC GROWTH AND THE QUALITY OF THE ENVIRONMENT: TAKING STOCK

There is a long-standing debate on the relationship between economic development and environmental quality. From a sustainable development viewpoint there has been a growing concern that the economic expansion of the world economy will cause irreparable damage to our planet. In the last few years several studies have appeared dealing with the relationship between the scale of economic activity and the level of pollution. In particular, if we concentrate on local pollutants many empirical contributions have identified a bell-shaped curve linking per capita pollution to per capita GDP (in the case of global pollutants like CO₂ the evidence is less clear-cut). This behavior implies that, starting from low per capita income levels, per capita emissions or concentrations tend to increase but at a slower pace. After a certain level of income (which typically differs across pollutants) – the “turning point” – pollution starts to decline as income further increases. In analogy with the historical relationship between income distribution and income growth, the inverted-U relationship between per capita income and pollution has been termed “Environmental Kuznets Curve”. The purpose of this paper is not to provide an overview the literature: there are several survey papers around doing precisely that. We instead reconsider the explanations that have been put forth for its inverted-U pattern. We consider the literature from this perspective. In addition, without resorting to any econometric estimation, we consider whether simple data analysis can help to shed some light on the motives that can rationalize the Environmental Kuznets Curve. This paper is part of the research work being carried out by the Climate Change Modelling and Policy Unit at Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei and has been prepared for the 2004–2005 ESRI Collaboration Project. The author is grateful to Nicola Cantore for skillful assistance.