地方“垂改”勿落下乡镇这块板

<正>中央环保"垂改"《指导意见》下发后,12个省份正在推进,其他省份也将陆续展开,必将为"环境质量总体改善"提供体制保障。《指导意见》规定:"乡镇(街道)要落实环境保护职责,明确承担环境保护责任的机构和人员,确保责有人负、事有人干。""提高农村环境保护公共服务水平。"这是对乡镇环保机构及职责的总体要求,并将机构具体设置等进一步意见留给了地方"垂     

“用数据决策、用数据管理、用数据创新”——专访江苏省环保厅厅长陈蒙蒙

<正>2015年,江苏省被环保部确定为全国生态环境保护制度综合改革试点省份。江苏省对此高度重视,这一点也被写入了最近发布的《江苏省国民经济和社会发展第十三个五年规划纲要》(以下简称《规划纲要》)。《规划纲要》在第三十章"完善生态文明制度体系"的开篇明确提出,"全面开展国家生态环境保护制度综合改革试点,健全完善源头严防、过程严管、损害赔偿、责任追究机制,着力构建系统完整、实施有效的生态文明制度体系"。     

加快推进重大政策和重大项目落地,确保生态环境质量总体改善——《“十三五”生态环境保护规划》解读

当前我国环境形势仍十分严峻,"十三五"期间要实现生态环境质量总体改善,需要"硬制度""硬项目"和"硬投入"。文章结合《"十三五"生态环境保护规划》,对其中的重大改革制度政策创新和重大工程项目安排以及资金投入渠道等进行了深入分析解读,提出为确保生态环境质量总体改善,必须积极推动重大改革政策的实施,加快推进重大项目的落地,加大环保资金的投入,优化环保资金渠道。     

地方环保机构改革初探

1988年国务院机构改革之后,国务院决定选择河北省、哈尔滨市、青岛市、宝安县等1省4市9县作为地方机构改革的试点地区。1991年中央决定进一步扩大试点范围,以期通过试点,为今明两年地方机构改革的全面铺开,积累经验,探索路子。地方各级环保机构作为地方政府环境保护的行政主管部门,同样面临着改革的需要;而就环保机构自身建设而言,确实也有必要通过机构改革来转变职能,理顺关系,进一步提高环境管理的总体水平,以更好地为经济建设这一中心任务服务。本文拟就地方机构改革的总体要求和环保机构改革的走向,目前机构存在的问题,环境管理职能以及环保机构的设置提出几点想法与建议,谨以此作     

“十四五”生态环境政策和法制宜增强针对性和灵活性

"十三五"时期,我国通过政策和法制改革有效地促进了污染防治和生态环境保护工作。"十四五"时期,须进一步加强政策和法制的针对性和灵活性,从充分性和均衡度两个方面提升我国区域、流域和行业生态环境国家治理的综合绩效。为此,需要发挥党内法规和国家立法的相互支持作用,促进国家立法的有效实施;中央与地方签订行政协议,调动地方深入开展生态环保工作的积极性;推进流域与区域的专门立法或者协同立法,通过体制制度和机制的集成创新促进实际问题的解决;按照流域与区域生态环保目标设立生态环境标准,体现生态环保工作的针对性和因地制宜性;实行"法定义务+企业承诺"履行制度,因企制宜地落实各生产经营单位的生态环保责任;国家需要总结和推广一些地方探索和有效实施的灵活性工作制度,并发挥市场机制对生态环境资源和生态环保产业发展的调节作用。     

全国环境宣教系统紧紧围绕大局

深入宣传党中央、国务院关于环境保护和生态文明建设的一系列决策和部署,深入宣传环境保护部党组和各地在贯彻中央部署方面出台的新举措,深入宣传各地在贯彻落实各项环保政策中取得的成效和进展,在舆论引导、社会宣传、环境教育、环境文化建设等方面都取得了显著成效,为环保事业的不断推进发挥了重要作用。环境保护部对各省(区、市)2014年环境保护和生态文明宣传教育工作开展了绩效评估,最终评估结果将书面通报给各地。特对各地一年来宣教工作取得的成效和亮点作简要盘点,以利互相学习交流。北京开展了京津冀三地记者联合采访活动、首都之窗的在线访谈等,优化整合"环保北京"微博、"北京环保宣传"微     

广西以品牌活动推进环境宣传教育

<正>公众是推动环境保护事业发展的动力和源泉。广西以推进"公众参与"为主线,连续四年举办了环保公众开放日活动,加大环保信息公开力度,汇聚社会力量,提高环保工作透明度。新常态下的环境宣传教育工作面临着新的挑战和机遇,如何紧跟新形势推进环境宣传教育成为了重要的课题。近年来,广西结合本地实际,确定了"环境安全年""基层建设年""监管执法年""全面治污"等环境主题年,环境宣传教育活动紧密围绕主题年来组织开展,各地因地制宜,     

农村环保项目如何突破管理瓶颈?

随着农村经济的快速发展,城镇化、工业化进程突飞猛进,农村环境问题日益突出,农村环保工作是基础比较薄弱的领域,具有投入依然不足、问题复杂、污染趋势加重等特点。自2008年中央财政设立中央农村环保专项资金以来,各地按照国务院的有关要求,在中央政策引导、资金支持下,各地高度重视,制定适宜本地区的政策制度和相关实施方案,农村环保工作稳步推进,"以奖促治"政策初见成效。自2010年起,财政部、环保部     

新时期环保宣教工作的思考

当前,我国正处于全面建设小康社会、实现"两个百年目标"的关键时期,但生态环境保护形势依然严峻,国家在积极开展环境治理的同时,也对环保宣传提出了更高的要求,目的是更好地够促进公众对环保工作的理解和支持。本文阐述了新时期环保宣教工作的重要性,并基于环保宣教工作的开展情况,分析了当前环保宣教工作面临的形势和问题,提出了未来一段时期环保宣教工作的重点推进方向。     

生态文明体制改革:知易行难

<正>2015年9月以来,生态文明体制改革总体方案和相关配套方案的"1+6"组合拳纷纷亮相。"1"是《生态文明体制改革总体方案》,"6"是由《环境保护督察方案(试行)》、《生态环境监测网络建设方案》、《开展领导干部自然资源资产离任审计的试点方案》、《党政领导干部生态环境损害责任追究办法(试行)》、《编制自然资源资产负债表试点方案》和《生态环境损害赔偿制度改革试点方案》组成,成为我国生态文明建设的顶层设计图和路线图;需以制度形式固定下来。     

Conversion of temperate forests into heaths: Role of ecosystem disturbance and ericaceous plants

Fire and logging in nutrient-poor temperate forests with certain ericaceous understory plants may convert the forests into heaths. The process of disturbance-induced heath formation is documented by using examples ofCalluna in western Europe,Kalmia in Newfoundland, andGaultheria (salal) in coastal British Columbia. In a cool, temperate climate, rapid vegetative growth ofCalluna, Kalmia, and salal following disturbance results in increasing organic accumulation (paludification), nutrient sequestration, soil acidification, and allelochemicals. These are thought to be the main reasons to conifer regeneration failure in disturbed habitats. If continuation in forest is a land-use objective, then temperate forests with an ericaceous understory should not be logged unless effective silvicultural methods are devised to control the ericaceous plants and restore forest regeneration. Preharvest vegetation control may be considered as an option. Failure to control the understory plants may lead to a long-term vegetation shift, from forest to heathland, particularly in nutrient-poor sites. Successful methods of controllingKalmia andGaultheria, however, have yet to be developed. While theKalmia- andGaultheria- dominated heathlands are undesirable in Canada and the Pacific Northwest, a wide range ofCalluna heathlands of western Europe are being conserved as natural and seminatural vegetation.     

BIOLOGICAL INDICATORS AND BIOLOGICAL EFFECTS OF ESTUARINE/COASTAL POLLUTION1

ABSTRACT: Sustained interest in and concern about the health status of the aquatic environment has resulted in extensive research focused on (1) effects of pollution on survival, growth, and reproduction of resource species at all life stages; (2) diseases of fish and shellfish, as they may be related to pollution and as they may serve as indicators of environmental stress; and (3) contaminant body burdens in fish and shellfish - their effects on the aquatic animals and their potential effects on humans. Effects, lethal and sublethal, of pollutants on life history stages of fish and shellfish have been documented, as have impacts on local stocks in badly degraded habitats, but as yet there has been no adequate quantitative demonstration of effects on entire aquatic species - probably because of the difficulty in sorting out relative effects of the many environmental factors that influence abundance. Sublethal effects, especially those that result in disease, have been examined intensively, and some diseases and disease syndromes have been associated statistically with pollution. Other pollution indicators (biochemical, physiological, genetic, behavioral, and ecological) have also received some attention, as have body burdens of contaminants in aquatic species. Research, especially that conducted during the past decade, has done much to clarify the many pathways and toxic effects of contaminants on aquatic animals, and has also helped to identify mechanisms for survival of fish and shellfish in the presence of environmental changes caused by human activities.     

Urban ecological systems: scientific foundations and a decade of progress

Urban ecological studies, including focus on cities, suburbs, and exurbs, while having deep roots in the early to mid 20th century, have burgeoned in the last several decades. We use the state factor approach to highlight the role of important aspects of climate, substrate, organisms, relief, and time in differentiating urban from non-urban areas, and for determining heterogeneity within spatially extensive metropolitan areas. In addition to reviewing key findings relevant to each state factor, we note the emergence of tentative "urban syndromes" concerning soils, streams, wildlife and plants, and homogenization of certain ecosystem functions, such as soil organic carbon dynamics. We note the utility of the ecosystem approach, the human ecosystem framework, and watersheds as integrative tools to tie information about multiple state factors together. The organismal component of urban complexes includes the social organization of the human population, and we review key modes by which human populations within urban areas are differentiated, and how such differentiation affects environmentally relevant actions. Emerging syntheses in land change science and ecological urban design are also summarized. The multifaceted frameworks and the growing urban knowledge base do however identify some pressing research needs.     

Neighbourhood characteristics and urban gardens in the Toledo metropolitan area: staffing and voluntarism,food production,infrastructure, and sustainability practices

Urban gardens are important sources of sustenance for communities with limited access to food. Hence, this study focuses on food production in gardens in the Toledo metropolitan area in Northwest Ohio. We administered surveys to 150 garden managers from November 2014 to February 2015 in our attempt to better understand how neighbourhood racial composition and poverty levels are related to staffing and voluntarism, food production and distribution, the development of infrastructure, and the adoption of sustainability practices in urban gardens. The results from 30 gardens are presented in this paper. We used Geographic Information Systems to map the gardens and overlay the map with 2010 census data so that we could conduct demographic analyses of the neighbourhoods in which the gardens were located. Though the gardens were small – two acres or less – up to 46 varieties of food were grown in a single garden. Gardens also operated on small budgets. Food from the gardens was gifted or shared with friends, family, and neighbourhood residents. Gardens in predominantly minority neighbourhoods tended to have fewer institutional partners, less garden infrastructure, and had adopted fewer sustainable practices than gardens in predominantly White neighbourhoods. Nonetheless, residents of predominantly minority and high-poverty neighbourhoods participated in garden activities and influenced garden operations. Volunteering and staffing were racialised and gendered.     

Journalists' views of advertiser pressures on agricultural news

All major journalism ethical codes explicitly state that journalists should protect editorial copy from undue influence by outside sources. However, much of the previous research on agricultural information has concentrated on what information various media communicate (gatekeeping studies) or communication's role in increasing innovation adoption (diffusion studies). Few studies have concentrated specifically on organizational and structural constraints that might adversely affect agricultural journalists' ethical standards; those that have, focus largely on farm magazines. A study of newspaper reporters who cover agricultural news found that the most pressing ethical concern is the effect of advertiser (agri-business) pressure on editorial copy, and that their concerns in general parallel those of farm magazine writers and editors. The majority reported being in situations in which they might be exposed to advertiser pressure, including pressures to change or withhold editorial copy. Large minorities suggested that advertising pressures affect the overall environment in which agricultural journalists work, and more than one in ten said they allow advertiser pressures to influence editorial decisions. The newspaper reporters who cover agricultural beats showed slightly more resistance to advertiser pressure than did farm magazine editors in a parallel study.     

Definition Procedures Have Little Effect on Performance of Environmental Classifications of Streams and Rivers

Mapped environmental classifications are defined using various procedures, but there has been little evaluation of the differences in their ability to discriminate variation in independent ecological characteristics. We tested the performance of environmental classifications of the streams and rivers of France that had been defined from the same environmental data using geographic regionalization and numerical classification of individual river valley segments. Test data comprised invertebrate assemblages, water chemistry, and hydrological indexes obtained from sites throughout France. Classification performance was measured by analysis of similarity (ANOSIM). Geometric regions defined by a regular grid and without regard to environmental variables and a posteriori classifications based on clustering the test datasets defined lower and upper bounds of performance for a given number of classes. Differences in classification performances were generally small. The ANOSIM statistics for the a posteriori classifications were around twice that of all environmental classifications, including geometrically defined regions. The hydro-ecoregions performed slightly better for the invertebrate data and the network classification performed slightly better for the chemistry and hydrological data. Our results indicate that environmental classifications that are defined using different procedures can be comparable in terms of their ability to discriminate variation of ecological characteristics and that alleged differences in performance arising from different classification procedures can be small relative to unexplained variation. We conclude that definition procedures might have little effect on the performance of large-scale environmental classifications and decisions over which procedures to use should be based primarily on pragmatic considerations.     

Predicting deer-vehicle collisions in an urban area

Collisions with deer and other large animals are increasing, and the resulting economic costs and risks to public safety have made mitigation measures a priority for both city and wildlife managers. We created landscape models to describe and predict deer-vehicle collision (DVCs) within the City of Edmonton, Alberta. Models based on roadside characteristics revealed that DVCs occurred frequently where roadside vegetation was both denser and more diverse, and that DVCs were more likely to occur when the groomed width of roadside right-of-ways was smaller. No DVCs occurred where the width of the vegetation-free or manicured roadside buffer was greater than 40 m. Landscape-based models showed that DVCs were more likely in more heterogeneous landscapes where road densities were lower and speed limits were higher, and where non-forested vegetation such as farmland was in closer proximity to larger tracts of forest. These models can help wildlife and transportation managers to identify locations of high collision frequency for mitigation. Modifying certain landscape and roadside habitats can be an effective way to reduce deer-vehicle collisions.     

Effect of Light on Biodegradation of Estrone, 17β‐Estradiol,and 17α‐Ethinylestradiol in Stream Sediment

Biodegradation of [A‐ring ¹⁴C] Estrone (E1), 17β‐estradiol (E2), and 17α‐ethinylestradiol (EE2) to ¹⁴CO₂ was investigated under light and dark conditions in microcosms containing epilithon or sediment collected from Boulder Creek, Colorado. Mineralization of the estrogen A‐ring was observed in all sediment treatments, but not epilithon treatments. No difference in net mineralization between light and dark treatments was observed for ¹⁴C‐E2. Net mineralization of ¹⁴C‐E1 and ¹⁴C‐EE2 was enhanced in light treatments. Extents of ¹⁴CO₂ accumulation and rates of mineralization were significantly greater for E2 than E1 under dark conditions, but were comparable under light conditions. These results indicate substantial differences in the uptake and metabolism of E1 and E2 in the environment and suggest biorecalcitrance of E1 relative to E2 in light‐limited environments. The extent of ¹⁴CO₂ accumulation and rate of mineralization for EE2 in dark treatments were less than half of that observed for E2 and generally lower than for E1, consistent with previous reports of EE2 biorecalcitrance. However, ¹⁴CO₂ accumulation and rates of mineralization were comparable for EE2, E2, and E1 under light conditions. These results indicate photoactivation and/or phototransformation/photodegradation processes can substantially enhance heterotrophic biodegradation of estrogens in sunlit environments and may play an important role in estrogen transport and attenuation.     

Bioremediation of Soils by Plant–Microbe Systems

Abstract

Sustainable ecosystems can be designed to eliminate environmental toxins and reduce pathogen loads through the direct and indirect consequences of plant and microbial activities. We present an approach to the bioremediation of disturbed environments, focusing on petroleum hydrocarbon (PHC) contaminants. Treatment consists of incorporating a plant-based amendment to enhance ecosystem productivity and physiochemical degradation followed by the establishment of plants to serve as oxidizers and foundations for microbial communities. Promising amendments for widespread use are entire plants of the water fern Azolla and seed meal of Brassica napus (rapeseed). An inexpensive byproduct from the manufacture of biodiesel and lubricants, rapeseed meal is high in nitrogen (6% wt/wt), stimulates >100-fold increases in populations of resident Streptomyces species, and suppresses fungal infection of roots subsequently cultivated in the amended soil. Synergistic enzymatic and chemical activities of plant and microbial metabolism in root zones transform and degrade soil contaminants. Emphasis is given to mechanisms that enable PHC functionalization via reactive molecular species.     

Provincial development plans in Zimbabwe: an analysis of their content,structure and methodology

Zimbabwean provincial plans were instituted to help in the achievement of the national goal of the creation of an egalitarian, socialist and integrated society. The national goal itself was adopted as an antithesis to the dualist society characterised by spatial, economic, social, politican and technological inequalities that Zimbabwe inherited from colonialism. This meant that provincial plans had to play both a functional (or growth allocating/distribution) and a territorial (or redistribution) role.

This paper reviews their role in achieving the national goal by examining their functions, content, structure and methodology. The paper concludes that because of their nature, provincial plans are not suitable tools for the achievement of the national goal.