Innovative approaches to rural development: Moving from state-controlled towards market-based land reform

Among the world's poor, approximately 75% of those in extreme poverty live and work in rural areas and two‐thirds of them depend mainly on farming or farm labour for their livelihood. Policies to grant the rural poor secure access to land and water for irrigation — and to improve the economic efficiency of small‐scale agriculture — can thus play a critical role in the implementation of rural development strategies, including efforts to combat rural poverty. Since inadequate access to arable land is probably the most important cause of rural poverty, redistributive land reform is increasingly seen as crucial for socio‐economic development and poverty alleviation in many developing countries with substantial amounts of (unused) arable state land or (under‐utilized) large private landholdings. This article argues that market‐based land redistribution schemes, such as the one being implemented in South Africa, can be considered one of the most innovative approaches to land reform that have emerged over the last decade. These schemes thus provide a useful alternative to more conventional, state‐controlled land redistribution programmes. The article concludes, however, that when countries opt for market‐based approaches to land redistribution, the State still has an important role to play, without necessarily deciding which land parcels change hands.     

对防震减灾工作依法行政的探讨

《中华人民共和国防震减灾法》等一系列法律、规章的出台实施,规范了防震减灾的管理体制、行政执法,并将地震部门作为行政主体推向了依法行政的前沿。笔者结合自己在行政办事中心“窗口”的工作实际,对防震减灾依法行政工作的特点和存在问题进行一些简单的探讨。     

纳板河自然保护区参与性有效管理研究初探

纳板河自然保护区内农民落后的耕作方式，对土地的不合理利用以及政策和社会发展等因素对热带雨林带来巨大压力。对其实施有效管理，合理利用土地和野生生物资源，开征资源补偿素，完善管理体制和规章制度，可在帮助当地农民脱贫的同时，有效地保护热带雨林及其生境。     

对防震减灾工作依法行政的探讨

《中华人民共和国防震减灾法》等一系列法律、规章的出台实施，规范了防震减灾的管理体制、行政执法，并将地震部门作为行政主体推向了依法行政的前沿。笔者结合自己在行政办事中心“窗口”的工作实际，对防震减灾依法行政工作的特点和存在问题进行一些简单的探讨。     

Rural poverty driven soil degradation under climate change: the sensitivity of the disposition towards the Sahel Syndrome with respect to climate

Starting from the basic assumption of the syndrome concept that essentially all of the present problematic civilization–nature interactions on the global scale can be subdivided into a limited number of typical patterns, the analysis of the response of these patterns (syndromes) to climate change can make a major contribution to climate impact research, surmounting the difficulties of more common sectoral ceteris paribus impact studies with respect to their systemic integration. In this paper we investigate in particular the influence of climate on the regional proneness or disposition towards one of the most important syndromes with respect to famines and malnutrition, the Sahel Syndrome. It describes the closely interlinked natural and socioeconomic aspects of rural poverty driven degradation of soil and vegetation on marginal sites. Two strategies of global climate impact assessment on a spatial 0.5°×0.5° grid were pursued: (a) As a measure for the climate sensitivity of the regional proneness, the absolute value of the gradient of the disposition with respect to the global field of 3} 12 monthy normals of temperature, irradiation and precipitation is calculated. (b) The disposition was evaluated for two different climate forecasts under doubled atmospheric CO₂ concentration. For both strategies two new quantitative global models were incorporated in a fuzzy-logic-based algorithm for determining the disposition towards the Sahel Syndrome: a neural-net-based model for plant productivity and a waterbalance model which calculates surface runoff considering vertical and lateral fluxes, both driven by the set of 36 monthly climatological normals and designed to allow very fast global numerical evaluation.Calculation (b) shows that the change in disposition towards the Sahel Syndrome crucially depends on the chosen climate forecast, indicating that the disagreement of climate forecasts is propagated to the impact assessment of the investigated socio-economic pattern. On the other hand the regions with a significant increase in disposition in at least one of the climate scenario-based model runs form a subset of the regions which are indicated by the local climate sensitivity study (a) as highly sensitive – illustrating that the gradient measure applied here provides a resonable way to calculate an upper limit or worst case of negative climate impact. This method is particularly valuable in the case of uncertain climate predictions as, e.g., for the change in precipitation patterns.     

边境贫困县建设用地变化特征与驱动因素——以广西龙州为例

边境贫困县的土地利用、城镇发展与脱贫攻坚事关边境稳定和可持续发展大局。论文选取广西壮族自治区的龙州县为案例研究区域,以2011年和2016年高分影像作为主要数据源,结合社会经济数据,探讨该县近年建设用地时空变化特征及驱动因素。研究结果表明：1）龙州县主要建设用地的增幅达10.08%,其中城镇用地、农村宅基地、独立工矿用地、交通设施用地和旅游设施用地的增量分别占建设用地增量的37.74%、25.48%、20.96%、15.49%和0.33%;2）县城涉及的龙州镇、上龙乡建设用地增加较快,边境口岸城镇的建设用地增速也较快;3）从建设用地扩展模式来看,县城龙州镇为填充式扩张,其他乡镇为边缘式扩张;4）城镇发展提速、农民新房建设、工业园区建设、交通设施建设是建设用地扩张的直接驱动因素,近年来精准扶贫战略的深化落实、边境贸易活动的不断增多,是重要的政策驱动力。研究建议：深化落实贫困县建设用地倾斜政策,针对贫困县的建设用地,在省市层面要明确总量、增加流量,在县域层面要用好增量、优化布局、提高效率,切实助力脱贫攻坚和乡村振兴。     

粤北山区相对贫困村的脱贫潜力评价及类型划分——以连州市为例

贫困村的脱贫能力直接影响脱贫工作的成效,研究发达省份欠发达地区相对贫困村的脱贫潜力问题有助于确保我国脱贫任务的全面完成。论文以广东省欠发达地区粤北连州市为例,从村级尺度出发分析其相对贫困村的基本特征,进而构建脱贫潜力评价体系,借助层次分析法和熵权法共同确定评价因子权重,利用加权求和方法完成连州市66个相对贫困村的脱贫潜力等级评价,并利用脱贫制约因素得分划分脱贫潜力类型。结果表明：1）连州市的相对贫困村自然区位条件较差,经济基础非常薄弱,耕地资源相对匮乏,受政策约束影响较大,空间分布呈集聚型;2）脱贫潜力评价指标体系包括自然区位、资源条件、经济因素、社会保障和设施配套等5个要素层共22个因子,其中权重占比最大的是经济因素和设施配套的6个因子;3）脱贫潜力评价结果划分为5个等级,其中属于脱贫潜力中等以上的相对贫困村占65.15%,说明连州市相对贫困村的脱贫潜力总体情况较好;4）脱贫潜力类型划分中,优先脱贫型占16.67%,稳步脱贫型占28.79%,重点帮扶型占54.54%。研究结果能为地方政府制定精准的脱贫策略提供科学有效的支撑与指引。     

Climate change and disaster management

Climate change, although a natural phenomenon, is accelerated by human activities. Disaster policy response to climate change is dependent on a number of factors, such as readiness to accept the reality of climate change, institutions and capacity, as well as willingness to embed climate change risk assessment and management in development strategies. These conditions do not yet exist universally. A focus that neglects to enhance capacity-building and resilience as a prerequisite for managing climate change risks will, in all likelihood, do little to reduce vulnerability to those risks. Reducing vulnerability is a key aspect of reducing climate change risk. To do so requires a new approach to climate change risk and a change in institutional structures and relationships. A focus on development that neglects to enhance governance and resilience as a prerequisite for managing climate change risks will, in all likelihood, do little to reduce vulnerability to those risks.     

坚持理论与时俱进促进防震减灾事业全面健康发展

本文结合当前共产党员先进性教育活动,贯彻科学发展观,从本地实际出发,就坚持理论,把握规律,创新思路,全面促进防震减灾事业发展的有关理论和实践问题进行了分析、探讨.     

Revisit ocean thermal energy conversion system

The earth, covered more than70.8% by the ocean, receives most of itsenergy from the sun. Solar energy istransmitted through the atmosphere andefficiently collected and stored in thesurface layer of the ocean, largely in thetropical zone. Some of the energy isre-emitted to the atmosphere to drive thehydrologic cycle and wind. The wind fieldreturns some of the energy to the ocean inthe form of waves and currents. Themajority of the absorbed solar energy isstored in vertical thermal gradients nearthe surface layer of the ocean, most ofwhich is in the tropical region. Thisthermal energy replenished each day by thesun in the tropical ocean represents atremendous pollution-free energy resourcefor human civilization. Ocean ThermalEnergy Conversion (OTEC) technology refersto a mechanical system that utilizes thenatural temperature gradient that exists inthe tropical ocean between the warm surfacewater and the deep cold water, to generateelectricity and produce other economicallyvaluable by-products. The science andengineering behind OTEC have been studiedin the US since the mid-seventies,supported early by the U.S. Government andlater by State and private industries.There are two general types of OTECdesigns: closed-cycle plants utilize theevaporation of a working fluid, such asammonia or propylene, to drive theturbine-generator, and open-cycle plantsuse steam from evaporated sea water to runthe turbine. Another commonly known design,hybrid plants, is a combination of the two.OTEC requires relatively low operation andmaintenance costs and no fossil fuelconsumption.OTEC system possesses a formidablepotential capacity for renewable energy andoffers a significant elimination ofgreenhouse gases in producing power. Inaddition to electricity and drinking water,an OTEC system can produce many valuableby-products and side-utilizations, such as:hydrogen, air-conditioning, ice,aquaculture, and agriculture, etc. Thepotential of these by-products, especiallydrinking water, aquaculture andmariculture, can easily translate intobillions of dollars in businessopportunities. The current status of theOTEC system definitely deserves to becarefully revisited. This paper willexamine recent major advancements intechnology, evaluate costs andeffectiveness, and assess the overallmarket environment of the OTEC system anddescribe its great renewable energypotential and overall benefits to thenations of the world.