关于“十四五”土壤、地下水与农业农村生态环境保护的思考

净土保卫战和农业农村污染治理攻坚战是污染防治攻坚战的重要组成部分。本文对"十四五"及今后一个时期土壤、地下水和农业农村生态环境保护总体形势进行了分析,研究提出"十四五"目标指标、重点任务和政策措施的建议,提出坚持问题导向、目标导向,坚持分类施策、精准治污,以解决人民群众关心的突出环境问题为重点,实施一批源头预防、风险管控、治理修复重大工程,推进土壤、地下水和农业农村生态保护治理体系与治理能力现代化,为美丽中国建设提供坚实保障。     

生态补偿助力脱贫攻坚：协同、拮抗与对接

中央政府提出的“生态补偿脱贫一批”标志着生态补偿扶贫正逐步成为我国打赢脱贫攻坚战的重要途径之一。2020年是脱贫攻坚战的决胜之年，生态补偿如何有效助力脱贫攻坚成为研究的热点。本文以实践与政策为导向，运用文献研究法和逻辑分析法，在厘清生态补偿扶贫理念形成与发展的基础上，解析生态补偿与脱贫攻坚之间存在的协同效应和拮抗效应。研究发现生态补偿与脱贫攻坚在地理空间位置、实施主客体、标准、方式和途径等方面相耦合容易产生协同效应，在价值诉求、农户资源禀赋、政府部门工作等方面矛盾产生拮抗效应。生态补偿有效助力脱贫攻坚的关键在于构建对接机制以强化协同效应、弱化或去除拮抗效应。为此，通过建立精准的瞄准制度、稳定脱贫的长效机制、政府部门内部生态补偿扶贫协调机制等举措，构建生态补偿与脱贫攻坚的对接机制，以促进二者高效协同发展。     

Efficient and resilient governance of social–ecological systems

New institutions are critically needed to improve the resilience of social–ecological systems globally. Watershed management offers an important model due to its ability to govern mixed-ownership landscapes through common property regimes, translating national goals into local action. Here, I assess the efficacy of state watershed management institutions in the Pacific Northwest, based on their ability to support local watershed groups. I use document analysis to describe and compare state institutions in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and California. Results indicate that state institutional efficiency and resilience are the key factors determining watershed group activity and stability. The primary drivers of institutional efficiency and resilience were institutional unification, robust funding portfolios, low agency conflict, and strong support for economic multiplier effects, creative partnerships, and scholarly research. My findings elucidate the critical role of institutional efficiency and resilience in governing dynamic and complex social–ecological systems, enabling the flexibility to address emergent transformations.     

基于生态位理论的京津冀城市生态文明评价

生态文明评价体系是明确生态文明建设现状、定位生态文明建设存在问题的关键。从城市群视角出发引入生态位理论,界定生态文明位内涵,构建涵盖社会子系统生态位—经济子系统生态位—资源环境子系统生态位共29项指标的城市生态文明评价指标体系,并提出相对生态文明位和生态经济指数的二维模型,测算京津冀城市群6个案例城市在2007—2011年的生态文明建设水平、趋势以及地位。结果显示,2011年北京生态文明水平(相对生态文明位)最高,邢台生态文明水平最低,石家庄、秦皇岛、承德、天津生态文明水平分别排名第2、第3、第4、第5。2007—2011年,北京、承德、邢台生态文明水平呈现波动下降趋势,而秦皇岛、石家庄、天津呈现小幅上升趋势;但生态经济指数测算显示,北京的经济社会发展对于生态资源环境的占用消耗大,承德有较好的经济发展潜力。并基于该二维模型,将京津冀城市生态文明建设分为4种类型:发展失衡型、相对和谐型、高质量发展型、资源环境优势型,分别确定城市生态文明建设重点,为京津冀协同发展提供了指导依据。     

铅锌冶炼厂周边重金属的空间分布及生态风险评价

以关中西部某铅锌厂周边农田为对象,研究了厂区周边土壤中7种重金属含量的水平及垂直分布特征,用Lars Hakanson潜在生态危害指数对重金属的危害程度进行了评价.研究表明,厂区周围土壤中重金属在水平分布上具有局部高度富集的特征.以厂区为中心,重金属水平分布主要在西北-东南方向上,地势低的土壤中重金属含量明显较高;重金属在垂直分布上主要富集在0～ 25 cm的表层土壤中,且随着深度的进一步增加,土壤中重金属浓度变化幅度减弱,基本趋于稳定.厂区周边Cd和Hg污染水平为重度污染,Pb污染水平为中度污染,潜在生态危害程度为重度.     

Developing an interdisciplinary and cross‐sectoral community of practice in the domain of forests and livelihoods

Although significant resources are being spent researching and fostering the relationship between forests and livelihoods to promote mutually beneficial outcomes, critical gaps in understanding persist. A core reason for such gaps is that researchers, practitioners, and policy makers lack the structured space to interact and collaborate, which is essential for effective, interdisciplinary research, practice, and evaluation. Thus, scientific findings, policy recommendations, and measured outcomes have not always been synthesized into deep, systemic understanding; learning from practice and implementation does not easily find its way into scientific analyses, and science often fails to influence policy. Communities of practice (CofPs) are dynamic sociocultural systems that bring people together to share and create knowledge around a common topic of interest. They offer participants a space and structure within which to develop new, systemic approaches to multidimensional problems on a common theme. Uniquely informed by a systems‐thinking perspective and drawing from the scientific and gray literatures and in‐depth interviews with representatives of established CofPs in the natural resource management and development domain, we argue that a well‐designed and adequately funded CofP can facilitate interdisciplinary and cross‐sectoral relationships and knowledge exchange. Well‐designed CofPs integrate a set of core features and processes to enhance individual, collective, and domain outcomes; they set out an initial but evolving purpose, encourage diverse leadership, and promote collective‐identity development. Funding facilitates effective communication strategies (e.g., in person meetings). We urge our colleagues across sectors and disciplines to take advantage of CofPs to advance the domain of forests and livelihoods.     

Using empirical models of species colonization under multiple threatening processes to identify complementary threat‐mitigation strategies

Approaches to prioritize conservation actions are gaining popularity. However, limited empirical evidence exists on which species might benefit most from threat mitigation and on what combination of threats, if mitigated simultaneously, would result in the best outcomes for biodiversity. We devised a way to prioritize threat mitigation at a regional scale with empirical evidence based on predicted changes to population dynamics—information that is lacking in most threat‐management prioritization frameworks that rely on expert elicitation. We used dynamic occupancy models to investigate the effects of multiple threats (tree cover, grazing, and presence of an hyperaggressive competitor, the Noisy Miner (Manorina melanocephala) on bird‐population dynamics in an endangered woodland community in southeastern Australia. The 3 threatening processes had different effects on different species. We used predicted patch‐colonization probabilities to estimate the benefit to each species of removing one or more threats. We then determined the complementary set of threat‐mitigation strategies that maximized colonization of all species while ensuring that redundant actions with little benefit were avoided. The single action that resulted in the highest colonization was increasing tree cover, which increased patch colonization by 5% and 11% on average across all species and for declining species, respectively. Combining Noisy Miner control with increasing tree cover increased species colonization by 10% and 19% on average for all species and for declining species respectively, and was a higher priority than changing grazing regimes. Guidance for prioritizing threat mitigation is critical in the face of cumulative threatening processes. By incorporating population dynamics in prioritization of threat management, our approach helps ensure funding is not wasted on ineffective management programs that target the wrong threats or species.     

Cost‐effectiveness of conservation payment schemes for species with different range sizes

Payments to compensate landowners for carrying out costly land‐use measures that benefit endangered biodiversity have become an important policy instrument. When designing such payments, it is important to take into account that spatially connected habitats are more valuable for many species than isolated ones. One way to incentivize provision of connected habitats is to offer landowners an agglomeration bonus, that is, a bonus on top of payments they are receiving to conserve land if the land is spatially connected. Researchers have compared the cost‐effectiveness of the agglomeration bonus with 2 alternatives: an all‐or‐nothing, agglomeration payment, where landowners receive a payment only if the conserved land parcels have a certain level of spatial connectivity, and a spatially homogeneous payment, where landowners receive a payment for conserved land parcels irrespective of their location. Their results show the agglomeration bonus is rarely the most cost‐effective option, and when it is, it is only slightly better than one of the alternatives. This suggests that the agglomeration bonus should not be given priority as a policy design option. However, this finding is based on consideration of only 1 species. We examined whether the same applied to 2 species, one for which the homogeneous payment is best and the other for which the agglomeration payment is most cost‐effective. We modified a published conceptual model so that we were able to assess the cost‐effectiveness of payment schemes for 2 species and applied it to a grassland bird and a grassland butterfly in Germany that require the same habitat but have different spatial‐connectivity needs. When conserving both species, the agglomeration bonus was more cost‐effective than the agglomeration and the homogeneous payment; thus, we showed that as a policy the agglomeration bonus is a useful conservation‐payment option.     

Ecological citizenship and democracy: Communitarian versus agonistic perspectives

Grassroots environmental movements have recently started to question the focus on sustainable consumption as a main strategy to tackle climate change. They prefer to address individuals as citizens rather than as consumers, and focus on collective rather than individual change. Two prominent movements in this regard are Transition Towns and Climate Justice Action. While both movements criticise conventional approaches, they put forward entirely different strategies for what has to happen instead. Based on extensive qualitative research, this article analyses how these movements manifest themselves in Flanders (Belgium). The focus is on their different accounts of how and why collective practices have to be built, and the place they attribute to ‘the political’ in this. The analysis reveals the existence of two different forms of ecological citizenship: one communitarian, the other agonistic.     

Regime shifts and resilience in China’s coastal ecosystems

Regime shift often results in large, abrupt, and persistent changes in the provision of ecosystem services and can therefore have significant impacts on human wellbeing. Understanding regime shifts has profound implications for ecosystem recovery and management. China’s coastal ecosystems have experienced substantial deterioration within the past decades, at a scale and speed the world has never seen before. Yet, information about this coastal ecosystem change from a dynamics perspective is quite limited. In this review, I synthesize existing information on coastal ecosystem regime shifts in China and discuss their interactions and cascading effects. The accumulation of regime shifts in China’s coastal ecosystems suggests that the desired system resilience has been profoundly eroded, increasing the potential of abrupt shifts to undesirable states at a larger scale, especially given multiple escalating pressures. Policy and management strategies need to incorporate resilience approaches in order to cope with future challenges and avoid major losses in China’s coastal ecosystem services.

Electronic supplementary material

The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s13280-015-0692-2) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.