Exploring the risks and benefits of flexibility in biodiversity offset location in a case study of migratory shorebirds

Biodiversity offsets aim to counterbalance the residual impacts of development on species and ecosystems. Guidance documents explicitly recommend that biodiversity offset actions be located close to the location of impact because of higher potential for similar ecological conditions, but allowing greater spatial flexibility has been proposed. We examined the circumstances under which offsets distant from the impact location could be more likely to achieve no net loss or provide better ecological outcomes than offsets close to the impact area. We applied a graphical model for migratory shorebirds in the East Asian–Australasian Flyway as a case study to explore the problems that arise when incorporating spatial flexibility into offset planning. Spatially flexible offsets may alleviate impacts more effectively than local offsets; however, the risks involved can be substantial. For our case study, there were inadequate data to make robust conclusions about the effectiveness and equivalence of distant habitat-based offsets for migratory shorebirds. Decisions around offset placement should be driven by the potential to achieve equivalent ecological outcomes; however, when considering more distant offsets, there is a need to evaluate the likely increased risks alongside the potential benefits. Although spatially flexible offsets have the potential to provide more cost-effective biodiversity outcomes and more cobenefits, our case study showed the difficulty of demonstrating these benefits in practice and the potential risks that need to be considered to ensure effective offset placement.     

The place of nature in conservation conflicts

Conservation conflicts are gaining importance in contemporary conservation scholarship such that conservation may have entered a conflict hype. We attempted to uncover and deconstruct the normative assumptions behind such studies by raising several questions: what are conservation conflicts, what justifies the attention they receive, do conservation-conflict studies limit wildlife conservation, is scientific knowledge stacked against wildlife in conservation conflicts, do conservation-conflict studies adopt a specific view of democracy, can laws be used to force conservation outcomes, why is flexibility needed in managing conservation conflicts, can conservation conflicts be managed by promoting tolerance, and who needs to compromise in conservation conflicts? We suggest that many of the intellectual premises in the field may defang conservation and prevent it from truly addressing the current conservation crisis as it accelerates. By framing conservation conflicts as conflicts between people about wildlife or nature, the field insidiously transfers guilt, whereby human activities are no longer blamed for causing species decline and extinctions but conservation is instead blamed for causing social conflicts. When the focus is on mitigating social conflicts without limiting in any powerful way human activities damaging to nature, conservation-conflict studies risk keeping conservation within the limits of human activities, instead of keeping human activities within the limits of nature. For conservation to successfully stop the biodiversity crisis, we suggest the alternative goal of recognizing nature's right to existence to maintenance of ecological functions and evolutionary processes. Nature being a rights bearer or legal person would imply its needs must be explicitly taken into account in conflict adjudication. If, even in conservation, nature's interests come second to human interests, it may be no surprise that conservation cannot succeed.     

三峡水库浮游植物群落特征及水体富营养化评价

基于2003—2017年三峡水库浮游植物群落结构、优势种群的变化和2017年水库干支流水质数据,全面分析浮游植物群落结构和演替特征,并运用综合营养状态指数法对水体富营养化程度进行评价。结果表明,三峡水库浮游植物种类丰富,监测期间共鉴定出浮游植物7门62属,细胞密度在7.5×10~4~2.8×10~7cell/L之间变化,Shannon-Wiener多样性指数为1.0~3.0,在α-中污带和β-中污带之间,说明三峡水库水生态环境健康状况相对较好;三峡水库浮游植物季节性演替特征呈硅藻和甲藻向蓝藻和绿藻演替的趋势,年际变化特征分析发现浮游植物密度在2008年175 m实验蓄水后大量增长,且优势藻类由河道型藻类向湖泊型藻类转化。通过监测数据分析,得出三峡水库干流处于中营养状态,支流在春季主要处于轻度富营养状态,秋季支流比春季支流的富营养化程度低,主要处于中营养状态,总氮(total nitrogen,TN)、总磷(total phosphorus,TP)和透明度(transparency,SD)为水质主要影响因子。     

长三角空气质量区域预报准确性评估方法研究

根据长三角空气质量区域预报工作的实际需要,对分区文字预报和落区图预报两种方式分别制定了不同的空气质量指数级别预报准确性评估方法。分区文字预报根据设定的预报准确性判定方法计算预报评分,落区图预报按区域内预报准确城市占比进行准确率统计。分区文字预报结果显示,2017年长三角区域的预报准确天数占比为62.2%,预报评分为70.2,区域预报评估效果良好。落区图预报评估结果显示,预报级别偏差具有地域性差异,安徽北部、江苏北部和江西中北部预报等级偏高,长三角中南部沿海城市预报等级偏低。该套评估方法可为区域空气质量预报偏差成因分析提供依据,为区域预报工作的改进提供定量参考。     

“竞争申请制”:可持续发展政策试点与央地关系重构

可持续发展目标(SDGs)的提出,开启了人类可持续发展领域最宏大的政策实验,也为开展国际视野的比较公共政策研究提供了难得机遇。执行SDGs及国家可持续发展政策需要处理好中央政府与地方政府间关系,而政策试点是协调这一关系的重要政策工具。已有文献对经济政策试点做了较充分的研究,然而对旨在实现经济、社会与环境协调的可持续发展政策试点,现有研究尚缺乏成型理论。在复杂央地关系格局下,对于需持续投入成本且成果难以界定的可持续发展政策试点,其具有怎样的不同于经济政策试点的机制?此外,众多西方学者将美国作为政策试点研究的制度基础并视其为“民主实验室”。然而,政策试点在以中国为代表的不同体制国家中同样存在,并以多样的机制发挥作用。那么,不同国家体制内的可持续发展政策试点又有哪些异同?政策试点影响下中国既有的央地关系发生了怎样的重构?对此,本文基于最典型案例原则,选取中国与美国响应SDGs分别开展的政策试点进行比较研究。笔者识别了不同体制下试点机制的异同,指出中国基于“竞争申请制”开展的可持续发展政策试点强化了中央部委与地方政府间关系,形成了地方官员的可持续发展激励,保障了政策试点的实施。     

基于云模型的高校消防安全标准化评估研究

为评估高校消防安全标准化程度,明确高校消防安全标准化体系,结合高校消防安全标准化体系的模糊性,将高校消防安全标准化等级划分为5个级别,采用黄金分割法将权重云、评价云划分成5个云模型,建立能够反映高校消防安全标准化等级模糊性的云模型。该模型运用于某高校消防安全标准化等级评估中,评估结果客观合理,实用性较强,为后续标准化提升提供了参考依据。     

可拓优度评价法在城市区域消防安全评价中的应用

为了解决城市区域消防安全评价的复杂性和不确定性,本文运用可拓优度评价法,根据相关文件并结合城市区域消防的实际情况,从火灾危险程度、城市区域特征、消防实力水平和社会管理状态4个方面选取17个指标,建立了城市区域消防安全评价指标体系并划分了消防安全等级,以洛阳市西工区为例对城市区域消防安全评价的可拓优度方法进行了验证。结果表明,可拓优度方法可以准确反映出该区域消防安全水平。     

间接蒸发冷却新风机组净化室内PM2.5特性

为有效降低室内PM2.5,指导间接蒸发冷却新风机组的设计选型,推导了新风机组净化效力和净化能效评价指标的数学表达式,并利用自行研制的间接蒸发冷却新风机组,分析了2种过滤器在不同运行工况下净化PM2.5的特性。结果表明,MERV 7+16和MERV 7+13的计数效率均随颗粒物粒径增加而提高,且前者的计数效率高于后者;由于滤材的不同,MERV 7+16的初阻力更小。MERV 7+16的渗透系数更小,其净化效力也要大于MERV 7+13;由于PM10在室内的自然沉降作用更显著,过滤器对PM10的净化效力明显大于PM2.5和PM1。将室内新风负荷作为新风机组能耗的一部分,在对比天津和南宁地区新风机组的净化能效时发现,由于两地区冬季室外温度存在明显差异,导致处于天津地区的新风机组若要在冬季获得同等的洁净空气量,需付出更多的能耗代价。     

Progress and challenges in consolidating the management of Amazonian protected areas and indigenous territories

Effective management refers to the ability of a protected area or indigenous territory to meet its objectives, particularly as they relate to the protection of biodiversity and forest cover. Effective management is achieved through a process of consolidation, which among other things requires legally protecting sites, integrating sites into land‐use planning, developing and implementing management and resource‐use plans, and securing long‐term funding to pay for recurrent costs. Effectively managing all protected areas and indigenous territories in the Amazon may be needed to avoid a deforestation tipping point beyond which regional climatic feedbacks and global climate change interact to catalyze irreversible drying and savannization of large areas. At present, protected areas and indigenous territories cover 45.5% (3.55 million km²) of the Amazon, most of the 60–70% forest cover required to maintain hydrologic and climatic function. Three independent evaluations of a long‐term large‐scale philanthropic initiative in the Amazon yielded insights into the challenges and advances toward achieving effective management of protected areas and indigenous territories. Over the life of the initiative, management of sites has improved considerably, particularly with respect to management planning and capacity building, but few sites are effectively managed and many lack sufficient long‐term financing, adequate governance, support of nongovernmental organizations, and the means to withstand economic pressures. The time and money required to complete consolidation is still poorly understood, but it is clear that philanthropic funding is critical so long as essential funding needs are not met by governments and other sources, which could be on the order of decades. Despite challenges, it is encouraging that legal protection has expanded greatly and management of sites is improving steadily. Management of protected areas in other developing countries could be informed by improvements that have occurred in Amazonian countries.     

Who shapes local climate policy? Unpicking governance arrangements in English and German cities

A new framework for analysing subnational policymaking is applied to climate governance in the ‘twin towns’ of Newcastle upon Tyne and Gelsenkirchen. Low levels of resource interdependence between central and local government in England mean that Newcastle Council has to rely heavily on other horizontal actors to achieve its climate objectives. In contrast, Gelsenkirchen Council receives substantial support from higher tiers of government, which gives it greater control over policymaking within the locality. Greater independence between tiers of government can make it more difficult for subnational bodies to adopt the kind of ambitious policies that may be necessary to combat wicked and/or significant policy challenges such as climate change. Instead, interdependent ‘joint-decision’ systems, which facilitate mutual support across tiers of government, may be better equipped to ensure that subnational public bodies have the capacity to act appropriately.