Community action for environmental restoration: a case study on collective social capital in India

In southern India, tens of thousands of village-level irrigation systems (‘tanks’ and feeder channels) are in disrepair. This paper analyses the results of a local NGO effort that focused on awareness-raising and advice to bring about self-sustained community action for irrigation system restoration. After designing a model structure that contains both motivational and capacity (social capital) factors, it is found that (pre-existing) collective social capital, as measured through five simple indicators, strongly correlates with success of the NGO strategy. The intensity of the NGO’s effort shows a negative correlation with success, however. The discussion focuses on issues of social capital definition and measurement and the practical implications of the concept for environmental action, especially the difference between using existing social capital for environmental management versus the construction of social capital as a basis for later self-sustained environmental work. Readers should send their comments on this paper to BhaskarNath@aol.com within 3 months of publication of this issue.     

鱼类洄游通道恢复——国外的经验及中国的对策

简要介绍了鱼类洄游和鱼类洄游通道恢复的概念及类型。从法律与政策、资金筹措、恢复方法、恢复效果监测评估、信息交流与公众参与等5个方面介绍了欧盟、美、日、澳大利亚等国在鱼类洄游通道恢复方面积累的先进经验和成功实践,并在此基础上提出了我国鱼类洄游通道恢复应采取的对策：开展鱼类洄游通道恢复的立法和政策制定工作,加强鱼类洄游通道恢复工作的法律保障力度;开展流域阻碍鱼类洄游的障碍物调查和影响评价,制定流域鱼类洄游通道恢复规划;探索建立和完善多元化投入机制;加强鱼类洄游通道恢复研究能力建设,建立科学的技术支撑体系;开展鱼类洄游通道恢复关键技术研究;重视河流鱼类洄游通道恢复效果的监测评估工作;开展信息交流和公众教育,积极营造全社会参与的良好氛围。     

From comparative risk assessment to multi-criteria decision analysis and adaptive management: recent developments and applications

Environmental risk assessment and decision-making strategies over the last several decades have become increasingly more sophisticated, information-intensive, and complex, including such approaches as expert judgment, cost-benefit analysis, and toxicological risk assessment. One tool that has been used to support environmental decision-making is comparative risk assessment (CRA), but CRA lacks a structured method for arriving at an optimal project alternative. Multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) provides better-supported techniques for the comparison of project alternatives based on decision matrices, and it also provides structured methods for the incorporation of project stakeholders' opinions in the ranking of alternatives. We argue that the inherent uncertainty in our ability to predict ecosystem evolution and response to different management policies requires shifting from optimization-based management to an adaptive management paradigm. This paper brings together a multidisciplinary review of existing decision-making approaches at regulatory agencies in the United States and Europe and synthesizes state-of-the-art research in CRA, MCDA, and adaptive management methods applicable to environmental remediation and restoration projects. We propose a basic decision analytic framework that couples MCDA with adaptive management and its public participation and stakeholder value elicitation methods, and we demonstrate application of the framework to a realistic case study based on contaminated sediment management issues in the New York/New Jersey Harbor.     

武汉城市湖泊水环境现状及综合整治途径

近十几年来,随着人口的增长,现代工业和农业的发展,湖泊的老化过程受到人类活动的影响而大大加速。过量营养物质的富集,使水体产生了一系列的变化。结合武汉市湖泊水环境现状分析,指出了武汉市湖泊当前存在的三个突出的问题,即污染严重、湖泊萎缩和水量锐减、湖泊生态系统遭破坏。在此基础上,提出了一套适合武汉湖泊整治的综合途径,具体包括以下四个方面的内容：①管理组织模式与政策法规;②提高工程的科技含量,重点实施湖泊生态修复工程;③发展水经济,形成新的产业增长点;④加强水文化建设,提高市民的环保意识。武汉市湖泊水环境作为修复对象,由此形成的适于国内城市严重富营养景观水体整治的技术和管理体系,具有十分重要的现实意义和推广应用价值。     

The implications of new information and communication technologies for sustainability

This paper discusses the relationship of new information and communication technologies (ICTs) and sustainable development. It deconstructs popular myths about a sustainable information society. One myth is that telework has reduced the need to travel and hence environmental pollution. The reality is that teleworkers make up only a small share of the total workforce, telework can generate new social relationships and hence the need for more travelling, work-related travel produces only a small amount of the total carbon dioxide emissions, and that the total distance travelled per employee is constantly rising. Another myth is that information economy is weightless and dematerialized which reduces environmental impacts. The energy and resource intensities of the ICT sector are indeed lower than the one of the total economy. The ICT sector also emits less CO₂ than the total economy. But the ICT sector constitutes only a small portion of the total value added and fossil fuel combustion is still the dominant activity of modern industrial economies. Some stakeholders argue that virtual products allow resource, energy, and transport savings. But burning digital music on compact discs and DVDs, printing digital articles and books, etc. results in rebound effects that cause new material and energy impacts, computers have a low life span of 2–3 years, reusable and upgradeable computers and computer equipment are hardly used and might not be as profitable as non-reusable ones, computers are consuming much energy. Alternatives such as energy consumption labels on ICTs and green ICTs that consume less energy contradict dominant economic interests. A sustainable information society is a society that makes use of ICTs and knowledge for fostering a good life for all human beings of current and future generations by strengthening biological diversity, technological usability, economic wealth for all, political participation of all, and cultural wisdom. Achieving a sustainable information society costs, it demands a conscious reduction of profits by not investing in the future of capital, but the future of humans, society, and nature.     

Restoring ecosystems,restoring community: socioeconomic and cultural dimensions of a community-based coral reef restoration project

Environmental restoration projects are commonly touted for their ecological positives, but such projects can also provide significant socioeconomic and cultural benefits to local communities. We assessed the social dimensions of a large-scale coral reef restoration project in Maunalua Bay, O‘ahu, where >1.32 million kg of invasive marine macroalgae was removed from 11 hectares (90,000 m²; 23 acres) of impacted coral reef in an urbanized setting. We interviewed 131 community stakeholders and analyzed both quantitative and qualitative data to assess human uses of the environment, assess perceptions of environmental health, and characterize social dimensions (+/?) associated with the invasive algae removal effort. Results indicate substantial direct economic benefits, including the creation of more than 60+ jobs, benefiting more than 250 individuals and 81 households. The project helped develop a skilled workforce in a local business dedicated to environmental restoration and increased the capacity of community organizations to address other threats to reefs and watersheds. Other major benefits include revitalization of Native Hawaiian cultural practices and traditions and the successful use of harvested invasive algae as compost by local farmers. Our results show the project heightened community awareness and a broader sense of stewardship in the area, creating enabling conditions for collective community action. Our findings show that restoration projects that explicitly incorporate efforts to build community awareness, involvement, and a shared responsibility for a site may ultimately create the long-term capacity for sustainable stewardship programs. We conclude by discussing lessons learned for engaging productively with communities in environmental restoration and stewardship, which remains a central focus in conservation worldwide.     

乌东德水库坝前段消落带生态类型划分及生态修复模式初探

采用GIS技术,根据高程、坡度、土壤类型等环境特征,将乌东德水库坝前段消落带分为18种生态类型,并完成了高程图、坡度图和土壤类型图,建立了环境特征和消落带类型的直观联系。然后根据不同的生态类型,提出了4种生态修复模式,并选择了10种植物作为生态修复物种。为其它水库消落带生态修复提供了参考依据。     

英国环境管理的公众参与及其对中国的启示

鼓励公众参与环境管理是当今国际社会重要的政策导向之一。本文从法律赋予公民环境权、环保团体在环境保护中发挥重要。作用、环境影响评价中强调公众参与三方面来介绍英国公众参与环境管理的一些做法，探讨其对中国环境管理中公众参与的启示。     

基于新环保法解读的长江经济带开发环保法制探析

长江经济带近年来上升为新一轮的国家战略,然而区域内生态环境面临严峻压力,生态环境保护关系到其有序开发与可持续发展。新环保法的出台与实施为长江经济带开发过程中生态环境保护工作提供了有力的制度保障。从生态环境退化、物种持续减少、环境事故高发等7个方面剖析了我国生态环境问题的趋向,并从明确政府环境责任、解决违法成本低等5个方面对新环保法展开解读,然后基于综合规划、合理布局、严守红线、优化技术、地方立法、依法行政、降低风险、公开信息与共同参与等9个方面对长江经济带的环保执法进行探讨,以期为新时期长江经济带开发法制建设提供参考。     

Community partnered projects: a case study of a collaborative effort to improve sanitation in a marginalized community in northwest Mexico

There is a growing recognition in developing countries that community participation in water and sanitation projects is a necessary strategy in sustainable development. The main advantage of following such an approach is that, if participation can encourage a sense of ownership of the projects, the benefits of the project are more likely to extend over the long term. The case study at hand focuses on the challenges faced in implementing a wastewater treatment system to solve an environmental and public health problem in a rural community, Rosario de Tesopaco, in northwest Mexico. Until recently, the community has been unable to implement an effective plan to treat the wastewater generated in the community. The problems faced by the community can be attributed to the political arrangement of water and sanitation decentralization in Mexico that occurred in the mid 1980’s, whereby communities were required to meet wastewater treatment standards, but were not given the technical and political guidance needed to achieve this goal. However, in this instance, cooperation between the authorities in Rosario de Tesopaco, the federal agency for social development, and an academic institution has led to the successful design and approval of a wastewater treatment project. This achievement can be attributed to the use of an effective collaborative strategy, tailoring the project to the needs and capacity of the local community, positioning the community as the leaders and owners of the project. A model for following this strategy for developing rural sanitation projects in Mexico is proposed. Readers should send their comments on this paper to BhaskarNath@aol.com within 3 months of publication of this issue.     

主动参与还是被动选择:农户村域环境治理参与行为及效果差异分析

基于湖北省的调研数据,分析农户参与村域环境治理的行为及行为效果,并运用Heckman两阶段模型加以实证检验。结果发现:是否为村干部、家庭总人口、家庭年收入、家庭耕地面积、行为认知、环境状况评价、气候变化感知以及政府激励是农户参与村域环境治理的关键因素。受教育年限、环境容忍度、行为认知、环境状况评价以及气候变化感知则对农户环境治理参与行为效果有显著影响。在此基础上,从农户参与环境治理的行为动机出发,并借助Oaxaca-Blinder反事实分解方法,探讨主动参与和被动参与两种行为的效果差异及产生差异的原因。结果显示,禀赋差异和禀赋回报率差异均致使主动参与者的行为效果均值（3.729）显著高于被动参与者的行为效果均值（3.027）。其中,受教育年限、行为认知和气候变化感知的差异是主动参与者和被动参与者行为效果存在差异的主要因素。     

双二元经济结构下的生态建设补偿机制

双二元经济是我国生态建设补偿机制面临的根本约束条件。首先简要回顾了我国双二元经济的形成逻辑同环境污染现状之间的内在联系。指出我国政府在建国初期所采取的赶超战略和改革开放后的地区不平衡发展战略是联系二者的历史渊源。在此基础上构建的博弈模型表明。在双二元经济结构的约束条件下。生态建设供给的博弈均衡应是由东部发达地区和城市先进部门承担绝大部分甚至是全部的生态建设成本。因此。我国生态建设补偿机制的构建方向就应该是构建一个有效完善的跨区域、跨部门的生态建设补偿机制。以平衡生态建设者和生态建设收益者之间的成本和收益，这是保障生态建设可持续发展的关键。     

中国环境影响评价中公众参与存在的问题与对策

公众参与是环境影响评价中的重要内容,在环境影响评价中发挥着特殊作用。针对目前中国环境影响评价中公众参与的实施状况,提出了公众参与意识不强、参与形式单一、信息公开不充分和公众意见未受到足够重视等一系列问题,并从宏观及具体操作上提出加强环保宣传教育、采取多样化的参与形式、建立完善的环境信息公开制度和认真对待公众反馈意见等相关的有效对策。     

Hierarchical priority setting for restoration in a watershed in NE Spain, based on assessments of soil erosion and ecosystem services

Maintaining and enhancing ecosystem services through the restoration of degraded ecosystems have become an important biodiversity conservation strategy. Deciding where to restore ecosystems for the attainment of multiple services is a key issue for future planning, management, and human well-being. Most restoration projects usually entail a small number of actions in a local area and do not consider the potential benefits of planning restoration at broad regional scales. We developed a hierarchical priority setting approach to evaluate the performance of restoration measures in a semiarid basin in NE Spain (the Martín River Basin, 2,112 km²). Our analysis utilized a combination of erosion (a key driver of degradation in this Mediterranean region) and six spatially explicit ecosystem services data layers (five of these maps plotted surrogates for soil retention and accumulation, water supply and regulation, and carbon storage, and one plotted a cultural service, ecotourism). Hierarchical maps were generated using a geographic information system that combined areas important for providing a bundle of ecosystem services, as state variables, with erosion maps, as the disturbance or regulatory variable. This was performed for multiple scales, thereby identifying the most adequate scale of analysis and establishing a spatial hierarchy of restoration actions based on the combination of the evaluation of erosion rates and the provision of ecosystem services. Our approach provides managers with a straightforward method for determining the spatial distribution of values for a set of ecosystem services in relation to ecological degradation thresholds and for allocating efforts and resources for restoration projects in complex landscapes.     

Practices and opportunities of ecosystem service studies for ecological restoration in China

New approaches have emerged in integrating ecosystem services, their structure and function for ecological restoration. As the concept relating with ecosystem services has become widely accepted in last decade in China, its linking with ecological restoration will provide good opportunities and make substantial progress towards sustainable development. By analyzing the traditional ecological restoration procedure in China, we developed a framework of ecological restoration based on ecosystem services valuation. Relevant researches of ecological restoration based on ecosystem services are also carefully reviewed. China’s ecosystem services studies and payments for ecosystem services (PES) experiences were extensively discussed to show the ecological restoration strategy and its change. Two case studies in China were presented to show the framework for ecological restoration based on PES. We suggested that despite the limitations of valuation uncertainties at present, PES could be an opportunity for ecological restoration by evaluating the trade-offs of different stakeholders. In current state in China, challenges and opportunities coexist and scientists should work together in the integrated research of sustainable ecological management and economic development policies.     

Land Community Participation: A New “Public” Participation Model

This essay presents a new “public” participation model that responds to contemporary participation problems. The author extends criticism of a false nature/culture dualism and responds to calls for pragmatic ways to expand participation to an expressive land community. The essay draws on existing scholarship that treats a range of direct to indirect forms of participation in environmental decision-making to argue for and explicate the land community participation model (LCP). The model features participation, power, and chronemics along three distinct and intersecting continua that bind and constitute participatory communication in environmental decision-making. Combining professional field experiences with rhetorical criticism, the author pilots the LCP model in a wilderness dispute resolution case study and suggests additional ways for using LCP as an interpretive guide and design tool in pursuit of environmental democracy.     

Containing spectacle in the transnational public sphere

ABSTRACT

This paper analyzes the discursive struggle over the reach and containment of spectacle in environmental politics to provide (a) case study-based evidence of how, on one hand, transnationally shared environmental awareness and concern, emerging in part through spectacle, is translating into expectations of participation and demands for accountability, and (b) how this is already impacting the ways in which environmental politics is being understood and enacted locally, regionally and transnationally. Drawing on recent mediated debate over the Great Barrier Reef, it finds that while the transnational is clearly an ambition for environmental campaigners, and the perception that transnational publics are emerging is already impacting environmental politics, the potency of these publics and their capacity to meaningfully negotiate accountability is yet to be empirically confirmed. Nevertheless, measures to contain spectacle are providing a potency for a transnational public sphere, even if in reality it is still little more than a specter.     

《巴黎协定》国家自主贡献下的新市场机制探析

环境产权化理论与生态现代化理论演绎出的碳市场被奉为解决碳排放"负外部性"的有效手段。《京都议定书》开创了"自上而下"模式的国际碳市场,但因未充分尊重缔约方自主和平等参与而成为一个封闭的"碳交易俱乐部"。京都机制的实践不足与碳市场的理论争议引发《巴黎协定》碳市场存废之争。《巴黎协定》的"国家自主贡献"标志着全球气候治理由"强制约束"向"自觉责任"的转向。基于新履约模式,缔约方形成四种新市场机制方案:基线与信用及碳交易机制、基线与信用"自上而下"或"自下而上"机制以及国际碳交易机制。为保障有效减缓并兼顾自主与平等参与,《巴黎协定》建立了"自上而下"基线与信用机制,但采取了与京都机制"项目"基线不同的"部门"基线。新市场机制对信用交易不再特殊限定,尊重缔约方参与和适用的自愿性;且以"部门"的总量约束为准入门槛对所有缔约方统一要求,体现出平等参与的特点;减排单位中植入可持续发展标准从而对新机制实施的总体效益予以"硬约束"。新机制将促进部门内的减排单位统一,为国际碳市场奠定规则基础。但其市场淡化与可持续发展植入亦将影响国家及区域碳市场异质化发展,不利于国际碳市场构建,其背弃配额交易,独采信用交易亦会抑制碳货币形成。中国建立国家碳市场旨在促进能源市场化改革和产业结构调整,将有利于中国履行"碳强度"和"非化石能源比重"的自主承诺,还将扭转经济增长对高碳排放的依赖,为未来中国履行强制减排责任奠定基础。     

基于CVM的武进港水环境综合整治工程环境价值支付/受偿意愿评估

引入了目前环境价值评估领域运用广泛的条件价值评估法(CVM)对武进港小流域水环境治理工程居民的支付/受偿意愿（WTP/WAP）进行调查研究。305份有效调查问卷的结果表明：（1）64%的受访者有支付意愿,用中位值法和平均支付意愿法计算得出武进区居民的支付意愿为40~555元/年,武进区2010年人口为1003万余人,居民的总支付意愿范围是4 012~5 56665万元/年,支付意愿与受教育水平呈显著正相关,与其他各变量在5%的显著性水平下均无相关关系;（2）62%的受访者有受偿意愿,平均受偿意愿为3462元/年,约为支付意愿的63倍,受偿意愿与受教育水平呈显著正相关,与年龄呈显著负相关,与职业存在负的弱相关性。对造成WTP与WTA巨大差异的原因进行了探讨,并综合考虑评估结果,对武进港流域的水环境改善提出建议,促进决策者更好的平衡当地的经济发展和水环境保护