生态损害补偿与赔偿的科学及法律基础探析

生态补偿是协调经济发展与环境保护的有效经济手段,在中国得到了广泛重视.由于受到学科范畴的限制,学术界和管理界对生态补偿的内涵、经济性质和法律性质还存在许多争论,关于生态损害的科学含义及与之对应的补偿与赔偿的法理基础尚有待完善.本文旨在梳理生态补偿的相关术语,探讨生态损害及损害补偿与赔偿的科学含义、法理差异及法律制度,从而为我国进一步开展生态补偿的理论研究和实践提供参考.论文首先从环境管理、环境经济学以及法学三层面对生态补偿的内涵进行分析,并在探究生态补偿实践的演变历程的基础上,提出生态补偿至少包含生态保护补偿、生态损害补偿与生态损害赔偿三个方面的内容;其次,文章对生态损害的科学和法律含义进行了辨析,提出：1）生态损害补偿中的生态损害是指人类活动对自由的自然资源的损害,即初级生态损害;2）从法学角度来看,生态损害可分为过错行为导致的生态损害、非过错行为导致的生态损害以及历史累积污染导致的生态损害;3）补偿与赔偿在法理上存在发生的基础、性质、承担责任的时间、承担责任的方式以及程序等方面的差别;4）在以上基础上,论文探讨不同行为造成的生态损害的责任方应当承担补偿/赔偿责任.第三,论文从归责原则、责任主体、补偿/赔偿范围、方式以及补偿/赔偿金额的计算等方面对建立和实施生态损害补偿与赔偿的法律基础和制度进行了论述与分析.最后,论文提出了完善生态损害补偿/赔偿制度的政策建议.     

流域生态补偿理论探讨

流域生态补偿是协调流域生态环境保护和经济发展之间矛盾,调整流域内区域间损益关系的有效手段。文章从流域内人类活动产生的损益人手,论述了流域生态补偿的概念、理论基础和运行机铷,并利用经济学原理,对生态补偿的必要性和补偿标准进行了理论解析,给出了流域生态补偿必要性的理论依据和需要补偿量的理论值。在此基础上,根据流域人类活动的正负外部性等原则,对流域生态补偿进行了分类。依据流域生态补偿分类,梳理出了我国流域生态补偿重点区域。通过对流域生态补偿理论探讨,以期作为进一步研究和应用实践的参考和启示。     

自然保护区生态补偿研究与实践进展

建立自然保护区是进行生物多样性保护和生态服务功能恢复的最重要措施之一,而生态补偿机制在自然保护区建设中的作用是目前需要关注的问题.笔者在大量文献调研的基础上,分析了我国生态补偿的概念发展、理论基础和国内外自然保护区生态补偿的研究与实践.结果表明:自然保护区生态补偿是通过政府主导和市场作用共同实现的;不论是在发达国家还是在发展中国家,公共支付手段都是主要的支付手段;通过生态补偿促进社区参与是实施保护区有效管理的重要途径.最后讨论了我国自然保护区生态补偿的原则、方式、标准和措施等问题,为进一步开展自然保护区生态补偿研究和建立补偿机制提供参考.     

对我国生态补偿的立法构想

分析了以往生态补偿的定义,并从法律的角度给出了生态补偿应有的涵义,即是指为了恢复、维持和增强生态系统的生态功能,国家对导致生态功能减损的自然资源开发或利用者收费(税)以及国家或生态受益者对为改善、维持或增强生态服务功能为目的而作出特别牺牲者给予经济和非经济形式的补偿。回顾了我国有关生态补偿的政策与法律的规定,并探讨了其缺陷:我国有关生态补偿的政策与法律虽然较多,规定得较早,但这些规定很不规范和系统,而且过于原则、缺乏可操作性,对负外部性行为的生态补偿存在政策与法律的缺位,即使是对正外部性行为也并非真正意义上的补偿,而只是一种补助或补贴。对我国生态补偿的立法构建提出了初步设想:一要补偿政策应当法律化,使生态补偿成为一项名副其实的法律制度;二要要构建合理的生态补偿法律体系。     

自然环境恶化的社会经济原因

从社会经济学的角度 ,剖析自然环境恶化的原因 ,得出如下结论 :环境恶化的社会经济原因从直观上表现为市场调节和政府干预两种机制的失灵 ;导致这两种机制失灵的根本原因是自然资源产权不明晰、自然资源的价值衡量标准的缺乏和开发利用自然资源的项目和政策造成的社会环境成本的衡量标准的缺乏 3方面。社会要阻止和修复自然环境的恶化 ,就必须从根本上解决这 3个方面的问题     

生态保护红线区生态资产价值评估

划定生态保护红线并实行永久保护是为维护和保障国家生态安全、加强生态文明建设而对生态环境保护工作提出的新的更高要求。在国家、省、市等不同尺度生态保护红线划定工作有序开展的同时,与红线划定和管理相匹配的配套政策也在积极探索中。针对尚未完善的生态补偿机制定量研究现状以及生态红线区生态补偿标准的制定较为困难等难题,以山东省东营市为研究区域,构建生态资产及其价值评估指标体系,利用生态资产评估模型对不同类型生态保护红线区生态资产及其价值进行评估,获取生态资产现状及生态资产价值量,为生态保护红线区生态补偿等相关配套措施的开展提供参考。根据评估结果,2010年东营市生态保护红线区生态资产总价值为365.79×10~7元,占全市自然资源生态资产总价值的20.77%,生态保护红线划定对于维持东营市自然资源生态资产价值量具有重要意义,但生态保护红线区生态资产价值占比没有预期值高。建议在后期东营市生态保护红线的调整和完善工作中将生态资产价值量较大的地区纳入生态保护红线,以真正发挥生态保护红线的自然资源保护价值。     

主流经济学对20世纪环境危机的反思

以追求利润最大化为目的的西方主流经济学在工业文明的发展方式和发展道路的形成与演变中起了决定性作用。主流经济学中视自然资源为可自由取用物品的主张是近代工业发展中人类对自然资源无偿攫取和大肆挥霍的理论渊源。故而,对于由此导致的20世纪环境危机,,主流经济学负有不可推卸的责任。     

经济地理学角度的区域生态补偿机制研究

传统生态补偿以保护与改善生态环境、优化资源利用为目的,已不能体现其在生态保护、环境建设和区域发展方面的全部价值。新的区域发展形势对生态补偿机制提出了新的要求,生态补偿被认为是实现区域可持续发展和区域之间协调发展的重要手段。区域可持续发展和区域间协调发展是我国经济地理学的主要研究对象之一。如何从经济地理学的视角看待区域生态补偿,成为通过区域生态补偿机制的实施实现生态良好、经济发展和社会进步三位目标和谐发展的重要命题。从经济地理学的经典理论出发,在探讨区位论、产业结构演替理论、人地关系地域系统理论的基础上,分析了传统生态补偿的缺失和不足,并在现阶段我国以构建区域可持续和有序发展格局为目标的规划工作——主体功能区规划的基础上,就区域生态补偿的理论基础、目标导向和实施机制进行了探讨,将经济地理学的空间区位论、地域功能理论、区域发展空间均衡理论等充实到区域生态补偿的理论基础中,明确了以实现区域协调发展和基本公共服务均等化为目标导向,探索了政府主导、市场参与的区域生态补偿的实施模式,最后分析了实施难点、提出了相应的解决建议。     

中国农业可持续发展技术

随着经济的高速发展，中国农业面临着环境与发展的双重挑战。为实现农业的可持续发展，必须在继承传统农业技术精华和引进现代农业新技术的基础上，运用生态经济学原理和系统工程方法，在不同层次上建立起具有中国特色的农业可持续发展技术体系。通过协调环境保护与经济发展、自然资源开发及其永续利用的关系，实现生态与经济的良性循环，达到持续发展的目标。     

自然环境恶化的社会经济原因

从社会经济学的角度,剖析自然环境恶化的原因,得出如下结论：环境恶化的社会经济原因从直观上表现为市场调节和政府干预两种机掉的失灵;导致这两种机制失灵的根本原因是自然资源产权不明晰、自然资源的价值徇标准的缺乏和开发利用自然资源的项目和政策造成的社会环境成本的衡量标准的缺乏３方面。社会要阻止和修复自然环境的恶化,就必须从根本 上解决这３个方面的问题。     

能值理论研究中存在的几个问题探讨

能值理论与研究方法是当前生态经济学研究中的一个热点问题.被认为是连接生态学与经济学的桥梁,具有重大的理论和实践意义.尽管能值分析有效的将自然环境的价值纳入了产品的生产,更能真实地揭示产品的真实价值,从而克服了传统能量分析和经济分析的诸多缺陷.但其在理论和研究方法仍存在一些不足之处.综合国内外有关能值理论与研究方法的相关文献,对当前能值理论研究中能值转化率的计算问题、多产品或复合产品系统的能值流计算问题、能值价值论与市场价值论结合问题、能值与可持续发展研究问题等几个方面进行了探讨.     

Public Timber Supply, Market Adjustments, and Local Economies: Economic Assumptions of the Northwest Forest Plan

Abstract:  The Northwest Forest Plan in the Pacific Northwest sought to stabilize local economies, including local employment and income, by stabilizing the flow of wood fiber from public forests. This is also a common forest management objective in other regions and countries. Because this economic strategy ignores basic market adjustments, it is likely to fail and to unnecessarily damage forest ecosystems. Application of basic economic principles on how markets operate significantly changes the apparent efficacy of efforts to manage local economies by managing timber supply. The emphasis on timber supply tends to ignore the dominant role that the demand for wood fiber and wood products, rather than wood-fiber supply, plays in determining levels of harvest and production. Contemporary economics indicates that markets tend to operate to offset reductions in wood-fiber supply. This significantly moderates the economic cost of reducing commercial timber harvest in the pursuit of environmental objectives. In addition, contemporary economic analysis indicates that the economic links between natural forests and local communities are much broader than simply the flow of commercially valuable logs to manufacturing facilities. At least in the United States, the flow of environmental services from natural forests has increasingly become an amenity that has drawn people and economic activity to forested areas. Attractive site-specific qualities, including those supported by natural forests, can potentially support local economic development even in the face of reduced timber harvests. These market-related adjustments partially explain the Northwest Forest Plan's overestimation of the expected regional impacts associated with reduced federal timber supply and the ineffectiveness of the plan's efforts to protect communities by stabilizing federal timber supply.     

Self-insurance against natural disasters

Expenditures on self-insurance to mitigate the effects of natural disasters on the value of private assets are examined in a model where individuals are partially insured against financial loss by a public relief program and where private insurance is unavailable. The model predicts that optimal private expenditures on self-insurance will be excessive or insufficient according to the nature of the technology by which individuals protect their assets. The comparative static effects of variations in the level of public compensation, individual wealth, and attitudes toward risk and the degree of environmental uncertainty on self-insurance expenditures and on the magnitude and frequency of public compensation are also characterized and their implications for remedial government policies are examined.     

Best policy response to environmental shocks: Applying a stochastic framework

The paper develops a general framework for the analysis of environmental shocks in growing economies. Endogenous capital investments allow identifying the dual role of capital as a buffer against shocks and a source of pollution. We study the effects of recurring natural disasters on optimal growth and efficient environmental policies. Emissions may cause continuous fluctuations, entail discrete and recurring jumps, or trigger so-called “tipping points” with large costs to the economy. Closed-form solutions are provided for all the model variants. We discuss possible applications in environmental economics and identify current research gaps.     

Infrastructure and Conservation Policy in Brazil

Abstract:  The development of transportation and energy infrastructure has been a major driver in the conversion of natural ecosystems in Brazil since the nineteenth century. Although this pattern is present in most countries, Brazil differs in the scale of opportunities that are still available to build its physical infrastructure while pursuing an ambitious conservation agenda. This advantage stems from the magnitude of intact ecosystems, a dynamic policy environment, and the increasing availability of biological and economic data needed to harmonize conservation with public works. Success depends on integrating conservation and infrastructure planning, rather than relying on the project based, largely ineffective environmental assessment process. Front-loading environmental mitigation and compensation will also help, as will improving public access to, and understanding of, information on the environmental and economic values at stake in major infrastructure decisions.     

Critical environmental indicators: performance indices and assessment models for sustainable rural development planning

Sustainable development planning must be based on environmental and biophysical baseline indices that effectively define comparative development potential and environmental constraints. As such, indices must define the comparative advantage of the natural resource base and measure the fundamental capacity to sustain production rates of natural resource goods and services used to create societal well being. Complex biophysical and socioeconomic characteristics affect the identification and selection of sustainable development strategies. When derived from effective baseline indicators, indices may be used to define the spatial and temporal distribution of economically viable production opportunities and may be expressed in derived indices that realistically describe basic production opportunities and guide the selection of feasible, long-term development strategies. Specifically, representative indices are critical in the identification of development goals and realistic objectives and can be used to evaluate, select and implement sustainable development strategies and plans. It is stressed that the relevancy and effectiveness of public policies depend on the identification of representative evaluation models and baseline indices to define development strategies that are both environmentally sustainable and economically viable. In this context, the role of baseline indicators that define natural resource production capacities is discussed. This includes potential resource uses, derived benefits and their economic and environmental impacts. Key thematic indicators are suggested that may be especially useful in identifying development alternatives and impacts. This suggested that clearly defined environmental pollution limits or impact standards be used to define public risk tolerance limits and carrying capacity constraints. It is argued that these measures may be more effective in directing policy choices than economic valuation of non market goods and services that represent environmental externalities associated with resource exploitation options and economic development strategies. To this end, examples of thematic indicators and derived indices are introduced that may prove effective in resource assessment, economic evaluation and strategic development planning.     

What Every Conservation Biologist Should Know about Economic Theory

Abstract: The last century has seen the ascendance of a core economic model, which we will refer to as Walrasian economics. This model is driven by the psychological assumptions that humans act only in a self‐referential and narrowly rational way and that production can be described as a self‐contained circular flow between firms and households. These assumptions have critical implications for the way economics is used to inform conservation biology. Yet the Walrasian model is inconsistent with a large body of empirical evidence about actual human behavior, and it violates a number of basic physical laws. Research in behavioral science and neuroscience shows that humans are uniquely social animals and not self‐centered rational economic beings. Economic production is subject to physical laws including the laws of thermodynamics and mass balance. In addition, some contemporary economic theory, spurred by exciting new research in human behavior and a wealth of data about the negative global impact of the human economy on natural systems, is moving toward a world view that places consumption and production squarely in its behavioral and biophysical context. We argue that abandoning the straightjacket of the Walrasian core is essential to further progress in understanding the complex, coupled interactions between the human economy and the natural world. We call for a new framework for economic theory and policy that is consistent with observed human behavior, recognizes the complex and frequently irreversible interaction between human and natural systems, and directly confronts the cumulative negative effects of the human economy on the Earth's life support systems. Biophysical economics and ecological economics are two emerging economic frameworks in this movement.