生态经济学发展的逻辑及其趋势特征

在对生态经济学近30年发展历史回顾的基础上,以经济学中均衡和效率为出发点对生态经济学发展的核心逻辑及其发展趋势进行梳理总结,并对未来我国生态经济学的理论与实践进行深入思考。从整体上看,生态经济学发展的逻辑起点和现实回归都围绕着自然供给与维护人类需求的动态均衡、生态与经济资源有效配置两条主线进行,最终达成社会可持续性发展的目标。具体而言,当前三大热点研究领域中的生态承载力与生态成本效益分析,分别隶属于可持续发展框架下的生态经济均衡以及经济效益评估范畴;而近年不断发展的生态能值分析,依据其特有的能值指标和能值转换优势,分别体现了生态承载均衡和产出效率优化的两种可持续发展思想,更具现实性和综合性。因此,新时期的生态经济研究将淡化学科间在意识形态和研究方法上的差异,更加注重学科间的多元化融合发展,生态学与经济学的结合将更加紧密。就目前我国生态经济发展现状来看,我国未来生态经济研究在遵循上述可持续发展逻辑的同时,还应积极关注当前生态经济发展的如下几个方面:1从宏观层面转向微观层面。对于生态承载力的测评要基于微观视角,综合考虑中长期等多维结构性因素的影响;2从模糊评价转向精准度量。通过合理分配权重系数、优化贴现参数等方式,提升生态成本效益评估的精度水平;3从学科交叉发展转向多元融合发展。生态经济研究要逐步打破现有模式下的简单学科交叉,通过加强生态学与经济学在基础研究领域的互动和融合,为应对当前复杂的生态经济问题提供系统性解决方案。     

An ecological economics approach to the management of a multi-purpose coastal wetland

Three interrelated management problems—eutrophication of multiple use shallow lakes, sea level rise and flood risk mitigation and tourism pressures—are analysed in the context of an internationally important wetland area, the Norfolk and Suffolk Broads in the UK. The ecological-economic research findings presented should provide essential information to underpin the regulatory and management process in this internationally important conservation area. The relevant authority somehow has to integrate the maintenance of public navigation rights, nature conservation, and tourism promotion in a highly dynamic ecosystems setting. Because of the stakeholder conflicts, potential and actual, a more inclusionary decision-making procedure is required, and is currently being implemented.     

ImPACTS框架下西北典型生态经济问题研究综述

与传统学科界限鲜明不同,生态经济学强调跨学科交叉研究,注重让问题来决定研究工具集,而不是由研究工具来决定合适的对象。由于生态经济问题涉及生态系统与社会经济系统,研究对象属性多样、关系复杂,既有采用传统意义上的生态经济学方法如生态系统服务价值核算等方法,也包括生活质量、生计途径、消费评估等社会学方法。因此,采取关注学科主要方法发展演化的思路,难以系统地总结生态经济研究进展。我国西北地区生态环境脆弱,经济发展相对落后,无疑是生态经济研究的"天然典型实验场",取得了大量的研究成果。遵循从研究对象出发的思路,采用经典的ImPACTS等式框架,以更宽泛的视野和系统的思维框架综述了西北地区典型生态经济实证研究的思路,即:采用等级层次分析方法研究生态系统和经济系统某个或多个结构性成分及其关系,再用实际结果检验其正确性。综述重要进展包括:可持续性衡量从物质、能量和信息角度开展了水资源承载力、生态足迹、能值与上升性的研究;生态系统服务和自然资本的价值评估开展了条件估值和选择模型,以及环境经济账户、物质流等集成核算工作;人类福利状况评价开展了幸福及生活质量核算工作;开展了生态补偿全流程的实证研究工作;集成模拟模型开展了空间建模环境的构建及简单自然过程的模拟,以LUCC和生态补偿为例进行了较好的自然过程和人文因素相耦合的集成模拟研究;以社会适应性能力作为整体性指标研究了社会资源对水资源的适应作用,将社会资源解耦为文化类型、社会资本和制度三个维度进行实证分析。在此基础上,提出了未来开展研究的建议。     

Macrozoobenthos as an indicator of the ecological state of mountain watercourses

Structural characteristics of benthic macroinvertebrate communities in mountain watercourses of different sizes have been studied in the Upper Ob basin. It has been found that species richness, diversity of zoobenthos, and most biotic indices in the background areas increase in the series from the smallest watercourses to large rivers. On the contrary, the values of the above parameters in areas polluted with mercury has proved to decrease, thereby indicating a significant transformation of the benthic communities. Approaches are proposed to select reference indices for assessing the ecological state of watercourses in the basin with regard to the size of the river, the structure of benthic communities, and variability of biotic indices along the background cross sections.     

Evolutionary-ecological analysis of trends in phenogenetic variation of homologous morphological structures: From populations to ecological series of species

An evolutionary-ecological analysis of homologous variations in cranial morphological structures (phenes) has been performed at the level of populations and subspecies exposed to technogenic, climatic, and landscape-geographic changes in the environment, as well as with ecological series of 46 species and infraspecific forms differing in ecological specialization within the family Cricetidae. On this basis, consistent manifestations of phenogenetic variation have been revealed. Species with the same ecological specialization show parallel directional changes in the frequencies of homologous phenes and their individual combinations. These changes apparently have adaptive significance and result from rearrangements in the ancestral epigenetic system. It is shown that similar ecological requirements imposed by the environment historically lead to unidirectional transformations of homologous morphological structures in different species, which may account for high incidence of homoplasy as well as for the parallel and, in part, directional evolution of closely related taxa with similar ecological specialization.     

Perceptions of climate change,multiple stressors and livelihoods on marginal African coasts

Studies of multiple stressors in Africa often focus on vulnerable inland communities. Rising concentrations of the world’s poor live in coastal rural–urban areas with direct dependencies on marine as well as terrestrial ecosystem goods and services. Using participatory methods we elicited perceptions of stressors and their sources, impacts and consequences held by coastal communities in eastern Africa (Mtwara in Tanzania and Maputo in Mozambique). Respondent-informed timelines suggest wars, economic policies and natural increase have led to natural resource-dependent populations in marginal, previously little-inhabited lowland coastal areas. Respondents (n = 91) in interviews and focus groups rank climate stressors (temperature rise/erratic rain) highest amongst human/natural stressors having negative impacts on livelihoods and wellbeing (e.g., cross-scale cost of living increases including food and fuel prices). Sources of stress and impacts were mixed in time and space, complicating objective identification of causal chains. Some appeared to be specific to coastal areas. Respondents reported farms failing and rising dependence on stressed marine resources, food and fuel prices and related dependence on traders and credit shrunk by negative global market trends. Development in the guise of tourism and conservation projects limited access to land–sea livelihoods and resources in rural–urban areas (coastal squeeze). Mental modelling clarified resource user perceptions of complex linkages from local to international levels. We underline risks of the poor in marginal coastal areas facing double or multiple exposures to multiple stressors, with climate variability suggesting the risks of climate change.     

Comparison of different ecological scales with respect to efficiency in assessing ecological conditions in forests of the Southern Ural region

Ecological scales proposed by H. Ellenberg, E. Landolt, and D.N. Tsyganov have been used to evaluate the roles of three ecological factors—elevation above sea level, soil moisture, and soil nitrogen—in determining the composition of forest communities in the Southern Ural region. The results obtained with all these scales are similar, which indicates that any of them can serve the purpose.     

Risk of commodity price,production cost and time to build in resource economics

Real option theory has been extensively applied to natural resource extraction modeling and risk management, which proves to be a significantly more powerful method than the traditional ones such as discounted cash flows. This research attempts to extend a proposed real option model based on optimized price threshold strategy for gold mining operations. Besides exploring the risk from commodity price, the research also examines the effects of a declining stochastic production costs, due to technology innovation in the long term. The extended real option model further examines how the time to build a gold mine can impact the optimized price threshold strategy. Sensitivity analysis and numerical evidence show that, (1) innovation in mining technology will boost the mine’s profitability and also shift the optimized price threshold; (2) mining operators can hedge a significant level of risk by treating time to build properly. Further discussions are provided on mining investment strategy and policy implication for resource extraction.     

Local ecological knowledge and incremental adaptation to changing flood patterns in the Amazon delta

The need for understanding the factors that trigger human responses to climate change has opened inquiries on the role of indigenous and local ecological knowledge (ILK) in facilitating or constraining social adaptation processes. Answers to the question of how ILK is helping or limiting smallholders to cope with increasing disturbances to the local hydro-climatic regime remain very limited in adaptation and mitigation studies and interventions. Herein, we discuss a case study on ILK as a resource used by expert farmer-fishers (locally known as Caboclos) to cope with the increasing threats on their livelihoods and environments generated by changing flood patterns in the Amazon delta region. While expert farmer-fishers are increasingly exposed to shocks and stresses, their ILK plays a key role in mitigating impacts and in strengthening their adaptive responses that are leading to a process of incremental adaptation (PIA). We argue that ILK is the most valuable resource used by expert farmer-fishers to adapt the spatial configuration and composition of their land-/resource-use systems (agrodiversity) and their produced and managed resources (agrobiodiversity) at landscape, community and household levels. We based our findings on ILK on data recorded for over the last 30 years using detailed ethnographic methodologies and multitemporal landscape mapping. We found that the ILK of expert farmer-fishers and their “tradition of change” have facilitated the PIA to intensify a particular production system to optimize production across a broad range of flood conditions and at the same time to manage or conserve forests to produce resources and services.     

Assessment of the hunting of mammals using local ecological knowledge: an example from the Brazilian semiarid region

The hunting of wild animals remains a common activity in various parts of the world, especially in rural communities with poor socioeconomic conditions. To investigate patterns of mammal hunting, this study adopted a rural community located in semiarid Brazil as a model to test whether variables such as perceived abundance, activity period (day or night) and animal biomass could influence the consumption potential of mammal taxa. For this study, a checklist/interview technique using 32 photographs of mammals recorded in the region and two photographs of species that did not occur in the region, which acted as “control” species, was used, in addition to other visual stimuli and free lists. All species presented in the photographs, with the exception of the “control” species, were recognized as occurring in the region. Fourteen species were cited as being those most hunted locally. The species cited as most hunted had an average perceived abundance higher than the group of the least-hunted species. However, there was no significant relationship between hunting of a species and its locally perceived abundance. No significant difference in hunting pressure between diurnal and nocturnal species was found, nor was a relationship between animal biomass and hunting pressure observed. Our findings suggest that perceived abundance is an important factor for choosing a resource fauna, but other factors such as intended use, meat flavor and vulnerability to hunting, among others, may influence the potential use of a species.     

国家级重点生态功能区县生态系统生产总值核算研究——以阿尔山市为例

国家级重点生态功能区是国家重要的生态安全屏障,是保障生态系统稳定的重要区域,生态系统生产总值(GEP)是生态系统为人类福祉和经济社会可持续发展提供的产品与服务价值的总和。核算重点生态功能区县生态系统生产总值(GEP)不仅为揭示区域生态系统为人类福祉和经济社会发展贡献提供了新的手段,同时为完善限制开发区市县政府考核机制和离任审计提供了新的科学方法。本文以国家级重点生态功能区县——阿尔山市为例,运用市场价值法、影子工程法、替代成本法及旅游费用法等研究方法,对阿尔山市生态系统产品提供、调节服务、文化服务3大类11项服务功能进行核算,结果表明:(1)2014年,阿尔山市生态系统生产总值539.88亿元,就生态系统服务类别而言,调节服务价值最高,占88.44%;文化服务价值占8.72%;产品提供价值占2.83%。(2)就不同生态系统服务类型而言,气候调节功能价值最大,占45.33%;固碳释氧价值、水源涵养价值、洪水调蓄价值次之。(3)就不同生态系统类型而言,由大到小排序,森林湿地草地灌丛农田。其中,森林生态系统生产总值最高,占61.99%;湿地次之,占32.44%。     

Perception of the effects of climate change in winter and summer tourist areas: the Pyrenees and the Catalan and Balearic coasts,Spain

In this study, we compare the perception of climate change in two different tourist settings of northeastern Spain: the Catalan Pyrenees and the Catalan Mediterranean coast and the Balearic Islands. We carried out a survey of 906 cases (506 in the coastal areas of Catalonia and the Balearic Islands and 400 in the Catalan Pyrenees) asking residents on those areas to assess the possible effects of climate change on tourist-related activities. While the existence of climate change and of its estimated impacts is widely accepted, we observe statistically significant differences in most of the questions between residents in the coastal areas and residents in the Pyrenees. In general terms, respondents from the Pyrenees display a much higher concern regarding the economic impacts of climate change on tourism. On the other hand, the results also show that some demographic groups, such as women, members of large households, or unemployed, tend to present higher levels of concern. This study may give new hints on which tourist modalities and which groups are more concerned for the impacts of climate change in Mediterranean tourist environments and could translate into more targeted adaptive and mitigation practices.     

The concept of ecological debt: some steps towards an enriched sustainability paradigm

In this paper, we elaborate on the concept of ecological debt. Starting from the enriching environmental justice perspectives, this grass-roots concept has to offer to sustainability discourse, a broad conceptual discussion is presented resulting in a working definition for ecological debt. In elaborating on this definition, we try both to accommodate these enriching perspectives and to offer a more robust conceptualisation that is applicable in international sustainability discourse. Also, a scientifically sound methodology is presented which allows quantifying different aspects of ecological debt. Finally, both the conceptual analysis as well as the quantification method is applied to the case of climate change.     

An introductory note on the environmental economics of the circular economy

This paper provides an introduction to some of the fundamental principles and approaches in environmental economics which are of significance to achieving an integrated sustainability science. The concept of a circular economy, introduced by the late David Pearce in 1990, addresses the interlinkages of the four economic functions of the environment. The environment not only provides amenity values, in addition to being a resource base and a sink for economic activities, it is also a fundamental life-support system. Environmental economists have suggested that, taking these four functions as an analytical starting point, unpriced or underpriced services should be internalised in the economy. In Europe significant advances have been achieved in the pricing of externalities by means of truly interdisciplinary analysis which accounts in detail for the environmental consequences. The monetary estimates reached as a result of such interdisciplinary research are gradually being applied to the economic analysis of environmental policy priorities. Although such figures provide only a partial and incomplete picture of the environmental costs at stake, they support and inform the analysis of the virtues of a circular economy for individual resources as well as for sustainability as a future trajectory.     

A social and ecological imperative for ecosystem-based adaptation to climate change in the Pacific Islands

Climate change is predicted to have a range of impacts on Pacific Island ecosystems and the services they provide for current and future development. There are a number of characteristics that can make adaptation approaches that utilise the benefits of ecosystems a compelling and viable alternative to other adaptation approaches. The objective of this paper is to determine what level of relative influence technical and planning considerations currently have in guiding the recognition and application of ecosystem-based adaptation (EbA) approaches in the Pacific Islands context. The technical feasibility of EbA in relation to the expected impacts of climate change and the compatibility of adaptation planning processes of the Pacific Islands with EbA requirements was considered. The main barrier to fully implementing EbA in the Pacific Islands is not likely to be financial capital, but a combination of stable technical capacity within government departments to advise communities on EbA opportunities and the compatibility of planning frameworks.     

Biodiversity conservation: From ecosystem to the ecosystem approach

The possibility of implementing 12 principles of the ecosystem approach is considered with regard to the results of meetings of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and recent international forums. The importance of these principles for achieving the main goals of the CBD is shown, and the role of biosphere reserves in solving urgent problems of biodiversity conservation and sustainable development in adjoining territories of subjects of the Russian Federation is discussed.