The Role of Foreign Direct Investment in Urban Environmental Management: Some Evidence from Hanoi, Vietnam

In recent years flows of foreign direct investment (FDI) to developing countries have rapidly been increasing. It is now an important contributor to the national economy and urban growth in scores of developing countries. Rapid urbanization in these countries is leading to many problems in the cities. Existing urban infrastructure and municipal services have been unable to cope with the increased demand arising from growing population and rapid economic growth. Consequently, the environment in these cities has deteriorated alarmingly. This paper assesses the role of FDI in urban environmental management (UEM) by analyzing the linkages between them for Hanoi City in Vietnam. The paper's analysis and findings are presented under three main themes: one, FDI, employment and income; two, FDI and environmental degradation; and three, potential of utilizing FDI for the provision of urban environmental infrastructure and services (UEI&S) in order to improve the urban environment. Both primary and secondary source data have been used. Policy implications of the research findings are drawn from the perspective of sustainable development.     

Environmental management of pesticidal POPs in China: past, present and future

China, the largest developing country in the world, has been undergoing rapid economic growth in the past two decades. Synchronously, large quantities of persistent organic chlorinated pesticides have been used in agriculture and non-agriculture areas. Accompanying with incomplete management framework, the improper use and disposal of pesticides have caused serious pollution problems. In this study, we discussed: (1) ten persistent organochlorine pesticides in terms of historical production, consumption and number of manufacturers, import and export; (2) the current management framework of pesticidal persistent organic pollutants (POPs) with respect to legal system and government administrative system; (3) the existing problems in the management of pesticidal POPs; and proposed recommendations for countermeasures. Based on the available information, it can be concluded that records on the historical production and consumption quantities of pesticidal POPs are incomplete which makes a difficulty in the management. Although China has come a long way in developing a modern legal system, the current system is still considered weak and inefficient; and many challenges are ahead. The government administrative system has also been reformed and improved, but over-lapping jurisdictions still exist and are ineffective in managing pesticidal POPs program. To address these existing problems in pesticidal POPs management, it was suggested that more investigations should be conducted to collect information on pollution sources of pesticidal POPs, to evaluate their environmental risks, to identify new alternative chemicals and to complete management framework of pesticidal POPs in China. Furthermore, the public should be encouraged to participate in managing hazardous pesticidal POPs in China, and international cooperation and communication should be established and strengthened imperatively as well.     

Environmental and economic sustainability in public contexts: the impact of hand-drying options on waste management,carbon emissions and operating costs

Environment, Development and Sustainability - Due to the high density of users hosted everyday, public buildings are important producers of waste and emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs). Public...     

Environmental management systems in the architectural,engineering and construction sectors: a roadmap to aid the delivery of the sustainable development goals

Environment, Development and Sustainability - Realisation of the sustainable development goals (SDGs) will provide improvements to people's lives and longevity of the planet. The architectural,...     

Environmental justice of nuclear waste policy in Taiwan: Taipower, government, and local community

This paper is an investigation into Taiwan’s policy on nuclear waste disposal, concentrating on the ways in which dumping sites have been chosen, and on the wider implications of those choices. The central aim was to examine whether this policy breached the distributive and procedural principles of environmental justice by discriminating against disadvantaged areas and minority ethnic groups. The paper first clarifies the meaning of environmental justice and then applies it to the case study of Taiwan’s decision announced in 2009 that Da-Ren (達仁鄉) in Taitung County (台東縣) and Wang-An (望安鄉) in Penghu County (澎湖縣) were its two favoured potential sites for the final disposal repository of radioactive waste. The findings of the research suggest that the Taiwan government and the nuclear power provider, Taipower, failed to fulfil the requirements of environmental justice in reaching this decision. The contribution of this case study to the literature on the environmental injustice of nuclear waste siting policies is fourfold. First, it adds to the growing number of studies that show how siting decisions systematically and deliberately disadvantage vulnerable communities. Second, it finds the basis of this discriminatory policy to lie in the wider pattern of inequality that exists in Taiwanese society—a pattern that is rooted in historical traditions of racial and tribal prejudice, reinforced by contemporary forms of corruption. Third, it suggests that a solution to the problem of environmental injustice in nuclear waste siting policy may have to wait until these broader practices of unequal treatment in Taiwan are addressed. Fourth, it speculates that the need for a solution to the nuclear waste problem may be a catalyst for dealing with these broader patterns of unequal treatment.     

中国环境审计研究10年回顾:轨迹、问题与前瞻

国家审计署2008-2012年审计工作发展规划将资源环境审计作为六大审计类型之一,同时在2009年9月出台<关于加强资源环境审计工作的意见>(以下简称<意见>),这必将极大促进我国环境审计理论与实践的发展.在历史即将翻开新的一页之时,有必要对我国环境审计理论与实践研究轨迹进行系统总结和梳理,发掘其规律、问题,以利于未来环境审计研究.本文以发表于1999-2009年的689篇环境审计论文为样本,从发表时间、期刊类型、研究内容、研究方法、推动力量、学术影响力及研究人才队伍培养等方面系统描述我国近十年环境审计研究的轨迹.结果发现,我国环境审计研究的层面不够深入,研究方向存在偏颇性,研究视角显片面性.未来的环境审计研究应更加紧密围绕全球环境问题和国际环境会计的最新实,整合生态学、环境科学、会计学及审计学界力量,倡导研究视角的多元化,更加注重民间环境审计、环境审计的鉴证职能、生态绩效的评价审核等研究.     

环境规制影响产业结构的路径与机制——基于湘鄂赣皖地区城市的实证研究

产业结构的转型升级是服务国家发展战略全局的重大议题。合理产业布局、走绿色发展之路是国家深入推进生态文明建设的重中之重。该研究构建了环境规制对产业结构高级化和产业结构合理化影响的双对数模型,以长江经济带湘鄂赣皖四省51个城市2003~2017年的数据为样本,研究环境规制对产业结构高级化和产业结构合理化的影响。为了研究不同经济发展水平下环境规制对产业结构影响的异质性,在模型中引入经济发展水平和环境规制的交互项。研究发现,经济发展水平在环境规制对产业结构转型升级的作用过程中存在替代效应和互补效应,且替代效应大于互补效应。即从长期来看,经济发展水平的提升能推动湘鄂赣皖地区城市整体产业结构转型升级。在城市的异质性方面,环境规制对上述地区二线城市的产业结构存在显著的优化作用。同时,环境规制对三线城市产业结构优化的积极作用大于三线以下城市。     

Community forestry management and livelihood development in northwest China: integration of governance, project design, and community participation

In projects of community development and natural resource management, local residents collaborate with government and NGOs on decisions about forest management and participate in programs designed to improve livelihoods while sustaining natural resources. This paper uses case studies and survey data in Gansu province of northwest China to explore social, ecological, and economic outcomes of community-based co-management (CBCM). Findings show that CBCM appears to have significantly increased livelihoods for local community residents overall. Forest condition and attitudes about forest conservation were also improved. However, economic benefits were not enjoyed uniformly within the communities because, although CBCM projects are nominally available to all, certain subgroups within communities are less likely to participate. Greater education, being married, and access to information are all strongly correlated with participation and thus the economic benefits of CBCM projects. Women, although they frequently participate in household decisions, are infrequent participants in CBCM projects, perhaps because project design does not meet their needs. Future improvements to CBCM project design should include increased access to information, education, and equitable treatment of diverse stakeholders in the decision-making process. Such improvements would likely lead to improvements in livelihoods as well as more sustainable forest management and conservation.     

Development of a spatial database for large-scale catchment management: Geology,soils, and landuse in the Namoi Basin,Australia

The ArcInfo Geographical Information System (GIS) was used to develop spatial databases for recording spatial data. The databases developed in this study provide a graphic and mapping display interface to assist the management of the Namoi Basin in New South Wales, Australia. In addition, the databases are used in the investigation of the impacts of spatio-temporal changes in landuse/management on hydrologic processes from catchment to basin scales. Climate, stream flow, and water quality data are being incorporated into the ArcInfo dataset to drive and test hydrologic models.     

Local air quality management as a risk management process: assessing, managing and remediating the risk of exceeding an air quality objective in Great Britain

Air quality is managed in Great Britain via an effects-based, risk management process designed to provide a dynamic solution to public health issues associated with elevated concentrations of seven specified air pollutants. This paper is concerned with an examination and evaluation of the process of Local Air Quality Management (LAQM) in Great Britain from the late 1980s to date as a risk management process. The statutory basis of LAQM process is provided by the Environment Act 1995. The Act provides a framework in which national and local actions are required to identify and remediate areas of poor air quality. Within this framework, the implementation of the process at national and local levels is considered, leading to an identification and assessment of risks in the formulation and implementation of air quality management policy and practice. Local Authorities began the process of Review and Assessment in 1999 and the first round of the process concluded in 2001. Following this, some 129 Local Authorities declared one or more Air Quality Management Areas (AQMAs). The Review and Assessment elements of the framework were subjected to an evaluation in 2001 and the essential elements of it were confirmed as fit for purpose. The evaluation led to a confirmation of the process of LAQM but also a simplification based on the experience of Round 1. Now, a two step process is required comprising of an Updating and Screening Assessment and, where a risk of exceeding an Air Quality Objective (AQO) is identified, a Detailed Assessment follows. The Government has identified a time scale for Review and Assessment through to 2010 and also introduced the requirement of a regular Progress Report in order that a Local Authority is able to address routine matters of air quality management. The risks inherent in epidemiological or scientific uncertainty are factored into the LAQM process at an early stage of the process and, by identifying the risks and subjecting them to regular review, the process provides a 'level playing field' across spatial and temporal scales. Whilst the process of LAQM described in this paper has been developed for Great Britain, the generic elements of the process are applicable to other countries challenged by air pollution problems which require both national and local action to resolve them.     

State simplification, heterogeneous causes of vegetation fires and implications on local haze management: case study in Thailand

The article studies the nature of current policy and management practice in Thailand on vegetation burnings and haze pollution and examines how these take into account heterogeneity and complexity of local conditions and causal factors on the ground. Chang Mai province’s recent haze episodes are used as case study. The country’s policy regime on vegetation burning and haze pollution is characterized as command-and-control and highly regulatory. Authors argue that haze problem is framed by the central and provincial government as a purely an administrative task of control and penalizing perpetrators of fire. This fails to take into account the heterogeneity and complexity of local conditions and drivers of burning occurrences, which in Chang Mai involves a variety of widely diffused forest and farming-based livelihood activities, such as hunting and forest product gathering, swidden farming, and burning of agricultural residues in rice cultivation. This state simplification in policy combines well with and is further reinforced by a centralized, top-down, and institutional landscape and functioning of government in decision-making, enabling the policy to cascade down to the province, districts, and sub-districts basically unaltered. Further, traditional administrative separatism between ministries and their provincial counterparts undermines the possibility of area-wide planning and integration of responses. The authors’ recommend a major policy shift, among others, including components of using local research on causal factors as tool for planning and policy, instituting incentives and reward systems for would-be fire igniters, area-wide local-transboundary approach, and strengthening autonomy of local government bodies. Authors have used documents review, secondary sources, and key informant interviews.     

Environmental Damage,Abandoned Treaties,and Fossil-Fuel Dependence: The Coming Costs of Oil-and-Gas Exploration in the “1002 Area” of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge

Contrary to claims from American politicians, lobbyists, and oil and gas executives, allowing energy development in the Alaskan Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) will harm the environment, compromise international law, erode the social significance of wilderness protection, and ultimately fail to␣increase the energy security of the United States. After exploring a brief history of the ANWR controversy, this piece argues that the operation of oil and gas refineries in ANWR will release discharged solids, drilling waste, and dirty diesel fuel into the ecosystem’s food-chain, as they have from oil operations in Prudhoe Bay. Less obvious but equally important, oil and gas exploration in ANWR will violate a number of international treaties on biodiversity protection. In the end, development in ANWR will threaten the concept of wilderness protection, and will do little to end US dependence on foreign sources of energy. About the Author: Benjamin K. Sovacool is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Science and Technology Studies at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University in Blacksburg, Virginia. He works as a research analyst for the Consortium on Energy Restructuring and is a Senior Research Fellow for the Virginia Center for Coal and Energy Research. He also just completed a Graduate Fellowship in Energy Policy at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. Readers should send their comments on this paper to: BhaskarNath@aol.com within 3 months of publication of this issue.     

Outdoor recreation planning and management considering FROS and carrying capacities: a case study of forest wetland in Yeongam-gum,South Korea

Environment, Development and Sustainability - Since demand for outdoor recreation in forests has been increasing, a structural planning framework for sustainable use while minimizing ecosystem...     

Environment,development and sustainability of local practices in the sacred groves and shrines in Bongo District: a bio-cultural study for environmental management in Ghana

The eminent crisis threatening biological and resource diversity is a global adversity. Global resource diversities are constantly disappearing and deteriorating at quite an alarming proportion, provoking renewed thinking regarding the effectiveness of existing environmental management approaches and practices. For the past four decades, several epochs of environmental management policies and practices disregarded the cultural imperative for safeguarding efficient environmental management outcomes, particularly at the community level. Even in the rouse of this reality, issues of spirituality and how it binds local community people to their natural environment appear to be given only a window dressing attention through the recognition of sacred natural sites. Eight sacred groves and shrines in the Bongo District were investigated based on an endogenous development framework. The data were collected using focus group discussions with stakeholders at the local and district levels and individual interviews with key local natural resource managers from four selected communities. The study revealed that the way indigenous people construct the worldviews and interactions with nature using ancestors and other spirit mediums can safeguard the environment against long periods of human interference and destruction. It also demonstrates that in certain places traditional institutions are becoming malleable and open to the use of external knowledge and resources in order to sustain places of sacred significance. It concludes that cultural imperative and the issues of spirituality are critical for the sustainable management of environmental resources. The study recommends revisiting local practice and cultural values that promote good environmental management practices within the local communities.     

排污补贴视角下的养殖户环保投资影响因素研究——基于沪、苏、浙生猪养殖户的调查分析

随着畜牧业的发展,畜牧业污染问题日益突出。解决污染问题的关键是增强养殖户参与,鼓励他们自发进行环保投资,而政府补贴对于具有外部性的生产投资活动均具有刺激作用。为了量化分析影响农户环保投资行为的各因素的作用程度,特别是政府补贴的激烈效果,本文运用调查结合实证的研究方法,在农户模型的分析框架上,以沪、苏、浙地区394户生猪养殖户的调查数据为基础,应用有序logit模型验证排污补贴、养殖户生产经营特征、环保需求特征对养殖户环保投资的作用。研究表明除了政府补贴会刺激养殖户的环保投资外,养殖规模对环保投资有激励作用,而养殖年限却会抑制环保投资。养殖户的个人特征,对污染的认知及参与污染治理的意愿也对环保投资水平有正的影响,但作用效果不明显。在此基础上,本文提出了合理制定和推进排污补贴政策,以"离牧补助"等形式促使养殖规模和环保要求不符的养殖户退出养殖业,加大畜牧业污染危害的宣传力度以及政府加强对污染处理技术的研发投资,从而降低处理成本等政策建议。     

长江中下游稻-麦轮作系统生命周期环境影响评价——以江苏南京为例

长江中下游地区是我国稻麦主产区,辨析该区农业生产过程的环境效应,可为实现农业绿色发展提供理论指导。以稻麦轮作典型生产区江苏南京为例,应用生命周期评价方法对该系统生命周期的资源消耗和污染物排放清单进行分析和评价。结果表明:在该稻-麦轮作体系中,水稻生命周期的环境影响主要是富营养化、水体毒性、环境酸化和土壤毒性,环境影响指数分别为2.32、0.76、0.33和0.27;而小麦生命周期的环境影响主要为富营养化、水体毒性、土壤毒性和环境酸化,环境影响指数分别为2.50、2.09、0.32和0.23。肥料、农药、柴油的生产和使用是引起能源消耗和气候变暖的主要因素;农户超量施用氮肥是造成潜在环境酸化和富营养化的关键;农药的使用是造成水体毒素和土壤毒素的最主要原因;而氮肥和农药投入对人类毒性均有较大影响。因此,在工业领域加快新型能源开发,实施清洁生产;在农业领域优化田间管理措施(如减少氮肥施用、研发多功能一体化农机及推广低毒高效农药)能有效控制长江中下游地区稻麦生产负面环境影响,提高该区农业可持续发展能力。