Combining internal and external motivations in multi-actor governance arrangements for biodiversity and ecosystem services

This paper analyses the possibility of building a mutually supportive dynamics between internally and externally motivated behaviour for biodiversity conservation and ecosystem services provision. To this purpose a face to face survey amongst 169 key actors of 34 highly successful and prominent biodiversity arrangements in seven EU countries was conducted. The main finding of the paper is the feasibility of combining inherently intrinsically motivated behaviours (providing enjoyment, pleasure from experimentation and learning, aesthetic satisfaction) and internalized extrinsic motivations (related to the identification with the collective goals of conservation policy) through a common set of governance features. Successful initiatives that combine internal and external motivations share the following features: inclusive decision making processes, a broad monitoring by “peers” beyond the core staff of the initiatives, and a context that is supportive for the building of autonomous actor competences. These findings are in line with the psycho-sociological theory of motivation, which shows the importance of a psycho-social context leading to a subjective perception of autonomy and a sense of competence of the actors.     

国家治理体系和治理能力现代化总目标下的生物多样性保护对策

党的十九届四中全会提出推进国家治理体系和治理能力现代化,为把我国制度优势更好地转化为国家治理效能,全面提升国家治理能力提出了总体目标。这一目标为我国各行各业的发展指明了方向,生态环境保护、生态改善和生物多样性保护也不例外。党的十九届四中全会决定的第十部分内容均是与生物多样性紧密相关的目标,其中提出了坚持和完善生态文明制度体系,促进人与自然和谐共生,实行最严格的环境保护制度,全面建立资源高效利用制度,健全生态保护和修复制度。为推动我国生物多样性保护与可持续利用领域的治理体系和治理能力现代化,我们必须转变观念,固根基、扬优势、补短板、强弱项,构建本领域系统完备、科学规范、运行有效的制度体系。本文提出了推进生物多样性领域治理体系和治理能力现代化的支持对策,包括转变观念,认识生物多样性在生态文明建设中的重要地位和作用,用基于自然的解决方案解决生物多样性与发展之间的问题,推动大数据和云计算在生物多样性领域的应用,加强生物多样性相关制度建设,开展能力建设,建立公众参与生物多样性管理的机制,促进地方经济发展和生物多样性保护双赢等。     

Multilevel water,biodiversity and climate adaptation governance: evaluating adaptive management in Lesotho

In many cases in which climate change affects natural resources, impacts are uncertain and adaptation to climate change often involves collective action problems at the local level, which are embedded in multilevel governance regimes. Adaptive management (AM) is an emerging approach to deal with such uncertainty and complexity by promoting multilevel institutions that are robust to change and able to learn. Much of the literature evaluating AM in multilevel governance regimes, however, focuses only on the adherence to certain structural features said to make AM successful, leaving aside the question whether AM actually produces desired outcomes. This paper evaluates AM in multilevel regimes also in terms of the outcomes they produce. To this end, we first apply the Management and Transition Framework (MTF) in order to describe three multilevel regimes in Lesotho. For each regime we then observe whether it adheres to the structure features of AM. Finally, we evaluate the extent to which the outcomes, natural resource management projects, are conducive to Ostrom's (1990) ‘design principles’ for sustainable common-pool resource management. We find that, though no ideal ‘adaptive regime’ is found in Lesotho, the results confirm the AM hypotheses that decentralised decision-making, open information sources, and plurality of user interests lead to improved outcomes. Conversely, elements of the climate regime are found not to be adaptive. Our findings also confirm the appropriateness of AM as a governance approach to climate adaptation.     

Soil biodiversity for agricultural sustainability

We critically highlight some evidence for the importance of soil biodiversity to sustaining (agro-)ecosystem functioning and explore directions for future research. We first deal with resistance and resilience against abiotic disturbance and stress. There is evidence that soil biodiversity does confer stability to stress and disturbance, but the mechanism is not yet fully understood. It appears to depend on the kind of stress and disturbance and on the combination of stress and disturbance effects. Alternatively, community structure may play a role. Both possible explanations will guide further research. We then discuss biotic stress. There is evidence that soil microbial diversity confers protection against soil-borne disease, but crop and soil type and management also play a role. Their relative importance as well as the role of biodiversity in multitrophic interactions warrant further study. Henceforth, we focus on the effects of plant and soil biodiversity on nutrient and water use efficiencies as important ecological functions in agroecosystems. The available evidence suggests that mycorrhizal diversity positively contributes to nutrient and, possibly, water use efficiency. Soil fauna effects on nutrient and water use efficiencies are also apparent, but diversity effects may be indirect, through effects on soil structure. We present a conceptual diagram relating plant and soil biodiversity with soil structure and water and nutrient use efficiencies as a framework for future studies. We then consider how cropping systems design and management are interrelated and how management options might be interfaced with farmers’ knowledge in taking management decisions. Finally, we attempt to express some economic benefits of soil biodiversity to society as part of a wider strategy of conserving and using agrobiodiversity.     

Risk governance guidelines for bioenergy policies

These Notes from the Field summarise the governance guidelines developed by the International Risk Governance Council (IRGC) to address the key challenges that policy-makers face when designing and implementing policies and regulations for the increasing production, trade and use of bioenergy.The guidelines comprise an integrated and coherent set of policy recommendations and practical actions to help policy-makers and industry account for the various trade-offs presented by bioenergy and develop sustainable bioenergy production for domestic use and international trade. They include land-use policies, full life-cycle assessments, as well as sustainability standards and certification criteria.     

A framework for evaluating flood risk governance

Calls to strengthen flood risk governance are echoed across Europe amidst a growing consensus that floods will increase in the future. Accompanying the pursuit of societal resilience, other normative agendas relating legitimacy (e.g. accountability and public participation), and resource efficiency, have become attached to discussions concerning flood risk governance. Whilst these represent goals against which ‘success’ is socially and politically judged, lacking from the literature is a coherent framework to operationalise these concepts and evaluate the degree to which these are achieved. Drawing from cross-disciplinary and cross-country research conducted within the EU project STAR-FLOOD, this paper presents a framework for evaluating the extent to which flood risk governance arrangements support societal resilience, and demonstrate efficiency and legitimacy. Through empirical research in England, this paper critically reflects on the value of this approach in terms of identifying entry points to strengthen governance in the pursuit of these goals.     

推动公众参与生态环境社会治理促进生态环境治理体系和治理能力现代化

生态环境问题是关系民生的重大社会问题,生态环境保护工作的根本目的就是要满足人民日益增长的优美生态环境需要。公众参与是推进环境治理体系和治理能力现代化的重要组成部分,要把建设美丽中国转化为全体人民的自觉行动。本文在对公众参与的重要性及当前工作进展进行分析的基础上,就下一步继续营造生态环保公众参与的制度和社会氛围提出具体工作建议。     

环境监测是环境监理的技术基础

环境监测和环境监理工作的工作对象、内容、目标、对时、空的要求和所依据的法规、标准都是一致的。要协调的二者的关系，最重要的是建立“四个衔接”的双向工作秩序。     

Knowledge governance for ecosystem-based management: Understanding its context-dependency

The governance of knowledge is a crucial element of ecosystem-based management (EBM) and is deemed important for its effectiveness. In this paper we analyze from an empirical perspective how the governance of knowledge in different EBM practices is organized and with what consequences. Based upon four different case studies – all derived from the Wadden Sea – which resemble different contexts (in terms of available knowledge and level of conflict) we reconstruct four different ways of knowledge governance. These four approaches are labeled the database, the alignment, the assessment and the holistic approach. These approaches differ in how the interaction between knowledge production and decision-making is organized. They show different degrees of success, partly related to the extent to which they fit in the context in which they are applied. Understanding the differences in contexts in which knowledge for EBM has to be organized, can help decision-makers to apply the most suitable way of knowledge governance in their specific case. In cases of low conflict and high knowledge capacity a more static, one-directional way of knowledge governance can suffice, while in more complex contexts a holistic approach seems to be necessary.     

The Satoyama Index: A biodiversity indicator for agricultural landscapes

Agricultural development to meet rapidly growing demands for food and biofuel and the abandonment of traditional land use have had major impacts on biodiversity. Habitat diversity is one of the most important factors influencing biodiversity in agricultural landscapes. In this study we propose an ecological index of ecosystem or habitat diversity in agricultural landscapes – the Satoyama Index (SI) – that is discernible under appropriate spatial units (e.g., 6 km × 6 km) from 1 km × 1 km gridded land-cover data available from an open-access web site. A high SI value is an indicator of high habitat diversity, which is characteristic of traditional agricultural systems, including Japanese satoyama landscapes, while a low value indicates a monotonic habitat condition typical of extensive monoculture landscapes. The index correlated well with the spatial patterns of occurrence of a bird of prey (Butastur indicus) and species richness of amphibians and damselflies in Japan. The values of the SI also corresponded well to the spatial patterns of typical traditional agricultural landscapes with high conservation value in other countries, for example, the dehesas of the Iberian Peninsula and shade coffee landscapes in Central America. Globally, the pattern of East/South-East Asian paddy belts with their high index values contrasts markedly with the low values of the Eurasian, American, and Australian wheat or corn belts. The SI, which correlates landscapes with biodiversity through potential habitat availability, is highly promising for assessing and monitoring the status of biodiversity irrespective of scale.     

环境信息披露和环境审计的国际比较

为了对西方国家环境信息披露和环境审计的研究现状得到一个全面、准确的认识,本文在掌握了欧美国家大量相关资料的基础上,对西方国家相关研究所涉及的主要领域及其观点进行了简要的介绍和评价,进而得到对我国开展环境信息披露和环境审计工作的启示,建议:在提高环境管理法制化水平的基础上,健全相关法律法规并编制指南;发挥注册会计师的职业优势,积极参与环境信息披露和环境管理。     

国家环境治理现代化制度建设的三个目标

环境制度现代化建设是国家治理体系和治理能力现代化的有机组成部分。本文论述了我国环境制度建设的三个根本性目标:一是具备推动可持续发展和生态文明建设的基本制度功能;二是能够促进改善环境-社会-经济系统的整体经济效率,使整体社会福利最大化;三是能够促进社会公平,有利于社会和谐稳定。本文还对我国环境制度建设提出了一些具体建议。     

以环境质量为核心的政府环境责任考核建议

以环境质量为核心的考核与管理体系既可以科学直观地确定政府的环境责任,又能更好地统筹污染治理、总量减排以及环境风险防范工作。本文在借鉴国内外经验的基础上,分析了我国由国家对省级政府开展以环境质量为核心的环境责任考核的必要性与可行性,探索提出了以大气和水两个领域为重点的考核指标体系,以及相应的考核机制建议,以期为国家"十三五"环境保护规划相关考核提供依据。     

Drivers of landholder participation in tender programs for Australian biodiversity conservation

Conservation tender program have been widely applied to biodiversity conservation in Australia and internationally in recent decades. Increasing participation rates is critical to these schemes, as competition is required for the cost-effectiveness benefits of the tender system to be fully realized. However, knowledge relating to the drivers of landholder participation in tender programs is limited. This study aims to identify the relative importance of different drivers of participation in Victorian conservation tenders. The novel method of maximum entropy ordinal regression is used given the small sample size, and supplemented with qualitative data obtained through face-to-face interviews. The regression analysis reveals that strong relationships between agencies and landholders and a low administrative burden drive increased participation. The provision of education, support, and easily-integrated management practices, however, may drive lower participation, with landholders confident to undertake conservation activities independently of assistance. Some evidence emerges that ten-year contracts may be well-received. A key concern is low additionality in biodiversity benefits, with typical tender participants displaying a strong conservation ethic and high levels of management activity pre-participation. This work has shown that in conservation policies involving self-selection by participants, economic incentives for adoption may be less important than non-monetary drivers.     

Development of LCIA characterisation factors for land use impacts on biodiversity

The UNEP/SETAC life cycle initiative has recently proposed a framework for life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) of land use. Still, a lack of appropriate LCIA-methods for assessing land use impacts exist in life cycle assessment (LCA). Most existing methods are either too coarse-grained regarding the differentiation between different land use types (e.g. conventional farming versus organic farming), or they are too narrow regarding spatial coverage (e.g. only part of Europe). Therefore, the purpose of this article is to develop a method that overcomes these problems. A secondary goal is to develop a method for which it is possible to determine characterisation factors for any land use type in any region without the need for overwhelming data and data manipulation requirements. The developed method for LCIA of biodiversity focuses on species richness of vascular plants which can be determined from species–area curves. The category indicator is calculated as the multiplication of occupied area, the number of species affected per standard area (100 m²), the duration of occupation and renaturalisation from transformation, and a factor for ecosystem vulnerability. The main uncertainties of the method are related to the determination of renaturalisation times and the establishment species–area curves. The intention of the study presented in this article, i.e. to develop an applicable model with global coverage and no constraints on resolution regarding spatial and land use type differentiation, has widely been met. The limiting factor for applicability is the access to species richness surveys for the relevant regions and land use types. But still, the method shows that, with limited efforts, it is possible to calculate characterisation factors for a large range of land use types in different parts of the world.     

Complementarity,biodiversity viability analysis,and policy-based algorithms for conservation

Biodiversity conservation “area-selection” strategies include not only trade-offs among society’s needs in land-use allocation, but also allocation of economic instruments such as incentives, levies, and biodiversity credits. For these applications, the key property of an area is its “complementarity”—the context-dependent, marginal gain in biodiversity provided by the area. Given that there has been little implementation of whole-sets of areas generated by the popular computer-based selection methods, we suggest that analogous “policy-based algorithms” would be a more effective real-world application of complementarity. Areas would be “selected” for conservation over time as a consequence of policies in which dynamic complementarity values influence application of economic instruments. These integrated biodiversity/economic strategies can use an extended form of complementarity reflecting marginal changes in regional probability of persistence of biodiversity. While probabilistic measures of biodiversity viability have been explored in area-selection for some time, it remains difficult to make viability statements about “all of biodiversity.” New approaches that use biodiversity surrogate information for “biodiversity viability analysis” (BVA) can take advantage of a general quantitative biodiversity framework in which pattern-based relationships among areas allow predictions at the species level. A standard assumption of “unimodal” species responses to environmental gradients yields an expected distribution of species in an ordination pattern, and allows sampling of inferred species. Based on environmental correlates, inferred species can be mapped in geographic space, forming distribution fragments. This information, when linked to species persistence models, may allow ongoing calculation of areas’ complementarity values. An example illustrates application of these ordination models to museum collection data for lizards from New South Wales (NSW), Australia.     

中国新时代自然资源治理体系的理论构想

基于生态文明、高质量发展和国家治理新时代的战略需求,以及国内外自然资源治理发展趋势,对中国新时代自然资源治理的指导思想、基本理念、理论体系、基本原则和目标体系等进行系统解析,对包括调查勘查评估、统计监测核算、开发利用治理、保护修复治理、保障储备治理、市场交易治理、安全预警治理和国际合作治理等在内的中国新时代自然资源治理框架体系进行系统刻画,对包括公平正义制度、资产产权制度、节约集约制度、有偿使用制度、保护修复制度、市场交易制度、统计核算制度、多元储备制度、国际合作制度和治理监督制度在内的中国特色自然资源治理制度体系进行系统解构。研究结论与观点对于提高中国自然资源治理体系与能力现代化建设水平具有重要参考价值。     

环境信息公开——一项新的环境管理手段

环境信息公开是继指令性控制手段和经济手段后一项新的环境管理方法。该手段通过对环境信息的公开来加强环境管理的公众参与和监督,从而促使污染者重视环境保护,加强污染治理。文中对环境信息公开的作用和类型作了简要的阐述,并重点介绍了企业环境信息公开的设计原则、方法和步骤。同时以呼和浩特市为例,对企业环境信息公开的方案进行了初步的设计。      

为了生机勃勃的地球——WWF和生物多样性保护

一提起WWF(世界自然基金会),大家都会想起那个憨态可掬的大熊猫Logo,也会因此认为WWF是一个动物保护机构。这个印象也对,也不对。确实,1961年WWF成立的初衷就是为了保护濒危野生动物及其栖息地,它当时的英文名字就叫World WildlifeFund——世界野生动物基金会。WWF最初做的项目集中在犀牛、老虎、鸟类、鲸类、森林、海洋等多个物种及其栖息地。但随着时间的推移,WWF逐渐从一个关     

Policy integration for adaptive water governance: Learning from Scotland's experience

This paper contributes to on-going attempts at bringing together two influential ideas in water governance: Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM) and adaptive governance. In particular, a tension remains between the call in IWRM for the use of formal institutions, such as river basin organisations, to secure public policy integration, and the assumptions in adaptive governance in favour of informal collaboration between essentially independent policy actors. To clarify this relationship, this article draws on theoretical research on public policy integration, and uses these insights in an empirical setting to identify mechanisms that can facilitate effective policy integration for adaptive water governance. The research is based on recent attempts in Scotland to implement IWRM ideas to improve flood management. Several governance mechanisms were adopted to facilitate the integration of flood, water and rural land use policies. Six Scottish policy regimes are analysed using documentary sources and interviews. Results challenge the idea that collaboration should primarily be built on either river basin organisations or informal mechanisms. We identify a mix of informal and statutory-based mechanisms which may secure political and technocratic commitment to policy integration.