Assessing the local economic impacts of land protection

Land protection, whether public or private, is often controversial at the local level because residents worry about lost economic activity. We used panel data and a quasi-experimental impact-evaluation approach to determine how key economic indicators were related to the percentage of land protected. Specifically, we estimated the impacts of public and private land protection based on local area employment and housing permits data from 5 periods spanning 1990–2015 for all major towns and cities in New England. To generate rigorous impact estimates, we modeled economic outcomes as a function of the percentage of land protected in the prior period, conditional on town fixed effects, metro-region trends, and controls for period and neighboring protection. Contrary to narratives that conservation depresses economic growth, land protection was associated with a modest increase in the number of people employed and in the labor force and did not affect new housing permits, population, or median income. Public and private protection led to different patterns of positive employment impacts at distances close to and far from cities, indicating the importance of investing in both types of land protection to increase local opportunities. The greatest magnitude of employment impacts was due to protection in more rural areas, where opportunities for both visitation and amenity-related economic growth may be greatest. Overall, we provide novel evidence that land protection can be compatible with local economic growth and illustrate a method that can be broadly applied to assess the net economic impacts of protection.     

An assessment of the causes and consequences of agricultural land abandonment in Europe

ABSTRACT

The agriculture sector is the principal source of income for around 20% of the EU-26 population, which live in predominantly rural regions that would be devastated without its contribution. Moreover, the combined agricultural and food sector forms an important part of the EU economy, accounting for 15 million jobs (8.3% of total employment) and 4.4% of GDP. The 12 million active farmers across Europe today, have an average farm size of about 15 ha, and are expected to meet the needs of 500 million Europeans. In addition, they are also expected to promote a sustainable and balanced development of their land, also in areas where production conditions are difficult. Yet, despite the relevance of the sector, the use of land for agriculture purposes is not very sustainable. Among other issues, there is a serious problem in respect of the abandonment of agricultural land. Based on the perceived need for research on this topic, the aim of this paper is to examine the causes and consequences of agricultural land abandonment, outlining its social, economic and environmental impacts, as well as the implications for territorial integration.     

The Power of Bioenergy‐Related Standards to Protect Biodiversity

Abstract: The sustainable production of bioenergy is vital to avoiding negative impacts on environmental goods such as climate, soil, water, and especially biodiversity. We propose three key issues that should be addressed in any biodiversity risk‐mitigation strategy: conservation of areas of significant biodiversity value; mitigation of negative effects related to indirect land‐use change; and promotion of agricultural practices with few negative impacts on biodiversity. Focusing on biodiversity concerns, we compared principles and criteria set to address biodiversity and other environmental and social issues in seven standards (defined here as commodity‐based standards or roundtables, or relevant European legislation): five voluntary initiatives related to bioenergy feedstocks, the Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation (United Kingdom), and the European Renewable Energy Source Directive. Conservation of areas of significant biodiversity value was fairly well covered by these standards. Nevertheless, mitigation of negative impacts related to indirect land‐use change was underrepresented. Although the EU directive, with its bonus system for the use of degraded land and a subquota system for noncrop biofuels, offered the most robust standards to mitigate potential negative effects, all of the standards fell short in promoting agricultural practices with low negative impacts on biodiversity. We strongly recommend that each standard be benchmarked against related standards, as we have done here, and that efforts should be made to strengthen the elements that are weak or missing. This would be a significant step toward achieving a bioenergy industry that safeguards Earth's living heritage.     

中国冶炼行业场地土壤污染特征及分布情况

通过收集大量国内各个地区冶炼场地的最新污染数据,试图从全国尺度范围进行分析,反映中国冶炼行业场地的土壤污染状况.运用污染指数评价法、潜在生态危害指数法和生物毒性评价法,以《土壤环境质量建设用地土壤污染风险管控标准(试行)》(GB 36600—2018)的第一类用地标准值为参比,对土壤中重金属和有机物的污染特征及生态风险...     

Modeling road building,deforestation and carbon emissions due deforestation in the Ecuadorian Amazon: the potential impact of oil frontier growth

In the Ecuadorian Amazon roads play the major role in transforming land cover. Since the beginning of the oil development in this region, oil exploration and road building have been linked. The objectives of this paper are twofold: First, to present a scenario of future deforestation as result of expanding the oil frontier in the Ecuadorian Amazon until the year 2030. Second, to produce an analysis of possible carbon emission scenarios as results of the deforestation produced. This paper tries to shed light into how the development of new oil concessions impact land associated environmental services. The paper uses spatial explicit simulations, that are based on parameters built using past land transitions from areas that experimented oil development, and that explain possible outcomes in the year 2030 using current and predicted road network. Simulations indicate that under current transition probabilities and a conservative scenario road construction, more than 2 million hectares will be affected, which is 35% of the area covered by concessions, which would release 51 to 148 MT of carbon to the atmosphere. This paper illustrates the strong links between road building and deforestation, where even small amount of road construction can have large effects on land cover.     

赤红壤坡地幼龄果园间种不同牧草的生态环境效应

在赤红壤坡地幼龄果园间种６种牧草,对其生态环境效应进行了试验观测。结果发现,果园间种牧草可明显增大地面覆盖,增加土壤的保水能力,减少水土流失,提高了土壤肥力和土地生产力。然而,由于有些牧草生长旺盛、生物量大,高度和覆盖度大,不可避免地与果树争肥、争水、争光,特别是在贫瘠的坡地上或在干旱季节里。文章指出,幼龄果园间种牧草是一种较好的坡地可持续利用模式,但在牧草品种的适应性选择应加以深入研究。     

Circular economy strategies for combating climate change and other environmental issues

Global industrialization and excessive dependence on nonrenewable energy sources have led to an increase in solid waste and climate change, calling for strategies to implement a circular economy in all sectors to reduce carbon emissions by 45% by 2030, and to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050. Here we review circular economy strategies with focus on waste management, climate change, energy, air and water quality, land use, industry, food production, life cycle assessment, and cost-effective routes. We observed that increasing the use of bio-based materials is a challenge in terms of land use and land cover. Carbon removal technologies are actually prohibitively expensive, ranging from 100 to 1200 dollars per ton of carbon dioxide. Politically, only few companies worldwide have set climate change goals. While circular economy strategies can be implemented in various sectors such as industry, waste, energy, buildings, and transportation, life cycle assessment is required to optimize new systems. Overall, we provide a theoretical foundation for a sustainable industrial, agricultural, and commercial future by constructing cost-effective routes to a circular economy.

     

Evaluation procedures for restored land

Release of land for mineral extraction is often dependent on the quality of the restoration which can be achieved. It follows, therefore, that some means of judging the success of restoration is required, especially where restoration is an agricultural after use.In order to assess whether land has been well restored it is therefore necessary to know what the physical characteristics of the land were before mineral extraction took place, what changes are likely to have occurred to the land and soil as a result of mineral extraction, and lastly whether the physical characteristics of the land are as good as when the land was last used for agriculture. Most permissions however, were granted before there was a requirement to record pre-site conditions so it is impossible to know what the site was like when it was last used for agriculture. Furthermore, this paper will argue that land quality is only one factor which should be considered in assessing the quality of restored land, other factors for example, visual integration, farm management must also be taken into consideration. This paper will outline the existing evaluation procedures used by the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries & Food and Minerals Planners and suggest developing an evaluation procedure which considers various dimensions of restored land namely soil and land quality, visual integration and the management and productivity of restored land. This evaluation procedure has been applied to seventeen study sites of sand and gravel pits. The paper will indicate whether the evaluation procedure successfully classified these sites or not.     

Future habitat loss and extinctions driven by land‐use change in biodiversity hotspots under four scenarios of climate‐change mitigation

Numerous species have been pushed into extinction as an increasing portion of Earth's land surface has been appropriated for human enterprise. In the future, global biodiversity will be affected by both climate change and land‐use change, the latter of which is currently the primary driver of species extinctions. How societies address climate change will critically affect biodiversity because climate‐change mitigation policies will reduce direct climate‐change impacts; however, these policies will influence land‐use decisions, which could have negative impacts on habitat for a substantial number of species. We assessed the potential impact future climate policy could have on the loss of habitable area in biodiversity hotspots due to associated land‐use changes. We estimated past extinctions from historical land‐use changes (1500–2005) based on the global gridded land‐use data used for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Fifth Assessment Report and habitat extent and species data for each hotspot. We then estimated potential extinctions due to future land‐use changes under alternative climate‐change scenarios (2005–2100). Future land‐use changes are projected to reduce natural vegetative cover by 26‐58% in the hotspots. As a consequence, the number of additional species extinctions, relative to those already incurred between 1500 and 2005, due to land‐use change by 2100 across all hotspots ranged from about 220 to 21000 (0.2% to 16%), depending on the climate‐change mitigation scenario and biological factors such as the slope of the species–area relationship and the contribution of wood harvest to extinctions. These estimates of potential future extinctions were driven by land‐use change only and likely would have been higher if the direct effects of climate change had been considered. Future extinctions could potentially be reduced by incorporating habitat preservation into scenario development to reduce projected future land‐use changes in hotspots or by lessening the impact of future land‐use activities on biodiversity within hotspots.     

Use of Inverse Spatial Conservation Prioritization to Avoid Biological Diversity Loss Outside Protected Areas

Globally expanding human land use sets constantly increasing pressure for maintenance of biological diversity and functioning ecosystems. To fight the decline of biological diversity, conservation science has broken ground with methods such as the operational model of systematic conservation planning (SCP), which focuses on design and on‐the‐ground implementation of conservation areas. The most commonly used method in SCP is reserve selection that focuses on the spatial design of reserve networks and their expansion. We expanded these methods by introducing another form of spatial allocation of conservation effort relevant for land‐use zoning at the landscape scale that avoids negative ecological effects of human land use outside protected areas. We call our method inverse spatial conservation prioritization. It can be used to identify areas suitable for economic development while simultaneously limiting total ecological and environmental effects of that development at the landscape level by identifying areas with highest economic but lowest ecological value. Our method is not based on a priori targets, and as such it is applicable to cases where the effects of land use on, for example, individual species or ecosystem types are relatively small and would not lead to violation of regional or national conservation targets. We applied our method to land‐use allocation to peat mining. Our method identified a combination of profitable production areas that provides the needed area for peat production while retaining most of the landscape‐level ecological value of the ecosystem. The results of this inverse spatial conservation prioritization are being used in land‐use zoning in the province of Central Finland.     

Do energy prices affect employment? Decomposed international evidence

This paper analyzes the energy price-employment nexus and contributes to the literature by showing that it is important to decompose the regulatory effect into demand, cost, and factor-shift effects. This is done by means of a cross-country multi-sectoral dataset. The results show that both rising energy prices and shadow prices of energy have no significant effect on net employment when the manufacturing sectors only are analyzed. While finding significant variations across countries, the average employment effects become significantly positive once jobs in the economy as a whole are considered. This change is driven mainly by larger positive cost effects, which more than offset the negative demand effects and reductions in the positive factor-shift effects. Moreover, the paper reveals that the often implemented approach of using a simple regulation regressor, instead of decomposing the employment effect, can result in biased estimates.     

A comparison of land-sharing and land-sparing strategies for plant richness conservation in agricultural landscapes

Strategies for conserving plant diversity in agroecosystems generally focus on either expanding land area in non-crop habitat or enhancing diversity within crop fields through changes in within-field management practices. In this study, we compare effects on landscape-scale species richness from such land-sharing or land-sparing strategies. We collected data in arable field, grassland, pasture, and forest habitat types (1.6 ha sampled per habitat type) across a 100-km2 region of farmland in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, USA. We fitted species-area relationships (SARs) for each habitat type and then combined extrapolations from the curves with estimates of community overlap to estimate richness in a 314.5-ha landscape. We then modified these baseline estimates by adjusting parameters in the SAR models to compare potential effects of land-sharing and land-sparing conservation practices on landscape richness. We found that species richness of the habitat types showed a strong inverse relationship to the relative land area of each type in the region, with 89 species in arable fields (66.5% of total land area), 153 in pastures (6.7%), 196 in forests (5.2%), and 213 in grasslands (2.9%). Relative to the baseline scenario, major changes in the richness of arable fields produced gains in landscape-scale richness comparable to a conversion of 3.1% of arable field area into grassland habitat. Sensitivity analysis of our model indicated that relative gains from land sparing would be greatest in landscapes with a low amount of non-crop habitat in the baseline scenario, but that in more complex landscapes land sharing would provide greater gains. These results indicate that the majority of plant species in agroecosystems are found in small fragments of non-crop habitat and suggest that, especially in landscapes with little non-crop habitat, richness can be more readily conserved through land-sparing approaches.     

Ecology,ecological poverty and sustainable development in Central Himalayan region of India

The people inhabiting the mountains of the Central Himalayan region of India are heavily dependent on their immediate natural resources for their survival. However, this resource-poor mountain ecosystem is gradually becoming unable to provide a minimum standard of living to its continually growing population. In this ecosystem, human population is doubling every 27–30 years, against the declining resource base, particularly forests. Forest are disappearing both quantitatively and qualitatively. Against the requirement of 18 ha of forest land to maintain production in 1 ha of cultivated land, the ratio of forests to cultivated land is only 1.33: 1. The present production from grasslands supports 8 units of livestock, against the ideal 2 units, and the gap between the demand and deficit of fodder is more than 5-fold. Loss of vegetative cover is resulting in drying up of water resources, compelling the women to walk longer distances to collect water. This ecological deterioration, apart from human growth and interference, is compounded by mountain specificities such as inaccessibility, fragility, marginality, diversity, niche and adaptability. The specificities manifest in isolation, distance, poor communication, limited mobility, etc., resulting in limited external linkages and replication of external experiences, and slow pace of development. They, therefore, restrict options for economic growth, effecting poverty and affecting the quality of life of the people of the region. Poverty, in this mountain ecosystem cannot be understood and assessed independent of ecological wealth and would better be termed as ecological poverty. The development efforts to be effective in alleviating poverty here, should take into account mountain specificities and incorporate options which have larger human dimensions, such as mechanisms for population control, socio-economic and cultural conditioning, indigenous knowledge systems of the local people and simple technologies that are already in practice or have potential and are based on least external inputs.     

War Zones and Game Sinks in Lewis and Clark's West

The journals of Lewis and Clark reveal a major difference in the taxa, numbers, and behavior of megafauna on either side of the Rocky Mountains in western North America. Two prior events set the stage for what Lewis and Clark would find. The first was the extinction around 13,000 years ago of two-thirds of the native megafauna of the American West. The second was the effects on Indians of deadly new diseases and new technologies brought by Europeans in the post-Columbian era. Populations of large animals, which were preferred prey for native people, were not immune to European influence. Along the Columbia River corridor west of the Rockies, tens of thousands of people lived in a game sink. Here Lewis and Clark's party found too few animals to live off the land by hunting. They adapted poorly to the local diet of fish and roots offered by the Nez Perce and bought dogs and horses to sustain themselves. To the east, uninhabited lands along the Upper Missouri and the Yellowstone rivers supported an abundance of wild game, especially bison, elk, deer, pronghorn, and wolves. This game source occupied part of a buffer zone of 120,000 km² probed by various Indian war parties, some of them armed with muskets. William Clark recognized the relationship and near the end of their journey he wrote that they found large numbers of large animals in the land between nations that were at war. Both the abundance of game in buffer or war zones and scarcity of big game in sinks have been misinterpreted as a natural or typical condition. Although efforts to restore ecosystems to what is described in early journals may have merit, they are aimed at a flickering target. Long before these journals were written, the land had been stripped of most of its native megafauna through human influence. In the absence of humans, we predict that much larger populations of bison, elk, deer, and wolves would have ranged the West than were reported in historic documents.     

The effectiveness of incentives in protected area management: An empirical analysis

Incentive approaches are believed to be indispensable for effective conservation and successful management in protected areas. However, the actual effectiveness of these approaches is still debatable. We carried out a case study in Wolong Biosphere Reserve (WBR), the largest reserve for the giant panda (Ailuropoda melanoleuca), to evaluate the effectiveness of incentives. We obtained data from government documents and statistics, interviews and surveys on the employment status of public sector and industries. Results indicated that government-paid community-based conservation projects provided the most widespread and direct economic incentives. The conservation sector and several industries including hotels, hydropower and tourism have directly raised the employment level of local communities. The hotel industry, driven by the development of tourism, has been the most effective means of increasing local employment. However, the problem of immigrants attracted by the improved economic situation in WBR should be considered in the management plans. Suggestions for WBR management include development of quality ecotourism, vocational education for local young adults and new policies encouraging employment of local labour, both in the reserve and outside. Lessons learned from this research are constructive for the management of other protected areas.     

武汉市生态用地发展潜力分析

根据国家与湖北省的相关政策、规定,以土地利用图和基本农田保护规划图为基础,利用GIS对武汉市的生态用地潜力进行分析。结果表明,其可用土地规模为51 028.75～113 537.77 hm2,如能全部用于林业建设,则全市的林木绿化率仅此就可以增加6.01%～13.37%。其中未利用土地如全部用于林业建设可以增加森林覆盖率4.1%,其他的水岸、道路、坡耕地等的绿化潜力为1.91%～9.27%。目前的林业生态建设应该首先以挖掘未利用土地的绿化潜力为主,适当增加其他类型用地向林业生态用途的转化。     

Bird conservation and the land sharing-sparing continuum in farmland-dominated landscapes of lowland England

Empirical evidence from many regions suggests that most species would be least negatively affected if human food demand were met through high-yield agricultural production and conservation of nonfarm ecosystems (land sparing), rather than through wildlife-friendly farming over a larger area (land sharing). However, repeated glaciation and a long history of agriculture may lead to different results in regions such as western Europe. We compared the consequences of land sparing and land sharing on breeding bird species in 2 lowland regions of England, The Fens, with 101 species, and Salisbury Plain, with 83. We derived density–yield responses for each species and then estimated regional population size under regional food production strategies, including land sharing and land sparing, a range of intermediate strategies, and a novel mixed strategy. In both regions, more species achieved maximum regional population size under land sparing than land sharing. In The Fens, the majority of birds were loser species (estimated to have smaller populations under all food production strategies than in the preagricultural baseline scenario), whereas in Salisbury Plain the majority were winners (smaller populations in the preagricultural baseline scenario). Loser species overwhelmingly achieved maximum regional population size under land sparing, whereas winner species achieved maximum regional population size under either land sharing or an intermediate strategy, highlighting the importance of defining which groups of species are the target of conservation. A novel 3-compartment strategy (combining high-yield farming, natural habitat, and low-yield farming) often performed better than either land sharing or land sparing. Our results support intermediate or 3-compartment land-sparing strategies to maximize bird populations across lowland agricultural landscapes. To deliver conservation outcomes, any shift toward land sparing must, however, ensure yield increases are sustainable in the long term, do not entail increased negative effects on surrounding areas, and are linked to allocation of land for nature.     

西庄河流域土地利用方式对土壤肥力影响的研究

采用野外调查、取样和实验分析相结合的方法对云南省保山市西庄河山地流域内4种主要土地利用方式（林地、耕地、茶园、灌丛）的土壤理化性质进行对比研究,讨论了不同土地利用方式对土壤肥力的影响,结果表明,不同的土地利用方式对土壤肥力具有比较明显的影响：土壤有机质和全氮质量分数变化从大到小依次为灌丛＞林地＞茶园＞耕地;磷、钾元素表现为耕地＞茶园＞林地＞灌丛;土壤阳离子交换量表现为耕地＞茶园＞灌丛＞林地;盐基饱和度表现为耕地＞灌丛＞林地＞茶园;农业耕作活动对表层土壤物理性质影响明显。     

Technical efficiency analysis of the conversion of cropland to forestland program in Jiangxi,Shaanxi, and Sichuan

Conversion of Cropland to Forestland Program (CCFP) has greatly impacted China’s agricultural sector, and more specifically rural farmers. While changes in living standards as a result of the implementation of the CCFP have been analyzed, little research has been conducted regarding the impacts of such policies on farming operations. As agriculture contributes nearly 10% of national GDP, it is important to analyze the implications of policies on a national industry. An input-oriented data envelopment analysis (DEA) model was used to examine the technical efficiency of farming operations following implementation of the CCFP, using survey data from farmers in Jiangxi, Shaanxi, and Sichuan provinces. Additionally, the impact of factors such as urbanization, age and education, and land fragmentation was examined with respect to farming operational efficiency. Scale inefficiency was found to have the greatest effect on overall inefficiency in farming operations in comparison to pure technical inefficiency, which was largely influenced by the presence and degree of land fragmentation of land holdings. Findings can be used to inform national land-use policies facilitating land fragmentation in China and address gaps in existing broader level studies that utilize non-parametric approaches to examine the technical efficiency of Chinese farmers affected by the CCFP.     

Coastal flood management in rural planning unit through land-use planning: Kaikhali, West Bengal, India

The Indian subcontinent is highly prone to the detrimental impacts of hazards viz. cyclones, floods and storm surges. Of late, these events have become extreme in nature and intensity. While occurrence and severity of the events is being linked to the phenomenon of climate change, their devastating potentialities are also getting triggered due to lack of resilience and coping capacity of the human community. That in turn depends on distribution of activities over the land i.e. land use pattern, affecting the socio -economic conditions directly. A coastal village often lacks infrastructural support, administrative attention and planning standards compared to a coastal city, thereby making it more vulnerable to disasters like flood. In a coastal city it is easy to govern and manage livelihood as land use depends highly on anthropogenic decisions. While in a coastal village, activities would highly depend on its natural characteristics viz. coastal geomorphology, soil, vegetation cover i.e. governance of livelihood by the eco-system. Hence, managing disaster through in-situ pro-active or developmental measures in a rural planning unit though imperative, is a challenging task. This paper focuses on spatial planning techniques for Restoration of ecological buffers and livelihood enhancement that would sustainably combat the impact of flood at village level in a coastal area. Geographic Information System (GIS) and Remote Sensing (RS) techniques have been used extensively in this study as application tools.