Policies to promote sustainable consumption: Innovative approaches in Europe

Policy-makers are increasingly recognising that the promotion of more sustainable consumption patterns is an indispensable prerequisite for achieving sustainable development in the long term. Policy documents and action plans have been published, and a wide array of policy instruments has been implemented with the aim of reducing the environmental and social burdens of consuming goods and services. But what are the latest trends and innovative approaches in sustainable consumption (SC) policies? What could be learnt for future policy-making? Based on an overview of European policy instruments and several case studies, the paper discusses instructive examples of SC policy instruments, in particular the Danish information campaign "One Tonne Less", the Dutch tax incentive scheme "Green Funds", the British "Red/Green calculator", and the pan-European internet platform "TopTen". Important features of novel policies — such as adaptability and collective action — are identified, and recommendations for future policies are presented. The recommendations refer to the foundation of SC policies, to the specific approach taken, to the applied instruments, and to the proper documentation of the implemented policies.     

柳江国家地质公园的科学价值与地质环境保护

秦皇岛柳江国家地质公园以地质遗迹资源丰富、地貌景观多样而闻名,具有重要的科学研究价值和旅游价值。然而地方政府为满足短期经济发展的需要,过度开发园区内的煤炭、水泥灰岩等矿产资源,致使一些珍贵的地质遗迹被破坏。为此,从政策、法规以及宣传教育层面对地质遗迹的保护提出一些建议。     

Perceived (In)justice of Public Land Acquisition

Many studies have addressed the justice of public land acquisition, but few studies have addressed the question of what landowners perceive as just. Individual perceptions drive an important part of the social and scientific debates on legitimate and just land acquisition. This article addresses this gap by studying landowners’ and land purchasers’ perceptions of just land acquisition. We did this by uncovering the prevailing discourse on just land acquisition and studying the values that shaped people’s perceptions of just land acquisition. The results showed that perceptions of justice are based on the values of lawfulness, decentness and equality. These values were translated into different norms that resulted in expectations pertaining to just land acquisition. Insight into the different perceptions and the prevailing discourse of just land acquisition and their underlying values increases the understanding of land acquisition processes and land policy strategies. First, it becomes apparent that land acquisition has an essential element of injustice that cannot be avoided by a good process or a just compensation fee. Second, insight in different discourses provides valuable input for debates on just land acquisition. Third, such insight shows that money is not always a sufficient means of indemnification. The combination of sufficient financial compensation, the opportunity of a new location, attractive selling conditions and accurate and open process are all important requisites to ensure that public land acquisition is perceived by the majority of landowners as just.     

The Problem of Common Land: Towards Stakeholder Governance

This paper examines the current governance of common land with the intention of updating a story last examined in detail in studies in the late 1980s. In addition, the paper draws on recent conceptualizations of stakeholders and governance. A brief history of common land shows that governance systems are highly localized and dependent on custom and practice. Such a dependence suggests the need for governance which is based on the incorporation of stakeholders using consensus building approaches. The paper suggests that local governance systems are crucial to the successful implementation of sustainable management practices but that this may be overlooked by land managers and policy makers. Consequently, comprehensive national legislation for common land is not a viable option but legislation can play a valuable role in particular circumstances. The need to give further consideration to the role of legislation and an appropriate policy framework for commons within the context of stakeholder governance is particularly important given the significance of common land for agriculture, nature conservation, landscape, heritage and recreation across England and Wales.     

Youth environmental attitudes in Australia and Brunei: implications for education

This paper explores similarities and differences in the knowledge, beliefs and actions that comprise the environmental attitudes of senior secondary school students in Australia and Brunei. Utilising data from a wider international study in Asia and the Pacific (Yencken et al. , 2000), the paper uses findings from these two countries to illustrate the pervasiveness of global environmental concerns over local cultural influences in the construction of youth environmental attitudes in Australia and Brunei. Thus, young people in these countries, as they do in all parts of the Asia-Pacific region, have very similar levels of environmental awareness and knowledge, sources of environmental, beliefs, systems or world views about the environment, and levels of perceived control over environmental trends. They also have a shared desire for schools to do more in the area of environmental education. The paper concludes that much more effort needs to be made in certain areas. The first is to encourage teachers and others who have influence over young people to develop their own knowledge and skills to be able to teach environmental education effectively. The second is in the area of curriculum and pedagogical reform so that young people explore the many possible ways in which current systems can change to support sustainability, in which current lifestyles reflect these systems, and in which their own actions can contribute to a sustainable future.     

Sustainability in context: An Australian perspective

This article examines the concept of sustainability (sustainable development, sustainable societies) with a view to providing a means of considering the idea in such a way as to be more useful to concerns of policy. A brief background is given, covering the historical development of the concept, the constituent ecological and social concerns that lie behind it, and some aspects of the sustainability debate in Australia. Some attributes of a sustainable future, as evident from the literature, are listed. The value base of the concept is recognized, and the correct place for sustainability concerns is identified within a simple policy-making model. The complexity of such a model in the real world is explored using a list of thecontexts of sustainability, illustrated with examples from Australian natural resource management. Finally, the more dynamic and flexible nature of patterns of production and consumption in more sustainable societies is recognized and explained, as are two guiding directives to be applied in the search for models which display characteristics of sustainability.     

HIV and AIDS: Responding to a threat to education for sustainable development

The article seeks to sensitize the development community, particularly outside the education sector, about the issues surrounding education as a vehicle for promoting sustainable development in an AIDS environment in Africa. By illustrating how the epidemic impacts education sector staff as well as parents and students at all levels, the article intends to suggest how national authorities, NGOs and donor agencies can work out strategies to enhance the role of education in promoting sustainable development in Africa. Analysis will demonstrate how the AIDS epidemic weakens the education sector, particularly in countries with a generalized epidemic (defined as more than 3% of the adult population being HIV‐positive), undermining the sector's ability to contribute to general literacy and sustainable development. The article will demonstrate that HIV and AIDS is still not fully accepted as an educational issue, which has hampered efforts to deal with its ravages in the educational sector. The need for holistic policy frameworks for supporting teachers and administrators living with HIV and AIDS will be discussed as well as how changes in curriculum and better relations with the community are important in addressing the needs of students. The article will highlight options for developing innovative responses to HIV and AIDS in African education, showing how different forms of education can serve as vehicles for responding to the challenges of the epidemic. The examples emphasize the importance of learner‐centered instruction and partnerships with the health sector and other resources needed in an AIDS‐affected environment. Key messages of the article are that the HIV and AIDS epidemic is a multi‐sectoral problem and that responding to it effectively in the education sector requires coherent responses that address the needs of learners and instructors, including those who are personally affected or infected by HIV and AIDS. Adapting the Education for Sustainable Development initiative to address the challenges posed by the epidemic must be supported by policy development, leadership and advocacy. Diverse partnerships are essential, as the education sector alone cannot deal with the challenge of HIV and AIDS to sustainable development.     

‘Enclosing country park land and the conservation of military heritage:’ an Ostromian interpretation of the fools’ paradise

British colonial military heritage structures in Hong Kong are in a state of ruin and government neglect. Urgent attention is required in the form of active management to avoid the loss of valuable heritage resources and the negative impact on the landscape and environment. This paper explores two possible alternatives – user participation and social entrepreneur participation – to achieve innovative solutions to rent dissipation of these structures situated in isolated areas within protected-area boundaries, with a focus on a specific case. Emphasis is placed on fostering public participation, involving the allocation of some property rights. Elinor Ostrom's diagnostic approach to common-pool resource problems is applied to both solutions to determine the conditions necessary to achieve the objectives. The discussions are informed by social entrepreneurship principles and a version of the Coase Theorem, the latter coinciding with Ostrom's view regarding the role of property rights in achieving sustainable outcomes.     

Does planning deregulation threaten the environment? The effect of ‘permitted development’ on the natural heritage of Scotland

This paper reports research into the effect on the UK environment of the deregulation of land development controls. One form of deregulation is granting advance approval to specified classes of small-scale development because they are considered inconsequential. Previous research has indicated that such ‘permitted development’ may adversely affect the natural heritage. This study systematically investigated its impact on the natural heritage of Scotland. The study canvassed the opinions of agents best placed to comment: natural heritage authority field staff, local government planners and representatives of non-governmental organizations. The results revealed concern about permitted development as a whole, and about specified classes. Despite professed concerns about sustainable development, UK planning modernization has failed to grasp the opportunity for a radical and fundamental reform of the scope of UK planning control in the context of contemporary environmental issues. Accordingly, there remains an unresolved tension between the desire to remove unnecessary state regulation of land development and the protection of the natural heritage.     

广西凤山岩溶国家地质公园旅游扶贫体系探讨

国家地质公园的可持续发展与旅游扶贫成效紧密相关.凤山国家地质公园是资源优势突出和经济落后相矛盾的典型区域,其地质遗迹类型丰富、特征突出,地质遗迹价值珍贵,但其地理位置位于偏僻的国家级贫困县凤山县境内,交通可进入性差,经济条件欠发达.构建凤山国家地质公园旅游扶贫体系,包含运营、保护与支撑三大系统,有利于落实消除贫困与地质公园可持续发展的协调统一.     

The sustainable intensification of agriculture

Agricultural development is currently facing unprecedented challenges. With 800 million people already having insufficient access to food, population growth estimates project an even bleaker situation in the future. The article summarizes the major schools of thought regarding how to face the dilemma, and advocates sustainable intensification of agriculture, relying on integrated use of a wide range of technologies to manage pests, nutrients, soil and water. Local knowledge and adaptive methods are stressed rather than comprehensive packages of externally-supplied technologies. The article shows how regenerative, low-input agriculture, founded on full farmer participation in all stages of development and extension, can be highly productive. It is stressed that policy must not prescribe specific, concretely defined technologies or practices, as this would restrict future farmer options. Farmers and communities should be allowed and encouraged to adapt to changing conditions; what needs to be sustainable are local processes of innovation and adaptation.
The article highlights environmental and economic benefits resulting from sustainable intensification practices, for farmers as well as communities and nations with examples are taken from Africa, Asia and Latin America.
Despite the increasing success of sustainable agriculture, it is clear that the challenge remains to 'scale up' the process from small 'islands of success' to fundamental reform of both policies and policy formulation processes.     

Enabling Sustainable Agro-Food Futures: Exploring Fault Lines and Synergies Between the Integrated Territorial Paradigm,Rural Eco-Economy and Circular Economy

What kind of futures does agro-food imaginaries enable and who can get involved in the making of agro-food futures? In this respect, what can the increasingly influential idea of circular economy potentially offer in terms of enabling more sustainable agrofood futures? We approach this task by first outlining the interconnected challenges that the agro-food system is facing related to environmental degradation, economic crises and social problems. Then we consider the way these challenges are being addressed in agro-food studies. We argue that agro-food research in recent years has seen important contributions in relation to studies of alternative food networks and the “quality” turn. These research agendas have challenged the current logic of the food system in terms of offering alternative visions of future development. We highlight two examples from the literature—the eco-economy and the integrated territorial agri-food paradigm—that develop broader frameworks for rethinking the future of the agro-food system and which have distinguished themselves in contrast to the industrialized and globalized conventional food system. We find that with respect to reorienting and reconfiguring economic structures and relations all three approaches share a common goal, but circular economy stands out in relation to the actors that are included by, for example, emphasizing collaborations and partnerships with extant agro-food businesses. Also with regards to scalar politics, it would be prudent to consider the potentials offered by the increasingly influential ideas around circular economy.     

湘西少数民族非物质文化遗产数字化保护研究

非物质文化遗产数字化保护是推进非物质文化遗产保护和传承可持续性发展的重要举措,对非物质文化遗产富集的少数民族地区尤为重要.分析数字化保护手段的优势和关键技术,以湘西为例,提出建立科学合理的分类体系和数字化资源库,构建数字化博物馆等非物质文化遗产数字化保护策略,从非物质文化遗产的真实再现、知识产权保护、技术和资源共享等方面提出在非物质文化遗产数字化保护中应注意的问题.     

Diversity and connections in community gardens: a contribution to local sustainability

Sustainability requires the integration of social, environmental and economic concerns in international, national and local policy-making. One of the most powerful forces for sustainable development in practice was the Earth Summit of 1992, with its Agenda 21 and Local Agenda 21 (LA21). This latter agenda—the set of policies that aims to create the means to facilitate local sustainability—is particularly important for communities. Community development programmes that also include aspects of sustainable development would seem to embody the spirit of LA21. There are many such diverse schemes and what has emerged is a range of local initiatives that demonstrate parts of the sustainability concept but not a clear picture of sustainable development which covers all of its aspects.

In order to examine this proposition further, an analysis of the community garden movement in the UK was carried out. Community gardens are open spaces managed and operated by members of the local community for a variety of purposes. In the UK many of these are to be found in inner city areas such as in Bradford, Leeds, Bristol and Sandwell. Their growth is marked by their own association—the Federation of City Farms and Community Gardens. The gardens have a variety of purposes: in conjunction with vegetation growing (either as landscape or for consumption), some schemes are experimental permaculture plots, others use organic methods and yet others are concerned with health, education and training issues. All appear to be based in a sense of community, with participation and involvement being particularly strong features.

This sense of community participation and empowerment is what links examples of community gardening. The research reported here collates information gathered from the respondents of a questionnaire and from in-depth interviews, and draws out some of the similarities and themes that community gardens exhibit. From the results, it is suggested that the community garden movement could act as a model for the implementation of social, economic and environmental policies at the local level.     

Views of the City: multiple pathways to sustainable transport futures

In this paper we look behind the notion of sustainable transport and highlight the tensions and contradictions between the different ways of achieving this. The paper examines transportation plans for a major UK city and describes how these develop the idea and practice of sustainable transport and demand management along three quite distinct trajectories. By focusing on both the technological and the institutional dimensions of three different routes to sustainable transport, the analysis explicates the different ways in which the urban transport problem is framed, the different socio-technical logics of demand management embodied in the plans and the differing ways in which institutional relationships are (re)constituted. A key finding is that technological and institutional innovations are inversely related so that radical technological innovation often serves to reinforce existing social relations of power and exclusion. The conclusion drawn is that the choice is not just between a sustainable and an unsustainable transport future, but also between different forms of sustainability.     

Evaluation of Heritage Trees for Conservation and Management in Guangzhou City (China)

The recent fast pace of urbanization in China and other developing countries has exerted pressure on urban trees, which constitute a key urban environmental asset. The most outstanding trees should be treated as natural-cum-cultural heritage. Guangzhou Citys growth has threatened its rich urban-tree endowment, a diversified assemblage of 200,000 trees represented by 254 species and located in three major habitats: roadside, park, and institutional grounds. Mainly based on age and performance, 348 trees were officially designated as heritage specimens. They were evaluated in the field for tree dimensions, habitat, performance, and landscape contribution, to establish enhanced conservation and management strategies. With only 25 species, heritage trees were dominated by five cultivated natives and encompass some of the citys rare species; some common urban-forest species were not represented. Older districts and roadside habitats, despite their compact town plan and limited growing space, had the largest tree dimensions and largest share of heritage trees. Many heritage trees were large with long life expectancy and the potential for biomass expansion, and had pivotal cityscape impacts where they occur. Old neighborhoods, traditional haven for the arborescent treasure, are being changed by construction activities and periodic typhoon and windstorm damages. Increasing development density could degrade the heritage trees and their growing space, and reduce tree quality and life span. Upgrading the statutory-administrative systems and arboricultural care can enhance long-term survival of the precious natural-cum-cultural heritage. The experience of Guangzhou in identifying and preserving its high-quality urban trees can provide management strategies for other cities.     

Local people's perceptions of participating in conservation in a heritage site: A case study of the Wuyishan Scenery District cultural and natural heritage site in Southeastern China

The perceptions and attitudes of local people in heritage sites strongly influence their behaviour related to protecting heritage resources and improving management. In this study, we collected pertinent data through a questionnaire and group discussions to examine local people's attitudes and perceptions toward participation in heritage protection in Wuyishan Scenery District (WSD). Logistic regression was used to identify the factors that influence local people's perceptions of heritage protection behaviours. The results indicate that education level is the most critical factor in local people's initiatives to protect heritage resources. Local people with higher education levels pay more attention to the status of WSD and behave more positively with regard to conservation. Gender and income are relatively important factors in perceptions of heritage. Males have better knowledge of heritage resources than females do, and inhabitants with higher income levels are more likely to participate in protection, especially after WSD was listed as a World Heritage Site. Education level was always a key demographic factor before and after WSD's listing on the Heritage List. Household size was a significant factor before WSD was listed on the Heritage List, but it was not significant after, when household income became a significant factor.     

Economics of salt‐induced land degradation and restoration

Food security concerns and the scarcity of new productive land have put productivity enhancement of degraded lands back on the political agenda. In such a context, salt‐affected lands are a valuable resource that cannot be neglected nor easily abandoned even with their lower crop yields, especially in areas where significant investments have already been made in irrigation and drainage infrastructure. A review of previous studies shows a very limited number of highly variable estimates of the costs of salt‐induced land degradation combined with methodological and contextual differences. Simple extrapolation suggests that the global annual cost of salt‐induced land degradation in irrigated areas could be US$ 27.3 billion because of lost crop production. We present selected case studies that highlight the potential for economic and environmental benefits of taking action to remediate salt‐affected lands. The findings indicate that it can be cost‐effective to invest in sustainable land management in countries confronting salt‐induced land degradation. Such investments in effective remediation of salt‐affected lands should form part of a broader strategy for food security and be defined in national action plans. This broader strategy is required to ensure the identification and effective removal of barriers to the adoption of sustainable land management, such as perverse subsidies. Whereas reversing salt‐induced land degradation would require several years, interim salinity management strategies could provide a pathway for effective remediation and further showcase the importance of reversing land degradation and the rewards of investing in sustainable land management.     

Views of the City: Multiple pathways to sustainable transport futures

In this paper we look behind the notion of sustainable transport and highlight the tensions and contradictions between the different ways of achieving this. The paper examines transportation plans for a major UK city and describes how these develop the idea and practice of sustainable transport and demand management along three quite distinct trajectories. By focusing on both the technological and the institutional dimensions of three different routes to sustainable transport, the analysis explicates the different ways in which the urban transport problem is framed, the different socio-technical logics of demand management embodied in the plans and the differing ways in which institutional relationships are (re)constituted. A key finding is that technological and institutional innovations are inversely related so that radical technological innovation often serves to reinforce existing social relations of power and exclusion. The conclusion drawn is that the choice is not just between a sustainable and an unsustainable transport future, but also between different forms of sustainability.     

Assessing representativeness of places for conservation reservation and heritage listing

Problems arising from application of the representative criterion for conservation and natural heritage evaluation are discussed. An ecological basis to this criterion is suggested that focuses on those key environmental factors dominating biotic response. A methodology is proposed that utilizes computer-based methods of establishing and interrogating spatial data bases (geographic information systems), environmental modeling, and numeric analysis. An example is presented illustrating some of the advantages and limitations of classification and dimension reduction techniques in both defining bioenvironments and displaying their spatial distribution. The advantages of this method for representativeness evaluation are that it maximizes the utility of available data, is explicit and repeatable, and enables large areas to be analyzed at relatively fine scales.