Co-orientation of State Wildlife Agency Personnel and Wildlife Management Area Stakeholders Regarding Wildlife Habitat Management Activities in Virginia

Natural resource managers frequently make decisions in the public interest, yet research suggests managers often hold values and attitudes that differ from those of their stakeholders. Applying the co-orientation theory of communication, we contrasted beliefs of Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries managers (n = 77) with those of recreational users (n = 726) of Virginia's wildlife management areas (WMAs). Although managers and users both expressed support for many of the same land management practices, managers generally expressed stronger support. Managers also more accurately predicted WMA users' beliefs on land management, compared to users' predictions of managers' beliefs. Managers and WMA users held different views about timber harvesting, which suggests it is an area with high potential for controversy and needs improved communication efforts. Frequency-based and statistical co-orientation analysis yielded different, and potentially misleading, results; thus, policy-makers should use caution when interpreting communicative situations and designing subsequent public relations efforts.     

Linking Conservation and Development: An Analysis of Local People’s Attitude Towards Koshi Tappu Wildlife Reserve, Nepal

Factors influencing local people’s attitudes towards conservation of the Koshi Tappu Wildlife Reserve (KTWR) are analyzed using an ordered logit model. The results indicate that households living closer to the KTWR are more likely to reveal negative attitude towards conservation. Similarly, respondents from larger households tend to show negative conservation attitude. Educated respondents and farmers are likely to demonstrate a positive conservation attitude. The results consistently show that households with poor socioeconomic status and greater dependence on the KTWR for firewood, fodder, and raw materials are likely to possess a more negative attitude towards conservation. Poor households may not necessarily be less concerned about conservation, although institutional settings and abject poverty near protected areas appear to affect their attitudes. Sustainable management of protected areas and local support for natural resource conservation would require socioeconomic development.     

Perceived Impacts of Ecotourism on Environmental Learning and Conservation: Turtle Watching as a Case Study

Using a case study, involving turtle-based ecotourism, we explore the role of ecotourism in promoting environmental learning and in sustaining conservation of nature. Mon Repos Conservation Park (an important marine turtle rookery involved in ecotourism) in Queensland, Australia, was selected for this study and visitors were surveyed using a structured questionnaire. The reported on-site experiences of respondents are analysed to identify important factors that alter their stated conservation attitudes and behaviours. The impact of these factors (such as the amount of environmental education that respondents claimed they obtained, sighting of sea turtles, nationality) is quantified using regression analyses. There has been little previous quantification of such influences. The study reveals that a considerable amount of environmental knowledge is gained by visitors to Mon Repos. The ecotourism experience, involving environmental education and seeing of turtles, was found to have positive and statistically significant impacts on the visitors' stated desire and intended behaviour to protect sea turtles. The study reveals the importance of learning and the interaction of tourists with wildlife as a contributor to their pro-conservation sentiments and actions. It shows how ecotourism can support nature conservation. Readers should send their comments on this paper to: BhaskarNath@aol.com within 3 months of publication of this issue.     

锡林郭勒草原保护区实现保护与发展双赢对策研究

内蒙古锡林郭勒草原保护区是我国唯一列入世界生物圈保护区网络的草原保护区，从草地资源利用、保护区管理和经济社会不同角度分析了保护区草原大面积退化的成因。以退化草原恢复为目标，对锡林郭勒草原保护区进行了新的规划．核心区面积占保护区总面积的比例由原来的0．17％增加到新规划的6．85％。以保护区内面积最大的白音锡勒牧场为研究区．利用2004年8月TM数字化磁带数据，在估算出白音锡勒牧场草原地上生物量的基础上，划分出未退化、轻度退化、中度退化、重度退化4个等级，针对不同退化等级草场制定出不同的牧草产量利用率。并计算出以退化草原恢复为目标的草原合理放牧强度、相应面积和载畜量，结果为研究区平均合理放牧强度为43只标准羊单位／km^2。白音锡勒牧场2003年平均放牧强度为86只标准羊单位／km^2。最后提出应改变锡林郭勒草原单一的畜牧业经济机构，“以工养草”；大力扶植牧民从事生态旅游和针对不同退化等级草原制定合理的载畜量等实现保护区环境保护与经济发展双赢的对策。     

Market Integration and Ecosystem Degradation: Is Sustainable Tourism Development in Rural Communities a Contradiction in Terms?

Neoclassic economic theory suggests global market integration as a strategy to reduce poverty. In line with this paradigm, an increasing number of developing countries have focused on tourism to generate foreign exchange earnings and to meet rising workforce pressure. Coastlines in particular, have been at the forefront of tourist infrastructure development. The article describes tourism development in the village of Kiwengwa on the east coast of Unguja Island (Zanzibar), Tanzania. It is shown that changes caused by tourism are far more complex than economic theory suggests. Economically, tourism has substantially increased local income, but it has also led to a focus on individual benefit and dissolving kinship relationships, encouraged the abandonment of traditional resource-use strategies, contributed to the commoditization of local natural resources, and spread the idea that these resources can be replaced with imports. Overall, tourism has fundamentally disrupted the local socio-economic system and led to a self-reinforcing cycle of ecosystem degradation. Tourism development is nevertheless perceived as positive and sustainable, because (i) changes are complex and damage becomes perceptible only in the medium- or long-term future, (ii) the tourist industry tends to shift its impacts to remote areas, i.e. a supplying periphery, (iii) the village has become a center of resource allocation itself, with imports compensating for the losses in local ecosystem capacity. As a development option imposed by the transnational tourist industry, tourism leads to the creation of new centers (i.e. the former periphery) while simultaneously creating new peripheries. In a finite world with a limited hinterland for such a continuous expansion, this cannot be sustainable.     

Analysis of Coupling between Soil and Water Conservation and Economic-social Development

Abstract

The coupling relation exists in water and soil conservation and economic-social development. The article analyses the relation of soil and water conservation and economic-social development stages as well as the coupling analytical method. Then calculates the expecting income by dispersing Markov decision and calculates the correlation coefficient and the relationship degree. The article obtains the relationship of soil and water conservation investments and all kinds of incomes. Finally, it analyzes the important meaning in socio-economic development of water and soil conservation.     

Analysis of Coupling between Soil and Water Conservation and Economic-social Development

The coupling relation exists in water and soil conservation and economic-social development. The article analyses the relation of soil and water conservation and economic-social development stages as well as the coupling analytical method. Then calculates the expecting income by dispersing Markov decision and calculates the correlation coefficient and the relationship degree. The article obtains the relationship of soil and water conservation investments and all kinds of incomes. Finally, it analyzes the important meaning in socio-economic development of water and soil conservation.     

The Conservation Status and Conservation Strategy of Picea neoveitchii

Abstract

Picea neoveitchii is an endemic species in China. It had been listed as an endangered species in red data books. It scatters in several locations of south slope of the Qinling Mountain of China. Upon reviewing the related literature, discussing with leading scholars on gymnosperm, ecology and plant conservation, the field survey was carried out in four locations. There are eleven mature individuals and two seedlings surviving in its natural habitats. With the survey of quadrat method in four locations, related community index were calculated such as relative important value (RIV), species richness, similarity index, diversity index and evenness index etc. The community could be sorted and characterized as three groups based on the community parameters. The analysis of vegetation table elucidates that Picea neoveitchii is a dominant species with low grouping rate in most surveyed sites.

The RAPD analysis shows target species has intraspecific genetic variability. The estimation of Shannon's phenotypic diversity index (Ho) also explains the difference of genetic variations of different locations.

Due to the lack of enough knowledge and professional guide of conservation biological perspective, Picea neoveitchii had been clear-cut for timber production. The extent of occurrence and area of occupancy declined rapidly from 1950s to 1990s. According to the Conservation Category guideline proposed by the World Conservation Union, the conservation status of Picea neoveitchii was reevaluated as Critically Endangered (CR) B2b C2a D. Upon research in areas of ecology, molecular biology, cluster analysis of environmental parameters, a practical conservation strategy is recommended in this research.     

The Conservation Status and Conservation Strategy of Picea neoveitchii

Picea neoveitchii is an endemic species in China. It had been listed as an endangered species in red data books. It scatters in several locations of south slope of the Qinling Mountain of China. Upon reviewing the related literature, discussing with leading scholars on gymnosperm, ecology and plant conservation, the field survey was carried out in four locations. There are eleven mature individuals and two seedlings surviving in its natural habitats. With the survey of quadrat method in four locations, related community index were calculated such as relative important value （RIV）, species richness, similarity index, diversity index and evenness index etc. The community could be sorted and characterized as three groups based on the community parameters. The analysis of vegetation table elucidates that Picea neoveitchii is a dominant species with low grouping rate in most surveyed sites. The RAPD analysis shows target species has intraspecific genetic variability. The estimation of Shannon＇s phenotypic diversity index （Ho） also explains the difference of genetic variations of different locations. Due to the lack of enough knowledge and professional guide of conservation biological perspective, Picea neoveitchii had been clear-cut for timber production. The extent of occurrence and area of occupancy declined rapidly from 1950s to 1990s. According to the Conservation Category guideline proposed by the World Conservation Union, the conservation status of Picea neoveitchii was reevaluated as Critically Endangered （CR） B2b C2a D. Upon research in areas of ecology, molecular biology, cluster analysis of environmental parameters, a practical conservation strategy is recommended in this research.     

节能的目标责任制与自愿协议

节能目标责任制和节能自愿协议作为两种不同的节能管理手段,在我国节能管理工作中发挥了不同的作用,对二者进行模式总结和比较分析,对我国未来的节能政策制定和政策工具选择具有重要意义.研究结果表明,节能目标责任制和节能自愿协议都发生在政府与企业之间,涉及一定时期内的企业节能目标,由政府与企业签订书面承诺,并有相应的评估监督方法.同时二者又存在不同的模式和特征,在具体的实施主体、指标的选择以及激励约束机制等方面存在诸多差别."十一五"期间,我国工业企业节能取得巨大成效,这与节能目标责任制的实施密不可分,而节能自愿协议在机制创新方面有着更为重大的制度意义,它代表了在节能管理领域基于自愿的市场机制对我国传统行政命令型资源环境管理模式的补充,它的进一步推进将为我国未来多种机制并存的节能管理提供更多有益的经验和借鉴.     

Combining Conservation and Development on Private Lands: Lessons from Costa Rica

Privately owned parks continue to attract interest across the tropics for their ability to blend biodiversity protection with sustainable development. Despite rapid proliferation of these privately owned protected areas, the conservation community knows little about them. We interviewed owners of 68 private parks in Costa Rica to learn more about their contribution to that country's national conservation effort. Key findings include: (1) the total number of private reserves is estimated to be in the vicinity of 250; (2) reserves fell into a wide variety of categories, ranging from formal parks and ecotourism reserves to biological stations and hybrid reserves; (3) total nationwide coverage is approximately 63,832 ha, or 1.2% of the national territory; (4) reserves were protecting ecologically important habitat, particularly primary rain forest; (5) reserves were owned mostly by Costa Ricans; (6) reserves were used for a wide variety of activities, especially ecotourism and for the owners' personal enjoyment; (7) reserve owners' biggest problem was poaching of mammals; (8) reserves were protecting key corridor and buffer zone areas between and around larger national parks. Results from this study should help enhance our understanding of this little-known conservation and development tool. They should be of interest wherever biodiversity remains threatened and wherever new conservation and development partners are being sought - which includes most of the developing world.     

Homophily and Agency: Creating Effective Sustainable Development Networks

Community networks are self-organized groupings that form for many different reasons. Some networks, connected mainly through bonding ties, are based on personal interests and relationships; others, based mainly on bridging ties, centre around broader interests. These networks form to create collective agency for engaging with social, environmental, and other issues through the concentration of social capital. The multi-scaled and evolutionary nature of sustainable development issues requires that community groups dedicated to engaging with such issues be particularly diverse, resilient, and flexible. As such, they must build a large number of bridging ties leading to external resources and limit the potential for bonding ties to impose constraining norms upon the group. Over time, however, volunteer groups tend towards a state of homophily, the tendency of groups to form from similar actors and then become more similar with time. This tendency leads to a decrease in the number of the bridging ties that help to provide group agency. Homophily must be actively recognized within community sustainable development groups if they are to remain effective over the long term. This paper suggests methods to prevent and control group homophily drawn from experience in forming small, time-limited sustainable development networks. Readers should send their comments on this paper to: BhaskarNath@aol.com within 3 months of publication of this issue     

秦岭自然保护区群保护成本计量研究

秦岭自然保护区群在我国生物多样性保护方面发挥了重要作用,学术界一直缺乏保护成本计量的研究。本研究在界定秦岭自然保护区群成本的概念及分析其内涵的基础上,综合运用专家咨询法及文献参考方法,建立了秦岭自然保护区群保护成本计量指标体系,利用市场价值法、等效替代法以及机会成本法等方法,对秦岭自然保护区群保护生物多样性的投入进行了成本计量及分析。结果表明:秦岭自然保护区群在保护生物多样性投入方面,总货币量约29.72亿元人民币,其中直接保护成本为2.59亿元;间接保护成本为2.00亿元;与周边区域密切相关的机会成本为25.13亿元。其中,机会成本的计量模型多样化,在学术界存在较多争议,但是,最终每种模型都能反映出机会成本的内涵的货币量,可以表达出我国政府为建立秦岭自然保护区群而付出的无形代价。     

US Energy Conservation and Efficiency: Benefits and Costs

With increased energy conservation plus the adoption of diverse energy efficient technologies, the US economy could save about 32 quads or about 33% of its current energy consumption, if sound conservation energy use policies were implemented over approximately 10 years. This potential of 32 quads is slightly greater than the current US oil imports. The systems that have the greatest potential to provide major energy savings are transportation, residential energy use, and the food system. Not only saving energy has merit in itself, but it would save US citizens approximately $438 billion per year, helping support the US economy, a high standard of living, and energy security. In addition, this analysis suggests that reducing the $40 billion in taxpayer money spent on subsidies of the energy industries would further increase conservation.     

城市家庭节能措施选择偏好的联合分析——对山东省济南市居民的抽样调查

节能是提高能效、减少污染、实现能源可持续消费的有效手段。本文以山东省济南市居民节能措施选择的实地调查数据为基础．运用联合分析方法对其所涉及的节能项目、途径、成本和效果诸方面的偏好程度如何影响节能措施的最终选择进行了实证分析．结果显示：居民在进行节能活动时，首要考虑的是节能措施的效果。其次是节能成本和项目。而对节能实现途径不太关注；居民更偏好效果明显、成本低的节能措施；倾向于简单、初级的行为节能方式（改变用能习惯）；在技术节能方式中。更倾向通过购买能效用具而非改造原来用具实现节能。同时．本文对于不同特征家庭能源消费者选择节能措施的偏好差异也进行了分析。从而为政府推进全社会节能提供决策指导。     

Analysis of the Capacity of Wellspring Conservation in Limestone Areas of Jinan

Spring water in the city of Jinan comes from the limestone areas. Understanding the capacity of wellspring conservation is a critical point to resume the perennial spewing of the spring water. The vegetation, soil, and other natural and human aspects related to the conservation are studied by using the methods of geographic information systems （GIS）, remote sensing （RS）, and field investigation. In the end, suggestions for administration and planning as well as countermeasures are put forward.     

Analysis of the Capacity of Wellspring Conservation in Limestone Areas of Jinan

Abstract

Spring water in the city of Jinan comes from the limestone areas. Understanding the capacity of wellspring conservation is a critical point to resume the perennial spewing of the spring water. The vegetation, soil, and other natural and human aspects related to the conservation are studied by using the methods of geographic information systems (GIS), remote sensing (RS), and field investigation. In the end, suggestions for administration and planning as well as countermeasures are put forward.     

Policy Options for Sustainable Development in Urban Transport: Analysis of Energy Consumption and Environmental Benefit Influenced by Different Transport Policies in Beijing

Transportation is a sector with high energy consumption as well as high emissions. Generally speaking, economic growth will inevitably lead to the increase of travel demand and vehicle population, which in turn results into the augmentation of environmental and social costs. For metropolis like Beijing under rapid development, there exist various possibilities and options for transport development policy instruments. But there is no guarantee that they will be suitable for Beijing, although they are effective in their local places. This article assesses what kind of policy can most effectively improve the traffic conditions in Beijing in the future. After literature reviews on the practices of foreign policy and we established several feasible scenarios. Then, we used the Long Range Energy Alternatives Planning System (LREAP) analyzed their corresponding results of reduced energy consumption and emissions. Finally, by simulating and computing the realistic Beijing transportation scenarios, this paper scientifically assesses what kind of policy can most effectively improve the traffic condition in Beijing in the coming decade.     

社会和谐与可持续发展

本文运用系统科学原理阐释了社会和谐的内涵,指出社会和谐须以人与自然和谐为基础,以人与人之间的平等、友爱和同合作为表征,其构建与实现应遵从人类社会的演化规律,依赖予在把握人类社会需求演绎、协同人与自然关系的基础上推动生产力的高效有序发展和自然资源、生态环境的可持续支持.进而从可持续发展角度,提出了人与自然和谐的双剩余理论,以揭示其间的供瓣枧理和协同准则;推导出了社会收益分配的相对公平系数,以衡量人与人公平要求下的社会和谐.针对国情和战略目标要求,提出了以加强小城镇建设为轴心的城市、小城镇与农村人流、物流、财流和信息流合理聚散的三元结构发展模式,以促进我国和谐社会的建设和可持续发展战略的有序实践.     

Poverty Reduction and Sustainable Development

The prominent place of the chapter on poverty in the Johannesburg Plan of Implementation (JPI) is totally in keeping with the priority given to poverty reduction in the development thinking of the international community of today. The Johannesburg process did not lead to any new insights or new commitments in the fight against poverty. Section one sets out a factual comparison of the poverty chapters in Rio's Agenda 21 (AG21) and in the JPI. Section two reviews the conceptual links between poverty reduction and sustainable development, since poverty is used both as a dependent and as an independent variable. This analysis shows a shift in the function of growth as related to environmental protection. Section three explores the naturalization of development thinking in its economic and social dimensions and shows how this affects the policy options for social protection. I also explain how social and environmental sustainability have become elements of risk management and how are both aimed at conflict prevention and enhanced growth. Finally, in section four three lines of action are suggested to enhance the emergence of a socially meaningful sustainable development agenda that, ideally, would make poverty reduction strategies redundant.