基于外部性视角的区域生态补偿理论问题研究

当面对实现区域协调发展这一重大科学和实践命题时,生态补偿自然要同时解决人地关系中的区域关系,这就是区域生态补偿问题。地理运动构造了地理环境的整体性,而现实中的区域都具有产权区域属性,产权区域分割地理环境的整体性,使跨区域的地理运动演化为一个区域对其他区域的影响,即区域外部性问题。区域外部性所要解决的核心问题是判断外部性的“作用区域”,从而讨论外部性的空间特性,包括作用方向、范围和空间格局,并最终得到关于区域分布和区域关系的更加深入的认识。区域外部性理论能从特定的角度回答诸如为什么要实施区域生态补偿,如何确定补偿中的责任主体,如何设计补偿方式和确定补偿标准等区域生态补偿中的一些基本理论问题,从而成为其重要的理论基础。     

基于协同推进生态文明建设的“多评融合”路径初探

评估是一种权力。各类"评估"实际上都代表了其主管部门的权力和利益,甚至沦为各部门争夺话语权、攫取部门利益的一道关卡。多种评价"混战",不仅评价内容重复、程序烦琐、浪费人力和资源,同时评价背后代表其主管部门的利益和权力,评价的"混战"也成为各部门维护自身利益、争夺话语权的"混战"。本文在对现有评价制度、实施情况、存在问题的剖析的基础上,基于协同推进生态文明建设的要求,提出横向上协同相关部门、纵向上协同国家和地方、政府和市场、政策规划与项目等重大决策的多评融合实施路径,最后提出了多评融合的四项政策建议。     

黄南州环境执法工作存在的问题及对策

环境执法是政府行使环境管理职能和环境保护部门依照法律法规授权行使环境监督管理权力的有法律效力的行为,是环境保护工作法治化的具体体现。文章针对黄南州环境执法中存在的问题,就如何规范环境执法行为、强化环境执法手段、提高环境执法能力等提出了相应对策和建议。     

环境监查与环境监测

环境监督检查是环境管理基本职能之一,是环境管理中主要的和经常性的工作,所谓环境监测为环境管理服务,在环境监查与环境监测的关系上就有突出的体现。一、环境监查与环境监测的基本职能 1.环境监查的主要职责是: ①监督检查区域各部门、各单位对国家和地方制定的有关环境保护法律、政策、条例、规定等的执行情况,从宏观上掌握区域的环保工作状况及存在的问题。     

环保教育、环境运动与国家战略

生产污染的治理关键在于政府监管．公共权力与市场激励机制的结合可以比较有效地解决污染的外部性问题;生活垃圾的处理关键在于环保教育,分散的家庭和办公室难于监管．更宜通过个人的自律来解决;政策导向的转变关键在于环境运动,公民社会永远是推动改革的清新力量;而国家战略则扮演了一个统领全局的角色．它既立足于民意,又着眼于未来,将国家、社会和市场的力量整合在一起。     

提升“三线一单”中生态环境准入清单有效性的若干建议

生态环境准入清单是“三线一单”的成果出口，是未来落实空间环境管控和准入的直接依据，也是提升“三线一单”有效落地实施的重要抓手，要达到适用、实用、管用的要求。通过总结梳理当前已发布和编制中的生态环境准入清单情况，本文发现各省（区、市）在构建生态环境准入清单分层体系、制定“三线—单元—清单”逻辑链条和解决区域重点环境问题中形成了较好的经验，但同时生态环境准入清单在编制和应用中还存在各层次缺乏连通、管控单元和清单要求之间存在逻辑偏差、对主要环境问题研判不够和缺乏针对性整改措施等难点与问题。结合各省（区、市）编制组在清单编制中的有效做法和经验，本文建议在下一步清单细化和优化工作中，首先要加强与各职能部门、管理部门的对接；其次要坚持问题导向，结合区域实际情况，以精细化管理的目标制定针对性的清单措施与要求；最后开展成果的实践应用试点，总结经验，进一步提升清单有效性。     

生态正外部性内部化的实现途径与机制创新

随着经济社会发展以及“绿水青山就是金山银山”理念在全社会的深化,迫切需要解决生态服务的区域外部性问题。正外部性内部化是实现生态服务价值的重要手段,主要包括政府购买、协议补偿、生态商品、创建市场等方式。生态正外部性的价值可以通过生态要素的直接市场、包含于生态商品的间接价值以及基于成本—收益的生态补偿标准来确定,而现有的协议补偿标准多基于上游地区的保护成本,应将发展的机会成本作为参考依据。最后,从机制上将收益内部化转变为主体内部化,可以从根本上解决保护与收益主体分离带来的一系列生态保护与经济发展的冲突问题。     

论房地产消费外部性问题的经济法规制

我国房地产消费中存在正外部性和负外部性,前者表现为促进国民经济发展和带动以房地产为中心的上下游产业发展,后者表现为以小区环境污染为主的环境负外部性和以房地产泡沫为主的市场负外部性。经济法规制房地产消费外部性问题,需要寻找多元化路径。首先,需要发挥政府规制房地产消费外部性方面的作用,如通过提供保障性住房、税收减免和实施消费限制政策的方式来规制房地产消费中存在的外部性。其次,需要重构房地产消费者的权利义务关系,通过负担房地产消费者环境义务和尊重社会公序良俗义务,以及赋予房地产消费者补偿权利来实现。再次,需要发挥社会中间层力量,通过宣传教育、规划设计、限制贷款和设置信用黑名单等方式来规制房地产消费中存在的外部性。最后,需要正视经济法中的软法属性,政府、社会中间层和市场三重主体都能运用软法规范来规制房地产消费的外部性问题。     

环境负外部性的环境法新解析

从环境法领域看环境负外部性问题,主要是环境资源的公众共用性及政府失灵、市场失灵导致的.环境负外部性除了表现出对生态环境的影响外,还表现在对经济产业结构及对个人、社会的不良影响方面.对此,在国家适度干预的基础上,运用环境法上的激励机制、环境功能转移、企业衍生性责任等理论,可以对现存环境负外部性问题进行解析,从而促进环境保...     

区域大气环境质量管理的合作机制与政策讨论

区域环境管理与合作有助于从区域的角度出发解决由于跨界污染引发的利益冲突和纠纷;同时由于有效的区域管理和合作有可能基于区域间污染治理成本的差异,制定最小成本的污染防治战略,可以因此推动整个区域的协调发展。2010年以来,中国大气污染防治已经开始向区域管理转化,并开始步入跨地区合作的新阶段。但这种转型,尚缺乏有效的制度安排和政策手段的支撑。已有的区域环境管理合作实践所存在的诸多不足和障碍主要源于缺乏不同主体进行有效合作的激励机制,一方面由于各地区所处的经济发展阶段、地方环境保护意识等方面存在差异,往往很难促成真正的整合管理与合作;另一方面体现在相应的责任-利益协调机制缺失,致使跨地区合作难以常规化和长效化。因此,构建合理的区域大气环境管理与合作机制至关重要。本文分析和讨论了区域环境管理与合作中的关键问题,并在此基础上提出构建区域环境管理与合作机制的几点思考。     

Environmental information sharing: a means to support the legitimization of oyster farmers’ stewardship over water quality management in NSW,Australia

Oyster farmers depend on good water quality. Activities upstream from estuaries result in externalities that impact water quality. Over the last 10 years, oyster farmers have been developing estuary‐wide environmental management systems ( EMSs ) to tackle internal (i.e. industry‐related) and external (i.e. catchment) issues in N ew S outh W ales, A ustralia. Drawing on interview‐based research and document analyses, this paper shows that the process of creating an EMS for the oyster industry, as well as the creation of the EMS itself, resulted in legitimizing the industry's stewardship over the natural resource it depends on (water). For the oyster industry, this result was due to a change in the scale on which EMSs have been developed: instead of viewing issues at the individual business level, the systems expanded their viewpoint to the entire catchment, and included every oyster business in the estuary, as well as all other activities in the upper catchment. By providing a means of communicating internal efforts and with the support of local government bodies, EMSs provided a mechanism with which influence over upstream actors and activities could be exerted. We demonstrate this by using the ‘social‐ecological systems’ and ‘ ENCORE ’ frameworks, emphasizing the transitions that allowed for this change of scale to take place.     

EFFECT OF CATCHMENT SIZE ON PHOSPHORUS EXPORT1

ABSTRACT: We tested the common assumption, made when expressing phosphorus export on an areal basis, that this export is a linear function of catchment area and found it wanting. The data show that in agricultural catchments, TP (total phosphorus) export varies as the 0.77 power of drainage basin area, resulting in a reduction in phosphorus delivery per unit area with increasing catchment size. Following further division of catchments according to agricultural practice, we found that this spatial scale effect is restricted to row crops and pastures. We present simple statistical models to allow a comparison of TP export from catchments of different size. Such models are not needed for nonrow crops, mixed agricultural and forested catchments, where TP export is a linear function of catchment size.     

Australia's first Environment Statement

Summary Australia's first National Environment Statement focuses on the substantial ecologic and economic impacts of land degradation, primarily in the significant agricultural mega-region of the Murray-Darling Basin. But the Statement only summarises existing policies to show a A$500 million spending programme on the environment. Inescapable, is the conclusion that economic growth as present and projected, and environmental sustainability, cannot co-exist in the long term. Levels of awareness of Australia's diverse environmental concerns were measured but no targets or future achievements were chartered — so how is effective management to be attained? The proposed significant and rapid devolution of power for action to local government, catchment management groups and community associations is a welcome development but this must be supported by adequate technical information and guidance by government.Dr Diana G. Day is an environmental policy analyst with major interests in water planning. She is currently setting up a new Centre for Environmental Management at Newcastle University, and is Director of the National Land and Water Resources Research and Development Corporation in Australia.     

Phosphorus load to surface water from bank erosion in a Danish lowland river basin

Phosphorus loss from bank erosion was studied in the catchment of River Odense, a lowland Danish river basin, with the aim of testing the hypothesis of whether stream banks act as major diffuse phosphorus (P) sources at catchment scale. Furthermore, the study aimed at analyzing the impact of different factors influencing bank erosion and P loss such as stream order, anthropogenic disturbances, width of uncultivated buffer strips, and the vegetation of buffer strips. A random stratified procedure in geographical information system (GIS) was used to select two replicate stream reaches covering different stream orders, channelized vs. naturally meandering channels, width of uncultivated buffer strips (≤ 2 m and ≥ 10 m), and buffer strips with different vegetation types. Thirty-six 100-m stream reaches with 180 bank plots and a total of 3000 erosion pins were established in autumn 2006, and readings were conducted during a 3-yr period (2006-2009). The results show that neither stream size nor stream disturbance measured as channelization of channel or the width of uncultivated buffer strip had any significant ( < 0.05) influence on bank erosion and P losses during each of the 3 yr studied. In buffer strips with natural trees bank erosion was significantly ( < 0.05) lower than in buffer strips dominated by grass and herbs. Gross and net P input from bank erosion amounted to 13.8 to 16.5 and 2.4 to 6.3 t P, respectively, in the River Odense catchment during the three study years. The net P input from bank erosion equaled 17 to 29% of the annual total P export and 21 to 62% of the annual export of P from diffuse sources from the River Odense catchment. Most of the exported total P was found to be bioavailable (71.7%) based on a P speciation of monthly suspended sediment samples collected at the outlet of the river basin. The results found in this study have a great importance for managers working with P mitigation and modeling at catchment scale.     

Environmental care in agricultural catchments: Toward the communicative catchment

Substantial land degradation of agricultural catchments in Australia has resulted from the importation of European farming methods and the large-scale clearing of land. Rural communities are now being encouraged by government to take responsibility for environmental care. The importance of community involvement is supported by the view that environmental problems are a function of interactions between people and their environment. It is suggested that the commonly held view that community groups cannot care for their resources is due to inappropriate social institutions rather that any inherent disability in people. The communicative catchment is developed as a vision for environmental care into the future. This concept emerges from a critique of resource management through the catchment metaphors of the reduced, mechanical, and the complex, evolving catchment, which reflect the development of systemic and people-centered approaches to environmental care. The communicative catchment is one where both community and resource managers participate collaboratively in environmental care. A methodology based on action research and systemic thinking (systemic action research) is proposed as a way of moving towards the communicative catchment of the future. Action research is a way of taking action in organizations and communities that is participative and informed by theory, while systemic thinking takes into account the interconnections and relationships between social and natural worlds. The proposed vision, methodology, and practical operating principles stem from involvement in an action research project looking at extension strategies for the implementation of total catchment management in the Hunter Valley, New South Wales.     

Lease delay rights: Market valued permits and offshore leasing

Sealed bid auctions for offshore federal mineral holdings are a source of substantial litigation brought by environmental groups and the states against the US government. A basic utility maximizing model and explanations based on externalities and wealth seeking behaviour are used to predict a willingness to pay by interest groups to delay a lease on specific tracts. A method is developed that incorporates bids for delay into the auction process. Estimates of the minimum payment to delay a lease, based on data from two lease sales, are compared to the budget of selected environmental groups, states and local governments.     

Before and After Integrated Catchment Management in a Headwater Catchment: Changes in Water Quality

Few studies have comprehensively measured the effect on water quality of catchment rehabilitation measures in comparison with baseline conditions. Here we have analyzed water clarity and nutrient concentrations and loads for a 13-year period in a headwater catchment within the western Waikato region, New Zealand. For the first 6 years, the entire catchment was used for hill-country cattle and sheep grazing. An integrated catchment management plan was implemented whereby cattle were excluded from riparian areas, the most degraded land was planted in Pinus radiata, channel banks were planted with poplar trees and the beef cattle enterprise was modified. The removal of cattle from riparian areas without additional riparian planting had a positive and rapid effect on stream water clarity. In contrast, the water clarity decreased in those sub-catchments where livestock was excluded but riparian areas were planted with trees and shrubs. We attribute the decrease in water clarity to a reduction in groundcover vegetation that armors stream banks against preparatory erosion processes. Increases in concentrations of forms of P and N were recorded. These increases were attributed to: (i) the reduction of instream nutrient uptake by macrophytes and periphyton due to increased riparian shading; (ii) uncontrolled growth of a nitrogen fixing weed (gorse) in some parts of the catchment, and (iii) the reduction in the nutrient attenuation capacity of seepage wetlands due to the decrease in their areal coverage in response to afforestation. Our findings highlight the complex nature of the water quality response to catchment rehabilitation measures.     

Factors controlling sediment and phosphorus export from two Belgian agricultural catchments

Sediment and total phosphorus (TP) export vary through space and time. This study was conducted to determine the factors controlling sediment and TP export in two agricultural catchments situated in the Belgian Loess Belt. At the outlet of these catchments runoff discharge was continuously measured and suspended sediment samples were taken during rainfall events. Within the catchments vegetation type and cover, soil surface parameters, erosion features, sediment pathways, and rainfall characteristics were monitored. Total P content and sediment characteristics such as clay, organic carbon, and suspended sediment concentration were correlated. Total sediment and TP export differ significantly between the monitored catchments. Much of the difference is due to the occurrence of an extreme event in one catchment and the morphology and spatial organization of land use in the catchments. In one catchment, the direct connection between erosive areas and the catchment outlet by means of a road system contributed to a high sediment delivery ratio (SDR) at the outlet. In the other catchment, the presence of a wide valley in the center of the catchment caused sediment deposition. Vegetation also had an effect on sediment production and deposition. Thus, many factors control sediment and TP export from small agricultural catchments; some of these factors are related to the physical catchment characteristics such as morphology and landscape structure and are (semi)permanent, while others, such as vegetation cover and land use, are time dependent.     

Impact of groundwater markets in India on water use efficiency: a data envelopment analysis approach

In the hard rock areas of India, overdraft of groundwater has led to negative externalities. It increased costs of groundwater irrigation and caused welfare losses. At the same time informal groundwater markets are slowly emerging and are believed to improve water distribution and to increase water use efficiency in the irrigation sector. These claims are evaluated in this study. For this purpose data was collected from a sample containing three different groups of water users: water sellers, water buyers and a control group of non-traders. First the socio-economic characteristics of these groups are compared. Then the efficiency of water use of the three groups is studied using Data Envelopment Analysis. The results indicate that groundwater markets provide resource poor farmers access to irrigation water, giving them the opportunity to raise their productivity. Water buyers are furthermore shown to be most efficient in their water use, while water sellers are also shown to be more efficient than the control group. The differences in efficiency between the groups are statistically significant. The demonstrated potential of groundwater markets to improve the efficiency of water use and to increase equity in resource access should be taken into account by the Indian government when deciding on their attitude towards the emerging groundwater markets.