关于深化环境科技体制改革的浅见

从跨世纪前夕的角度,论述了我国环境科技的主要任务及其改革重点,展望了环境科技机构在市场经济中新的发展模式,并分析了为推动环境科技发展的主要资金渠道的可能性。     

乡镇企业发展中的环境问题及法律对策

文章提出了乡镇企业在迅速发展的同时，带来的严重的环境问题，从企业的外部不经济性、布局和产业结构的不合理性、生产手段的落后、立法的不完善及执法的不力等几个方面论述了产生问题的背景原因，探讨了相应的法律对策，要求加强建立我国乡镇企业环境管理地方性立法工作，并在立法中明确排污费的使用，企业产权关系，排污交易制度及环境损害责任保险制度等内容。     

秋白菜上市对环境污染的研究

对沈阳市秋白菜上市引发的环境污染作了调查、测试、并对净菜上市的环境效益进行了分析研究。     

环境技术强制的理论与实践探讨

技术强制作为环境管理的有效手段，兼顾了法律强制性与市场调节机制，具有较大的发展潜力和研讨价值。市场经济要求政府不只依靠行政强制而更多地运用宏观调控机制。为环境科技的应用与推广作好基础性工作；企业则应积极采取措施，运用环境科学技术控制和消除污染。     

关于城市污水处理市场化发展现状及运营管理探索

近年来,随着经济的发展,城市污水处理市场化在我国逐渐涌现出来,本文介绍了污水处理市场化的发展现状,并以大连东达环境集团在城市污水处理市场化成功运营为实例,对如何进行运营管理做了初步探索。     

The Expansion of Farm-Based Plantation Forestry in Vietnam

This study targets plantation forestry by farm households (small holders), which is increasing globally and most rapidly in China and Vietnam. By use of an interdisciplinary approach on three study sites in Vietnam, we examined the trends in farmers’ tree planting over time, the various pre-requisites for farm-based plantation forestry and its impact on rural people’s livelihood strategies, socio-economic status, income and security. The findings indicated a change from subsistence to cash-based household economy, diversification of farmers’ incomes and a transformation of the landscape from mainly natural forests, via deforestation and shifting cultivation, to a landscape dominated by farm-based plantations. The trend of transformation, over a period of some 30 years, towards cash crops and forestry was induced by a combination of policy, market, institutional, infrastructural and other conditions and the existence of professional farming communities, and was most rapid close to the industrial market.     

PCDD/F, PCB, PBDE, HBCD and chlorinated pesticides in a Swedish market basket from 2005--levels and dietary intake estimations

Based on consumption data statistics, food items from four regions in Sweden were sampled in a so-called market basket study. Food items from five food groups, i.e. fish, meat, dairy products, eggs and fat/oils, were analyzed for persistent organic pollutants (POPs) followed by per capita intake calculations. The highest levels of PCDD/F, PCB, PBDE, HBCD and chlorinated pesticides were found in the fish/fish products. The estimated market basket per capita intake of PCDD/F and dl-PCB was 0.7 pg WHO-TEQ kg bw⁻¹ d⁻¹ (TEFs from 1998). The intake of ∑PCB was estimated to 4.9 ng kg bw⁻¹ d⁻¹ and fish was found to be the major contributor with 64%. The intake of ∑PBDE was found to be 0.7 ng kg bw⁻¹ d⁻¹. Fish (38%) and dairy products (31%) were the largest contributors to the total PBDE intake. The intake of HBCD was estimated to 0.14 ng kg bw⁻¹ d⁻¹. HBCD mainly came from fish (65%), but also dairy products (24%) and meat (10%) contributed. Also regarding the chlorinated pesticides, fish was found to be the major contributor, with 51% of the ∑DDT coming from fish. The intake of ∑DDT, ∑HCH and HCB was 4.0, 1.0 and 1.1 ng kg bw⁻¹ d⁻¹, respectively. Most of the ∑HCH and HCB originate from dairy products (43% and 55%, respectively). This study shows that the levels, and intake, of different POPs from food of animal origin in the market basket of 2005 seem to have decreased since the market basket study in 1999.     

Consolidation in an Individual Transferable Quota Regime: Lessons from New Zealand, 1986–1999

Market-based approaches to environmental regulation (such as tradable permits or transferable quotas) are frequently offered as innovative solutions to many environmental problems. Globally, one of the most well-established forms of this approach is individual transferable quotas (or ITQs) in fisheries management. Within the natural resource management community, there is considerable debate over the effects ITQs have on the fishing industry and fisher behavior although this approach is not well-established in the United States. The previously imposed moratorium on ITQs in the United States has expired and the 2006 reauthorization of the Magnuson-Stevens Act explicitly provides for limited access privileges (LAPs). A variety of fishers, regulators, and conservation organizations are enthusiastically seeking to introduce ITQ management. With debate over whether and how ITQs should be used in American fisheries reinvigorated, it is timely to examine the evidence on the social and economic effects of ITQs in other nations’ fisheries. After briefly summarizing the debate on ITQs, we examine the case of New Zealand, one of the earliest and longest-lived ITQ-based fisheries regimes. We use multiple data sources and methods to analyze the extent to which industry consolidation and aggregation has occurred, including surveys of industry participants, expert interviews, reviews of academic reports and analyses, analysis of trade publications, and direct analysis of quota ownership patterns. This analysis shows a more complex outcome than recent debates in the ITQ literature would predict. These findings suggest that policy makers considering ITQs can learn from the experiences of other countries related to key issues such as quota allocation, aggregation limits, transferability, cost recovery, and resource sustainability when designing ITQ and other LAP systems. It is also important to explicitly identify economic and social objectives and then carefully design ITQ regimes to meet these objectives.     

The Role of Ethnobotanical Skills and Agricultural Labor in Forest Clearance: Evidence from the Bolivian Amazon

Research on the benefits of local ecological knowledge for conservation lacks empirical data on the pathways through which local knowledge might affect natural resources management. We test whether ethnobotanical skills, a proxy for local ecological knowledge, are associated to the clearance of forest through their interaction with agricultural labor. We collected information from men in a society of gatherers–horticulturalist, the Tsimane’ (Bolivia). Data included a baseline survey, a survey of ethnobotanical skills (n = 190 men), and two surveys on agricultural labor inputs (n = 466 plots). We find a direct effect of ethnobotanical skills in lowering the extent of forest cleared in fallow but not in old-growth forest. We also find that the interaction between ethnobotanical skills and labor invested in shifting cultivation has opposite effects depending on whether the clearing is done in old-growth or fallow forest. We explain the finding in the context of Tsimane’ increasing integration to the market economy.     

Adoption and adaptation of natural resource management innovations in smallholder agriculture: reflections on key lessons and best practices

Many smallholder farmers in vulnerable areas continue to face complex challenges in adoption and adaptation of resource management and conservation strategies. Although much has been learned from diverse experiences in sustainable resource management, there is still inadequate understanding of the market, policy and institutional failures that shape and structure farmer incentives and investment decisions. The policy and institutional failures exacerbate market failures, locking smallholder resource users into a low level equilibrium that perpetuates poverty and land degradation. Improved market access that raises the returns to land and labor is often the driving force for adoption of new practices in agriculture. Market linkages, access to credit and availability of pro-poor options for beneficial conservation are critical factors in stimulating livelihood and sustainability-enhancing investments. Future interventions need to promote joint innovations that ensure farmer experimentation and adaptation of new technologies and careful consideration of market, policy and institutional factors that stimulate widespread smallholder investments. Future projects should act as ‘toolboxes’, giving essential support to farmers to devise complementary solutions based on available options. Addressing the externalities and institutional failures that prevent private and joint investments for management of agricultural landscapes will require new kinds of institutional mechanisms for empowering communities through local collective action that would ensure broad participation and equitable distributions of the gains from joint conservation investments. Readers should send their comments on this paper to: BhaskarNath@aol.com within 3 months of publication of this issue.