Mitigation and adaptation synergy in forest sector

Mitigation and adaptation are the two main strategies to address climate change. Mitigation and adaptation have been considered separately in the global negotiations as well as literature. There is a realization on the need to explore and promote synergy between mitigation and adaptation while addressing climate change. In this paper, an attempt is made to explore the synergy between mitigation and adaptation by considering forest sector, which on the one hand is projected to be adversely impacted under the projected climate change scenarios and on the other provide opportunities to mitigate climate change. Thus, the potential and need for incorporating adaptation strategies and practices in mitigation projects is presented with a few examples. Firstly, there is a need to ensure that mitigation programs or projects do not increase the vulnerability of forest ecosystems and plantations. Secondly, several adaptation practices could be incorporated into mitigation projects to reduce vulnerability. Further, many of the mitigation projects indeed reduce vulnerability and promote adaptation, for example; forest and biodiversity conservation, protected area management and sustainable forestry. Also, many adaptation options such as urban forestry, soil and water conservation and drought resistant varieties also contribute to mitigation of climate change. Thus, there is need for research and field demonstration of synergy between mitigation and adaptation, so that the cost of addressing climate change impacts can be reduced and co-benefits increased.     

Fisheries management: integrating societal preference, decision analysis, and ecological risk assessment

Fisheries management is the practice of analyzing and selecting options to maintain or alter the structure, dynamics, and interaction of habitat, aquatic biota, and man to achieve human goals and objectives. The theory of fisheries management is: managers or decision makers attempt to maximize renewable `output' from an aquatic resource by choosing from among a set of decision options and applying a set of actions that generate an array of outputs. Outputs may be defined as a tangible catch, a fishing experience, an existence value, or anything else produced or supported by renewable aquatic resources. Overall output is always a mix of tangible and intangible elements. However defined, management goals and objectives are essential components of fisheries management or any other field of renewable natural resource management. Reaching consensus on management goals and objectives has never been a simple task. Beyond the broad and often conflicting goals of an agency, managers must decide who should set specific management objectives — agency personnel, the public, or a combination of the two. Historically, rhetoric aside, fisheries managers in North America nearly always have consulted with professionals in governmental roles to set management objectives. In a strongly pluralistic society, this often resulted in protracted political and legal conflict. Increasingly, there are calls for use of risk assessment to help solve such ecological policy and management problems commonly encountered in fisheries management. The basic concepts of ecological risk assessment may be simple, but the jargon and details are not. Risk assessment (and similar analytical tools) is a concept that has evoked strong reactions whenever it has been used. In spite of the difficulties of defining problems and setting management objectives for complex ecological policy questions, use of risk assessment to help solve ecological problems is widely supported. Ecological risk assessment will be most useful (and objective) in political deliberations when the policy debate revolves around largely technical concerns. To the extent that risk assessment forces policy debate and disagreement toward fundamental differences rather than superficial ones, it will be useful in decision making.     

区域土地可持续利用与环境政策-体化

可持续发展应分阶段、分层次地进行，为增强区域土地可持续利用，相关环境政策的制定遵循可持续发展的原则，提出了区域土地可持续利用的评价流程与环境政策形成的循环模式；介绍了国外区域开发环境影响评价的研究进展及区域环境管理规划的主要内容；分析了这一领域的相关法律问题并提出了建议。     

政策干预对提高煤矿职工素质影响探讨

煤矿井下作业人员素质低,是煤矿事故多发的重要原因之一.建议从大幅度提高煤矿井下人员工资待遇,吸引高素质人才从事煤矿工作;全方位开展煤矿职业培训工作,坚持先培训后就业,实行煤矿从业准入制;对现在岗的煤矿从业人员分期分批进行培训,实现煤矿从业人员持证上岗;政府出台政策,强制煤矿企业开展职工岗位技术培训和安全培训等4个方面着手,切实提高煤矿从业人员的整体素质,减少煤矿事故的发生.     

关于区域环境保护政策的思考

本文从通过分析我国环境保护政策存在的缺口和目前对这种理念的研究进展,并根据环境问题本身的特性以及环境问题产生的背景差异提出重新确立环境保护政策的调控范围的观点,并提出了这种观点对于对我国环境保护政策以及环境保护工作的重要意义。     

Change in vegetation cover in East Timor, 1989–1999

Forest resources play a key role and provide many basic needs to communities in developing economies. To assess the patterns of vegetation cover change, as a corollary of resource utilization, satellite imagery, ground truth data, and image processing techniques can be useful. This article is concerned with identifying change in major vegetation types in East Timor between 1989 and 1999, using Landsat Thematic Mapper data. The results highlight a significant level of deforestation and decline in foliage cover. All major vegetation cover types declined from 1989 to 1999, and there was a sizeable increase in degraded woodlands. This decline has had considerable impact on the livelihoods of rural and urban communities. Causes for these changes include: economic exploitation of abundant resources; and implications of transmigration policies implemented during Indonesian rule, resulting in increased competition for land and woodland resources. As the new nation of Timor‐Leste establishes itself, it must consider its current stock and distribution of natural capital to ensure that development efforts are geared towards sustainable outcomes. Without the knowledge of historical patterns of resource consumption, development efforts may, unwittingly, lead to continuing decline in forest resources.     

TRANSIENT RESPONSE FUNCTIONS FOR CONJUNCTIVE WATER MANAGEMENT IN THE SNAKE RIVER PLAIN,IDAHO1

ABSTRACT: Increasing demands on western water are causing a mounting need for the conjunctive management of surface water and ground water resources. Under western water law, the senior water rights holder has priority over the junior water rights holder in times of water shortage. Water managers have been reluctant to conjunctively manage surface water and ground water resources because of the difficulty of quantification of the impacts to surface water resources from ground water stresses. Impacts from ground water use can take years to propagate through an aquifer system. Prediction of the degree of impact to surface water resources over time and the spatial distribution of impacts is very difficult. Response functions mathematically describe the relationship between a unit ground water stress applied at a specific location and stream depletion or aquifer water level change elsewhere in the system. Response functions can be used to help quantify the spatial and temporal impacts to surface water resources caused by ground water pumping. This paper describes the theory of response functions and presents an application of transient response functions in the Snake River Plain, Idaho. Transient response functions can be used to facilitate the conjunctive management of surface and ground water not only in the eastern Snake River Plain basin, but also in similar basins throughout the western United States.     

新发展阶段我国企业水信息披露评价研究

推动绿色发展,促进人与自然和谐共生是我国社会主义建设新时期的重点方向与方略。绿水青山就是金山银山,水信息披露作为治理企业水污染的首要环节、重要手段,在国内还未充分引起企业与有关部门的重视。本文通过构建中国上市公司水信息披露指标体系,弥补了我国多年来在水信息披露评价体系中的不足。基于该指标体系,结合三维度打分法、层次分析法和内容分析法,本研究人工搜集整理既往企业水信息并从披露整体情况、披露水平以及披露内容三个方面分析了我国上市企业水信息披露现状。结果表明,现阶段我国企业水信息披露还存在披露程度低、披露差异明显、披露内容可靠性不强等问题,其根源来自政府政策滞后、社会面监督不充分、企业战略缺失等因素。为此,本文从健全水信息披露框架、完善法律制度、落实法律监督、建立新闻发布制度、引导金融机构参与等方面为推动企业水信息披露提供建议。     

农村面源污染治理的政策与管理服务体系优化——以上海郊区农村为例

农村面源污染控制不仅是技术问题,也是管理体制与机制问题,探讨并完善农村面源污染治理的政策、管理与服务体系已成为当前研究的热点与难点。以上海郊区农村为例,梳理总结农村面源污染及其控制现状;在肯定当前治理效果的同时,识别其局限性,指出农业政策与环境保护政策的不协调、农村发展模式转变下制度与服务体系的相对滞后是根本原因;针对当前农村面源污染重要的贡献者——化肥、农药、畜禽粪便以及农村生活污水,分别从改革农业补贴制度、重构实现农村多重价值的制度以及完善农业生产服务体系等方面给出了治理的对策与建议。     

Private Property Rights and Selective Private Forest Conservation: Could a Nordic Hybrid Policy Address a United States Problem?

Political and legal conflicts between the need for targeted private forest conservation and the continued assurance of private property rights in the U.S. presents a seemingly intractable resource management problem. Scandinavian use of habitat protection areas on private forests offers an additional tool that may be suitable for solving the historical and on-going tension found within U.S. efforts to reconcile desires to maintain lands in a forested condition while also respecting private property rights. This article presents a comparative cross-sectional policy analysis of Sweden, Finland, and the U.S., supported with a supplemental case example from the Commonwealth of Virginia. Similarities in all three countries among forest ownership patterns, use of public subsidies, and changing attitudes towards conservation are generally encouraging. Additionally, Virginia’s current consideration and development of state-wide forest policies focused on forestland and open space conservation suggests both a need and an opportunity to systematically assess the applicability of the Nordic forest reserve approach to local private forest conservation. Future research at a high-resolution, and specifically at the state level, should focus on the social and political factors that would ultimately determine the viability of a forest reserve program.