State wetlands and riparian area protection programs

The protection of wetlands and riparian areas has emerged as an important environmental planning issue. In the United States, several federal and state laws have been enacted to protect wetlands and riparian areas. Specifically, the federal Clean Water Act includes protection requirements in Sections 301 and 303 for state water quality standards, Section 401 for state certification of federal actions (projects, permits, and licenses), and Section 404 for dredge and fill permits. The Section 401 water quality state certification element has been called the “sleeping giant” of wetlands protection because it empowers state officials to veto or condition federally permitted or licensed activities that do not comply with state water quality standards. State officials have used this power infrequently. The purpose of this research was to analyze the effectiveness of state wetland and riparian programs. Contacts were established with officials in each state and in the national and regional offices of key federal agencies. Based on interviews and on a review of federal and state laws, state program effectiveness was analyzed. From this analysis, several problems and opportunities facing state wetland protection efforts are presented.     

Voluntary Pollution Prevention Programs in New Zealand - An evaluation of practice versus design features

Coordinated voluntary approaches to Pollution Prevention are widely practiced in many western-style economies. However, little empirical research has been undertaken into the extent to which these approaches match best practice pollution prevention approaches. In this paper nine programs employed by five regional and district councils in New Zealand are evaluated against nine ‘Best Practice’ design features. All five councils’ pollution prevention programs contained some of the best practice design features in their program’s design. Perhaps not surprisingly the older programs rank highest out of the five. However, all programs have the potential to develop towards containing all of the ‘best practice’ design features, with most emphasis needed on the credibility of program monitoring. From an ongoing research perspective, and also from an overall PP program performance point of view, the biggest challenge remains the extent and depth that the programs apply each of the design features. As presented they are extremely generic. While generic design features provide for flexibility in implementation, often seen as a positive, they can also be a recipe for ‘tokenism’, something that future researchers and program managers need to be aware of. We also sought to determine if these programs were contributing to sustainable management in New Zealand. Findings in this respect were equivocal. This finding in part is due to the lack of specificity around targets, monitoring and reporting, items needing further attention from managers and researchers.     

A review of international practice in the design of voluntary Pollution Prevention Programs

Voluntary approaches to industry-wide pollution prevention programs have gained a global impetus. Despite this impetus relatively little research has been undertaken into identifying key features of successful programs. This research identified these features by reviewing selected programs in five countries, Australia, Canada, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States. Nine key features have been identified, namely: Adequate and consistent funding; Collaborative relationship with industry; Single sector program focus; Setting credible goals; Info-regulation and resources available; Threat of credible enforcement; Regular and credible monitoring; Visible participant benefits; and, Transparent provision of program results. The research complements other work and while showing a high level of similarity in the features, provided also for the inclusion of two further design features, namely ‘adequate and consistent funding’, and developing a maintaining a ‘collaborative relationship with industry’. It is suggested that the nine design features alone, while important, are insufficient and that further research is required to identify these other supporting factors.     

Prioritizing species conservation programs based on IUCN Green Status and estimates of cost-sharing potential

Over 1 million species around the world are at risk of extinction, and conservation organizations have to decide where to invest their limited resources. Cost-effectiveness can be increased by leveraging funding opportunities and increasing collaborative partnerships to achieve shared conservation goals. We devised a structured decision-making framework to prioritize species’ conservation programs based on a cost–benefit analysis that takes collaborative opportunities into account in an examination of national and global conservation return on investment. Conservation benefit is determined by modifying the novel International Union for the Conservation of Nature Green Status for Species to provide an efficient, high-level measure that is comparable among species, even with limited information and time constraints. We applied this prioritization approach to the Wilder Institute/Calgary Zoo, Canada, a nonprofit organization seeking to increase the number of species it assists with conservation translocations. We sought to identify and prioritize additional species’ programs for which conservation translocation expertise and actions could make the most impact. Estimating the likelihood of cost-sharing potential enabled total program cost to be distinguished from costs specific to the organization. Comparing a benefit-to-cost ratio on different geographic scales allowed decision makers to weigh alternative options for investing in new species’ programs in a transparent and effective manner. Our innovative analysis aligns with general conservation planning frameworks and can be adapted for any organization.     

Modeling using dynamic variables – An approach for the design of loss prevention programs

Records from The National Safety Council [National Safety Council, 2007. Safety Intervention Evaluation: A Systematic Approach. <http://www.acgih.org/events/ControlBand/Thomas_SafetyIntervention.pdf> (accessed 10.01.07)] have shown that in 2004 alone, on-the-job injuries to workers constituted 35% of total recorded injuries in the United States. This generated an associated cost of about $142.2 billion. Unfortunately, the safety intervention programs enforced at work places to mitigate such losses are driven mainly by intuition and experience of involved safety personnel. This paper details implementing a computer program to furnish safety personnel with an empirical basis for designing loss prevention programs based on historical safety data. The computer tool is driven by a dynamic mathematical model which adapts itself to variations in data patterns and explains the correlation between historical incident rates and corresponding resources committed to interventions. This study empowers the industry with a tool that is capable of forming the core of optimizing valuable human resource allocation in safety program designs.     

Fertilizer application training programs,the adoption of formula fertilization techniques and agricultural productivity: Evidence from 691 apple growers in China

The article examines whether agricultural training boosted technology adoption and productivity was a key issue that was concerned by policymakers and researchers. Thus, impacts of fertilizer application training programs on the adoption of formula fertilization techniques and agricultural productivity were analyzed by using the survey data of 691 apple growers. The results indicated that: (i) compared with farmers who did not participate in fertilizer application training programs, the probability of the adoption of formula fertilization techniques was significantly increased by 256.1% for farmers who participated in fertilizer application training programs; (ii) fertilizer application training programs boosted the adoption of formula fertilization techniques via influencing farmers' cognition and willingness; (iii) yield was significantly increased by 14.3% at the 5% level through participating in fertilizer application training programs, and fertilizer application training programs improved agricultural productivity by means of enhancing the adoption of formula fertilization techniques. This study was conducive to evaluating the effectiveness of agricultural training and boosting agricultural sustainable development.     

Current Trends in Plant and Animal Population Monitoring

Abstract:  Animal and plant population monitoring programs are critical for identifying species at risk, evaluating the effects of management or harvest, and tracking invasive and pest species. Nevertheless, monitoring activities are highly decentralized, which makes it difficult for researchers or conservation planners to get a good general picture of what real-world monitoring programs actually entail. We used a Web-based survey to collect information on population monitoring programs. The survey focused on basic questions about each program, including motivations for monitoring, types of data being collected, spatiotemporal design of the program, and reasons for choosing that design. We received responses from 311 people involved in monitoring of various species and used these responses to summarize ongoing monitoring efforts. We also used responses to determine whether monitoring strategies have changed over time and whether they differed among monitoring agencies. Most commonly, monitoring entailed collection of count data at multiple sites with the primary goal of detecting trends. But we also found that goals and strategies for monitoring appeared to be diversifying, that area-occupied and presence–absence approaches appeared to be gaining in popularity, and that several other promising approaches (monitoring to reduce parameter uncertainty, risk-based monitoring, and directly linking monitoring data to management decisions) have yet to become widely established. We suggest that improved communication between researchers studying monitoring designs and those who are charged with putting these designs into practice could further improve monitoring programs and better match sampling designs to the objectives of monitoring programs.     

高职经济类专业校内实训基地建设的改革探索

针对高职院校经济类专业校内实训基地建设中存在的基地建设欠缺、设施建设不完善和规划不合理等问题,经济类专业校内实训基地建设应该采取寻求社会支持、构建新型实践教学体系等措施,以提高整体实践教学水平,达到高职院校经济类专业能够重点培养学生职业能力的效果。     

Voluntary GHG reduction of industrial sectors in Taiwan

The present paper describes the voluntary greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction agreements of six different industrial sectors in Taiwan, as well as the fluorinated gases (F-gas) reduction agreement of the semiconductor and Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) industries. The operating mechanisms, GHG reduction methods, capital investment, and investment effectiveness are also discussed. A total of 182 plants participated in the voluntary energy saving and GHG reduction in six industrial sectors (iron and steel, petrochemical, cement, paper, synthetic fiber, and textile printing and dyeing), with 5.35 Mt reduction from 2004 to 2008, or 33% higher than the target goal (4.02 Mt). The reduction accounts for 1.6% annual emission or 7.8% during the 5-yr span. The petrochemical industry accounts for 49% of the reduction, followed by the cement sector (21%) and the iron and steel industry (13%). The total investment amounted to approximately USD 716 million, in which, the majority of the investment went to the modification of the manufacturing process (89%). The benefit was valued at around USD 472 million with an average payback period of 1.5 yr. Moreover, related energy saving was achieved through different approaches, e.g., via electricity (iron and steel), steam and oil consumption (petrochemical) and coal usage (cement). The cost for unit CO₂ reduction varies per industry, with the steel and iron industrial sector having the highest cost (USD 346 t⁻¹ CO₂) compared with the average cost of the six industrial sectors (USD 134 t⁻¹ CO₂). For the semiconductor and Thin-Film Transistor LCD industries, F-gas emissions were reduced from approximately 4.1 to about 1.7 Mt CO₂-eq, and from 2.2 to about 1.1 Mt CO₂-eq, respectively. Incentive mechanisms for participation in GHG reduction are also further discussed.     

Negotiating a voluntary agreement when firms self-regulate

Does self-regulation improve social welfare? We develop a policy game featuring a regulator and a firm that can unilaterally commit to better environmental or social behavior in order to preempt future public policy efforts. We show that the answer depends on the set of policy instruments available to the regulator. Self-regulation improves welfare if the regulator can only use mandatory regulation, but it reduces welfare when the regulator opts for a voluntary agreement. This suggests that self-regulation and voluntary agreements are not good complements from a welfare point of view. We derive policy implications, and extend the basic model in several dimensions.