A comparison of new economic methods in USSR environmental policy with western approaches

Previous comparative studies on environmental policies in the East and West mainly focused on relating differing features of environmental management to different political, social/economic, and ideological conditions in both systems. The present article attempts to identify common experiences. In this respect, an obvious similarity can be seen in the fact that environmental management in the East and West emerged as a regulatory “command and control” approach, which was supplemented later by economic incentives. The 1988 USSR Resolution “On the Radical Transformation of the System of Natural Conservation” introduces a set of economic instruments as one of its main elements. This is less a radical change of environmental policy than a determined acceleration of previous approaches. Existing and newly designed economic methodologies provoke a comparison with similar approaches in market economies. The economic methods designed in the 1988 resolution include charges for the use of natural resources and the emission of pollutants, which are notable for their firm commitment to reduce emissions even below set regulatory standards. While experiences with this approach may be of great interest for Western countries, liability regulations of the United States can be of great use for designing relevant provisions implementing the USSR resolution. A number of bilateral treaties have demonstrated already the political relevance of an East-West exchange of experience in environmental management.     

Applying knowledge-based methods to design and implement an air quality workshop

In response to protection needs in class I wilderness areas, forest land managers of the USDA Forest Service must provide input to regulatory agencies regarding air pollutant impacts on air quality-related values. Regional workshops have been convened for land managers and scientists to discuss the aspects and extent of wilderness protection needs. Previous experience with a national workshop indicated that a document summarizing workshop discussions will have little operational utility. An alternative is to create a knowledge-based analytical system, in addition to the document, to aid land managers in assessing effects of air pollutants on wilderness. Knowledge-based methods were used to design and conduct regional workshops in the western United States. Extracting knowledge from a large number of workshop participants required careful planning of workshop discussions. Knowledge elicitation methods helped with this task. This knowledge-based approach appears to be effective for focusing group discussions and collecting knowledge from large groups of specialists.     

The costs of congestion and wilderness recreation

Existing research on the effects of congestion in wilderness areas suffers from problems associated with asking people directly what they would be willing to pay to avoid congestion under hypothetical circumstances. The work reported here is based on methodologies that infer conclusions from observed behavior. Two inferential methodologies are used to examine visitors' willingness to pay at three California wilderness areas during peak and off-peak use periods. Inferential methodologies do not provide unambiguous measures of consumer surplus. However, they do yield the conclusion that, with the exception of a relatively few individuals, solitude is not of overriding importance. Convenience of timing and the attributes of different wilderness areas appear to be more important than congestion.     

Managing brown bears and wilderness recreation on the Kenai Peninsula,Alaska, USA

The Russian River-Cooper Lake-Resurrection River trail system, on the Kenai Peninsula, Alaska, traverses essential brown bear habitat. To set management guidelines for this area, the trail system was monitored using questionnaire cards and electronic trail counters from 1984 through 1987. This helped to determine the extent and type of human use and human-bear encounters in the area. Management recommendations were intended to reduce the potential displacement of brown bears by hikers and to inform wilderness users of the proper camping techniques to avoid attracting bears to the campsite. An average of 5800 visitors hiked or camped along the trail system each year. Encounters between hikers and brown bears averaged 7/yr while encounters with black bears averaged 35/yr. Minor problems occurred with both the electronic trail counters and the questionnaire. Modilications to these methods are discussed. A Limits of Acceptable Change format should be considered for the trail system to determine the character and future direction of recreational activities and monitoring of the trail system should continue in the future.     

论科学抗旱——以2009年的抗旱保麦为例

干旱是影响我国农业生产最严重的灾害之一。2009年初北方冬麦区出现了严重的气象干旱,但由于苗情基础好和底墒充足,以作物长势为标准的农业干旱大部地区较轻、仅局部较重。虽然河南、安徽两省抗旱保麦取得一定成效,但从整个北方冬麦区看,仍有不少经验教训值得总结和吸取。对干旱的认识与对策存在一系列误区,特别是混淆了气象干旱与农业干旱、冻害与干旱、突发型灾害与累积型灾害的区别,把抗旱简单等同于浇水,轻视农艺抗旱,一些媒体的过分炒作违背科学且不符实际。分析2009年北方小麦仍然获得丰收的原因时,指出少数麦田受旱受冻较重的根源在于播种质量差,并对今后如何提高科学抗旱水平提出了若干基本原则和具体建议。     

The change of European landscapes: human-nature relationships, public attitudes towards rewilding, and the implications for landscape management in Switzerland

The rewilding of landscapes is one of the most important and intensively discussed landscape changes occurring in Switzerland, as the need for agricultural and forest land is decreasing. To ensure that decisions concerning future landscape management will be supported by the public, it is crucial to take public opinion into account. Hence the present study aims to assess the public attitudes towards nature and "rewilding" processes. In order to analyze these attitudes, we sent a standardized questionnaire to 4000 randomly selected households throughout Switzerland. A cluster analysis led to a typology with four different types of human-nature relationship ("nature lovers", "nature sympathizers", "nature-connected users" and "nature controllers") that each characterize a particular attitude towards nature. These human-nature relationship types differ in their attitudes towards rewilding as well, allowing a rough classification of the sample into wilderness opponents (51.1%) and wilderness proponents (49.9%). However both groups agree with regard to their opinion concerning the rules and regulations that should apply in future wilderness areas. The parallels of the human-nature relationship typology of this survey with other typologies, and the implications for further research are discussed. We can conclude that, due to the differences concerning the attitudes towards wilderness between the human-nature relationship types, between the rural and urban dwellers, and between the language regions, a uniform strategy for the designation and management of wilderness areas in Switzerland is not possible. We recommend that, when managing landscape change, all stakeholders are included in a participatory process and we advise a thorough assessment of the attitudes of the involved persons towards nature and rewilding at the start of such processes. Such an assessment would facilitate the identification of well-defined target groups allowing specific interventions and management actions customized to the needs and characteristics of each of these groups. In addition we see the commonalities between wilderness opponents and wilderness proponents concerning the rules in wilderness areas as an ideal starting point for a successful participatory process.     

政府预留水量的内涵、动因及实践探究

水源地突发水污染、极端干旱、国家发展战略调整导致的水资源非常规需求不断增加,促使人们意识到初始水权配置过程中需要分配一定的政府预留水量,但其专项研究相对较少.在回顾相关文献的基础上,对政府预留水量概念、分类、属性与作用进行了讨论和梳理,分析了政府预留水量的动因,总结出试点流域的实践经验,以期对进一步开展研究有所启示.     

跨界大气污染治理体系和政策措施——欧洲经验及对中国的启示

大气污染具有明显的跨界特性,跨区域联防联治机制是大气污染治理的重要手段。欧洲跨界大气污染治理具有完整的治理体系和丰富的实践经验,取得了显著成就,充分借鉴和吸收欧洲跨界大气污染治理的经验,对提高中国大气污染治理的科学性和有效性、推动解决大气污染治理难题具有重要意义。本文深入分析了欧洲跨界大气污染治理的背景、制度演化、治理体系和政策措施,结果发现,欧洲跨界大气污染治理机制是以EMEP为基础、以CLRTAP为核心、八项议定书为补充的不断扩展治理领域和政策边界的动态过程,其治理政策的制定表现出明显的阶段性特征。从科学化定量体系和制度化保障体系两个维度总结了欧洲跨界大气污染治理的主要措施,结合中国实际,对中国跨界大气污染治理提出了政策建议:(1)建立健全大气治理立法及配套执行体系,并严格落实问责;(2)尽快建立和完善跨界大气污染监测评估系统;(3)科学划分大气污染治理区域,成立跨区域组织领导机构;(4)加快研究制定符合国情的跨区域生态补偿机制。     

The sensitivity of current and future forest managers to climate-induced changes in ecological processes

Climate vulnerability of managed forest ecosystems is not only determined by ecological processes but also influenced by the adaptive capacity of forest managers. To better understand adaptive behaviour, we conducted a questionnaire study among current and future forest managers (i.e. active managers and forestry students) in Austria. We found widespread belief in climate change (94.7 % of respondents), and no significant difference between current and future managers. Based on intended responses to climate-induced ecosystem changes, we distinguished four groups: highly sensitive managers (27.7 %), those mainly sensitive to changes in growth and regeneration processes (46.7 %), managers primarily sensitive to regeneration changes (11.2 %), and insensitive managers (14.4 %). Experiences and beliefs with regard to disturbance-related tree mortality were found to particularly influence a manager’s sensitivity to climate change. Our findings underline the importance of the social dimension of climate change adaptation, and suggest potentially strong adaptive feedbacks between ecosystems and their managers.

Electronic supplementary material

The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s13280-015-0737-6) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.     

The effect of experience on choosing where to go: an application to a choice experiment on forest recreation

The main objective of this paper is to investigate the impact of experience on the choice of visits to forests in a stated discrete choice experiment. Recent literature has indicated that experiences with the environmental services valuated may increase the respondents' certainty in their choice of hypothetical alternatives. We apply two indicators of experiences: the number of visits and the number of different forests visited during the last year. Applying the generalized multinomial logit model, we find that an increase in the number of visits to forests makes respondents' choices more predictable. However, the number of different forests visited reduces the predictability of choices. Furthermore, we investigate the relationship between respondents' experience of forest recreation and the self-reported choice certainty, controlling for respondents' social-demographics and other design characteristics. Finally, we show that self-reported choice certainty is positive correlated with the scale factor, as expected.