International externalities, strategic interaction, and domestic politics

Domestic politics can sometimes play an influential role when externalities have strategic and international implications. If voters delegate the choice to policymakers and if individual countries independently determine their environmental policy using a consumption tax on the emissions generating good, the result could be an outcome that is inferior to the one preferred by the median voter in the absence of delegation. On the other hand, if the international externality is unilateral in nature, rather than reciprocal, we find that delegation is largely irrelevant, since voters’ choice of policymaker is no longer strategic in character. Similarly, if voters anticipate policymakers successfully coordinating their policies at a later stage, there also will be no difference between the policymakers’ and the median voters’ aggregate weighting of environmental emissions.     

广州城郊菜地土壤磷素特征及流失风险分析

通过化学分析和土壤淋洗试验对广州城郊菜地土壤磷素特征和流失风险进行了研究和分析。结果表明.广州城郊菜地土壤全磷含量极高;与自然土壤相比较,菜园土壤无机磷比例增大、有机磷比例降低;无机磷中的AI-P、Fe-P比例增加.O-P比例降低,Ca-P比例基本一致;土壤Olsen P、Bray-1 P、Mehlich-1 P、0.01mol/L CaCl_2和H_2O提取的磷含量相当高;土壤淋洗液中溶解态磷和总磷持续保持很高的浓度,土壤磷供应强度大。菜园土壤中磷进入水体引起水体磷浓度增加,导致水体富营养化风险大;土壤磷的测定值可作为土壤磷流失风险和对水环境影响程度的评估依据。菜地应作为农业非点源磷污染的优先控制区、应通过严格控制磷肥的投入和合理施肥等控制磷的流失。     

不同比例湿解产物在土壤中的物质变化及腐熟度

将经湿解工艺处理后的园林废物与土壤按1：3、1：5和1：10（湿质量）3种比例均匀混合作为实验物料，同时以自然土壤作为参照，研究了在田间条件下，不同浓度的湿解产物在土壤中的物质变化以及腐熟度。结果表明：在培养期间，3种比例混合物料的温度均接近于土壤对照样的温度，稍低于环境温度；pH值均略呈碱性，并随土壤浓度的增加而接近土壤对照样的pH值；ω（C）／ω（N）比、ω（水溶性有机碳WSC）／ω（有机态氮Norg）和ω（NH4^＋-N）／ω（NO3^--N）均随培养时间的增加而下降，而阳离子交换最（CEC）和CEC／ω（全C）恰好相反，并随湿解产物浓度的增加而增加，14d后，这些指标均接近土壤对照样的参数，实验结束时，均达腐熟。3种比例混合物料的种子发芽系数均大于80%，湿解产物浓度对种子发芽系数无明显抑制作用，湿解后的产物可直接安全应用于土壤中。     

福建省茶园土壤-茶叶的铅含量及铅同位素示踪

运用微波消解-电感耦合等离子体质谱法(ICP-MS)分析了福建省内9个市县的茶园土壤和茶叶的铅含量及铅同位素组成,评价铅污染情况并解析铅来源。结果表明,茶园土壤和茶叶的铅含量分别为23.00±0.099~55.43±0.032 mg/kg和0.53±0.126~1.47±0.058 mg/kg,地质累积指数法表明茶园土壤基本为无污染,单项因子指数法表明茶叶均为安全等级。茶园土壤和茶叶铅同位素组成具有区域性,茶叶铅同位素组成相对于茶园土壤具有较低的206Pb/207Pb和206Pb/208Pb。结合铅含量相关性分析和铅同位素示踪分析,福建省茶叶铅主要来源于茶园土壤和大气。福建省茶叶铅同位素组成的同地相似性和异地差异性特征可为茶叶产地溯源和鉴别提供一定的科学依据和参考价值。     

城市污泥与园林废弃物混合堆肥施用对林地土壤微生物量碳、氮及酶活性的影响

研究城市污泥和园林废弃物混合堆肥施用对土壤微生物量碳(SMBC)、微生物量氮(SMBN)及酶活性的影响,可为林地施用混合堆肥产品的安全及功效性评价提供科学依据.本研究采用大田试验,选取紫穗槐为研究对象,将污泥和园林废弃物以3种比例(GF(纯园林废弃物)、SGA(V(污泥)∶V(园林废弃物)=1∶3)、SGB(V(污泥)∶V(园林废弃物)=1∶1))进行混合堆肥,每种堆肥产品分别按0、5、10、50 kg·株-1(分别记作CK、T5、T10、T50)均匀施入样地.施肥1年后,于田间采样测定土壤生物活性指标及理化性质,采用主成分分析及单、双因素方差分析法研究混合堆肥产品施用后对土壤酶活性及微生物量碳、氮含量的影响.结果表明:施入GF、SGA和SGB时,SMBC和SMBN均在施用量50 kg·株-1时达到最大.随着施用量的增加,土壤酶指数(SEI)总体上呈现逐步递增的趋势,施入GF、SGA、SGB时,各个施肥梯度处理的土壤酶指数较CK分别增加93.33%~186.67%、14.58%~54.17%、119.05%~204.76%.通过主成分分析,依据各处理综合得分情况,不同堆肥产品总体上表现为:SGBGFSGA.施入GF、SGA和SGB,不同处理综合得分均为T50T10T5CK.说明施用堆肥产品能够提高土壤微生物量,增加土壤酶活性,改善土壤的生物环境.     

Judging adaptive management practices of U.S. agencies

All U.S. federal agencies administering environmental laws purport to practice adaptive management (AM), but little is known about how they actually implement this conservation tool. A gap between the theory and practice of AM is revealed in judicial decisions reviewing agency adaptive management plans. We analyzed all U.S. federal court opinions published through 1 January 2015 to identify the agency AM practices courts found most deficient. The shortcomings included lack of clear objectives and processes, monitoring thresholds, and defined actions triggered by thresholds. This trio of agency shortcuts around critical, iterative steps characterizes what we call AM‐lite. Passive AM differs from active AM in its relative lack of management interventions through experimental strategies. In contrast, AM‐lite is a distinctive form of passive AM that fails to provide for the iterative steps necessary to learn from management. Courts have developed a sophisticated understanding of AM and often offer instructive rather than merely critical opinions. The role of the judiciary is limited by agency discretion under U.S. administrative law. But courts have overturned some agency AM‐lite practices and insisted on more rigorous analyses to ensure that the promised benefits of structured learning and fine‐tuned management have a reasonable likelihood of occurring. Nonetheless, there remains a mismatch in U.S. administrative law between the flexibility demanded by adaptive management and the legal objectives of transparency, public participation, and finality.     

Acknowledging Conservation Trade‐Offs and Embracing Complexity

Abstract: There is a growing recognition that conservation often entails trade‐offs. A focus on trade‐offs can open the way to more complete consideration of the variety of positive and negative effects associated with conservation initiatives. In analyzing and working through conservation trade‐offs, however, it is important to embrace the complexities inherent in the social context of conservation. In particular, it is important to recognize that the consequences of conservation activities are experienced, perceived, and understood differently from different perspectives, and that these perspectives are embedded in social systems and preexisting power relations. We illustrate the role of trade‐offs in conservation and the complexities involved in understanding them with recent debates surrounding REDD (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation), a global conservation policy designed to create incentives to reduce tropical deforestation. Often portrayed in terms of the multiple benefits it may provide: poverty alleviation, biodiversity conservation, and climate‐change mitigation; REDD may involve substantial trade‐offs. The gains of REDD may be associated with a reduction in incentives for industrialized countries to decrease carbon emissions; relocation of deforestation to places unaffected by REDD; increased inequality in places where people who make their livelihood from forests have insecure land tenure; loss of biological and cultural diversity that does not directly align with REDD measurement schemes; and erosion of community‐based means of protecting forests. We believe it is important to acknowledge the potential trade‐offs involved in conservation initiatives such as REDD and to examine these trade‐offs in an open and integrative way that includes a variety of tools, methods, and points of view.     

Food production in the city: (re)negotiating land,food and property

This paper addresses issues of access to land for food production in Toronto by offering fresh perspectives on urban agriculture in the neo-liberal city of the global north. It examines attempts to scale up urban agriculture that emphasise changing the relationships between land access, property and new collaborative relationships among different stakeholders. These initiatives involve renegotiating access to land for growing food between private property owners and landless growers, concomitant shifts in control over valued resources and commercialisation. These shifts are often based on relations of trust within a sharing economy rather than public battles over political decisions to develop urban agriculture lands. Growing food on private lands in the city is political in challenging taken-for-granted ideas and practices of property and urban agriculture. New approaches offer options for training and income, as well as expanding the land base for urban agriculture. Small-scale farming projects are affirmative political manoeuvres. They challenge urban residents to consider land for food production across the categories of public and private property. We document three approaches that challenge current property relations: temporary use of a development site through “soft” squatting; redesignating suburban backyards for farmer training and community-based and private food production; and garden sharing of private home backyards for urban food production and commercial growing. Such initiatives articulate alternative visions of sustainability and food security that rely on principles of collaboration and a sharing economy that challenge prevailing notions of property ownership and food security.     

增施磷肥对提高强酸性高硒茶园土壤硒有效性的效果

通过大田试验,研究了增施钙镁磷肥、过磷酸钙及与生物有机肥混施共6种调控措施对强酸性高硒茶园土壤基本化学性质、土壤有效硒和茶叶中硒质量比的调控效果.结果表明,不同磷肥及不同用量处理对土壤有效硒质量比增加均有效果,高用量的3种处理(钙镁磷肥高用量与生物有机肥混施、钙镁磷肥高用量和过磷酸钙高用量)效果好于正常用量的处理(钙镁磷肥正常用量与生物有机肥混施、钙镁磷肥正常用量、过磷酸钙正常用量),且用量相同的情况下,伴有生物有机肥的磷肥处理效果最好.增施磷肥调控均不同程度地增加了茶叶硒质量比,6种处理的增幅均达到极显著水平(p＜0.01).     

Sri Lankan livelihoods after the tsunami: searching for entrepreneurs,unveiling relations of power

This paper analyses the performance of aid‐funded livelihoods recovery efforts in Sri Lanka following the Indian Ocean tsunami of 26 December 2004, with special attention paid to the effects on the rural poor. It argues that successful livelihoods recovery was hampered by an excessive focus by aid agencies on entrepreneurs and entrepreneurship, and by the lack of a politically informed understanding of the economy. Based on ethnographic and survey‐based research, the study demonstrates that the category of ‘entrepreneur’ is misleading for large parts of the economy. Indeed, the desire to build an entrepreneurial economy actually hampered successful livelihoods recovery in Sri Lanka and, in some cases, reinforced inequitable relations of power. The paper concludes that for livelihoods recovery programmes to be effective, they must be founded on an understanding of the relations of power that constitute the economy; these relations operate across scales, and are historically and geographically specific.