Delivering on the Promise of Agroforestry

Agroforestry – the traditional practice of growing trees on farms for the benefit of the farm family and for the environment – was brought from the realm of indigenous knowledge into the forefront of agricultural research less than two decades ago. It was promoted widely as a sustainability-enhancing practice that combines the best attributes of forestry and agriculture. Based on principles of natural resource management and process-oriented research, agroforestry is now recognized as an applied science, that is instrumental in assuring food security, reducing poverty and enhancing ecosystem resilience at the scale of thousands of smallholder farmers in the tropics.Trees on farms provide both products and services: they yield food, fuelwood, fodder, timber and medicines, which farm families can use at home or take to market to bring in much-needed cash; they replenish organic matter and nutrient levels in soils and they help control erosion and conserve water. The International Centre for Research in Agroforestry, and its partners, are working to integrate the functions of trees with policy and institutional improvements that aim at facilitating wide-scale adoption by farmers.Two examples described in this paper are replenishing soil fertility in sub-Saharan Africa using short-term improved tree and shrub fallows and the results of agroforestry research to support significant land tenure policy in southeast Asia.Although just one option in sustainable land-use, science-based agroforestry has the potential to produce economically, socially and environmentally sound results for the billions of people who depend on this ancient practice and modern science.     

Deliberation and ecological democracy: from citizen to global system

ABSTRACT

Ecological democracy confronts a challenge of not only reconciling democracy and ecology, but doing so where human activities and their environmental consequences are increasingly global. Deliberative scholars dealing with these issues emphasise reflexive governance, involving the contestation of discourses, as part of the solution, mostly aimed at high-level institutions and intergovernmental cooperation. However, even at this level democracy demands responsiveness to the citizen. To this end, the paper explores citizen-level deliberation to inform possibilities for ecological democracy writ large, via a growing literature on deliberative governance and polycentrism. Different system levels are connected via ecologically reflexive capacity and the discursive conditions under which it is enhanced, including in small-scale minipublics. This understanding informs mechanisms for ‘scaling up’ deliberative quality to the wider public sphere via regulating the manipulation of public discourse. Minipublic deliberation, properly harnessed, can serve to decontaminate public debate of anti-reflexive strategic arguments and reshape public discourse. Such anti-reflexive strategies seek to shape the public will, specifically by de-emphasising ecology via intuitive arguments that short-cut public reasoning. Acting as discursive regulatory trustees, minipublics can improve reflexivity in the wider system via a nested polycentric approach that discursively connects citizens’ deliberation to the global system both horizontally and vertically.     

碳中和愿景下电力部门低碳转型路径研究

碳中和愿景一方面加速了全社会电气化发展,致使电力需求持续增加,另一方面对尽早实现零碳电力提出要求,电力部门低碳转型进程更加紧迫而复杂。本文首先定性分析碳中和背景下电力部门的总体转型思路和技术不确定性影响,其次采用电力部门与终端部门耦合的C~3IAM/NET模型对电力需求进行预测,同时根据关键低碳技术发展的保守预期和积极预期设计多种情景,以开展电力低碳转型路径优化和成本效益研究。结果显示,发电碳排放量峰值可能出现在40亿～42亿吨,在2049—2060年有望实现零碳电力,电力部门低碳转型速度和效果因技术不确定性而存在明显差异。2021—2060年电力低碳转型累计投入为171万亿～180万亿元,CCS技术累计减排贡献超过250亿吨,可再生能源电力占比需达到68%以上,风电和光电将成为主要电力。     

中国与欧美非道路移动机械排放标准对比分析

随着非道路移动机械保有量与使用量的不断增加,其排放造成的环境问题日益严重,相关的防治策略研究亟待加强。本研究首先总结了中国与欧美对非道路移动机械类型的划分方式及标准;其次,对中国与欧美的非道路移动机械排放标准进行归纳;最后,对现行中国与欧美的非道路移动机械排放标准进行了全面对比分析,分析发现,国内标准与欧美标准之间仍存在显著差距,以期为国内制定科学的非道路移动机械排放标准提供参考,为污染物防治策略的制定提供理论支撑。     

Species Specificity of the Cytogenetic Stability of Fish in a Eutrophic Water Body

The micronucleus test of peripheral blood erythrocytes was used to study cytogenetic stability in bream (Abramis brama L.), perch (Perca fluviatilis L.), roach (Rutilus rutilus L.), and pike (Esox lucius L.) from a eutrophic water body not affected by anthropogenic factors. The dependence of the rate of spontaneous micronucleus formation on fish age was estimated. The effect of natural variation in abiotic environmental factors on the cytogenetic stability of species was analyzed.     

阿斯旺高坝的生态环境问题

:通过对阿斯旺高坝和尼罗河的实际考察和生态环境监测数据的分析 ,介绍了埃及政府相关管理部门的官员和专家对阿斯旺工程的看法 ,对阿斯旺高坝及其生态环境问题进行了评述。认为阿斯旺工程是一个成功的工程 ,它对埃及发挥的巨大影响和积极作用是有目共睹的。它对生态环境的不利影响 ,确被很多批评者盲目地夸大了 ,其中也包含有政治因素。中国在修建水利工程时 ,要对环境的影响作出客观、科学的评价 ,并采取措施把不利影响减少到最小。阿斯旺高坝运行近 30年 ,在生态环境监测方面积累了丰富的数据 ,这些成果和结论对三峡工程具有直接的借鉴和参考价值。     

我国矿产资源利用的环境问题及对策

矿产资源利用过程中靠成的环境问题是我国经济建设速发展所面临的一个现实问题本文全面地分析了矿产资源利用对环境影响的各个方面，分析了我国矿产资源环境问题的一些特点，提出了八个方面的对策建议。     

环境资源的量化模型及估算指标体系

本文依据区划环境标准，提出了环境资源的成本概念－环境成本。     

Scope insensitivity in contingent valuation of complex environmental amenities

It has been argued that respondents in contingent valuation (CV) surveys, asked to value complex environmental amenities, will state willingness to pay (WTP) independently of the scope of the project. Such insensitivity to scope would be at odds with rational choice, and could therefore imply that CV is not a theoretically valid method for biodiversity valuation. The scope test in the present CV study was applied to endangered species preservation. Respondents were split in four sub-samples facing different scopes of endangered species preservation. The design allowed for both external and internal scope tests. Furthermore, the tests were split according to elicitation format. Of four external tests of insensitivity to scope, one was rejected, two gave mixed results, depending on either the type of test or elicitation format, and for the last one the null hypothesis could not be rejected. Of five internal tests, insensitivity to scope was rejected in three cases, one test gave mixed results, and one could not be rejected. Survey design features of the CV study, especially an unfamiliar sub-group of endangered species, could explain the apparent insensitivity to scope observed.     

北京沙尘天气与源地气象条件的关系

本介绍了影响北京地区沙尘天气的沙尘源地,沙尘暴发生的条件和传输路径,分析了沙尘暴源地的气候要素特征及其对北京地区沙尘天气的影响,说明了北京沙尘天气发生和加剧的原因,影响北京地区沙尘天气的境外源地主要位于哈萨克斯坦,俄罗斯以及蒙古国境内,境内源地主要位于内蒙古和新疆,以及甘肃和青海的部分地区,沙尘天气发生必须具备三个条件：沙源,大风,气流辐合（垂直对流）,有沙源不一定起沙,但无沙源一定不起沙,沙尘暴源地的气候特征主要表现为冬季寒冷,夏季炎热,全年降水稀水,影响北京的沙尘传输路径,最主要的有两条,即西路传输和北路传输,北京沙尘天气与沙尘暴源地的春季降水比较结果表明,北京地区沙尘暴和浮尘天气发生次数与沙尘源区春季大气降水量有比较显的负相关关系,北京扬沙天气的发生与沙源区冬春季降水量相关关系不显,说明北京扬沙天气起因与源区降水没有明显的关系,北京扬沙天气主要受本地的自然条件和人为活动的影响。