An Assessment of the Valuation Methods Used to Calculate the Index of Sustainable Economic Welfare (ISEW), Genuine Progress Indicator (GPI), and Sustainable Net Benefit Index (SNBI)

For some time now, ecological economists have been putting forward a ‘threshold hypothesis’ – the notion that when macroeconomic systems expand beyond a certain size, the additional cost of growth exceeds the flow of additional benefits. In order to support their belief, ecological economists have developed a number of similar indexes to measure and compare the benefits and costs of growth (e.g., the Index of Sustainable Economic Welfare and the Genuine Progress Indicator). In virtually every instance where an index of this type has been calculated for a particular country, the movement of the index appears to reinforce the existence of the threshold hypothesis. Of late, a number of observers have expressed concerns about whether these alternative indexes reflect concrete reality or the prejudices of ecological economists. In view of these concerns, this paper closely examines the valuation methods used in the calculation the Index of Sustainable Economic Welfare, the Genuine Progress Indicator, and the Sustainable Net Benefit Index. It is argued that a consistent and more robust set of valuation techniques is required in order for these alternative indexes to gain broad acceptability.*Readers should send their comments on this paper to: BhaskarNath@aol.com within 3 months of publication of this issue.     

可持续发展下的生态经济学理论透视

生态经济学是一门正在蓬勃发展的新兴交叉学科，可持续发展是生态经济学研究的中心问题。人类对可持续发展问题的极大关注推动了生态经济学的发展。本文从宏观角度分析了可持续发展问题的凸显和生态经济学的兴起，着重指出生态经济学是关于可持续发展的科学的认识；阐述了可持续发展条件与状态的生态经济学理论内涵；论述了生态经济系统的本质特征及其可持续发展评估的核心内容；概括了可持续发展评估与绿色国民经济核算的框架及其目标和衡量方法。     

甘肃境内国家重点保护鸟类鱼类、两栖类的分布规律

对甘肃省境内国家重点保护鸟类的分布规律进行了分析.结果表明,该省分布有国家重点保护鸟类59种(含亚种),隶属7目11科,其中,国家1级保护鸟类12种,2级保护鸟类47种;重点保护鱼类1种;两栖类2种.国家重点保护鸟类以古北界为主,占61.0%,东洋界鸟类仅分布于陇中黄土高原省和陇南山地省占11.9%.陇中黄土高原省、祁连山地省、陇南山地省分布有国家重点保护鸟类57 5%～61.0%,是甘肃境内国家重点保护鸟类的集中分布区.祁连山、白龙江、洮河林区是甘肃省鸟类重点保护区域,祁连山、白水江、安西3个保护区保护了甘肃省境内保护鸟类的86.4%.国家重点保护鱼类仅有秦岭细鳞鲑(Brachymystaxlenok)1种,为古北界成分,国家2级保护动物,分布于中部黄土高原省的渭河南岸较大支流中.国家重点保护两栖类有2种,均为古北界成分,国家2级保护动物,分布于陇南山地省.     

Socio‐economic benefits from protected areas in southeastern Australia

International case studies of protected area performance increasingly report that conservation and socio‐economic outcomes are interdependent. Effective conservation requires support and cooperation from local governments and communities, which in turn requires that protected areas contribute to the economic well‐being of the communities in which they are sited. Despite increasing recognition of their importance, robust studies that document the socio‐economic impacts of protected areas are rare, especially in the developed world context. We proposed 3 potential pathways through which protected areas might benefit local communities in the developed world: the improved local housing value, local business stimulus, and increased local funding pathways. We examined these pathways by undertaking a statistical longitudinal analysis of 110 regional and rural communities covering an area of approximately 600,000 km² in southeastern Australia. We compared trends in 10 socio‐economic indicators describing employment, income, housing, business development and local government revenue from 2000 to 2010. New protected areas acquisitions led to an increased number of new dwelling approvals and associated developer contributions, increased local business numbers, and increased local government revenue from user‐pays services and grants. Longer‐term effects of established protected areas included increased local council revenue from a variety of sources. Our findings provide support for each of our 3 proposed benefit pathways and contribute new insights into the cycling of benefits from protected areas through the economy over time. The business and legislative models in our study are typical of those operating in many other developed countries; thus, the benefit pathways reported in our study are likely to be generalizable. By identifying and communicating socio‐economic benefits from terrestrial protected areas in a developed world context, our findings represent an important step in securing local support and ongoing high‐level protection for key components of the world's biodiversity.     

Assessment of Effectiveness of Protection Strategies in Tanzania Based on a Decade of Survey Data for Large Herbivores

Abstract:  Considerable controversy surrounds the effectiveness of strictly protected areas that prohibit consumptive resource use. For Tanzania we compared temporal changes in densities of large herbivores among heavily protected national parks and game reserves, partially protected game-controlled areas, and areas with little or no protection. Comparisons based on surveys conducted in the late 1980s and early 1990s versus the late 1990s and early 2000s showed three consistent patterns across the country. First, significant declines in the densities of large herbivores between these two snapshots in time overwhelmingly outnumbered significant increases in all protection categories. Second, more species fared well (increased significantly or showed no significant change) in strictly protected national parks than in areas with partial or no protection and in heavily protected game reserves relative to areas with no protection. Third, significantly more species fared poorly (densities declined or were too low to detect a decline) than fared well in areas with partial or no protection. Our results show that although heavy protection was generally more effective in maintaining large herbivore populations than partial or no protection, continued long-term monitoring is needed in Tanzania to inform managers whether large herbivores are experiencing declining population trends even within heavily protected areas .     

生态安全研究进展

在广泛调研现有生态安全研究成果基础上 ,从生态安全的概念、特性、国内外研究现状、研究意义和研究方法方面 ,对生态安全研究进行了评述     

中国国家公园建设潜在区域识别研究

国家公园是保护具有国家代表性资源的自然生态区域,建设国家公园体制是中国国土生态安全保障和生态文明体制改革的重要内容。论文基于国际经验、国家公园功能和政策内涵,依据国家公园主导定位和生态系统服务理念,构建了包含6个关键指标的综合评价模型,包括生态系统完整性、生态重要性、原真性、生物多样性、自然景观价值与人文遗产价值,分别进行单一要素层评价和多指标空间叠加分析,再结合中国生态地理区划、生态功能区划和省级行政区管理等因素进行比对和范围遴选提取,初步确定了中国国家公园建设的潜在区域。结果表明,生态系统完整性、生态重要性、生物多样性、原真性的高值集聚区域具有趋同性,生态系统完整性较好的区域,承担着重要的生态功能,生物多样性也较高,原真性保存较好。中国三大阶梯与自然地理区域的叠加分布特征明显,东西部潜在区域的面积差异较大,西部地区的空间连续性较强,潜在区域的跨界性较为明显。初步遴选出55处未来可以重点考虑建设的陆地型国家公园潜在区域。研究可为中国国家公园建设合理布局提供方法参考和理论借鉴。     

104国道江苏段公路两侧重金属污染现状调查

对104国道江苏段(南京至宜兴段)公路两侧土壤、大气、农作物(水稻)中的主要重金属(铅、镉、铬、铜、锌、镍)含量进行调查与评价,结果显示:国道两侧土壤已受到重金属污染,水稻受重金属铅轻微污染.     

中国表层土壤有机质空间分布模拟分析方法研究

气候变化背景下,对土壤有机碳的研究是目前大尺度上土壤性质研究的热点。基于第二次全国土壤普查5 374个典型土壤剖面数据,分析表层土壤有机质(20 cm)与环境因素的相关关系,利用多元回归模型和HASM模型结合的方法模拟中国国家尺度上表层土壤有机质含量的空间分布格局,探讨该方法的模拟误差,为国家尺度上有机碳的估算提供方法参考。研究结果表明,对350个检验点模拟结果的平均绝对误差和平均相对误差为15.61 g.kg-1和56.59%,与普通克里格法相比分别降低了1.61 g.kg-1和20.84%;对样点分布较少以及无样点的西北地区和台湾省的模拟结果也更符合实际情况。建模样点减少一半的情况下,模拟结果的平均绝对误差和平均相对误差仅分别增加了0.14 g.kg-1和1.07%。因此,论文方法可作为模拟国家尺度上有机质空间分布相对有效的方法,同时如何使模型解释更多的土壤有机质空间变异将是进一步提高模拟精度的关键。     

加速吉林省国界河流网络环境监测站标准化建设的建议

本文通过对吉林省国界河流水质状况分析,对其网络环境监测站的监测能力、监测设备等基本情况进行了调查,提出了加速基层网络环境监测站的标准化建设的建议。