Deforestation and the Limited Contribution of Forests to Rural Livelihoods in West Africa: Evidence from Burkina Faso and Ghana

Forest degradation in West Africa is generally thought to have negative consequences on rural livelihoods but there is little overview of its effects in the region because the importance of forests to rural livelihoods has never been adequately quantified. Based on data from 1014 rural households across Burkina Faso and Ghana this paper attempts to fill this knowledge gap. We demonstrate that agricultural lands and the non-forest environment including parklands are considerably more valuable to poor as well as more well-off rural households than forests. Furthermore, product types supplied by the non-forest environment are almost identical with those from forests. Accordingly, forest clearance/degradation is profitable for and, hence, probably performed by rural people at large. We attribute rural people's high reliance on non-forest versus forest resources to the two countries' restrictive and inequitable forest policies which must be reformed to promote effective forest conservation, e.g., to mitigate climate change.     

山西省绿色转型发展现状评价及路径研究

从经济、社会、资源、环境保护4个层面构建了切合山西省实际情况的绿色转型发展指标体系,采用熵权法及聚类分析方法对山西省的绿色转型发展现状进行了评价,根据评价结果,结合政策背景,提出了山西省实现绿色转型发展的路径,以实现山西省均衡快速的绿色转型发展。     

唐山排污权交易模式浅析

对开展排污权交易的目的、意义、关键因素进行了分析,对唐山排污权交易的工作进程以及交易指标、交易主体、交易程序、指导价格、申购数量、交易范围、优先及限制条件等模式特点进行了阐述,以期为同类型城市开展排污权交易提供参考。     

Economic growth,international trade,and the depletion or conservation of renewable natural resources

Conservation of renewable natural resources and promotion of economic growth are both sustainable development goals. Here, we study the interdependency between economic growth, international trade, and the use of renewable natural resources—under alternative institutional settings of either open access or full property rights—in an endogenous growth model. We find that if the resource is depleted over time, consumption growth is reduced. Economic growth and international trade only impact resource use when the resource is harvested under full property rights. Then, widening international trade can lead countries to shift from conservation to depletion. Changes in the institutional setting of resource use in one country may have repercussions on trading partners. Our results indicate potential trade-offs between the sustainable development goals and imply that policies focusing on resource use or trade (e.g., international trade bans or certified trade) are not sufficient to prevent resource depletion.     

Efficient and Practical Approaches to Ground‐Water Right Transfers Under the Prior Appropriation Doctrine and the Snake River Example1

Abstract: Water right transfers are one of the basic means of implementing changes in water use in the highly appropriated water resource systems of the western United States. Many of these systems are governed by the Prior Appropriation Doctrine, which was not originally intended for application to ground‐water pumping and the conjunctive management of ground water and surface water, and thus creates an administrative challenge. That challenge results from the fact that ground‐water pumping can affect all interconnected surface‐water bodies and the effects may be immeasurably small relative to surface water discharge and greatly attenuated in time. Although we may have the ability to calculate the effects of ground‐water pumping and transfers of pumping location on surface‐water bodies, mitigating for all the impacts of each individual transfer is sufficiently inefficient that it impedes the transfer process, frustrates water users, and consequently inhibits economic development. A more holistic approach to ground‐water right transfers, such as a ground‐water accounting or banking scheme, may adequately control transfer third‐party effects while reducing mitigation requirements on individual transfers. Acceptance of an accounting scheme can accelerate the transfer process, and possibly reduce the administrative burden.     

Toward sustainable livelihoods after war: Reconstituting rural land tenure systems

Land tenure plays a primary role in sustainable development efforts. However armed conflict and its repercussions reconfigure the network of social relations upon which all land tenure systems depend. In post‐conflict settings new laws have the opportunity to address tenure issues in the context of what people are already doing ‘on the ground’, with a view to moving from the fluidity of post‐conflict situations to a more solidified and peaceful social and legal environment. However there exists a lack of tools to analyze postwar land tenure and the prospects for reconstituting tenure systems to support recovery and development. This paper uses the Sustainable Livelihoods framework to examine postwar land tenure issues in order to draw out latent opportunities within emergent informal smallholder tenure constructs which may have utility in the reconstitution of national tenure systems.     

医院低碳经济管理路径探索研究

在建设两型社会的大背景下,我院积极探索低碳经济管理途径,通过实施‘‘四权分离物品管理机制”、全成本核算、打造数字化医院和低碳医疗等手段初步实现了低碳经济管理,并取得了极大的经济效益和社会效益。     

论排污权交易与清洁生产的关系

为解决在排污权交易的前提下,企业如何积极主动地实施清洁生产,处理好排污权交易与清洁生产的关系。在排污权交易对清洁生产激励效果分析的基础上,运用数据对比和类比的方法,论证出排污权交易对清洁生产实施提供了经济支持,清洁生产对排污权交易的实施提供了技术上的保证。这种互为动力、支撑的关系,构成一种良性循环模式,为企业正确处理经济发展和环境保护之间的关系,达到经济效益和环境效益的双赢提供了依据。     

Indigenous benefits and carbon offset schemes: An Australian case study

The nexus between human rights and the environment is a key issue for climate policymakers and Indigenous peoples around the world. We combine national spatial, social and biological datasets from Australia to describe where Indigenous carbon projects are happening, why Indigenous people are participating, and how effective these schemes might be at marrying Indigenous co-benefit, biodiversity and carbon emission mitigation goals. Our study shows that many Indigenous people engage in carbon offset schemes as part of their broader cultural responsibility for landscapes, and that they seek to grow the relationship between social and ecological benefits. It also highlights the challenges associated with designing carbon offset schemes that address the impacts of climate change and respond to Indigenous peoples’ world views about what is required to sustain cultural-social-ecological systems.     

水资源负债刍议

随着经济社会的快速发展,自然资源消耗不断加剧,由此造成的环境损害、生态退化趋势日益严峻,人类社会对生态环境的欠账已成为不争的事实。如何界定和量化这种欠账,并将其纳入经济社会发展评价体系,值得研究。基于经济学、会计学、统计学资产负债表基本理论,论文针对具有可再生性、随机性和流动性特点的水资源,探讨了水资源负债是否存在、水资源资产与负债如何界定、以及水资源资产负债核算思路等。通过总结国内外以往与自然资源负债和水资源负债相关的研究成果,厘清水资产、水资源资产、负债、金融负债、环境负债等基本内涵,研究认为：1）广义的水资源负债是指人类经济活动会对水资源数量、水环境质量和水生态系统带来不利影响,包括水资源的过度消耗造成对水循环过程及水资源可再生能力的损害、向天然水体的过度排放造成水环境容量的降低、生态用水的过度挤占造成水生态系统服务功能的减少;2）狭义的水资源负债是指当经济体过度使用和消耗水资源时,形成的经济体和环境之间关于水资源的债权债务关系,是一种已经发生的并在涉水活动中形成的、针对水循环过程及其可再生能力损害需承担的补偿、恢复或修复的现时义务;3）水资源负债可以通过引入环境作为虚拟主体、明确水资源资产和经济体的水资源权益加以确认,将水资源权益作为判定水资源负债形成的临界点。研究结论使水资源资产负债表编制成为可能,也可供其他自然资源在相关资产负债表中核算负债项提供借鉴和参考。