Protected area planning to conserve biodiversity in an uncertain future

Protected areas are a key instrument for conservation. Despite this, they are vulnerable to risks associated with weak governance, land-use intensification, and climate change. We used a novel hierarchical optimization approach to identify priority areas for expanding the global protected area system that explicitly accounted for such risks while maximizing protection of all known terrestrial vertebrate species. To incorporate risk categories, we built on the minimum set problem, where the objective is to reach species distribution protection targets while accounting for 1 constraint, such as land cost or area. We expanded this approach to include multiple objectives accounting for risk in the problem formulation by treating each risk layer as a separate objective in the problem formulation. Reducing exposure to these risks required expanding the area of the global protected area system by 1.6% while still meeting conservation targets. Incorporating risks from weak governance drove the greatest changes in spatial priorities for protection, and incorporating risks from climate change required the largest increase (2.52%) in global protected area. Conserving wide-ranging species required countries with relatively strong governance to protect more land when they bordered nations with comparatively weak governance. Our results underscore the need for cross-jurisdictional coordination and demonstrate how risk can be efficiently incorporated into conservation planning. Planeación de las áreas protegidas para conservar la biodiversidad en un futuro incierto     

From conflict to collaboration: Atewa Forest governance

The problem of forest degradation and loss has become the concern of many countries. To address this challenge, some collaborate in sustainable forest management. The most successful outcomes, however, are observed where local participation is an essential part of conservation efforts. In Ghana, forests have experienced various degrees of exploitation over the years, resulting in their ecological decline. Despite its designation as a protected area for biodiversity and ecosystem services, the Atewa Range Forest Reserve in Ghana has been significantly impacted by deforestation, illegal mining, and other destructive activities. The purpose of this paper is to examine ecologically based management approaches that could be adopted to generate beneficial outcomes for all forest stakeholders and actors in Ghana. The study sampled forest stakeholders in Kwabeng, the administrative capital of the Atewa West District, to understand forest governance challenges and outline strategies for overcoming them. The study revealed that a bottom-up all-inclusive approach to managing forest resources is necessary. This paper, therefore, proposes an integrated forest governance that prioritizes the UN Sustainable Development Goal 15—Life on Land-related to forest preservation.     

Blue economy,blue finance and ocean governance for achieving sustainable development goals

This research paper is an attempt to define and analyse the concept of the blue economy (BE) and its implications for achieving Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This study covers aspects such as building a blue economy to achieve SDGs, the importance of a healthy ocean for current and future generations, maintaining the momentum to save the ocean, achievements of the United Nations (UN) conference on the Sustainable Blue Economy, and the highlights of the UN World Water Development Report 2020. This study specifically analyses the health effects and threats to biodiversity, adaptation and mitigation, improved wastewater management, prioritizing water, accessing climate funds, water and climate change, and the relationship between the blue economy and UN SDGs as well as identification of key stakeholders. This is achieved through a detailed literature review on the blue economy that identifies global organizations working on creating a blue economy, elements of the blue economy and current development efforts, United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, sustainability and equity, ocean governance, international law and frameworks, and improvement in governance frameworks among other issues. The methodology used attempted to develop a macro, comprehensive, and systematic aggregate database at the country level on macro parameters, namely blue economy, blue finance, BE-SDGs linkages, water development, marine sector, SDGs data on SDG-14 (life underwater), SDG-6 (access to safe drinking water and sanitation), SDG-3 (good health and well-being), and optimal management of water resources through scientific techniques, such as building several small reservoirs instead of mega projects, develop small catchment dams and protect wetlands, soil management, micro catchment development, recharging of underground aquifers thus reducing the need for large dams, which has encountered challenges due to data limitations. The results of this research study emphasize broader stakeholder consultations at the global level to resolve the issues relating to blue economy, blue finance, and ocean governance. The most important conclusion and policy implications of the study are that international organizations including the United Nations, the Asian Development Bank, and the World Bank are working towards achieving the SDGs in general, and the blue economy, blue finance, and ocean governance in particular.     

外部压力＋内部能力：政府治理双重维度对碳排放强度的影响研究

碳排放峰值和碳中和的“30/60目标”对政府环境治理提出了更高的要求,如何从政府治理压力和治理能力的视角探寻其与碳减排的关系,为助力中国“双碳”目标的实现提供了新的思路。本文选取中国 30个省（区、市） 2010—2020年的面板数据,通过直接效应、中介效应、空间溢出效应系统考察了政府外部治理压力和内部治理能力对碳减排的协同影响路径。研究发现,外部治理压力和内部治理能力均显著降低了碳排放强度,且内外部治理双重维度产生了显著的协同减排效应,在运用倾向得分匹配法和工具变量法进行稳健性检验时,该结论依然成立。此外,内外部治理双重维度对碳减排的驱动作用因地区分布差异和产业结构差异而存在异质性。中介效应分析结果表明绿色技术创新是内外部治理双重维度降低碳排放强度的重要机制。空间溢出效应分析表明内外部治理双重维度对邻近地区的碳排放强度存在负向空间溢出效应。     

The coalitional politics of the European Union’s environmental forest policy: Biodiversity conservation,timber legality,and climate protection

European forest policymaking is shaped by progressing European integration, yet with notable ideological divisions and diverging interests among countries. This paper focuses on the coalitional politics of key environmental forest issues: biodiversity conservation, timber legality, and climate protection policy. Combining the Advocacy Coalition Framework and the Shifting Coalition Theory, and informed by more than 186 key informant interviews and 73 policy documents spanning a 20-year timeframe, we examine the evolution of coalitional forest politics in Europe. We find that the basic line-up has remained stable: an environmental coalition supporting EU environmental forest policy integration and a forest sector coalition mostly opposing it. Still, strategic alliances across these coalitions have occurred for specific policy issues which have resulted in a gradual establishment of an EU environmental forest policy. We conclude with discussion of our findings and provide suggestions for further research.Supplementary InformationThe online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s13280-021-01644-5.     

基于CAS视角的供应链环境协同治理研究

为探究供应链环境协同治理问题,本文从复杂适应系统视角分析了供应链环境协同治理中内部主体之间以及内外部主体间的协同作用机理,以此为基础构建了供应链环境协同治理模型。为探究协同治理机制在该模型中的实际成效,本文运用多主体仿真技术,对二级供应链模型进行仿真模拟,验证了协同治理在企业运营发展以及供应链整体环境绩效方面的提升作用,并针对协同模型中制造商零售商间减排成本分担系数进行调整,检验上下游企业间减排成本分担系数变化对供应链环境治理效果的影响。仿真结果显示,虽然供应链整体利润随着制造商承担的减排成本增加而增加,但供应链单位产值排放量却随之呈现先下降后上升的趋势,进一步验证了协同治理的效果。     

Tightening the grip: environmental governance under Xi Jinping

In the space of a few years, China’s global image with regard to environmental matters has significantly improved. Particularly since Xi Jinping’s coming-to-power in 2012 China’s reputation in the global climate change regime has improved markedly and it has gained accolades for a new determination to reverse environmental degradation at home. China’s incipient green transformation is partly due to a new actor constellation in environmental governance, a striking feature of which is the prominence of ad hoc campaigns that offer quick results but that may undermine the creation of law-based enforcement mechanisms in the long term. Another development – China’s increasing use of emerging technologies and big data analytics – has given rise to new forms of government-business alliances. These new players and innovative approaches have injected momentum into China’s environmental governance system and suggest that, contrary to conventional wisdom, authoritarian regimes can be responsive to citizen demands under certain circumstances. Yet it remains to be seen whether long-term environmental goals can be met, due to a pervasive lack of accountability, the weakening of civil society and heavy constraints on public participation.     

The politics of curtailment: multi-level governance and solar photovoltaic power generation in China

The rise of China’s photovoltaic (PV) industry, and the concomitant curtailment problem, provides an opportunity to reconsider China’s industrial governance. It is argued here that the curtailment is intertwined with the multi-level character of China’s energy governance. Borrowing the insights of multi-level governance (MLG), we identify the relevant stakeholders situated at different levels and clarify their positions and considerations concerning the solar PV industry. MLG analysis reveals that curtailment in China’s solar PV industry was primarily the result of uncoordinated development at different levels – sub-provincial, provincial, national, and international. China’s response to the curtailment problem is then examined, considering whether such policy adjustments will contribute to greater societal participation, changes in development ideas, an improved coordination mechanism, or alternative institutional arrangements.     

Environmental policy innovations in China: a critical analysis from a low-carbon city

The Chinese state is squarely ‘back’ in the business of environmental governance with an increasing number of policy innovations or experiments to resolve environmental issues. These have been mostly enacted through the ‘experimentation under hierarchy’ framework, undergirded by compensation-for-performance incentive structures for local agents. Based on on-site ethnography in local China, a critical analysis is presented of low-carbon city policy experiments – one of the most prominent environmental policies introduced in the past decade. Using lessons from the agency theory, it is hypothesized that outcomes of these policy innovations are contingent on different policy dimensions. Although a number of positive outcomes have been achieved in output-oriented dimensions, the fundamental difficulty of specifying all aspects of complex, multidimensional work tasks involved in low-carbon city development has frequently led to policy unmaking. The findings raise important questions about China’s tendency to rely excessively on compensation-for-performance structures to promote environmental policies.     

城市绿地系统生物多样性保护的策略探讨

生物多样性是提高城市绿地系统生态功能的前提和城市多样化景观的基础。通过保护自然遗留地,建立绿色生态网络,开发利用地带性物种,尤其是乡土植物,并有节制地引进外域特色樾的,扩大多样性物种的种群增加绿地规模,促进公园和环城绿带的自然化,营造生物多样性高的复层群落结构,形成具有地域性植被征的城市生物多样性格局提高绿地系统的生物多样性。