Rethinking assessment of success of mitigation strategies for elephant-induced crop damage

Crop damage is the most common impact of negative interactions between people and elephants and poses a significant threat to rural livelihoods and conservation efforts. Numerous approaches to mitigate and prevent crop damage have been implemented throughout Africa and Asia. Despite the documented high efficacy of many approaches, losses remain common, and in many areas, damage is intensifying. We examined the literature on effectiveness of crop-damage-mitigation strategies and identified key gaps in evaluations. We determined there is a need to better understand existing solutions within affected communities and to extend evaluations of effectiveness beyond measurement of efficacy to include rates of and barriers to adoption. We devised a conceptual framework for evaluating effectiveness that incorporates the need for increased emphasis on adoption and can be used to inform the design of future crop-damage mitigation assessments for elephants and conflict species more widely. The ability to prevent crop loss in practice is affected by both the efficacy of a given approach and rates of uptake among target users. We identified the primary factors that influence uptake as local attitudes, sustainability, and scalability and examined each of these factors in detail. We argue that even moderately efficacious interventions may make significant progress in preventing damage if widely employed and recommend that wherever possible scientists and practitioners engage with communities to build on and strengthen existing solutions and expertise. When new approaches are required, they should align with local attitudes and fit within limitations on labor, financial requirements, and technical capacity.     

Microbiological characteristics in a zero-valent iron reactive barrier

Zero-valent iron (Fe⁰)-based permeable reactive barriertreatment has been generating great interest for passivegroundwater remediation, yet few studies have paid particularattention to the microbial activity and characteristics withinand in the vicinity of the Fe⁰-barrier matrix. The presentstudy was undertaken to evaluate the microbial population andcommunity composition in the reducing zone of influence byFe⁰ corrosion in the barrier at the Oak Ridge Y-12 Plantsite. Both phospholipid fatty acids and DNA analyses were usedto determine the total microbial population and microbialfunctional groups, including sulfate-reducing bacteria,denitrifying bacteria, and methanogens, in groundwater andsoil/iron core samples. A diverse microbial community wasidentified in the strongly reducing Fe⁰ environment despitea relatively high pH condition within the Fe⁰ barrier (up topH 10). In comparison with those found in the backgroundsoil/groundwater samples, the enhanced microbial populationranged from 1 to 3 orders of magnitude and appeared to increase from upgradient of the barrier to downgradient soil. Inaddition, microbial community composition appeared to change overtime, and the bacterial types of microorganismsincreased consistently as the barrier aged. DNA analysisindicated the presence of sulfate-reducing and denitrifyingbacteria in the barrier and its surrounding soil. However, theactivity of methanogens was found to be relatively low,presumably as a result of the competition by sulfate/metal-reducing bacteria and denitrifying bacteria because of the unlimited availability of sulfate and nitrate in the site groundwater. Results of this study provide evidenceof a diverse microbial population within and in the vicinity ofthe iron barrier, although the important roles of microbial activity, either beneficially or detrimentally, on the longevityand enduring efficiency of the Fe⁰ barriers are yet to be evaluated.     

绿色贸易壁垒若干问题的探讨

分析了国际贸易中绿色贸易壁垒的成因，即环境问题的全球化、社会化以及西方国家第三次贸易保护主义浪潮的兴起；介绍了这种新兴的技术性壁垒的基本形式，包括环境标准和法规、环境标志制度及其门槛提高、成本内在化与绿色补贴、包装的环保要求等；最后对绿色贸易壁垒的一些特点作了客观性的评价。     

论排污权交易在中国的可行性

着重分析排污权交易理论上的可行性和在中国应值得注意的问题．虽然排污权交易可以节省费用，加速达标、刺激技术革新，并促进公平与效益的统一，但现行法规的束缚、市场条件的制约以及初始分配的权衡等要求在实践中应谨慎实施．     

加入WTO后我国环境服务业发展的新思路

中国即将加入WTO，对中国环境服务业来说挑战与机遇共存。中国环境服务业是一个很新的领域，近年有所发展但还存在着很多问题。中国环境服务业应充分利用加入WTO的难得机遇，尽快从政策、管理制度、结构、技术等多方面进行调整，利用内外部双重动力，推动我国环境服务业有更大地发展。     

Barriers to the adoption of proactive environmental strategies

This study contributes to the knowledge of the difficulties or barriers found by firms when adopting proactive environmental strategies, providing empirical evidence from 240 Spanish industrial firms. A set of 25 barriers are initially evaluated by the managers of the sample firms and are grouped into four types of difficulties facing firms: external barriers, endemic limitations of the firm, limited environmental motivation and limited preparation of employees and operational inertia. The estimation of a structural equation model leads us to conclude that only the barriers identified as endemic limitations of the firm can be characterized as “effective barriers”, defined as problems preventing firms from progressing toward proactive environmental behavior.     

基于“公地悲剧”和“反公地悲剧”解析气候变暖和低碳技术壁垒

化石燃料的大量使用所排放的温室气体使得全球气候日益变暖,低碳经济的提出成为了目前全球应对气候变暖的主要策略,而发展中国家在进行低碳技术引进时常常面临来自发达国家的知识产权贸易壁垒。本文从"公地悲剧"角度解析气候变暖的经济学根源,从"反公地悲剧"角度揭示低碳技术转让过程中发达国家以知识产权为借口制造技术壁垒的经济学缘由。     

中美贸易与污染避难所假说的实证研究——基于内含污染的视角

使用非竞争型投入产出表,在考虑中间产品产生污染的情况下,通过计算中美双边贸易的内含污染,考察对外贸易对发达国家和发展中国家环境的影响,检验污染避难所假说是否成立.本文首先构造中美两国28个制造业的总污染强度,在此基础上计算1987-2004年中美制造业贸易的贸易内含污染条件指标,并分析中美制造业贸易的进出口内含污染的部门来源.研究发现,1992年之后,所有污染物的贸易内含污染条件值都大于1,这意味着美国从中国进口的污染强度要高于中国从美国的进口污染强度,中美双边贸易中,中国环境受损、美国环境获利,污染避难所假说成立.从部门结构上看,中国出口内含污染主要来源于塑料制品、机械设备和工业化学这三个部门,进口内含污染主要来源于工业化学、机械设备和交通设备这三个部门.     

A Global Model Tracking Water, Nitrogen, and Land Inputs and Virtual Transfers from Industrialized Meat Production and Trade

Rising populations and incomes throughout the world have boosted meat demand by over 75% in the last 20years, intensifying pressures on production systems and the natural resources to which they are linked. As a growing proportion of global meat production is traded, the environmental impacts of production become increasingly separated from where the meat is consumed. In this paper, we quantify the use of three important resources associated with industrial livestock production and trade—water, land, and nitrogen—using a country-specific model that combines trade, agronomic, biogeochemical, and hydrological data. Our model focuses on pigs and chickens, as these animals are raised predominantly in intensive systems using concentrated, compound feeds. The results describe the geographical patterns of environmental resource use due to meat production, trade, and consumption. We show that US feed, animal, and meat destined for export require almost as much nitrogen and land, and 20% more water, than products destined for domestic consumption. Model results also demonstrate that among various production factors, improvements in crop yields and animal feed conversion efficiencies result in the most significant reductions in environmental harm. By explicitly tracking the externalities of meat production, we hope to bolster suppliers’ accountability and provide better information to meat consumers.

Influence of the shape of mitigation barriers on heavy gas dispersion

Regasification plants have become an emerging risk because their numbers are increasing and concern from the general population towards these systems has grown. Consequently, there is increased interest in investigating the effect of mitigation measures to limit the impact of large accidents on the population living close to the plant. Among the various possible mitigation measures, physical barriers present several advantages; however, it is known that the necessary barrier height can became impracticably large to be effective in mitigating the consequences of a large LNG release. Therefore, computational fluid dynamics models were used in this work to analyze the performance of mitigation barriers with different shapes to investigate the possibility of increasing mitigation barrier efficiency by simply changing the main geometrical characteristics of the barrier such as roughness, battlements, or even holes.