Paying for International Environmental Public Goods

Supply of international environmental public goods must meet certain conditions to be socially efficient, and several reasons explain why they are currently undersupplied. Diagnosis of the public goods failure associated with particular ecosystem services is critical to the development of the appropriate international response. There are two categories of international environmental public goods that are most likely to be undersupplied. One has an additive supply technology and the other has a weakest link supply technology. The degree to which the collective response should be targeted depends on the importance of supply from any one country. In principle, the solution for the undersupply lies in payments designed to compensate local providers for the additional costs they incur in meeting global demand. Targeted support may take the form of direct investment in supply (the Global Environment Facility model) or of payments for the benefits of supply (the Payments for Ecosystem Services model).     

基于能值分析的滨海湿地生态系统服务价值定量化研究进展

在滨海湿地生态系统服务价值评价中,能值方法克服了传统经济学方法的一些不足,对评价沿海地区发展的可持续性具有重要意义,并成为近十年来环境经济学和生态经济学研究的热点问题。综合国内外滨海湿地生态系统服务价值能值评价的研究进展,就滨海湿地生态系统的供给、调节、文化和支持服务价值的能值估算方法进行了分析。在此基础上,指出了目前该方法应用于滨海湿地生态系统服务价值评价主要存在能值转换率的选用不一致、生态系统服务价值的能值估算方法需要完善、能值分析所应用的滨海湿地类型较少、缺少对人类活动引起的生态系统服务能值变化的评价及检验评价结论正确性的标准等不足,并提出了进一步的研究方向。     

基于不同价值构成的耕地资源价值评估——以湖南省为例

正确认识和科学评估耕地资源的完全价值,对缓解征地补偿标准过低、土地收益分配不合理以及粮食安全和生态环境等问题具有一定指导意义。基于耕地的不同价值构成,选用相应的评估方法对湖南省不同等级耕地的总价值进行了评估,评估结果为：1~5等耕地资源单位面积的总价值分别为547 24813、481 61077、430 74534、385 86049和336 19093元/hm2;不同等级耕地上3种耕地价值的构成不一样,社会保障价值在所有不同等级耕地总价值中所占比重最大。这一研究结论对于显化耕地资源的完全价值以及抑制耕地资源的过度流失具有积极的作用     

喀纳斯自然保护区生态系统服务价值变化研究

生态系统可持续发展是随着全球范围内可持续发展研究的深入和人们对环境破坏和资源利用认识的不断加深而逐渐形成的.人类社会的可持续发展从根本上取决于生态系统及其服务的可持续性,本文应用喀纳斯自然保护区1980、2005年两期Landsat TM影像解译数据,参照谢高地等制定的中国生态系统单位面积生态服务当量因子和新疆布尔津县单位面积农田生态系统提供的食物生产服务的经济价值,确定喀纳斯自然保护区生态系统单位面积生态服务价值系数,对保护区生态系统服务价值及其变化进行了估算和比较.结果表明,林地和草地是喀纳斯自然保护区主要的土地利用类型,25年间土地利用总体上发生了明显变化,林地面积在减少,革地、水域、建设用地面积略有增加;保护区生态系统服务价值由1980年的37.289亿元减少至2005年的36.351亿元,有林地和离覆盖度草地的减少是服务价值降低的主要原因;主要由林地、草地和水域提供的维持生物多样性、水文调节、气候调节、保持土壤等单项功能服务价值均呈现不同程度地减少,说明保护区生态系统结构和功能已受到影响,保护区生态环境质量不断趋向退化.     

生态服务价值评价在山区城市土地规划中的应用——以万源市太平镇为例

生态系统服务价值的变化决定着区域的可持续发展,其评估已成为生态学研究的热点之一,其研究结果对维持地区生态平衡、合理利用土地资源、建立可持续的土地利用模式等具有重要意义。本文在综合已有研究的基础上,通过估算万源市太平镇不同海拔高度土地生态服务价值量,探讨经济发展与生态服务价值变化的关系。结果表明,城市规划区的自然生态系统服务功能的价值是不可忽视的,自然生态系统无论是从物质上还是经济上,都为万源市太平镇的国民经济和社会可持续发展提供者重要支撑。从生态系统服务功能角度,海拔750 m高程是太平镇城市用地扩张的控制线。     

基于分形理论的矿区生态系统稳定性评价

引入非线性理论对矿区生态系统的稳定性进行研究.通过相空间重构的方法确定各混沌吸引子的关联维数,对矿区生态系统的稳定性进行评价.研究表明:焦作矿区矿产资源保有指数、矿产资源回收指数和矿产资源综合利用指数3个指标的分维值都较小,说明自然资源支持度的脆弱性是造成矿区生态系统不稳定性的主要原因.     

Increasing the impact of collective incentives in payments for ecosystem services

Collective payments for ecosystem services (PES) programs make payments to groups, conditional on specified aggregate land-management outcomes. Such collective contracting may be well suited to settings with communal land tenure or decision-making. Given that collective contracting does not require costly individual-level information on outcomes, it may also facilitate conditioning on additionality (i.e., conditioning payments upon clearly improved outcomes relative to baseline). Yet collective contracting often suffers from free-riding, which undermines group outcomes and may be exacerbated or ameliorated by PES designs. We study impacts of conditioning on additionality within a number of collective PES designs. We use a framed field-laboratory experiment with participants from a new PES program in Mexico. Because social interactions are critical within collective processes, we assess the impacts from conditioning on additionality given: (1) group participation in contract design, and (2) a group coordination mechanism. Conditioning on above-baseline outcomes raised contributions, particularly among initially lower contributors. Group participation in contract design increased impact, as did the coordination mechanism.     

Incorporating Social and Cultural Significance of Large Old Trees in Conservation Policy

In addition to providing key ecological functions, large old trees are a part of a social realm and as such provide numerous social‐cultural benefits to people. However, their social and cultural values are often neglected when designing conservation policies and management guidelines. We believe that awareness of large old trees as a part of human identity and cultural heritage is essential when addressing the issue of their decline worldwide. Large old trees provide humans with aesthetic, symbolic, religious, and historic values, as well as concrete tangible benefits, such as leaves, branches, or nuts. In many cultures particularly large trees are treated with reverence. Also, contemporary popular culture utilizes the image of trees as sentient beings and builds on the ancient myths that attribute great powers to large trees. Although the social and cultural role of large old trees is usually not taken into account in conservation, accounting for human‐related values of these trees is an important part of conservation policy because it may strengthen conservation by highlighting the potential synergies in protecting ecological and social values. Incorporación del Significado Social y Cultural de Árboles Añejos a Políticas de Conservación     

Virtual Garden Computer Program for use in Exploring the Elements of Biodiversity People Want in Cities

Urban ecology is emerging as an integrative science that explores the interactions of people and biodiversity in cities. Interdisciplinary research requires the creation of new tools that allow the investigation of relations between people and biodiversity. It has been established that access to green spaces or nature benefits city dwellers, but the role of species diversity in providing psychological benefits remains poorly studied. We developed a user‐friendly 3‐dimensional computer program (Virtual Garden [ www.tinyurl.com/3DVirtualGarden ]) that allows people to design their own public or private green spaces with 95 biotic and abiotic features. Virtual Garden allows researchers to explore what elements of biodiversity people would like to have in their nearby green spaces while accounting for other functions that people value in urban green spaces. In 2011, 732 participants used our Virtual Garden program to design their ideal small public garden. On average gardens contained 5 different animals, 8 flowers, and 5 woody plant species. Although the mathematical distribution of flower and woody plant richness (i.e., number of species per garden) appeared to be similar to what would be expected by random selection of features, 30% of participants did not place any animal species in their gardens. Among those who placed animals in their gardens, 94% selected colorful species (e.g., ladybug [Coccinella septempunctata], Great Tit [Parus major], and goldfish), 53% selected herptiles or large mammals, and 67% selected non‐native species. Older participants with a higher level of education and participants with a greater concern for nature designed gardens with relatively higher species richness and more native species. If cities are to be planned for the mutual benefit of people and biodiversity and to provide people meaningful experiences with urban nature, it is important to investigate people's relations with biodiversity further. Virtual Garden offers a standardized tool with which to explore these relations in different environments, cultures, and countries. It can also be used by stakeholders (e.g., city planners) to consider people's opinions of local design. Programa de Computadora de Jardín Virtual para Uso en la Exploración de los Elementos de Biodiversidad que la Gente Desea en las Ciudades     

CHEMISTRY RESPONSE OF TWO FORESTED WATERSHEDS TO ACID ATMOSPHERIC DEPOSITION1

ABSTRACT: The deposition and chemistry of precipitation were estimated for one year in two forest ecosystems in the South-Central United States. Precipitation, throughfall, litter leachate, and soil leachate were analyzed for a small catchment of pine-hardwoods in southeastern Oklahoma and for a catchment of loblolly pines (Pinus taeda L.) in northern Mississippi. In the pine-hardwood forest, 98 percent of the acid deposition was neutralized, 50 percent in the forest canopy, and 48 percent in the forest floor. In the pine forest, 75 percent of the acid deposition was neutralized, all in the forest floor. The pine-hardwood ecosystem accumulated sulfate, nitrate, and ammonia ions, and lost base cations. During seasons of deficient precipitation, dry deposition appeared to enrich the concentrations of hydrogen, nitrate, sulfate, and ammonia ions in throughfall samples at both locations.