Ethics and biodiversity offsetting

Biodiversity offsetting is an increasingly applied tool aiming to compensate for environmental damage caused by exploitation projects. Critics, however, raise concerns over the purported effectiveness of offsetting and question the ethical underpinnings and implications of offsetting. These ethical dimensions have largely been overlooked in research, which may lead to offsetting systems that fail to respect the values intended to be safeguarded. To address these dimensions, 5 ethical objections in the scientific literature were identified: offsetting violates nature's intrinsic value; losses of nature cannot be compensated for by human interventions; too little is known to make adequate trades; offsetting impedes virtuous dispositions toward nature; and offsetting has negative justice implications. We examined these objections and arguments against them based on the ethical concepts of intrinsic and instrumental values, anthropocentrism, nonanthropocentrism, and deontological, consequentialist, and virtue-ethical paradigms. Both nonanthropocentric and anthropocentric concerns were expressed in deontological, consequential, and virtue-ethical framings. Objections mostly had a deontological or virtue-ethical basis, whereas counterarguments were based on consequential reasoning, but common ground in practice is often conceivable. Based on our findings, we formulated 10 recommendations for policy makers and 5 questions for practitioners to consider. We propose, for example, that policy makers clarify aims, legislate on no-go areas, and govern the use of multipliers. We suggest that practitioners consider, for instance, how to improve case-specific knowledge and promote learning and stakeholder engagement. We hope these recommendations and questions will encourage further discussion of the ethics of biodiversity offsets and ultimately strengthen the respect for biodiversity and human-welfare values at stake in offsetting projects.     

论我国自然保护地公众参与制度的困境与出路

2019年6月《关于建立以国家公园为主体的自然保护地体系的指导意见》的颁布,指出自然保护地建设应“探索全民共享机制”,突出了公众参与制度的重要意义。在我国自然保护地建设过程中,公众参与制度虽然得到了较为广泛的关注,但仍面临诸多实践困境。通过分析现阶段自然保护地的立法和实践现状,探析公众参与制度在自然保护地建设中的适用路径和困境阻碍,对公众参与制度的立法表达、管理体系和保障机制等方面提出建议,从而进一步完善自然保护地中的公众参与制度,为推进我国生态文明建设提供制度支撑。     

三江平原保护区社区居民对湿地生态系统服务功能的贡献意愿

为了解社区对维持保护区湿地生态系统服务功能的贡献意愿,研究选取三江平原5个湿地自然保护区及其社区,依据条件价值评估法设计双边界二分式问卷,进行实地走访调查,从居民社会经济背景等方面探讨影响贡献意愿的因素、居民支付意愿（WTP）和劳动意愿（WTW）的差异。结果表明：1）居民对湿地生态系统服务的劳动意愿（73.57%）高于支付意愿（55.65%）,居民的抗议支付率随WTP和WTW投标值增加呈上升趋势,人均WTP为387.25±7.08元/a,WTW为31.40±0.39 h/月;2）月收入水平较高及对支付金钱有较高接受程度的受访居民,其WTP相对较高;加入环保类协会、对付出劳动的接受程度较高、受教育程度较高及男性的受访居民,则有较高的WTW;3）49.46%的居民愿意同时贡献金钱与劳动,远高于其他贡献意愿类型。建议在保护区的资源保护与管理实践中鼓励社区参与,充分发挥社区居民乐于提供志愿服务时间的贡献意愿。     

论建设项目"三同时"验收监测的性质与作用

介绍了我国建设项目"三同时"管理制度的技术支持工作--"三同时"验收监测,分析论述了"三同时"验收监测的性质与作用.     

基于理想参照系和关键指标的自然保护区生态系统质量评估——以额尔古纳、辉河和锡林郭勒国家级自然保护区为例

为了增强自然保护区内和保护区间的生态系统质量评估结果的可比性,基于“理想参照系和关键指标”的理念,提出量化关键指标阈值和生态系统质量的算法,并以额尔古纳、辉河和锡林郭勒国家级自然保护区为例开展具体的评估工作。研究发现：（1）额尔古纳保护区生态系统质量指数（84.59）显著高于辉河（69.26）和锡林郭勒保护区（63.41）。（2）三个保护区不同功能区间的生态系统质量指数无显著差异。（3）2000—2018年,额尔古纳和锡林郭勒保护区的生态系统质量指数均呈显著上升趋势,但辉河保护区无明显变化。本文提出的评估方法能科学、快速地评估自然保护区生态系统质量现状及变化,可量化其恢复潜力,并能实现评估结果间的比较,为保护区建设和管理提供参考。     

Impact of marine protected areas on temporal stability of fish species diversity

Preserving biodiversity over time is a pressing challenge for conservation science. A key goal of marine protected areas (MPAs) is to maintain stability in species composition, via reduced turnover, to support ecosystem function. Yet, this stability is rarely measured directly under different levels of protection. Rather, evaluations of MPA efficacy generally consist of static measures of abundance, species richness, and biomass, and rare measures of turnover are limited to short-term studies involving pairwise (beta diversity) comparisons. Zeta diversity is a recently developed metric of turnover that allows for measurement of compositional similarity across multiple assemblages and thus provides more comprehensive estimates of turnover. We evaluated the effectiveness of MPAs at preserving fish zeta diversity across a network of marine reserves over 10 years in Batemans Marine Park, Australia. Snorkel transect surveys were conducted across multiple replicated and spatially interspersed sites to record fish species occurrence through time. Protection provided by MPAs conferred greater stability in fish species turnover. Marine protected areas had significantly shallower decline in zeta diversity compared with partially protected and unprotected areas. The retention of harvested species was four to six times greater in MPAs compared with partially protected and unprotected areas, and the stabilizing effects of protection were observable within 4 years of park implementation. Conversely, partial protection offered little to no improvement in stability, compared with unprotected areas. These findings support the efficacy of MPAs for preserving temporal fish diversity stability. The implementation of MPAs helps stabilize fish diversity and may, therefore, support biodiversity resilience under ongoing environmental change.