Social influences on expressed willingness to pay: results of a deliberative monetary valuation study in Colombia

Deliberative monetary valuation (DMV) methods can support environmental decision making by enabling the exchange of arguments and information to produce more democratic outcomes. The product of a valuation may be an array of expressions of willingness to pay (WTP) by individuals or a collectively agreed monetary value. Concerns have been raised, however, as to whether this product is an outcome of thoughtful and independent decision-making or influenced by social pressures to conform. Our study examines this issue and addresses concerns about the use of DMV, based on a public deliberation of forest conservation in Colombia. We analyzed the impacts of social conformity on WTP under two different decision scenarios: individual and collective. The results suggest that the impacts of social conformity are greater when a collective decision is required. These findings indicate that tensions between the differing goals of DMV could undermine its democratic promise.     

Cost-effective forest conservation and criteria for potential conservation targets: a Finnish case study

Selecting reserves for forest biodiversity maintenance is often done by setting criteria for components of structural elements of biodiversity, such as a volume of decaying wood. We tested how the different threshold values for the components of structural elements affect the cost-effective site selection. Using Finnish National Forest Inventory information and remote sensing data, we determined a habitat quality index and economic value for each site in Satakunta region in Finland. Moreover, we defined several sets of potential conservation targets using alternative criteria for the habitat quality index developed for the Finnish case study. These figures were used in the site selection model in order to maximize the sum of habitat index of selected areas under a given budget constraint. We found that the production possibility frontier for the outputs of timber and biodiversity is only slightly concave when using the given threshold values. Thus, the optimal combination of the outputs is sensitive to the relative values of these goods. Our results suggest that an integrated approach in forest conservation could provide to environmental managers considerable cost savings compared with current management practices. Environmental managers could also reduce conservation costs by loosening the criteria for potential conservation targets. This would not lower considerably the quality of conserved forests.     

景观生态学方法在规划环境影响评价中的应用 ——以大连森林公园东区规划环境影响评价为例

在综合考虑各种社会经济影响因素的基础上,从景观格局、景观功能、景观受胁迫性等3方面构建评价指标体系,并据此开展规划实施的景观生态影响综合评价.利用计算机模型模拟各种规划替代方案的景观格局动态,并通过分析景观格局指数的变化实现对规划替代方案的比选,建立起规划环评中景观生态学方法应用的技术框架,进而应用于大连森林公园东区建设规划环境影响评价.研究结果表明,规划的实施有利于区域景观格局和功能的改善,但会导致人类对景观干扰和胁迫加重.采用以旅游经济为主导型方案(替代方案1),景观破碎化趋势明显;以生态优先主导型方案(替代方案2),景观向整合集约化趋势发展.     

Canada's Model Forests 20 years on: towards forest and community sustainability?

We review how Canadian Model Forests pursued forest and community sustainability over the course of two decades (1992–2012). Given its roots in the forest industry and forest science, Model Forest programming initially faced some challenges in pursuing the socio‐economic dimensions of sustainable forest management (SFM) in order to fulfil mandated community sustainability objectives. This was due, in part, to how objectives, stakeholders, and expertise were brought together to develop SFM. The programme helped to define sustainability and the SFM paradigm, advance forest science and social research, and bring together a mix of usually adversarial partners in the name of innovation. Ultimately, the termination of federal programming was linked to high‐level policy shifts, yet difficulty in delivering on the socio‐economic dimensions of SFM during a period of forest sector and community crisis was also a factor.     

气态硝酸在钙质山毛榉森林中沉降通量的研究

1987年5月至12月,在联邦德国哥廷根森林中,位于树冠不同高度上完成了气态硝酸浓度分布的测定。同时,还测定了森林中大气扩散参数。用模式计算出气态硝酸的沉降速度和沉降通量。结果表明,气态硝酸沉降通量平均约为26kg HNO₃—N/a·ha,气态硝酸浓度平均约为0.88μgHNO₃—N/m3,夜间浓度下降,43m处(树冠上面)气态硝酸浓度高于33m(树冠中)。在第1至第10个实验里气溶胶中气态硝酸与硝酸盐的比值是0.3,而在第11~14个实验中约为1~3。      

我国森林环境修复的探讨

通过对我国森林环境现状的分析,提出了森林业当前存在的主要问题,并结合我国的国情与林情,对适合我国森林环境修复的对策与途径进行了深入的探讨.     

Shifting regime shifted policy—interplay of interests in sustainability discourses of forest land use

This study investigates the influence of policy interests on resource sustainability. Information on ‘colonial interest’ of the British regime and the ‘commercial interest’ of the post-colonial regimes on forest land use of Bangladesh have been drawn on to show the interplay of interests on sustainability impacts. The findings show that both colonial and commercial interests have caused intensification of forest land use for production of economic crops like teak (Tectona grandis) and cash crops like tea (Camellia sinensis), cotton (Gossypium herbaceum and G. arboreum) and tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum). The ‘colonial interest’ has also initiated the dispute of ownership, rights and tenure of forest land and resources. The post-colonial regimes have utilized colonial legacy as the privilege for implementing ‘commercial interests’. In both the cases traditional interests of people were disregarded. As a result, peoples’ participation in forestry was discouraged and the sustainability of forest land use was impeded.     

Socioeconomic changes and environmental policies as dimensions of regional land transitions in the Atlantic Forest,Brazil

The industrialization of the Paraíba Valley, Brazil has been driven since the 1950s by an intense urbanization process, while municipalities located far from the valley's economic center stagnated. Despite the economic differences and unequal population distribution in the region, the municipalities share similar topographic characteristics with a predominance of hilly terrains. The depletion of the soils' productive capacity after numerous land use cycles without adequate management practices was a common cause of land use abandonment. This research analyzes land use/cover data, environmental policies, census-based data, and interviews with stakeholders, to understand the factors that account for a forest transition in the Paraíba Valley where gains in forest cover more than offset any remaining deforestation. Local conditions, such as topography, land use history, environmental policies, engagement of society in complying with legal regulations, commodity markets, and the action of enforcement agencies, represent dimensions which, combined, have boosted forest transitions.     

Critical loads and their exceedances at intensive forest monitoring sites in Europe

Intensive forest monitoring by means of harmonised methods has been conducted in Europe for more than a decade. Risks of atmospheric nitrogen and sulphur deposition are assessed by means of calculations of critical loads and their exceedances. In the present study throughfall and bulk deposition of nitrate (N-NO(3)), ammonium (N-NH(4)) and sulphate (S-SO(4)) show marked spatial patterns and temporal trends. In the period of observation (1999-2004), sulphate deposition on intensive monitoring plots decreased by about one quarter. This is in line with the reduction of S deposition by 70% since 1981 in Europe as a result of successful air pollution control politics under the Convention on Long-range Transboundary Air Pollution (CLRTAP). However, sulphate and especially nitrate and ammonium deposition were found to still exceed critical loads at many forest sites, indicating a continued need for further implementation of air pollution abatement strategies.     

Mercury distribution around the Spolana chlor-alkali plant (central Bohemia, Czech Republic) after a catastrophic flood, as revealed by bioindicators

The current mercury concentrations in moss Hypnum cupressiforme, in forest floor humus and in oak and pine bark were determined in a 10-km radius around a chlor-alkali plant affected by a flood in 2002. Similar distribution patterns of Hg had accumulated in four bio-indicators, irrespective of different Hg concentrations in the analysed biological matrices. No accumulation of extremely Hg-contaminated materials was found in the flooded parts. The bio-indicators, used alone or in combination, can be recommended for effective and reliable determination of Hg contamination levels around Hg sources.