Prioritizing species conservation programs based on IUCN Green Status and estimates of cost-sharing potential

Over 1 million species around the world are at risk of extinction, and conservation organizations have to decide where to invest their limited resources. Cost-effectiveness can be increased by leveraging funding opportunities and increasing collaborative partnerships to achieve shared conservation goals. We devised a structured decision-making framework to prioritize species’ conservation programs based on a cost–benefit analysis that takes collaborative opportunities into account in an examination of national and global conservation return on investment. Conservation benefit is determined by modifying the novel International Union for the Conservation of Nature Green Status for Species to provide an efficient, high-level measure that is comparable among species, even with limited information and time constraints. We applied this prioritization approach to the Wilder Institute/Calgary Zoo, Canada, a nonprofit organization seeking to increase the number of species it assists with conservation translocations. We sought to identify and prioritize additional species’ programs for which conservation translocation expertise and actions could make the most impact. Estimating the likelihood of cost-sharing potential enabled total program cost to be distinguished from costs specific to the organization. Comparing a benefit-to-cost ratio on different geographic scales allowed decision makers to weigh alternative options for investing in new species’ programs in a transparent and effective manner. Our innovative analysis aligns with general conservation planning frameworks and can be adapted for any organization.     

Economic evaluation of measles catch-up and follow-up campaigns in Afghanistan in 2002 and 2003

This paper assesses the cost-effectiveness of, and the return on the investment in, the 2002 catch-up and the 2003 follow-up measles campaigns in Afghanistan from the perspective of the donor. The catch-up campaign targeted nearly 12 million children aged between six months and 12 years, while the follow-up campaign targeted over five million children aged between 9 and 59 months. Both campaigns successfully vaccinated approximately 96 per cent of the respective target populations, and are expected to avert an estimated 301,000 measles deaths over the next 10 years. The average cost per dose of measles vaccine delivered was USD 0.40. The cost per death prevented is USD 23.6, assuming a case fatality rate of 10 per cent and a discount rate of three per cent. With more than 42,000 measles deaths avoided for every one million US dollars spent, the campaigns are an excellent public health investment for precluding childhood mortality in a country affected by a complex emergency.     

A-B工艺处理以高浓度有机废水为主的城市污水

A B工艺的进水主要以高浓度有机废水为主 ,溶解性的CODCr成分高且难以生物降解 ,高有机负荷和极端pH的冲击经常发生。根据进水水质的特点并结合A B工艺独特的优越性 ,合理地控制A段的运行参数 ,最大限度地挖掘A B工艺的潜力 ,保证A段的处理效果和出水的稳定性 ,为B段稳定运行创造好的条件。     

我国小草浆厂污染治理技术分析和评价

介绍了我国造纸工业的特点、污染的现状与原因,简要分析了碱回收法等6种造纸黑液的污染治理技术及中段水治理技术,并对小草浆厂实现达标排放进行了初步的技术评价。      

生物预处理后给水沉淀池生物污泥回流净水效果的研究

针对季节性氨氮和有机微污染水源,通过回流生物预处理后沉淀池生物污泥至絮凝池,进行常规生物强化处理。不同污泥回流比工况的中试实验表明,污泥回流比宜在1.5%～5%之间选取,回流比再加大,生物强化效应不会增加;相比不回流工况27.6%的CODMn平均去除率,在污泥回流比为1.5%、3%和5%的运行工况下,沉淀池出水相对于预处理出水CODMn的平均去除率分别为44.5%、44.1%和45.5%;同时,在1.5%～5%之间选取污泥回流比,絮凝剂投加量减少了17 mg/L,并且沉淀池出水浊度降低,氨氮去除率也有提高。     

Determinants on Rural-Urban Labor Migration in China： Empirical Analysis on the Effect of Rural Cooperate Medical Insurance based on Cross-Sectional and Longitudinal Data

This paper studies factors influencing rural-urban labor migration in China,particularly the implementation of rural cooperative medical insurance(RCMI) in the year 2003.With the support of data analysis from the year 2000,2004 and 2006,clear linear correlations are found between gender,income,health condition and rural-urban labor flow,whereas the impact of education and employment status are more complicated.More importantly,results from regression show that the establishment of RCMI in countryside of China not only inhibits rural residents from seeking employment outside the village,but also pulls back rural people who have already worked in cities.When regional dimension is concerned,the pure composite effect of RCMI on rural labor flow is less significant in coastal areas with better economic performance and medical service.     

Reallocating budgets among ongoing and emerging conservation projects

Conserving biodiversity and combating ecological hazards require cost-effective allocation of limited resources among potential management projects. Project priorities, however, can change over time as underlying social-ecological systems progress, novel priorities emerge, and management capabilities evolve. Thus, reallocation of ongoing investments in response to shifting priorities could improve management outcomes and address urgent demands, especially when additional funding is not available immediately. Resource reallocation, however, could incur transaction costs, require additional monitoring and reassessment, and be constrained by ongoing project commitments. Such complexities may prevent managers from considering potentially beneficial reallocation strategies, reducing long-term effectiveness. We propose an iterative project prioritization approach, based on marginal return-on-investment estimation and portfolio optimization, that guides resource reallocation among ongoing and new projects. Using simulation experiments in 2 case studies, we explored how this approach can improve efficacy under varying reallocation constraints, frequencies, costs, and rates of project portfolio change. Periodic budget reallocation could enhance the management of stochastically emerging invasive weeds in Australia and thus reduce the overall risk by up to 50% compared with a static budget. Reallocation frequency and the rate of new weed incursion synergistically increased the conservation gains achieved by allowing unconstrained reallocation. Conversely, budget reallocation would not improve the International Union for Conservation of Nature conservation status of threatened Australian birds due to slow rates of transition among conservation states; extinction risk could increase if portfolio reassessment is costly. Although other project prioritization studies may recommend periodic reassessment and reallocation, our findings revealed conditions when reallocation is valuable and demonstrated a structured approach that can help conservation agencies schedule and implement iterative budget-allocation decisions cost-effectively.     

土壤改良对豫中烟田甲烷吸收的影响

为探究不同土壤改良措施对豫中烟田甲烷（CH₄）吸收规律的影响,以中烟100为供试品种,利用静态密闭暗箱法对烤烟-土壤生态系统CH₄吸收速率进行了周年测定.采用随机区组试验,共设置5个处理：不施肥（NF）、仅施用氮磷钾（NPK）、氮磷钾+种植并翻压黑麦草（NPKG）、氮磷钾+小麦秸秆还田（NPKS）和氮磷钾+施用烟秆生物炭（NPKB）.结果表明,2020年所有处理CH₄排放速率为-98.45~-13.50 μg·m^-2·h^-1,表明试验田是CH₄的吸收汇,CH₄的吸收速率随着温度的升高而增加,呈现明显的季节变化规律.在烤烟生育期,CH₄吸收速率与土壤孔隙含水率（WFPS）和土壤硝态氮含量均呈负相关,与土壤温度呈正相关.在休闲期,影响CH₄吸收速率的主要因素是土壤温度.与NPK相比,生育期NPKB处理的土壤孔隙含水率显著提高13.63%,NPKG、NPKS和NPKB处理的硝态氮和铵态氮含量均显著升高.所有处理CH₄全年吸收总量为3.25~3.83 kg·hm^-2,NPKG、NPKS和NPKB处理CH₄吸收总量较NPK处理分别显著降低了6.59%、6.82%、12.49%.添加有机物料能够显著提高 烟叶产量,其中,NPKG处理的烟叶产量最高.综合以上结果,该地区采用种植并翻压黑麦草的土壤改良措施较为合适.     

Emissions of ammonia and greenhouse gases during combined pre-composting and vermicomposting of duck manure

Combined pre-composting and vermicomposting has shown potential for reclamation of solid wastes, which is a significant source of ammonia (NH₃), and greenhouse gases (GHG), including nitrous oxide (N₂O), methane (CH₄), and carbon dioxide (CO₂). Earthworms and amendments may both affect physico-chemical characteristics that control gas-producing processes, and thus affect NH₃ and GHG emissions. Here, we used two-way ANOVA to test the effects of addition of reed straw and combined addition of reed straw and zeolite on NH₃ and GHG emissions during pre-composting of duck manure, either with or without a follow-up phase of vermicomposting. Results showed that cumulative N₂O, CH₄, and CO₂ emissions during pre-composting and vermicomposting ranged from 92.8, 5.8, and 260.6 mg kg^?1 DM to 274.2, 30.4, and 314.0 mg kg^?1 DM, respectively. Earthworms and amendments significantly decreased N₂O and CH₄ emissions. Emission of CO₂ was not affected by earthworms, but increased in responses to addition of reed straw. Cumulative NH₃ emission ranged from 3.0 to 8.1 g kg^?1 DM, and was significantly decreased by reed straw and zeolite addition. In conclusion, combined pre-composting and vermicomposting with reed straw and zeolite addition would be strongly recommended in mitigating emissions of N₂O, CH₄, and NH₃ from duck manure. Moreover, this method also provides nutrient-rich products that can be used as a fertilizer.     

Constraints of philanthropy on determining the distribution of biodiversity conservation funding

Caught between ongoing habitat destruction and funding shortfalls, conservation organizations are using systematic planning approaches to identify places that offer the highest biodiversity return per dollar invested. However, available tools do not account for the landscape of funding for conservation or quantify the constraints this landscape imposes on conservation outcomes. Using state‐level data on philanthropic giving to and investments in land conservation by a large nonprofit organization, we applied linear regression to evaluate whether the spatial distribution of conservation philanthropy better explained expenditures on conservation than maps of biodiversity priorities, which were derived from a planning process internal to the organization and return on investment (ROI) analyses based on data on species richness, land costs, and existing protected areas. Philanthropic fund raising accounted for considerably more spatial variation in conservation spending (r² = 0.64) than either of the 2 systematic conservation planning approaches (r² = 0.08–0.21). We used results of one of the ROI analyses to evaluate whether increases in flexibility to reallocate funding across space provides conservation gains. Small but plausible “tax” increments of 1–10% on states redistributed to the optimal funding allocation from the ROI analysis could result in gains in endemic species protected of 8.5–80.2%. When such increases in spatial flexibility are not possible, conservation organizations should seek to cultivate increased support for conservation in priority locations. We used lagged correlations of giving to and spending by the organization to evaluate whether investments in habitat protection stimulate future giving to conservation. The most common outcome at the state level was that conservation spending quarters correlated significantly and positively with lagged fund raising quarters. In effect, periods of high fund raising for biodiversity followed (rather than preceded) periods of high expenditure on land conservation projects, identifying one mechanism conservation organizations could explore to seed greater activity in priority locations. Our results demonstrate how limitations on the ability of conservation organizations to reallocate their funding across space can impede organizational effectiveness and elucidate ways conservation planning tools could be more useful if they quantified and incorporated these constraints.