The Role of Prices in Conserving Critical Natural Capital

Abstract: Until recent decades, economic decision makers have largely ignored the nonmarket benefits provided by nature, resulting in unprecedented threats to ecological life‐support functions. The economic challenge today is to decide how much ecosystem structure can be converted to economic production and how much must be conserved to provide essential ecosystem services. Many economists and a growing number of life scientists hope to address this challenge by estimating the marginal value of environmental benefits and then using this information to make economic decisions. I assessed this approach first by examining the role and effectiveness of the price mechanism in a well‐functioning market economy, second by identifying the issues that prevent markets from pricing many ecological benefits, and third by focusing on problems inherent to valuing services generated by complex and poorly understood ecosystems subject to irreversible change. I then focus on critical natural capital (CNC), which generates benefits that are essential to human welfare and have few if any substitutes. When imminent ecological thresholds threaten CNC, conservation is essential and marginal valuation becomes inappropriate. Once conservation needs have been met, remaining ecosystem structure is potentially available for economic production. Demand for this available supply will determine prices. In other words, conservation needs should be price determining, not price determined. Conservation science must help identify CNC and the quantity and quality of ecosystem structure required to ensure its sustained provision.     

广东肇庆奥陶系砂泥岩沉积环境的地球化学表征

以砂泥岩样品的常量/微量元素地球化学特征分析为主要手段,探讨广东肇庆地区奥陶纪沉积环境,为尚显薄弱的云开古陆北缘下古生界沉积学研究提供佐证。以"相当B含量"、Ga、K、Rb、V、Sc等元素组分及其比值为判别指标,分析研究区奥陶系碎屑岩沉积的古水体性质和古环境变化。结果表明,奥陶纪早-中期(缩尾岭群沉积期)海水明显淡化、富氧;奥陶纪晚期(三尖群沉积期)以半咸水-正常咸水为主,水体还原性增强。结合地层岩相特征,认为研究区在奥陶纪期间整体为云开古陆东北缘的滨-浅海,早期可能存在受淡水影响的海陆过渡环境,例如三角洲或河口湾,晚期由于海平面上升逐渐成为浅海陆棚。研究结果有助于进一步了解云开古陆周缘奥陶纪沉积演化,并为开展更为详细的沉积学研究提供参考。     

2000年北京大气中SO2浓度削减50%的健康效益—人力资本法实例研究

人力资本法是评估环境污染健康损害价值（或治理污染的健康效益）的常用方法，但在发达国家，它逐渐被隐含价格法等所取代。本文通过实例研究，探讨了人力资本法在我国目前的适用性，研究结果表明，当使用流行病学关于疾病负担的计量方法（ＹＰＬＬ）时，人力资本法在我国有很大的适用性。     

Spatial cost–benefit analysis of blue restoration and factors driving net benefits globally

Marine coastal ecosystems, commonly referred to as blue ecosystems, provide valuable services to society but are under increasing threat worldwide due to a variety of drivers, including eutrophication, development, land-use change, land reclamation, and climate change. Ecological restoration is sometimes necessary to facilitate recovery in coastal ecosystems. Blue restoration (i.e., in marine coastal systems) is a developing field, and projects to date have been small scale and expensive, leading to the perception that restoration may not be economically viable. We conducted a global cost–benefit analysis to determine the net benefits of restoring coral reef, mangrove, saltmarsh, and seagrass ecosystems, where the benefit is defined as the monetary value of ecosystem services. We estimated costs from published restoration case studies and used an adjusted-value-transfer method to assign benefit values to these case studies. Benefit values were estimated as the monetary value provided by ecosystem services of the restored habitats. Benefits outweighed costs (i.e., there were positive net benefits) for restoration of all blue ecosystems. Mean benefit:cost ratios for ecosystem restoration were eight to 10 times higher than prior studies of coral reef and seagrass restoration, most likely due to the more recent lower cost estimates we used. Among ecosystems, saltmarsh had the greatest net benefits followed by mangrove; coral reef and seagrass ecosystems had lower net benefits. In general, restoration in nations with middle incomes had higher (eight times higher in coral reefs and 40 times higher in mangroves) net benefits than those with high incomes. Within an ecosystem type, net benefit varied with restoration technique (coral reef and saltmarsh), ecosystem service produced (mangrove and saltmarsh), and project duration (seagrass). These results challenge the perceptions of the low economic viability of blue restoration and should encourage further targeted investment in this field.     

Community reactions to tourism development: how does governmental fairness work?

Based on the elements of social exchange and organizational justice theories, a conceptual model and associated hypotheses were formulated to examine the relationship among community residents and their perceptions of governmental fairness (i.e., distributive, procedural, interpersonal, and informational dimensions), social capital (i.e., cognitive and structural dimensions), and support for government and environmental development. Data were collected from 496 residents in four Korean cities: Busan, Gyeongju, Pohang, and Ulsan. Empirical testing resulted in support for multiple hypotheses. More specifically, cognitive social capital was significantly influenced by distributive, interpersonal, and informational fairness. Structural social capital was significantly affected by distributive and informational fairness. Subsequently, two dimensions of social capital positively influenced two types of support. Overall, the results suggest that the interplay of governmental fairness and social capital is important in influencing residents’ support for government and environmental development.     

Institutions, Forest Management, and Sustainable Human Development – Experiences from India

New institutional economists have argued that there are many categories of institutions, including market and non-market institutions, which may prove economically efficient, specifically for public goods and common pool goods. The Government of India introduced a non-market community-based institution, known as Joint Forest Management (JFM), for forest management and protection in 1990. JFM is a sharing mechanism for forest planning and management based on sharing of rights and duties, control and decision-making authority over forestlands, between forest departments and local user groups. By 2001, 42 000 Village Forest Committees established under JFM were managing over 11.5 million ha forestland. These institutions have proved very useful, and have contributed to forest management as well as four aspects of sustainable human development (SHD) – ecological output, income generation, village infrastructure development, and community empowerment. In the long-term, community-based institutions will prove to be a foundation of SHD and participatory democracy.     

闽三角城市群自然资本损失评估

在快速城镇化进程中,城市群发展在促进区域经济竞争与合作的同时,也在一定程度上造成人地关系矛盾的加剧,生态系统服务水平下降。为了量化城镇化对自然资本产生的变动,揭示人类资源消耗过程对区域生态系统服务的影响机制,以快速城镇化的典型区域——闽三角城市群为例,运用能值分析方法与GIS技术,分析了2000-2015年闽三角城市群可更新资源时空演变特征,城镇化进程中生态环境价值演变规律以及土地转化过程中的自然资本损失。研究结果表明：（1）闽三角城市群可更新资源在时间上呈波动减小趋势,空间上自沿海区域向内陆区域逐渐升高;（2）高环境质量等级中城镇用地面积占比呈显著增加趋势,由0增加到10.63%,人类活动导致区域生态环境价值的损失逐渐上升;（3）城镇化过程中由于城市空间扩张,使部分自然用地与农业用地转化为城镇用地,转化过程造成的自然资本损失总量为1.27×10²² seJ,货币价值超过6.30×10⁹元。研究有助于完善城镇化影响下的生态环境效应研究,为城市群或区域生态环境管理与修复提供决策参考。     

Personality and social networks in organizations: A review and future directions

Recent research linking individuals' personality characteristics to their social networks has brought a new understanding of how individual patterns of behavior affect networks in organizations. This review summarizes the major advancements in the three areas of social network research relevant to organizational behavior: (a) brokerage and structural holes; (b) network centrality and network size; and (c) strength of ties. This review also provides an agenda outlining three key opportunities for future research. These opportunities involve personality and social network change, bidirectional and dyadic processes, and the potential effect of network position on personality expression. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

青藏高原东端甘肃舟曲牙豁口滑坡复活机理研究

为深入研究青藏高原古滑坡复活机理,以甘肃舟曲县东山镇牙豁口滑坡为对象,通过对INSAR监测数据和现场地表监测数据的深入分析,探讨了舟曲县东山镇牙豁口滑坡的滑动变形阶段,并揭示其复活驱动机理.鉴于牙豁口滑坡最先启动块体高陡的后壁和侧壁失稳下滑形态可知,降雨可能只是一个诱发因子,真正触发牙豁口滑坡复活的根本原因是滑坡后缘岩...     

城市可持续发展的关键自然资本研究

城市是社会、经济与环境相互作用最为集中与深刻的区域，随着城市环境问题的日益严重，城市可持续发展成为共同关注的焦点。自然资本在可持续发展体系中起到关键的作用，因此，识别城市系统的关键自然资本是实现城市可持续发展的前提。通过分析城市绿色空间的生态服务功能，结果表明绿色空间是影响城市可持续发展的重要的自然资本。在此基础上，提出了通过保护与投资于绿色空间两种途径实现城市可持续发展的措施与建议。