太白山古冰川遗迹资源与旅游可持续开发

太白山是我国东部古冰川地貌保存较好的山地.该冰川遗迹面积较大、规模壮观、形态保存完整,主要分布在垂直带谱显著的山地顶部,景观十分奇特.在分析冰川遗迹形成的地质基础上,探讨了冰川地貌的主要分布类型,评价了冰川地质遗迹的资源特点,提出了旅游可持续开发的一些建议.     

江南水乡古镇旅游开发战略初探--浙江乌镇实证分析

我国长江以南地区分布着为数众多的水乡古镇,它们多以水建镇,以水成市,创造了人类与自然和谐相处的居住环境．具有较高社会学、经济学、历史学、古建筑学等方面研究价值。20世纪80年代以来,水乡古镇旅游日益受到人们青睐,并已成为华东地区旅游的特色品牌之一。然而,随着旅游的发展,一些问题也逐渐暴露出来。浙江乌镇历史悠久．人文荟萃,为浙江省历史文化名镇。其优美的人居环境、深厚的文化底蕴,体现了较高的资源品味;优越的地理区位、精品战略和高投人高产出战略的实施,使得乌镇旅游开发在较短时间内取得了巨大的成功,经济、社会效益显著．知名度迅速扩大,乌镇也因此成为旅游界一匹异军突起的“黑马”,其发展倍受国内外游客及历史文化界人士的瞩目。同时由于开发历史较短,乌镇旅游开发还存在着旅游产品单一、缺乏亮点和特色、社区参与不够、旅游设施难以满足旅游快速发展的需要等现实问题。鉴于此,对江南水乡古镇旅游开发战略进行了初步探讨。     

Rational forest productivity decline

A whole forest optimisation model was employed to examine economic behaviour as it relates to long term, forest productivity decline in the boreal forests of Ontario, Canada. Our productivity investment model(PIM) incorporated a choice between productivity decline as representedby a drop in forest Site Class, and a fee to 'maintain' site productivity. Sensitivity analysis was used to determine the point at which these fees exceeded the value of the differential in timber volume between upper and lower site classes. By varying discount rate, 'productivity investment frontiers' were constructed, which highlight the effects of the magnitude in productivity decline, maintenance fees, and harvest flow constraints upon the occurrence and schedule of productivity declines. In presenting this simple approach to exploring the effects of economic choice upon forest productivity decline, the phenomena of 'natural capital divestment' within forestry is described.     

Social goals and the valuation of natural capital

Valuation ultimately refers to the contribution of an item to meeting a specific goal or objective. Conventional economic valuation is based on the goal of allocative efficiency. But other social goals may be equally, if not more, important. For example, the goals of social fairness and ecological sustainability have been identified as being at least of the samelevel of importance as allocative efficiency. This paper looks atthe role of social goals in determining the basis for valuation ofnatural capital and ecosystem services, and sketches the characteristics of a system of valuation that would give equal weight to all three of the major social goals mentioned above. It also places these goals within a more comprehensive conceptualmodel of the economy and its relationship to the ecological lifesupport system in which it is embedded.     

Measuring the wealth of nations

The sustainability of development is closely linked to changes intotal per capita wealth. This paper presents estimates of the wealth of nations for nearly 100 countries, broken down into produced assets, natural resources and human resources. While thelatter is the dominant form of wealth in virtually all countries,in low income natural resource exporters the share of natural resources in total wealth is equal to the share of produced assets. For low income countries in general, cropland forms thevast majority of natural wealth. The analysis suggests the process of development can be viewed as one of portfolio management: sustainable development entails saving the rents fromexhaustible resources, managing renewable resources sustainably,and investing savings in both produced assets and human resources.     

生产者责任延伸制度在电子废弃物管理中的探讨

电子废弃物的污染问题日益引起人们的关注，而我国传统废弃物的处理和管理制度的不完善使大量的有用资源没有得到有效回收，不符合全民节约和循环经济原则。本文从环境经济学角度，结合其它国家和地区的生产者责任延伸制的颁布和运行情况，对我国电子废弃物的管理中施行生产责任延伸制（EPR）进行初步探讨。     

Watershed protection: Capturing the benefits of nature's water supply services

Healthy watersheds provide valuable services to society, including the supply and purification of fresh water. Because these natural ecosystem services lie outside the traditional domain of commercial markets, they are undervalued and underprotected. With population and development pressures leading to the rapid modification of watershed lands, valuable hydrological services are being lost, which poses risks to the quality and cost of drinking water and the reliability of water supplies. Increasing the scale and scope of programmes to protect hydrological services requires policies that harmonize land uses in watersheds with the provision of these important natural services. This article summarizes key attributes of hydrological services and their economic benefits; presents a spectrum of institutional mechanisms for safeguarding those services; discusses programmes in Quito (Ecuador), Costa Rica and New York City; and offers some lessons learned and recommendations for achieving higher levels of watershed protection.     

Plan C： China＇s Development under the Scarcity of Natural Capital

The critical issue of China＇s modernization is whether it can free itself from the traditional modernization plan based on the relatively abundant natural capital, and innovatively create a developmental model of a large country under the scarcity of natural capital. This is why China is so keen on circular economy and economical use of resources. Focused on this issue, this paper summarizes the theoretical elements of the development under the scarcity of natural capital, points out that Plan C is the strategic choice for China＇s future development, emphasizes that China needs to enhance the new industrialization, new urbanization and new modernization based on the restriction of natural capital, and discusses the technological and mechanistic support required to realize the development under the scarcity of natural capital.     

Homophily and Agency: Creating Effective Sustainable Development Networks

Community networks are self-organized groupings that form for many different reasons. Some networks, connected mainly through bonding ties, are based on personal interests and relationships; others, based mainly on bridging ties, centre around broader interests. These networks form to create collective agency for engaging with social, environmental, and other issues through the concentration of social capital. The multi-scaled and evolutionary nature of sustainable development issues requires that community groups dedicated to engaging with such issues be particularly diverse, resilient, and flexible. As such, they must build a large number of bridging ties leading to external resources and limit the potential for bonding ties to impose constraining norms upon the group. Over time, however, volunteer groups tend towards a state of homophily, the tendency of groups to form from similar actors and then become more similar with time. This tendency leads to a decrease in the number of the bridging ties that help to provide group agency. Homophily must be actively recognized within community sustainable development groups if they are to remain effective over the long term. This paper suggests methods to prevent and control group homophily drawn from experience in forming small, time-limited sustainable development networks. Readers should send their comments on this paper to: BhaskarNath@aol.com within 3 months of publication of this issue     

Managing the Commons Texas Style: Wildlife Management and Ground‐Water Associations on Private Lands1

Abstract: As nearly all of Texas’ rural lands are privately owned, landowner associations for the management of white‐tailed deer and ground‐water have become increasingly popular. Deer are a common‐pool resource with transboundary characteristics, requiring landowner cooperation for effective management. Ground‐water reserves are economically important to landowners, but are governed by the “rule of capture” whereby property rights are not defined. One ground‐water association and four wildlife management associations (WMAs) were surveyed to characterize their member demographics, land use priorities, attitudes, and social capital. Members of the ground‐water cooperative were part of a much larger, more heterogeneous, and more recently formed group than members of WMAs. They also placed greater importance on utilitarian aspects of their properties, as opposed to land stewardship for conservation as practiced by members of WMAs. If ground‐water association members could be more locally organized with more frequent meetings, social capital and information sharing may be enhanced and lead to land stewardship practices for improved hydrologic functions and sustained ground‐water supply. This, coupled with pumping rules assigned by the local ground‐water district, could yield an effective strategy that is ecologically and hydrologicaly sound, and that allows rural provision of water supply to urban consumers.