Conservation Easements: Biodiversity Protection and Private Use

Abstract:  Conservation easements are one of the primary tools for conserving biodiversity on private land. Despite their increasing use, little quantitative data are available on what species and habitats conservation easements aim to protect, how much structural development they allow, or what types of land use they commonly permit. To address these knowledge gaps, we surveyed staff responsible for 119 conservation easements established by the largest nonprofit easement holder, The Nature Conservancy, between 1985 and 2004. Most easements (80%) aimed to provide core habitat to protect species or communities on-site, and nearly all were designed to reduce development. Conservation easements also allowed for a wide range of private uses, which may result in additional fragmentation and habitat disturbance. Some residential or commercial use, new structures, or subdivision of the property were permitted on 85% of sampled conservation easements. Over half (56%) allowed some additional buildings, of which 60% restricted structure size or building area. Working landscape easements with ranching, forestry, or farming made up nearly half (46%) of the easement properties sampled and were more likely than easements without these uses to be designated as buffers to enhance biodiversity in the surrounding area. Our results demonstrate the need for clear restrictions on building and subdivision in easements, research on the compatibility of private uses on easement land, and greater public understanding of the trade-offs implicit in the use of conservation easements for biodiversity conservation.     

Framing the private land conservation conversation: Strategic framing of the benefits of conservation participation could increase landholder engagement

How conservation messages are framed will impact the success of our efforts to engage people in conservation action. This is highly relevant in the private land conservation (PLC) sector given the low participation rates of landholders. Using a case study of PLC schemes targeted at Australian landholders, we present the first systematic analysis of communication strategies used by organisations and government departments delivering those schemes to engage the public. We develop a novel approach for analysing the framing of conservation messages that codes the stated benefits of schemes according to value orientation. We categorised the benefits as flowing to either the landholder, to society, or to the environment, corresponding to the egoistic, altruistic and biospheric value orientations that have been shown to influence human behaviour. We find that messages are biased towards environmental benefits. Surprisingly, this is the case even for market-based schemes that have the explicit objective of appealing to production-focussed landholders and those who are not already involved in conservation. The risk is that PLC schemes framed in this way will fail to engage more egoistically oriented landholders and are only likely to appeal to those likely to already be conservation-minded. By understanding the frame in which PLC benefits are communicated, we can begin to understand the types of people who may be engaged by these messages, and who may not be. Results suggest that the framing of the communications for many schemes could be broadened to appeal to a more diverse group (and thus ultimately to a larger group) of landholders.     

多元信息综合的市县国土空间规划空间功能识别方法

空间功能识别是确定国土空间规划空间开发保护格局的关键环节,理论和实践意义重大。基于土地利用和地表覆盖现状、精细化DEM、地形单元等基础地理信息,水、生态、环境、灾害等专题数据,社会统计数据等多元信息,利用空间分析、多元统计、计量模型、基于规则的分类模型等技术方法,从多元信息综合集成和自动分类识别的角度,研究构建了一套市县国土空间规划空间主导功能识别的关键技术与方法,并对榆林市域进行空间功能分区。研究表明：本文方法有效将地理实体单元、功能评价指标综合于统一的地域单元,保证了空间功能分类识别的准确性;通过自动分类算法建模,实现空间功能识别的自动化,提高了国土空间规划的客观性和工作效率。     

Socio-economic Impacts of Local Environmental Policies: An analysis for the field of climate protection

Local environmental policies are sometimes seen as standing in the way of socio-economic progress. Against the background of these concerns, the actual socio-economic impacts of climate protection measures are discussed in this paper. It is structured as follows. First, the concept of primary and secondary effects of climate policies is introduced. Secondly, there is a discussion of financial and economic impacts of local climate policies. Finally, information is given on the consequences of such measures for local energy security and air quality. The main conclusion is that, at least in the field of climate policies, there is a huge potential for local measures that are socioeconomically attractive to local communities. HAUKE VON SEHT, Impactos socio-económicos de políticas del medio ambiente local, un análisis para el campo de protección climática . Las políticas ambientales locales son vistas algunas veces como si estuvieran en la via del progreso socio-económico. En contra de los antecedentes de estos asuntos, los impactos socio-económicos actuales de las medidas de protección climaticas son discutidos en este documento. Está extructurado de la siguiente manera: Primero serán introducidos el concepto de efectos primarios y secundarios de las políticas climáticas. Luego sigue una discusión de impactos económicos y financieros de las políticas climáticas locales, seguido por información de las consecuencias de tales medidas para la calidad del aire y seguridad de energía local. La conclusión principal es que por lo menos en el campo de las políticas climáticas hay un inmenso potencial de medidas locales que son socio-económicamente actractivas a las comunidades locales.     

Policy integration for adaptive water governance: Learning from Scotland's experience

This paper contributes to on-going attempts at bringing together two influential ideas in water governance: Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM) and adaptive governance. In particular, a tension remains between the call in IWRM for the use of formal institutions, such as river basin organisations, to secure public policy integration, and the assumptions in adaptive governance in favour of informal collaboration between essentially independent policy actors. To clarify this relationship, this article draws on theoretical research on public policy integration, and uses these insights in an empirical setting to identify mechanisms that can facilitate effective policy integration for adaptive water governance. The research is based on recent attempts in Scotland to implement IWRM ideas to improve flood management. Several governance mechanisms were adopted to facilitate the integration of flood, water and rural land use policies. Six Scottish policy regimes are analysed using documentary sources and interviews. Results challenge the idea that collaboration should primarily be built on either river basin organisations or informal mechanisms. We identify a mix of informal and statutory-based mechanisms which may secure political and technocratic commitment to policy integration.     

农用地资源修正法定级之技术路线探讨——以佛山市高明区为例

目前我国农用地资源定级很少运用修正法,少数学者对修正法定级做过尝试性的实证研究工作,以期探讨修正法定级技术路线的科学性与可行性.在前人研究的基础上,以佛山高明区为例,探讨了修正法定级之修正基础的确定、修正因素的选择、修正系数的计算、定级指数的确定等几个关键技术步骤,提出了以农用地自然质量等指数作为修正基础,采用标准化方法对修正因素分值进行订正,用连乘法计算农用地质量定级指数来划分农用地级别的修正法定级的技术路线,并与因素法定级的成果进行对比分析与验证.     

发达与欠发达地区耕地保护行为中的利益机制分析

本文从当前发达与欠发达地区耕地保护上的利益矛盾入手，以它们之间的内在经济关系为基础，运用局部均衡分析方法，构建了一个简单的经济模型，对上述矛盾“零和博弈”的长期效应进行了揭示，并讨论了消除这种不良影响的政策或制度安排。     

我国城市化过程中水土资源利用问题的认识

改革开放以来，我国城市化过程出现快速发展时期，特别是长江下游地区（长江三角洲及其周边地区），由于人口与产业不断集聚，重大基础设施项目投资加大，道路网密度增加，开发区扩大，使得城市空间迭加扩展，造成了严重的水土资源利用失衡，生态环境日趋恶化，使本地区城市发展出现了许多新问题。以长江下游地区为例，对本区城市化过程中有关水土资源环境恶化、水污染增加、土地资源流失，以及城镇化速度过快的情况，作了深入分析论证，同时对长江下游地区水土资源合理开发利用与保护提出了新的思维、新的方法措施，特别是对如何加强长三角地区水质环境的整治提出了4点切实可行的办法与措施，为本地区的经济发展与生态安全提供科学依据.     

科尔沁沙地生态系统服务价值变化研究

研究土地利用变化引起的区域生态系统服务价值的改变。可定量评价土地利用活动对区域生态环境的影响。基于1995年和2000年的土地利用数据．应用谢高地等人制定的中国陆地生态系统单位面积服务价值表．估算了科尔沁沙地土地利用变化引起的生态系统服务价值的改变。结果表明。从1995—2000年5年间。科尔沁沙地的耕地增加4．87％。林地减少2．25％。草地减少0．03％．水域减少1．32％．湿地增加0．54％，城乡工矿居民用地减少3．21％。未利用地减少8．83％；研究区内土地利用变化的区域差异性很大．表现为大部分旗县仍维持着毁林毁草开荒的不合理土地利用活动。科尔沁沙地生态系统服务价值从1995年的1463．67亿元增加到2000年的1467．36亿元。净增加值为3．69亿元，增幅为0．25％；其增加值并非因耕地面积增大所产生．而是个别旗县的大面积沙荒地得到有效治理所致。     

三峡库区城镇建设用地驱动因子路径分析

随着三峡大坝的修建．三峡经济飞速发展．带动了利用三峡库区城镇建设用地的变化。本文以三峡库区21个县市1995—2005年城镇建设用用地的变化量为主要研究对象。结合1995-2005年期间第二产业与第三产业的集中指数与区位商的空间分布变化。采用路径分析建模的方法。奠立了城镇建设用地与固定资产投资、社会商品零售总额、第二产值、第三产值及城镇人口的路径模型．确定了备影响因子对蜮镇建设用地变化的影响程度。其中第二产值对城镇建设用地的变化影响最大．影响力最小的是城镇人口。此项研究进一步验证了路径分析模型在土地利用变化驱动力分析研究中的可行性．同时也为库区城镇建设用地的控制提供了参考。