Incorporating basic needs to reconcile poverty and ecosystem services

Conservation managers frequently face the challenge of protecting and sustaining biodiversity without producing detrimental outcomes for (often poor) human populations that depend on ecosystem services for their well-being. However, mutually beneficial solutions are often elusive and can mask trade-offs and negative outcomes for people. To deal with such trade-offs, ecological and social thresholds need to be identified to determine the acceptable solution space for conservation. Although human well-being as a concept has recently gained prominence, conservationists still lack tools to evaluate how their actions affect it in a given context. We applied the theory of human needs to conservation by building on an extensive historical application of need approaches in international development. In an innovative participatory method that included focus groups and household surveys, we evaluated how human needs are met based on locally relevant thresholds. We then established connections between human needs and ecosystem services through key-informant focus groups. We applied our method in coastal East Africa to identify households that would not be able to meet their basic needs and to uncover the role of ecosystem services in meeting these. This enabled us to identify how benefits derived from the environment were contributing to meeting basic needs and to consider potential repercussions that could arise through changes to ecosystem service provision. We suggest our approach can help conservationists and planners balance poverty alleviation and biodiversity protection and ensure conservation measures do not, at the very least, cause serious harm to individuals. We further argue it can be used as a basis for monitoring the impacts of conservation on multidimensional poverty.     

基于农户视角的脱贫类型划分与路径研究——以新晃侗族自治县84个出列村为例

以新晃侗族自治县（以下称“新晃县”）84个出列村农户为研究对象,从基础设施、教育医疗、收入状况、产业发展四个方面构建脱贫成效指标体系,对2019年新晃县出列村农户脱贫成效的空间格局、脱贫类型划分与路径进行研究。结果表明：（1）新晃县出列村农户脱贫成效呈现出明显的空间分异特征,基础设施脱贫成效平均得分为2.53,整体呈“北高南低”的态势;教育医疗脱贫成效平均得分为2.65,呈现出“东南高、西北低”的空间分布格局;收入脱贫成效平均得分为2.48,呈高、中、低得分区域交替分布态势;产业脱贫成效平均得分为4.23,但差异明显,仅东部、南部少数村域得分较高。（2）新晃县出列村农户脱贫类型可分为单因素主导脱贫型、双因素驱动脱贫型、多因素综合脱贫型三个大类和F因素主导型、F-E因素驱动型、P-E-I因素综合型等13个小类,同时针对不同脱贫类型提出巩固脱贫成效的策略与路径。     

边境贫困县建设用地变化特征与驱动因素——以广西龙州为例

边境贫困县的土地利用、城镇发展与脱贫攻坚事关边境稳定和可持续发展大局。论文选取广西壮族自治区的龙州县为案例研究区域,以2011年和2016年高分影像作为主要数据源,结合社会经济数据,探讨该县近年建设用地时空变化特征及驱动因素。研究结果表明：1）龙州县主要建设用地的增幅达10.08%,其中城镇用地、农村宅基地、独立工矿用地、交通设施用地和旅游设施用地的增量分别占建设用地增量的37.74%、25.48%、20.96%、15.49%和0.33%;2）县城涉及的龙州镇、上龙乡建设用地增加较快,边境口岸城镇的建设用地增速也较快;3）从建设用地扩展模式来看,县城龙州镇为填充式扩张,其他乡镇为边缘式扩张;4）城镇发展提速、农民新房建设、工业园区建设、交通设施建设是建设用地扩张的直接驱动因素,近年来精准扶贫战略的深化落实、边境贸易活动的不断增多,是重要的政策驱动力。研究建议：深化落实贫困县建设用地倾斜政策,针对贫困县的建设用地,在省市层面要明确总量、增加流量,在县域层面要用好增量、优化布局、提高效率,切实助力脱贫攻坚和乡村振兴。     

粤北山区相对贫困村的脱贫潜力评价及类型划分——以连州市为例

贫困村的脱贫能力直接影响脱贫工作的成效,研究发达省份欠发达地区相对贫困村的脱贫潜力问题有助于确保我国脱贫任务的全面完成。论文以广东省欠发达地区粤北连州市为例,从村级尺度出发分析其相对贫困村的基本特征,进而构建脱贫潜力评价体系,借助层次分析法和熵权法共同确定评价因子权重,利用加权求和方法完成连州市66个相对贫困村的脱贫潜力等级评价,并利用脱贫制约因素得分划分脱贫潜力类型。结果表明：1）连州市的相对贫困村自然区位条件较差,经济基础非常薄弱,耕地资源相对匮乏,受政策约束影响较大,空间分布呈集聚型;2）脱贫潜力评价指标体系包括自然区位、资源条件、经济因素、社会保障和设施配套等5个要素层共22个因子,其中权重占比最大的是经济因素和设施配套的6个因子;3）脱贫潜力评价结果划分为5个等级,其中属于脱贫潜力中等以上的相对贫困村占65.15%,说明连州市相对贫困村的脱贫潜力总体情况较好;4）脱贫潜力类型划分中,优先脱贫型占16.67%,稳步脱贫型占28.79%,重点帮扶型占54.54%。研究结果能为地方政府制定精准的脱贫策略提供科学有效的支撑与指引。     

Impacts of Marine Protected Areas on Fishing Communities

Abstract: Marine protected areas (MPAs) are a popular conservation strategy, but their impacts on human welfare are poorly understood. To inform future research and policy decisions, we reviewed the scientific literature to assess MPA impacts on five indicators of human welfare: food security, resource rights, employment, community organization, and income. Following MPA establishment, food security generally remained stable or increased in older and smaller MPAs. The ability of most fishing groups to govern MPA resources changed. Increased resource rights were positively correlated with MPA zoning and compliance with MPA regulations. Small sample sizes precluded statistical tests of the impacts of MPAs on employment, community organization, and income. Our results demonstrate that MPAs shape the social well‐being and political power of fishing communities; impacts (positive and negative) vary within and among social groups; and social impacts are correlated with some—but not all—commonly hypothesized explanatory factors. Accordingly, MPAs may represent a viable strategy for enhancing food security and empowering local communities, but current practices negatively affect at least a minority of fishers. To inform policy making, further research must better document and explain variation in the positive and negative social impacts of MPAs.     

A sustainable development metric based on youth

Nearly two decades ago, the World Bank declared achieving sustained and equitable development to be the greatest challenge facing the human race. In this article, an index of youth investment (IYI) is proposed to highlight children and the intergenerational dimension of sustainable development. The index incorporates quality-adjusted measures for child health and education. Comparisons with two complementary indicators of sustainable development, the human development index (HDI) and the adjusted net saving rate (AS), are made. A cross-section of 34 nations for 2006 is used as an illustration. A discussion of policies for promoting sustainable development through investing in children concludes the article.     

省域旅游扶贫工程研究

旅游扶贫工程是解决贫困问题、促进区域协调发展的重要途径。以广东为代表，在省城范围内开展的立体化协作旅游扶贫工程是一个实践创新，上个月政府主导、区域协调、系统动作、产业扶贫等特点和优势。本文在广东三年多来的实践基础上，首次提出“省域旅游扶贫工程”概念，并对这一新兴的旅游扶贫模式进行了系统研究，探讨了其运行机制，分析了其实施过程中可能面临的挑战和误区，最后提出了基于政策实践的相关建议。     

Poverty and the Deterioration of Natural Soil Capital in the Peruvian Altiplano

The Peruvian altiplano is a marginal agricultural region with limited infrastructure, climate constraints, and high levels of poverty. Data were collected from 265 farms in four different agricultural regions, and data from three of those regions are analyzed here. Regressions were run with soil nutrient loss, soil depth loss, and yield loss over the past 20 years, as perceived by farmers. Location, topographical and management factors were considered. Additional regressions were run to examine the determinants of two agricultural management practices which were found to affect soil quality, namely fallowing and ploughing vertical furrows. Use of traditional fallowing (aynoca) was associated with helping to preserve soil quality, and was practiced by households with more education, with higher non-farm income, and in villages which had benefitted from natural resource development projects. Vertical furrowing similarly was associated with helping preserve soil quality, and was practiced by households with fewer unmet basic needs. These results have implications for the agricultural and development strategies to be followed in the region.     

西部脆弱环境分布与贫困关系的研究

西部环境脆弱与贫困的关系是人与自然和谐发展、构建和谐社会的重要研究课题。通过对西部环境脆弱程度、环境脆弱带和贫困县的分布特征、贫困地区的经济情况和人口密度的分析,发现西部环境脆弱与贫困之间存在较为复杂的双向因果关系。这为西部制定脱贫、生态恢复等政策提供了较为可靠的理论依据。     

The impact of the New Cooperative Medical Scheme in Sangzhi County,Hunan Province

In August 2011,the Sangzhi County government,Hunan Province,adopted a series of new health care policies as a national pilot of the New Cooperative Medical Scheme(referred to as 2011 NCMS).These policies were designed to further resolve illness-led poverty and the poor state of health care in the local area.The program had a positive impact and spread to other regions in Hunan Province.This paper will discuss the progress made as a result of the policies and several issues that challenge the scheme in practice.A total sample of 1212 individuals and 303 households were included in the analysis,and98 interviews were conducted with people related to the scheme.Our major findings indicate that the 201!NCMS has significantly reduced the out-of-pocket medical payment of rural residents,and also increased the township hospitals’patient flow.However,the medical scheme still faces many challenging issues during the implementation.With the increasing interest among the Chinese policy makers in strengthening and promoting the Sangzhi Model,the impacts of the scheme deserve greater attention in practice so as to further improve NCMS in rural China.