Disasters and disabled persons: An examination of the safety needs of a neglected minority

Disasters do not affect everyone in the same way. Safety needs of the ten per cnet of the population who are disabled prior to disaster must be ascertained; contingency plans and preparations should be made to ensure that disabled persons. Consideration of the safety needs of disabled persons in disasters seems to have beenlargely neglected by emergency services and those voluntary and statutory organizations directly concerned with disablement.     

Trends in Deforestation and Forest Degradation after a Decade of Monitoring in the Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve in Mexico

We used aerial photographs, satellite images, and field surveys to monitor forest cover in the core zones of the Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve in Mexico from 2001 to 2012. We used our data to assess the effectiveness of conservation actions that involved local, state, and federal authorities and community members (e.g., local landowners and private and civil organizations) in one of the world's most iconic protected areas. From 2001 through 2012, 1254 ha were deforested (i.e., cleared areas had <10% canopy cover), 925 ha were degraded (i.e., areas for which canopy forest decreased), and 122 ha were affected by climatic conditions. Of the total 2179 ha of affected area, 2057 ha were affected by illegal logging: 1503 ha by large‐scale logging and 554 ha by small‐scale logging. Mexican authorities effectively enforced efforts to protect the monarch reserve, particularly from 2007 to 2012. Those efforts, together with the decade‐long financial support from Mexican and international philanthropists and businesses to create local alternative‐income generation and employment, resulted in the decrease of large‐scale illegal logging from 731 ha affected in 2005–2007 to none affected in 2012, although small‐scale logging is of growing concern. However, dire regional social and economic problems remain, and they must be addressed to ensure the reserve's long‐term conservation. The monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus) overwintering colonies in Mexico—which engage in one of the longest known insect migrations—are threatened by deforestation, and a multistakeholder, regional, sustainable‐development strategy is needed to protect the reserve. Tendencias en la Deforestación y la Degradación de Forestal después de una Década de Monitoreo en la Reserva de la Biósfera de la Mariposa Monarca en México     

Is the WTO after your water? The General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) and poor people's right to water

The General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) seeks to expand international trade in a wide range of services ranging from tourism to telecommunications and education. In recent years, it has come under attack from civil society organizations in both the North and the South for having a detrimental impact on poor people's right to basic services. This article explores some of these controversies, using the example of water services. It focuses specifically on the impact of the GATS on poor people's right to water and national governments’ ability to safeguard the interests of poor people through regulation. It demonstrates that, de jure, the liberalization of water‐related services under the GATS may not necessarily undermine the ability of governments to introduce the kind of legislative measures necessary to realize poor people's right to water. Still, de facto, the exercise of policy autonomy might be substantially curtailed due to inherent ambiguities in treaty interpretation, the politics of process arising out of power asymmetries, a lack of transparency in processes of negotiation as well as institutional and other deficiencies in the domestic politics of WTO member states.     

Climate Change Reporting in Great Lakes Region Newspapers: A Comparative Study of the Use of Expert Sources

This study focuses on the use of science sources as experts in news stories about climate change coverage in the Great Lakes region of the US and Canada. We examine, using the hierarchy of influences model, whether the use of scientific sources in climate change coverage may be related to factors such as geographic location, reporting frequency, and authorship, in the prestige press as well as regional and local media. The study found that as many or more non-scientists than scientists are selected as sources regardless of geographic location, reporting frequency, or authorship. However, the study also found that the more stories reporters produce on this topic, the more likely their stories are to use and give prominence to science sources. In addition, the articles included few denier sources, but denier views are more likely to appear in a more prominent location in the articles than supporters when stories are framed as conflict over global warming. These results highlight the need for additional research examining the expertise of climate scientists in news stories to better understand news decision-making in the context of complex scientific reporting.     

基于遥感的辽河三角洲湿地生态系统服务价值评估

利用中巴资源卫星对辽河三角洲盘锦湿地类型进行调查的基础上,综合应用环境经济学、资源经济学等方法对辽河三角洲湿地生态系统的服务功能价值进行了评估,得出该区域湿地生态系统的服务功能总价值为90.243×108元RMB.休闲娱乐、大气组分调节、物质生产和水文调节是该区域湿地生态系统服务功能价值的主要贡献者,分别占到系统总服务功能价值的25.93%、25.03%、22.35%和20.44%.     

生态环境导向的开发(EOD)模式的理论逻辑与实践探索

本文基于生态环境导向的开发(EOD)模式的理论溯源,对中国式EOD模式的理论逻辑与实践探索进行了系统梳理。EOD模式以国际上“生态导向”的发展理念和市场化生态系统服务付费机制相结合作为理论源头,理论基础主要有生态系统服务付费理论、亨利乔治定理、公共选择理论。中国式EOD模式具有项目制、企业主体、增肥哺瘦和生态反哺的特征,核心逻辑是形成以生态资源支撑产业开发、以产业收益反哺生态修复的价值链闭环,即生态产品价值的转化与反哺。中国式 EOD模式是在生态文明建设的时代背景下,为缓解地方政府生态环境保护的资金压力与金融风险这一现实需求涌现出来的创新性实践探索,也是“绿水青山就是金山银山”转化路径创新。     

长江经济带生态系统服务权衡与协同及其驱动因素

生态系统服务及其变化是多种因素驱动的复杂过程,了解生态系统服务之间的权衡与协同作用及其驱动因素,对于实现生态系统服务有效管理和人类福祉至关重要.以长江经济带为研究区域,分析了2000~2020年产水、土壤保持、碳固定和粮食供给这4项生态系统服务的时空变化特征,运用相关性分析和地理加权回归识别和量化了生态系统服务间的权衡与协同关系,在此基础上应用偏最小二乘结构方程模型探究自然与人类活动对生态系统服务的影响,再通过地理探测器分析生态系统服务关系变化的驱动机制.结果表明:①近20年来,碳固定服务年均值由946.14 t·km^-2增至1 202.73 t·km^-2,粮食供给均值则由32.73万元·km^-2增至127.22万元·km^-2;产水和土壤保持服务增加幅度较小.②整体上,碳固定与土壤保持、粮食供给与产水为协同关系,其他生态系统服务之间为权衡关系;生态系统服务间的关系在不同地区存在一定的差异.③地形和气候是生态系统服务及多对生态系统服务权衡与协同关系的重要驱动因素,其中结构方程模型结果表明,气候对产水为正向影响（S = 0.73）,地形对粮食供给为负向影响（S = -0.57）;地理探测器结果揭示,影响碳固定与产水在空间上关系的主要驱动因子为海拔（q = 0.38）和降水（q = 0.19）.研究结果可为长江经济带生态系统服务可持续管理和实现该区域生态环境保护与社会经济的协同发展提供科学参考.     

Journalistic Norms,Cultural Values,and Coverage of Climate Change in the Philippines

Developing nations have tended to have been overlooked in studies of climate reporting. This study is based upon a content analysis of three daily newspapers in the Philippines to examine climate change coverage compared to reporting by Western wire services. In addition, the study draws on individualist–collectivist theory to theorize about differences in reporting between the Philippine and Western wire sources. Despite the historic influence of the American news system on Philippine journalism, the study finds that Western journalistic norms do not describe Philippine climate reporting well and that Filipino-penned articles are more likely to include the value of collectivism rather than individualism. This suggests that national cultural differences may be reflected in climate reporting.     

Pollinators,pests, and predators: Recognizing ecological trade-offs in agroecosystems

Ecological interactions between crops and wild animals frequently result in increases or declines in crop yield. Yet, positive and negative interactions have mostly been treated independently, owing partly to disciplinary silos in ecological and agricultural sciences. We advocate a new integrated research paradigm that explicitly recognizes cost-benefit trade-offs among animal activities and acknowledges that these activities occur within social-ecological contexts. Support for this paradigm is presented in an evidence-based conceptual model structured around five evidence statements highlighting emerging trends applicable to sustainable agriculture. The full range of benefits and costs associated with animal activities in agroecosystems cannot be quantified by focusing on single species groups, crops, or systems. Management of productive agroecosystems should sustain cycles of ecological interactions between crops and wild animals, not isolate these cycles from the system. Advancing this paradigm will therefore require integrated studies that determine net returns of animal activity in agroecosystems.

Electronic supplementary material

The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s13280-015-0696-y) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.     

A Case Study of Ecosystem Services in Urban Planning in Finland: Benefits,Rights and Responsibilities

The concept of ecosystem services is entering the agenda of land-use planning and scientists optimistically expect it to inform planners and decision-makers about the benefits that ecosystems provide. While tools and methods have been developed for mapping and valuing ecosystem services, only little attention has been paid to the practical application of the approach or its institutional preconditions and implications. We empirically analysed two urban planning processes for building residential areas in the outskirts of growing population centres in Finland. Our analysis of documents and interviews with planners focused on the benefits provided by ecosystems as well as the associated rights and responsibilities. We found that the concept ‘ecosystem service’ was not used, yet various benefits were identified. The rights of different stakeholders to ecosystem services were not explicitly identified, but many ecosystem services were perceived as public goods and particularly access to recreation was highlighted as an important justification for green areas. The results show that while the ecosystem services approach introduces new insights to land-use planning, it is still not embedded in the current practices or institutions. Operationalizing ecosystem services requires institutional adaptation, case-specific tailoring of methods, and deliberation among practitioners and stakeholders.