Reconciling people's livelihoods and environmental conservation in the rural landscapes in Kenya: Opportunities and challenges in the Amboseli landscapes

Two of the eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in September 2000 are: eradication of extreme poverty and hunger; and ensuring environmental sustainability. The link between depressed livelihoods and unsustainable use of land and natural resources can be seen in Kenyan rangelands. Here, the local community is dependent on land and its resources for livelihoods, but the demand and competition is increasing, endangering both the resources they depend on and threatening environmental health. Amboseli is an Arid and Semi-Arid Land (ASAL) area that experiences ecological constraints, resource limitations, and low economic investment. Local communities in such landscapes are resource-dependent for their daily livelihoods, and have few socio-economic opportunities. Pastoralism, which is the main source of their wealth, continues to decline and exploitation by a few local elites and poor local leadership further depresses livelihoods. Other challenges to these poor rural landscapes are increasing human population which increases demands on natural resources and environment; persistent hunger; low universal primary education; poor gender equality and empowerment of women; environmental degradation; and lack of local and global partnership for development. This paper focuses on the two Millennium Development Goals mentioned above. Linkages, challenges and opportunities in enhancing rural livelihoods while promoting environmental sustainability in rural landscapes of the Amboseli Rural Landscape are discussed.     

环境税条件下项目可进入与退出期权博弈分析

环境税是解决当前日趋严重的环境与经济发展冲突问题的有效手段之一,研究其如何影响投资者进入与退出项目的竞争策略是更好地制定环境税收政策的前提。与现有文献不同,本文应用期权博弈理论,构建煤电项目双寡头期权博弈模型,分进入和退出两种情况分析项目最优转换策略,并且定量分析环境税税率对最优转换临界值的影响。结果表明:环境税税率与最优转换临界值呈正比关系,即环境税率越低,项目越容易进入,并且更加难以退出;当存在竞争威胁时,投资者会加速进入与退出项目,当环境税强度逐渐变大时,将超过项目相互竞争的影响并起主要作用;在进入情况时存在等待、抢先进入和同时进入均衡,在退出情况时存在不退出、抢先退出和同时退出均衡,最后,分别给出各个均衡条件下环境税政策及影响,为政府制定环境税政策提供一种分析思路。     

Can Science Writing Collectives Overcome Barriers to More Democratic Communication and Collaboration? Lessons from Environmental Communication Praxis in Southern Appalachia

Despite compelling reasons to involve nonscientists in the production of ecological knowledge, cultural and institutional factors often dis-incentivize engagement between scientists and nonscientists. This paper details our efforts to develop a biweekly newspaper column to increase communication between ecological scientists, social scientists, and the communities within which they work. Addressing community-generated topics and written by a collective of social and natural scientists, the column is meant to foster public dialog about socio-environmental issues and to lay the groundwork for the coproduction of environmental knowledge. Our collective approach to writing addresses some major barriers to public engagement by scientists, but the need to insert ourselves as intermediaries limits these gains. Overall, our efforts at environmental communication praxis have not generated significant public debate, but they have supported future coproduction by making scientists a more visible presence in the community and providing easy pathways for them to begin engaging the public. Finally, this research highlights an underappreciated barrier to public engagement: scientists are not merely disconnected from the public, but also connected in ways that may be functional for their research. Many field scientists, for example, seek out neutral and narrowly defined connections that permit research access but are largely incompatible with efforts to address controversial issues of environmental governance.     

Embracing sustainability: the incorporation of sustainability principles in municipal planning and policy in four mid-sized municipalities in Ontario,Canada

The issue of planning for sustainability is becoming more established within Canadian municipal planning. As municipalities begin to align their planning policy to reflect a more sustainable approach, there is an increased interest in how sustainability is being operationalised within municipal documents. This research aims to better understand how principles of sustainability are imbedded within Ontario municipal documents, with a specific focus on the Integrated Sustainability Community Planning approach that has emerged in Canada. Drawing on a nested comparative case study of four mid-sized municipalities, we uncover the language and strategies employed by the municipalities as they relate to the principles of sustainability developed by Gibson [2006a. Sustainability assessment: basic components of a practical approach. Impact Assessment and Project Appraisal, 24 (3), 170–182]. The findings suggest that current policy-based approaches to sustainability are considering more socially oriented strategies focused on promoting community involvement, inclusive decision-making, equity, socio-ecological civility, long-term integrative planning, and responsibility through stewardship. However, there are potential limitations that will require future research to examine policy outcomes associated with sustainability uptake. The ICSP approach must still overcome the issues relating to lack of regulatory authority and the incorporation of policies based on popular trends rather than empirical evidence.     

Sustainable decisions on the agenda – a decision support tool and its application on climate-change adaptation

A decision support tool aiming to facilitate discussion and transparency in land-use planning processes has been developed. It includes process steps initiating with an analysis of the current situation, identification of relevant actions and sustainability analysis steps. The sustainability was subdivided into human health and environment, resources, and social and economic impacts. The main difference between this risk analysis tool and others is the allowance of comparisons of present risks and consequences of measures early in the process. It also includes assessments from short- and long-term perspectives, such as taking into account climate change. It combines classic risk analysis with life-cycle assessment procedure. It has been developed and tested in co-operation with municipalities. The tests show that the tool is applicable and can be relevant in the planning process. It offers an iterative discussion framework that is systematic, condensed and yet a simplistic way of describing consequences. The criticism is that it is regarded as time demanding, but this can be managed by preparatory work.     

Bridging conceptual “silos”: bringing together health promotion and sustainability governance for practitioners at the landscape scale

Environmental health issues are examples of “wicked problems” that require cross-sectoral collaboration at the community level, yet health practitioners and environmental stakeholders find it challenging to see how and why they could be working together. Supportive organisations have been identified as the most vital enabler for individual professionals to participate actively in cross-sectoral initiatives. Ability to justify inter-professional cooperation makes it easier for practitioners to gain the necessary approvals within their institutional mandates. This paper introduces a new conceptual framework that bridges health promotion and sustainability governance to facilitate practical cross-sectoral collaboration that targets complex health-related environmental and social-ecological challenges. The proposed framework integrates six concrete overlapping themes linking health promotion and sustainability governance. The framework also highlights examples of areas where the fields could benefit from one another. Moreover, children's environmental health is proposed as a desirable overall outcome and an attractive venue for potential collaboration, because of its critical role in the public health and well-being of future generations. As a determinant of adult health, children's environmental health emphasises the vital interdependencies between health and the environment.     

A new approach to natural capital sustainable development

The three-dimension (3D) ecological footprint makes the analysis of the relationships between the demand and supply of natural capital more credible by importing footprint depth and footprint size. This article used China’s regions as the object to analyze the high-level sustainability of the natural capital from the view of “ecology – efficiency – fairness” multidimensional framework. Research showed that China’s ecological footprint has risen while bio-capacity per capita has descended in recent 20 years. This paper also discusses the spatial distribution of China’s natural capital ecological sustainability, efficiency sustainability and fairness sustainability. Finally, it builds multi-criteria evaluation (MCE) models to get multidimensional sustainability framework taking ecological sustainability, efficiency sustainability, and fairness sustainability into consideration.     

可持续性科学:基于对象—过程—主体的分析模型

2015年9月,联合国通过了未来15年即2016-2030年的全球可持续发展目标(SDGs),这意味着可持续发展将进一步成为指导全球经济社会发展的核心概念和中轴原理。基于这个背景,对可持续发展的理论和方法加强整合性的研究,已经成为具有战略性意义的任务。本文提出基于对象-主体-过程的可持续性科学的分析模型,对理论研究和政策分析中的一些经常碰到的关键问题进行辨析:在对象维度,强调可持续发展是在生物物理极限内的经济社会发展,指出环境、社会、经济三个方面有重要的包含互补关系而不是简单的并列替代关系;在过程维度,强调可持续发展将适应性治理和源头性预防结合起来,运用压力-状态-响应即PSR方法进行全过程管理,而不是应对其中一个环节;在主体维度,强调利益相关者参与影响着可持续发展的理论和实践,不能脱离合作治理研究可持续发展。作为案例应用,讨论了可持续性科学视角下的绿色经济的对象、过程、主体问题及其意义。     

国内外生态补偿基础理论与研究热点的可视化分析

随着人类面临的生态环境问题加重,生态补偿已成为国内外学者广泛关注的热点问题。为清晰地了解国内外生态补偿的研究现状和未来发展,以Web of Science、中文社会科学引文索引（CSSCI）数据库中1998～2011年有关生态补偿的929篇文献为基础,应用CiteSpace II 软件分析了论文发表数量、文献共被引和关键词共现等特征,并以知识图谱可视化的方式,归纳了近年来生态补偿的重要学术文献和生态补偿领域的研究热点。结果表明：1998~2011年,生态补偿论文数量呈现波动增长趋势;全球气候变化背景下碳汇、REDD生态补偿,生态补偿分区及实施后的评价,湿地、自然保护区、流域尺度生态系统服务功能评估与补偿标准,计算机软件如GIS、SWAT、InVEST等在生态补偿中的应用是当前生态补偿的研究热点。相对于国外而言,国内生态补偿的理论研究较多;但近年来在森林、流域、自然保护区和湿地等方面的实践探索得到了加强     

科技信任、管理信任及其对公众水灾风险认知的影响——基于长江中下游的社会调查

信任和风险在一定程度上互为因果,两者通过认知行为决策及行为后果这一环节构建互馈关系。探索公众对社会减灾能力的信任及其对灾害风险认知的影响机制,有助于揭示灾害风险的潜在因素,调适风险认知与避灾行为,从而降低灾害风险。选取水灾发生频繁、强度大、防洪措施多样的长江中下游地区为研究区,运用随机抽样调查和入户访谈相结合的方式获取资料,研究公众的水灾科技信任和管理信任的水平、影响机制、动机-效应差异。主要结论有:①公众科技信任水平普遍高于管理信任。信任水平受到公众性别、年龄、灾害经历、城乡差异等因素不同程度的影响,信任具有区域共构的特点;②科技信任改变了公众水灾风险认知,加强了其灾害应对信心,降低了其对受灾风险的估测,对其避灾行为倾向影响显著,而管理信任对公众水灾风险认知及防灾备灾行为倾向的影响均不大;③信任的产生动机以认可减灾措施有用性为前提,科技减灾和管理减灾由于具有不同的减灾原理及作用时段,导致了公众的不同信任动机及其效应。