Complex property rights and Coasean bargaining in natural resource management

ABSTRACT

This paper contributes to the debate on whether private or common property rights are better for advancing the sustainable management of natural resources. This contest between public and private ownership is often exaggerated, we claim, because in the real world, complex entitlements with varying degrees of privateness/publicness prevail. Property rights belonging to families, companies, clubs, corporations, and communities are simultaneously common to the members/shareholders and private to the entities. We call these entitlements private-common entitlements. When we acknowledge this complexity, it becomes evident that neither private nor common ownership rights are alone responsible for resource depletion. Instead, depletion is caused by freeriding or evading the payment of the full price of natural resources. This invites Coase’s solution to resource allocation. Therefore, the key problem is whether and how Coasean bargaining is employed to allocate ownership over resources threatened by depletion. We contribute to the debate by showing that Coase’s approach promotes not only economically efficient but also ecologically sustainable resource management. Often, this approach would lead to the establishment of largely private property or control rights by largely collective/public entities. We apply this theoretical framework to the development of a ski resort in Pirin Mountain, Bulgaria.     

Investigation of stakeholders' awareness and adoption of Inherently Safer Design (ISD) principles in South African utility industry projects

The paper examines the level of awareness of stakeholders in adopting Inherently Safer Design (ISD) principles in the Project Life Cycle Management (PLCM) of South African Energy utility projects. It seeks to understand whether stakeholders in the latter stages of the Project Life Cycle are competent to make design change decisions on these projects. ISD principles are essentially useful for reducing risks and as such, safety experts have acknowledged it as an excellent approach in the design process. However, there are no known efforts to date that attempt to integrate ISD concepts into PLCM. This paper seeks to fill this gap. This study, through the review of extant literature establishes that ISD principles can be used in project procurement, and adopts a quantitative survey approach in obtaining information from stakeholders in the South African utility industry. Findings reveal that the principles of inherent safety are permeating into the management of South African utility projects but the level of awareness and its adoption are below optimal levels. It also emerged that there is a divergent awareness of ISD strategies amongst PLCM stakeholders and that the design engineers are better informed about the ISD approach of eliminating risks and hazards in the industrial systems studied than other stakeholders. The findings also indicate that the level of awareness of stakeholders of ISD principles is greater within earlier project phases. Based on these findings, the paper concludes that the hazards witnessed within the project execution and finalization phases could be as a result of the low levels of awareness, divergent views and lower use of ISD strategies by PLCM stakeholders. It is suggested that the level of awareness of the principles, concepts, basics and benefits of integrating ISD into PLCM be raised amongst stakeholders functioning within utility industry project procurement in South Africa and that design changes be limited to the earlier phases of utility project procurement.     

Household self‐blame for disasters: responsibilisation and (un)accountability in decentralised participatory risk governance

The most important theoretical argument concerning decentralised participatory governance is that it can make a government more accountable for the needs of the governed. Key to this process are participatory spaces that act as mechanisms for dialogue between citizens and local government. However, within Cochabamba, a city in the centre of Bolivia, South America, ‘at‐risk’ citizens engage minimally with disaster risk issues in participatory spaces, despite high levels of civic participation. This is because ‘at‐risk’ populations view disasters as a private/household problem that is symptomatic of household error, rather than seeing them as a broader public problem due to wider structural inequalities. Consequently, they redistribute responsibility for disaster risk reduction towards households, which (re)produces the absolution of government authorities as guarantors of disaster risk reduction. This paper challenges the normative assumption that participatory spaces facilitate democratic deliberation of disaster risk reduction and the downward accountability of local government for disaster risk reduction.     

整体性治理视域下防治外来物种入侵法治研究

外来物种入侵是威胁国家生物多样性、生态安全和公众健康的重大安全问题。《生物安全法》的通过为防治外来物种入侵提供了综合性的制度规范。我国防治外来物种入侵法治实践长期以行政规制为主导,较少关注司法机关、企事业单位、社会组织和公众等法律主体在治理中的作用。行政规制治理中执法机构及其职能与管理手段的碎片化,亦无法回应高风险社会防治外来物种入侵的需要。我国防治外来物种入侵法治建设应当坚持整体性治理理念,以整体安全观为指导,坚持风险预防、防治结合,明确综合管理程序及责任法律制度和一体化协同执法机制,健全防治外来物种入侵行政规制体系;引入公众参与,形成政府、企事业单位、社会组织和公众协同治理外来物种入侵,鼓励外来物种入侵公益诉讼等,完善防治外来物种入侵的多元共治体系,共促国家生物安全治理体系。     

Transnational environmental standards in Eastern Europe: an assessment of companies in Lithuania and their adoption motives

During the last few decades, many environmental certification schemes were developed to enhance transparency and traceability within commodity chains. Most of them are transnational schemes, which means that they were created by non-governmental organizations and/or the private sector, independently from governments. This article aims to examine how local certified companies assess the functioning of such private environmental certification. It presents the results of an empirical research about the expectations and satisfaction of certified companies in Lithuania. Empirical data were collected through a survey with 90 companies certified by one of the three major transnational environmental standards: Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) for the forestry and logging, Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) for fishing and aquaculture, and Oeko-Tex for the production of textiles. The results revealed that most companies have adopted these standards quite recently, indicating that it is generally a new trend in Lithuania. The findings suggest that the overall expectations with the standards’ functions, such as sending signals to clients or getting more market share, were higher than the satisfaction in all cases. The main transnational environmental standard adoption motive was the client demand. It turned out, however, that later after the certification procedure the majority of the companies were most satisfied with the market opportunities that opened up. Furthermore, the companies expected certification to operate best as a market-based mechanism; but most satisfactory performance was accredited to the signalling mechanism. Research suggests that certification provides various benefits for the companies, but the expectations might be rather exaggerated.     

退耕还林工程对四川盆周低山丘陵区生态系统服务价值的影响——以洪雅县为例

退耕还林工程是我国实施的重点林业生态工程。以四川盆周低山丘陵区退耕还林工程重点示范县洪雅县为研究对象,基于遥感和地理信息系统技术,参照中国陆地生态系统单位面积生态系统服务价值当量表,结合研究区粮食平均产量和收购价格,分析了退耕还林前(1994-1999年)、后(1999-2007年)的生态系统服务价值变化,探讨了退耕还林工程对生态系统服务价值的影响。结果表明:退耕还林工程在一定程度上使土地利用程度呈减弱趋势,土地利用处于衰退阶段;退耕前,生态系统服务价值变化不明显;退耕后,生态系统服务价值发生显著变化,总生态系统服务价值增加2.90×10⁸元,可能是由于退耕还林使耕地生态系统服务价值降低,林地生态系统服务价值增加;各项生态功能服务价值中,食物生产功能价值下降,其它各项功能价值上升,以水源涵养功能上升最大,水源涵养价值增加0.78×10⁸元;敏感性分析表明,研究区生态系统服务价值对生态系统服务价值系数变化缺乏弹性,研究结果具有稳定性。     

中国大型发电上市公司ESG评价体系开发与分值研究

如今,世界各地上市公司正将利润最大化这一短期目标转向环境、社会及管治(ESG)可持续发展这一长期目标,更加清楚地认识到ESG已经构成了企业风险的重要来源之一,并可能影响公司的财务绩效。本文基于状态、压力、响应与层次分析(PSR-AHP)指标分类与权重配比方法构建中国大型发电上市公司ESG评级体系,并应用该评价体系对中国大型发电上市公司ESG绩效进行研究。结果发现,其ESG综合得分波动性大,在研究期最后两年走势不甚理想,其中社会绩效得分及其趋势表现优于环境及管治绩效;在环境及社会绩效方面,响应性指标表现优于压力性指标,而状态性指标走势较为稳定。最后,本文从披露深度及质量、第三方介入、奖惩及强制性披露措施等方面给出政策建议。     

A roadmap for the conservation of freshwater mussels in Europe

Europe has a long history of human pressure on freshwater ecosystems. As pressure continues to grow and new threats emerge, there is an urgent need for conservation of freshwater biodiversity and its ecosystem services. However, whilst some taxonomic groups, mainly vertebrates, have received a disproportionate amount of attention and funds, other groups remain largely off the public and scientific radar. Freshwater mussels (Bivalvia, Unionida) are an alarming example of this conservation bias and here we point out six conceptual areas that need immediate and long-term attention: knowledge, threats, socioeconomics, conservation, governance and education. The proposed roadmap aims to advance research, policy and education by identifying the most pressing priorities for the short- and long-term conservation of freshwater mussels across Europe.     

引滦工程上游浮游植物及其水质评价

对引滦入津工程沿线上游水域进行浮游植物种类区系组成、现存量(密度、生物量)及分布等内容进行了调查研究,并结合历史资料和国内相似水体研究结果的分析,对调查水域进行了水生态环境质量评价。结果表明,调查水域整体上可初步划定为中营养型,水质状况尚好。但下游的潘家口和大黑汀水库网箱养鱼的发展一定程度上影响了局部水域,由此引起的水体富营养化趋势应引起足够的重视。      

Shareholder activism on environmental issues: A study of proposals at large US corporations (2000–2003)

Socially Responsible Investing (SRI) has carved out a niche in the financial world, and each year a large number of shareholder proposals are filed at public companies in the US related to issues of corporate social responsibility (CSR). While the primary interests of CSR activists remain distinct from those of traditional corporate governance (CG) activists, the two groups do share an interest in minimizing the risk of negative environmental or social impacts from the operations of the corporation. They also share the objective of achieving transparency and accountability in corporate decision‐making. In relation to this latter objective, they both face similar challenges concerning conflicts of interest among key institutional shareholders. This article examines the record of shareholder proposal filing and voting from 2000–2003 for 81 large US public corporations to determine the relative prominence of CSR shareholder activism and the prospects for effective CSR shareholder activism on key environmental issues. The analysis of these data finds that nearly half (45%) of all shareholder resolutions are related to CSR, and that those resolutions which combine issues of CSR with traditional CG activism appeal to slightly more shareholders than issues of CSR alone. The article also examines shareholder activism at the micro level with a case study of the voting record at ExxonMobil. The article finds that CSR‐related shareholder activism represents the majority of shareholder activism within that firm and that resolutions targeted at climate change are particularly well supported. These resolutions draw a connection between environmental risk and risk to shareholder value. While numerous challenges remain for both CG and CSR activists, the article concludes that reforms that strengthen shareholder rights and corporate governance more generally will also benefit CSR activists and the environmental policies they promote in particular. The article ends with some proposed solutions for addressing the perceived conflicts of interest in corporate governance and the shareholder voting process.