Ethical considerations when conservation research involves people

Social science is becoming increasingly important in conservation, with more studies involving methodologies that collect data from and about people. Conservation science is a normative and applied discipline designed to support and inform management and practice. Poor research practice risks harming participants and, researchers, and can leave negative legacies. Often, those at the forefront of field-based research are early-career researchers, many of whom enter their first research experience ill-prepared for the ethical conundrums they may face. We draw on our own experiences as early-career researchers to illuminate how ethical challenges arise during conservation research that involves human participants. Specifically, we considered ethical review procedures, conflicts of values, and power relations, and devised broad recommendations on how to navigate ethical challenges when they arise during research. In particular, we recommend researchers apply reflexivity (i.e., thinking that allows researchers to recognize the effect researchers have on the research) to help navigate ethical challenges and encourage greater engagement with ethical review processes and the development of ethical guidelines for conservation research that involves human participants. Such guidelines must be accompanied by the integration of rigorous ethical training into conservation education. We believe our experiences are not uncommon and can be avoided and hope to spark discussion to contribute to a more socially just conservation.     

Regional environmental assessment (REA) and local Agenda 21 implementation

The implementation of sustainable development requires several support instruments. One of the major instruments in the Rio Declaration to support this process has been environmental assessment that has been given considerable emphasis as to its potential ability to help achieve more sustainable forms of development. Regional environmental assessment (REA) has shown to be effective in supporting local sustainable development process. Selected environmental assessment methods have been␣used to improve the REA exercise and provide reliable data for decision-making not only to correct environmental problems due to past unsustainable social-economic developments but also help local governments to implement Agenda 21 (AG21) plans and projects.     

New Institutional Mechanism in China Facilitating the Global Sustainability—Environment to Be Counted in Officials' Performance Rating

Abstract

Having argued the importance of China's sustainable development in global sustainability, the authors review the achievements of China in sustainable development, especially its institutional construction. Environment to be counted in official's political performance rating system is thought of as a new institutional mechanism in China facilitating its sustainable development and then global sustainability. Then its significance is narrated and visions in future are envisioned. In the end, certain concrete suggestions for the rating system are given in a practical way.     

从意愿到行动:中国地方环保局的机构能力研究

越来越多的研究将中国的环境问题归因于执法不严.但是,很少有人探索环保机构能力和环境管制以及执法之间的关系.在前人对国家能力研究的基础上,发展了一套指标体系对中国地方环保局的机构能力进行评价,并分析了环保机构能力和污染物减排之间的关系.研究表明:具有较好人力资本(而不是预算更多)的地方环保局能够更好地从事环境监管工作,地方环保局的机构能力提升对污染物减排产生显著正面效果;另外,严格的环境监管却不一定会改善环境状况.那些工业治理环境能力强的地区通常工业较发达,污染物排放量大,抵消了环保局监管执法所产生的正面收益.由此可见,要缩小环境法律法规规定的目标和环境现状之间的差距,仅靠监管手段创新和增强地方环保局的机构能力是不够的,中国还需要努力开展全社会监管环境的制度建设.     

对环境监测系统体制改革的几点思考

应坚持“环境监测实质上是一项政府行为”的定位，通过明确职能、职责、作用，实行新的运行管理机制，来推动环境监测在市场经济条件 下的体制改革。     

Portrayal of sustainability principles in the mission statements and on home pages of the world's largest organizations

Conservation can be achieved only if sustainability is embraced as core to organizational cultures. To test the extent to which the related concepts of sustainability, conservation, response to climate change, poverty alleviation, and gender equity have been incorporated into organizational culture, we compared mission statements published from 1990 to 2000 with those published in 2014 for 150 organzations, including conservation nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), aid NGOs, government development agencies, resource extraction companies, and retailers (30 in each category). We also analyzed the 2014 home web pages of each organization. Relative to the earlier period, the frequency with which mission statements mentioned poverty alleviation, biodiversity conservation, and a range of sustainable practices increased only slightly by 2014, particularly among resource extractors and retail companies. Few organizations in any sector had embedded either climate change or gender equity into their mission statements. In addition, the proportional intensity with which any of the aspirations were expressed did not change between periods. For current home pages, conservation NGOs, resource extractors, and government agencies were significantly more likely to acknowledge the importance of matters that were not part of their core business, but few aid agencies or retail companies promoted goals beyond alleviation of crises and profit maximization, respectively. Overall, there has been some progress in recognizing poverty alleviation, biodiversity conservation, and sustainable practices, but gender equity and a determination to reduce impacts on climate change are still rarely promoted as central institutional concerns. Sustainability in general, and biodiversity conservation in particular, will not be achieved unless their importance is more widely apparent in core communication products of organizations.     

The local governance of climate change: new tools to respond to old limitations in Esmeraldas,Ecuador

This article argues that climate change, seen as a socially constructed anticipation of natural disasters and a future-risk that plays out in present politics, is enabling the emergence of new modes of governance in cities of the global south. The article focuses on the process by which the city of Esmeraldas, Ecuador, developed a Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation Strategy. Within the context of climate change adaptation, Esmeraldas mobilised new discourses, stakeholders, and planning mechanisms to address pre-existing urban planning and development limitations. This discursively enabled the municipality's ongoing governance project by leveraging resources, creating consensus, and informing practice. Climate change adaptation thus became an important mechanism for engaging with local priorities, particularly those of the most vulnerable populations, and for bridging the gap between the formal world of policymaking and the reality of life in the city, which is more often structured by informality.     

Responding to climate change as a transformative stressor through metro-regional planning

This paper characterises climate change as a “transformative stressor”. It argues that institutional change will become increasingly necessary as institutions seek to reorientate governance frameworks to better manage the transformative stresses created by climate change in urban environments. Urban and metropolitan planning regimes are identified as central institutions in addressing this challenge. The operationalisation of climate adaptation is identified as a central tenet of a comprehensive urban response to the transformative stresses that climate change is predicted to create. Operationalisation refers to climate adaptation becoming incorporated, codified and implemented as a central tenet of urban planning governance. This paper has three purposes. First, it examines conceptual perspectives on the role of transformative stressors in compelling institutional change. Second, it establishes a conceptual approach that characterises climate change as a transformative stressor requiring institutional change within planning frameworks. Third, it reports emergent results and analysis from an empirical inquiry which examines how the metro-regional planning regime of Southeast Queensland has responded to climate change as a transformative stressor via institutional change and the operationalisation of climate adaptation.     

生态环境重大工程项目全过程管理体系评价与对策

生态环境重大工程是实施国家中长期规划、具有中国特色的一项制度安排。本研究通过梳理我国重大生态环境工程项目管理现状,包括制度建设、工程标准体系建设、绩效管理体系建设等,结合“十四五”生态环境保护形势和任务要求,分析当前我国在生态环境工程项目管理体系建设上存在的主要问题。在此基础上,构建出我国重大生态环境项目组织管理的框架和路线图,提出“十四五”加强和提升我国重大生态环境保护项目全过程管理的对策与建议。     

全国党校(行政学院)系统学习贯彻习近平生态文明思想理论研讨会综述

2018"全国党校(行政学院)系统学习贯彻习近平生态文明思想理论研讨会"成功召开,达成了至少以下三方面的共识:首先,习近平生态文明思想发源于福建,发展和成熟于浙江,是习近平新时代中国特色社会主义思想最富原创性的成果之一。这一重要思想体现了"一脉相承",体现了对马克思主义理论和我国传统文化的继承与发展。其次,生态文明建设的"四梁八柱"已搭建完成,下一步的重点在于如何落实。从地方推进改革的战略维度,关键要坚持与强化党的全面领导,着力解决突出环境问题,推进绿色发展主导,优化国土空间开发规划,注重制度建设与创新引领。最后,生态文明建设领域的学科建设与教学培训尚处于起步阶段。与会学者提出了几组反映中国经验及其逻辑和特征的核心概念或实践探索,包括生态系统生产总值(GEP)核算、生态产品的内涵及其价值实现,以及自然资源资产负债表编制等。