农村水环境保护与经济可持续发展

我国的生态环境问题 ,如水土流失、草场退化、沙漠化、盐渍化等问题 ,归根到底还是农村水环境问题。本文分析了农村水环境保护、高效利用水资源的紧迫性 ,以及影响农村生态系统可持续性的因素和保护、改善农村水环境的主要措施 ;认为加强农村水环境保护及其持续发展能力的建设是我国整个社会特别是农村经济可持续发展的基本保障     

Rethinking the contribution of indigenous management in small-scale water provision among selected rural communities in Cameroon

This paper describes the pro-active role of rural communities in negotiating livelihood and sustenance through the improvement of some of their local water sources. It discusses the strategies put in place to ensure the availability of water, one of the worlds scarcest natural resources. Despite some external assistance, local communities are increasingly shouldering the responsibility of ensuring the availability of water through self-reliant efforts. These attempts are being undermined by a high incidence of waterborne and water-related diseases, which are impacting on health, and hygiene and other health care delivery systems. The management of potable water is proving to be a herculean task for most communities after the departure of funding partners. To guarantee the proper maintenance of pipe borne water schemes, communities are rethinking their strategies as they grapple with difficulties to put in place viable techniques for sustainability of water supply schemes.Readers should send their comments on this paper to: BhaskarNath@aol.com within 3 months of publication of this issue.     

Public Participation and Effective Water Governance at the Local Level: A Case Study from a Small Under-Developed Area in Chile

The concept of participation in rural development has been evolutionary for the past two decades with those involved, such as development agencies and governments, particularly in rural water supply, re-evaluating their active role. The move towards effective community participation has encouraged a shift from the traditional top-down to a bottom-up approach whereby there is a decentralisation of unevenly distributed resources and power to empower a community and allow mobility of ‘people participation’. The Molinos water project is the first large-scale development project of its kind introduced into the village of Molinos in an under-developed area of Chile, where there has been no tradition of people participation. The project objective was to implement a low technology, low budget water treatment plant to the village of Molinos. Various aspects have hindered the continued development of the project including both technical and financial. In terms of people participation, the initial approach used was the top-down approach. There was a failure to fully integrate the community or inform the community in a formal manner about the project and consult them regarding key project issues. This case study illustrates that the lack of comprehensive consultation and the low level of participation of the community on the participatory scale does not achieve much in terms of people-centred benefits. For governance at the local level to be effective, participation should be inclusive and communicative so as to enhance transparency throughout the project lifetime. Readers should send their comments on this paper to: BhaskarNath@aol.com within 3 months of publication of this issue.     

石林风景名胜区对乡村经济发展的影响

石林风景名胜区始建于20世纪30年代,旅游开发经历了居民游览、服务中心城市的接待观光型到区域支柱产业的转型。经济体制深刻地影响了石林旅游业,旅游产品延续了计划经济体制下形成接待观光游览型,形成以门票收入为主体的旅游经济收入格局,对不同层次的经济发展带来不同的影响。石林旅游业对县级经济收入、产业结构、财政、税收有积极影响,近5年石林旅游业占当地GDP的9%～11%,占第三产业产值的27.9% ～33%、财政收入的10.8%～0.1%,但对农业生产、农村居民就业和家庭收入的带动力弱,有明显的“距离衰减效应”。获得旅游效益的居民限于风景区旅游中心的村寨,约占风景区人口的15%,中心旅游区的第三产业就业人员比例比其它地区高7%～35%。中心区农民参与旅游业方式的调查表明,居民参与旅游业的方式被动：耕地被征用后,或被风景名胜区管理部门雇佣、或成个体工商户、或被外来企业雇佣,就业领域局限于餐饮服务、环卫和绿化、民族工艺品制作与销售、照相、旅游交通、导游等。风景区农村的基础建设、产业结构、就业领域与风景区功能和旅游业目标的协调存在距离。促进风景名胜区旅游业对所在地的“三农”发展的协调值得思考和解决。     

村镇生活垃圾重金属含量及其来源分析

对全国12个省份72个典型村镇的生活垃圾进行采样调查,系统分析我国村镇生活垃圾中重金属污染特征及其可能来源.结果表明,我国北方典型村镇生活垃圾中重金属As、Hg、Pb、Cd、Cr、Cu、Zn和Ni的含量分别为(7.51±8.89)、(0.64±0.42)、(21.91±12.29)、(4.82±8.37)、(86.36±59.99)、(36.43±15.98)、(62.19±36.61)和(46.07±25.22)mg·kg-1,南方典型村镇生活垃圾中重金属As、Hg、Pb、Cd、Cr、Cu、Zn和Ni的含量分别为(7.43±8.82)、(0.83±0.74)、(21.62±13.76)、(1.84±4.55)、(131.06±74.96)、(37.20±16.80)、(98.04±63.71)和(46.75±25.75)mg·kg-1.与《城镇垃圾农用控制标准》(GB 8172-87)和《土壤环境质量标准》(GB 15618-1995)二级标准相比,重金属Cd和Hg超标较严重.通过聚类分析、Pearson相关分析和主成分分析解析垃圾中重金属污染物的来源,结果表明我国典型村镇生活垃圾中Pb和Cd主要来源于厨余、灰土、橡塑类和纸质等印刷品,Hg主要来源于厨余和灰土,Zn和Cr主要来源于灰土,Cu主要来源于电子、电池类废弃物和尘土、橡塑、纸质等印刷品,Ni主要来源于废弃的电子、电池类产品,As主要来源于杀虫剂等农药和肥料.     

Evaluation of ecotourism development in rural regions of China

The current status of ecotourism in rural China was analyzed in this paper.Empirical surveys covering the whole country indicate that ecotourism in rural China has attracted a large number of tourists who,however,didn’t generate revenues that can match the number.Although the environmental quality of those rural ecotourism destinations is high with little negative impacts,several problems have already appeared,suggesting a need to monitor those areas.The current practice of interpretation in most rural ecotourism destinations did not provide environmental education opportunities to the tourists.And local communities need more effective ways to decide on the prospects of local ecotourism development by themselves.Finally,a few recommendations for improving the sustainability of ecotourism destinations were provided.     

Oil dependency,political institutions,and urban–rural disparities in access to electricity in Africa

In line with the resource curse literature, this paper examines the effect of oil dependency on the disparities in access to electricity between urban and rural areas in Africa, conditional on the quality of political institutions. Based on data from 36 African countries over the period 2000–2017, our investigation suggests that oil rents (% of GDP) increase urban–rural disparities in access to electricity. However, the quality of institutions shapes the effect of oil dependency on these disparities. Specifically, a 10% increase in the institutional quality score reduces the adverse effects of oil rent on electricity access disparity by around 19%, and the negative impact of oil dependency on urban–rural disparities is reversed when institutional quality reaches a score of 52% on a scale from 0 to 100. The robustness tests support these results and call for strengthening the quality of institutions to overcome the resource curse in Africa.     

Impacts of rural to urban migration,urbanization, and generational change on consumption of wild animals in the Amazon

For the first time in history, more people live in urban areas than in rural areas. This trend is likely to continue, driven largely by rural-to-urban migration. We investigated how rural-to-urban migration, urbanization, and generational change affect the consumption of wild animals. We used chelonian (tortoises and freshwater turtles), one of the most hunted taxa in the Amazon, as a model. We surveyed 1356 households and 2776 school children across 10 urban areas of the Brazilian Amazon (6 small towns, 3 large towns, and Manaus, the largest city in the Amazon Basin) with a randomized response technique and anonymous questionnaires. Urban demand for wild meat (i.e., meat from wild animals) was alarmingly high. Approximately 1.7 million turtles and tortoises were consumed in urban areas of Amazonas during 2018. Consumption rates declined as size of the urban area increased and were greater for adults than children. Furthermore, the longer rural-to-urban migrants lived in urban areas, the lower their consumption rates. These results suggest that wild meat consumption is a rural-related tradition that decreases as urbanization increases and over time after people move to urban areas. However, it is unclear whether the observed decline will be fast enough to conserve hunted species, or whether children's consumption rate will remain the same as they become adults. Thus, conservation actions in urban areas are still needed. Current conservation efforts in the Amazon do not address urban demand for wildlife and may be insufficient to ensure the survival of traded species in the face of urbanization and human population growth. Our results suggest that conservation interventions must target the urban demand for wildlife, especially by focusing on young people and recent rural to urban migrants. Article impact statement: Amazon urbanite consumption of wildlife is high but decreases with urbanization, over time for rural to urban migrants, and between generations. Impactos de la Migración del Campo a la Ciudad, la Urbanización y del Cambio Generacional sobre el Consumo de Animales Silvestres en el Amazonas     

农村经济活动对云南野生稻居群的影响

云南野生稻包括普通野生稻(O.rufipogon Griff)、疣粒野生稻(O.meyeriana Baill)和药用野生稻(O.officinalis Wall),是属于全国仅存的几处宝贵基因资源库之一。野生稻具有许多优良特性及其相应的基因,在栽培稻育种和生物技术利用等方面具有巨大的潜力。文章在对云南野生稻居群长期调查或考察的基础上,分析了云南野生稻居群濒危的现状,认为热区经济开发、游牧、木材消耗、采集草药、外来种入侵和环境污染等农村经济活动是致濒的主要因素。阐明了选择合理的保护方法、加大普法和执法力度、完善保护体制与运行机制、调整种植结构是当前云南野生稻居群保护管理与经济协调发展的四项重点措施。     

传统生存方式变迁对农村环境的影响

随着农村社会经济的发展,农户的生存方式开始逐步由传统的生存方式逐步转变为现代的生存方式。在具体的案例研究过程中,我们既可以看到传统生存方式的环境友好的一面,也可以看到传统生存方式变迁过程中农户经济行为变化对于农村环境的不利影响。与此同时,社会经济发展过程中,新的现代生产生活要素的介入,在不断使农户的生活逐步走向现代化的同时,也带来了种种环境问题。总之,农村环境问题的产生既有传统生存方式本身存在的问题,也来自于生存方式变迁过程中新的外部物质的介入,因此,对于农村环境的改善需要同时从这两方面着手,在改善农户生存方式的同时,更要从根本上控制外部的污染物质的介入。