Creating False Images: Stream Restoration in an Urban Setting

Stream restoration has become a multibillion dollar business with mixed results as to its efficacy. This case study utilizes pre‐ and post‐monitoring data from restoration projects on an urban stream to assess how well stream conditions, publicly stated project goals, and project implementation align. Our research confirms previous studies showing little communication among academic researchers and restoration practitioners as well as provides further evidence that restoration efforts tend to focus on small‐scale, specific sites without considering broader land use patterns. This study advances our understanding of restoration by documenting that although improving ecological conditions is a stated goal for restoration projects, the implemented measures are not always focused on those issues that are the most ecologically salient. What these projects have accomplished is to protect the built environment and promote positive public perception. We argue that these disconnects among publicized goals for restoration, the implemented features, and actual stream conditions may create a false image of what an ecologically stable stream looks like and therefore perpetuate a false sense of optimism about the feasibility of restoring urban streams.     

Achieving Integrative, Collaborative Ecosystem Management

Abstract:  Although numerous principles have been identified as being important for successfully integrating social and ecological factors in collaborative management, few authors have illustrated how these principles are used and why they are effective. On the basis of a review of the ecosystem management and collaboration literature, we identified eight factors important for integrative, collaborative ecosystem management—integrated and balanced goals, inclusive public involvement, stakeholder influence, consensus group approach, collaborative stewardship, monitoring and adaptive management, multidisciplinary data, and economic incentives.We examined four cases of successful ecosystem management to illustrate how the factors were incorporated and discuss the role they played in each case's success. The cases illustrate that balancing social and ecosystem sustainability goals is possible. Collaborative efforts resulted in part from factors aimed at making plans economically feasible and from meaningful stakeholder participation in ongoing management. It also required participation in monitoring programs to ensure stakeholder interests were protected and management efforts were focused on agreed-upon goals. Data collection efforts were not all-inclusive and systematic; rather, they addressed the ecological, economic, and social aspects of key issues as they emerged over time. Economic considerations appear to be broader than simply providing economic incentives; stakeholders seem willing to trade some economic value for recreational or environmental benefits. The cases demonstrate that it is not idealistic to believe integrative, collaborative ecosystem management is possible in field applications.     

公共资源与最优产权选择

公共资源是指在产权界定过程中，资源所有者被迫放弃或者没有进行产权界定的资源部分,而产权界定本质上是划分公共资源归属权的过程。根据组织对公共资源控制权的性质，将其分为两类——组织间公共资源和组织内公共资源，并据此将产权界定、生产和交易纳入同一个分析框架中。通过分析，认为随着公共资源范围的变化，不同产权形成一个相互联系和转化的系列，即从资源非稀缺条件下的纯公共产权到资源全为废弃物的纯公共产权系列；不可交易的所有权是产权系列中的特殊形式，私人产权和俱乐部产权是这一系列中的过渡形式；组织内和组织间的均衡博弈结构决定最优产权的具体选择形式。     

环境侵权的公益诉讼研究

环境权是公民的法定权益，通过诉讼的途径和机制排除环境侵害是最为有效和可取的。本文正是在分析了环境侵权的种类及特点的基础上，对环境侵权提起公益诉讼进行了研究，并指出建立环境侵权公益诉讼制度的可行性和必要性。     

CITIZEN INFLUENCE IN WATER POLICY DECISIONS: CONTEXT, CONSTRAINTS, AND ALTERNATIVES

ABSTRACT: The desirable proportion of citizen input into policy making and the proper mechanism for that input engender substantial conflict in the water resources arena. Nevertheless, discussions of citizen participation in water policy formation generally occur within narrow perspectives both with regard to the issues involved and the alternative mechanisms by which that participation can be realized. This paper examines the historical and current contexts of the controversies and presents a discussion of the alternative processes for citizen influence - called linkage. The linkage processes discussed include direct participation, citizen advisory committees, the pressure group model, the electoral model and the bureaucratic model. Each linkage process is discussed in terms of who is considered the public, how the public influence works, the limitations of the process, and what available water policy-related data suggest regarding the adequacy of the process.     

中日韩循环经济政策比较研究

在中国经济迅猛发展的同时，投资主导型的经济模式中环境保护要素的缺失导致我国工业化发展旱、中期的资源、能源约束、效率低下和浪费严重。在我国实施循环经济刻不容缓。循环经济政策是依据不同的社会、经济和环境条件而制定的。由于历史的原因，中日韩三国在地缘关系、政治传统、风俗习惯、文化教育等内在制度和外在制度彼此趋同，反映在循环经济政策的制定、执行上也有某些相似的地方。对三国循环经济的历史和现状进行比较研究，得出有益于我国的经验，无疑具有很重大的现实意义。采用制度变迁的基本理论作为指导，运用历史研究法、调查研究法等方法进行研究，对中日韩循环经济政策演变的历程进行系统梳理和比较，深入全面地考量其指导思想和举措的选择动机，系统广泛地从多方面研究中日韩循环经济政策。并将三者加以比较，以得出对我国循环经济的发展具有较强借鉴意义的经验，更好地推进循环经济在我国的发展。     

Application of American Civil Action to Public Interest Action in Environmental Protection of China

Economic development has made a negative impact on the environment.However,our proceedings on public interest action are almost blank,causing many of the cases related to the environmental protection to be rejected by the court for the reason that the prosecutors fail to provide enough evidence.Therefore,we can take the U.S.system of civil action for reference to improve our public interest action while employing proxy litigation.The measures can be included as follows:relax the plaintiff qualifications;establish the necessary lead procedures;invert the responsibility of providing evidence.     

推进我国减灾事业的三个支柱

本文阐述推进我国减灾事业的3个支柱,即:(1)发挥政府的主导作用;(2)重视科学技术在减灾中的作用;(3)依靠全民的参与。     

The Orthodoxy And Sustainable Development A Potential For Broader Involvement Of The Orthodox Churches In Ethiopia And Russia

In recent years, churches across the world have become involved in dialogue on the theory and practice of sustainable development. A number of Western churches have expressed their concern about climate change and destructive living patterns, stressing the need for human beings to exercise the care for all creation based on a life of sharing and sacrifice. Some Orthodox churches, however, quite recently included the environmental issues in their agendas. While the Bases of Social Concept, a major doctrine of the Russian Orthodox Church adopted in 2000, for the first time emphasises the Churchs position in overcoming environmental crisis and presents a solid basis on which to build the future environmental strategy of the Church, the Ethiopian Orthodox Church has not yet drawn up a programme document that might serve as a framework for the Churchs current extensive activities in the field of biodiversity conservation and sustainable forestry practices. Hence, despite certain closeness of both institutions, there is the potential for strengthening their roles in promoting sustainable development, based on the Biblical concept that the Earth belongs to the Lord and humans are responsible stewards assigned the duty to work for creation and care for it. This paper seeks to demonstrate by means of comparable analysis between the two Churches, Orthodox in nature but different in rites and religious practices, that traditional, highly conservative faiths may serve as powerful instruments of spreading out the ideas of sustainable development as the basis of spiritual revival in the situation of the two concurrent and interrelated crises – spiritual and ecological.Readers should send their comments on this paper to: BhaskarNath@aol.com within 3 months of publication of this issue.     

公路网规划环境影响评价中的困难和不确定性分析

首先分析了公路网规划环境影响评价中的困难,即评价方法的不成熟和获取资料的困难;然后重点分析了评价中的公路网规划方案的不确定、环境信息的不确定、空间信息的不确定和环境影响程度的不确定;最后提出了 4种解决困难和降低不确定的方法,即制定公路网规划环境影响评价技术导则,使用基于情景分析的预测方法,广泛开展公众参与以及通过多方协作的方式开展环境影响评价工作.