Impact of payments for environmental services and protected areas on local livelihoods and forest conservation in northern Cambodia

The potential impacts of payments for environmental services (PES) and protected areas (PAs) on environmental outcomes and local livelihoods in developing countries are contentious and have been widely debated. The available evidence is sparse, with few rigorous evaluations of the environmental and social impacts of PAs and particularly of PES. We measured the impacts on forests and human well‐being of three different PES programs instituted within two PAs in northern Cambodia, using a panel of intervention villages and matched controls. Both PES and PAs delivered additional environmental outcomes relative to the counterfactual: reducing deforestation rates significantly relative to controls. PAs increased security of access to land and forest resources for local households, benefiting forest resource users but restricting households’ ability to expand and diversify their agriculture. The impacts of PES on household well‐being were related to the magnitude of the payments provided. The two higher paying market‐linked PES programs had significant positive impacts, whereas a lower paying program that targeted biodiversity protection had no detectable effect on livelihoods, despite its positive environmental outcomes. Households that signed up for the higher paying PES programs, however, typically needed more capital assets; hence, they were less poor and more food secure than other villagers. Therefore, whereas the impacts of PAs on household well‐being were limited overall and varied between livelihood strategies, the PES programs had significant positive impacts on livelihoods for those that could afford to participate. Our results are consistent with theories that PES, when designed appropriately, can be a powerful new tool for delivering conservation goals whilst benefiting local people.     

Progress and challenges in consolidating the management of Amazonian protected areas and indigenous territories

Effective management refers to the ability of a protected area or indigenous territory to meet its objectives, particularly as they relate to the protection of biodiversity and forest cover. Effective management is achieved through a process of consolidation, which among other things requires legally protecting sites, integrating sites into land‐use planning, developing and implementing management and resource‐use plans, and securing long‐term funding to pay for recurrent costs. Effectively managing all protected areas and indigenous territories in the Amazon may be needed to avoid a deforestation tipping point beyond which regional climatic feedbacks and global climate change interact to catalyze irreversible drying and savannization of large areas. At present, protected areas and indigenous territories cover 45.5% (3.55 million km²) of the Amazon, most of the 60–70% forest cover required to maintain hydrologic and climatic function. Three independent evaluations of a long‐term large‐scale philanthropic initiative in the Amazon yielded insights into the challenges and advances toward achieving effective management of protected areas and indigenous territories. Over the life of the initiative, management of sites has improved considerably, particularly with respect to management planning and capacity building, but few sites are effectively managed and many lack sufficient long‐term financing, adequate governance, support of nongovernmental organizations, and the means to withstand economic pressures. The time and money required to complete consolidation is still poorly understood, but it is clear that philanthropic funding is critical so long as essential funding needs are not met by governments and other sources, which could be on the order of decades. Despite challenges, it is encouraging that legal protection has expanded greatly and management of sites is improving steadily. Management of protected areas in other developing countries could be informed by improvements that have occurred in Amazonian countries.     

The effect of protected areas on forest disturbance in the Carpathian Mountains 1985–2010

Protected areas are a cornerstone for forest protection, but they are not always effective during times of socioeconomic and institutional crises. The Carpathian Mountains in Eastern Europe are an ecologically outstanding region, with widespread seminatural and old‐growth forest. Since 1990, Carpathian countries (Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, and Ukraine) have experienced economic hardship and institutional changes, including the breakdown of socialism, European Union accession, and a rapid expansion of protected areas. The question is how protected‐area effectiveness has varied during these times across the Carpathians given these changes. We analyzed a satellite‐based data set of forest disturbance (i.e., forest loss due to harvesting or natural disturbances) from 1985 to 2010 and used matching statistics and a fixed‐effects estimator to quantify the effect of protection on forest disturbance. Protected areas in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and the Ukraine had significantly less deforestation inside protected areas than outside in some periods; the likelihood of disturbance was reduced by 1–5%. The effectiveness of protection increased over time in these countries, whereas the opposite was true in Romania. Older protected areas were most effective in Romania and Hungary, but newer protected areas were more effective in Czech Republic, and Poland. Strict protection (International Union for Conservation of Nature [IUCN] protection category Ia‐II) was not more effective than landscape‐level protection (IUCN III‐VI). We suggest that the strength of institutions, the differences in forest privatization, forest management, prior distribution of protected areas, and when countries joined the European Union may provide explanations for the strikingly heterogeneous effectiveness patterns among countries. Our results highlight how different the effects of protected areas can be at broad scales, indicating that the effectiveness of protected areas is transitory over time and space and suggesting that generalizations about the effectiveness of protected areas can be misleading.     

空气污染对劳动供给与人力资本效能发挥的影响及路径

在空气污染问题尚未得到有效解决的背景下,理清空气污染与劳动者劳动供给行为及人力资本效能的关系,有助于为优势人力资本发挥、环境规制政策制定、环境治理投资收益评价提供参考。研究利用2014、2016和2018年中国劳动力动态调查（CLDS）数据及空气质量指数（AQI）,采用多层次回归模型从微观视角考察了空气污染对个体劳动供给和人力资本效能发挥的影响,并利用逐步检验法、bootstrap法等分析方法检验了三者之间的机制关系。研究结果表明：①空气污染会显著抑制劳动者劳动供给,但收入的增加会在一定程度上降低空气污染带来的负面影响。②空气污染对不同群体劳动者劳动供给行为的影响具有显著的异质性特征。老龄劳动者、低人力资本水平劳动者及非城市户籍劳动者会因空气污染的加重更多地降低劳动供给。③通过进一步机制检验发现,空气污染会显著降低个体劳动生产率,并负作用于劳动力集聚,进而阻碍人力资本效能的发挥,降低个体劳动供给,这种影响机制在不同群体劳动者间呈现出明显差异性。④劳动供给模型拓展方面,个人社会保障程度、所在家庭主事者是否是独生子女等因素都是影响个体劳动供给的重要因素。个人受社会保障的程度越高,个体劳动供给越倾向于降低;所在家庭主事者是独生子女的劳动者会倾向于减少其劳动供给。因此,继续推进环境规制,优化城市空气质量,并合理处理环境规制与就业之间的关系,不仅有助于缓解人口老龄化带来的劳动供给不足压力,还将有助于推动中国劳动力资源的合理流动,促进人力资本效能的发挥,助推中国经济的高质量发展。     

Deposition Inputs,Water Quality and Liming Effectiveness

Rainfall quantity and quality, and stream and loch water quality have been monitored throughout the Loch Fleet Project. This has allowed the effects of liming of parts of the catchment to be monitored, and assessments made of the effectiveness and duration of these treatments. Rainfall over 1989–1993 fluctuated around the long-term average of 2100 mm. Over this time, year by year variations in acid or sulphate loading from deposition was evident and quite substantial. There was no trend, however, reflecting reductions in national sulphur emissions. Liming parts of the catchment in 1986 increased stream and loch water pH and calcium concentrations and reduced inorganic aluminium concentrations. Improved stream and loch water quality has been maintained for more than eight years since liming.     

气泡雾化细水雾灭火有效性实验研究

气泡雾化技术是一种双流体的细水雾发生方法。作者根据气泡雾化的雾化机理自行设计了一种气泡雾化喷嘴,并通过先进的实验诊断手段和模拟实验,对该喷嘴产生的细水雾的雾场特性进行了测量,研究了其熄灭煤油火和酒精火的有效性,为发展新型的细水雾发生方法积累了必要的实验数据。     

基于HNAC-FD的高速公路网应急疏导措施效用评估

为安全有效地疏散突发事件造成的高速公路网拥堵,评估不同应急疏导措施的效用,首先,分析突发事件下高速公路网拥堵传播消散规律,基于提出的高速公路节点容纳能力(HNAC),结合基本图(FD)模型,建立HNAC-FD消散计算模型;然后,根据疏散案例交通流数据,使用Vissim软件搭建仿真模型,仿真分析不同疏导措施对疏散交通流速度的影响,并利用Logistic速密模型计算路网各个区段的交通流状态;最后,根据高速公路网突发事件案例,设计不同疏导措施方案,并通过HNAC-FD模型计算拥堵消散时间,从事件影响消散时间和拥堵队列车辆平均行程时间,评估不同疏导方案的效用。结果表明:疏导措施会延迟事件影响消散,但能提升疏散交通流的速度,减少拥堵队列的车辆平均行程时间,且组合方案的疏散效果与单一措施差别不显著;可逆车道具有最佳疏散效果。     

Identifying best practices states in motorcycle rider education and licensing

PROBLEM: After decreasing to a historic low in 1997, motorcycle crash-related fatalities are increasing. Although causes remain unclear, motorcycle rider education and licensing play key roles in reducing motorcycle crashes and injuries. Yet, little is known about what constitutes effective rider training and licensing. This study develops a model of best practices in motorcycle rider education and licensing and combines primary and secondary data to identify states that most closely adhere to this model. Evidence on the validity of the model is also examined. METHOD: States were rated along three areas of best practices: (a) program administration; (b) rider education; and (c) licensing based on 2001 data collected for a National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA)-sponsored study. RESULTS: Results indicate wide variation in states' adherence to best practices; several states meet most, others very few. When the areas of best practices are considered separately, a state tends to behave similarly on all three. Initial evidence supports the validity of the model, with high best practices states having the lowest rates of motorcycle fatalities. IMPACT ON TRAFFIC SAFETY: As motorcycle-related crashes increase and state and federal support for rider education programs diminishes, it is critical that states identify deficiencies in their program and learn from successful states about efficient, cost-effective strategies for increasing best practices in motorcycle rider education and licensing.     

The influence of metal source uncertainty on cost-effective allocation of mine water pollution abatement in catchments

In mine water pollution abatement, it is commonly assumed that known mine waste sites are the major pollution sources, thus neglecting the possibility of significant contribution from other old and diffuse sources within a catchment. We investigate the influence of different types of pollution source uncertainty on cost-effective allocation of abatement measures for mine water pollution. A catchment-scale cost-minimization model is developed and applied to the catchment of the river Dalälven, Sweden, in order to exemplify important effects of such source uncertainty. Results indicate that, if the pollution distribution between point and diffuse sources is partly unknown, downstream abatement measures, such as constructed wetlands, at given compliance boundaries are often cost-effective. If downstream abatement measures are not practically feasible, the pollution source distribution between point and diffuse mine water sources is critical for cost-effective solutions to abatement measure allocation in catchments. In contrast, cost-effective solutions are relatively insensitive to uncertainty in total pollutant discharge from mine water sources.