The place of nature in conservation conflicts

Conservation conflicts are gaining importance in contemporary conservation scholarship such that conservation may have entered a conflict hype. We attempted to uncover and deconstruct the normative assumptions behind such studies by raising several questions: what are conservation conflicts, what justifies the attention they receive, do conservation-conflict studies limit wildlife conservation, is scientific knowledge stacked against wildlife in conservation conflicts, do conservation-conflict studies adopt a specific view of democracy, can laws be used to force conservation outcomes, why is flexibility needed in managing conservation conflicts, can conservation conflicts be managed by promoting tolerance, and who needs to compromise in conservation conflicts? We suggest that many of the intellectual premises in the field may defang conservation and prevent it from truly addressing the current conservation crisis as it accelerates. By framing conservation conflicts as conflicts between people about wildlife or nature, the field insidiously transfers guilt, whereby human activities are no longer blamed for causing species decline and extinctions but conservation is instead blamed for causing social conflicts. When the focus is on mitigating social conflicts without limiting in any powerful way human activities damaging to nature, conservation-conflict studies risk keeping conservation within the limits of human activities, instead of keeping human activities within the limits of nature. For conservation to successfully stop the biodiversity crisis, we suggest the alternative goal of recognizing nature's right to existence to maintenance of ecological functions and evolutionary processes. Nature being a rights bearer or legal person would imply its needs must be explicitly taken into account in conflict adjudication. If, even in conservation, nature's interests come second to human interests, it may be no surprise that conservation cannot succeed.     

Mainstreaming human and large carnivore coexistence through institutional collaboration

Achieving coexistence between large carnivores and humans in human-dominated landscapes (HDLs) is a key challenge for societies globally. This challenge cannot be adequately met with the current sectoral approaches to HDL governance and an academic community largely dominated by disciplinary sectors. Academia (universities and other research institutions and organizations) should take a more active role in embracing societal challenges around conservation of large carnivores in HDLs by facilitating cross-sectoral cooperation to mainstream coexistence of humans and large carnivores. Drawing on lessons from populated regions of Europe, Asia, and South America with substantial densities of large carnivores, we suggest academia should better embrace the principles and methods of sustainability sciences and create institutional spaces for the implementation of transdisciplinary curricula and projects; reflect on research approaches (i.e., disciplinary, interdisciplinary, or transdisciplinary) they apply and how their outcomes could aid leveraging institutional transformations for mainstreaming; and engage with various institutions and stakeholder groups to create novel institutional structures that can respond to multiple challenges of HDL management and human–large carnivore coexistence. Success in mainstreaming this coexistence in HDL will rest on the ability to think and act cooperatively. Such a conservation achievement, if realized, stands to have far-reaching benefits for people and biodiversity.     

Exploration of Science Parks

1 DEVELOPMENT OF SCIENCE PARKSThe concept of science park originated in the US. Manyterms are used to describe science parks, such as researchpark, technology park, science centre, research centre,innovation centre, and with various combination of these(MacDonald, 1987). The first science park in the worldis Stanford Industrial Park established in 1951. In 1955,only seven companies were located in the park. By 1980there were ninety companies including Hewlett PackardCompany, whic…     

Sustainability: a Dissent

Abstract:  Broadly conceived and considered in its many usages, sustainability has grave defects as a planning goal, particularly when used by conservationists: it confuses means and ends; it is vague about what is being sustained and who or what is doing the sustaining; it is uninspiring; it is little more than Pinchot-era conservation (and thus ignores the many lessons learned since then); it need not be linked to land, to the land's functioning, or to any ecological science; it need not include a moral component; it is consistent with the view of humans as all-powerful manipulators of the planet; and, in general, it is such a malleable term that its popularity provides only a facade of consensus. When sustainability is defined broadly to include the full range of economic and social aspirations, it poses the particular risk that ecological and biodiversity concerns will be cast aside in favor of more pressing human wants. Given these many defects, the conservation movement should discard the term in favor of a more alluring goal, attentive to nature and its ecological functioning. A sound goal would incorporate and distill the considerable ecological and moral wisdom accumulated since Pinchot's day while giving conservationists the rhetorical tools needed to defend the land against competing pressures. In our view, conservation would be well served by an updated variant of "land health," Aldo Leopold's ecologically grounded goal from the 1940s. Land health as an independent understanding should set the essential terms of how we live and enjoy the earth, providing the framework within which we pursue our many social and economic aims.     

科技创新投入对环境全要素生产率的影响机制

使用2004~2015年的中国280个地级市的面板数据,对科技创新投入与环境全要素生产率间的非线性关系、内部影响机理和空间异质性进行分析,结果显示：科技创新投入与环境全要素生产率之间呈现倒N型关系,两个拐点的位置分别为7.722（2257.47万元）和9.610（14913.17万元）;在外部资本进入、污染治理、市场规模效应3种影响路径中,科技创新投入影响下的外部资本进入对环境全要素生产率依然存在污染避难所的负向效应,科技创新投入与外部资本间效应为0.1363,外部资本与环境全要素生产率间效应为-0.0065;科技创新投入能够增强企业的污染治理技术并提高环境全要素生产率,三者间前后效应分别为-0.0277和-0.0311;科技创新的投入与高效益增强了市场规模效应,有效促进生产结构的转型进而提高环境全要素生产率,三者间前后效应为0.0186和0.4346.空间异质性中,外部资本进入与溢出效应带来的污染避难所负效应在中部地区显著,在西部和东北部地区不显著,而污染天堂正效应在东部地区存在但不显著;污染创新治理投入的技术正溢出效应在东部和西部地区效应显著,在中部和东北部不显著;科技创新投入与市场需求规模效应在空间区域无差异且显著为正.建议依据科技创新投入的不同影响路径来实施空间差异化策略.     

资源科学的学科建设与人才培养模式的实践与思考

资源科学是自然科学、社会科学和工程技术科学相互交叉、相互渗透、相互结合的多学科横向发展的新学科领域,具有综合性、交叉性等学科特点。研究适应新时期面向国家和社会发展需求的资源科学学科建设与人才培养方向具有重要的科学与实践意义。在梳理资源科学的学科发展历程基础上,进一步探讨国内外高等院校资源科学的研究领域、学科体系建设、课程及专业设置和人才培养模式,总结了我国资源科学的学科建设和人才培养的成就与不足,以期更好地服务国家需求。     

地理学与资源科学研究的交叉与融合

交叉性以及通过学科交叉实现学科创新,是学科创新发展的重要特征。本文探讨了地理学和资源科学融合的学科基础,指出自然资源的稀缺性、自然资源的空间性、自然资源系统的复杂性和自然资源问题的应对性是地理学和资源学学科对象的共性;阐述了地理学、资源科学两者相互作用及其历史过程,梳理了地理学、资源科学与人地关系思想、可持续思想的发展关系,揭示了地理学和资源科学的差异性特征;地理学、资源科学的共性与差异性,促进了资源地理学的产生与发展。据此,提出了资源地理学的学科内容与方向,论述其全球及国家战略支撑,展望中国资源地理学的发展趋势,以期更好地认识中国地理学和资源学交叉融合的现状,从整体范畴上把握学科发展的脉络,促进学科之间的相互渗透,理论和方法的移植创新,不断开拓新的研究领域和提高学科研究水平。     

Working backwards to move forwards: Graph-based connectivity metrics for reserve network selection

In this paper we apply graph theory in a reserve selection exercise to explore the tradeoffs between maintaining connectivity and minimizing the total area of a protected area network. Rather than focus on a single organism, we used a multi-species approach and looked at the tradeoff curves for organisms with varying dispersal abilities. We first generated the tradeoff curves using a graph-based metric to determine the importance of individual patches for maintaining connectivity. We then performed an analogous set of analyses using patch size as a surrogate measure of importance.     

Conservation and management applications of the REEF volunteer fish monitoring program

The REEF Fish Survey Project is a volunteer fish monitoring program developed by the Reef Environmental Education Foundation (REEF). REEF volunteers collect fish distribution and abundance data using a standardized visual method during regular diving and snorkeling activities. Survey data are recorded on preprinted data sheets that are returned to REEF and optically digitized. Data are housed in a publicly accessible database on REEF's Web site (http: //www.reef.org). Since the project's inception in 1993, over 40,000 surveys have been conducted in the coastal waters of North America, tropical western Atlantic, Gulf of California and Hawaii. The Fish Survey Project has been incorporated into existing monitoring programs through partnerships with government agencies, scientists, conservation organizations, and private institutions. REEF's partners benefit from the educational value and increased stewardship resulting from volunteer data collection. Applications of the data include an evaluation of fish/habitat interactions in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary, the development of a multi-species trend analysis method to identify sites of management concern, assessment of the current distribution of species, status reports on fish assemblages of marine parks, and the evaluation of no-take zones in the Florida Keys. REEF's collaboration with a variety of partners, combined with the Fish Survey Project's standardized census method and database management system, has resulted in a successful citizen science monitoring program.     

Economic and Spatial Impacts of an Existing Reserve Network on Future Augmentation

An optimization model for land reservation was developed that explicitly selects parcels in the most compact or contiguous manner possible while meeting habitat requirements and a budget limitation. The model was used to compare the effects of an existing reserve network on future parcel spatial locations and total cost. Using habitat and land value data from Josephine County, Oregon, it was found that a system of existing reserves created by various policies and overseen by different agencies can decrease future reserve compactness and contiguity, and increase total cost. This work suggests that coordinated planning can result in more efficient conservation efforts for less cost.