Enter the working forest: Discourse analysis in the Northern Forest

In 1988, four states in the northeastern USA commissioned a study to address land use changes in the Northern Forest, 26 million acres of temperate and boreal forest extending from Maine to eastern New York State. Against a backdrop of economic destabilization and concerns regarding social and ecological implications of a real estate boom, the sustained deliberative dialogue catalyzed by this study has come to rely heavily on the ambiguous concept of “working forest.” To clarify political and environmental dynamics in the region, we analyzed how people respond to and seek to capitalize on the interpretive flexibility of the term working forest. We combine an analysis of socio-political discourses of working forest based on a structured literature review with an assessment of local peoples’ definitions of working forest based on a survey conducted in a pair of contrasting New York State communities. The first study site represents an amenity-oriented community (i.e. a place where the forest supports a service economy including recreation and tourism) and the other study site represents a timber-dependent community. By linking data from community-level analysis to data derived from a general analysis of forest politics, we seek to develop a more robust perspective. By comparing discourses across differently structured communities, we investigate how local forest politics are mediated by local economic development processes. Our study empirically illustrates contested and geographically uneven processes of social construction of environment and rural development in a region confronting pressures of globalization. Results indicate that timber harvesting is a heavily privileged management objective, as a logic of ‘the forest that pays is the forest that stays’ dominates. Environmental politics in the region, and perhaps more generally, increasingly conforms to a form of pragmatism in which economic opportunities structure conservation planning and investment.     

承德特色林果资源的生态地球化学过程及其品质提升意义

承德南部燕山山地的特色林果资源分布具有明显的地域性,以兴隆—喜峰口断裂为界, “京东板栗”集中于断裂以南片麻岩区,“兴隆山楂”集中于北部白云岩区,厘定主要控制因素对林果资源的品质提升具有重要的意义。文章从地质建造和生态地球化学的视角,分析片麻岩和白云岩建造的元素含量及相关性、研究元素迁聚特征和生物富集性,讨论影响作物品质的主要因素。研究表明：片麻岩建造以斜长石、石英和云母类矿物成分为主,Al2O3、Fe2O3、K2O、TiO2、P2O5、Mn、Cu、Zn、Ni、Co元素含量明显高;相应白云岩建造以白云石矿物为主,MgO、CaO元素含量高;基岩-土壤质量迁移系数（τ）值显示片麻岩建造中Se、B、V、S、Mn和Mo元素相对Ti元素富集;白云岩建造中Na2O、P、Ni元素相对Ti元素富集。板栗生物富集系数为Cu > Zn > Mo > Ni > Mn > Ge > Fe,山楂生物富集系数为Cu > Zn > Ni > Mn > Ge > Fe > Mo。基于板栗、山楂的品质控制生态地质模型,优选山楂的最适宜区面积为497.2 km2,板栗的最适宜区面积为499.01 km2。本研究成果可为地方的农业产业结构优化提供借鉴。     

Actors, options and the challenges of forest management in anglophone Cameroon

Natural resources, especially the forest provide a means of livelihood to rural communities in most developing countries. Unfortunately these resources are under the threat of disappearing because of high population growth rates and poverty that characterise these communities. Any attempt by development agencies at conserving these resources is tantamount to depriving these rural areas of their survival base. Yet due to its strategic socio-economic and cultural importance, the forest ecosystem needs to be sustained for future generations. This paper examines the various challenges faced by the State and other conservation agencies in natural resource management and the possible options which can be employed in an effort to ensure a sustainable exploitation of the forest in Anglophone Cameroon. It discusses the efforts of these actors, within the framework of the emerging concept of community forestry, local community strengthening and integrated rural development. While highlighting some of the achievements of international NGOs like Bird Life International and World Wide Fund for Nature in the region, the study concludes that the future of sustainable management of forest resources relies on a holistic poverty alleviation approach that takes into consideration the empowerment of these communities. This will ensure that they participate and benefit from the exploitation of the resources in the form of local development. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

典型喀斯特地区马尾松纯林及马尾松-阔叶树混交林营养元素生物循环研究——以贵州龙里为例

以龙里典型喀斯特地区马尾松纯林及马尾松-阔叶树混交林为研究对象,研究了两个群落的生物量、营养元素贮量、分布及循环特征.结果表明:马尾松纯林、马尾松-阔叶树混交林的生物量分别为40.62t/hm2、48.32t/hm2,混交林的乔木层总生物量比马尾松纯林高18.97%,根系生物量较纯林高65.12%.混交林乔木层各器官营养元素的含量整体大于马尾松纯林,两群落乔木层N、P、K、S的含量表现出一致的趋势,叶>根>枝>干.混交林乔木层各元素的积累量分别比纯林高47.97%~197.67%,凋落物层各元素贮量比纯林高85.40%~318.301%.混交林的年归还量、年存留量和年吸收量均大于马尾松纯林,且各元素循环系数大于马尾松纯林.马尾松林与阔叶树混交可以有效地提高群落生物量和营养元素循环的能力.     

Charcoal records from thermokarst deposits in central Yakutia, eastern Siberia: Implications for forest fire history and thermokarst development

Macroscopic charcoal records from a thermokarst lake deposit in central Yakutia, eastern Siberia, were used to reconstruct the history of forest fires and investigate its relationship to thermokarst initiation. High accumulation rates of charcoal and pollen were coincident in the basal deposits of the thermokarst lake, which suggests that both were initially deposited on the forest floor and subsequently reworked and accumulated in the thermokarst depression. High charcoal and pollen accumulation rates in the basal deposits, dating to 11,000-9000 cal yr BP, also indicate that the thermokarst topography developed during the early Holocene. A lower charcoal accumulation rate after ca. 9000 cal yr BP suggests that thermokarst development has been inhibited since this time. It also indicates that a surface-fire regime has been predominant at least since ca. 9000 cal yr BP in central Yakutia.     

Politics of scale and community-based forest management in southern Malawi

This article uses insights from theory on the social production of scale and multiple social and natural science methods to interrogate village-scale community-based forest management (CBFM) in southern Malawi, focusing on boundary demarcation, rule formulation and scaling, and dynamics of external facilitation. Examination of political agendas of those who pursued, gained from, or protested particular scalar CBFM arrangements uncovered otherwise hidden scalar politics, whose outcomes impeded more than they advanced CBFM goals. I argue that clarifying the scalar politics and configuration of forest governance arrangements can lead to a more nuanced understanding of CBFM challenges and create new opportunities for addressing them. Containerized, single-level CBFM institutions mismatched interacting social, ecological and institutional scalar configurations and relations, and confounded CBFM. Unequal international-donor/national and national/community scalar relations were as important as intra-community dynamics in explaining performance of CBFM. They constructed CBFM on a shaky foundation that put institutional and personal agendas and short-term goals over long-term socioecological sustainability. The politics of rescaling forest rules from village to (broader) Traditional Authority level alienated them from communities and undermined enforcement. Diverse motivations behind a scale-related strategy that separated usufruct from territorial rights in allocating forests mostly undermined socioecological CBFM goals. While scale is not the key or only explanation of CBFM performance, negotiated scaling offered a proactive way to anticipate scale-related conflicts in particular settings, and for communities to create institutional forms that minimize such conflicts at local or intermediate scale levels. Findings support strong, well-resourced states and caution against donor-driven quick fixes.     

天保工程对森林涵养水源和保育土壤空间格局的影响——以内蒙古森工林区为例

为了更直观地反映天然林资源保护工程(以下简称“天保工程”)对森林生态系统涵养水源和保育土壤功能产生的影响,体现天保工程所带来的生态效益,依据《森林生态系统服务功能评估规范(GB/T 38582—2020)》,以内蒙古大兴安岭重点国有林管理局的林区为研究对象,对天保工程实施前(1998年)和实施后(2018年)2期森林生态系统涵养水源和保育土壤功能进行量化分析,认为内蒙古大兴安岭重点国有林管理局林区(简称“内蒙古森工林区”)涵养水源价值为950.16亿元(1998年)和1 341.32亿元(2018年),保育土壤的价值为563.49亿元(1998年)和760.11亿元(2018年)。天保工程实施前后,森林生态系统涵养水源功能总价值量排名前3位的林业局依次是根河、莫尔道嘎、乌尔旗汉,保育土壤功能排名前3位的依次是根河、乌尔旗汉、金河。从整体空间分布上分析得出的2期涵养水源和保育土壤功能价值量均呈现中部>北部>南部的趋势。     

Conservation planning, boundary-making and border terrains: The desire for forest and order in the Gran Sabana, Venezuela

Conflicts surrounding protected area management often emerge from contested processes of boundary-making. Such productions of bounded conservation spaces are contingent in part on processes of identity formation, where some social groups are legitimized as belonging to conservation units, while others are constructed as out-of-place. This article draws on the literature in postmodern geopolitics and the political ecology of fire to interrogate processes of boundary-making and identity formation in the savanna landscape of Canaima National Park, Venezuela. The institutional culture of the environmental management agency EDELCA is in part premised on narratives of history and indigeneity coupled with a desire for an imagined, forested landscape. Because of the social constructions shaping this institutional culture, the agency maintains an approach to fire management that emphasizes fire suppression. However, an ecological field study suggests that fire suppression is leading to increased fuel loads, especially in ecologically significant boundaries between grasslands and forest. Although these boundary zones are the focus of indigenous practices of prescribed burning, they fall in-between the state management categories of forest and ecotone. As a result, these interstitial spaces become theaters for performances of domination and resistance, leading to contradictory and inconsistent approaches to fire management that place gallery forests at risk.     

Seeing the forest for the trees: Local-level resource use and forest restitution in postsocialist Bulgaria

Recent legislation for the restitution of ownership rights to, and subsequent management of, formerly privately owned forests in postsocialist Bulgaria has focused largely albeit not exclusively on the restored forests from the perspective of timber production, that is, `forest' equals `harvestable timber resource'. Using ethnographic data collected in rural Rhodope Mountain communities, this paper presents a local-level perspective on forests and forest use, including the meaning that forests hold for local residents as a source of non-timber forest products such as mushrooms and medicinal plants, of animal pasture, and of firewood for household heating and cooking. This local social perspective is then contrasted with the timber-resource focus of the forestry legislation and subsequent planning for forest use. The scale of forest ownership – in part a function of the restitution legislation – is also addressed in relation to the practicalities of resource management. Generally, the paper demonstrates a mismatch between the postsocialist forestry legislation and local practice and conditions with regard to forests and the natural resources therein. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

广西岩溶峰林区地下水赋存特征及钻探成井模式

通过梳理广西岩溶峰林区近年来抗旱找水成井的钻孔资料,分析水文地质条件与成井的关系,结果表明:构造、岩性和岩溶发育层位是控制钻孔是否成井的主要因素。断层破碎带、向（背）斜以及含水层和相对隔水层的接触带等蓄水构造为有利的成井位置;石炭系地层（C1、C2）和上泥盆系地层（D3）为主要的成井地层,占成井总数的55.24%,平均单井出水量为261 m3·d-1,平均开采深度为37.67 m。通过对区内的岩溶水赋存特征及规律分析总结,归纳成6种钻探成井模式:压扭性断裂旁侧富水模式、相对隔水岩层阻水模式、挡水墙阻水模式、圈团褶皱蓄水构造模式、向/背斜轴部富水模式、自垩系红层盘地找水模式,并提出了几种常见的地形地貌特征找水标识。      

晋、冀、蒙、陕地区淡水资源馈乏的严重性

以陕、蒙、冀、晋为例,阐述了现今地球上淡水资源匮乏的状况、恶化的趋势及危害性;提出了大力提倡高效农业、节水农业、少占地、尤其是植树造林,努力改善区域生态环境,形成水资源的良性循环;并提出了实施的具体措施及方案.     

喀斯特森林雨水的地球化学特征——以贵州茂兰国家级自然保护区为例

贵州茂兰喀斯特原始森林地区25个雨水样品的化学组成研究表明,该区雨水的pH值为4．4～7．2,平均为5．1。雨水样品富NH4^＋、Ca^2＋和SO4^2-、C1^-。NH4^＋是最主要的阳离子,平均值为56．8／μmol／L,占阳离子组成的26％～74％,Ca^2＋次之,平均值为14．8μmol／L,NHg和Ca^2＋之和占了阳离子组成的71％～94％,SO4^2-是最主要的阴离子,平均值为39．2μmol／L,占了阴离子组成的69％～91％,CI一次之,平均值为9．5μmol／L。SO4^2-和C1-占了阴离子组成的71％～96％。与中国其他地区的雨水样品相比,茂兰地区雨水离子含量要低1～2个数量级;物质来源分析表明茂兰地区雨水中溶质主要来源于自然过程的输入,人为活动输入可以忽略不计。     

辽西地区红山文化时期林木资源利用和生态环境研究

辽西地区是研究中国文明起源及早期文明化进程的重要区域。红山文化是辽西地区6.5~5.0 ka B.P. 的新石器时代晚期重要的考古学文化。本研究对辽西地区红山文化时期的魏家窝铺遗址、彩陶坡遗址、兴隆沟遗址第二地点和牛河梁遗址第一地点这4个遗址点中浮选和采集的134份样品中大于2 mm的940块木炭进行鉴定,分别是栎属(Quercus L.)、榆属(Ulmus L.)、朴属(Celtis L.)、李属(Prunus L.)、槭树属(Acer L.)、黄檗属(Phellodendron Rupr.)、椴属(Tilia L.)、梣属(Fraxinus L.)、胡桃属(Juglans L.)、松属(Pinus L.)、柳属(Salix L.)、侧柏属(Platycladus L.)等12种木本植物,以及2种未知的炭化植物遗存。研究表明遗址周围分布着桃、杏、胡桃楸等果树,生长着以栎属为建群种的暖温带落叶阔叶林及榆属、槭树属和朴属等阔叶树;山地上可能分布着由松属、侧柏属和黄檗属、椴属、梣属等组成的温性针阔混交林。利用共存生态因子法进行气候重建的结果表明,当时遗址周围的环境较现今温暖湿润。先民用栎属木材建造房屋、薪柴选用栎属、松属和槭树属木材。通过对牛河梁遗址第一地点出土的木炭推测当时祭祀时可能使用栎属木材。除了遗址中出土的炭化果核,核果类木材的出土,进一步佐证了先民会采集核果类木材的果实、种子作为食物,为探索红山文化时期先民生业方式提供了新视角。本研究为解读红山文化时期的先民对林木资源利用策略,了解当时生态环境与生业模式提供了新资料。

     

Climate change and groundwater resources in Mekong Delta,Vietnam

Groundwater resources have considerable influences on the human population and socioeconomic development of Vietnam and the Mekong River Delta (MRD). This paper presents an overview of the relationship between climate change and groundwater in the MRD, including the challenges, strategies and technical measures. Our results showed that groundwater levels are related to other climate and hydrological variables (i.e., rainfall, river levels, etc.); therefore, the impacts of climate change on the groundwater resources of the Mekong delta are significant, especially on groundwater recharge. Based on the results of this study, it is recommended that groundwater development in the future should focus on reducing groundwater harvesting, enhancing groundwater quantity by establishing artificial works and exploiting surface water. This study suggests that the Artificial Neural Network (ANN) model is an effective tool for forecasting groundwater levels in periods of 1 month and 3 months for aquifers in the natural and tidal regime areas of the delta.     

Sand and gravel mining: effects on ground water resources in Hancock county,Maine, USA

Based on this preliminary study, existing sand and gravel mining regulations (in Maine, USA) can be inferred to provide some protection to water resources. Sand and gravel deposits are important natural resources that have dual uses: mining for construction material and pumping for drinking water. How the mining of sand and gravel affects aquifers and change aquifer vulnerability to contamination is not well documented. Mining regulations vary greatly by state and local jurisdiction. This study test metrics to measure the effectiveness of mining regulations. The sand and gravel aquifer system studied is covered with former and active gravel pits to nearly 25% of its areal extent. Data from homeowner interviews and field measurements found scant evidence of changes in water quantity. Water quality analyses collected from springs, streams, ponds and wells indicate that the aquifer was vulnerable to contamination by chloride and nitrate. However, water quality changes can not be related directly to mining activities.     

吉林省西部潜水资源与生态环境风险分析

吉林省西部是我国主要粮食产区,但区内农业水利规划管理同时面临潜水资源与生态环境双重风险。近20年来,区内曾尝试多种水资源利用模式,但缺少不同模式应用效果的定量化对比。文章建立了不同水资源利用模式,对比分析各模式的水资源与次生盐碱化风险。以洮儿河流域为例,采用循环神经网络预测2019—2023年该地区大气降水和地表水对地下水补给量;通过随机数值模拟预测现状开采、连续干旱、无序开采、地下水库建设、节水灌溉、旱田改水田6种情形下,区内潜水水位空间分布特征。以防止次生盐碱化为目标,定义水位埋深上限为1 m;以含水介质厚度为参考,定义水位埋深下限为12 m。遴选适合吉林省西部地区地下水资源可持续利用模式。结果显示:无序开采是导致区内水资源枯竭的主要诱因;地下水库建设和旱改水工程有助于潜水资源维护,但长期运行可加剧生态环境风险。节水灌溉（净采强度为2.0×108～3.0×108 m3/a）是降低区内水资源风险和生态环境风险的最佳方式。文章采用的神经网络—随机模拟分析方法成功预测了地下水位变化驱动因子和地下水位中长期变化趋势,为我国干旱半干旱地区潜水资源利用方案制定提供了新方法。     

Organic petrography and geochemistry of inertinite-rich mudstones, Jakobsstigen Formation, Upper Jurassic, northeast Greenland: Indications of forest fires and variations in relative sea-level

The lower-middle Oxfordian Jakobsstigen Formation, Wollaston Forland, northeast Greenland, consists mainly of stacked coarsening-upward successions of offshore to shoreface heteroliths, sandstone and rare foreshore sandstones. The units are separated by thin, laterally extensive sheets of terrigenous carbonaceous mudstones, which have been subjected to organic petrographic and geochemical studies. The mudstones are thermally immature, with maturities corresponding to R₀ in the range 0.35–0.50%. The mudstones contain very high proportions of allochthonous inertinite, subordinate huminite, char and negligible proportions of liptinite. Inertinite reflectance distributions are markedly bimodal, with maxima at approximately 1.73 and 4.91% R_m. Both pyrolysis yields and solvent extract yields are low. The distributions of n-alkanes are markedly light-end skewed and show a pronounced predominance of even-numbered compounds in the lower carbon number range. Biomarker-distributions feature a dominance of C₂₉-steranes, slight enhancement of extended hopanes and αββ-steranes, low proportion of tricyclic triterpanes and very low hopane/sterane ratios. Sedimentological, organic petrographical and geochemical evidence suggests that the regular alternation between marine and terrestrial depositional environments during deposition of the Jakobsstigen Formation was related to low-amplitude, high-frequency changes in relative sea-level and local climate. The mudstones were deposited during early rise of relative sea-level in shallow, flat-bottomed lakes or lagoons on a broad coastal plain. The lakes acted as traps for fine elastic sediment and for predominantly windborne inertinite, generated by wildfires in the hinterland. High rates of evaporation rendered the lakes mildly saline, hampering their colonization by vegetation other than cyanobacteria and halophilic microorganisms. Similarly, saline porewaters excluded higher plant vegetation from emergent areas. Upon continued rise of the relative sea-level, the lakes were gradually flooded and their deposits became covered by sandy shallow marine sediments. The larger areas covered by shallow marine waters during periods of high relative sea-level led to a more humid local climate and to lower frequency of wildfires. During falling relative sea-level, the marine deposits were eroded and partially removed and the cycle subsequently repeated upon renewed rise in relative sea-level. Hence, minor changes in relative sea-level gave rise to the regular alternation of two vastly different depositional environments, as well as to marked variations in local climate.     

Migrant pathways to resource access in Lampung’s political forest: Gender, citizenship and creative conjugality

An important theme in studies of enclosure and resource access in Southeast Asian hinges on the concept of the ‘political forest’, a particular constellation of power constituted by ideas, practices and institutions that seek to regulate peoples’ access to resources, providing recognition and legitimacy to some, whilst excluding and criminalizing others. Whilst issues of class and ‘race’ underpin work in this vein, in Indonesia, much less attention has been directed towards the ways in which gender inheres in the regularisation of land and livelihood, and the ordering of upland spaces. Drawing on recent feminist and queer theorizing of the links between citizenship, recognition and hetero-normativity, and on analyses of the social relationships through which resource access is negotiated and realized, the paper presents a feminist political ecology of the gender dynamics inherent in the power plays of resource access as land-poor rural migrants negotiate a shifting landscape of enclosure in Lampung province. Through an analysis of three periods of resource governance and control in the province, the paper shows how the negotiation of resource access is simultaneously a process of self-regulation and subject-making that draws on particular ideas about family and conjugal partnership, inculcating gendered and hetero-normative ideologies of the “ideal citizen”. Through particular representational strategies - positionings - necessary to qualify for resource access, and through the material practices necessary to realize the benefits of resource access, conjugal partnership is reiterated and remade as an important social relationship through which resource access may be realised, for men as well as for women.     

内蒙古自治区牙克石市西尼气林场安山岩锆石LA-MC-ICP-MS U-Pb定年及地质意义

内蒙古自治区牙克石市西尼气林场一带出露的面积型安山岩,前人多划为早白垩世次火山岩或早白垩世的浅成侵入岩。本次安山岩U-Pb测年结果为226.0±1.9 Ma,为晚三叠世的产物,是大兴安岭中北部地区首次识别出三叠纪安山岩。结合地质特征,将其划为晚三叠世浅成侵入岩,说明在三叠纪大兴安岭中北部存在火山活动。本次测年结果对大兴安岭中北部火山岩地区面积型安山岩及安山玢岩的归属划分具有参照意义。