Forty-year multi-scale land cover change and political ecology data reveal a dynamic and regenerative process of forests in Peruvian Indigenous Territories

This article explores deforestation and reforestation dynamics over 415,749 hectares of 25 titled Indigenous Community Lands (ICLs) in the Peruvian Amazon over forty years at three scales: total area, regions, and communities. We focus on ICLs as the territorial unit of analysis, as they are increasingly discussed regarding their importance for conservation. Additionally indigenous communities (ICs) are a too-marginalized group in the Amazon that merit more attention. Analyses of this kind are often short-term and use only large-scale Earth Observation methodologies. We use a multi-method approach linking remote sensing with ground verification, and qualitative historical political ecology work with ICs. We find that overall accumulated deforestation was low at 5%, but that when reforestation is considered, net deforestation was only 3.5%. At the community level deforestation and afforestation dynamics are complex, except for one period that indicates a macro state driver in the region. Results suggest inadequate accounting for forest regeneration in deforestation analyses and challenge the notion that presenting stakeholders with accumulated forest loss values is helpful in tropical areas where forests and people are dynamic. Furthermore, our work with communities highlights that categorizing them and their lands as pro-environment or not in general terms is unhelpful for determining fund flows to ICLs for environmental or development purposes.     

Optimal rural land use allocation in central China: Linking the effect of spatiotemporal patterns and policy interventions

Rural land use development is experiencing a transition stage of socioeconomic and land use development in China. Historic land use transition process and policy interventions have key influence on the applicability of land use allocation solutions in future land use management. Strategic land use allocation is therefore required to possess a good adjustment capability to the transition process. Although heuristic optimization methods have been promising to solve land use allocation problems, most of them ignored the spatially explicit effect of historic land use transition and policies. To help resolve this issue, this study aims to optimize future land use pattern in the context of rural land use development. We took Yunmeng County, one of the typical major grain producing and rapidly urbanizing areas in central China, as a case study and solved the sustainable land use allocation problem by using an improved heuristic optimization model. The model was constructed based on the integration of a spatial discrete particle swarm optimization and cellular automata-Markov simulation approach. The spatiotemporal land use patterns and policy interventions were represented by the CA-Markov as in spatially explicit transition rules, and then incorporated into the discrete PSO for optimal land use solutions. We examined the influence of the joint effect of spatiotemporal land use patterns and policy interventions on the land use allocation outcome. Our results demonstrate the robustness and potential of the proposed model, and, more importantly, indicate the significance of incorporating the spatiotemporal land use patterns and policy interventions into rural land use allocation.     

Options to overcome the barriers to pricing European agricultural emissions

Although agriculture could contribute substantially to European emission reductions, its mitigation potential lies untapped and dormant. Market-based instruments could be pivotal in incentivizing cost-effective abatement. However, sector specificities in transaction costs, leakage risks and distributional impacts impede its implementation. The significance of such barriers critically hinges on the dimensions of policy design. This article synthesizes the work on emissions pricing in agriculture together with the literature on the design of market-based instruments. To structure the discussion, an options space is suggested to map policy options, focusing on three key dimensions of policy design. More specifically, it examines the role of policy coverage, instruments and transfers to farmers in overcoming the barriers. First, the results show that a significant proportion of agricultural emissions and mitigation potential could be covered by a policy targeting large farms and few emission sources, thereby reducing transaction costs. Second, whether an instrument is voluntary or mandatory influences distributional outcomes and leakage. Voluntary instruments can mitigate distributional concerns and leakage risks but can lead to subsidy lock-in and carbon price distortion. Third, the impact on transfers resulting from the interaction of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) with emissions pricing will play a key role in shaping political feasibility and has so far been underappreciated.

POLICY RELEVANCE

Following the 2015 Paris Agreement, European climate policy is at a crossroads. Achieving cost-effectively the 2030 and 2050 European targets requires all sectors to reduce their emissions. Yet, the cornerstone of European climate policy, the European Union Emissions Trading System (EU ETS), covers only about half of European emissions. Major sectors have been so far largely exempted from carbon pricing, in particular transport and agriculture. While transport has been increasingly under the spotlight as a possible candidate for an EU ETS sectoral expansion, policy discussions on pricing agricultural emissions have been virtually absent. This article attempts to fill this gap by investigating options for market-based instruments to reduce agricultural emissions while taking barriers to implementation into account.     

Effectiveness of pilot carbon emissions trading systems in China

China is in the process of establishing a national emissions trading system (ETS). Evaluating the implementation effectiveness of the seven pilot ETSs in China is critical for designing this national system. This study administered a questionnaire survey to assess the behaviour of enterprises covered by the seven ETS pilots from the perspective of: the strictness of compliance measures; rules for monitoring, reporting and verification (MRV); the mitigation pressure felt by enterprises; and actual mitigation and trading activities. The results show that the pilot MRV and compliance rules have not yet been fully implemented. The main factors involved are the lack of compulsory force of the regulations and the lack of policy awareness within the affected enterprises. Most enterprises have a shortage of free allowances and thus believe that the ETSs have increased their production costs. Most enterprises have already established mitigation targets. Some of the covered enterprises are aware of their own internal emission reduction costs and most of these have used this as an important reference in trading. Many enterprises have accounted for carbon prices in their long-term investment. The proportion of enterprises that have participated in trading is fairly high; however, reluctance to sell is quite pervasive in the market, and enterprises are mostly motivated to trade simply in order to achieve compliance. Few enterprises are willing to manage their allowances in a market-oriented manner. Different free allowance allocation methods directly affect the pathways enterprises take to control emissions.

Key policy insights

• In the national ETS, the compulsory force of ETS provisions should be strengthened.

• A reasonable level of free allowance shortage should be ensured to promote emission reduction by enterprises.

• Sufficient information should be provided to guide enterprises in their allowance management to activate the market.

• To promote the implementation of mitigation technologies by enterprises, actual output-based allocation methods should be used.

• The government should use market adjustment mechanisms, such as a price floor and ceiling, to ensure that carbon prices are reasonable and stable, so as to guide long-term low carbon investment.

     

中国履行《蒙特利尔议定书(基加利修正案)》减排三氟甲烷的对策分析

2016年10月制定的《关于消耗臭氧层物质的蒙特利尔议定书（基加利修正案）》将三氟甲烷（HFC-23）纳入了其附件F第二类管控物质名单,并要求缔约国自2020年1月1日起以缔约方核准的技术对HFC-23进行销毁。伴随中国二氟一氯甲烷（HCFC-22）原料用途需求增长,其副产物HFC-23的产生量呈上升趋势,尽管HCFC-22生产工艺不断优化,HFC-23的副产率逐步下降,预测2050年HFC-23产生量将达到2.47万t（或365.56 Mt CO₂-eq),2020—2050年HFC-23累计产生量约56.3万t,折合约8332.40 Mt CO₂-eq。截至2015年,通过清洁发展机制以及国家发展和改革委员会减排专项的资助,中国以焚烧分解技术销毁HFC-23累计54585 t,为全球温室气体减排做出了重要贡献,但这一减排也花费了巨额资金投资焚烧设备和支付焚烧运行费用,提高了企业的生产成本、浪费了氟资源。研究显示,HFC-23资源化利用技术路线是可行的且中国相关技术专利正在逐步增加,鼓励和推进HFC-23资源化利用技术开发与应用是消除HFC-23排放可行的技术途径,也是未来中国加入并履行《基加利修正案》关键的技术路线选择。     

The challenges of the landing obligation in EU fisheries

A feasibility study was conducted on the impacts of the new Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) rules requiring catches in regulated fisheries to be landed and counted against quotas of each Member State - the landing obligation (LO), and that catch of species subject to the LO below a minimum conservation reference size (MCRS) be restricted to purposes other than direct human consumption. The aim was to estimate the level of discarded fish likely to be covered by the new rules, the impact of the rules on EU fisheries and the regulatory challenges and responses to them. Data from EU's Scientific, Technical and Economic Committee on Fisheries (STECF) database were analysed to estimate the volume of unwanted catches produced by EU fisheries. Views were sought from policy officials and fisheries scientists through a questionnaire on the implications of the LO and the control of fisheries across Member States, and the potential adjustments that might be needed. Findings show that 11% (44,000 t) of the total catches of EU countries from which data were available are of fish under MCRS. The species with the highest volume of undersized discards associated with the lowest quota, which would potentially restrict the fishing opportunities for other quota species (i.e. choke species), are plaice and haddock with 18,000 and 14,000 t of undersized fish respectively, followed by whiting and cod with 5000 and 6000 t of undersized fish respectively. Discards data shows that the Netherlands, United Kingdom, France and Belgium will be most affected by landings for non-human markets. Findings also show that existing infrastructure at landing ports in all Member States is limited because there are currently limited facilities in place to handle animal by-products produced by the catching sector. Policy officials maintained that while they could support the fishing industry through funding programmes, it is the responsibility of fishers to ensure they have the right infrastructure to handle unwanted catches. The expectation is that the LO combined with the restriction to non-human consumption purposes will encourage fishers to internalise the costs of catching unwanted fish and motivate them to avoid unwanted catch. This will be realised if sufficient flexibility is given to fishers to find their own solutions to reducing unwanted catches. It is concluded that gear technology measures exist to enable the regulated fisheries to increase gear selectivity.     

地质文化村:科学内涵、建设内容与实施路径

伴随着"生态文明"、"乡村振兴"等国家战略的提出,地质文化村成为拓展服务领域、促进地质工作与社会经济发展融合的重要抓手。本文以地质文化村的六维属性为切入点,探讨了地质文化村的空间载体、建设主题、利益主体、主要功能、行为准则、价值导向等内涵,提出地质文化村是以村域为空间载体,以突出"地质+"或"+地质"文化为主题,以共建共享为发展模式,以多元化功能为特征,以"轻质建设"和"生态旅游"为基准,以人地关系和谐为目标的特色村落。建设重点应以乡村五大振兴为总纲,围绕基础设施和公共服务体系、地质文化产品IP、高效产业及项目、多元人才体系、地质保护措施、文化村管理机构等方面开展;未来应通过强化规划衔接、制定行业标准、开展全国试点、加大资金投入、搭建宣传营销平台和进行系统培训等路径,促进地质文化村的健康持续发展。     

金华市水资源承载力分析

从生态学角度出发,提出水资源承载力是在社会发展的某一阶段和生态系统良性循环的条件下,水资源对人类活动的最大支撑能力。指出目前金华市的水荒不是水源型缺水,而是水质型缺水和工程型缺水。根据20多年的历史数据和2020年全面建设小康社会的标准,利用系统动力学(SD)模型,仿真研究了金华市未来政策实施后水资源承载力的动态变化过程。同时指出,对于金华市来说,单方面追求经济的快速发展、以牺牲环境作为代价的高方案和把环境保护作为首要目标、经济慢速发展的低方案都是不可取的,只有经济发展和环境保护同时兼顾的中方案才是首选方案。     

The Adaptive Marine Policy (AMP) toolbox: Supporting policy-makers developing adaptive policies in the Mediterranean and Black Sea

Adaptive management is essential to the practical application of the Ecosystem-Based Approach (EBA). Despite there are frequent assertions that adaptive management is being used, evidence on its success is still limited. Indeed, it is difficult to bring the different elements of adaptive management together in a robust way and to choose the appropriate tools to do it. Therefore, it is necessary to provide a practical framework for adaptive policy action, consistent with the EBA. Accordingly, to operationalize the design and implementation of adaptive policies on the basis of the EBA, the Adaptive Marine Policy toolbox has been developed. The objective of the toolbox is to provide policy-makers a practical framework to design and implement adaptive policies. To show the functionality of the toolbox, the guidelines and resources provided within the toolbox have been applied to the marine litter issue in the Mediterranean and Black Sea as an example. The example application has shown that the toolbox is a useful and operational framework to build a science-policy interface according to the EBA. Despite some resources could be missing from the toolbox, they provide a practical and useful starting point to support the application of the different steps and key activities.