User fees as sustainable financing mechanisms for marine protected areas: An application to the Bonaire National Marine Park

Marine protected areas (MPAs) have proliferated globally in the past three decades. However, inadequate funding often prevents these management regimes from fulfilling their missions. Managers have become increasingly aware that successful protection of marine ecosystems is dependent not only upon an understanding of their biological and physical processes, but also their associated social and economic aspects. Unfortunately, economic values associated with MPAs and the natural resources they protect are rarely considered in decision-making and policy development. This study addresses this information gap by examining scuba divers’ willingness to pay for access to quality recreational sites in the Bonaire National Marine Park, Bonaire, Netherlands Antilles. The findings indicate that the US$10 annual diver user fee in effect at the time of the study could be increased substantially without a significant adverse effect on island tourism. Depending on question format, mean willingness to pay for annual access ranged from US$61 to US$134 (2002$). All model specifications support the conclusion that doubling the US$10 user fee would have virtually no impact on visitation rates. The increased revenue generated from this sustainable financing mechanism is more than sufficient to fund both current and enhanced marine park operations.     

方差分量估计建立整体估价价格体系的新方法

随着房地产市场的发展,房地产估价的研究逐渐深入。如何更好地、科学地、快速地对大量房地产价格进行评估已成为现实的问题。一般的平差模型对已有数据的利用率不高,当存在多类观测值时,不同观测值的随机模型的确定是否合理会严重影响结果的精度。基于房地产整体估价的思想,提出了方差分量估计建立价格体系的新方法。通过对两类观测值进行试验,一类通过比价系数求得价格差建立观测方程;一类由价格直接建立观测方程。结果分析表明,新方法能够实现不同观测值的权值自动调整,精度更高,可靠性更强。     

Study on applying optimal path to land valuation

As an important role in the urban land price system, the basic land price appraisal directs and reflects all kinds of land price in the real estate market. Using geographic information systems (GIS) with algorithms and powerful analysis functions to valuate land will improve the rationality and convenience of land valuation. The objective of the study on basic land price using the optimal path algorithm is to decrease the manmade error, enhance automatization, avoid make inconvenience by roadblock object.     

Application of non-market valuation to California's coastal policy decisions

Regulatory agencies in the United States do not generally consider economic values of ecosystem services in their policy decisions. We report the results of a collaborative effort by a team of economists, conservation biologists, and staff members of the California Ocean Protection Council to provide spatially explicit and policy-relevant values for ecosystem services generated in coastal regions in California. We developed a matrix in which the rows are types of ecosystem services and the columns are types of marine ecosystems along the California coast. Where possible, we populated this matrix with ecosystem service values per unit of area drawn from the economics literature. We then evaluated whether the values for given services, in given ecosystems, could be reasonably approximated by applying the replacement cost or the avoided cost method. Reported values of coastal ecosystems varied widely, and much of the valuation research did not address specific ecosystem services. Even when ecosystem services were explicitly addressed, the services often were not described or valued in a spatially explicit manner. These results suggest that rigorous application of non-market values to policy decisions requires original valuation studies for specific services in specific ecosystems. Where original, place-based valuation studies are not possible, valuation by replacement or avoided cost methods is feasible for some ecosystem services.     

Quantitative landslide risk assessment and mapping on the basis of recent occurrences

A quantitative procedure for mapping landslide risk is developed from considerations of hazard, vulnerability and valuation of exposed elements. The approach based on former work by the authors, is applied in the Bajo Deba area (northern Spain) where a detailed study of landslide occurrence and damage in the recent past (last 50 years) was carried out. Analyses and mapping are implemented in a Geographic Information System (GIS).The method is based on a susceptibility model developed previously from statistical relationships between past landslides and terrain parameters related to instability. Extrapolations based on past landslide behaviour were used to calculate failure frequency for the next 50 years. A detailed inventory of direct damage due to landslides during the study period was carried out and the main elements at risk in the area identified and mapped. Past direct (monetary) losses per type of element were estimated and expressed as an average ‘specific loss’ for events of a given magnitude (corresponding to a specified scenario). Vulnerability was assessed by comparing losses with the actual value of the elements affected and expressed as a fraction of that value (0–1).From hazard, vulnerability and monetary value, risk was computed for each element considered. Direct risk maps (€/pixel/year) were obtained and indirect losses from the disruption of economic activities due to landslides assessed. The final result is a risk map and table combining all losses per pixel for a 50-year period. Total monetary value at risk for the Bajo Deba area in the next 50 years is about 2.4 × 10⁶ Euros.     

Are African penguins worth saving? The ecotourism value of the Boulders Beach colony

Populations of the African penguin Spheniscus demersus have decreased dramatically over the past century, due in part to competition for food with commercial fisheries, and the species is now endangered as a result. Economic arguments are used to favour fisheries over the needs of penguins, but penguins have direct value to the South African economy thanks to penguin-based tourism at several breeding colonies. We estimated the value of African penguins at the most important tourist site for African penguins: Boulders on the Cape Peninsula, South Africa. As a mainland colony close to Cape Town, Boulders is accessible to large numbers of visitors; gate revenues in 2009/2010 alone were R14.5 million (US$2 million). A zonal travel-cost analysis revealed an average consumer surplus among Cape Town residents of some R20 per visit. Penguin-based tourism thus forms an integral part of the R25 billion Western Cape tourism sector. Given that the future survival of this valuable resource is dependent, among others, on the availability of sufficient prey, competition with South Africa's purse-seine fishing fleet should be limited through management strategies that lessen the potential effects of fishing on prey available at the local scale.     

我国现行农用地评价体系比较研究

对新中国农用地评价研究进行分析,认为中国现行农用地评价体系有农业部的耕地质量评价体系和国土资源部的农用土地分等定级估价体系两大类.两大体系在评价的目标、内容、指标和方法体系上存在着区别,但最终目标都是实现农用地资源由"数量管理"向"数量、质量和生态"并重管理的转变,实现土地资源的环境友好利用.新时期,在农用地流转的背景下,通过论述比较两大评价体系,指出现行评价体系存在的问题,并给予展望.     

环境公共物品的私人补偿:农业遗产保护的试点项目(英文)

在一次性支付中,某种环境物品真正价值或许更容易如果它能以捐赠的方式加入私人物品中。我们研究了人们的购买行为并与问卷调查中所阐明的购买行为相对比。我们检验了条件价值法(Contingent Value Method,CVM)的效标效度,例如(检验)当捐赠被附加时人们所表现出与规定值的差异程度。结果表明价格上涨对商品的总销量有任何影响。把捐赠附加到私人物品中可能是种很有效的收集捐款形式。这些捐款被用于保护具有非排他性和非竞争性的景观或者作为景观一部分的农业遗产。此外,我们还可以表明,资金可以在不改变销售数量被收集。这种方法在其他环保活动也是很有效的。     

The territorial integrity of Iraq, 2003-2007: Invocation, violation, viability

This paper considers the ways in which Iraq’s territorial integrity has been invoked by the international community, how it was violated by the US-led coalition between 2003 and 2007, and how these acts have called into question the future viability of the Iraqi state. The paper contends that Iraq provides an instructive illustration of how the international legal term of territorial integrity is being pulled apart; where the spatial extent of the state must be preserved at all costs, yet the sovereignty of the state is rendered entirely contingent. Using interviews with key actors within the British context and documentary analysis, this paper examines the political situation in Iraq and the content of the new Iraqi constitution, the rise of factionalism within Iraq, and the report of the Iraq Study Group. In doing so it considers the impact of key decisions concerning Iraq’s sovereignty upon the future viability of the state.     

组合导航技术在出租车计价系统中的应用

针对目前出租车计价器在计时和计程方面存在的问题,提出了利用GNSS+INS+Odometer组合导航技术进行出租车计价的方法。运用组合导航技术对出租车载客过程中里程和时间进行计算,一方面可以避免传统计价器在使用过程中由于计价器本身以及人为因素等原因,改变实际的行驶里程,影响计价的准确性,从而提高计价的准确性;另一方面,可以避免单一的里程计计价过程中一旦出现故障,里程结果出现较大误差或无法计价等情况,增加出租车计价系统的可靠性。通过跑车试验证明：将组合导航技术应用于出租车计价系统中,能够对出租车计程、计时以及低速计价等关键问题作出很大改进,在计价的精度和可靠性方面都有显著提高;避免因计价器不准等原因造成的乘客、出租车司机之间的矛盾,维护双方的合法权益;对组合导航技术的发展起到了很好的推动作用。