In 2006, Resilience Thinking addressed an essential question: As the natural systems that sustain us are subjected to shock after shock, how much can they take and still deliver the services we need ...from them? This idea caught the attention of both the scientific community and the general public.In Resilience Practice, authors Brian Walker and David Salt take the notion of resilience one step further, applying resilience thinking to real-world situations and exploring how systems can be managed to promote and sustain resilience.The book begins with an overview and introduction to resilience thinking and then takes the reader through the process of describing systems, assessing their resilience, and intervening as appropriate. Following each chapter is a case study of a different type of social-ecological system and how resilience makes a difference to that system in practice. The final chapters explore resilience in other arenas, including on a global scale. Resilience Practice will help people with an interest in the "coping capacity" of systems—from farms and catchments to regions and nations—to better understand how resilience thinking can be put into practice. It offers an easy-to-read but scientifically robust guide through the real-world application of the concept of resilience and is a must read for anyone concerned with the management of systems at any scale.
The load capacity factor tracks a certain ecological threshold by comparing biocapacity and ecological footprint, thus enabling a comprehensive research on environmental degradation. It can be ...observed that the environmental degradation rises with decreasing the load capacity factor. However, until now, researchers have empirically considered environmental issues using ecological footprint, carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide emissions, and similar indicators. The use of these indicators can lead to the neglect of the supply side of environmental issues. To compensate for this shortcoming, this study aims to investigate the influence of human capital, natural resource rent, per capita income, and energy intensity on the load capacity factor, which focuses on environmental concerns on both the supply and demand sides. In this regard, the study utilizes a recently developed dynamic autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) simulation model for China from 1981 to 2017. The results of dynamic ARDL demonstrates that an increase in income, energy intensity, and resource rent leads to a decline in the load capacity factor, while human capital improves environmental quality in the long-run. Moreover, according to Narayan and Narayan (2010) approach, the environmental Kuznets curve hypothesis is valid for China because the short-run income elasticity is lower than the long-run elasticity (−0.644 was compared with −0.460). Based on the results, policy recommendations for China's sustainable development are presented.
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•The determinants of the load capacity factor are explored in China for 1981–2016.•A novel dynamic ARDL simulation model is used.•The study validate the existence of the EKC for load capacity factor in China.•Income, energy intensity, and resources rent reduce the load capacity factor.•Human capital have a pivotal role in improving environmental quality.
In order to promote economic activity, a country needs a productive and sound financial structure and financial development as a backbone of the economic development of the country. Our study thus ...aims to investigate the “resource curse” hypothesis in the presence of globalization, human capital, and economic growth in China during the period 1971–2017. Within a multivariate framework, we provide more rigorous analysis through several econometric methods, for instance, the Bayer and Hanck cointegration, the Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL), robustness check by fully modified ordinary least squares (FMOLS), dynamic ordinary least squares (DOLS), canonical cointegrating regression (CCR), and Breitung-Candelon spectral Granger causality testing. Our findings show that the effect of natural resources on financial development is negative and confirm China's resources curse hypothesis, while globalization, human capital, and economic development lead to improving the financial development of the country. The causality analysis reveals that natural resources, human capital, and economic growth have a long-term relationship with financial development, while globalization short and medium-term linked with financial development. In order to promote financial sector development, our empirical outcomes have significant policy implications that highlight the need to encourage globalization and the development of human capital to ensure the effective management of natural resources.
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•We explore the “resource curse” hypothesis in the presence of globalization, human capital, and economic growth in China.•The Bayer and Hanck cointegration, the ARDL bounds cointegration, and robust econometrics techniques are employed.•In the long-run, natural resources, human capital, and economic growth are important predictors for financial development.•Globalization contributes to financial development in the medium-term and short-term.
Marine protected areas (MPAs) are increasingly being used globally to conserve marine resources. However, whether many MPAs are being effectively and equitably managed, and how MPA management ...influences substantive outcomes remain unknown. We developed a global database of management and fish population data (433 and 218 MPAs, respectively) to assess: MPA management processes; the effects of MPAs on fish populations; and relationships between management processes and ecological effects. Here we report that many MPAs failed to meet thresholds for effective and equitable management processes, with widespread shortfalls in staff and financial resources. Although 71% of MPAs positively influenced fish populations, these conservation impacts were highly variable. Staff and budget capacity were the strongest predictors of conservation impact: MPAs with adequate staff capacity had ecological effects 2.9 times greater than MPAs with inadequate capacity. Thus, continued global expansion of MPAs without adequate investment in human and financial capacity is likely to lead to sub-optimal conservation outcomes.
The oil curse Ross, Michael L
2012., 20120304, 2012, 2012-03-04, 20130101
eBook
Countries that are rich in petroleum have less democracy, less economic stability, and more frequent civil wars than countries without oil. What explains this oil curse? And can it be fixed? In this ...groundbreaking analysis, Michael L. Ross looks at how developing nations are shaped by their mineral wealth--and how they can turn oil from a curse into a blessing.
Forests are a substantial terrestrial carbon sink, but anthropogenic changes in land use and climate have considerably reduced the scale of this system
. Remote-sensing estimates to quantify carbon ...losses from global forests
are characterized by considerable uncertainty and we lack a comprehensive ground-sourced evaluation to benchmark these estimates. Here we combine several ground-sourced
and satellite-derived approaches
to evaluate the scale of the global forest carbon potential outside agricultural and urban lands. Despite regional variation, the predictions demonstrated remarkable consistency at a global scale, with only a 12% difference between the ground-sourced and satellite-derived estimates. At present, global forest carbon storage is markedly under the natural potential, with a total deficit of 226 Gt (model range = 151-363 Gt) in areas with low human footprint. Most (61%, 139 Gt C) of this potential is in areas with existing forests, in which ecosystem protection can allow forests to recover to maturity. The remaining 39% (87 Gt C) of potential lies in regions in which forests have been removed or fragmented. Although forests cannot be a substitute for emissions reductions, our results support the idea
that the conservation, restoration and sustainable management of diverse forests offer valuable contributions to meeting global climate and biodiversity targets.
Analyzing the effect of natural resources on economic green growth and its mechanism of transmission has important reference value for China's economic green growth transformation. Based on the ...statistical data of 30 provinces in China from 2003 to 2016, this paper uses the global Malmquist-Luenberger index to measure the green total factor productivity (that is, the economic green growth index), and then empirically analyzes the effects of both natural resource abundance and resource industry dependence on the green total factor productivity and its mechanism of transmission. The results show that, overall, the more abundant a province's natural resources, the lower the green total factor productivity. Natural resource abundance has significantly inhibited China's economic green growth through resource industry dependence, thus verifying the resource curse. Further transmission mechanism analyses show that resource industry dependence has a negative impact on economic green growth mainly through the extrusion of human capital, technology and investment in innovation as well as increases in the proportion of secondary industry in the economy and reductions in the quality of local systems.
•We analyze the effect of natural resources on economic green growth.•We use the global ML index to measure economic green growth.•The dependence on resource industries inhibits economic green growth.•We analyze the effect mechanism of resource industry dependence.
This paper evaluates the impact of major natural resource discoveries since 1950 on GDP per capita. Using panel fixed-effects estimation and resource discoveries in countries that were not previously ...resource-rich as a plausibly exogenous source of variation, I find a positive effect on GDP per capita levels following resource exploitation that persists in the long term. Results vary significantly between OECD and non-OECD treatment countries, with effects concentrated within the non-OECD group. I further test GDP effects with synthetic control analysis on each individual treated country, yielding results consistent with the average effects found with the fixed-effects model.
•Effect of resources on GDP/capita are estimated using quasi-experimental methods.•Major resource discoveries caused positive short and long-run effects on GDP/ capita.•Effects are limited to developing countries, with no impact on developed countries.•Mixed evidence of positive effects on productivity, capital, labor and schooling.
Volatility in the prices of natural resources particularly in the Covid-19 period is the subject of major concern in recent times. Although many studies have empirically investigated the influence of ...oil prices on economic growth and Covid-19 on oil prices. However, the current study contributes to the literature by investigating the causal linkage of natural resources commodity prices and economic growth in the pre and post Covid-19 period for China over the period from January 01, 2019, to April 01, 2021. This study employed the wavelet power spectrum, and the wavelet coherence approaches, and the frequency domain causality test, which is known for the causal identification in the long-run, medium-run, and short-run. The empirical findings reveal that the natural resource commodity prices are more vulnerable than the economic performance particularly in the Covid-19 peak period in China. However, the wavelet coherence approach demonstrates that a bidirectional causal association exists between natural resources commodity prices and economic performance at different frequencies and time periods. Additionally, the frequency domain causality test confirms that the natural resource commodity prices volatility significantly causes economic performance only in the medium-run. Based on the empirical findings, this study recommends that innovative technological and precautionary measures must be taken to accommodate or overcome natural disasters in the future, and tackle natural resources commodity prices volatility.
•Natural Resource Commodity Price Volatility and Economic growth have been tested.•Wavelet power spectrum and coherence approaches are used.•Higher volatility has been found in the natural resource commodity price during COVID-19 period.•Natural resource commodity price causes economic performance in the medium-run.
The ecological footprint, a measure of human demand on earth’s ecosystems, represents the amount of biologically productive land and sea area that is necessary to supply the resources a human ...population consumes and to mitigate associated waste. This study estimates the impact of economic growth and natural resources on Pakistan’s ecological footprint using an autoregressive distributive lag (ARDL) model for long-run estimation. The empirical findings indicate that natural resources have a positive effect on an ecological footprint that deteriorates environmental quality and that natural resources help to support the environmental Kuznets hypothesis (EKC). Bidirectional causality is found between natural resources and the ecological footprint, along with a long-run causality between biocapacity and the ecological footprint. The innovative findings have important implications for policy.
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