Effectiveness of China's National Forest Protection Program and nature reserves

There is profound interest in knowing the degree to which China's institutions are capable of protecting its natural forests and biodiversity in the face of economic and political change. China's 2 most important forest-protection policies are its National Forest Protection Program (NFPP) and its national-level nature reserves (NNRs). The NFPP was implemented in 2000 in response to deforestation-caused flooding. We undertook the first national, quantitative assessment of the NFPP and NNRs to examine whether the NFPP achieved its deforestation-reduction target and whether the NNRs deter deforestation altogether. We used MODIS data to estimate forest cover and loss across mainland China (2000-2010). We also assembled the first-ever polygon dataset for China's forested NNRs (n = 237, 74,030 km(2) in 2000) and used both conventional and covariate-matching approaches to compare deforestation rates inside and outside NNRs (2000-2010). In 2000, 1.765 million km(2) or 18.7% of mainland China was forested (12.3% with canopy cover of >= 70%)) or woodland (6.4% with canopy cover = 40%). By 2010, 480,203 km(2) of forest and woodland had been lost, an annual deforestation rate of 2.7%. Forest-only loss was 127,473 km(2) (1.05% annually). In the NFPP provinces, the forest-only loss rate was 0.62%, which was 3.3 times lower than in the non-NFPP provinces. Moreover, the Landsat data suggest that these loss rates are overestimates due to large MODIS pixel size. Thus, China appears to have achieved, and even exceeded, its target of reducing deforestation to 1.1% annually in the NFPP provinces. About two-thirds of China's NNRs were effective in protecting forest cover (prevented loss 4073 km(2) unmatched approach; 3148 km(2) matched approach), and within-NNR deforestation rates were higher in provinces with higher overall deforestation. Our results indicate that China's existing institutions can protect domestic forest cover

First look analyses of five cycles of ERTS-1 imagery over County of Los Angeles: Assessment of data utility for urban development and regional planning

Significant results have been obtained from the analyses of ERTS-1 imagery from five cycles over Test Site SR 124 by classical photointerpretation and by an interactive hybrid multispectral information extraction system (GEMS). The synopticity, periodicity and multispectrality of ERTS coverage, available for the first time to LA County planners, have opened up both a new dimensionality in data and offer new capability in preparation of planning inputs. Photointerpretation of ERTS images has produced over 25 overlays at 1:1,000,000 scale depicting regional relations and urban structure in terms of several hundred linear and areal features. To mention only one such result, a possible new fault lineament has been discovered on the northern slope of the Santa Monica mountains in the scene 1144-18015, composited of MSS bands 4, 5, 6,. GEMS analysis of the ERTS products has provided new or improved information in the following planning data categories: urban vegetation; land cover segregation; man-made and natural impact monitoring; urban design; and suitability. ERTS data analysis has allowed planners to establish trends that directly impact planning policies. This new source of information will not only assist current methods to be more efficient, but permits entirely new planning methodologies to be employed

Congress Needs to Find a Productive Role in Restoring Confidence to Our Financial System

As our very resilient economy begins the long road to recovery, we will need to evaluate the lessons learned from the financial market turmoil.Senate, banking, Senate Banking Committee, GSE, discal discipline, financial system, federal, congress, confidence

The Southeast Economy: As Goes the Nation?

So what of the Southeast economy? Are we doing better than, the same as, or worse than the U.S. economy as a whole?Southeast economy, southeast, economy, employment, sales, revenue

Working Together to Save Our Economy — and Get Reelected

Some of us in Congress are proposing a bipartisan commission with teeth to force Congress and the president to make tough choices on spending reform.spending reform, pork spending, bipartisan commission, congress

LSE Tech policy workshop with the author of Innovation Economics – Thursday 17 January 2013

Stephen Ezell, author of the recent book “Innovation Economics – The Race for Global Advantage”, published by Yale University Press, presented a lively introduction and presided over a critical discussion to a knowledgable audience

Report of the LSE Network Economy Conference 2013: policies and strategies for a revival of the European telecom and Internet sector

The LSE Tech group held a Network Economy conference on 13 May on the theme “The need for a revival of the European Telecom and Internet Sector: Policies and Business Strategy”. Among the 75 participants we had regulators, telecom operators, internet application firms, financial analysts, and academic researchers. The day was structured on a number of central themes that extended and drew from three previous workshops on: infrastructure investments, service innovation, and regulatory economics. Here, you will find a summary of the main themes and current key debates about telecommunications and internet policy research in Europe

Near field communications [NFC]: privacy, regulation, and business models

LSE Tech has been engaged over the past few years in numerous projects that have been supported by public and private organizations. One of these studies is on near field communications [NFC] in partnership with Nokia and completed in 2012. Here we review the main goals of this research and its follow up. This study has had especially strong impact on policy recently and has had many hundreds of downloads. The full report can be downloaded here