The Role of Ecotourism in the Sustainable Development of Qinkou village, Yunnan, China, 2001 to 2013

This study captures evidence of the changes to Qinkou village during the period it was developed as an example of ecotourism in Yunnan province, Southwest China; a process which began in 2001. By examining the aims of the development projects and changes which happened in the village in 2001, 2006 and 2013 respectively, the paper aims to explore how traditions have been understood and deployed with regard to the built environment in Qinkou. It also investigates the shift in focus of academic research into traditional and sustainable development of rural villages over different periods. In 2001, a development project was implemented in Qinkou to demonstrate how tourism could be used as a way to modernise the village. The local government of the Honghe Hani and Yi Autonomous Prefecture, where the village is located, worked with academics in the fields of architecture, planning and anthropology to develop the plan and to obtain funding to transform Qinkou into an ecotourism village. By 2006, the infrastructure of the village had been significantly improved. However, many originally planned activities could not be carried out due to the lack of ongoing funding support and effective management. Tourism alone was unable to bring fundamental changes in Qinkou. Instead, many villagers who worked in the cities returned with savings from the higher incomes enjoyed in the cities and also brought back changed lifestyles that contributed further major transformation. At the same time, the village remained a coherent settlement. The head of the village and management group organised many village co-operative activities. Academic research at the time, on the other hand, focused more on the examination of the cultural symbols of the local families and built environment than providing advice to help the village improve living conditions. In 2013, an application for the spectacular stepped paddy fields in the Prefecture to be listed as a World Heritage Site attracted significant funding from the local government. Qinkou was included in the development master plan; however, the development project for the village focused primarily on the preservation of the traditional forms as cultural symbols. Academic research and local policies discussed needs for sustainable development in order to comply with the requirements of the UNSCO process for World Heritage Site listing. Yet, details of how to achieve social and cultural cohesion remained missing. This paper argues that tourism development in the market-oriented economy now operating in China has worked as the catalyst for the transformation of the village and improvement of living conditions. However, social-cultural sustainable regeneration of rural settlements must create places for the needs of different groups in the local community. The academic research also needs to reinterpret the traditions that were formed and changed by the local communities in a way that is perhaps more diverse and flexible than the previous academic research defined

A Perspective on Organic Agriculture in China - Opportunities and Challenges

With the rapid development of international production and trade in organic food, organic agriculture is also boosting in China. The milestone of Chinese organic agri-culture was set in 1990 with the first export of a certified organic product (tea) from Lin’an county of Zhejiang Province, China, which marked the launch of organic pro-duction in China. By the end of 2005, there had been about 4.384 million ha organic land, including 1.694 million ha organic, 0.61 million ha conversion as well as 2.08 million ha collection area, about half of which is certified area. About 4.93 million tons organic products and nearly 1600 projects had been certified with 300~400 varieties. According to the above data, now China ranks the 3rd largest country of organic production in the world. In China, organic development mostly is export oriented, the export products include beans, rice, tea, mushroom, vegetable, processed oil and herbs, etc. According to the certifying body COFCC of Ministry of Agriculture (MOA), the value of exported organic products increased from 0.3 million USD in 1995 to 0.35 billion USD at the end of the year 2004. Chinese domestic organic market started from 2000. Presently, most of the products sold in domestic markets are certified by COFCC and OFDC in some largest cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Nanjing and Shenzhen, etc. The price of the organic products is often up to 3 times the price of conventional products. Average organic food consumption accounts for 0.08% of the conventional food (LI 2006)

Influential publications in ecological economics revisited

We revisit the analysis of Costanza et al. (2004, Ecological Economics) of influential publications in ecological economics to discover what has changed a decade on. We examine which sources have been influential on the field of ecological economics in the past decade, which articles in the journal Ecological Economics have had the most influence on the field and on the rest of science, and on which areas of science the journal is having the most in- fluence.We find that the field has matured over this period, with articles published in the journal having a greater influence than before, an increase in citation links to environmental studies journals, a reduction in citation links to mainstream economics journals, and possibly a shift in themes to a more applied and empirical direction.Copyright Information: © 2016 Elsevier B.V. http://www.sherpa.ac.uk/romeo/issn/0921-8009/..."Authors pre-print on any website, including arXiv and RePEC" from SHERPA/RoMEO site (as at 3/02/16)

HAPPINESS OVER SPACE AND TIME

Hedonic theory assumes that changes in land prices and wage rates eliminate the utility advantages of differing locations. Using happiness data from the German socio-economic panel this paper empirically tests whether regional utility differences exist and if so whether utility levels show any tendency to converge over time. Empirical analysis reveals substantial differences in utility over different regions of Germany. Analysing a panel of data indicates that even if individual utility levels are at any one moment in disequilibrium they are rapidly converging over Germany for all types of individuals.amenity value, Happiness

Global Media and Neo-Colonialism in Africa: the Socio-Ecological Model as a solution to Nigeria’s development efforts.

Given the robust reputation of Nigeria in Africa, as a continental giant, and the need to harness the potentials of the nation to strategically reposition her economy on the global map in the 21st century, the nation is in dire need of speedy development. With a population of over 160 million, the country is blessed with both human and natural resources. Like other African countries, Nigeria has had her fair share of colonial experience which ended on October 1st, 1960 when the nation was granted independence by the British government. Nigeria’s independence is undoubtedly a political phenomenon as the nation still largely depends economically and socially on foreign nations especially developed countries like Britain, America and China

Value Through Diversity: Microfinance and Islamic Finance and Global Banking

Internet resources, extended media coverage and international organizations’ reports recently witness the increasing interest of western banks in new models of finance, particularly Islamic finance and microfinance. This new trend is not only channeled through the frame of corporate social responsibilities programs and policies or limited to ad hoc financial institutions (like microcredit banks or Islamic banks) as it is entering the financial offer of mainstream banks. The paper primarily outlines that many elements of microfinance could be considered consistent with the broader goals of Islamic banking. Apart from pure economic considerations which are not the aim of this analysis, the paper supports the thesis that by addressing new markets and embracing unconventional financial proposals, the global banking sector can contribute to the quest for diversity-oriented policies posed by an increasingly globalised scenario. The consequences this new trend is likely to have on inner banking structures are still unknown and are likely to interest the issue of wealth distribution. Moreover, from a more general point of view, by showing that even different moral ethos deep rooted in different cultural paradigms can be as profitable and available as western capitalistic ones, the banking sector can play a potential role in disseminating awareness on specific cultural and religious issues, resulting in increased integration of Muslim communities and low income investors in the long run and supporting commercial banks the close relation between economy and culture.Microfinance, Islamic finance, Diversity, Multiculturalism, Global banking

The macroeconomic cost of catastrophic pollinator declines

We develop a computable general equilibrium (CGE) approach to assess the macroeconomic impacts of productivity shocks due to catastrophic losses of pollination ecosystem services at global and regional scales. In most regions, producers of pollinator dependent crops end up benefiting because direct output losses are outweighed by increased prices, while non-agricultural sectors experience large adverse indirect impacts, resulting in overall losses whose magnitudes vary substantially. By comparison, partial equilibrium analyses tend to overstate the costs to agricultural producers, understate aggregate economy-wide losses, and overstate the impacts on consumers' welfare. Our results suggest an upper bound on global willingness to pay for agricultural pollination services of $127–$152 billion

THE ECONOMIC IMPACT OF THE SOUTH-NORTH WATER TRANSFER PROJECT IN CHINA: A COMPUTABLE GENERAL EQUILIBRIUM ANALYSIS

Water resources are unevenly spread in China. Especially the basins of the Yellow, Hui and Hai rivers in the North are rather dry. To increase the supply of water in these basins, the South-to-North Water Transfer project (SNWT) was launched. Using a computable general equilibrium model this study estimates the impact of the project on the economy of China and the rest of the world. We contrast three alternative groups of scenarios. All are directly concerned with the South-to-North water transfer project to increase water supply. In the first group of scenarios additional supply implies productivity gains. We call it the “non-market” solution. The second group of scenarios is called “market solution”. The market price for water adjusts such that supply and demand are equated again. In the third group of simulations the economic implications of China’s capital investment in infrastructure for the water South-North water transfer project is analyzed. Finally, the investment is combined with the increased capacity of water. If an increase in water supply in China leads to an increase in productivity of their water-intensive goods and services (non-market solution) this would result in a huge positive welfare effect from increased production and export. The effect on China’s welfare would still be positive, if a market for water would exist (market solution), but the world as a whole would lose. The negative effect for the rest of the world is largely explained by a deterioration of its terms-of-trade. Well functioning water markets in China are unlikely to exist.Computable General Equilibrium, South-North Water Transfer Project, Water Policy, Water Scarcity