Intergovernmental fiscal relations and regional sustainability

Regions often consist of both urban, densely populated areas and rural, more remote areas. In contrast to the acknowledged socio-economic functions of urban agglomerations, rural and remote areas usually provide ecological services for society as a whole. A number of these ecological services cause costs within the jurisdiction concerned but externally benefit others. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to analyse the role fiscal federalism and fiscal instruments can play in addressing the imbalance of socio-economic and ecological public functions assigned to urban and rural areas in regional development. For this purpose, an investigation of the different role of socio-economic and ecological functions in intergovernmental fiscal relations is carried out by way of example for the Federal Republic of Germany. Due to the significance of ecological functions for regional sustainable development, intergovernmental fiscal relations between the state and the local level of government should take into consideration appropriate ecological indicators. Based on a status quo analysis of the German state fiscal equalisation laws, the paper presents options for systematically integrating ecological functions and indicators into the existing legal framework. Environmental federalism would then be realised regarding both the ecological functions and the financial resources to secure the provision of ecological services. This would fulfil a basic prerequisite of sustainable development taking into account ecological, economic and social aspects for fiscal instruments of prime importance to the local and regional level of government, thereby helping to make regional sustainability a reality. --

Incentives for nature conservation in urban landscapes

The aim of this article is to contribute to the development of ecological-economic incentives in conservation policy. Our approach uses strategies for establishing habitat networks as an example to develop spatially-oriented incentives in urban landscapes. The incentives should ideally consider aspects both of ecological effectiveness and economic efficiency. Our understanding of ecological-economic incentives reaches beyond this stage: not only must economic incentives in environmental policy be based on ecological knowledge, but also, they have to consider social aspects of implementation and acceptance. The ecological analysis of strategies for species protection in urban landscapes leads to management recommendations as a basis for the specification of environmental policy goals. Based on ecological knowledge, which shows where to invest scarce resources, the economic perspective aims at analysing and evaluating environmental policy instruments for their suitability and efficiency. The ecological and economic research is to be combined with a sociological approach, which investigates the choice and application of environmental policy measures as a system of social action. The analysis of problems of implementation and acceptance will be used to support the introduction of new instruments or to improve existing incentive systems related to nature conservation in urban landscapes. For this purpose, a survey was carried out on the use of environmental policy instruments (regulation, planning, economic incentives, communication, information) in German cities in 1997. Furthermore, two existing economic instruments in German nature protection policy are analysed in detail: the compensation charge as part of the impact regulation and incentive programmes on the level of the German federal states that offer financial incentive measures for nature protection. --

Interplay between European regulation and national policies in biodiversity conflict reconciliation

Successful public conservation policies at various governmental levels have increased some populations of protected species to the extent that they are causing damage to human activities. As a reaction public authorities are developing biodiversity reconciliation policies. Finland and Germany have both created reconciliation policies including a package of measures like management of population, support of technical measures and compensation for damage. All these measures are affected by European policy and law, though no special reconciliation policy has been adopted at European level. This article explores the options European legislation offers and the restrictions it imposes on member states. Based on experiences with German and Finnish biodiversity reconciliation policies, the interrelationship between European and national regulation is elaborated, leading to suggestions for better coordination of reconciliation policies between different governmental levels. --Biodiversity conflict reconciliation,European regulation,fisheries and aquaculture,local damage management,nature conservation,policy instruments

Exploring Institutional Complementarity and Social Thresholds of Mobility in Pastoral Social-Ecological Systems in Mongolia

Biodiversity continues to decline worldwide, affecting dryland ecosystems that are of significant importance for global biodiversity conservation. Accelerated by climate change, undergoing transformations have been pushing the entire social-ecological system across ecological and social thresholds. Particularly, the decline of pastoral mobility in Mongolia is of great concern, as flexible responses to the dynamic environment are crucial for the sustainability of drylands’ ecosystems. Responding to this concern, Mongolian policymakers design new pasture use and conservation policies. However, the policies might be ineffective in preventing systems from crossing the thresholds, unless policy implementation succeeds in systematically shaping the perceptions of a critical mass of herders and their strategic choices regarding pastoral mobility. We evaluate whether the enacted policies generate the intended consequences. First, we reconstruct the strategic choice and resulting institutions regarding pastoral mobility in the commons domain, where herders jointly use common pastures. Second, we track the process in the political economy domain, where pasture users choose to support or resist policies. Finally, we evaluate the complementarity of the strategic choices and institutions in both domains. In our field research, we employ the “process tracing” method. It relies on observations to trace recurring processes within and between herding communities and incorporates triangulation via various tools, such as expert interviews and focus group discussions. Our findings identify complementarity between the enacted policies and pastoral mobility as individual households comply with the rules and select mobile herding strategies. However, for the complementarity conditions to be held and to create an overall institutional arrangement, a critical mass of herders choosing to comply with the regulations and practice pastoral mobility to reach a social threshold will be crucial

Economic Instruments for Conservation Policies in Federal Systems

This habilitation thesis consists of seven published journal articles and one published book chapter. Part I, consisting of chapter 1, introduces the overarching theme of environmental policy instruments and discusses the current use of and prospects for economic instruments in conservation policies. A number of research gaps are identified which are addressed in the subsequent chapters. Part II, consisting of chapters 2–5, encompasses four papers focused on a single type of policy instrument: intergovernmental fiscal transfers. Although well documented in public finance literature, intergovernmental fiscal transfers remain a somewhat neglected instrument in environmental policy. Despite being well suited to address the spillover benefits that often accrue with conservation policies, there is scant research literature on ecological fiscal transfers compared to other economic instruments such as environmental taxes or tradable permits. In fact, very few countries make practical use of them to achieve conservation objectives. Thus intergovernmental fiscal transfers are an innovative instrument in conservation policies in particular, so that advances in both theory and applied research may prove especially beneficial here. Part III, consisting of chapters 6–9, combines a number of articles in integrative biodiversity research and applied biodiversity governance, themes that are often neglected in the economic analysis of environmental policy instruments. However, when implementing policy instruments in societal settings, interdisciplinary research bridging the natural and social sciences is as much a prerequisite as policy-relevant research that responds to the needs of decision makers and other stakeholders. Both policy design and policy evaluation yield the best outcomes when they involve ecologists, economists, legal and other social scientists, as this ensures that consideration is given to ecological effectiveness, economic efficiency, administrative feasibility, social acceptance, and perception by stakeholders. Policy-relevant research also responds to current societal developments and prospective changes in legislation which may provide windows of opportunity to propose new instruments. Meanwhile, sound empirical research and case study design are indispensable in making concrete policy recommendations, taking into account existing formal and informal institutions

Artenschutz und Teichwirtschaft: Rechtliche und institutionelle Rahmenbedingungen in Deutschland unter besonderer Berücksichtigung des Freistaates Sachsen

Der vorliegende Bericht, der im Rahmen des Arbeitspaketes WP4 Rechtliche und institutionelle Rahmenbedingungen erarbeitet wurde, gibt einen Überblick über das deutsche Rechtsund Verwaltungssystem hinsichtlich seiner Relevanz für die Beziehungen zwischen dem Schutz großer Wirbeltiere und der Fischerei. Im Speziellen wird dabei auf die Analyse rechtlicher und institutioneller Rahmenbedingungen eingegangen, die für den Konflikt zwischen der Fischerei und den drei Modellarten Fischotter, Kormoran und Robben (Seehund und Kegelrobbe) von Bedeutung sind. Schwerpunktmäßig wird sich das deutsche Projektteam mit dem Fischotter und dem Kormoran beschäftigen; im Rahmen dieses Berichtes wird aber auch auf die Robben eingegangen, soweit sie im deutschen Recht behandelt werden. Die deutsche Modellregion befindet sich im Freistaat Sachsen. Deshalb finden die entsprechenden rechtlichen und institutionellen Rahmenbedingungen auf Landesebene eine besondere Berücksichtigung. Methodisch basiert der Bericht auf einer Analyse relevanter Gesetze, Verordnungen, Richtlinien und sonstiger Regelungen, wobei folgende Rechtsbereiche die Schwerpunkte bilden: Naturschutzrecht, Artenschutzrecht, Gebietsschutzrecht, Fischereirecht, Jagdrecht, Raumordnungs- und Landschaftsplanungsrecht. --

Between Scylla and Charybdis - on the place of economic methods and concepts within ecological economics

Ecological Economics inherently faces a challenge akin to sailing between Scylla and Charybdis. In Greek mythology these are two monsters located on opposite sides of a narrow strait, and falling victim to one or other of them is unavoidable. In the recurring process of establishing and refining its conceptual foundations, Ecological Economics runs the risk of, on the one hand, losing important insights by trying to be radically different from mainstream economics and, on the other hand, becoming a redundant appendix to mainstream environmental economics by routinely applying its concepts and methods. We argue that avoiding both fallacies is possible by using Ecological Economics’ orientation towards sustainability as a guiding principle. The scientist’s power of judgment supports her decision concerning which methods are suitable for tackling a given sustainability problem. The intersubjective quality of judgment prevents the resulting methodological pluralism from drifting toward arbitrariness

Circulating Tumor Cell Transcriptomics as Biopsy Surrogates in Metastatic Breast Cancer

BACKGROUND Metastatic breast cancer (MBC) and the circulating tumor cells (CTCs) leading to macrometastases are inherently different than primary breast cancer. We evaluated whether whole transcriptome RNA-Seq of CTCs isolated via an epitope-independent approach may serve as a surrogate for biopsies of macrometastases. METHODS We performed RNA-Seq on fresh metastatic tumor biopsies, CTCs, and peripheral blood (PB) from 19 newly diagnosed MBC patients. CTCs were harvested using the ANGLE Parsortix microfluidics system to isolate cells based on size and deformability, independent of a priori knowledge of cell surface marker expression. RESULTS Gene expression separated CTCs, metastatic biopsies, and PB into distinct groups despite heterogeneity between patients and sample types. CTCs showed higher expression of immune oncology targets compared with corresponding metastases and PB. Predictive biomarker (n = 64) expression was highly concordant for CTCs and metastases. Repeat observation data post-treatment demonstrated changes in the activation of different biological pathways. Somatic single nucleotide variant analysis showed increasing mutational complexity over time. CONCLUSION We demonstrate that RNA-Seq of CTCs could serve as a surrogate biomarker for breast cancer macrometastasis and yield clinically relevant insights into disease biology and clinically actionable targets