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The American Wetlands Compensatory Mitigation System And Its Inspiration To Wetlands Legislation Of Our Country

Posted on:2012-05-12Degree:DoctorType:Dissertation
Country:ChinaCandidate:C X ShaoFull Text:PDF
GTID:1116330338999115Subject:Environment and Resources Protection Law
Abstract/Summary:PDF Full Text Request
The economy's rapid growth has brought extrodinary pressure on wetlands conservation in our country. Wetlands continue to shrink while functions are losing. The ongoing legislation on wetlands in our country is facing lots of theoretical problems to be solved, among which is wetland compensation. Since 70s in the last century, the United States has carried out wetlands compensatory mitigation system which is fruitful and worth to be learned. This paper starts from studying wetlands compensatory mitigation system of the United States, using historical analysis, empirical analysis, comparative analysis, induction and deduction to analyze the actual circumstance in the United States for the wetland compensatory mitigation system put in practice. Then this paper analyzes the obstacles of introducing the system to our country, finally try to setup a wetlands compensatory mitigation system which suit our country while improving relative conditions.Accurate definition to'Wetlands','Compensation'and'Wetlands compensatory mitigation'is the basis for other definition in the paper. Why wetland compensatory mitigation is required for wetlands conservation constitutes the foundation of the argument in this paper. Ecosystem services values, public goods theory and economic externalities theory answered that question. In the past four decades, wetlands compensatory mitigation policy and legislation in the U.S. came into being and continued to get improved. Before 70s in the last century, the U.S. government encouraged exploitation of wetlands, so wetlands compensatory mitigation is not a problem. However, development activities have made severe impact on wetlands which made wetlands policy and legislation changed a lot since then. Wetlands compensatory mitigation policy and legislation came into being, then continued to be improved from preliminary to maturity, and now the balance in terms of size and functions of wetlands in the whole country is achieved. By 2008, wetlands mitigation banking, in-lieu fee mitigation and permittee-responsible mitigation were consented by the U.S. government. Among them, wetlands mitigation banking is preferred which using market to protect wetlands. In-lieu fee mitigation is secondary, while permittee-responsible mitigation is the most conventional mechanism. These three mechanisms have their own characteristics and are applicable to different situation, suffering some controversy as well. Practice shows these mechanisms achieve the goal of no net loss of wetlands in U.S. The success of the system in the U.S. relies on the condition of the country. Our country is different from the U.S., whereas the advanced idea of the system is worthy for our country to learn from.There are many obstacles to introduce the wetlands compensatory mitigation system of the U.S. into our country. The ownership to natural resources of our country is different from the U.S. Besides, the policies, laws, management systems, ecosystem services market environment, the public foundation and technological level are also quite different. However, the progress of wetlands conservation requires the improvement made for the above areas. Therefore we could introduce the wetlands compensatory mitigation system of the U.S. into out our country step by step. The system of our country should be established on the basis of classification of wetlands. While improving wetlands protection system, all of these mechanisms including wetlands mitigation banking, in-lieu fee mitigation and permittee-responsible mitigation are considerable options.
Keywords/Search Tags:Wetland, Compensatory Mitigation, Legislation, Inspiration, the U.S.
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