The role of natural resources in financial expansion:evidence from Central Asia

Central Asian States(CAS)have diverse natural resources.This research aims to shed light on the finance–natural resource’s association in the context of CAS namely Kazakhstan,Kyrgyzstan,Tajikistan,Turkmenistan,and Uzbekistan in 1996–2020 using the cross-sectionally augmented autoregressive distributed lag technique.It seeks to examine the research question,“What is the effect of natural resource wealth on the financial expansion(FE)of Central Asia?”The results demonstrated an inverted U-shaped association between financial growth and natural resource rents.It implies that natural resources are initially a“resource blessing”that later becomes a“resource curse.”Additionally,the effect of institutional quality(INQ)and human development(HD)on financial growth is examined.The results reveal that INQ and HD positively affect FE.Moreover,a bidirectional causal relationship exists between FE and INQ.Finally,all variables contribute to a long term FE.Based on these outcomes,the major policy recommendations are that the CAS authorities diversify their financial services and products and direct the proceeds from natural resource rents to effective invest-ments particularly in HD.In addition,the social and political infrastructures in CAS must be restructured to achieve a high-quality institutional environment,which is necessary to increase the role of the private sector.

Natural Resource Governance in Unrecognized Settings: What Are Emerging Political, Legal and Fiscal Issues Affecting “Somaliland”?

Somaliland declared independence after the fall of the Central Government of Somalia in 1991. Early peace settlements and state-building efforts led to transitional government and early democratic contestations including presidential elections in a hybrid state framework. This emerging democracy in a conflict-torn region is challenged by weak accountability and power imbalances between the three government branches. Over the past few years, the current ruling party started to engage with foreign companies to carry out exploration activities in onshore blocks utilizing existing information on the distribution of natural resources of oil, and gas and to lesser extent mining. Following an informal auction of selling licenses for resource exploration among various companies, Genel Energy amongst others;Somaliland has no competent institutions in managing revenues for long-term development due to two distinctive factors: 1) absence of strong legal and political frameworks specific to governance of extractive industry;2) weak fiscal regimes across spectrum of extractive companies, the state and investors.

Discussion on Green Development of Fenlong for Yield Increase, Quality Enhancing, Water Retaining and Multiple Use of Natural Resources

Fenlong green ecological agriculture technology （Fenlong technology）, a new smash ridging farming method developed by Guangxi Academy of Agdcultural Sciences, has been elected as the recommended cultivation technique by the Ministry of Agriculture of China. It replaces the traditional plowshare with spiral drill, and its tilth depth is twice deeper than that by tractor tilthing. It also extends soil nutrient, moisture, oxygen and microorganism, the so-called ＂Four pools＂. Soil nutrient, oxygen, microorganism, light and rainfall use ratio is increased by 10%-100%, creating a platform for natural increase of more than 10% of crop yield. Its application to over 20 kinds of crops in 21 provinces has proved that the yield increases 10-30% with quality enhancing 5% and double water retaining capacity but no more input. When the application area of Fenlong could reach 67 million hm2, the amount of fertilizer can be reduced by 40-50 billion kg, saving 120-150 billion Yuan. In this paper, we put forward the strategy of ＂4＋1＂ （arable, saline-alkali soil, grasslands, Sponge City ＋ rivers） green development in China, and deepened the Fenlong cultivated tilled layer from 16.5 cm to 35 cm for 67 million hm2 arable land, ridged 13.3 million hm2 of saline-alkali soil for 35 cm, and also 35 cm for 67 million hm2 degraded steppe, which could have the following 3 effects： first, the 147 million hm2 of land with Fenlong cultivation could increase loosing soil to 315.491 billion m3, in＊ creasing by 159.26% for 120 million hm2 of arable land with the average tilled layer of 16.5 cm, which has loosing soil of only 198.1 billion m3, that is, the space of the land increases 1.6 times. Second, every hectare of plowland could store up to 450 m3/hm2 of natural rainfall, and the unused 60 m3 of saline-alkali soil and grasslands could store water of 102 billion m3, showing an increase of over 88.89% for the current plowland storage of 54 billion m3 at now, that is, double the natural rainfall storage capacity. Third, the two multiple increase of natural resources application can bring trillions of resource activation, environmental cleaning, food security, citizens, health, economic, ecological and social benefits, and makes the Chinese nation move forward in green development. Its application in ＂big scientific research＂ and ＂One Belt And One Road＂ will contribute Chinese strength to the world.

Natural Resources Balance Sheet:Chinese Characteristics and International Practices

This paper examines the explorations and practices of environmental- economic accounting in the international community, provides a comprehensive overview and evaluation of the nature and research progress of China＇s natural resources balance sheet, reviews the relevant systems of China＇s natural resources balance sheet and the development of ecological civilization, identifies the issues in the formulation of natural resources balance sheet and makes suggestions for improvement.

Natural resource dependence, public education investment,and human capital accumulation

This paper examines the relationships between natural resource dependence, public education investment, and human capital accumulation. It addresses why the “blessing” of abundant natural resources often turns into a “curse” in many countries and regions, focusing on the crowding-out effect of natural resources on human capital. According to our empirical analysis of provincial panel data from China, natural resource dependence is significantly and negatively correlated with human capital accumulation. The crowding-out effect of natural resources on human capital exists only in the central and western regions of China. Our introduction of an interaction term for natural resource dependence and public education investment underscores the possibility of investing in public education to reduce the crowding-out effect of natural resource dependence on human capital. The government should utilize the income of the natural resource sector to increase investment in education to enhance local human capital.

Reforming the natural resource auditing system from the ecological civilization perspective

Perfecting the natural resource system and auditing natural resource assets are requirements in protecting natural resources and developing an ecological civilization in practice.While the natural resource asset audit both confirms and quantifies natural resources,the nature of such resources makes it difficult to identify their ownership.Further,these resources'diversity creates complex measurement standards and activities,all of which require relevant institutional guarantees.However,the existing audit system for natural resource assets includes insufficient stock,incremental difficulties,and poor guidance,which cannot meet the requirements for environmental governance and an ecological civilization.Thus,it is necessary to define natural resource assets’rights and measurement systems and responsibility regulations,among others;construct an auditing participation system,technical regulations,and evaluation criterion for natural resource assets;amend the Audit Law in a timely manner;and enact natural resource asset legislation.Ultimately,such efforts would eliminate the bottleneck in the natural resource asset auditing system and facilitate the construction of a resource-saving,environmentally friendly society.

GIScience and remote sensing in natural resource and environmental research:Status quo and future perspectives

Geographic information science(GIScience)and remote sensing have long provided essential data and method-ological support for natural resource challenges and environmental problems research.With increasing advances in information technology,natural resource and environmental science research faces the dual challenges of data and computational intensiveness.Therefore,the role of remote sensing and GIScience in the fields of natural resources and environmental science in this new information era is a key concern of researchers.This study clarifies the definition and frameworks of these two disciplines and discusses their role in natural resource and environmental research.GIScience is the discipline that studies the abstract and formal expressions of the basic concepts and laws of geography,and its research framework mainly consists of geo-modeling,geo-analysis,and geo-computation.Remote sensing is a comprehensive technology that deals with the mechanisms of human ef-fects on the natural ecological environment system by observing the earth surface system.Its main areas include sensors and platforms,information processing and interpretation,and natural resource and environmental appli-cations.GIScience and remote sensing provide data and methodological support for resource and environmental science research.They play essential roles in promoting the development of resource and environmental science and other related technologies.This paper provides forecasts of ten future directions for GIScience and eight future directions for remote sensing,which aim to solve issues related to natural resources and the environment.

Natural Resource Conditions and Economic Development in the Uttaranchal Himalaya,India

Uttaranchal is bestowed with numerous rivers, huge forest resources ranging from tropical to temperate, tourists＇ places, pilgrimages and feasible climatic conditions for growing fruits, vegetables, food grains, livestock rearing, tea garden practices, etc. The economic development, on the other hand, could not take place partly due to lack of modern technology with innovation in agricultural system and also unwillingness of the people towards using it. Furthermore, due to its harsh climatic conditions, rigorous terrain and distinct identity, as a part of Uttar Pradesh state, the development could not take place and today the state is believed to be one of the poorer states. Infrastructurally, this region is lagged behind due to its inaccessibility. The ideal geographical and agrarian conditions might be used evenly for the developmental processes. Ecologically, the whole region is socio-economic activities, fragile. The diverse harsh traditional beliefs and hard working potentials further change the entire scenario of the state. Only the need of the hours is to frame and implementation of the rational policies and planning for sustainable development of the state. What had appeared during the past, pertaining to the economic development, needs radical changes in policies, planning and beliefs. This paper aims to evaluate the present conditions of resources as a form of natural vegetation, agricultural crops, horticultural farming, herbs, tea garden practices, livestock rearing, hydropower projects and economic development of the Uttaranchal Himalaya.

A Review of Environmental Sociology and the Sociology of Natural Resources:Insights for the Development of Environmental Sociology in China

Environmental sociology and the sociology of natural resources are two key subdisciplines of the sociological study on the interactions between nature and human society.Previous discussion on the relationships of these two fields has largely focused on their distinctions and synthesis in western(particularly American) academia.Environmental sociology emerged as an important sociological subdiscipline in China in the early 1990s and is under vigorous disciplinary construction at present.By contrast,the sociology of natural resources is still a novel term for most Chinese researchers.This article provides a systematic review of recent literature on the relationships between environmental and natural resource sociologies,which should provide important implications for the further development of environmental sociology in China.

The Effect of Jump on Evaluating Natural Resource Investments

The evaluation of mining and other natural resource projects is made particularly difficult by the high degree of uncertainty attaching to output prices. It is shown that the techniques of continuous time arbitrage and stochastic control theory may be used not only to value such projects but also to determine the optimal policies for developing managing. This paper describes a model for evaluating natural resource investments under uncertainty from a new perspective. The previous works in this field mostly regard the movements of natural resource prices as a continuous GBM process, which pays few attentions to the shock of unexpected bad news. Our model provides the first theoretical method to analyze the impact of such 'jump' on investment decisions. It concludes that the more frequently bad news happens, the earlier a project will be invested.

Values of the Times of Marx's Theory of Science and Technology Progress and Utilization of Natural Resources

Marx's theory of scientific and technological progress and utilization of natural resources is an indispensable and important part of Marx's economic theory.To realize the harmonious unification of man and nature,man must correctly understand the effect of scientific and technological progress on the use of natural resources,fundamentally solve the problem that scientific and technological progress cannot replace the position of natural resources in economic development,and objectively evaluate the relationship between human power and the power of nature.Grasping and comprehending the scientific connotation of Marx's theory of scientific and technological progress and utilization of natural resources has a very important theoretical value and practical significance for saving and effectively using natural resources and building an environment-friendly society.

Optimal control of natural resources in mining industry

The paper focuses on the optimal control of natural resources in mining industry. The purpose is to pro- pose an optimal extraction series of these resources during the lifetime of the Mine＇s maintenance. Fol- lowing the proposed optimal control model, a sensitivity analysis has been performed that includes the interest rate impact on the optimal solution. This study shows that the increasing of the interest rate sti- mulates faster extraction of the resources. The discounting factor induces that the resource has to be extracted faster hut this effect is counterbalanced by the diminishing returns of the annual cash flow. At higher parameters of ＂alpha＂ close to one of the power function about 80% from the whole resource will be extracted during the first 4 years of object/mine maintenance. An existence of unique positive root with respect to return of investment has been proposed and proved by two ways： by the ＂method of chords＂ and by using specialized software.

Assessment of natural resources and the policy of subsidies in grain production

Based on the analysis on the status quo of natural resources input in Brain production and on the policy of Brain subsidies, this paper puts forward a new idea - establishing grain subsidies through assessing the value of the natural resources in Brain production. The assessment of the natural resources in Brain production provides rationale and reference standard for the policy of Brain subsidies, which will promote the sustainable use of natural resources accordingly. This paper concludes： （1） it is necessary for the grain subsidies to assess the full value of natural resources, including economic value, ecological value and social value： （2） the government should give farmers direct subsidies or environment subsidies according to the economic and ecological value of natural resources in grain production, （3） the social value of natural resources can be realized by establishing the country social security system, taking the social value as the criterion for the payment for part of farmers＇ insurance.

Theory and practice of value management and its innovation for natural resources from the perspective of sustainable development

The supreme obstacle for sustainable development of natural resources is the scarecity, bottleneck. So how to promote the sustainable utilizing and increase the using efficiency of natural resources is worth studying. This paper suggests that we should improve the model and means of evaluating method and value management based on th~ theory of natural resource compensation. This paper discusses the User Cost Method based on the microeeonomicaspect which can change the evaluating method for natural resources. From the perspective of value managemen model, we should use the User Cost Method to realize the linkage and integration of micro and macro eompensation for natural resources. Based on the evaluating and aecounting idea User Cost Method, this paper presents a theo. retical framework to harmonize and link micro and macro compensation for natural resources. At present, we should seek the new approach and method to manage natural resources, so can we realize the capitalization managemen focusing on the vahte management for natural resources.

Indigenous Knowledge of Natural Resource Management and Population Control for Dong Ethnic Group in Guizhou Province

Dong ethnic people have rich indigenous knowledge in terms of their daily life and production, which plays an important role in the sustainable development of their village. This paper aims to understand traditional knowledge of Dong ethnic people in resource management and population control, including traditional resource management, traditional medicinal knowledge and village regulations in Zhanli Village in Southeast Guizhou Province. The research methods include key informant interview, group discussion, participant observation and secondary data collect- ing. The results show that Zhanli villagers try their best to utilize indigenous knowledge to manage the natural resources and keep the stable population to make themselves live in a sustainable way. Indigenous knowledge plays an important role in managing their limited natural resources and keeping the population stable under an excellent condition. Zhanli villagers employ indigenous knowledge to manage natural resources and use local herbs to control the population. Village regulation terms significantly influence villagers’ awareness in resource management and birth control. Women play the chief role in employing indigenous knowledge in weaving as well as medicinal knowledge in birth control, and these kinds of knowledge are passed down through the female line. However, the inheritance style of traditional knowledge is decreasing. Indig- enous knowledge plays an important role in the sustainable development of this village, which gives implications for development practices to involve indigenous knowledge to achieve sustainable development.

Dynamic Tracking and Comprehensive Evaluation on the Natural Resources Security Elements and System in China

System theory,pressure-state-response and drivingpressure-state-impact-response model have been applied to establishing China's dynamic tracking evaluation system of natural resources security in this article.Based on analytic hierarchy process and Delphi methods,the natural resources security situation has been evaluated systematically from 1991 to 2007.The result showed that the overall level of China's natural resources security presented a downtrend from 1991 to 2007.The basic reasons are the pressure indicators such as population,GDP,natural resources trade increased gradually,resulting in tension and fragility of natural resources security.

Stochastic Optimal Economic Growth Model with Natural Resources

The paper examines an economic growth problem how social planners reasonably open up and retain natural resources. The objective is to maximize the total expected discounted utility of comsumption. Social planners＇ optimal decision and optimal expected rates at the steady state are derived. At last, how productivity and productivity shock affect on the expected growth rate, consumption-resources ratio and the fraction of exploited resources, are analyzed.

Characteristics,Current Status and Strategy on Exploitation of Agricultural Natural Resources in China

This paper formulated the present characteristics, current status and the problems of agricultural natural China. Measures of preservation and strategy about exploitation of agricultural natural resources were put forward, provide a scientific basis for the government to make policies .

The Relationship between Natural Resources and Population Development in Liaocheng City

According to the relevant data about the land resources and population in Liaocheng City from 1999 to 2008, by using the research method of bearing capacity of natural resources, the thesis analyzes the relationship between natural resources and dynamic change of population in Liaocheng City. The results show that the farmland tends to diminish on the whole, and forests, garden land, urban-rural settlements and land for enterprises and mining increase slowly. Based on the analysis of the dynamic relationship between land resources and population, we conclude that the land resources still can bear the current population in Liaocheng City, but the population development inflict critical pressure on the forest resources and water resources.

Marx's Theory of Natural Resources and Economic Development

Marx theory of natural resources and economic development is an important part of Marx's economic theory. Marx not only studied the role of natural resources and revealed the characteristics of natural resources in the process of social and economic development,and also illustrated the basic ways of protecting and developing natural resources.