In what was (in 1975) certainly the first course (or one of the first courses) in environmental impact analysis at State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry (SUNY-ESF) and most likely the first in New York State and perhaps anywhere, we regularly spent no small amount of time discussing with students and operating professionals as important an issue in a course that focused on professional practice.

The Laurentian Great Lakes represent the world's largest freshwater ecosystem and contain irreplaceable biodiversity. Lakewide Action and Management Plans (LAMPs) hold the highest potential for ecosystem management in the Great Lakes but have not specifically addressed biodiversity status or strategies for conservation. For four Great Lakes, recently completed biodiversity conservation strategies (blueprints) have assessed the status and threats to biodiversity and recommended strategies for conservation and restoration; a blueprint is under way also for Lake Superior. Here, we compare the completed blueprints and explore challenges to conservation planning for large ecosystems. We also assess whether earlier blueprints are being adopted and offer suggestions for more effective implementation. All of the blueprints focus on biodiversity in the lakes and coastal areas, and some include tributaries and migratory species. Biodiversity status was rated as fair (out of desirable range but restorable) in each lake, with some exceptions and considerable spatial variability. Aquatic invasive species ranked as a top threat to biodiversity in all four blueprints. Other highly ranked threats included incompatible development, climate change, terrestrial invasive species, dams and barriers, and non-point-source pollutants. The recommended strategies are characterized by six themes: coastal conservation, invasive species, connectivity and hydrology, fish restoration, nearshore water quality, and climate change. Each blueprint highlights high-priority strategies, but successful protection and restoration of Great Lakes biodiversity require revisiting these priorities in an adaptive approach.

Environmental Practice 15:462–480 (2013)

Serious environmental pollution incidents happen in China every year. However, only a few of them have been filed as environmental pollution criminal cases. We argue in this paper that the main reason is because the environmental administrative agencies often refuse to transfer the suspected environmental pollution criminal cases to the judicial authorities. Therefore, it's critical to better supervise the transfer of cases from the environmental administrative agencies, in order to ensure the implementation of the criminal laws and regulations, as well as to pressing criminal charges on the suspects instead of having them get away with administrative penalties. The supervision mechanisms include at least the interior supervision by other administrative agencies and the exterior supervision by the general public. An effectively functioning environmental criminal law system is very important for environmental protection and rule of law in China.

Environmental Practice 15:271–279 (2013)

Although administered from the top-down, China's environmental governance is characterized by decentralization, a feature that has been cited as the cause of poor implementation of policies at the local levels. To address this implementation gap, the central government in China has instituted environmental targets in its evaluation system of local leaders. However, the system of performance evaluation based on statistics and indicators has revealed problems of data and information abnormalities, falsification, and collusion between local officials to hide or misrepresent data. Little academic attention has been paid to sub-national institutions in place for data collection, reporting, and verification in China. This paper seeks to understand how institutions collect and transfer environmental data in China's vertical governance structure, as well as the challenges faced primarily by provincial Environmental Protection Bureaus (EPBs) to shed light on why discrepancies and gaps in environmental data might exist. Using data gathered from semi-structured interviews of environmental protection officials in nine provinces and two municipalities across China, this paper provides an analysis of environmental monitoring, reporting, and verification at primarily the provincial level. The consequences of a complex, decentralized environmental monitoring system in China has meant provincial environmental protection bureaus face a multitude of challenges, including a lack of institutional coordination, weak incentives for environmental performance evaluation, limited autonomy for enforcement, and varied capacity and public demand for improved information.

Environmental Practice 15:280–292 (2013)

A good portion of the effort and funding going into Great Lakes restoration targets the removal via dredging of contaminated sediments from the designated areas of concern (AOCs). In fact, contaminated sediments are the underlying cause of several Beneficial Use Impairments that keep the AOCs from being delisted and restoration success claimed. A common contaminant in the Great Lakes AOCs, as elsewhere throughout the United States (US), is a class of persistent and bioaccumulating compounds called polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). There have been 15 sediment projects conducted to date under the Great Lakes Legacy Act program (Tuchman, 2013), and 11 have involved PCB-contaminated sediment. Contaminated sediment is also being removed from the Great Lakes through other programs such as the Superfund; to date, the Lower Fox River Superfund Remedial Action is the largest sediment removal project in the nation, with approximately 2.5 million cubic yards (1.9 million cubic meters) removed through 2012 and the planned removal of another 1.5 million cubic yards (1.2 million cubic meters).

A complex nature conservation scheme has been taking shape in China since 1965. After the first national park made its debut in 2007 in Yunnan Province in southwest China, the gap between this new model and existing conservation tools became apparent. This article attempts to analyze the degree to which a model of national parks can contribute to and remedy the defects within the existing nature conservation scheme in China, and to reveal the obstacles that impede the national parks from reaching their full potential. These are main findings of this report: (a) The model of the national park has not fully delivered the desirable outcome that its initiators had anticipated (i.e., a more effective balance between conservation and use of natural resources). (b) A gap exists between national parks envisioned and national parks in practice in terms of objectives, institutional capacity, community development, and legislation. (c) The new model does not fundamentally solve the existing problems, such as the funding shortage, overlapping authorities, and implementation deficiencies; rather, it has revealed new problems, such as central-local conflicts. (d) The obstacles that national parks face are foreseeable, such as the adverse effects of tourism and economic pressure on nature conservation, the constrained role of nongovernmental organizations, and the government bureaucratic structure in China. (e) The legality of the national parks has been challenged, and conflicts have arisen between legislation on national parks and superordinate law existing in terms of the rezoning within national parks.

Environmental Practice 15:293–312 (2013)

This report focuses on the current state of debate surrounding environmental goods negotiations under the World Trade Organization in the context of Chinese exports and imports. The report also examines some recent proposals (in United States and European Union) that called for increased trade barriers against imports from nations that have less stringent carbon policies and then draws implications for China.

Environmental Practice 15:313–322 (2013)

Though China's overall degree of urbanization is still below most Western countries, for instance when compared to Europe where over 70% of the total population lives in cities, the speed and magnitude of urbanization is truly mind-blowing. The challenges of China's unparalleled urbanization will not only impact on China's future growth but also have important implications for other nations. The European Union (EU) and its 27 member states have faced or continue to face some of the similar challenges of city management. The EU-China Partnership on Sustainable Urbanisation, launched at the EU-China summit on February 14, 2012, in Beijing, is a response to these pressing common challenges and offer new opportunities for expanding and reinforcing EU-China relations. This article puts China's urbanization process in a historical prospective and points to the country's massive current urban challenges and the way to deal with them as set out in the 12th Five Year Plan. It will illustrate how the EU and China can work together constructively in tackling the challenge of urbanization by helping to make Chinese cities greener and more sustainable, and by adding a fresh dynamic to EU-China economic and trade relations.

Environmental Practice 15:323–338 (2013)

Chinese environmental law in the 21st century continues to evolve in legislation, enforcement, higher education, and academic research. This article summarizes the general development of Chinese environmental law and reviews the new policy of a five-type society; new legislation and amendments; policies on energy conservation, emission reduction, and climate change; the establishment of the Ministry of Environmental Protection; the attempt at environmental courts; the first case of environmental public interest litigation; environmental protection; nongovernmental organizations; and higher education and academic research on environmental law.

Environmental Practice 15:339–349 (2013)