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Английский язык для экономистов - Малюга Е.Н.

Малюга Е.Н., Ваванова Н.В. Английский язык для экономистов: Учебник для вузов — СПб.: Питер, 2005. — 304 c.
ISBN 5-469-00341-8
Скачать (прямая ссылка): angliyskiydlyaeconomistov2005.pdf
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not possible to impose fines directly. One possible penalty is some kind of trade sanctions, to reduce the offending country's gains from trade. Such sanctions also have costs for the countries imposing the sanctions, and in any case they often do not work.

This is a sobering analysis. When an environmental problem causes only domestic costs, it is up to the government of the country to address it. When countries have this problem spread transborderly but regionally among a small number of countries, it is more difficult but still may be solvable by negotiations. When the problem is global, a global (or nearly global) multilateral agreement is needed, but negotiating and enforcing this agreement may prove to be very difficult or impossible. Among these problems we can name four problems that are global in nature. We begin with a fairly effective global agreement to use trade policy to prevent the extinction of endangered species. We then can name depletion of ocean fishing stocks, and the lack of any effective solutions to this global inefficiency. Then goes a successful, nearly global agreement to reverse ozone depletion. And we can conclude with the most daunting of global environmental issues, greenhouse gases and global warming.

Here we are going to dwell on the first problem. Extinction of species is a natural process. Still, within the past half century the specific role of human activity in causing extinction has become recognized and controversial. It is reckoned that human activities eliminated only 11 mammal species and 24 birds in the 18th century, then 29 mammals and 61 birds in the 19th century, and 52 mammals and 70 birds from 1900 to 1987. There is a general belief that there is a loss when a species becomes extinct, perhaps because there may be future uses for the species (for instance, as a source of medicinal products). Thus, a global effort to prevent extinction of species can be economically sensible.

Human activities contributing to extinction include destruction of habitat, introduction of predators, and pollution. In addition, excessive hunting and harvesting can also cause extinction. The specificity rule indicates that the best global policy to preserve species would be a policy that promotes the species through such direct means as protected parks and wild areas; ranching, cultivation, and similar management intended to earn profits from the ongoing existence of the species; and zoos to maintain species in captivity. While there is no global agreement to promote these best solutions, there is a global agreement to control the pressure of international demand.

In 1978 some countries signed the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). With 138 mern- 208

Английский ЯЗЫК ДЛЯ экономистов

ber countries by 1997, CITES establishes international cooperation to prevent international trade from endangering the survival of species. An international scientific authority decides which species are endangered. Commercial trade is usually banned for species threatened with extinction — about 900 species, including elephants, gray whales, and sea turtles. To export these products for noncommercial purposes, a nation must obtain an export permit from the central authority, and it must have a copy of an import permit from a suitable buyer in a country that signed CITES. Commercial trade is limited for an additional 29,000 species because tree trade could lead to the threat of extinction.

No species with a trade ban has become extinct. Some, including the rhino and the tiger, continue to decline, but CITES has probably slowed the declines. Generally, CITES seems to be fairly effective.

Much of the conflict over endangered species naturally centers on Africa, with its unique biodiversity and its fragile ecosystems. The biggest fight so far has been over the fate of the African elephant, which is hunted for its ivory tusks.

The human slaughter of elephants accelerated at an alarming rate in the 1970s and 1980s. The problem was most severe in eastern Africa, north of the Zambezi River. The governments of Kenya, Tanzania, and Zambia, while ostensibly committed to protecting elephants, were not preventing killing by poachers. The threat to elephants was weaker in southern Africa, south of the Zambezi, for three reasons: The governments of Zimbabwe, Botswana, and Namibia enforced conservation more aggressively, agriculture was less of a threat to the wild animal population, and some elephants of Botswana and Zimbabwe had tusks of poor commercial quality.

In 1977, the African elephant was placed on the list of species with controlled trade. Public pressure from affluent countries to save the elephants became intense by the late 1980s. In 1989, most of the CITES countries signed a complete ban on exporting or importing ivory. The drastic reduction in demand, especially demand from the affluent countries, caused ivory prices to plummet, from $ 100 per kilogram to only $ 3 or $ 4 per kilogram.
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