Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES) are widespread in conservation policy. In PES, environmental effectiveness and social equity are often perceived as conflicting goals. Empirical studies on the relationship between popular design features, such as payment differentiation and payment conditionality, and effectiveness and equity are scarce. Further, they struggle with measuring and separating ecological and equity outcomes. In this study, we combine two incentivized lab-in-the-field experiments with 259 land users from eight villages in North-Western Vietnam to assess both individual conservation effort and community-level equity perceptions under four different PES designs. Effort is measured in a real-effort task with real-world environmental benefits; equity perceptions about payment designs in the real-effort task are measured in a coordination game. We demonstrate that payment design affects both effort and equity perceptions. Payments which are differentiated and are solely conditional on individuals' contributions of effort are perceived as most equitable. They are also more effective in motivating conservation effort than other designs, although the differences are small and not significant for all comparisons. By working out the positive correlation of effectiveness and equity across the four payment schemes, we show that these objectives are not necessarily conflicting goals in incentive-based conservation policy. Further, we can show that women exert greater conservation efforts. We discuss how greater equity and effectiveness could be achieved with reforms towards more input-based distribution criteria in Vietnam's PES legislation and the limitations and opportunities of the experimental paradigm for research on PES.
This chapter examines the conceptual framework boxes and fluxes on "Institutions and governance and other indirect drivers" (Ch. 1, Fig. 1). International and EU governance of relevance for ecosystem services, biodiversity and water is presented. Policy integration, policy coherence, management regimes and stakeholder involvement is reflected upon. The chapter contributes to further understanding of the current and future challenges for sustainable use and conservation of biodiversity and ecosystem services. It provides insights in options for integrating biodiversity and ecosystem services into sustainable development strategies and provides examples of current policy conflicts, along with trade-offs and innovative governance strategies for management of natural resources. Policy-makers need to find ways to handle policy conflicts, improve integration of different stakeholders' perspectives and value dimensions including ILK in policymaking, develop new data collection methods for linking biodiversity and ecosystem services, and develop governance systems that enhance transparency, sustainability and human well-being.
The IENE 2014 conference puts emphasis on the "greening" of transport infrastructure: both in respect to a wiser use of marginal infrastructure habitats to favour biodiversity and certain ecosys- tem services, and in respect to a more permeable and safer infrastructure that minimises the direct impact on wildlife. Transportation and infrastructure are recognised as signi cant drivers in the global loss of biodiverity. Their impacts on nature are well described and there is ample evidence for the negative effects of traffic and transportation infrastructure on nature. Even though roads and railroads may occupy but a small proportion of an area, they a ect the entire landscape, cause the death of millions of wild animals, and disturb surrounding habitats through pollution, noise and alien species. The overall impact is evident, but there are means to minimise the pressure, to adjust infrastructure facilities and, to some degree, introduce beneficial services for wildlife. Such measures can and should be implemented as a standard in infrastructure development and maintenance. Knowledge about their functionality and e cacy is, however, not always satisfying. Technical innovations and new mitigation concepts need to be tested and evaluated. Their func- tionality and e ectiveness also depends on the interplay between the transport sector and other sectors of society. Communication, knowledge transfer, and public education are just as essential here, as legal frameworks, policy, technical development and environmental science. European policy (e.g., Green Infrastructure) is developing clearly in this direction, recognizing the transport sector and transportation facilities as important players in the endeavour towards a greener and sustainable future. Obviously, this calls for international collaboration in research and practice, for enhanced exchange of knowledge between disciplines, and for the development of harmonised standards and pro- cedures that can be referred to by international actors. IENE provides this interdisciplinary arena through its conferences and workshops. The IENE 2014 international conference emphasises that transport infrastructure can be planned and designed as an ecologically well-adopted, safe and e cient system, while acknowledging that certain impacts can never be avoided. IENE, together with the Swedish Transport Administration, the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, the Danish Road Directorate and numerous other partners, invites scientists, practitioners and planners, governmental agencies and private companies, NGO's and anybody with an interest in the above to the IENE 2014 conference in Sweden. We welcome new partner- and sponsorships and o er a well-approved and international network for communication and presentation.
The Swedish government decided in 2012 that the importance of biodiversity and the value of ecosystem services should be integrated in planning and other decision processes latest in 2018. However, it is not self-evident how to implement the importance of biodiversity and the value of ecosystem services in spatial planning practice. The aim of this report is to explore how far Swedish municipalities have progressed regarding the integration of ecosystem services in urban spatial planning and what can be learnt from the efforts so far. The data for this progress re-port was gathered by means of a telephone survey. The results show that the integration of ecosystem services is in an early stage in Swedish planning practice. However, the lack of practical experiences makes many planners hesitant to get started. The overall picture is that most planners seem to regard it as a technical issue that can be solved by experts and assessment/ planning tools. For future spatial planning practice it is recommended that value of ecosystem services should be negotiated instead of assessed by experts.
Biodiversity loss can degrade ecosystems and impactthe ability of ecosystems to contribute to people. The last 20 years of ecosystem service research has increased society's interest in fighting the consequences of ecosystem degradation. During the last decades, attitudes towards conservation have been shaped in many ways. According to Mace (2014), "nature for itself" was a key principle during 1960s–1970s supporting concepts such as protected and wilderness areas. Human pressures on nature during the 1980s and early 1990s resulted in extinctions, habitat loss, and pollution, which made it urgent to act for"nature despite of people". That period was followed by a "nature for people" period, in which biodiversity challenges were mainstreamed via concepts such as ecosystem approach, ecosystem services and economic values. The latest paradigm, which was developed by Mace (2014) is called "people and nature". Key concepts in conservation circles include environmental change, resilience, adaptability and socio-ecological systems. Several assessments of the state and trends of biodiversity, ecosystems and ecosystem services have been carried out via various initiatives, such as Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MA, 2005), followed by the Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB) assessments and the Aichi biodiversity targets of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). In Europe, Mapping and Assessment of Ecosystems and their Services (MAES) has generated a lot of new knowledge on the quantification of ecosystem services and use of this information in decision-making. Today, more and more open data is available through research infrastructures, for example, remote sensing data through the Copernicus programme of the European Union and European Space Agency. Naturebased solutions and green and blue infrastructure are becoming popular in landscape planning and highlight different aspects of the socio-ecological (synon. coupled human-environment) systems and their sustainable management. The most significant attempt to highlight the importance of biodiversity and ecosystem services globally, has been the establishment of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES). IPBES has launched a series of thematic and geographical assessments. The European and Central Asian regional assessment has been ongoing parallel to this Nordic IPBES-like assessment that has focused on coastal ecosystems and their services. This assessment covers the Nordic countries, i.e. Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden, and autonomous areas such as Åland, Faroe Islands and Greenland, which are a unique "biocultural" piece of Earth with unique nature values and well-established societies.
The objective of this report was to study how some countries work in practice with the ecosystem service concept. The approach chosen was rather broad focusing on green infrastructure planning, development or management including urban, rural and coastal areas at all scales. The countries chosen were Great Britain, Germany and Norway, since this allowed to read documents in the national languages. For each country also the national ecosystem service assessments based in the EU biodiversity strategy to 2020 have been investigated. It can be concluded that the three countries have come differently far in their work to implement the ecosystem service concept in planning practice. Great Britain can be seen as most advanced with comprehensive assessments at national level and regional and local examples which take their point of departure in the ecosystem service concept. The green structure plans of Birmingham and Manchester as well as the work in the South Downs can be pointed out as inspiring examples. In Germany comprehensive assessments at national levels have been carried out in later years. The practical examples found have often a research connection or had not their starting point in the ecosystem services concept, but have been interpreted within its context afterwards. This might be seen as an indication that the implementation of the ecosystem service concept in Germany at regional and local level outside research environments is still limited. Norway has comparable work ongoing regarding the implementation of the ecosystem service concept despite not being member of the EU and thus not been obliged to follow the EU biodiversity strategy. National assessments of ecosystem services have been carried out, partly in cooperation with the other Nordic countries. The number of research environments working with the ecosystem service concept is of course smaller than in the other countries considered here. However, in Norway as in Sweden, there is an ambition to implement the ecosystem service concept within municipal planning. Interestingly, in Norway the ecosystem service concept has also been integrated in the environmental impact assessment legislation. Studying these three countries' approach to work with the ecosystem service concept in practice in relation to green infrastructure has given interesting first insights. To get a more comprehensive and detailed overview further studies would be needed, preferably including site visits and personal contact with research institutes leading in the field as well as meeting local and regional authorities.
Many urban trees are located on private property in residential areas, but these trees are infrequently included in urban forest strategies and plans, meaning that for most local governments, the complete urban residential tree population, its potential for supplying ecosystem services and its dynamics are unknown. This thesis examined the assessment methodologies of ecosystem services provided by trees in the attempt to provide valuable information about residential trees. The abundance of trees on individual residential properties was tested against potential decision-driving variables, collected using field work, remote sensing, questionnaire surveys and spatial property information. While residents reported positive attitudes to trees and benefits they provide, this did not necessarily result in greater tree abundance on individual properties. It was found that long-term of validation of sampling methods is required for monitoring of urban trees. Remote sensing could be seen as a reliable and non-invasive way to determine canopy cover using publicly available information in residential areas. This thesis improved understanding of residential urban trees and the ecosystem services they provide as the part of the urban forest. These assessment should include social and spatial variables influencing their development to allow residential trees to become integrated into local governance arrangement structure in order to develop informed management approaches for the entire urban forest.
This thesis consists of three empirical case studies, originally published as MERGE- papers ('Papers on transcultural studies' published at MERGE, Centre for Studies on Migration, Ethnic Relations and Globalisation at the Department of Sociology, University of Umeå), brought together and framed by a lengthier introduction. The empirical studies examine Swedish refugee reception activities, including the experiences of refugees themselves, with a focus on organisational and inter-organisational matters, and, in this context, the suitability as well as problems, mechanisms and issues, of implementation. According to Swedish policy aims since the mid-70s, immigrants are guaranteed equality, freedom of choice and partnership in relation to social, political and cultural rights. Based upon this background, an ambitious institutionalisation of refugee reception and integration policy was initiated in 1985, implicating the setting up of a new reception system involving almost every Swedish municipality. However, this political reform came to meet with fundamental problems, such as the absence of clear political goals and a remarkably low priority in the work of local political bodies. As a consequence, the ability and the ambitions of civil servants to apply an integrated approach to the reception process, and to foster growing co-operation among relevant local institutions to improve services and opportunities for integration, have not materialised as intended. These deficiencies of local integration policies appear to be connected with implementation problems, issues and obstacles, such as a lack of developed inter-organisational co-ordination mechanisms, lack of a clear division of labour and responsibility among concerned parties, economic obstruction etc. In addition to this, the resources that local refugee receptions have had at their disposal have been a high degree varying and unstable, with the consequence that the reception's organisation, e.g. as immigrant bureaus, has been subjected to constant remoulding. Continuous initiatives for restructuring the reception procedures seem seldom have been well suited, and in addition to this, there has been a lack of opportunities for influence by the refugees themselves concerning conditions of reception and inroads into integration. The conclusion is, somewhat paradoxical, that many of the refugee reception's political-administrative problems are fabricated by and within the refugee reception system and immigrant policy itself. In the thesis, a general background for necessary improvements of the service for refugees is outlined, making possible a lot of reformistic suggestions. While the thesis lays bare the problems with refugee reception, its policy and implementation, it also acknowledges important positive achievements of Swedish refugee reception and its political-administrative ambitions and framework. The reason that the effects of these positive efforts and achievements haven't materialised in successful integration to a higher degree, is also due to 'external' factors, like exclusion from the labour market, social exclusion through segregation, marginalisation and discrimination, processes of racialisation etc. These kinds of ramifying 'external' factors can only to a limited extent be influenced by local actors alone. The conclusion is that a successful integration cannot be achieved solely through measures within the practical institutional setting of the local refugee reception system itself, but must be underpinned and enforced by a more generalised inclusionary or anti-exclusionary politics, a generally more decided political will and over-all more purposeful measures securing a higher degree of suited implementation. ; digitalisering@umu
The aim of this thesis is to understand the decision-making processes concerning ice-breaking along the coast of Norrland, with the specific aim to analyse the activities of regional interest groups in the Norrland region and government agents at different administrative levels at the key stages of the decision-making processes: initiation, drafting and decision-making. The thesis also explores how institutional factors at different administrative levels affected the agents that were involved at those stages of the decision-making processes. As navigation along the northern Swedish coast must negotiate winter conditions which causes ports to freeze over, the government ice-breaking service functions as an instrument to compensate the export firms in Norrland for these constrains. Year-round navigation in the north Swedish coastal waters was achieved through a series of decision-making processes that took place during the period from 1940 to 1975. These decision-making processes are important to study since ice-breaking was an integrated component of the expanding heavy basic industries in Norrland and thereby for the rapidly growing exports during the 1950s and 1960s. This period is the decisive point in the economic history of the Norrland region regarding how the natural resources should be exploited and how exports should be advanced. This study concludes that the decision-making processes were initiated by government agents at different administrative levels. Official investigatory commissions were set up at several occasions to deal with issues related to the government ice-breaker service by the ministries responsible for ice-breaker policy. It is also demonstrated that the decision-making processes concerning ice-breaker investments were initiated by the government boards that were responsible for the operation of the ice-breaker service. In this respect, the study concludes that the government activities during the initiation stages should not be confused as a sign of regional interest group passivity on these issues. The activities of the interest groups during the initiation stages were primarily intended to draw attention to the problems caused by winter to regional shipping, in order to put the issue on the political agenda. As the decision-making processes proceeded into the drafting stages, the participation from regional interest groups was much more significant as the government offered interest groups forums and procedures for structural consulting through various organisational arrangements. The regional interest groups that participated in those arrangements were industrial firms in the heavy basic industries sector. In those cases other regional interest groups participated, they would promote the interests of those firms. As a result, the final drafts from committees and government bodies included arguments that favoured an expansion of ice-breaking to promote the growth of the heavy basic industries in the Norrland region. The analysis of the decision-making stages suggests that a combination of institutional factors at different administrative levels contributed to the outcome of the decision-making processes. One result is that the general aims of macro policy such as trade policy, growth policy and regional development policy were favourable towards an expansion of the government ice-breaker service, which would benefit the export industries in the Norrland region. Another result is that the sectoral organization within the government maritime bodies contributed significantly to the outcome of the decision-making processes. Large-scale planning and operational experimentation was allowed to take place within the ice-breaker service, which convinced the government that ice-breaking and winter navigation was a feasible transport alternative.
The current agricultural policy in the European Union aims at stimulating and facilitating a wide range of agricultural functions besides the production of food and fiber. It goes hand in hand with an increased demand for new services in the agricultural landscape such as nature and history conservation. This new role for the farmer needs to be defined and measured to clarify its significance both to the individual farmer and to the public whose tax money pay for the services. The aim of this thesis is to discuss the new role of agriculture based on material gathered through a special accounting method. All the resources spent on managing agricultural landscapes have been registered continuously on two Swedish farms. On a third farm the same information has been gathered in a farmer's diary and then secondarily transcribed into the same accounting method manual as on the other two farms. Also semi-structured interviews have been performed on these three farms focusing on how and why the farmers manage the agricultural landscape. This thesis shows that the special accounting method is applicable if only a few basic assumptions are made. One such assumption has to do with the division of resources for producing biological and historical value and the resources for producing food and fiber in the agricultural landscape. The evaluation of the method is the main theoretical contribution of this thesis. Another result is that the management practices are relatively time consuming. Moreover the compensation for managing pastures and meadows on the farms within the agri-environmental scheme seems to compensate the extra input of resources in many cases, and factors affecting the degree of compensation are identified in the thesis.
This report constitutes background material to a Nordic IPBES-like assessment of biodiversity and ecosystem services in Nordic coastal ecosystems and departs from case studies from ten different geographical areas in the Nordic countries (Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden) as well as the autonomous areas of Faroe Islands, Greenland, and Åland. The purpose is to reflect upon the local situation regarding biodiversity and ecosystem services, e.g. status and trends, drivers of change and policies for governance, and what future we are to expect. These case studies describe the situation in the Näätämö catchment area (FI), the Kalix archipelago (SE), the Quark (FI/SE), Lake Puruvesi (FI), the Bay of Lumparn (ÅL/FI), Öresund (SE/DK), the Helgeland archipelago (NOR), the Faroe Islands (DK), the northern coastline of Iceland, and Disko Bay (Greenland/DK), respectively. Consequently, these areas stretch from fresh water areas to ecosystems in the Atlantic Ocean and from urbanised areas with heavy pressures on the ecosystems, e.g. Öresund, to sparsely populated areas, like Greenland with a population of around 0,03 habitants/km2 .
Telemedicine is an innovative approach that helps alleviate the health disparity in developing countries and improve health service accessibility, affordability, and quality. Few studies have focused on the social and organizational issues involved in telemedicine, despite in-depth studies of and significant improvements in these technologies. This paper used evolutionary game theory to analyze behavioral strategies and their dynamic evolution in the implementation and operation of telemedicine. Further, numerical simulation was carried out to develop management strategies for promoting telemedicine as a new way of delivering health services. The results showed that: (1) When the benefits are greater than the costs, the higher medical institutions (HMIs), primary medical institutions (PMIs), and patients positively promote telemedicine with benign interactions; (2) when the costs are greater than the benefits, the stability strategy of HMIs, PMIs, and patients is, respectively, 'no efforts', 'no efforts', and 'non-acceptance'; and (3) promotion of telemedicine is influenced by the initial probability of the 'HMI efforts', 'PMI efforts', and 'patients' acceptance' strategy chosen by the three stakeholders, telemedicine costs, and the reimbursement ratio of such costs. Based on theoretical analysis, in order to verify the theoretical model, this paper introduces the case study of a telemedicine system integrated with health resources at provincial, municipal, county, and township level in Guizhou. The findings of the case study were consistent with the theoretical analysis. Therefore, the central Chinese government and local governments should pay attention to the running cost of MIs and provide financial support when the costs are greater than the benefits. At the same time, the government should raise awareness of telemedicine and increase participation by all three stakeholders. Lastly, in order to promote telemedicine effectively, it is recommended that telemedicine services are incorporated within the scope of medical insurance and the optimal reimbursement ratio is used.
Den här avhandlingen undersöker vilken inverkan styrning som "governance" och interorganisatorisk samverkan har på lokala integrationsprogram inom det svenska flyktingmottagandet. Fokus ligger på att studera hur organisationer på lokal nivå förhåller sig till ett institutionellt förändringstryck om att etablera ett interorganisatoriskt och arbetsmarknadsinriktat program. Syftet är också att bidra till den teoretiska förståelsen av "governancemisslyckanden" och den mångfald av processer som styrning genom icke-tvingande mekanismer och decentraliserat beslutsfattande kan ge upphov till på lokal nivå. Den empiriska studien bygger på intervjuer med företrädare för myndigheter och andra aktörer på olika nivåer inom integrationsområdet. Fallstudier av lokalt utvecklingsarbete har genomförts i fyra kommuner. Avhandlingen visar att styrningen baserad på icke-tvingande mekanismer hade svårt att få genomslag när den stod i konflikt med etablerade arbetssätt och professionella normer. Den har också inneburit vaga och svårförenliga riktlinjer för arbetet på lokal nivå. Inom det lokala flyktingmottagandet har utvecklingsarbetet karaktäriserats av erfarenhetsutbyte, jämförelser och en vilja till gemensamt lärande inom ramen för professionella nätvek. Denna typ av samverkan har bidragit till ökad likformighet, eller isomorfism, inom de lokala insatserna, vilket står i kontrast till målet om ett mer differentierat och flexibelt program. ; This thesis examines the impact and significance of governance and inter-organizational collaboration in the policy area of local refugee reception and immigrant integration in Sweden. The study focuses on how local actors respond to institutional pressures to engage in collaborative efforts in order to make service provision more differentiated and more orientated towards employment. The aim also is to contribute to the theoretical understanding of 'governance failure' and the multiplicity of outcomes that are possible when non-coercive mechanisms are applied rather than formal 'command-and-control'. The empirical study is based on interviews with representatives from agencies involved at different levels. At the local level, case studies of integration programme development were carried out in four municipalities. The analysis shows that the governance strategies, based on non-coercive mechanisms, had a limited significance because they were in conflict with professional norms and practices at the local level of service provision. They also failed to provide more detailed guidance on how the differentiated services should be realized in practice. Instead, programme development at the local level was characterized by collaborative learning and imitation in professional networks, or 'communities of practice'. This type of collaboration contributed to processes of increased homogenization, or isomorphism, which stands in contrast to the goal of a more de-standardized and flexible programme.
In recent decades structural changes in the forestry sector have changed forest owners' characteristics and thus the member base of forest owners' associations. More general social trends have also changed how individuals and organizations interact with each other. A major challenge for the forest owners' associations is thus to adapt their service offers and organizational structures to fit the needs of current and future members. The objective of the project this thesis is based upon was to examine processes that are shaping the future membership of forest owners' associations in Sweden and identify elements that are likely to affect their relationships with members and (hence) their cooperative nature. To meet this objective, the issue was addressed from different angles and organizational levels in studies reported in four appended papers. Paper I showed that renewal of district councils is a slow process in which election committees play a central role. However, they were found to act passively and select candidates from narrow pools, which restrict the councils' representativeness and raises risks of strategic misalignment with members' interests as it severely limits inputs from several user groups in decision-making processes. Paper II showed that in order to meet the changing member needs the organizations are currently focusing their strategic efforts on developing new services to support members' management activities and ownership issues, improve education offers, and become strong political actors. Paper III showed that members who had traded timber with the association displayed significantly higher affective commitment, but not calculative commitment, than both non-members and members who had traded with other organizations. Thus, the findings suggest that the associations should focus on communicating their core values and strengthening members' identification with the organization, as this will have stronger effects on their loyalty than fostering calculative relationships. Paper IV provides support for the findings in Paper II, showing that young adults generally have limited familiarity with forestry activities. Further they rarely discussed forest issues with their parents. Thus they did not feel comfortable in discussing their own future as potential forest owners since they lacked understanding of the personal implications for them in practice. A key highlighted finding is that the main challenges for the organizations are connected to their democratic governance processes.
The thesis deals with responsibilities and social interactions in auditing political accountability in Swedish municipalities and regions. Can local audit institutions and their practices help to strengthen democratic leadership and responsibility? Case-studies have been performed in ten municipalities, one county council and one regional unit across Sweden during the period 2003 to 2007. They were selected with regard to variation in size, political majority and through informed observers' knowledge of their auditing strategies and structures. Documents describing their audit institution were also used in the selection process. The regional political unit is an innovation in public sector organization in Sweden. It comprises many municipalities in several earlier county councils forged into one regional politico-administrative unit, mainly concerned with citizens' healthcare. All political units in the study have democratically elected bodies and are legally similarly state regulated. The field-studies started with interviews in the audit institutions of municipalities and regions. The responsible politically elected auditors have repeatedly been interviewed throughout the period of research to ascertain developments. Questions have been asked about how they select challenges to be audited, their use of and experience with professional auditors and their relations with the political bodies and professional organizations in their municipalities and regions. Documents from the audit institutions have been perused and their use in formal, political decision-making pursued and registered. The results of the study show that auditing processes have impact on the organizing of services in the researched political units. But it differs, and is significantly related to local practices of organizing processes. More successful are organized when audit institutions relate well to professionals in services, invite them to participate as equals in auditing dialogs. It creates learning, for auditors as well as for responsible persons in the services. Important is also that municipal auditing is supported by legitimate political bodies and get the resources to contract professional advice by relevant external actors. This is not always the case, either for lack of asking for it or lack of political understanding of the necessity of learning by auditing. Successful auditing practices, in the complex organization of very specialized production of local welfare for citizens, depend on the leadership capability and legitimacy of political auditors to create trust and motive for specialists to engage in common endeavors, organized across, what Max Weber calls, 'iron cages' of bureaucratic organization. The democratic ethos of welfare states demands that resources politically are reserved for the 'have-nots' rather than for the 'haves'. Due to centralized 'iron cages', the general principles of welfare states today cannot cope with this localization. Since the 1970s, it has become the remit of welfare municipalities and regions. In Sweden 'have-nots' usually have multiple needs. An auditing focus on the 'have-nots', in line with the democratic ethos of welfare states, signifies more successful auditing practices. Auditors know 'for whom or what' they audit and are able to organize and motivate so that specialized, bureaucratic organizations combine their competences and skills. The results of the investigation show that auditing in few researched units are high on the learning curve of competent, inter-organizational political accountability. Several are moving upwards, but most are on the lower end on the curve.
