2012-02-15
Trees in forested and agricultural landscapes are particularly important because they provide high values of environmental services and biodiversity. In this proposed study we want to establish the link between deforestation, time allocation to fuel-wood collection and agriculture. We will use a non-separable (non-recursive mode) to test the participation of households in fuel-wood collection and farming activities using data from Central and Southern Tanzania. We would like to analyze how labour time, gender composition of the household, seasonality and agro-ecological differences affect household labour allocation decisions
2012-02-04
Funded by the United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), this four-year $1 million project aims to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of REDD+ policy in MesoAmerica by developing two sets of decision tools.
2012-02-01
Empirical evidences from developing countries indicate that forest products play a significant role in rural livelihoods, particularly for the rural poor. Forests provide benefits in the form of wood, food, income, and watershed protection which enable people to secure stable and adequate food supply. However, deforestation and the resulting environmental degradation is a major problem in most African countries including Ethiopia. This is considered as one of the key factors challenging food security, community livelihood and sustainable development. Reports on the forest resources of Ethiopia are dominated by the alarming deforestation that goes on unabated and at an accelerating rate. The magnitude of deforestation and land degradation by far exceeds the conservation activities being carried out.
2012-01-15
One of the policy measures adopted in the recent past by the government of Tanzania during the implementation of the Agricultural Sector Development Program and the Kilimo Kwanza Strategy is a subsidy to fertilizer and other agricultural inputs through the Voucher system
2012-01-15
REDD – Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation – is a new form of payment for environmental services that has to potential to fund forest protection in Tanzania.
2011-10-10
A highly selected interdisciplinary group of experts working on water and climate change in Latin America and the Caribbean met in Panama City, Panama from Thursday, September 29th to Saturday, October 1st, 2011.
2011-08-24
Con el proyecto se busca promover la creación de capacidad de investigación, análisis y la evaluación del impacto del cambio climático y agua, utilizando las herramientas de la economía ambiental
2011-07-14
This project is concerned with identifying, assessing and valuing ecosystem services found on the section of land belonging to the Khomani San contractual park and their farms.
2011-07-14
This project explores whether the adoption of new farming practices is decreasing in ambiguity aversion, while conversely, the uptake of insurance is increasing in ambiguity aversion. Such a result will strengthen the argument in favour of mechanisms of risk diffusion, such as insurance products for small-scale farmers.
2011-05-17
REDD – Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation – is a new form of payment for environmental services that has to potential to fund forest protection in Tanzania. REDD programs would build on the Government of Tanzania’s introduction of new forest laws that have enabled the implementation of Participatory Forest Management (PFM)Because any policy that slows forest degradation does so by limiting resource access bynearby forest-dependent communities, implementing REDD will require understanding those communities forest management/use decisions and their likely response to REDD policies, even if REDD policies funnel monies to those communities.
2011-05-01
CINTERA is designed to improve knowledge of ecosystem response to eutrophication and management of eutrophication in different marine fjord ecosystems and zones in Norway and Chile.
2011-02-24
This project stems from discussions with forest managers whose existing policies have not created the hoped-for incentives for locals to engage in enforcement of access restrictions by outsiders. This is particularly important for Kibaha’s forests because of their proximity to Dar es Salaam, a large city with high demand for charcoal and timber. Forest managers do not have mechanisms for influencing where local villagers harvest NTFPs; they also have little information on which to base their allocation of scarce patrol efforts.
2011-02-11
In this research project EfD aims to examine the impact of climate change on agriculture using Ricardian approach. Moreover, the impact of climate change on the Ethiopian economy using CGE model will be analyzed.
2011-02-11
This project thrives to determine how the Kgalagadi Transfrontier park can serve as a drive in tourism that generates economic and social benefits to land claimants and as a result maximize the positive spill over effects on the Khomani San people.
2011-02-11
The objectives of this study are to provide a spatial analysis of the total economic value of the SA coast, focusing on the values generated by different types of protected areas versus other stretches of coast.
2011-02-04
Renewable natural resources such as forests, fisheries, grazing lands, soils, groundwater, etc, most of which fall under the category of common pool resources, constitute a significant part of our planet. Common property resources constitute important sources of livelihoods to many people in developing countries including timber, fuelwood, grazing, irrigation water, and domestic water.
2011-02-04
This research will examine the impact of adaptation strategies on farmers’ food production. We will investigate whether there are differences in the food production functions of farm households that adopted adaptation strategies and those that did not adopt.
2011-02-04
Given the volatility of world oil prices and the recent all time high, which increased their popularity, bio-fuels have received a great deal of attention globally. The central question in here is whether this will have a positive or a negative impact on smallholder farmers and people living in rural areas, as more agricultural land will be used for biofuels production? While some designate it as a crime against humanity, some others have argued that a greater production of biofuels will not necessarily be harmful for the poor and that they can become more food secure with the adoption of proper production technology.
2011-02-04
The proposed project seeks to contribute substantively to climate change and community forest management policies and advance the literature by analyzing the relationship between common property forest management (CPFM) in Ethiopia and climate policy within the context of the UN Collaborative Programme on Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation in Developing Countries (REDD) and proposing instruments for channeling REDD benefits to households.
2011-02-04
This project addresses whether increasing uncertainty about the beneficial consequences of collected waste or other aspects of the collection-recycling process affect contribution levels and in turn prosocial attitudes.
2011-02-04
To understand under which conditions a co-management alternative (a shared effort between the central government and the local community) might work to guarantee the sustainable use of a complex mobile common pool resource such as marine turtles.
2011-02-04
This project explores the effects and the role of safety nets in adaptation to climate change in Central America.
2011-02-03
The objective of this project is to estimate to what extent migration movements within a country are explained by occurrence of extreme weather events in general and more specifically by floods.
2011-02-03
Beijing’s rapid economic growth in recent years has induced enormous transportation demand. Nowadays, congestion and air pollution caused by increasing use of cars are perceived as some of the most pressing problems in Beijing.
2011-01-26
Park pricing has been one of the major impediment to growth of the tourism sector in Kenya. Like other environmental resources and public goods, national parks benefit society in many different ways. They perform not only ecological functions but also provide recreational facilities and earn foreign exchange to the country.
2011-01-21
The goal of the proposed project is to improve environmental sustainability and reduce rural poverty in Tanzania. The project seeks to achieve this goal by focusing on PFM, which has its main goal to increase forest stocks. The proposed project looks at the linkage between forest policies and standard on-farm economic effects. The project is therefore expected to increase understanding about how better forest managment impacts critical, standard economic objectives like investments and labor market development
2011-01-19
Tanzania’s seven Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) are governed by the same set of national laws and regulations, but face different opportunities and pressuresthat depend in part on location, the number of local communities dependent on the marine resources, and tourism opportunities.
2010-11-10
EfD-CA at CATIE began study sponsored by The Tinker Foundation
2010-11-09
Methodology based on environmental economics principles, to be replicated in wildlife protected areas
2010-10-30
Metodología del EfD-CA en CATIE basada en principios de economía ambiental por replicarse en áreas silvestres protegidas // Methodology based on environmental economics principles created by EfD-CA at CATIE soon to be replicated in other protected areas.
2010-03-26
As marine protected areas (MPAs) are applied in poor countries, and in particular in Mnazi Bay, Tanzania, managers recognize that the success of the MPA in protecting fish, biodiversity, and reefs stems from the response of local people – whether that response comes from direct enforcement activities or from incentives to cooperate with new restrictions. In Mnazi Bay, managers are combining enforcement of new regulations on fishing locations and technology with investments in community-based projects and resource management councils and widespread education efforts. In the terrestrial setting, integrated development-conservation projects (ICDPs) typically failed due to a lack of linkage between the development projects and conservation incentives and goals, leaving the development projects as compensation for losses associated with enforcement of access restrictions. MPA implementation seeks to avoid such failures and induce cooperation by focusing on projects that rely on healthy oceans and mangrove forests in addition to providing new technologies like larger mesh nets.
2010-03-26
Sustained agricultural growth is important for poverty reduction in Africa due to the significant role of the sector in the continent. The performance of agriculture depends, among others, on appropriate investment in the sector and the latter is constrained by a multitude of factors including land tenure insecurity. In the presence of tenure insecurity, the risk of losing land will create a disincentive to undertake investments when the present value of the productivity benefits from such investments would, under full tenure security, be higher than their cost.
2010-03-26
Given the volatility of world oil prices and the recent all time high, which increased their popularity, bio-fuels have received a great deal of attention globally. The central question in here is whether this will have a positive or a negative impact on smallholder farmers and people living in rural areas, as more agricultural land will be used for biofuels production?
2010-03-25
An applied economics survey among South African subsistence farmers
2010-03-25
A tool to shape public policies?
2010-01-28
In this research project EfD aims to draw lessons from land reforms in several Asian and African countries. The findings will be presented in a book edited by Professors Stein Holden and Keijiro Otsuka and titled "Land Reforms in Asia and Africa - Impacts on Poverty and Natural Resource Management".
2009-10-20
Most of the studies so far/literature on rural fuel demand and supply, in general, and those on Ethiopia, in particular, are apparently static, with no time dimension.
2009-10-19
Deforestation in Ethiopia has resulted in growing fuel scarcity and higher firewood prices in urban centers. Urban centers have long been dependent on the rural hinterlands for their fuel. The use of biofuels of rural origin covers about 90% of the urban fuel use. The dependence of urban centers on their rural hinterlands has aggravated the deforestation. One response to reducing the pressure of urban centers on their rural hinterlands could be through substitutions between or switching from one fuel to another, i.e., through energy transition. For example, through substituting away or switching from fuelwood to electricity. Electricity as cooking fuel is cleaner and do not cause deforestation.
2009-10-19
Production risk is one of the quintessential features of agriculture in Ethiopia. Unpredictable weather can expose farm households to significant production uncertainty and serious hardship. Under harsh climatic and agro-ecological conditions, this can result in food insecurity and famine. During the last 40 years, Ethiopia has experienced many severe droughts leading to production levels that fell short of basic subsistence levels for many farm households (REST and NORAGRIC 1995, p. 137). Harvest failure due to drought is the most important cause of risk-related hardship of Ethiopian rural households, with adverse effects on farm household consumption and welfare (Dercon 2004, 2005). When facing prospects of harvest failure, ex ante farm production decisions, such as crop or varietal choice, remain a part of risk-management strategies (Just and Candler 1985; Fafchamps 1992; Chavas and Holt 1996; Dercon 1996; Smale et al. 1998). In dry environments, farmers’ reliance on crop biodiversity is an essential part of ex ante risk management strategies. Thus, the conservation of relevant germplasms is instrumental to hedge against weather related uncertainty.
2009-10-07
The parks’ entrance location and the possibility of agricultural workers to switch to service activities can be important tools to take advantage of the economic benefits of parks.
2009-07-06
Ethiopia’s forest cover is estimated at less than 4% of the total land area of about 1 million km2. The consequences of deforestation and forest degradation include reduced agricultural production and decreased household welfare. The Ethiopian government promulgated a forest proclamation and approved the first forest policy in 2007. In its recent comprehensive plan referred to as Plan for Accelerated and Sustained Development to End Poverty (PASDEP), the government also indicated its plan to increase forest cover from about 4% to 9% over a period of five years. The reality on the ground suggests that there is continuing deforestation and mismanagement of existing forests. The government has acknowledged in its forestry laws and regulations that depletion of these resources have resulted in reduced agricultural productivity and subsequently reduced quality of life of the rural people. Moreover, frequent restructuring of the main government body responsible for natural resources in general and forestry in particular meant different levels of attention paid to the sector with its implications for staffing and continuity of programs.
2009-06-24
Wetlands are considered to perform a number of ecosystem services, including the improvement of water quality. However, few empirical studies have been carried out on the capacity of wetlands to perform a water treatment function, or on the demand for this function, with the result that most estimates of the value of this service are based on a weak foundation. Furthermore, the measurement of this function is confounded by the complications in trying to assess water quality entering and leaving wetlands because of surface to groundwater interactions.
2009-06-24
Scepticism with respect to the consequences of climate change is declining worldwide as this issue takes a prominent place on global political agenda. However, the overall extent and magnitude of climate change consequences are still extremely uncertain. As such, any economic analysis of climate change must take cognisance of the economics of risk and uncertainty.
2009-06-24
Tropical deforestation, degradation and forest clearing are important contributors to green house emissions. Some studies approximate that as much as 25% of all carbon dioxide arise from deforestation and degradation.
2009-06-23
In recent times many developing countries have experienced degradation of their natural resource base namely forests, water, fisheries etc. The resource degradation has largely been blamed on the management regime of these resources. In this study we investigate the local evolution and current status of forest management regimes in Kenya.
2009-06-23
Nature based tourism is a popular and rapidly growing industry in South Africa. Developing nations are finding it useful to use their natural resources in order to create competitive advantage over the developed world.
2009-06-23
In this project we are investigate the trade off between countries’ investments in adaptation and mitigation. We study how the investment behaviour in these two types of investments differs between types of countries (where countries differ in terms of vulnerability).
2009-06-23
This study seeks to explore the relationship between abalone poaching, use of methamphetamine and crime activity in the coastal communities of South Africa; and the associated implications for the management of the resource.
2009-06-23
The broad objective of this project is to examine the role of forests/trees in the livelihoods of households at varying forest management regimes.
2009-06-23
Using what amounts to a field experiment we analyse whether the electricity consumption patterns of consumers are altered by the experience of blackouts and the exposure to Eskom’s communication. Secondly; we analyse bargaining experiments focussed on disputes concerning conservation-land owned by the South African National Defence Force and the conservation agencies.