The role of large traders in driving sustainable agricultural intensification in smallholder farms: Evidence from Kenya

Submitted by Tali Hoffman on
EfD Authors:

Pervasive threats of climate change and land degradation have compounded the inherent low farm productivity problem in sub‐Saharan Africa. Though sustainable agricultural intensification practices have been shown to improve the resilience of farm production in the face of these emerging threats, they suffer low adoption rates typical of any technology adoption in these regions. Recent evidence points to an emergence of large traders in smallholder grain markets of countries in sub‐Saharan Africa.

Agriculture, Climate Change

Saving water at Cape Town schools by using smart metering and behavioral change

Submitted by Tali Hoffman on
EfD Authors:

The city of Cape Town suffered a severe water crisis in 2018. At the peak of the drought in South Africa's Western Cape, a randomized control trial at 105 schools investigated the impact of two behavioral interventions to encourage responsible water usage: detailed water usage data feedback from smart meters, and an interschool competition.

Experiments, Water

Can climate information salvage livelihoods in arid and semiarid lands? An evaluation of access, use and impact in Namibia

Submitted by Tali Hoffman on
EfD Authors:

Climate forecasting is a crucial tool for managing risks in climate-sensitive economic sectors like agriculture. Although rainfed subsistence farming dominates livelihoods in Africa, information on access, integration in farm decisions and impact of improved seasonal climate forecasting remains scanty. This paper addresses this gap using representative data of 653 households across three regions in North-Central Namibia.

Agriculture, Climate Change

The future representativeness of Madagascar's protected area network in the face of climate change

Submitted by Tali Hoffman on

With many species predicted to respond to a changing climate by shifting their distribution to climatically suitable areas, the effectiveness of static protected areas (PAs) is in question. The Madagascan PA network area has quadrupled over the past 15 years, and, although conservation planning techniques were employed to prioritise suitable areas for protection during this process, climate change impacts were not considered.

Biodiversity, Climate Change, Conservation

Potential impacts of changing climate on nature-based tourism: A case study of South Africa’s national parks

Submitted by Tali Hoffman on

Climate change could potential have significant impacts on the global tourism industry through changes in accessibility, comfort levels, and geographic or seasonal changes to attractions. Global and regional studies based on climate indices suggest that there will be global shifts in tourism, with many of the currently warmer areas potentially experiencing decreases in tourism. These include much of the global south, where nature-based tourism is both an important contributor to economic output and believed to be vulnerable to climate change.

Biodiversity, Climate Change, Conservation

Assessing, quantifying and valuing the ecosystem services of coastal lagoons

Submitted by Tali Hoffman on
EfD Authors:

The natural conservation of coastal lagoons is important not only for their ecological importance, but also because of the valuable ecosystem services they provide for human welfare and wellbeing. Coastal lagoons are shallow semi-enclosed systems that support important habitats such as wetlands, mangroves, salt-marshes and seagrass meadows, as well as a rich biodiversity. Coastal lagoons are also complex social-ecological systems with ecosystem services that provide livelihoods, wellbeing and welfare to humans.

Biodiversity, Climate Change, Conservation

Mitigating climate change through sustainable technology adoption: Insights from cookstove interventions

Submitted by Petra Hansson on
EfD Authors:

Deforestation and burning of forest products to meet cooking need massively contribute to global warming. In order to reduce the biomass fuel consumption of households in developing countries, various improved cookstove (ICS) interventions were implemented by governments, NGOs, and other stakeholders in the past decades. This paper synthesizes the impact evaluation literature on the adoption and impact of ICS, and their role in improving household welfare while reducing the pressure on forest resources and mitigating the emission of CO2.

Climate Change, Energy, Policy Design

Guidelines for co-creating climate adaptation plans for fisheries and aquaculture

Submitted by Luat Do on
EfD Authors:

AbstractClimate change is having a significant impact on the biology and ecology of fish stocks and aquaculture species and will affect the productivity within seafood supply chains in the future. The challenges are further amplified when actors within the fisheries and aquaculture sectors have very different ideas and assumptions about climate change and what risks and opportunities they entail. In order to address the challenges of climate change, several countries have developed national adaptation plans.

Climate Change

The deterrence effect of linear versus convex fines: laboratory evidence

Submitted by Cristóbal Vásquez on

Using experiments in which participants play the role of polluting firms, we study compliance behavior with emissions limits under two types of fines and two different regulatory instruments. We find that the market price of pollution permits and the probability of violating permits holdings are higher with a fine that is convex in the level of violation than with one that is linear. This effect operates through an increase in the prices asked by sellers, not in the bids made by the buyers of permits.

Air Quality, Policy Design

Crop farming adaptation to droughts in small-scale dryland agriculture in Chile

Submitted by Cristóbal Vásquez on

Small-scale agriculture is one of the fundamental economic sectors in Chile. An increased frequency and intensity of extreme weather events due to climate change suggest a higher weather risk for the future, with potential consequences for crop choices. These effects are expected to be greater in dryland areas, where producers are more vulnerable to shocks and, therefore, less able to protect themselves against these risks.

Agriculture, Climate Change, Land, Water