Costa Rica: National level assessment of the role of economic instruments in the conservation policymix

POLICYMIX aims to contribute to achieving the EUs goals of reversing trends in biodiversity loss beyond 2010 through the use of cost-effective and incentive-compatible economic instruments. POLICYMIX focuses on the role of economic instruments in a mix of operational conservation policy instruments. The project includes seven case studies from six countries: Norway, Germany, Portugal, Finland, Brazil (Mato Grosso and Mata Atlantica) and Costa Rica.

Impacto del Programa Ambiental Mesoamericano (MAP) en la calidad de vida y los capitales de sus familias beneneficiarias

Más allá de la dimensión financiera: Impacto del Programa Ambiental Mesoamericano en la calidad de vida y los capitales de sus familias beneneficiarias

Trees play multiple roles for rural households, providing significant economic and ecological benefits.

This paper investigates the use of charges and standards in dealing with a common externality, plastic litter from shopping bags in Botswana. The country passed a plastic bag tax (effective 2007) to curb the plastic bag demand. Interestingly, the legislation did not force retailers to charge for plastic bags, which they did voluntarily at different prices.

Decentralization experiments are currently underway in the Chinese forestry sector. However, researchers and policy makers tend to ignore a key question: what do forest farmers really want from reform?

The Forest Carbon Partnership Facility has recently proposed the application of strategic environmental social assessment (SESA) for incorporating environmental and social considerations in the preparation of REDD+ initiatives. This paper discusses the potential contribution of SESA to REDD+ initiatives drawing on experiences from earlier attempts to large scale forestry sector reforms and a recent World Bank pilot program on strategic environmental assessment.

This paper suggests that the initial sharp fall in use of bags was a result of loss aversion rooted in an endowment effect (the bags having long been a free good). Once consumers became accustomed to paying for bags, demand slowly rose to its historic levels.

For the most part, economic research in Latin America has had a ‘macro’ orientation (e.g., economic growth, monetary and fiscal policy, hyperinflation crisis). This is perfectly understandable because of the macro instability that has affected the entire region for decades and that still remains in many places.

Policy makers are under increasing pressure to deliver policies that not only foster employment and growth but also are environmentally sustainable. Green growth seeks for even more ambitious results where employment and growth are stimulated by technological and institutional changes arising from better environmental stewardship and adaptation to and mitigation of climate change. As green growth may become the growth paradigm for the 21st century, policy makers require policy tools for addressing this challenge.

The authors surveyed firms participating in emissions trading programs in Santiago, Chile, to explore further whether tradable permits are appropriate for transition and developing economies. Their survey information revealed serious implementation and design flaws in Chile’s trading, but they are not more severe than the EU or U.S. systems. Countries with similar income levels and institutional maturity as Chile should be able to develop well-functioning permit trading schemes.