Regional Economic Impacts of Cross-Border Infrastructure: A General Equilibrium Application to Thailand and Lao PDR

A general equilibrium framework is used in this paper to study the regional economic effects of infrastructure improvements designed to reduce the costs of cross-border inter-regional trade. The analysis focuses on the economic benefits from the Second Mekong International Bridge between Mukdahan Province in Thailand and Savannakhet Province in the Lao People's Democratic Republic. The results suggest that in the short-run, the kind of transport cost reductions that are consistent with improvement of inter-regional transport facilities will produce a modest increase in inter-regional trade volumes in both directions and a small increase in real consumption in both regions. Over a longer period of time, the economic benefits to both regions are very much larger, as investors respond to the changed structure of incentives with new capital investments, and as workers move to regions of greater return to their labor. The results do not confirm the common presumption that the benefits from cross-border infrastructure projects occur only, or overwhelmingly, in the richer region.Cross-border infrastructure; general equilibrium; Thailand; Lao PDR

An application of Geographic Information System for supporting tourism development along the Southeast Asian East-West Economic Corridor

Der Southeast Asia (SEA) East-West Economic Corridor (EWEC) ist ein herausragender Landweg, der vier Länder umfasst: Myanmar, Thailand, Laos und Vietnam. Er wird von mehreren Korridoren gekreuzt und fungiert daher als Anschlussstelle und Verkehrskreuz in der SEA Region. Um die wirtschaftliche Expansion zu steigern und den Umsatz unter den EWEC Nationen zu fördern, wurde die Entwicklung des Tourismus auf dieser Strecke verstärkt. Der EWEC befindet sich in der potenziellen Peripherie-Region und durchquert mehrere Länder. Diese besitzen sehr malerische Werte aus natürlichen und historischen Ressourcen, traditionellen Kulturen und einem unverwechselbaren Lebensstil. Aber viele dieser Orte waren bisher kein vorrangiges Tourismusziel. Einigen von ihnen fehlt noch die nötige Infrastruktur, um Besucher anzuziehen. Diese Arbeit zielt primär auf die Evaluierung des touristischen Attraktivitätspotenzials entlang des EWEC mittels eines GIS-basiertem analytischen Hierarchieprozesses (AHP), Multi-Kriterien Evaluierung (MCE) und Netzwerk-Analyse. Darüber hinaus erweitert die Studie die früheren Ergebnisse um die einflussreichen Faktoren, die die möglichen Touristenattraktionen untersuchen. Die Bereiche, denen es an der nötigen Infrastruktur fehlt, vor allem in der Provinz Savannakhet, Laos, werden aufgezeigt und für den Ausbau neuer möglicher Standorte der öffentlichen Dienstleistungen und Investitionen der Tourismusindustrie unterstützt. Das GIS Analysetool für Location-Allokation kann dabei die Entwicklung vernachlässigter Sehenswürdigkeiten einschließlich der schwach entwickelten peripheren Regionen entlang des Korridors unterstützen. Schließlich wurden sechs Reiserouten-Modelle entwickelt für nationale und internationale Reisen in der EWEC Region: Fischgräten- Muster, Radius-Muster, Zielbereich-Schleife, Möbius-Schleife, Gabel-Reiseroute und komplexes Touring. Diese Modelle wurden im ArcGIS Network Analyst für die Suche nach praktischen optimalen Routen in Bezug auf Distanz und Zeit implementiert. Auf die 26 prioritären aus den ersten Ergebnissen gewonnenen Destinationen wurden die EWEC Reiseroute Modelle angewandt. Unsere Ergebnisse zeigen, dass die GIS-basierten Netzwerk-Analyse ein potenzielles erstes Hilfsmittel für die Tourenplanung ist. Die gesamten Ergebnisse dieser Studie bieten einen Einblick in die derzeitige Situation im Tourismussektor des EWEC und unterstützen dessen Planung und Entwicklung in der ganzen EWEC-Region. Diese Strategien sind auch flexibel, um in anderen Regionen auf der ganzen Welt angewendet zu werden.The Southeast Asia (SEA) East-West Economic Corridor (EWEC) is an outstanding land route stretching across four countries; Myanmar, Thailand, Lao PDR and Vietnam. It is also intersected by several corridors and consequently supports interchange nodes and linkage of main hubs in the SEA region. To boost the economic expansion and increase revenue among these EWEC nations, the tourism development on this route has been raised. The EWEC is located in the potential periphery region and have highly scenic values composed of natural and historical resources, traditional cultures and distinctive lifestyles. However many of these sites have not been a priority destination. Some of them are still lack of tourism facility services and attractiveness in terms of potential evaluation to attract visitors. The present study aims firstly to evaluate tourist attractions’ potential along the EWEC region by applying GIS-based multiple models- analytic hierarchy process (AHP), multi-criteria evaluation (MCE) and network analysis. In addition, the study extends the previous results to investigate the influential factors affecting potential tourist attractions. Then, the areas lacking of facility services- mainly in the Savannakhet province, Lao PDR- are displayed and supported for expanding new possible locations of public services and investments of tourism industry. The GIS location-allocation analysis tool was used to support development of neglected tourism attractions including the weak peripheral areas throughout the main route. Finally, the six EWEC tourist itinerary models are developed - En-route pattern, Radius Destination, Destination Area Loop, Möbius Loop, Open Jaw Itinerary and Complex Touring- to accommodate domestic and international traveling in this region. These models are implemented in ArcGIS Network Analyst for finding practically optimal routes in terms of distance and time saving. The 26 prioritized tourist sites obtained from the first results are selected to run on the EWEC itinerary models. Our results show that the GIS-based network analysis is a potential tool to tourist initial travelling planning. The total outcomes of this study provide insights into the EWEC current situations of tourism sector and support tourism planning and development on the EWEC region as a whole. These strategies are also flexible to be applied in other regions around the world

More than the Trees: A Comparative Study of the Contribution of Four Tree Plantation Models to Rural Livelihoods in Lao PDR

This thesis explores how four different models of tree plantation established for forest production in Lao PDR (Laos) contributed to the livelihoods of participating households in four purposely-selected villages. The case study tree plantation models comprised two forms of 'land-sharing' concessions for eucalypts (Eucalyptus hybrids), and one each of contract eucalypt growing and farmer-led agroforestry using yang bong (Persea kurzii). Their implementation in Laos offered an opportunity for comparative assessment of the livelihood impacts of different tree plantations models, and the implications for rural development and poverty alleviation policies. Unlike most socio-economic studies of tree plantation in the Mekong region, my analysis considered the opportunity costs of households' pre-plantation activities and situated the returns from plantations within the participants' wider household income portfolio. A principal finding was that, despite the substantial decline of many natural resources in Laos, the agroecological environments of patches of secondary forests in various stages of fallow and regrowth, that farmers create through swidden agriculture, remain of fundamental importance to their livelihoods. The mean annual household environmental income - including from 'degraded' forests and swidden agriculture - in all case study villages was much higher than those reported in similar recent studies in Laos. This finding - which suggests a mismatch between policy makers', plantation companies' and local people's perceptions of the 'value' of forest lands - helps to explain why many local people oppose large-land concessions in Laos. Accordingly, the value of the current land use to rural livelihoods should be an issue of greater concern and more rigorous study in the context of land and development policies and programmes in Laos, particularly those that promote the conversion of land used for swidden agriculture. The results also showed that impacts were positive where plantation models allowed for intercropping by households and when plantation companies offered more labour for local people. In contrast, where contracts to grow trees were not honoured, crops could not be grown jointly, and plantation labour opportunities were limited, returns to households were not competitive with alternative land uses, including traditional swidden agriculture. Accordingly, in order to best contribute to livelihoods, tree plantation development should allow space for other land uses within the plantation system and adopt plantation management strategies that employ more local labour. The results also showed local people's interests in maintaining diversified livelihood strategies. Further, consistent with those of other recent studies of the swidden transition in Laos and elsewhere in Southeast Asia, results of the farmer-led agroforestry case study indicate that an unequal distribution of customary land among households within the community influences how farmers make claims to land and therefore the extent to which households can benefit from tree growing in practice. These results also show that new market opportunities and farmers' dynamic livelihood strategies both define and constrain the opportunities of agroforestry systems to contribute to land use transitions. In this case, the expansion of agricultural monocrops (e.g. banana plantations) is likely to exacerbate social differentiation, further diminish the safety net represented by 'common' forest lands and undermine prospects for realising Lao's national forest cover goals. Overall, while all the plantation models studied can impact positively on local livelihoods, their potential to do so increases where trees are integrated with other land uses, where more local labour is employed, and where the opportunity costs of conversion of land to tree plantations are lowest. These factors are each context-dependent

Negotiating Regionalisation: Social Networks and Survival of Informal Cross-border Traders

Over the past few decades, the impacts of the current wave of globalisation and regionalisation on the livelihoods of informal cross-border traders have increasingly attracted scholarly interest. One of the main areas of focus is on contradictions in state policies, which are supposed to facilitate cross-border flows but have instead proved obstructive, especially to unregistered trade. However, of interest to this research is that significant numbers of the traders continue to survive even though they are seen as victims. This study is based on the premise that ethnographic research is required for a more nuanced analysis. Exploration of small-scale informal cross-border trade has revealed that although taking different forms, borders are still there and continue to benefit the better-off. At the same time, despite being marginalised, the poor continue to survive. Interestingly, it is the existence of said borders that provides the small traders with arbitrage opportunities. This research questions how the traders utilise social networks to negotiate changes in state policies and actions. While several studies acknowledge the benefits of social networks, very few, especially in Southeast Asia, have put them at the centre of studies. Ethnographic details are particularly rare. Social networks are at the heart of this study and have proved to be very important livelihood strategies of the traders. Based upon a total of nine months of ethnographic fieldwork at a border crossing between Thailand and Lao PDR and an extended field visit to several sites in Vietnam, the research shows that social networks involving kin and non-kin actors, which are established, sustained, and strengthened through daily interactions, are vital, especially under changing border landscapes. Social networks empower the traders not only to bridge the two sides of the increasingly regulated border, but also to deal with emerging risks and constraints resulting from national and global changes

Conserving land, protecting water

Water resource management / Water productivity / Water conservation / Recycling / Land management / Soil conservation / Ecosystems / Ecology / Evapotranspiration / Food security / Poverty / River basins / Irrigated farming

Toward an effective international development assistance : grassroots level community in Cambodia

制度:新 ; 文部省報告番号:甲2264号 ; 学位の種類:博士(学術) ; 授与年月日:2006/6/19 ; 早大学位記番号:新429

African Handbook of Climate Change Adaptation

This open access book discusses current thinking and presents the main issues and challenges associated with climate change in Africa. It introduces evidences from studies and projects which show how climate change adaptation is being - and may continue to be successfully implemented in African countries. Thanks to its scope and wide range of themes surrounding climate change, the ambition is that this book will be a lead publication on the topic, which may be regularly updated and hence capture further works. Climate change is a major global challenge. However, some geographical regions are more severly affected than others. One of these regions is the African continent. Due to a combination of unfavourable socio-economic and meteorological conditions, African countries are particularly vulnerable to climate change and its impacts. The recently released IPCC special report "Global Warming of 1.5º C" outlines the fact that keeping global warming by the level of 1.5º C is possible, but also suggested that an increase by 2º C could lead to crises with crops (agriculture fed by rain could drop by 50% in some African countries by 2020) and livestock production, could damage water supplies and pose an additonal threat to coastal areas. The 5th Assessment Report produced by IPCC predicts that wheat may disappear from Africa by 2080, and that maize— a staple—will fall significantly in southern Africa. Also, arid and semi-arid lands are likely to increase by up to 8%, with severe ramifications for livelihoods, poverty eradication and meeting the SDGs. Pursuing appropriate adaptation strategies is thus vital, in order to address the current and future challenges posed by a changing climate. It is against this background that the "African Handbook of Climate Change Adaptation" is being published. It contains papers prepared by scholars, representatives from social movements, practitioners and members of governmental agencies, undertaking research and/or executing climate change projects in Africa, and working with communities across the African continent. Encompassing over 100 contribtions from across Africa, it is the most comprehensive publication on climate change adaptation in Africa ever produced

Agroforestry-Based Ecosystem Services

As a dynamic interface between agriculture and forestry, agroforestry has only recently been formally recognized as a relevant part of land use with ‘trees outside forest’ in important parts of the world—but not everywhere yet. The Sustainable Development Goals have called attention to the need for the multifunctionality of landscapes that simultaneously contribute to multiple goals. In the UN decade of landscape restoration, as well as in response to the climate change urgency and biodiversity extinction crisis, an increase in global tree cover is widely seen as desirable, but its management by farmers or forest managers remains contested. Agroforestry research relates tree–soil–crop–livestock interactions at the plot level with landscape-level analysis of social-ecological systems and efforts to transcend the historical dichotomy between forest and agriculture as separate policy domains. An ‘ecosystem services’ perspective quantifies land productivity, flows of water, net greenhouse gas emissions, and biodiversity conservation, and combines an ‘actor’ perspective (farmer, landscape manager) with that of ‘downstream’ stakeholders (in the same watershed, ecologically conscious consumers elsewhere, global citizens) and higher-level regulators designing land-use policies and spatial zoning