Socioeconomic Impact of Mining in the Atiwa Forest Reserve of Ghana on Fringe Communities and the Achievement of SDGs: Analysis from the Residents' Perspective

The Atiwa forest reserve of Ghana sits upon roughly 150 million tons of bauxite. The Government has decided to mine and use the proceeds for national infrastructure development programs. This article examines the impact of mining on the residents' livelihoods and the achievement of the SDGs from the perspective of the residents. A questionnaire was administered to 197 respondents. Per the findings, the residents around the forest reserve do not consent to the proposed mining project. Although they give credit to its possible job creation opportunities, the irreplaceable nature of the forest reserve urges them not to consent to the initiative. They depend on the rivers and streams for their livelihoods, and the affected districts are also among Ghana's major cocoa producers. These farmers depend on these water bodies for irrigation. It is necessary to preserve them in order to sustain the production of these cash crops that make a direct contribution to the country's GDP.O

Organic food market in the Czech Republic

The contribution provides partial results of the research focused on organic food, a product from organic farming. The total area of ecologically farmed areas in the Czech Republic permanently increases, however the offer of organic food is insufficient, in particular in view of their structure. Deficiency in organic food is being solved by imports. Distributors play an important role in the organic food market. In the Czech Republic the largest share from them is occupied by retail chains. Their share continues to grow to the detriment of other sales channels. One of the main factors affecting consumers’ interest in organic food is its price. The comparison of organic food prices and prices of conventional food in the selected retail chains, Globus Czech Republic, limited partnership, SPAR Czech business company Pte., Tesco Stores CZ JSC, AHOLD Czech Republic JSC, BILLA Pte., and in organic food and healthy nutrition stores showed significantly higher prices. The smallest difference in prices can be monitored in the milk and milk products. On the contrary, the largest difference is in fruits, vegetables, eggs and jams. However, the consumers’ awareness of organic food quality is at the same time increasing and the consumers are willing to pay for them a higher price

Pricing Electric Power in the Czech Republic and in Selected Countries

This paper focuses on state intervention in the pricing of electricity from renewable power sources in the Czech Republic when compared with the pricing in the Slovak Republic, Germany, France and Italy. In these countries the state intervention is implemented in different forms, but the critical part of the price is regulated everywhere by the state. The price of electricity is determined by its production costs, which depend on the source from which electricity is produced. The highest cost of electricity is required to generate renewable energy, particularly solar power, while the lowest costs of power are associated with its production by coal-fired and natural gas-fired thermal power plants. However, hydroelectric power plants attain clearly the lowest cost for generating electricity. State intervention includes supporting power generation from renewable power sources by guaranteeing purchase prices

The relationship between inter-organizational trust and performance

The article deals with an investigation of the relationship between inter-organizational trust and performance. Using data obtained in a questionnaire survey in 373 organizations with more than 20 employees with their seat in the Czech Republic, we found the relationship between inter-organizational trust and supplier performance, mediated by the level of conflict. Also, the statistically significant negative relationship between inter-organizational trust and costs of negotiation and the statistically significant positive relationship between supplier performance and perceived performance were confirmed. The hypothesis on the statistically significant relationship between inter-organizational trust and negotiating costs was not confirmed. The structural equation modelling technique was used in the calculations. The calculated model fit indices (CFI, NFI, NNFI) with values over 0.9 demonstrate a very good quality of the model

The Impact of Subsidies on the Development of Beekeeping in the Czech Republic

Given its role in landscape sustainability and health benefits, beekeeping is supported in all EU countries. The paper focuses on the assessment of the impact of beekeeping subsidies on the number of bee colonies in the Czech Republic. Subsidies in the Czech Republic are provided from national sources (state budget), from the budgets of individual regions and from EU sources. The paper presents the development of the number of bee colonies in the Czech Republic from 1990 to 2018. Until 2008, the number of bee colonies in the Czech Republic was decreasing. A significant increase occurred only in 2013. The influence of the amount of subsidy on the number of bee colonies was analysed using a panel data model and the Pearson correlation coefficient. The results show that subsidies have a significant positive influence on the number of bee colonies in Czech Republic and also in the individual regions of the Czech Republic. In terms of the specific focus of subsidies, we can observe a significant positive dependence between the number of bee colonies per beekeeper and technical support. Subsidies for the fight against varroosis are also very important