Forest cover change in space and time : combining the von Thunen and forest transition theories

This paper presents a framework for analyzing tropical deforestation and reforestation using the von Thunen model as its starting point: land is allocated to the use which yields the highest rent, and the rents of various land uses are determined by location. Forest cover change therefore becomes a question of changes in rent of forest versus non-forest use. While this is a simple and powerful starting point, more intriguing issues arise when this is applied to analyze real cases. An initial shift in the rent of one particular land use generates feedbacks which affect the rent of all land uses. For example, a new technology in extensive agriculture should make this land use more profitable and lead to more forest clearing, but general equilibrium effects (changes in prices and local wages) can modify or even reverse this conclusion. Another issue is how a policy change or a shift in broader market, technological, and institutional forces will affect various land use rents. The paper deals with three such areas: technological progress in agriculture, land tenure regimes, and community forest management. The second part of the paper links the von Thunen framework to the forest transition theory. The forest transition theory describes a sequence over time where a forested region goes through a period of deforestation before the forest cover eventually stabilizes and starts to increase. This sequence can be seen as a systematic pattern of change in the agricultural and forest land rents over time. Increasing agricultural rent leads to high rates of deforestation. The slow-down of deforestation and eventual reforestation is due to lower agricultural rents (the economic development path) and higher forest rent (the forest scarcity path). Various forces leading to these changes are discussed and supported by empirical evidence from different tropical regions.Environmental Economics&Policies,Forestry,Common Property Resource Development,Economic Theory&Research,Markets and Market Access

Household's Choice of Fuelwood Source in Malawi: A Multinomial Probit Analysis

This paper addresses the following question: What determines household's choice of fuelwood collection source? We address this question by estimating the multinomial probit model using survey data for households surrounding Chimaliro and Liwonde forest reserves in Malawi. After controlling for heterogeneity among households, we find strong substitution across fuelwood sources. Attributes of the fuelwood sources (size and species composition) and distance to them are the most important determinants of fuelwood choice. Further results show that customary forests generate environmental benefits by reducing pressure on both plantation forests and forest reserves. These findings support the need to focus more on community forests in national forest policies, and to strengthen community-based institutions to manage these forests.Resource /Energy Economics and Policy, C25, Q42,

REDD+ as performance-based aid: General lessons and bilateral agreements of Norway

REDD+, when it officially became part of the international climate agenda in 2007, was an idea about payment to countries and projects for reducing emission from forests, with funding primarily from carbon markets. REDD+ has since become multi-objective; the policy focus has changed from payments for environmental services (PES) to broader policies, and international funding is mainly coming from development aid budgets. This aidification of REDD+ has made it similar to previous efforts of conditional, result-based, or performance-based aid (PBA). But, experience of PBA, in other sectors, has hardly been brought into the REDD+ debate. A major conclusion from earlier research is that aid cannot buy policy reforms, yet this remains a major idea in current REDD+ discourses. This paper reviews the main challenges in designing and implementing a system of PBA in terms of donor spending pressure, performance criteria, benchmark setting, risk sharing, and credibility, in terms of amount of funding provided. It then reviews four bilateral REDD+ agreements Norway has entered with Tanzania, Brazil, Guyana, and Indonesia. Some elements of performance-based payments were included, and these agreements and the aid experience provide valuable lessons for design and implementation of future REDD+ mechanism

A descriptive retrospective study of time consumption in home care services: how do employees use their working time?

BACKGROUND: Home care services in Norway are provided for free, and municipalities are responsible for their provision to all those in need of them, in accordance with the Act on Municipal Health and Care Services. The costs of home care services are increasing. Many municipalities are now working to find the best cost-effective solutions to ensure that home care services are of sufficient quality but still affordable. This paper describes how nurses and health workers spend their working time, with a hypothesis that driving time and time required to document details of the care given are underestimated in weekly planning schedules. METHODS: This article sets out a descriptive retrospective study of day-schedules and driving routes for staff working in home care services. Data were analyzed using GIS. RESULTS: The driving time was between 18% and 26% of working time in municipality A, and between 21% and 23% in municipality B. Visiting time varied between 44% and 62% in municipality A, and 40% and 56% in municipality B. Other tasks, including the legally-required documentation of the care given, varied between 19% and 32% in municipality A and 21% and 38% in municipality B. Overall, 22% of the driving routes in municipality A, and 14% in municipality B, took more time than expected. In municipality A, 22% of the day-schedules underestimated overtime; this figure was 14% in municipality B. CONCLUSIONS: In home care services, time taken for driving and to write statutory documentation seems to have been underestimated. Better planning and organization of driving routes would reduce driving time and allow more time for other necessary work

Technological change and tropical deforestation: A perspective at the household level

We analyse the effects of technological change in agriculture on forest clearing by households in developing countries. The possible effects are found to be many and diverse, depending on the type of change and the institutional context. We conclude that agricultural intensification is certainly not the panacea that some believe it to b

REDD+ Crossroads Post Paris: Politics, Lessons and Interplays

This article introduces the special issue “REDD+ crossroads post Paris: politics, lessons and interplays”. The contributions to the special issue demonstrate, first, that REDD+ design in the studied countries has generally lacked social legitimacy and sidelined key actors that have an important role in shaping land-use sector dynamics. Second, they show that REDD+ early actions have tended to oversimplify local realities and have been misaligned with other policy goals and local needs. Third, REDD+ efforts have remained constrained to the forestry or climate mitigation policy sectors and have thus suffered from a lack of harmonization across local, national and international concerns, specifically of contradictory policy. As REDD+ moves from its preparedness to its implementation phase, more research efforts should be aimed at analysing the power relations that underpin and determine the design and implementation of REDD+ policies and actions, the potential for and limits to the vertical and horizontal harmonization of land-use policies and management, and the processes of resistance to or accommodation of REDD+ practices on the ground. In doing so, we advocate for multi-and transdisciplinary research that does not take for granted the benefits of REDD+ and which critically scrutinizes the multiple goals of this ambitious international policy framework, and where it sits within the broader Paris Agreement implementation agenda

Современные подходы в диагностике и лечении тромбозов системы нижней полой вены

ТРОМБОЗ ВЕНОЗНЫЙ /ДИАГН /ТЕРПОЛАЯ ВЕНА, НИЖНЯЯТРОМБОЭМБОЛИЯЛЕГОЧНАЯ ЭМБОЛИ