A bio-economic model of small-scale farmers’ land use decisions and technology choice in the eastern Brazilian Amazon

A great deal of more recent agricultural research in the Brazilian Amazon region has been focusing on the ‘hot spots’ of deforestation at the forest margins. Small-scale agriculturalists represent the largest group of the rural population and, apart from contributing to the high deforestation rates, are among the most affected by the environmental consequences of land use and land cover change in the Amazon region. This study attempts to contribute to the current debate on the sustainability of smallholder agriculture by focusing on one of the oldest colonization areas in the Brazilian Amazon region, the Zona Bragantina. An additional motivation for the study was the emergence of technological alternatives to the traditional land preparation technique slash-and-burn. Some of these alternatives appear promising in that they could contribute to reducing the social costs of slash-and-burn that accrue mainly in the form of greenhouse gas emissions and material damages from accidental fires. The study adopts a neo-classical theoretical framework of farm-household behavior that explicitly addresses the links between poverty and the environment. A descriptive analysis of secondary and primary data using standard statistical tools, such as difference of mean tests and regression analysis, provides the background for a formal quantitative analysis that draws on linear and non-linear mathematical programming and accounts for the existence of market and production risks. It was found that smallholder agriculture in the Bragantina is likely to further contribute to natural resource degradation in the form of greenhouse gas emissions and fallow degradation. However, this does not necessarily imply significant negative effects on household consumption levels, especially in the presence of technological change. Given that natural resources provide not only private but also social services, policy measures are tested with respect to their effectiveness in improving environmental indicators without halting economic and technological development. Among the typical environmental policy measures, taxes and conservation payments are promising candidates to improve environmental indicators and address regional development heterogeneities in an economically optimal way. In addition, the option of a technology-specific crop yield insurance provides a means to increase the competitiveness of slightly more expensive but ecologically advantageous technologies. Existing agro-environmental policy measures, such as the upcoming credit program Proambiente, were simulated in order to derive recommendations for further fine-tuning. Regarding Proambiente it was found that the program regulations are too restrictive with regard to the use of chemical fertilizers. The model suggests that relaxing some of these restrictions will greatly improve the chances for the program to become attractive to smallholders in the Bragantina.Ein bio-ökonomisches Modell der Landnutzungsentscheidungen und Technologiewahl von Kleinbauern im ostbrasilianischen Amazonasgebiet Die j üngere landwirtschaftliche Forschung im brasilianischen Amazonasgebiet hat sich vor allem auf Regionen mit hohen Entwaldungsraten konzentriert. Kleinbauern stellen die größte ländliche Bevölkerungsgruppe dar und sind, obwohl mitverantwortlich für die Entwaldung, am stärksten von den ökologischen Folgen der Primärwaldzerstörung und der veränderten Landnutzungsform betroffen. Mit der Untersuchung eines der ältesten Siedlungsgebiete im Amazonasgebiet, der Zona Bragantina, versucht diese Studie einen Beitrag zu der laufenden Debatte über die Nachhaltigkeit der kleinbäuerlichen Landwirtschaft zu leisten. Das Heranreifen neuartiger technologischer Alternativen zur traditionellen Brandrodungspraxis stellt eine zusätzliche Motivation dieser Arbeit dar. Einiger dieser Alternativen erscheinen viel versprechend, da sie ein Potenzial zur Verringerung der externen Kosten der Brandrodung, z.B. Treibhausgasemissionen und materielle Schäden durch unkontrollierte Feuer, besitzen. Der methodische Ansatz basiert auf der neo-klassischen Verhaltenstheorie und berücksichtigt den Zusammenhang zwischen Armut und Umweltfaktoren. Einer beschreibenden Analyse von primär und sekundär Daten unter Zuhilfenahme einfacher statistischer Methoden, wie z.B. Mittelwertvergleichstests und Regressionsanalysen, folgt eine formelle quantitative Untersuchung mittels linearer und nicht-linearer mathematischer Programmierung. Die Modellanalyse berücksichtigt insbesondere die Auswirkungen von Markt- und Produktionsrisiken auf die Landnutzungsentscheidungen des einzelnen Haushalts. Es konnte gezeigt werden, dass die kleinbäuerliche Landwirtschaft in der Bragantina auch weiterhin zur Emission von Treibhausgasen und zur Degradierung der Sekundärvegetation beitragen wird. Jedoch muss dies nicht notwendigerweise negative Auswirkungen auf die ländliche Einkommensentwicklung haben; insbesondere dann nicht, wenn sich der Trend zum technologischen Wandel weiter fortsetzt. Der Wert der natürlichen Ressourcen der Region ergibt sich nicht allein aus dem privaten Nutzen der Kleinbauern. Es wurden deshalb mögliche Politikmaßnahmen im Hinblick auf ihr Potenzial untersucht, Umweltindikatoren positiv zu beeinflussen, ohne dabei den ökonomischen und technischen Fortschritt zu bremsen. Hier sind Steuern und Flächenstilllegungsprämien als ökonomisch effiziente Möglichkeiten hervorzuheben, mit denen Umweltindikatoren positiv beeinflusst und regionale Entwicklungsheterogenitäten ausgeglichen werden können. Darüber hinaus erscheint die Option einer technologie-spezifischen Ertragsausfallversicherung als ein wirkungsvolles Instrument zur Förderung von etwas teureren aber ökologisch vorteilhaften technologischen Alternativen. Existierende agrarumweltpolitische Maßnahmen, wie z.B. das Umweltkreditprogramm Proambiente, wurden im Modellversuch umgesetzt, um Optimierungsvorschläge abzuleiten. Hinsichtlich des Proambiente Programms wird infolgedessen empfohlen, die strengen Richtlinien zur Nutzung von Düngemitteln zu lockern. Modellsimulationen haben gezeigt, dass dies die Attraktivität des Programms für die kleinbäuerliche Landwirtschaft in der Bragantina deutlich erhöhen würde

Mudanças tecnológicas e políticas agroambientais no âmbito do estabelecimento da agricultura familiar

The article discusses the Zona Bragantina, an old area of colonization in the Amazonia and analysis the mechanization alternatives in preparing the land and to substitute the traditional system slash-and-burn process in the production of temporary and permanent cultures looking for indicate the socioambiental impact comprising the introduction of new agricultural technologies in the region.O artigo discute a agricultura da Zona Bragantina, antiga área de colonização na Amazônia e analisa as alternativas de mecanização do preparo de terra para substituir o sistema tradicional de corte e queima na produção de culturas temporárias e permanentes e procura aponta qual o impacto socioambiental da introdução de novas tecnologias agrícolas na região

Overstated carbon emission reductions from voluntary REDD+ projects in the Brazilian Amazon

Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation (REDD+) has gained international attention over the past decade, as manifested in both United Nations policy discussions and hundreds of voluntary projects launched to earn carbon-offset credits. There are on-going discussions about whether and how projects should be integrated into national efforts under the Paris Agreement. One consideration is whether these projects have generated additional impacts over and above national policies and other conservation measures. To help inform these discussions, we compare the crediting baselines established ex-ante by voluntary REDD+ projects in the Brazilian Amazon to counterfactuals constructed ex-post based on the quasi-experimental synthetic control method. We find that the crediting baselines assume consistently higher deforestation than counterfactual forest loss in synthetic control sites. This gap is partially due to decreased deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon during the early implementation phase of the REDD+ projects considered here. This suggests that forest carbon finance must strike a balance between controlling conservation investment risk and ensuring the environmental integrity of carbon emission offsets. Relatedly, our results point to the need to better align project- and national-level carbon accounting.German Federal Ministry of Education and Researc

an important partnership for decades

Graesch, J. P., Hensel-Börner, S., & Henseler, J. (2021). Information technology and marketing: an important partnership for decades. Industrial Management and Data Systems, 121(1), 123-157. https://doi.org/10.1108/IMDS-08-2020-0510Purpose: The enabling technologies that emerged from information technology (IT) have had a considerable influence upon the development of marketing tools, and marketing has become digitalized by adopting these technologies over time. The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the impacts of these enabling technologies on marketing tools in the past and present and to demonstrate their potential future. Furthermore, it provides guidance about the digital transformation occurring in marketing and the need to align of marketing and IT. Design/methodology/approach: This study demonstrates the impact of enabling technologies on the subsequent marketing tools developed through a content analysis of information systems and marketing conference proceedings. It offers a fresh look at marketing's digital transformation over the last 40 years. Moreover, it initially applies the findings to a general digital transformation model from another field to verify its presence in marketing. Findings: This paper identifies four eras within the digital marketing evolution and reveals insights into a potential fifth era. This chronological structure verifies the impact of IT on marketing tools and accordingly the digital transformation within marketing. IT has made digital marketing tools possible in all four digital transformation levers: automation, customer interaction, connectivity and data. Practical implications: The sequencing of enabling technologies and subsequent marketing tools demonstrates the need to align marketing and IT to design new marketing tools that can be applied to customer interactions and be used to foster marketing control. Originality/value: This study is the first to apply the digital transformation levers, namely, automation, customer interaction, connectivity and data, to the marketing discipline and contribute new insights by demonstrating the chronological development of digital transformation in marketing.authorsversionpublishe

Presentation Trainer, your Public Speaking Multimodal Coach

A paper describing an experiment on the Presentation TrainerThe Presentation Trainer is a multimodal tool designed to support the practice of public speaking skills, by giving the user real-time feedback about different aspects of her nonverbal communication. It tracks the user’s voice and body to interpret her current performance. Based on this performance the Presentation Trainer selects the type of intervention that will be presented as feedback to the user. This feedback mechanism has been designed taking in consideration the results from previous studies that show how difficult it is for learners to perceive and correctly interpret real- time feedback while practicing their speeches. In this paper we present the user experience evaluation of participants who used the Presentation Trainer to practice for an elevator pitch, showing that the feedback provided by the Presentation Trainer has a significant influence on learning.The underlying research project is partly funded by the METALOGUE project. METALOGUE is a Seventh Framework Programme collabo- rative project funded by the European Commission, grant agreement number: 611073 (http://www.metalogue.eu)

The global cropland footprint of the non-food bioeconomy. ZEF - Discussion Papers on Development Policy No. 253

A rapidly growing share of global agricultural areas is devoted to the production of biomass for non - food purposes. The derived products include, for example, biofuels, textiles, detergents or c osmetics. Given the far - reaching global implications of an expanding non - food bioeconomy, an assessment of the bioeconomy's resource use from a footprint perspective is urgently needed. We determine the global cropland footprint of non - food products with a hybrid land flow accounting model combining data from the Food and Agriculture Organization and the multi - regional input - output model EXIOBASE. The globally interlinked model covers all cropland areas used for the production of crop - and animal - based non - food commodities for the years from 1995 to 2010. We analyse global patterns of raw material producers, processers and consumers of bio-based non-food products, with a particular focus on the European Union. Results illustrate that the EU is a major processer and the number one consumer region of non-food cropland, despite being only the fifth largest producing region. Two thirds of the cropland required to satisfy EU non-food consumption are located in other world regions, giving rise to a significant depe ndency on imported products and to potential impacts on distant ecosystems. With almost 29% in 2010, oilseed production, used to produce, for example, biofuels, detergents and polymers, represents the dominant share in the EU's non-food cropland footprint. There is also a significant contribution of more traditional non-food biomass uses such as fibre crops (for textiles) and animal hides and skins (for leather products). Our study emphasises the importance of comprehensively assessing the implications of the non-food bioeconomy expansion as envisaged in various policy strategies, such as the Bioeconomy Strategy of the European Commission

Revision der Gattung Conostomum (Musci, Bartramiaceae)

The fiftteen species so far comprised in the genus Conostomum are reduced to seven. Conostomum aequinoctiale Schimp. ex C. Müll., C. lorentzii C. Müll., C. pentastichum (Brid.) Lindb., C. pusillum Hook. f. et Wils., and C. speirostichum C. Müll. are regarded as conspecific with C. tetragonum (Hedw.) Lindb. Conostomum giganteum Bartr. & Dix. is not identical with C. pentastichum but a good species. It was known so far only from the type locality in New Zealand but is more widespread and newly recorded from Australia and the Campbell Islands. Conostomum crassinervium P. Varde described and only known from Mt. Kenya is spirally foliate and does not show the 5 ranked areolation typical for the genus. Since it is sterile, its placement in Conostomum is dubious.Die 15 bisher in der Gattung Conostomum eingeschlossenen Arten werden auf 7 reduziert. Conostomum aequinoctiale Schimp. ex C.Müll., C. lorentzii C. Müll., C. pentastichum (Brid.) Lindb., C. pusillum Hook. f. et Wils. und C. speirostichum C. Müll. sind synonym mit C. tetragonum,(Hedw.) Lindb. Conostomum giganteum Bartr. ist nicht mit C. pentastichum identisch, sondern eine gute Art, die bislang nur von der Typuslokalität in Neuseeland bekannt war und jetzt neu für Australien und die Campbell Islands angegeben wird. Conostomum crassinervium P. Varde, eine nur vom Mt. Kenia bekannte Art, besitzt nicht die für die Gattung typische 5reihige Beblätterung. Da die Art nur steril bekannt ist, ist ihre systematische Position nicht klar