Pastoralist Economic Behavior: Empirical Results from Reindeer Herders in Northern Sweden

This paper presents a model of pastoralists, as illustrated by reindeer herders, together with an analysis based on a cross-sectional data set on Swedish reindeer-herding Saami. The intrinsic utility of being an active reindeer herder plays an important role in determining supply. Results show this can lead to unconventional supply responses among pastoralists, and suggest that the probability of a backward-bending supply response increases with stock size. Further analyses confirm that reindeer herders with backward-bending supply curves have significantly larger herds than herders with conventional supply responses. Relaxed externalities from forestry would cause most herders to increase their slaughter.backward-bending supply, externalities, pastoralist, reindeer husbandry, Livestock Production/Industries,

Damned if you do, Damned if you don't – Reduced Climate Impact vs. Sustainable Forests in Sweden

The main objective of this paper is to analyze the potential goal conflict between two of Sweden’s environmental objectives: Sustainable Forests and Reduced Climate Impact – or, more precisely, the conflict between forest conservation and the supply of wood fuel. To accomplish this, we use a forest sector model that includes the suppliers and major users of roundwood. The econometric results, based on a data set that spans 40 years, show that all the own price elasticities have the expected signs. Among the three forestry products, the supply and (long-term) demand of forest fuel seems to be most sensitive to a price change. In a second step, the estimated model is used to simulate the effect of increased forest conservation -- the Sustainable Forest objective -- on the supply of wood fuel. If oil is used as a substitute, Swedish emissions of greenhouse gases will increase by almost 0.92 percent, which indicates a clear conflict with the Reduced Climate Impact objective.Goal conflict; Wood fuels; Forest sector model; Roundwood markets; Forest conservation

Outcomes and Determinants of Success of a Performance Payment Scheme for Carnivore Conservation

This paper presents a first empirical assessment of the outcomes and determinants of carnivore conservation success in Sweden’s pioneer performance payment scheme. Carnivores in northern Sweden depend on reindeer as prey which causes conflicts with reindeer herders. As compensation and conservation incentive, the government issues performance payments to reindeer herder villages based on the number of carnivore offspring certified on their land. The villages decide on the internal use and distribution of the payments. In the literature, it is generally assumed that benefit distribution rules are exogenously given. We extend the literature by developing a model to investigate such rules as endogenous decision. We hypothesize that conservation success is determined by natural geographical factors and each village’s capability to engage in collective action to manage the internal payments so that conserving rather than hunting carnivores becomes villagers’ optimal strategy. The hypotheses developed are tested with empirical village and household-level data from Sweden. The paper concludes that if limited hunting is legal, conservation success strongly depends on villages’ potential for collective action and their payment distribution rule. In cases without legal hunting, performance payments together with penalties on poaching provide sufficient incentives for herders to refrain from illicit hunting. Furthermore, the data reveals that villages’ group size has a direct negative effect on conservation outcomes as predicted by collective action theory. However, there is also an indirect effect which positively impacts conservation outcomes through the payment distribution rule. This result, at least in part, revises the general collective action hypothesis on purely negative effects of group size and highlights the importance of investigating factors driving groups’ internal benefit distribution rules.Conservation performance payments; wildlife conservation; collective action; empirical policy assessment; Sweden

Outcomes and Determinants of Success of a Performance Payment Scheme for Carnivore Conservation

This paper presents a first empirical assessment of carnivore conservation under a performance payment scheme. The Swedish government issues payments to reindeer herder villages based on the number of carnivore offspring certified on their pastures. The villages decide on the internal use and distribution of the payments. It is generally assumed that benefit distribution rules are exogenously given. We develop a model to investigate such rules as endogenous decision. The empirical data reveals that villages’ group size has a direct negative effect on conservation outcomes. However, there is also an indirect positive effect which impacts conservation outcomes through the benefit distribution rule. This result revises the general collective action hypothesis on purely negative effects of group size. The paper concludes that if limited hunting is legal, conservation success strongly depends on villages’ potential for collective action and the benefit distribution rule they choose.Conservation performance payments, Wildlife conservation, Collective action, Empirical policy assessment, Sweden, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

Adaptive pastoralists – Insights into local and regional patterns in livelihood adaptation choices among pastoralists in Kenya.

Pastoralist adaptation strategies have to address multiple, overlapping, and often inter-related processes of socioecological change. The present study addresses the need for inter-regional comparative studies that account for diferent geographic, climate, and socio-economic contexts in order to understand how pastoralists adapt to changes in livelihood conditions. The paper uses data from a unique survey study of pastoralist households in four neighbouring counties in dryland Kenya. Taking our point of departure from an empirically based classifcation of the livelihood strategies available to pastoralists in the Horn of Africa, the survey ofers novel insights into adaptation and fodder management strategies of pastoralist individuals and households. The results show that the use of migration as a strategy is more dependent on the ability to migrate than climate conditions. This is the case in localities where a substantial part of the land is subdivided, the population density is high, and where opportunities for migration are subsequently restricted. Diversifcation of livelihoods as a strategy is largely defned by opportunity. Intensifcation through active fodder management is mainly common in areas where there has been a proliferation of managed enclosures. Climate change will test the adaptive capacity of pastoralists in the studied region, and diversifcation and intensifcation strategies of both herd composition and livelihoods can be seen as strategies for increased climate resilience

Comparing Conventional and New Policy Approaches for Carnivore Conservation – Theoretical Results and Application to Tiger Conservation

New policy approaches to facilitate the co-existence of wildlife and livestock are increasingly being sought-after as human sprawl increases and carnivore populations decrease. In this paper, models are developed to assess how alternative policy approaches can provide a livestock herder with incentives to sustain the socially optimal carnivore population. The wellestablished policy ex-post compensation is analyzed and compared to the innovative conservation performance payment approach. An empirical analysis of the model with data from tiger-livestock conflicts in India is presented.

Impacts of Policy Measures on the Development of State-Owned Forests in Northeastern China: Theoretical Results and Empirical Evidence

State-owned forest enterprises (SOFEs) in northeast China and Inner Mongolia play important roles both in timber production and in the maintenance of ecological security. However, since the late 1970s, forest resource and economic crises have seriously restricted these functions. Based on a theoretical and an empirical analysis of the harvest and investment behavior of the SOFEs, we examined the effects of forest policies and the socioeconomic conditions on the behavioral choices of the SOFEs. Both the extent to which SOFE supervising authorities emphasized improvement of forest resources in their annual evaluations and the increases in expenses necessary to manage SOFEs had significant impacts on harvest and investment decisions as well as development of forest resources. Promoting the management and utilization of non-timber resources, as well as reforms to increase the efficiency of forest protection and management, have reduced timber harvests as intended, which in turn has increased investment and improved forest resources. The effects have been relatively small, however. In contrast, reforms aimed at timber harvest and afforestation activities actually contributed to increasing the timber harvest, which affected the development of the forest resources negatively.state-owned forest enterprise, “double crises,” sustainable forest management, forest policy

Benefit Transfer for Environmental Improvements in Coastal Areas: General vs. Specific Models

In this study, we used choice experiment data to analyze the accuracy of benefit transfer (BT) between two case study areas in Sweden for attributes relevant to the implementation of the EU Water Framework Directive and special consideration zones in marine areas. The accuracy and reliability of a BT based on a model including only easily available socioeconomic information is similar to the accuracy of a BT based on a model that gives the best statistical fit, but requires time-consuming data collection. Further, the former model has almost as good a fit as the latter. The BT error varies significantly across the attributes, regardless of which model is used. The results are inconclusive as to whether socioeconomic adjustments improve transfer or not.Choice experiments; Benefits transfer; Water Framework Directive

Dynamics of photo-activated Coulomb complexes

Intense light with frequencies above typical atomic or molecular ionization potentials as provided by free-electron lasers couples many photons into extended targets such as clusters and biomolecules. This implies, in contrast to traditional multi-photon ionization, multiple single-photon absorption. Thereby, many electrons are removed from their bound states and either released or trapped if the target charge has become sufficiently large. We develop a simple model for this photo activation to study electron migration and interaction. It satisfies scaling relations which help to relate quite different scenarios. To understand this type of multi-electron dynamics on very short time scales is vital for assessing the radiation damage inflicted by that type of radiation and to pave the way for coherent diffraction imaging of single molecules.Comment: 14 pages, 6 figures, 1 tabl