A quasi-experimental study of impacts of Tanzania’s Wildlife Management Areas on rural livelihoods and wealth

Since the 2000s, Tanzania’s natural resource management policy has emphasised Wildlife Management Areas (WMAs), designed to promote wildlife and biodiversity conservation, poverty alleviation and rural development. We carried out a quasi-experimental impact evaluation of social impacts of WMAs, collecting data from 24 villages participating in 6 different WMAs across two geographical regions, and 18 statistically matched control villages. Across these 42 villages, we collected participatory wealth ranking data for 13,578 households. Using this as our sampling frame, we conducted questionnaire surveys with a stratified sample of 1,924 household heads and 945 household heads’ wives. All data were collected in 2014/15, with a subset of questions devoted to respondents’ recall on conditions that existed in 2007, when first WMAs became operational. Questions addressed household demographics, land and livestock assets, resource use, income-generating activities and portfolios, participation in natural resource management decision-making, benefits and costs of conservation. Datasets permit research on livelihood and wealth trajectories, and social impacts, costs and benefits of conservation interventions in the context of community-based natural resource management

Impact of Tanzania's Wildlife Management Areas on household wealth

Large-scale area-based conservation measures affect millions of people globally. Understanding their social impacts is necessary to improve effectiveness and minimize negative consequences. However, quantifying the impacts of conservation measures that affect large geographic areas and diverse peoples is expensive and methodologically challenging, particularly because such evaluations should capture locally defined conceptions of well-being while permitting policy-relevant comparisons. Here, we measure the impact of Tanzania’s Wildlife Management Areas (WMAs), a national community-based conservation and poverty reduction initiative. We use a novel, cost-effective impact evaluation method based on participatory wealth ranking and Bayesian multilevel modelling. We find that from 2007 to 2015 the impacts of WMAs on wealth were small and variable, with no clear evidence of widespread poverty reduction. Accompanying qualitative data suggest that apparently positive effects in one WMA cannot be directly attributed to WMA activities. Our results suggest that current WMA policy needs to be revisited if it is to promote positive local development

Senescent cells evade immune clearance via HLA-E-mediated NK and CD8(+) T cell inhibition

Senescent cells accumulate in human tissues during ageing and contribute to age-related pathologies. The mechanisms responsible for their accumulation are unclear. Here we show that senescent dermal fibroblasts express the non-classical MHC molecule HLA-E, which interacts with the inhibitory receptor NKG2A expressed by NK and highly differentiated CD8 + T cells to inhibit immune responses against senescent cells. HLA-E expression is induced by senescence-associated secretary phenotype-related pro-inflammatory cytokines, and is regulated by p38 MAP kinase signalling in vitro. Consistently, HLA-E expression is increased on senescent cells in human skin sections from old individuals, when compared with those from young, and in human melanocytic nevi relative to normal skin. Lastly, blocking the interaction between HLA-E and NKG2A boosts immune responses against senescent cells in vitro. We thus propose that increased HLA-E expression contributes to persistence of senescent cells in tissues, thereby suggesting a new strategy for eliminating senescent cells during ageing

Survey of the impacts of an environmental intervention on household wealth, livelihoods and wellbeing in Tanzania 2007-2015

This dataset is part of the Ecosystem Services and Poverty Alleviation (ESPA) programme. These data represent the central quantitative datasets from a mixed method, quasi-experimental study of the effects of an environmental intervention (national implementation of Wildlife Management Areas - WMAs) on Tanzania's rural population. The study focused on changes in wealth, livelihoods and wellbeing 2007-2014 for households in villages that are members of a WMA, compared to households in matched control villages that are not in WMAs, and causal attribution of those changes. The study covered 6 of the then 18 WMAs, (3 in northern rangelands and 3 in southern Miombo woodlands), and surveyed a total of 47 villages (both 'inside' WMAs and matched 'outside' non-WMA villages). In all, 13,578 households in these villages were wealth ranked on locally derived, village-specific criteria for both 2014/5 and (by recall) for 2007. From this sample frame we surveyed a stratified random sample of 1924 household heads (including 187 female heads of household) and 945 wives of household heads. Questions to household heads addressed household composition, land and livestock assets, resource use, income generating activities and income portfolios, participation in decision-making in natural resources management, and perceived benefits and costs of conservation, at the time of the 2014/5 survey and also by recall for 2007. Related questions addressed women’s perceptions of changes since 2007 in access to land and natural resources, production, income-generating activities, human-wildlife conflict, participation in WMA management; and overall costs and benefits of WMAs. Though there is also considerable qualitative data, much of this is politically sensitive and therefore not deposited here: interested researchers may contact the PI for partial access. Environmental data not already in the public domain are being deposited in the NERC Environment Information Data Service.Rural people across the global south are caught between competing land demands for large-scale cultivation, global conservation, and local needs. These can in theory be integrated locally through community-based natural resource management (CBNRM) and payments for ecosystem services (PES): where communities can decide on and benefit directly from natural resources, they may invest in and manage those resources in ways that are more socially and environmentally sustainable. CBNRM/PES initiatives are being rolled out across the global south, but there are conflicting views as to how well they work, for whom and under what circumstances. This is partly due to the complexity and multidimensionality of the ecosystem services (ES) and poverty alleviation (PA) outcomes involved, and the inevitable tradeoffs, but also to the hitherto limited use of either qualitatively or quantitatively rigorous impact evaluation approaches that are independent, control for confounding factors and ensure the voices of the most marginalized are heard. As well as being limited by generally weak research design, studies to date have often failed to account for the ways political sensitivities around changing access to and use of ecosystem services may compromise data quality and mask differentiated impacts. PIMA seizes a unique policy moment, with Tanzania's poverty reduction strategy Mkukuta driving nationwide implementation of CBNRM/PES-based Wildlife Management Areas (WMAs), and other countries in the region considering comparable initiatives. The WMAs comprise different ecosystems (rangeland, miombo), socio-political structures (long-established/ethnically uniform vs recent, heterogeneous constituent villages), and a broad range of ecosystem services (water-regulating and -supplying, provision of forest products, grazing, livestock, crop and wildlife production, cultural services both local and global (from locally significant social and ritual spaces, to heritage and tourism). Quasi-experimental comparison of social and ecological outcomes for established WMAs with statistically matched non-WMA areas (within the same ecosystems) offers an ideal opportunity for rigorous impact evaluation. PIMA combines analysis of remotely-sensed, public-domain MODIS and NDVI data, with cutting edge study of governance, and new data from qualitatively and quantitatively rigorous, differentiated survey of livelihoods and resource use histories, structured within a quasi-experimental research design. PIMA brings together a powerful international research team to work with strongly-rooted civil society organizations to ensure research excellence and development impact. Building on ongoing stakeholder engagement, with input sought from users, practitioners and policymakers at all stages pre- to post-project, PIMA ensures findings will be of direct use locally, nationally and internationally. PIMA 's framework and approach create channels for grassroots users to make experienced change in ecosystem services quality and quantity, and in poverty and wellbeing, more clearly heard by policymakers and practitioners, as well as highlighting tradeoffs and best practice lessons. Establishing what works, why and for whom will be of use not only to the one million rural people directly affected by WMAs, but will deliver insights and best practice lessons generalizable to the many millions more whose livelihoods and wellbeing are to be shaped by comparable CBNRM/PES initiatives. The findings delivered, and the mechanisms piloted, will give local users and national and international policymakers and practitioners the insights and tools to improve interventions through creating better upward and downward accountability. PIMA findings will be of use locally to rural people making collective and individual resource use decisions, through national levels, to international donors deciding how to invest scarce resources for ecosystem services and poverty alleviation.</p

On the Role of International Spillovers from the European Central Bank"s Unconventional Monetary Policy

One of the most significant new developments in the global post-crisis economy is the implementation of various unconventional monetary policies (UMP) by major central banks in the advanced countries with the ECB being not an exception. We summarize the evidence on international effects of the ECB"s unconventional monetary policy, which has been studied much less than those of the Fed, with rather mixed empirical findings for the time being. The estimated spillover effects for the same set of countries differ across the studies in terms of magnitudes, signs as well as with respect to detected operative transmission channels and factors determining these spillovers. The observed heterogeneity in results is largely attributed to the specifications of the ECB unconventional monetary shocks and modeling frameworks chosen by the authors, which implicitly consider only part of the transmission channels and omit others. Thus, the paper argues that development of more sophisticated and unified econometric frameworks is crucial for conducting future research on this theme and providing regional central banks with coherent policy implications. The paper finally assesses the scope for monetary policy coordination as a reaction to non-pecuniary spillover effects to other regions of the world from the political economy perspective