Socio-economic Impacts of Climate Change on Rural United States

Directly or indirectly, positively or negatively, climate change will affect all sectors and regions of the United States. The impacts, however, will not be homogenous across regions, sectors, population groups or time. The literature specifically related to how climate change will affect rural communities, their resilience, and adaptive capacity in the United States (U.S.) is scarce. This article bridges this knowledge gap through an extensive review of the current state of knowledge to make inferences about the rural communities vulnerability to climate change based on Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) scenarios. Our analysis shows that rural communities tend to be more vulnerable than their urban counterparts due to factors such as demography, occupations, earnings, literacy, poverty incidence, and dependency on government funds. Climate change impacts on rural communities differs across regions and economic sectors; some will likely benefit while others lose. Rural communities engaged in agricultural and forest related activities in the Northeast might benefit, while those in the Southwest and Southeast could face additional water stress and increased energy cost respectively. Developing adaptation and mitigation policy options geared towards reducing climatic vulnerability of rural communities is warranted. A set of regional and local studies is needed to delineate climate change impacts across rural and urban communities, and to develop appropriate policies to mitigate these impacts. Integrating research across disciplines, strengthening research-policy linkages, integrating ecosystem services while undertaking resource valuation, and expanding alternative energy sources, might also enhance coping capacity of rural communities in face of future climate change

Socio-economic Impacts of Climate Change on Rural United States

Directly or indirectly, positively or negatively, climate change will affect all sectors and regions of the United States. The impacts, however, will not be homogenous across regions, sectors, population groups or time. The literature specifically related to how climate change will affect rural communities, their resilience, and adaptive capacity in the United States (U.S.) is scarce. This article bridges this knowledge gap through an extensive review of the current state of knowledge to make inferences about the rural communities vulnerability to climate change based on Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) scenarios. Our analysis shows that rural communities tend to be more vulnerable than their urban counterparts due to factors such as demography, occupations, earnings, literacy, poverty incidence, and dependency on government funds. Climate change impacts on rural communities differs across regions and economic sectors; some will likely benefit while others lose. Rural communities engaged in agricultural and forest related activities in the Northeast might benefit, while those in the Southwest and Southeast could face additional water stress and increased energy cost respectively. Developing adaptation and mitigation policy options geared towards reducing climatic vulnerability of rural communities is warranted. A set of regional and local studies is needed to delineate climate change impacts across rural and urban communities, and to develop appropriate policies to mitigate these impacts. Integrating research across disciplines, strengthening research-policy linkages, integrating ecosystem services while undertaking resource valuation, and expanding alternative energy sources, might also enhance coping capacity of rural communities in face of future climate change

Economics of Managing Invasive Species in Tropical and Sub-Tropical Areas of the U.S.A.: Case Study Development

Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

VISITOR PREFERENCES AND VALUES FOR WATER-BASED RECREATION: A CASE STUDY OF THE OCALA NATIONAL FOREST

We used the open-ended contingent valuation method to elicit willingnes to pay (WTP) for day visitors and extended visitors on the Ocala National Forest (ONF), Florida. A Tobit model specification was applied to account for the issues involved with censored WTP bids. The results reveal that visitors would pay more for improved recreational facilities at the ONF. In particular, our estimates show that visitors would pay $1 million for basic facilities,$1.9 million for moderate improvements, and $2.5 million for more improvements.contingent valuation, Tobit analysis, water-based recreation, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy, Q23, Q26,

Potential Economic Impacts of Allocating More Land for Bioenergy Biomass Production in Virginia

The growing attention to renewable energy and rural development has created greater demand for production of biomass feedstock for bioenergy. However, forest growth rates and the amount of land in most existing forests may not be sufficient to sustainably supply the forest biomass required to support existing forest products industries and the expanding bioenergy industry. Additionally, concerns about agricultural land use competition have dampened expansion of biomass production on agricultural land base. One of the ways to meet the growing forest biomass feedstock demand for bioenergy production is by allocating currently marginal non-forested land for growing bioenergy feedstocks. In Virginia, about 80% of forestland is under nonindustrial private forest ownership. The land use allocation decisions of these private owners are critical for the supply of the forest biomass feedstock to support bioenergy production. We apply a computable general equilibrium model to assess the economy-wide impacts of forestland owners’ willingness to plant pine on non-forested land for woody bioenergy in Virginia. We consider three counterfactual scenarios of biomass feedstock supply increase as intermediate demand for bioenergy production based on forestland owners’ willingness to accept biomass bid prices to set aside more non-forested land for biomass production in Virginia under general equilibrium conditions. Overall, the results show an increase in social welfare and household utility but a marginal decline in GDP. However, increased demand of biomass from logging sector depressed the manufacturing sector (the wood manufacturing sub-sector particularly), which also relies on the logging sector for its intermediate inputs. Results from this study provide insights into the bioenergy land use competition debate, and pathways towards sustainable bioenergy feedstock supply

Biotechnological Innovations in the Forestry Sector and their Economic Impacts on Other Sectors via Embodied Technology Transfer: An Investigation within Dynamic GTAP Framework

In this paper, we consider technology transfers embodied in trade flows within a seven-region, seven-traded-commodity version of the dynamic GTAP model. 0.63% Hicks-Neutral technical progress in forestry sector (logging) in source regions has differential impacts on productivity of the logging-user sectors. This is ascribed to the differential rates of induced technology transmission via traded intermediates. Destination regions’ ability to utilize new technology depends on their absorptive capacity (AC) and structural similarity (SS). Together with trade flows, these two factors determine the recipient’s success in assimilating foreign technology. Sectors intensive in logging like wood products, paper products, publishing register higher productivity growth. Differences in productivity improvements depend on the differentials in the magnitude of technology capture

Incentives for Biodiversity Conservation Beyond the Best Management Practices: Are Forestland Owners Interested?

With the growing recognition of the role of environmental services rendered by private lands, landowner involvement has become a critical component of landscape-level strategies to conserve biodiversity. In this paper, we examine the willingness of private forest owners to participate in a conservation program that requires adopting management regimes beyond the existing regulations for silvicultural best management practices. Results from a multinomial logit model indicate both program attributes and landowner characteristics significantly influencing participation. While the mean incentive payment necessary to induce participation is $95.54 per ha per year, this amount varied among respondents with different forest ownership objectives.