Tropical Forests and Climate Change Mitigation: The Global Potential and Cases from the Philippines

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change IPCC Fourth Assessment report has highlighted the role of tropical forests in mitigating climate change. Deforestation, especially in tropical countries, contributes about 20 percent to total global greenhouse gas emissions. Development projects geared to reduce the rate of deforestation and forest degradation, and to establish forest plantations will help reduce greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, and significantly contribute to mitigating climate change. Three cases of forestry carbon projects underway in the Philippines are presented to illustrate the constraints facing project developers in undertaking these climate change mitigation efforts. Among the key lessons identified are: the difficulty in establishing land eligibility, the need for partners or buyers from industrialized countries to shoulder the transaction costs, and the crucial role of the local communities, including indigenous peoples, in the development effort.

Which biofuel market does the ethanol tariff protect? Implications for social welfare and GHG emissions

The ethanol tariff is one of the instruments used by the government to encourage domestic ethanol production. Existing literature analyzing the market and welfare effects of the US ethanol tariff has concluded that removing the tariff would increase social surplus and reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, due to the replacement of corn ethanol with lower cost and lower GHG intensive sugarcane ethanol. This paper re-examines these findings in the presence of a domestic cellulosic ethanol industry. The current RFS mandate requires 21 billion gallons of advanced biofuel, a portion of which could be met by any non-starch based biofuel that reduces emissions by at least 50% compared to an energy equivalent amount of gasoline. Sugarcane ethanol has been classified as an advanced biofuel, and competes for market share with domestic advanced biofuels such as cellulosic ethanol. In addition, it also competes with corn ethanol for market share in the non-advanced biofuel market. The dual market for sugarcane ethanol raises the question of which domestic biofuel market the tariff protects. Our results show that the effect of removing the tariff on social welfare and GHG emissions is ambiguous and depends on which biofuel market the tariff is protecting. If the tariff protects the corn ethanol market, its removal increases welfare and GHG emissions. However, if the tariff protects the cellulosic ethanol market, removing the tariff could increase emissions. Whether the tariff protects either the corn ethanol or cellulosic ethanol market, or both depends on the relative costs and supply elasticities of the three types of biofuel. In general, the removal of the tariff leads to an increase in social surplus, although in some cases, such as when the excess supply elasticity of sugarcane ethanol is not very elastic, net welfare could decrease when the tariff is removed. Removal of the tariff also reduces the share of domestically produced fuel, and this effect is greater when the tariff is protecting both the cellulosic and corn ethanol markets, i.e. the removal of the tariff causes a reduction in the production of both biofuels.biofuel, ethanol tariff, fuel externalities, Agricultural and Food Policy, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy, Q17, Q18, Q42,

Living Together in Precarious Times: COVID-19 in the Philippines

The coronavirus pandemic has laid bare the necessity—for social scientists and the rest of the public alike—of an ecological; non-anthropocentric view of the world as humans grapple with microbes; surround themselves with plants; and engage with non-human animals in ways that range from abuse to affection. This chapter uses this multispecies perspective to reflect on the Philippine experience of COVID-19; offering illustrative examples; sketching tentative insights; and concluding with a research agenda for future work

Boundary Issues in Music Therapy Internship Supervision

This study examined the prevalence and frequency of boundary issues within music therapy internship supervision. An online survey was used to obtain data from 243 board- certified music therapists who finished their training within the past five years. Participants were asked for demographic information, and asked to respond to questions about boundary issues and challenges during their internship. The study found a relatively low frequency of boundary issues; however some issues occurred more often than others, most notably social media connections and social outings beyond the internship site. Social media connections that were initiated by the supervisor, the gender mix of the intern and supervisor, and the level of education of the intern were factors correlated with higher incidence of boundary issues. This study may provide insight into the current state of supervisory relationships in internship supervision, and how to reduce the incidence of boundary issues. This may have a positive effect on the professional development of new music therapists

“Little Brown Brothers”: Height and the Philippine–American Colonial Encounter (1898–1946)

Thisarticle looks at how scientific racism, biomedicine, public health, sports, and a nascent bureaucracy intersected in the making of height (human stature) as an important attribute of individuals and populations during the Philippine–American colonial encounter. In relation to the “tall” Americans, Filipinos were depicted and problematized as “short,” and the attention to children’s growth, the rise of sports, and the establishment of a bureaucracy all contributed to making height a measure of health and a parameter of inclusion (and exclusion) in various domains of society.KEYWORDS: HEIGHT • ANTHROPOMETRY • PUBLIC HEALTH • COLONIALISM • PHILIPPINE