Welfare Implications of the Allowable Cut Effect in the Context of Sustained Yield and Sustainable Development Forestry

Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

Towards an Analytical Framework for Assessing Property Rights to Natural Resources: A Case Study in the Communal Areas of Zimbabwe

A taxonomy for describing property rights to natural resources is described and applied in a Zimbabwean case study. The taxonomy allows: tenures to be systematically compared and contrasted; incentives for natural resource management to be identified; and the evolution of tenure to natural resources to be assessed. In the case study, we find: key differences between tenure types, all termed "communal"; a wide range of tenure arrangements that transcend concepts of "tree" and "land tenure"; information suggesting that the promotion of tree planting may work on some tenure types, but is likely to fail on others; and that the evolution of indigenous tenure to natural resources seems to have been somewhat immune from external changes in institutional systems. Prospects for further theoretical and empirical advances are discussed within the context of the property rights framework presented.incentives, natural resources, property rights framework/taxonomy, tenure, Zimbabwe, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

Waste Management Behaviour of Households: A Case Study of a Strike in Saskatchewan

Environmental Economics and Policy,

Valuing Fuelwood Resources Using a Site Choice Model of Fuelwood Collection

Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

Policy brief, number 9, 2014

[From Introduction] In South Africa, social grants are a central component of government's efforts to alleviate poverty. The number of people receiving social grants has significantly increased in recent years (from about 10.9 million in 2005 to almost 15.7 million in 2013, and an anticipated 16.8 million recipients by 2015).With social grants playing an increasingly important role, a pressing policy issue is whether or not the current social grant schemes are an effective tool for alleviating poverty. Some studies have shown that social grants improve food security (Case and Deaton, 1998; Samson et al., 2008) and in the long run can promote employment through accumulation of human capital and enhancing productivity of poor households (Edmonds et al., 2006; Samson et al., 2008; Surender et al., 2007). However, other studies have reported that social grants have possible disincentive effects on labor market activity, for example, through the relaxing of household budget constraints which may lead to a reduction in labor supply (Bertrand et al., 2003; Ranchorhod, 2006; Klasen and Woolard, 2009). Our study provides new insights by highlighting two key household characteristics, gender and education, in catalyzing or diminishing the effects of grants on household livelihood outcomes. Our analysis mainly focuses on impacts of pensions on household food security and labor supply of household members

L’application de la méthode des comparables à la forêt publique québécoise

En 1986, le gouvernement du Québec a institué une nouvelle méthode d’évaluation des redevances forestières pour les terres qui relèvent de sa propriété, soit la méthode des comparables. Elle consiste à transposer la valeur des bois extraits des terres privées à celle des tiges croissant sur les terres publiques. Même si des réserves peuvent être exprimées quant au degré de concurrence sur le marché des boisés privés, ce point semble mineur en regard de l’ouverture de ce marché vers l’extérieur de la province. Des difficultés apparaissent cependant dans la transposition des valeurs du bois sur pied de la forêt privée à la forêt publique, à cause de la responsabilité partagée de la gestion de la forêt publique entre le gouvernement et l’entreprise privée qui découle du système de tenure. Cette responsabilité partagée introduit certains biais dans l’évaluation du bois debout sur les terres publiques. Ces biais réduisent les redevances forestières que le gouvernement pourrait percevoir, tout au moins à long terme. Pour résoudre certaines difficultés, le gouvernement pourrait accroître l’information disponible sur les coûts de production pour les terres publiques notamment en privatisant certaines parties du domaine public.In 1986, the government of the province of Québec introduced a new method to evaluate stumpage fees for public forests. It is called the comparable method and it ties the value of timber on public lands to its value on private lots which are mostly located in the southern part of province. Although some concerns may be expressed due to the limited nature of competition for private timber, the point appears to be minor when the open nature of the log market is taken into account. However some problems arise at the application level because of the reponsibility which the government and the private enterprises share in the administration of public forests through the tenure system. The joint responsability introduces biases in stumpages fees which tend to reduce their value, at least in the long run. To circumvent these difficulties, the government could improve the state of knowledge with respect to costs of harvesting timber on public lands by privatizing parts of the public forests

L’application de la méthode des comparables à la forêt publique québécoise

In 1986, the government of the province of Québec introduced a new method to evaluate stumpage fees for public forests. It is called the comparable method and it ties the value of timber on public lands to its value on private lots which are mostly located in the southern part of province. Although some concerns may be expressed due to the limited nature of competition for private timber, the point appears to be minor when the open nature of the log market is taken into account. However some problems arise at the application level because of the reponsibility which the government and the private enterprises share in the administration of public forests through the tenure system. The joint responsability introduces biases in stumpages fees which tend to reduce their value, at least in the long run. To circumvent these difficulties, the government could improve the state of knowledge with respect to costs of harvesting timber on public lands by privatizing parts of the public forests. En 1986, le gouvernement du Québec a institué une nouvelle méthode d’évaluation des redevances forestières pour les terres qui relèvent de sa propriété, soit la méthode des comparables. Elle consiste à transposer la valeur des bois extraits des terres privées à celle des tiges croissant sur les terres publiques. Même si des réserves peuvent être exprimées quant au degré de concurrence sur le marché des boisés privés, ce point semble mineur en regard de l’ouverture de ce marché vers l’extérieur de la province. Des difficultés apparaissent cependant dans la transposition des valeurs du bois sur pied de la forêt privée à la forêt publique, à cause de la responsabilité partagée de la gestion de la forêt publique entre le gouvernement et l’entreprise privée qui découle du système de tenure. Cette responsabilité partagée introduit certains biais dans l’évaluation du bois debout sur les terres publiques. Ces biais réduisent les redevances forestières que le gouvernement pourrait percevoir, tout au moins à long terme. Pour résoudre certaines difficultés, le gouvernement pourrait accroître l’information disponible sur les coûts de production pour les terres publiques notamment en privatisant certaines parties du domaine public.

Non-market Valuation Biases Due to Aboriginal Cultural Characteristics in Northern Saskatchewan: The Values Structures Component

Current non-market valuation techniques have been developed based on assumptions about values held within the Eurocentred culture. Contentions between cultures over natural resources are hypothesized to occur because of differences in held values resulting in different values being assigned to the resources in question. This study measured the held values of an Aboriginal band in Northern Saskatchewan as the first dimension of a non-market valuation study of natural resources. These held value structures are presented noting differences by age and gender and in comparison with the local Non-Aboriginal community and another Aboriginal group in northern Alberta.Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

In search of optimal stocking regimes in semi-arid grazing lands : one size does not fit all

We discuss the search for optimal stocking regimes in semi-arid grazing lands. We argue that ‘one size does not fit all’ and that different stocking regimes are appropriate under different conditions. This paper is an attempt to move beyond polarization of the current debate towards a more integrative and flexible approach to grazing management. We propose five different conditions as major influences on grazing regimes: environmental variability and predictability; degradation and thresholds; property right regimes; discount rates; and market stability and prices. We suggest a lack of connection between the micro-economics literature and natural science and social-anthropological literature. It is timely to achieve greater integration around some key questions and hypotheses, and recognize that policy prescriptions at national or even regional levels are likely to have limited value due to context specificity