Effects Of Rubber Plantation Policy On Water Resources And Landuse Change In The Northeastern Region Of Thailand

The Thai government launched Phase 3 of its Rubber Plantation Project in 2011 aiming to expand the total area of new plantations to 128,000 ha. The northeastern region contains the largest areas for new rubber plantation areas, yet it is known to have unfertile areas and regular encounters with water scarcity during summer. This leads to research questions as to how the policy affects land and water use in the country. This study shows that the water requirement of rubber trees is 14,221 m3/ha/year which is higher than that of other local crops (e.g., rice, cassava, sugarcane, and corn). Thus, irrigation systems must be utilized during certain months. The land use changes from the cultivation of edible crops to rubber do not threaten the amount of food available for domestic consumption since Thailand generally exports more of its crops than it consumes. From this policy, total rubber yield would increase to 742 M kg and rice, corn, and cassava would disappear about 1613 M kg (24% of the total amount of rice exported in 2012), 7837 M kg, 8926 M kg, respectively.The government should provide a better plan on crop water requirements suitable for each region and knowledge on increasing crop-per-drop efficiency to all farmers

Understanding the Gap between Environmental Intention and Pro-Environmental Behavior towards the Waste Sorting and Management Policy of China

Environmental pollution and ecological damage caused by human activities have attracted widespread attention in recent years, and while citizens’ environmental awareness and intentions have increased, their actions may not necessarily change accordingly. This study aims to understand the intention–behavior gap, based on the theory of planned behavior (TPB), by exploring the relationship between intention and pro-environmental behavior on the new waste sorting policy in China. The structural model of extended TPB was tested using sample data from 3113 residents of Changsha, each of whom was asked to complete a two-stage survey. Results demonstrated that perceived policy effectiveness and actual behavioral control positively affect behavioral intention, implementation intention, and pro-environmental behavior. Among them, the actual behavioral control of residents was found to be the most influential factor on behavioral intention and implementation intention, followed by residents’ perceived policy effectiveness. Moreover, behavioral intention and implementation intention mediate the relationship between antecedents and pro-environmental behavior. These findings imply that people with high-level perceptions of policy effectiveness, strong control over actual behavior, strong behavioral intentions, and strong implementation intentions are more likely to engage in pro-environmental behavior. The findings suggest that factors such as perceived policy effectiveness and actual behavioral control should be considered when implementing new policies and campaigns for waste sorting and management