Fuelwood Scarcity, Energy Substitution and Rural Livelihoods in Namibia

In Namibia, as in many parts of Africa, households are highly dependent on fastdegrading forest resources for their livelihoods, including energy needs. Using data originally collected for Namibia's forest resource accounts and insights from a nonseparable household model, this paper empirically estimates household fuelwood demand. In particular, the factors underlying the substitution between fuelwood collected from open access forest resources, cow dung and fuelwood purchased from the market are analysed. Heckman two-step estimates show that households respond to forest scarcity, as measured by the opportunity costs of collecting fuelwood, by increasing labour input to collection more than by reducing energy consumption. There is limited evidence for substitution from fuelwood to other energy sources, particularly with the declining availability of forest stocks. All of the estimated elasticities are low confirming observations made elsewhere, particularly in South Asia. Policy interventions including energy efficiency measures and tree planting schemes are considered in the Namibian context. --Africa,forests,fuelwood,scarcity,energy,substitution,livelihoods

Public and private spending for environmental protection: a cross-country policy analysis

OECD data are used to investigate public and private environmental expenditures and, although they are more complete and consistent than other datasets, they are still poor. This is important in the context of measuring the benefits of environmental protection, when little is really known about its actual costs. Despite these limitations, this study demonstrates that there has been no shift towards an increasing private sector burden relative to the public sector over time. The paper also finds little evidence to show that environmental expenditures negatively impact on economic growth, although there is inconsistency between the "no effects" finding of the competitiveness literature and the "negative effects" finding of most of the productivity literature. Finally, the elasticity of expenditure with respect to income is found to be 1.2, lower than would be expected if the "environmental demand effect" is significant in explaining the downward slope of the environmental Kuznets curve.

Paper Tigers, Fences-&-Fines or Co-Management? Community conservation agreements in Indonesia's Lore Lindu National Park

Protected areas may be established and maintained at the expense of local communities ('fences & fines'), although attempts to block local land use can be fruitless ('paper tigers'). Innovation in protected area policy has led to the involvement of communities in protected-area management ('co-management'). This paper aims to predict and study the emergence of such negotiated agreements to share the management of as well as the benefits from forest. First, we develop a conceptual framework for understanding roles of co-management interventions. Second, we bring to our derived hypotheses unique panel data collected from a co-management policy implemented in Lore Lindu National Park, Indonesia. The results broadly support our model predictions, although there is mixed evidence in some cases, possibly due to the fact that our relatively rough data proxies often correlate with several model parameters. --forest,protected area,park,community,property right,Indonesia

Forest resources and rural livelihoods in the north-central regions of Namibia

Economics, Forestry, Markets, Community/Rural/Urban Development, Environmental Economics and Policy,

Kaza: is the largest wildlife park in the world a conservation challenge too far?

Dr Charles Palmer belongs to LSE’s Department of Geography and Environment. Dr Palmer outlines the challenges ahead for the Kavango-Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area in Southern Africa

Creating Successful Experiences for Deaf Children in Physical Education and Athletics: A Review of the Literature

The purpose of this synthesis project was to investigate ways of creating successful experiences for children in physical education and athletics. A literature review was conducted in an effort to explore physical activity participation among deaf students, determine barriers to participation and make suggestions for teachers and coaches. Results indicated that deaf children struggle to participate in physical education and sports due to communication barriers and social anxiety. Also, there is a significant gap in success and attitudes about physical activity between deaf students who go to deaf schools and those who attend general schools. Deaf students in deaf schools have more positive attitudes toward physical education and sports than those in general schools. Additionally, most adapted physical education teachers in general schools do not have adequate knowledge of American Sign Language or other methods of communication to interact with deaf students. Peer tutors were a useful intervention in some cases. The barriers to communication need to be studied more thoroughly in order to help teachers and coaches eliminate or lessen the struggles that deaf students face