Modelling and analysis of international recycling between developed and developing countries

Abstract To deal with the complexity of recycling, a wide variety of models have been developed, each serving a specific purpose. Despite the current trend increasing international trade in recycling-related material flows, the international dimension of physical and economic relationships in recycling is often ignored in current models and analyses. This paper develops a formal model of an international materialproduct chain (MPC) that represents the mechanism behind international recycling. The attention is focused on the case of a developed and a developing country that exchange material commodities, final products and recyclable waste. Among others, the model demonstrates that taking into account environmental externalities results in higher levels of recycling. Moreover, we show that international recycling is mainly driven by regional differences in the quantity and quality of factor endowments and economic efficiency of recycling. Given that industrialised countries are relatively well endowed with recyclable waste, the recovery rate usually exceeds the utilisation rate. In developing countries, an opposite pattern is observed

The economic and ecological effects of water management choices in the upper Niger river: Development of decision support methods

One million people in the Inner Niger Delta make a living from arable farming, fisheries and livestock. Upstream dams (one built for electricity generation and one for irrigation) affect this downstream multifunctional use of water. Additionally, the Inner Niger Delta, which is one of the largest Ramsar sites in the world, is a hotspot of biodiversity and accommodates two of the largest known breeding colonies of large wading birds in Africa and in addition, is a vital part of the eco-regional network, supporting up to 3 to 4 million staging waterbirds, residents and migrants from all over Europe and western Asia. The hydrological and related ecological conditions in the Inner Delta largely determine the population size of these waterbird species. The major aim of the three-year study was to develop a decision-support system for river management in the Upper Niger, in which ecological and socio-economical impacts and benefits of dams and irrigation systems can be analysed in relation to different water management scenarios. The study involves various components: hydrology, arable farming, livestock, fisheries, ecology and socio-economics. An economic analysis has been conducted to determine the role of dams in the economy of the Inner Niger Delta and the Upper Niger region. By innovatively combining the above information on hydrology, ecology, fisheries, and agriculture, the study shows that building new dams is not an efficient way to increase economic growth and reduce poverty in the region. In fact, such efforts are counter-effective. Instead, development efforts should be aimed at improving the efficiency of the existing infrastructure, as well as of current economic activities in the Inner Niger Delta itself. This approach will also provide greater certainty for the essential eco-regional network functioning of the Inner Delta. © 2006 Taylor & Francis

Measuring the Impacts of Community-based Grasslands Management in Mongolia's Gobi

We assessed a donor-funded grassland management project designed to create both conservation and livelihood benefits in the rangelands of Mongolia's Gobi desert. The project ran from 1995 to 2006, and we used remote sensing Normalized Differential Vegetation Index data from 1982 to 2009 to compare project grazing sites to matched control sites before and after the project's implementation. We found that the productivity of project grazing sites was on average within 1% of control sites for the 20 years before the project but generated 11% more biomass on average than the control areas from 2000 to 2009. To better understand the benefits of the improved grasslands to local people, we conducted 280 household interviews, 8 focus group discussions, and 31 key informant interviews across 6 districts. We found a 12% greater median annual income as well as a range of other socioeconomic benefits for project households compared to control households in the same areas. Overall, the project generated measurable benefits to both nature and people. The key factors underlying project achievements that may be replicable by other conservation projects include the community-driven approach of the project, knowledge exchanges within and between communities inside and outside the country, a project-supported local community organizer in each district, and strong community leadership

Economic valuation methods for ecosystem services

Various valuation methods exist and have been applied to estimate the values of different ecosystem services. The methods reflect the extent to which the services provided by ecosystems touch on the welfare of society either as direct determinants of individuals’ well-being (e.g. as consumer goods) or via production processes (e.g. as intermediate goods). The aim of this chapter is to provide an overview of available valuation methods, to discuss their advantages and disadvantages, and to provide guidance on when to use which method. In doing so we do not aim to be comprehensive; extensive details of the underlying theory and on the actual practice of applying the valuation methods are provided in general texts, including Braden and Kolstad (1991), Freeman (2003), Bateman et al. (2002), Mitchell and Carson (1989), Champ et al. (2003), Bockstael and McConnell (2007), and Kanninen (2007). A number of economic valuation methods have been developed to estimate the value of changes in ecosystem services. An important distinction is between market-based and non-market-based valuation methods. Market-based valuation means that existing market behavior and market transactions are used as the basis for the valuation exercise. Economic values are derived from actual market prices for ecosystem services, both when they are used as inputs in production processes (production values) and when they provide direct outputs (consumption values). By observing how much of an ecosystem service is bought and sold at different prices, it is possible to infer directly how people value that good. Examples of market-based methods are the use of direct market prices, net factor income and production function methods, and the calculation of replacement costs, defensive expenditures, and avoided damage costs

Geographical scoping and willingness-to-pay for nature protection

This study offers a Choice Experiment (CE) analysis of geographical scope effects. About 500 stated preference surveys were conducted to estimate willingness-to-pay (WTP) for nature protection in the Netherlands and the Caribbean Netherlands which became part of the Netherlands’ constitution just before the survey, providing a unique policy setting. Two version of the CE were implemented with a narrow or a broader geographical scope. Estimation of error correction mixed logit models resulted in the following main insights. First, the hypothesis of scope invariance is rejected since expanding the geographical scope influenced WTP values for nature protection. As an illustration, policies of preventing a degradation of nature have an average WTP of about €20 in the experiment with the smaller geographical scope, while this WTP is not significantly different from zero in the experiment with the more extensive scope. Second, evidence of scope sensitivity of WTP to the levels of nature protection is mixed, and depends on the geographical scope of the CE. We find a sizable WTP for protection of nature in Caribbean Netherlands among citizens of the mainland of the Netherlands, which supports the observed sizable funding of the Dutch government for nature management in the Caribbean Netherlands