Impact of payments for environmental services and protected areas on local livelihoods and forest conservation in northern Cambodia

The potential impacts of payments for environmental services (PES) and protected areas (PAs) on environmental outcomes and local livelihoods in developing countries are contentious and have been widely debated. The available evidence is sparse, with few rigorous evaluations of the environmental and social impacts of PAs and particularly of PES. We measured the impacts on forests and human well-being of three different PES programs instituted within two PAs in northern Cambodia, using a panel of intervention villages and matched controls. Both PES and PAs delivered additional environmental outcomes relative to the counterfactual: reducing deforestation rates significantly relative to controls. PAs increased security of access to land and forest resources for local households, benefiting forest resource users but restricting households’ ability to expand and diversify their agriculture. The impacts of PES on household well-being were related to the magnitude of the payments provided. The two higher paying market-linked PES programs had significant positive impacts, whereas a lower paying program that targeted biodiversity protection had no detectable effect on livelihoods, despite its positive environmental outcomes. Households that signed up for the higher paying PES programs, however, typically needed more capital assets; hence, they were less poor and more food secure than other villagers. Therefore, whereas the impacts of PAs on household well-being were limited overall and varied between livelihood strategies, the PES programs had significant positive impacts on livelihoods for those that could afford to participate. Our results are consistent with theories that PES, when designed appropriately, can be a powerful new tool for delivering conservation goals whilst benefiting local people. El Impacto de los Pagos por Servicios Ambientales y Áreas Protegidas sobre la Subsistencia Local y la Conservación del Bosque en el Norte de Camboya RESUMEN: Los impactos potenciales de los pagos por servicios ambientales (PSA) y áreas protegidas (APs) sobre los resultados ambientales y las subsistencias locales en los países en desarrollo son polémicos y se han debatido ampliamente. La evidencia disponible es escasa; ha habido pocas evaluaciones rigurosas de los impactos ambientales y sociales de las APs y particularmente los PSA. Medimos el impacto sobre los bosques y el bienestar humano en tres diferentes programas de PSA que se llevan a cabo dentro de dos APs en el norte de Camboya usando un panel de aldeas de intervención y controles emparejados. Tanto los PSA como las APs brindaron resultados ambientales adicionales en relación a los contrafácticos, esto quiere decir que redujeron las tasas de deforestación significativamente en relación a los controles. Las áreas protegidas incrementaron el acceso seguro a los recursos del suelo y el bosque para las viviendas locales, beneficiando a los usuarios de los recursos del bosque pero restringiendo la habilidad de las viviendas para expandirse y diversificar su agricultura. Los impactos de los pagos por servicios ambientales sobre el bienestar de las viviendas estuvieron relacionados con la magnitud de los pagos proporcionados. Los dos programas de PSA de mayor paga y con conexión al mercado tuvieron impactos positivos significativos, mientras que un programa de menor paga con el objetivo de proteger a la biodiversidad no tuvo un efecto detectable sobre las viviendas, a pesar de sus resultados ambientales positivos. Las viviendas que se inscribieron a los programas de PSA con mayor paga, sin embargo, necesitaban típicamente más bienes capitales, por lo que eran menos pobres y tenían mayor seguridad alimentaria que otros aldeanos. Por esto, mientras los impactos de las APs sobre el bienestar de las viviendas fueron limitados en general y variaron dependiendo de las estrategias de subsistencia, los programas de PSA tuvieron impactos positivos significativos sobre las viviendas para aquellos que podían costear participar. Nuestros resultados son congruentes con las teorías de que los PSA, cuando se designan apropiadamente, pueden ser una herramienta poderosa y novedosa para obtener objetivos de conservación mientras se beneficia a la gente local

"Indirect Network Effects and the Product Cycle: Video Games in the U.S., 1994-2002"

This paper examines the importance of indirect network effects in the U.S.video game market between 1994 and 2002. The diffusion of game systems is analyzed by the interaction between console adoption decisions and software supply decisions. Estimation results suggest that introductory pricing is an effective practice at the beginning of the product cycle, and expanding software variety becomes more effective later. The paper also finds a degree of inertia in the software market that does not exist in the hardware market. This observation implies that software providers continue to exploit the installed base of hardware users after hardware demand has slowed.

Impacts of Protected Areas on Local Livelihoods in Cambodia

SummaryImpact evaluation methods (mixed effects models and matching) were used to investigate the effect of protected areas (PAs) on poverty and livelihoods in Cambodia, comparing households inside PAs with bordering villages and controls. There was no evidence that PAs exacerbated local poverty or reduce agricultural harvests in comparison with controls. Households bordering the PAs were significantly better off due to greater access to markets and services. Non-timber forest product (NTFP) collectors inside PAs were significantly better off than controls and had greater rice harvests, because they had more secure access to land and forest resources. The PAs in Cambodia therefore have some positive impacts on households that use forest and land resources for their livelihoods

Teach phenomenology the bomb: Starship Troopers, the technologized body, and humanitarian warfare

Paul Verhoeven's SF films are often concerned with how the future body will be reshaped as a technological device. Starship Troopers strangely departs from Verhoeven's own work, other SF films, and current directions in cultural theory by seeing the future body as one that is more organic than mechanical. Drawing upon and challenging ideas developed by Paul Virilio, this article argues that Starship Troopers' departure from the notion of the 'post-human' mechanized body needs to be understood not as a nostalgic reassertion of de-technologized subjectivity. Rather, Verhoeven's film sees the idea of the pure body as a dangerous anachronism. And, this article further argues, Starship Troopers suggests that narratives of human salvation - such as those that arose during Nato's interventions in the Balkans - often conceal an appetite for territorial conquest

A 90 degree sector development of a short length combustor for a supersonic cruise turbofan engine Interim report, Jun. 1968 - Mar. 1970

Short length combustor and diffuser configuration for supersonic cruise turbofan engin

Development of a short length combustor for a supersonic cruise turbofan engine using a 90 deg sector of a full annulus

A performance development program has been conducted on a short length, double-annular, ram-induction combustor. The combustor was designed for a large augmented turbofan engine capable of sustained flight speeds up to Mach 3.0. Performance tests were conducted at an inlet temperature and Mach number simulating engine sea level takeoff conditions. At the design temperature rise of 1600 F, combustion efficiency was 100%, pattern factor was 0.20, and combined diffuser-combustor pressure loss was 4.4% or 1.12 times the diffuser inlet velocity head. A temperature rise in excess of 2400 F with a combustion efficiency of 94% was demonstrated

Effect of swirling flow on augmentor performance

A test program was conducted with an augmentor which employed swirling flow as a means of promoting rapid flame propagation. The program evaluated the effect of augmentor length, swirl intensity, fuel zoning and Mach number on augmentor performance. Combustion efficiencies near 100% were demonstrated over most of the operating range which extended from an equivalence ratio of 0.2 to over 1.0. The tests were conducted at an inlet temperature of 649 C (1200 F) and at a pressure of 2 atmospheres. The augmentor total pressure losses were typical of current state of the art augmentors