CIVIL CONFLICT AND FORCED MIGRATION: THE MICRO DETERMINANTES AND THE WELFARE LOSSES OF DISPLACEMENT IN COLOMBIA

During the last decade, forced internal displacement in Colombia has been a growing phenomenon closely linked to the escalation of the internal armed conflict - particularly in rural areas. The displacement problem has affected nearly every region and vulnerable groups of the population. Two emerging policy questions are whether the magnitude of the response to this problem has been proportional to its size and to what extent the instruments chosen are the most adequate to address it. The purpose of this paper is twofold. First, to identify the determinants of displacement behavior and to compare these findings with standard migration literature. Second, to estimate the burden or welfare losses of displacement. Empirical evidence shows that the welfare loss of displacement is considerable and amount to 37 percent of the net present value of rural lifetime aggregate consumption for the average household. This loss is estimated for each household with a method that derives welfare changes from behavioral model estimates - widely used in environmental economics. Our empirical findings also show that the level of violence at the origin site is not only the dominant factor of displacement behavior, but also that in a violent environment other migration determinants have the opposite effect, relative to the one expected by the migration literature in a non-violent context. That is, the violent environment modifies the migration incentives for risk aversion, access to information, the planning horizon, and location-specific assets - human and non-human.Forced displacement

What Motivates Common Pool Resource Users? Experimental Evidence from the Field

This paper develops and tests several models of pure Nash strategies of individuals who extract from a common pool resource when they are motivated by a combination of self-interest and other motivations such as altruism, reciprocity, inequity aversion and conformism. We test whether an econometric summary of subjects’ strategies is consistent with one of these motivations using data from a series of common pool resource experiments conducted in three regions of Colombia. As expected, average extraction levels are less than that predicted by a model of pure self-interest, but are nevertheless sub-optimal. Moreover, we find that a model of conformism with monotonically increasing best response functions best describes average strategies. Our empirical results are inconsistent with models of altruism, reciprocity and inequity aversion.common pool resources, experiments, altruism, reciprocity, conformism

The mysteries of insect RNAi: A focus on dsRNA uptake and transport

RNA interference (RNAi) is becoming a practical tool to control insect pests. Many mysteries of how double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) is transported into, within, and between cells to generate an efficient RNAi response in insects are still to be unraveled. This review provides an overview of the evidence that supports a key role of endocytosis in the uptake of dsRNA on both cellular and tissue levels. Additionally, other components of cellular membrane transport and their impact on the efficiency of RNAi in insects are explored. It is now evident that the membrane transport and potentially dsRNA release from the endosome may comprise some of the limiting factors in insects that are recalcitrant to dsRNA. This review concludes with the apparent connection between gene products that are necessary for cellular trafficking of dsRNA and highly lethal RNAi targets

The mysteries of insect RNAi: A focus on dsRNA uptake and transport

RNA interference (RNAi) is becoming a practical tool to control insect pests. Many mysteries of how double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) is transported into, within, and between cells to generate an efficient RNAi response in insects are still to be unraveled. This review provides an overview of the evidence that supports a key role of endocytosis in the uptake of dsRNA on both cellular and tissue levels. Additionally, other components of cellular membrane transport and their impact on the efficiency of RNAi in insects are explored. It is now evident that the membrane transport and potentially dsRNA release from the endosome may comprise some of the limiting factors in insects that are recalcitrant to dsRNA. This review concludes with the apparent connection between gene products that are necessary for cellular trafficking of dsRNA and highly lethal RNAi targets

Briefing: “Gender Perspective in Conservation Projects”

The development perspective of local groups and organizations in different countries is strongly related to the use, management, and conservation of natural resources. The possibility of generating new strategies that permit the development of communities makes it necessary to recognize, from the gender perspective, local activities that enable the use, management, and conservation of these resource

Aspectos neurobiológicos, psicológicos y sociales del sufrimiento

El dolor y su alivio no han sido excluidos de la visión cartesiana que considera mente y cuerpo como cuestiones separadas sin relación aparente. Este enfoque ha primado más de lo necesario en la práctica clínica, a pesar de la actual evidencia científica que muestra un panorama diferente: la definición de dolor total es más válida que nunca, dado que une las definiciones actuales de dolor y de neuromatriz nociceptiva, y hace posible el intercambio de los conceptos de dolor y sufrimiento, en la medida en que ambos estados son considerados respuestas a una amenaza. En el presente artículo se revisa la evidencia desde la Neurobiología, la Psicología y los aspectos socio-culturales frente a las discusiones actuales acerca del dolor y el sufrimiento, tanto en pacientes oncológicos como no oncológicos. En definitiva será necesario mantener un enfoque amplio de abordaje incluyendo los aspectos biológicos, psicológicos, sociales, culturales y espirituales.Pain and its treatment have not been excluded from the cartesian dualistic conceptualisation considering mind and body as separate entities without apparent relation in between. This model has been used more than needed by clinicians, even though empirical evidence supports a whole new vision: the “total pain” definition entails more value today than ever, given than joins together the concepts of pain and nociceptive neuromatrix and makes possible the interchange of pain and suffering, as they both are considered responses to threat. The present article reviews the current evidence derived from Neurobiology, Psychology and socio-cultural studies regarding controversies on pain and suffering, both in cancer and non cancer patients. It concludes on the need to maintain a broad focus in pain management including biological, psychological, social, cultural and spiritual aspects

La eficacia personal de los instrumentos colectivos. Analisis de la constitucionalidad de la extension de beneficios

52 h. ; 28 cm.El objetivo principal de esta monografía es presentar al lector un panorama general sobre la eficacia personal de los instrumentos colectivos en Chile, y el modelo aplicable en nuestra legislación, además del análisis de la figura de la extensión de beneficios contenida en el artículo 346 del Código del Trabajo, como excepción a la regla general de eficacia personal aplicada en Chile. Para cumplir con este objetivo, se describirán tanto los tipos de instrumentos colectivos en Chile, así como los modelos de eficacia personal aplicados por nuestra legislación y en el derecho comparado, para luego realizar un análisis particular de la norma contenida en el artículo 346 del cuerpo legal anteriormente señalado

Collective titling and the process of institution building : common property regime in the Colombian Pacific

This research is aimed at an empirical examination of the institutional developments that have occurred in Afro-Colombian communities after the change of a property right regime. We surveyed community leaders to understand whether these communities have succeeded in designing and implementing rules to manage their collective land and its resources. This paper illustrates how collective titling has changed the local environmental governance by creating local rules and legal tools to guard against the encroachment by intruders. Our study presents an example of a complex property system where both formal and informal rights coexist

Beyond proximate and distal causes of land-use change : Linking individual motivations to deforestation in rural contexts

Unidad de excelencia María de Maeztu MdM-2015-0552Most of the literature on the causes of tropical deforestation has focused on the proximate and distal causes. However, research exploring the psychological drivers of deforestation, i.e., motivations, is still scant despite being crucial to understand the processes of land-use change and individual decision making within social-ecological systems. We studied the combined effect of structural and individual causes of deforestation, with particular emphasis on motivations, for a sample of rural households in Colombia's foremost tropical deforestation frontier. We implemented a new instrument based on self-determination theory to measure five different types of motivations to protect the forests: intrinsic, guilt/regret, social, extrinsic motivations, and amotivation (lack of motivation). Our findings show that, controlling for the structural and household drivers widely identified in the deforestation literature, intrinsic motivations positively correlate with less self-reported deforestation. Also, amotivated people and those with extrinsic motives, such as expected payments for conservation, are more likely to deforest. Our results show that motivations can explain variation in land-use decisions and thus should be considered when designing, implementing, and evaluating conservation policies aiming to halt deforestation