Do Voluntary Commons Associations Deliver Sustainable Grazing Outcomes? An Empirical Study of England

In 1965, the Commons Registration Act came into force in England and Wales. The Act led to the removal of the capacity of commoners to regulate the intensity of grazing via traditional legal means. From this policy shock a number of voluntary commons associations were formed. These voluntary groups relied on their members to agree upon how the commons should be managed. Using two-stage least squares regression analysis we find that commons governed by these associations are much more likely to produce sustainable grazing outcomes. These results are robust to the existence of a variety of controls, including overlapping institutional frameworks. Importantly, they highlight the ability of voluntary environmental organisations to deliver sustainable environmental outcomes

The economic contribution of non-timber forest products to South Korean mountain villager livelihoods

Since 1995, the Korea Forest Service has supported the commercialisation of non-timber forest products (NTFPs) as a means to improve the livelihoods of mountain villagers. There is, however, very little data at the household-level concerning the economic contribution of NTFPs to mountain villager livelihoods. This study uses village-level and household-level data collected from nine mountain villages in Gangwon and North Gyeongsang provinces to (1) reveal the economic contribution of NTFPs to mountain villager livelihoods and (2) analyse the reasons for differing degrees of household reliance on NTFPs. Data show that the mean contribution of NTFPs to households is 4.85% of household revenue. However, clustering households by share of NTFP revenue shows that the mean contribution of NTFPs for the tertile of households with the highest share of NTFP revenue is 21.53% of household revenue. Data suggest a positive correlation between household revenue and NTFP revenue. Poorer households are the most reliant on NTFPs and tend to generate the majority of their NTFP revenue from cultivated NTFPs. A discrete choice model informed by the sustainable livelihoods framework and estimated using a multinomial logit regression suggests that contextual factors and institutions have a stronger effect on a household's degree of reliance on NTFPs than assets. Findings suggest that policies supporting NTFP commercialisation should actively target poorer households and take into account each village's contextual factors and institutions. © 2013 Taylor and Francis Group, LLC.Link_to_subscribed_fulltex

Rural electrification and development in South Korea

© 2014 Elsevier Inc. In fifteen years, South Korea went from providing only 12% of rural households with electricity to providing 98% of rural households with electricity for lighting and productive uses. This paper provides an analysis of rural electrification and development in South Korea from 1965 to 1979 and finds that rural electrification contributed to a significant increase in rural household income levels and improved the quality of life in villages substantially. At the same time, rural electrification did not benefit the poorest quartile of rural households, increased economic and social inequality, led to a significant increase in household debt, and accelerated migration to urban areas. Central to the South Korean electrification experience was a top-down and a bottom-up approach that balanced local control and participation with central government control. This approach was crucial in overcoming many of the issues that continue to be found today in both grid-based and off-grid approaches to electrification.Link_to_subscribed_fulltex

Community-based management of Tricholoma matsutake (S. Ito and S. Imai) Singer: A case study of South Korean mountain villages

Tricholoma matsutake (S. Ito and S. Imai) Singer commercialisation provides significant economic benefits to rural communities, mainly in China, Japan and South Korea. Recently, a growing body of research has questioned the impact of commercialization on harvesting behavior and the supply of matsutake. One key question arising from this literature is whether or not community-based management (CBM) has a positive impact on matsutake supply. I surveyed nine mountain villages in Gangwon and North Gyeongsang provinces in South Korea. Four villages were found to have begun CBM of matsutake in the mid-1980s to early-1990s. All four villages continued to engage in CBM as of September 2013. Data suggest that CBM has had a positive impact on matsutake supply, although the exact magnitude and explanatory power of CBM is uncertain. Analysis of the nine villages suggests that CBM may not be a feasible strategy in all villages due to existing property rights regimes and that an external catalyst may be required in villages where harvesters do not perceive any economic benefit to CBM. © content is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.Link_to_subscribed_fulltex