Soils and Vegetation Condition of Natural Forests and Secondary Fallow Forests within Batang Ai National Park Boundary, Sarawak, Malaysia

Under the current upland farming systems by the Iban of Sarawak, Malaysia, lands with better accessibility are being intensively utilized for various forms of agricultural activities. This has resulted in large patches of fallow lands with difficult accessibility which were later abandoned and remained as old secondary forests. In this study, an investigation on soil and vegetation under various types of forest cover was conducted at the Batang Ai National Park boundary to determine whether the old abandoned secondary forests in the area can recover and reach an ecological status similar to that of natural forests. Investigation was conducted at 3 types of sites: young fallow lands after upland rice cultivation with fallow period of less than 5 years (YF), old secondary forests with fallow period of about 50 years (OF), and natural forests (NF). In these sites, soil surveys were conducted and soil samples were collected at tepths of 0-10 cm, 30-40 cm and 60-70 cm for soil physicochemical determination. Vegetation surveys involving plant identification, plant frequency of occurrence and measurements of stem diameter (DBH) were also conducted in these sites. The results showed that irrespective of forest types, all studied soils showed a strongly acidic nature with low nutrient contents. In addition, no clear differences were observed in the soil physicochemical properties among the forest types although soil pH in YF sites were significantly lower than those of OF and NF sites probably due to the pand use history of these sites. On the other hand, the results showed that vegetation under NF sites possessed better tree growth, in diameter, than OF and YF sites. Based on these findings, it is suggested that due to the poor soil fertility status in the area, 50 years of fallow period would be insufficient for the land to recover its vegetation condition aquivalent to that of natural forests. Taking into account ouch a situation, forests in the study area should be left undisturbed as their removal ould greatly accelerate severe land degradation, and rehabilitation of auch a land would be a difficult task

Risk preference and optimal crop combinations in upland java, Indonesia: an application of stochastic programming

A stochastic programming model was used to evaluate the economic performance of a soybean-based farming system in upland Java. The model incorporates farmers' risk preferences, revenue fluctuations and resources restrictions. The results show that (1) changes in risk preference do affect the optimal crop combination, and (2) the typical cropping pattern is rational under the present level of the farmers' risk preference estimated in the study site

Economic Evaluation for the Marine Protected Area of San Miguel Island in Bicol Region, Philippines Comparison between WTW (Willingness to Work) and WTP (Willingness to Pay)

In order to conserve the coral reefs, seagrass beds and other marine habitats, neighboring countries along the Kuroshio Current are now carrying out community-based marine resource management, including fishery regulations, illegal fishing bans, and establishment of marine protected areas (MPAs). In this study, we used stated preference techniques to investigate the rural villagers' value of resource and environmental conservation taking the case of the San Miguel Island MPA in Bicol Region, Southern Luzon, Philippines. From the 1,035 households we randomly sampled for our baseline survey, we interviews for this 329 samples from Sagurong village where the MPA is situated, and from the neighboring village Rawis. We applied a non-parametric method to estimate the mean WTW and WTP values. The monetary equivalent of the average WTW is 15 times higher than the average WTP. A possible explanation is that the labor market in rural villages in developing countries is incomplete so villagers have a stronger preference for money than for time and may have expressed their WTP too little as compared with the monetary value of the WTW. The aggregate WTW value for the two villages is equivalent to having about 100 people watch and patrol the MPA per day. On the other hand, the aggregate WTP in Sagurong is equivalent to the monthly incentive of around 43 people if we use the current monthly incentive of the patrol group. Finally, we estimated volunteer work and payment behavior equations, and examined the sign directions of the factors specified to influence WTW and WTP. In both equations, the sign of the variables such as days proposed and amount of payment and income were consistent with economic theory, suggesting the internal validity of our results

Income and Employment Generation from Agricultural Processing and Marketing: The Case of Soybean in Indonesia

This study aims to illustrate the potential of agricultural processing and marketing activities in generating local income and employment in developing economies, using soybean in Indonesia as a case. The results show that those activities add to rural income and employment at a scale equal or even larger than those generated from farm production itself, indicating their role in alleviating poverty and inequality in the rural sector