Carbon Sequestration in Agricultural Soils

Although it is common to alternate between till and no-till practices, past research has considered farmers’ tillage options to be limited to the dichotomous choice of whether or not to switch to a long-term no-till regime. This paper expands farmers’ options and models their choices of tillage frequency. Less frequent tilling sequesters more carbon but permits a greater accumulation of weeds, whereas more frequent tilling eliminates weeds but releases carbon (tillage emissions). The timing of tillage balances its marginal benefits and costs. Higher payments from industry or government for atmospheric greenhouse gas reductions will increase marginal cost and reduce tillage frequency. Other key parameters, such as higher rates of tillage emissions or reduced weed impact, also influence tillage frequency. However, for the discount rate and the natural decay rate of carbon, the net change depends on the magnitude of other parameters.Land Economics/Use, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy, carbon contract, no-till, offsets, soil carbon sequestration, tillage frequency,

Instruments for Forest Habitat Connectivity

In places such as the boreal forest of Northern Alberta, where demands for energy and forest products are growing, it is necessary to balance economic development activities on the land with the environmental services the land can provide. Wildlife habitat for species such as woodland caribou is one such service. If adequate habitat for species such as woodland caribou is to be maintained, both the quantity of habitat and its configuration matter. Woodland caribou are in decline partly due to habitat fragmentation. For that species, connections between patches of mature forest are crucial to sustaining viable populations. To ensure continued provision of woodland caribou habitat, it is necessary to develop and use some set of regulatory instruments that will limit overall disturbance and preserve a degree of connectivity among mature parcels. The purpose of this report is to present some economic experimental results on a regulatory mechanism that is a combination of tradable disturbance permits and a procurement auction for connectivity, and compare it with the alternative of a stricter cap on disturbance permits. The usual argument is that the latter approach is less costly. We show that, although the combination mechanism can create significant transaction costs, it is not necessarily the more costly approach

Bioprospecting and Biodiversity Contracts

An economic model for a biodiversity prospecting contract, between a developing country and a pharmaceutical company is developed. The theoretical model is compared with observed contracts and those being developed by biodiversity expects. It is found that these contracts roughly reflect the character of the economic model, although due to asymmetric information and risk aversion, the contracts are often second-best

Instruments for Forest Habitat Connectivity

In places such as the boreal forest of Northern Alberta, where demands for energy and forest products are growing, it is necessary to balance economic development activities on the land with the environmental services the land can provide. Wildlife habitat for species such as woodland caribou is one such service. If adequate habitat for species such as woodland caribou is to be maintained, both the quantity of habitat and its configuration matter. Woodland caribou are in decline partly due to habitat fragmentation. For that species, connections between patches of mature forest are crucial to sustaining viable populations. To ensure continued provision of woodland caribou habitat, it is necessary to develop and use some set of regulatory instruments that will limit overall disturbance and preserve a degree of connectivity among mature parcels. The purpose of this report is to present some economic experimental results on a regulatory mechanism that is a combination of tradable disturbance permits and a procurement auction for connectivity, and compare it with the alternative of a stricter cap on disturbance permits. The usual argument is that the latter approach is less costly. We show that, although the combination mechanism can create significant transaction costs, it is not necessarily the more costly approach

Chemical composition and antimicrobial activity of the essential oil of the leaves of Ocotea caudata (Nees) Mez (Lauraceae) from Colombia

Ocotea is a genus that belong to Lauraceae family, which has about 56 species, distributed in Asia, Africa and mainly in America. The aim of this work was to identify the chemical composition of the essential oil from leaves of Ocotea caudata collected from Colombia. The chemical composition of the oil was determined by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS), being described for the first time. Thirty nine compounds (corresponding to 92.7% of the oil) were identified. The major constituents were germacrene D (55.8%), bicyclogermacrene (8.0%), β-caryophyllene (4.6%) and β-bourbonene (2.3%). Also the antibacterial activity of the oil was evaluated against two Gram (+) and two Gram (-) bacteria showing that the oil exhibited moderated activity against Gram (+) bacteria

An economic model of aboriginal fire-stick farming

Australian Aborigines faced a resource management problem, which they addressed though burning regimes, referred to as fire-stick farming. While dynamic economic analysis is clearly applicable, to date there have been no attempts to use it to model burning regimes. This paper develops a delayed-response optimal-control model to describe Aboriginal fire-stick farming. The model explains a collective welfare maximizing burning regime that successfully controlled wildfires, protected the resources essential to survival, and, incidentally, produced a biodiverse landscape and limited greenhouse gas emissions. When the parameters of the model are changed to reflect the current institutional realities of reduced access to the land, and less direct dependence on it, traditional Aboriginal burning is prevented or delayed, fuel loads build up and uncontrolled fires are more likely to occur, damaging previously protected species. If Aboriginal burning is to be used to control fires successfully in a modern resource management context, it is necessary to adjust for changes in the institutional incentive structure. Payments for carbon offsets are an example of replacing lost incentives with new ones

Carbon Sequestration in Agricultural Soils

Although it is common to alternate between till and no-till practices, past research has considered farmers’ tillage options to be limited to the dichotomous choice of whether or not to switch to a long-term no-till regime. This paper expands farmers’ options and models their choices of tillage frequency. Less frequent tilling sequesters more carbon but permits a greater accumulation of weeds, whereas more frequent tilling eliminates weeds but releases carbon (tillage emissions). The timing of tillage balances its marginal benefits and costs. Higher payments from industry or government for atmospheric greenhouse gas reductions will increase marginal cost and reduce tillage frequency. Other key parameters, such as higher rates of tillage emissions or reduced weed impact, also influence tillage frequency. However, for the discount rate and the natural decay rate of carbon, the net change depends on the magnitude of other parameters

Instruments for Forest Habitat Connectivity

In places such as the boreal forest of Northern Alberta, where demands for energy and forest products are growing, it is necessary to balance economic development activities on the land with the environmental services the land can provide. Wildlife habitat for species such as woodland caribou is one such service. If adequate habitat for species such as woodland caribou is to be maintained, both the quantity of habitat and its configuration matter. Woodland caribou are in decline partly due to habitat fragmentation. For that species, connections between patches of mature forest are crucial to sustaining viable populations. To ensure continued provision of woodland caribou habitat, it is necessary to develop and use some set of regulatory instruments that will limit overall disturbance and preserve a degree of connectivity among mature parcels. The purpose of this report is to present some economic experimental results on a regulatory mechanism that is a combination of tradable disturbance permits and a procurement auction for connectivity, and compare it with the alternative of a stricter cap on disturbance permits. The usual argument is that the latter approach is less costly. We show that, although the combination mechanism can create significant transaction costs, it is not necessarily the more costly approach