Suchergebnisse

"Within the context of transition and pasture reform in Central Asian and Caucasian countries our study focuses on the pasture reform in Azerbaijan. The pasture reform in Azerbaijan has received little attention in scientific literature although it displays a rapid emergence of individualised rights for pasture plots, which is an exceptional development in this region. Using empirical case study evidence we analyse the implementation and outcomes of the
reform process for pastoral land in the context of the macroeconomic development in Azerbaijan and in comparison to pasture reforms in other post-socialist transition countries. We apply the evolutionary theory of property rights to explain and analyse the exceptionally rapid emergence of individual property rights for pasture in Azerbaijan." (author's abstract)

Die weiterhin rasanten Entwicklungen in der Umweltpolitik und zunehmende Relevanz des Klimawandels in Politik und Praxis führten zu umfangreichen Anpassungen in diesem beliebten Lehrbuch. Für diese Neuauflage wurden vor allem die Kapitel über die Umweltinstrumente (Auflagen, Steuern, Zertifikate) sowie die internationalen Umweltaspekte und Ressourcenökonomie grundlegend aktualisiert. Darüber hinaus wurden auch die theoretischen Kapitel einer umfassenden strukturellen und inhaltlichen Überarbeitung unterzogen.

"The relationship between the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and the WTO Agreement on Trade-related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) is characterized by a persistent potential for disruptions in implementation, such as 'biopiracy' conflicts, because of the agreements' incompatible provisions on property rights over genetic resources. The lack of consolidation is often explained by attempts to strategically exploit interplay between the two institutions. Countries of the North and the South are said to push for provisions under their preferred agreement in order to circumvent obligations under the other. We develop an alternative explanation based on a conception of international negotiators acting as agents of particular interest groups rather than as representatives of the state as a whole. Using a Two-level Games model of independent negotiations for agreements on functionally interdependent issues, we analyze the incentives for negotiators to delay or prevent consolidation for strategic reasons. The analysis shows that, under certain conditions, persistent disruption may be due to a strategic dilemma that prevents negotiators from taking initiatives for consolidation." (author's abstract)

"In the 1990's, urban demand for housing land around city-agglomerations increased rapidly. Additionally, the decreasing profitability of agricultural production caused farmers, who are able to freely decide on land turnover, to be interested in land sale for non-agricultural purposes. At the same time, Polish counties received the status of self-governments, which then imposed their will upon local economic development. In this way, counties became responsible for land management as well, and started supporting the process of land conversion, perceived as a factor of the above development. Such implications have created the following situation: decentralization and the extension of private control over land has led to the loss of rural landscapes in Poland, because farmers, county self-governments and rural society in general gain from the conversion of agricultural to housing land. Therefore, field research has been exercised at the county level. For the investigation, two counties, located in regions differentiated by economic growth, were selected. The data were collected through the collection of archival records, documentation review and semi-structured interviews." (author's abstract)

"At the beginning of the transition, the economic decline of agriculture partially relaxed the pressure on the wildlife. However, the policy continued to concentrate on regulating the intensity of production rather then creating incentives to produce environmental qualities. The structural adjustment process in agriculture caused the low return (poor) land to be released from production, especially, in protection zones with severe environmental restrictions. Land abandonment resulted in a rapid degradation of wildlife and landscape in places where these natural values were legally protected. The article examines the organization of the provision of landscape and wildlife in the White Carpathians protected landscape area after 1997, when the new agricultural legislation and policy recognized compensations for restrictions and has gradually introduced incentives to cultivate potentially abandoned land. It was found that there was more than one governance structure, and that these were not necessary supporting each other. The investigation concluded that solving the conservation problem is not separable from the rural development problem of the region, and therefore, that there is a need for participation of local community in terms of contributing producers but mainly consumers of high natural values." (author's abstract)

"It is often argued that environmental scarcity was a trigger and source of violent conflict, in particular in African countries. At the root of such arguments is a simple environmental determinism, which understands scarcity as undermining co-operative relationships between competing resource users. Robert Kaplan popularised this thesis in his argument about 'The Coming Anarchy', where he interpreted recent civil wars in Africa as an advent of a fundamental environmental crisis. In our view, this conception disregards the crucial role of local-level institutions in governing competing resource claims. In this paper, we present a case study from the violence-prone Somali Region, Ethiopia. We analyse how agro-pastoralist communities develop sharing arrangements on pasture resources with intruding pastoralist communities in drought years, even though this places additional pressure on their grazing resource. A household survey investigates the determinants for different households in the agro-pastoralist community, asset-poor and wealthy ones, to enter into different types of sharing arrangements. Our findings suggest that resource sharing offers asset-poor households opportunities to stabilise and enhance their asset-base in drought years, providing incentives for co-operative rather than conflictive relations with intruding pastoralists. We conclude that it may depend on potential incentives arising from institutional arrangements, whether competing resource claims in periods of environmental scarcity are resolved peacefully or violently." (author's abstract)

This article draws mostly (but not entirely) on new institutional economics to consider the likely behaviours of non-government conservation organizations and the implications of these behaviours for biodiversity conservation. It considers how institutional factors may result in behaviour of conservation NGOs diverging from their objectives, including their support for biodiversity conservation; examines aspects of rent capture and conservation alliances; specifies social factors that may restrict the diversity of species supported by NGOs for conservation; considers bounded rationality in relation to the operation of conservation NGOs; and using game theory, shows how competition between NGOs for funding can result in economic inefficiencies and narrow the diversity of species supported for conservation. It also considers generally how the social role of conservation NGOs might be assessed.

"This article raises the question of the constitution of rural society in post socialist countries, and explores the possibilities of participatory approaches in rural development and resource management in face of given social conditions in the local context. The unifying scientific 'idea' is currently associated with the concept of social capital. The ability to form social capital can be seen as a central prerequisite both for economic development and the protection of resources (that is, for sustainable development). An important element of this concept is the networking of the actors within the region and with external actors. As a result of historical development the network relations in the rural areas of East Germany have a specific structure. What is especially remarkable is the continuing dominant role of the representatives of the big agricultural enterprises in the important local network structures despite the obvious decline in the economic importance of these enterprises. The structures uncovered in the case studies can certainly be taken to reflect the reality of many local contexts. It is argued that, as far as the creation of the beginnings of participation in rural development and resource management are concerned, that if the peculiarities are ignored there is a danger that the existing network structures wills simply be strengthened through participatory development. Therefore, the important contributions of participatory approaches to the solution of concrete problems must be supplemented by the prospect of its social embedding in the context of rural development. At the same time it also became clear in the project that the success of developed attempts at problem solution can only be ensured if the higher political levels are prepared to devolve downwards." (author's abstract)

"Functional overlap in the jurisdiction and competencies of international agreements can lead to incomplete and contradicting regulation, which erodes benefits form international cooperation. The framework developed in this paper seeks to further the theoretical analysis of the domestic and international determinants for the origin and the persistence of such incoherence. Using international regulation on the conservation of plant genetic resources as an illustrative example I address two theoretical challenges - the problem of cross-level inference in theories of international cooperation and the differentiation of processes of substantial bargaining from those of negotiated institutional change. Substantial bargains can be formally analyzed as two-level or nested games with variable payoffs, whereas rigorous analysis of institutional change is limited by too many variations in game structure. I use the framework to derive a typology of games for guiding the systematic analysis of the international, domestic and cross-level interactions that may offer explanations for the phenomenon of incoherence due to functional overlap." (author's abstract)

"Like in many low moor regions in East Germany, long-standing intensive arable farming - enabled by complex melioration - has caused soil deterioration and high water runoff in the 'Schraden'. More than ten years of economic and political transformation has worsened the situation and even added new problems. The visible consequences are drought periods in the summer, waterlogged plots in the spring and worn-down water management facilities that operate in an uncoordinated or even unauthorized way. It is here argued that the reallocation of property rights on melioration systems, together with ineffective co-ordination mechanisms, have impeded appropriate land use. Transformation related problems like the discontinuity of land property rights, the unclear legal situation regarding melioration plants built in socialist times, and highly-fragmented land ownership have not been effectively dealt with by the newly-established Water Association and Water Administration, respectively. Profoundly heterogeneous water-user interests and the complexity of ecosystem relations have contributed to the persistence of the problems. This analysis is based on regional planning material as well as on qualitative, semi-structured interviews with local stakeholders, representatives of the administration and politicians at all levels of government." (author's abstract)

"This paper examines interethnic conflict on grazing land previously accessed as common
property. The study was undertaken in Mieso District of eastern Ethiopia where two ethnic
groups experience different production systems – pastoral and agropastoral. Game theoretic
approach and analytic narratives have been used as analytical tools. Results show that the
historical change in land use by one of the ethnic groups, resource scarcity, violation of
customary norms, power asymmetry and livestock raids are some of the factors that have
contributed to the recurrence of the conflict. The role of raids in triggering conflict and
restricting access to grazing area becomes particularly important. Socio-economic and
political factors are responsible for power asymmetry and increasing scale of raids. The joint
effect of an increase in trend of violence and a decline in capacity of customary authority in
conflict management advances state role in establishing enforceable property rights
institutions. This would be successful only if policies and intervention efforts are redirected
at: 1) suppressing incentives for violence, 2) establishing new institutional structures, in
consultation with clan elders of both parties and 3) building internal capacity to monitor
conflict-escalating events." (author's abstract)

"This paper examines the effect of labor organization on integrated pest management (IPM),
using cross section data collected from a participatory farming system survey of 157 durian
growers in Chanthaburi, Thailand, in 2005. In contrast to many studies of IPM adoption, this
work uses the form of farm labor organization as an endogenous factor for identifying the rate
of IPM adoption among durian growers. The instrumental variables method was employed to
econometrically relate a set of alleged variables as instruments of labor organization to the
rate of IPM adoption. Results show that, among others, farms employing hired labor have a
significantly lower adoption rate of IPM." (author's abstract)

"Croatian farming systems have become more intensive in recent years. There is some evidence of rising NO3-N-levels in ground water. The aim of the paper is to find possible ways of preventing NO3-levels to rise in Croatian farming systems and their implications from the viewpoint of the manager. More specifically the purpose is to 1. Determine whether Croatian farmers exceed profit maximising levels of N-fertiliser use in maize cultivation and possible influence on NO3-N-levels. 2. To estimate the marginal abatement cost (MAC) at farm level of reducing NO3-N leaching through following economic instruments: a tax on optimal N-doses, a product tax and a N-fertiliser quota, all instruments corresponding to the same abatement level. Based on N-response experiments from field trials for maize N-response curves were derived. A sample of 20 family farms was used to calculate intensity, nutrient content in manure and the prices paid for N and obtained for maize. Profit maximising doses from the field trials were compared with nutrient use on farms. An effluent production function was estimated based on experiments with NO3-N contents in lysimeter water for the same treatments as in the N-response experiments. The results indicate that farmers use higher than optimal levels of N-fertilisers, if the technology and conditions of experimental fields could be applied on the farms and if manure is accounted for. Neglecting the N-content of the manure shows close to optimal nutrient levels. At profit maximising levels the NO3-N level is approximately 14 mg NO3-N/l (62 mg NO3/l) or clearly higher that the critical level stipulated by the nitrate directive (11.3 mg NO3- N/l or 50 mg NO3/l). If the N-content in the manure is taken into account the estimated NO3-N/l level in groundwater is about twice higher than the critical level stipulated by the Nitrate Directive. Through any of the three instruments a 76% NO3-leaching reduction could be obtained. However, it was concluded the quota has the lowest MAC (4.08 Euro/mg NO3-N/l or 0.92 Euro/mg NO3/l), followed by the N-fertiliser tax (16.16 Euro/mg NO3-N/l or 3.65 Euro/mg NO3/l) and the product tax in third place (41.25 Euro/mg NO3-N/l or 9.32 Euro/mg NO3/l). Management practices that may increase yield level and correspondingly NO3-leaching in the short and long run were identified. One way to achieve a quick improvement would be a system of cross compliance stipulating a code of good agricultural practices." (author's abstract)