Suchergebnisse

The natural endowment of the Democrat Republic of Congo, in the form of land, minerals, and forests, is unparalleled. The right mix of policies has the potential to unleash incentives that could transform the economy. However, transport infrastructure in the DRC is amongst the sparsest and most dilapidated in the world, and this lack of infrastructure is likely a significant constraint to growth. This work considerably advances the information that is available to infrastructure planners, and provides methodologies that could be used to make more informed decisions to identify trade-offs between economic growth and environmental endangerment. The approach draws from the state-of the art across a variety of disciplines – spatial (GIS) analysis, spatial econometrics, economic theory, and conservation biology – to create an approach that can guide the location and level of investments by estimating benefits and environmental costs at a highly disaggregated spatial scale. The analysis proceeds in four related phases that combine economic assessments with geospatial analysis. First transport costs are estimated using GIS techniques. A variety of econometric procedures are then used to determine the economic effects of changing transport costs. Second, highly disaggregated spatial data is used to estimate the effects of roads on forest cover, and the resulting biodiversity that would be at risk from local deforestation. Next the two spatial estimates are combined to simulate the effects of different policies. Finally this provides a series of maps that identify regions where there are large trade-offs between economic and ecological goals. Overall the results suggests that the siting of infrastructure needs to consider impacts at the very outset of the planning process. This report presents both new data and new techniques that can be used to identify areas of opportunity, risk, and potential for REDD+ financing. Such upstream planning has been rendered both feasible and cost effective with the availability of geo-referenced information on forest cover and economic data. This report provides the data and easily comprehensible maps for such an exercise.

The purpose of this study is to demonstrate several techniques which can be used to evaluate pathways to sustainable growth in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) via infrastructure improvement. Decades of conflict and neglect have left the DRC's transport infrastructure amongst the sparsest and most dilapidated in the world.

Intro -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Executive Summary -- Chapter One: Unseen Threats and Unknown Costs -- Don't Count on Growing Out of It -- Ignorance Is Not Bliss -- How Much Does It Cost? -- Sunlight Is the Best Disinfectant -- Structure of the Report -- Notes -- References -- Chapter Two: Healthy, Wealthy, and Wise -- From Toilet to Tap: Water Quality and SDG 6.2 -- Nitrogen Pollution: Bread from Air or Toxic Plumes? -- Salt Pollution: A Pinch Too Much? -- Known Unknowns and a Shroud of Uncertainty -- Annex 2A: The Many Uncertainties of Arsenic Contamination in Drinking Water -- Notes -- References -- Chapter Three: Salt of the Earth -- Quantifying the Sensitivity of Agricultural Production to Salinity -- Implications for Food Security -- Toxic Water, Toxic Crops -- The Way Forward -- Notes -- References -- Chapter Four: Water Quality and Its Determinants -- Gasping for Air -- Global Assessment of the Drivers of Environmental Water Quality -- The Way Forward -- Notes -- References -- Chapter Five: Emerging Pollutants, Everlasting Concerns - Microplastics and Pharmaceuticals -- Profusion of Plastics -- Pharmafication of Water Supplies: A Prescription for Disaster -- Solutions Remain Elusive -- Notes -- References -- Chapter Six: Policies to Tame a Wicked Problem -- A Wicked Problem -- The Toolbox: Three Main Approaches -- Evidence of Policy Effectiveness -- The Prerequisites for Success -- The Way Forward -- Conclusions -- Notes -- References -- Boxes -- Box 1.1: Accounting for Streamflow -- Box 1.2: Estimating the Impact of Upstream Biological Oxygen Demand on Downstream Gross Domestic Product -- Box 1.3: Health Impacts of Heavy Metals in Drinking Water -- Box 2.1: Adverse Effects of Water Pollution: Irreversible Scars through Life -- Box 2.2: Nitrogen in Waters Runs Deep -- Box 2.3: Data for India.

This paper addresses an old and recurring theme in development economics: the slow adoption of new technologies by farmers in many developing countries. The paper explores a somewhat novel link to explain this puzzle -- the link between market access and the incentives to adopt a new technology when there are non-convexities. The paper develops a theoretical model to guide the empirical analysis, which uses spatially disaggregated agricultural production data from Spatial Production Allocation Model and Living Standards Measurement Study survey data for Nigeria. The model is used to estimate the impact of transport costs on crop production, the adoption of modern technologies, and the differential impact on returns of modern versus traditional farmers. To overcome the limitation of data availability on travel costs for much of Africa, road survey data are combined with geographic information road network data to generate the most thorough and accurate road network available. With these data and the Highway Development Management Model, minimum travel costs from each location to the market are computed. Consistent with the theory, analysis finds that transportation costs are critical in determining technology choices, with a greater responsiveness among farmers who adopt modern technologies, and at times a perverse (negative) response to lower transport costs among those who employ more traditional techniques. In sum, the paper presents compelling evidence that the constraints to the adoption of modern technologies and access to markets are interconnected, and so should be targeted jointly.