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The European Union (EU) Water Framework Directive entails extensive environmental improvement goals for lakes and rivers throughout the Union. Realising these goals in countries such as Sweden, which has tens of thousands of water bodies, many of which are used for commercial activities such as hydropower, presents a considerable challenge for policy. In this paper, habitat banking – where environmental improvements in one location are used to offset measures that reduce environmental quality elsewhere – is discussed as a potential way forward. The conclusion is that although this would likely be limited to banking within individual river systems rather than across the entire country, it would nonetheless be an interesting option to consider. Although habitat banking is more complex in aquatic than in terrestrial systems, because of the migratory nature of many of the keystone species improvements in the downstream parts of a river system can potentially generate enough environmental benefits to offset the impacts of measures further upstream. ; Godkänd; 2013; 20160304 (jessta) ; Vatten som ekonomisk resurs, Framtagande av relevant och användaranpassad samhällsekonomisk modell för miljöåtgärder för kraft och liv i vatten (FRAM-KLIV)

The European eel stock is endangered. The European Union has, therefore, introduced strict policies to try to reverse the eel's decline and reduce the threats to its survival. However, the European Union's eel management policy has been implemented on a 'one-size-fits-all' basis, where all the affected countries have been given nearly identical targets, regardless of either the individual country's costs for reducing damages to eels or its importance for the overall eel stock. In this paper, we draw on data from the different national eel management plans as well as from independent studies to compare the cost of measures to reduce eel mortality imposed in different countries. We compare the overall costs to those that could have been incurred with a union-wide, rather than fragmented, abatement program, and find that such a comprehensive management program would have been substantially cheaper and would have affected poorer member countries less.

The European eel stock is endangered. The European Union has, therefore, introduced strict policies to try to reverse the eel's decline and reduce the threats to its survival. However, the European Union's eel management policy has been implemented on a 'one-size-fits-all' basis, where all the affected countries have been given nearly identical targets, regardless of either the individual country's costs for reducing damages to eels or its importance for the overall eel stock. In this paper, we draw on data from the different national eel management plans as well as from independent studies to compare the cost of measures to reduce eel mortality imposed in different countries. We compare the overall costs to those that could have been incurred with a union-wide, rather than fragmented, abatement program, and find that such a comprehensive management program would have been substantially cheaper and would have affected poorer member countries less. ; Vatten som en ekonomisk resurs ; FRAM-KLIV

AbstractIn Rwanda, rural water supply is not uniformly distributed. Rural areas are characterized by differences in the distance to the nearest water point and in water quality for domestic water, by watering frequency and water availability for irrigation water, and by the price for both. A household's perception of further improvements in water supply will, therefore, depend heavily on the situation it currently faces. The authors used a choice experiment to model how the individual status quo (SQ) affects preferences. Accounting for individual SQ information improves model significance relative to simply using the generic SQ parameter in the model, and the willingness to pay increases. Not using this information leads to a downward bias – and, in some cases, statistical insignificance – in estimates of households' valuation of health improvements linked to improved domestic water availability, as well as of increased watering frequency linked to the improved availability of irrigation water.

African wildlife conservation has been transformed, shifting from a traditional, state-managed government approach to a broader governance approach with a wide range of actors designing and implementing wildlife policy. The most widely popularized approach has been that of community-managed nature conservancies. The knowledge of how institutions function in relation to humans and their use of the environment is critical to the design and implementation of effective conservation. This paper seeks to review the institutional and governance challenges faced in wildlife conservation in southern and eastern Africa. We discuss two different sets of challenges related to the shift in conservation practices: the practical implementation of wildlife governance, and the capacity of current governance structures to capture and distribute economic benefits from wildlife. To some extent, the issues raised by the new policies must be resolved through theoretical and empirical research addressed at wildlife conservation per se. However, many of these issues apply more broadly to a wide range of policy arenas and countries where similar policy shifts have taken place.

In this article, the likely effects of an environmental fiscal reform in Namibia are examined using a Computable General Equilibrium model. We find that a triple dividend—improving the environment, increasing employment, and reducing poverty at the same time—remains elusive. Subsidizing unskilled labor would give the most favorable result in terms of real GDP and employment, but the worst in terms of environmental effects. Transfers targeted toward poorer households have the best distributional and environmental impacts, but do not lead to increases in GDP or employment. Thus there is scope to create additional benefits for society through the various environmental fiscal reform options studied, but there is no option that clearly outperforms the others in all respects.

Groundwater can augment total agricultural water supply in areas where rainfall is persistently low, but can also function as a buffer source of water in areas where rainfall is high but variable. In arid countries it is important to examine which of these functions dominates, as this has implications for water policy. As aquifers become depleted, the buffer function can be replaced by other local water supply schemes. However, if groundwater is mainly used to augment total water supply, the only replacement is long-distance supply schemes that may not be economically desirable. This study used Namibian farm price data to estimate implicit water values. The results are consistent with a buffer function for groundwater, but do not show conclusively that this function is more important than other functions. On precautionary principles, one should therefore assume that it will become necessary to decrease agricultural water use as aquifers become depleted. (Dev South Afr/DÜI)

As part of a natural resource accounting project being undertaken in Namibia, energy accounts have been compiled and are used to analyse energy use by different economic sectors. Households account for most energy use, especially of traditional fuels, and many households continue to rely on firewood even when they have access to electricity. A new paraffin tax was introduced in 1999, because it was believe that the price differential between diesel (which was already taxed) and paraffin encouraged substitution, but there is little indication that substitution was actuall taking place. The policy goal of increasing mines' use of electricity at the expense of fossil fuels appears to have been met during the period studied, but this is entirely due to the problems of one mining company which is expected to resume operations shortly. The results also suggest that there is room for improved efficiency in energy use for water supply, and that instituting measures against theft and non-payment of electricity might save substantial amounts of electricity. (Dev South Afr/DÜI)