Estimating the opportunity costs of reducing carbon dioxide emissions via avoided deforestation,using integrated assessment modelling

Estimates show that, in recent years, deforestation and forest degradation accounted for about 17% of global greenhouse gas emissions. The implementation of REDD (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation in Developing Countries) is suggested to provide substantial emission reductions at low costs, although cost estimates show large uncertainty. Cost estimates can differ, as they depend on the approach chosen, for example: giving an economic stimulus to entire countries, taking landowners as actors in a REDD framework, or starting from protecting carbon-rich areas. This last approach was chosen for this analysis. Proper calculation of the economic cost requires an integrated modelling approach involving biophysical impact calculations and their associated economic effects. To date, only a few global modelling studies have applied such an approach. In modelling REDD measures, the actual implementation of REDD can take many forms, with implications for the results. This study assumes that non-Annex I countries will protect carbon-rich areas against deforestation, and therefore will refrain from using these areas as agricultural land. The opportunity costs of reducing deforestation within the framework of REDD were assessed using an integrated economic and land-use modelling approach comprising the global economic LEITAP model and the biophysical IMAGE model. One of the main methodological challenges is the representation of land use and the possibility to convert woodlands land into agricultural land. We endogenised the availability of agricultural land by introducing a flexible land supply curve, and represented the implementation of REDD policies as a reduction in the maximum amount of unmanaged land that potentially would be available for conversion to agriculture, in various regions in the world. In a series of model experiments, carbon-rich areas in non-Annex I countries were protected from deforestation. In each consecutive scenario the protected area was increased, starting off with the most carbon rich lands, worldwide systematically working down to areas with less carbon storage. The associated opportunity costs, expressed in terms of GDP reduction, were calculated with the economic LEITAP model. The resulting net reduction in carbon dioxide emissions from land-use change was calculated with the IMAGE model. From the sequence of experiments, marginal cost curves were constructed, relating carbon dioxide emission reductions to the opportunity costs. The results showed that globally a maximum of around 2.5 Gt carbon dioxide emissions could be avoided, annually. However, regional differences in opportunity costs are large and were found to range from about 0 to 3.2 USD per tonne carbon dioxide in Africa, 2 to 9 USD in South America and Central America, and 20 to 60 USD in Southeast Asia. These results are comparable to other studies that have calculated these costs, in terms of both opportunity costs and the regional distribution of emissions reduction.     

河南省水稻生产成本收益分析

探讨河南省水稻节约成本途径和方法,增加水稻收益,对于调整河南省农业生产结构和稳定地区粮食安全具有重要意义。文章利用实地调研和成本分析相结合的方法,对河南省水稻生产中的收益指标,如物质与服务费、土地成本和人工成本进行了深入研究,明确了成本收益的变化规律。总生产成本结果分析表明,物质与服务费用占有比例最高,人工成本逐年增长,土地成本年波动较小,而在物质与服务费中,机械作业费和化肥费是最主要的影响因素,两者占物质与服务费的比例超过60%。而种子费、灌溉费、农药费占物质服务费的比例不高,均在12%左右。收益分析表明,近年来河南省水稻成本收益趋于稳定,但在2009年和2011年收益率出现下降现象,主要原因是单位面积产量降低和物质与服务费价格的增长。此外,该文从加强稻田水利等基础设施建设、加大种粮补贴力度、稳定农业生产资料价格等方面提出对策建议。     

限额采伐管理制度对林农采伐决策影响分析——基于采伐成本的思考

引入消费成本的概念,分析了限额采伐管理制度下林农沉重的采伐成本。政府与林农的不完全信息动态博弈模型揭示了如果采伐成本负担过重,无论政府的支付函数如何,林农的最优选择都是滥伐。福建省闽侯县林业局的林政执法案件统计资料及200户林农调查问卷的分析结果表明限额采伐管理制度是导致"林木滥伐"的重要因素。     

区域玉米生产成本影响因素的实证分析

[目的]运用1978~2016年全国各省玉米生产成本数据,对影响区域玉米生产成本变化的主要因素进行实证分析,并提出优化区域玉米生产成本的对策分析。[方法]将全国20个玉米种植省份划分为5个区域,在分析区域玉米生产成本演变特征的基础上,运用双对数线性回归模型,采用ADF单位根检测和Engle-Granger两步法协整检验法,对影响区域玉米生产成本的主要因素进行实证分析。[结果]物质资料投入、租赁作业投入、劳动力投入和生产规模是影响区域玉米生产成本变化的主要因素,其中,物质资料投入、租赁作业投入和劳动力投入与之呈正相关关系,生产规模则与之呈负相关关系;不同变量对不同区域玉米生产成本的影响程度有所不同,劳动力投入是影响程度最大的因素。[结论]劳动力投入和物质资料投入对全国各区玉米生产成本均产生显著影响,租赁作业投入和生产规模则主要对北方产区产生显著影响,对南方产区影响并不显著。据此,建议扩大玉米生产规模化程度;提高物质资料投入效率;优化农机具使用补贴结构。     

Land occupations and deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon

Researchers are increasingly interested in understanding the impact of contentious social processes on land change. In the Brazilian Amazon, there are often contentious interactions between landholders defending private property rights and squatters who have the right to occupy land that is deemed unproductive. Previous studies suggest that the contentious social processes inherent in the Brazilian land tenure and land reform system cause a significant amount of deforestation. An environment of insecure land title, and policies that value deforested land over forested land, among other factors, encourage both landholders and squatters to deforest more land than is necessary for pasture or crop production. This paper examines the impact that land occupations have on deforestation at the municipal scale across the Brazilian Legal Amazon, from 2000 to 2009. We show that land occupations have a direct influence on deforestation. We use spatial analysis as well to show that land occupations have a spatial component in the effect on deforestation: occupations in one municipality affect deforestation in adjacent areas.     

Crossing spatial analyses and livestock economics to understand deforestation processes in the Brazilian Amazon: the case of São Félix do Xingú in South Pará

The Amazon is the largest tropical forest area on Earth, and has been undergoing rapid deforestation for the last four decades. In the Brazilian Amazon, large‐scale pasture for cattle ranching and soybean production are the main land uses, leading to a yearly deforestation rate of 0.5%. These conversions are mostly located in frontier areas distributed along the so‐called “arc of deforestation”. Within this large zone, various land use change processes are interacting through several modes of land valuation and organisation. From several case studies in the State of Pará (Brazil), the current project aims at analysing how landscape dynamics are related to infrastructure development, ecological conditions, zoning policies and to the evolution and the organisation of the production, consumption and marketing chains of livestock products. This paper presents the results for one test site, the region of São Félix do Xingú, South of Pará This region is the focus of land speculation, cattle expansion, and deforestation. Road construction, investments in electrical energy, financial credit for cattle, and the land reform policies have all fuelled this process. All these factors make this region one of the most dynamic agricultural frontiers in the Brazilian Amazon. The main objective of the paper is to improve our understanding of deforestation processes by crossing spatial analyses and 1ivestock economics.studies, and to characterise the role and impact of various natural and anthropic factors in the location and development of the main types of farmers, and their policy implications.     

Public policies can reduce tropical deforestation: Lessons and challenges from Brazil

Reducing carbon emissions from deforestation and forest degradation now constitutes an important strategy for mitigating climate change, particularly in developing countries with large forests. Given growing concerns about global climate change, it is all the more important to identify cases in which economic growth has not sparked excessive forest clearance. We address the recent reduction of deforestation rates in the Brazilian Amazon by conducting a statistical analysis to ascertain if different levels of environmental enforcement between two groups of municipalities had any impact on this reduction. Our analysis shows that these targeted, heightened enforcement efforts avoided as much as 10,653 km² of deforestation, which translates into 1.44 × 10⁻¹ Pg C in avoided emissions for the 3 y period. Moreover, most of the carbon loss and land conversion would have occurred at the expense of closed moist forests. Although such results are encouraging, we caution that significant challenges remain for Brazil's continued success in this regard, given recent changes in the forestry code, ongoing massive investments in hydro power generation, reductions of established protected areas, and growing demand for agricultural products.     

A CGE analysis of trade costs in the Russian agrofood sector

Ten years after the end of central planning, enormous interregional price differences indicate that Russian food markets are not well integrated spatially. Trade potentials are thus not exploited, most probably because of high trade costs. Besides transport costs, transaction costs seem to play an important role as an impediment to interregional arbitrage. These transaction costs can be very high in transition countries due to underdeveloped market structures and weak public institutions. After subtracting transport costs from interregional price differences, large differences remain, particularly in the case of high‐value products. It is assumed that these residual price differences constitute the transaction cost component of total trade costs. The regional economic impact of different trade cost components is quantified using a bi‐regional computable general equilibrium (CGE) model. Simulations show that the results are quite different between the two stylized regions (East and West), depending on which trade cost component is reduced. While the welfare effects of varying customs tariffs and transport margins are rather limited, lower transaction costs of trade seem to be a promising way to achieve a better functioning food market in Russia.     

Environmental motivations for migration: population pressure,poverty, and deforestation in the Philippines

"This paper uses a multinomial discrete choice model and data from the Philippines to examine migrant choice between alternative destinations. Travel costs and perceived opportunities at the upland frontier are more important than general (upland plus lowland) destination attributes that indicate more developed social infrastructure or greater expected welfare. For example, migration streams are larger to destinations where the public share of forestland and the road system are larger. These features also characterize regions of more rapid deforestation. Therefore, emigration policies must recognize their effects on deforestation at the frontier--and their anticipated indirect effects on downstream environments."     

The components of the bid‐ask spread: Evidence from the corn futures market

This article examines whether USDA announcements and commodity index fund rolling activity have an impact on liquidity costs, measured by the bid‐ask spread. Using Huang and Stoll's (1997) model of liquidity costs, we estimate whether changes to liquidity costs are driven by its adverse selection, inventory, or order processing components. Commodity index fund roll activity reduces the asymmetric information cost component of liquidity cost due to an increased proportion of noninformation‐based trading, but the inventory cost component increases as (mostly long only) commodity index funds sell their nearby positions and buy the first deferred contract—raising liquidity providers’ risk of building a position. The sum of these two effects is that liquidity costs remain low during index fund roll periods, averaging one “tick” (0.25 cents). On USDA report release days, we find that informed traders raise the asymmetric information component of liquidity costs in the first hour after release, but the inventory cost component is reduced due to the increase in volume. Similar to index fund roll activity, liquidity costs on USDA report release days remain low, averaging one “tick”. Our findings that liquidity costs are minimally changed during USDA report releases and commodity index fund roll periods is consistent with other recent research on liquidity costs, but we show that what drives liquidity costs differs substantially depending on the circumstances surrounding daily trading.     

基于交易成本理论的森林碳汇交易研究

以新制度经济学交易费用理论为基础,把森林碳汇项目交易成本分为事前交易及事后交易成本,并细分为8项成本费用。通过分析各项交易成本的影响因子,建立了森林碳汇交易成本的函数关系式,并在交易成本框架下指出了森林碳汇服务项目交易过程存在的问题,据此提出了降低交易成本的途径。     

河北省小麦生产成本收益分析

文章运用成本分析与文献分析相结合的研究方法,对2010~2014年河北省小麦生产中的生产成本、人工费用及土地成本等主要收益指标进行了细致分析,揭示了成本收益的变化规律。研究结果表明:导致河北省小麦生产成本过高的主要原因是物质与服务费中的化肥、机械费、燃油费及人工费用的不断攀升。同时在全国小麦市场价格的下行压力下,河北省又常常遭遇干旱、病虫害胁迫,致使全省单位面积小麦的纯收益跳跃幅度较大,小麦总体收益偏低。其中,2011年与2013年纯收益甚至出现负值。该文通过实际调研,提出了加强技术创新、提高种植小麦补贴标准、提高农业机械化水平、转变经营方式,积极推进小麦产业化、发展多种形式的深加工产业等对策。此外,在稳定产量的基础上,又提出降低成本,提高小麦单价,增加农民收益的建议,进而为河北省小麦生产的可持续发展提供参考依据。     

On the nature and magnitude of cost economies in hog production

In this article, we assess the impact of farm size on production cost and evaluate the marginal costs and margins by considering that input prices may change with the scale of production. By using French hog farm data, we estimate a system of equations including a feed price function, input demand functions, and an output supply function based on a technology approximated by a combined generalized Leontief‐Quadratic form. Our results suggest that the marginal costs are over‐estimated when the adjustment of the feed unit prices to a change in farm size is not controlled for. More specifically, the cost economies for large farms (enjoying the highest profits) arise primarily from lower feed prices, with technological scale economies having little impact. In contrast, farms with no hired labor exhibit technological scale economies and reach higher price‐cost margins compared to larger farms.     

The economic and financial gains from water markets in Chile

Chile is one of the few countries that has encouraged the use of markets in water resource management. In order to assess the impact of water markets and transactions costs in Chile, four river valleys, the Maipo, Elqui, Limarí, and the Azapa were selected as case studies. Transactions from the Elqui and Limarí valleys, during the years 1986 to 1993, were analyzed to determine the gains-from-trade from market transfers. In the economic and financial analysis of water markets, crop budgets were used to estimate the value of water in agricultural production. The value of water-use rights to urban water-supply companies was estimated using the avoided cost of an alternative investment in a water-storage reservoir. The analysis demonstrated that the market transfer of water-use rights does produce substantial economic gains-from-trade in both the Elqui and Limarí Valleys. These economic gains produce rents for both buyers and sellers. But buyers, especially farmers growing profitable crops who buy water-use rights and individuals buying water-use rights for potable water supply, receive higher rents then sellers. Large table-grape producers in the Limarí Valley and individuals buying water for human consumption in the Elqui Valley received the highest rents. In the Elqui Valley net gains-from-trade per share were within the range of recent transfer prices of US$1000. In the Limarí Valley, gains-from-trade per share are 3.4 times the recent prices of US$3000 for a share of water from the Cogotí Reservoir. Where trading was active, especially in the Limarí Valley, transactions costs have not presented an appreciable barrier to trading. Nonetheless, in the large canal systems with fixed flow dividers in the Elqui and Maipo Valley there have been very few transactions. Various factors contribute to the lack of trading, but the absence of trading in these large canal systems highlights the costs of modifying fixed infrastructure, especially for trades between farmers.     

Underlying and proximate driving causes of land use change in district Swat,Pakistan

Swat is part of the high mountain Hindu-Kush Himalayan region of Pakistan, with diverse biophysical and socio-economic characteristics. The region is endowed with many fragile and fragmented ecosystems, and land use and land cover changes have accelerated destructive processes with irreversible effects on ecosystems. The paper aims to (1) find proximate and underlying causes of land use and land cover changes; (2) analyse the drivers of change; and (3) reflect on the role of governance and policy.We used land use maps for the years 1968 and 2007 to highlight the extent and type of land use changes, and household surveys and expert interviews were conducted to collect quantitative and qualitative data for detecting and analysing the drivers of change.Results of household surveys and expert interviews show that technological and environmental factors, accessibility and proximity to local markets, immense use of firewood, conflicting property rights and other institutional weaknesses, and over-grazing of alpine pastures were the main driving forces for agriculture expansion and deforestation.Given the present governance structure of forest management in Pakistan a multi-sectoral and multi-scale framework is required to conserve the Swat's natural landscape and associated ecosystem services. A carefully crafted reform programme is required to clarify and assign unambiguous property rights, provisions for communal management and market-based incentives, depending on the social, economic, and ecological characteristics of the different zones under consideration. Only with such policies in place can the current rapid rate of deforestation be avoided and sustainable natural resources use be ensured.     

An Investigation of Policy Administrative Costs Using Panel Data for the English Environmentally Sensitive Areas

This paper explores transactions costs in the context of agri‐environmental policy schemes based on management agreements. While transactions costs encompass a wide range of organisational costs, the focus here is on the public‐sector administrative costs of policy implementation. Empirical administrative cost functions were estimated to investigate the factors affecting the magnitude of such costs, using panel data spanning five years for the 22 English Environmentally Sensitive Areas. The extent of participation appears to be important in explaining administrative cost variability across areas. The data suggested the existence of size economics with regard to the numbers of agreements made in any one ESA, and a significant effect of scheme experience in exerting downwards‐pressure on administrative costs. Policy budgeting and evaluation should take into account the non‐trivial costs of organisation, particularly if agri‐environmental schemes based on the procurement of conservation goods through management agreements are to be extended in future.     

CONSERVING TROPICAL RAIN FORESTS IN INDONESIA: A QUANTITATIVE ASSESSMENT OF ALTERNATIVE POLICIES

The present paper provides a numerical general equilibrium assessment of policies to reduce tropical deforestation in Indonesia. Two groups of policy measures are examined: (i) forestry policies as a means to internalise the local externalities of deforestation; (ii) international measures to address the global dimension of the problem. Given the relatively short rotation periods and the high harvesting intensity in the forestry sector, it is concluded that among the forestry policies an increase in the minimum harvest age is the best solution from an ecological point of view, because it tackles both problems simultaneously. At the global level, import restrictions, for Indonesian wood products are ecologically ineffective and place considerable costs on the Indonesian economy, whereas compensation payments can compensate for the losses of forest conservation, if the money is invested in the creation of new employment opportunities.     

Analysing foregone costs of communities and carbon benefits in small scale community based forestry practice in Nepal

Reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation, conservation and sustainable management of forests and enhancement of forest carbon (REDD+) are considered to be important cost effective approaches for global climate change mitigation; therefore, such practices are evolving as the REDD+ payment mechanism in developing countries. Using six years (2006–2012) data, this paper analyses trade-offs between carbon stock gains and the costs incurred by communities in generating additional carbon in 105 REDD+ pilot community forests in Nepal. It estimates foregone benefits for communities engaged in increasing carbon stocks in various dominant vegetation types. At recent carbon and commodity prices, communities receive on average US$ 0.47/ha/year of carbon benefits with the additional cost of US$ 67.30/ha/year. One dollar’s worth of community cost resulted 0.23 Mg of carbon sequestration. Therefore, carbon payment alone may not be an attractive incentive within small-scale community forestry and should link with payments for ecosystem services. Moreover, the study found highest community sacrificed benefits in Shorea mixed broadleaf forests and lowest in Schima-Castanopsis forests, while carbon benefits were highest in Pine forests followed by Schima-Castanopsis forests and lowest in Rhododendron-Quercus forests. This indicates that costs and benefits may vary by vegetation type. A policy should consider payment for other environmental services, carbon gains, co-benefits and trade off while designing the REDD+ mechanism in community based forest land use practice with equitable community outcomes. The learning from this study will help in the formulation of an appropriate REDD+ policy for community forestry.     

Determinants, differentiation, and development of short-term marginal costs in dairy production: an empirical analysis for selected regions of the EU

This work provides evidence on the determinants, cost differentiation, and development of short‐term marginal costs of dairy farms in important production regions of the European Union. The empirical study is based on the estimation of multi‐input multi‐output Symmetric Generalized McFadden cost functions using an unbalanced panel data set of the European Farm Accountancy Data Network. The results show considerable regional differences in the impact of the outputs, input prices, and fixed factors on marginal costs. Strong evidence can be found that marginal costs decrease over time and is further underlined by the development of derived regional aggregated short‐term supply curves. Marginal cost elasticities and correlation coefficients validate the hypotheses that a high degree of farm specialization, large milk output, and low milk prices are associated with lower marginal costs. Furthermore, the marginal cost spread in the data sample is analyzed. We show that milk output, milk yield, herd size, labor input, and fodder production can be attributed to significant marginal cost differentiation of farms, whereas for crop and animal output, grassland, stock of other animals, and depreciation only minor differentiation can be found.     

The Allocation of Nutrient Load Reduction across a Watershed: Assessing Delivery Coefficients as an Implementation Tool

Delivery coefficients have long been used in economic analysis of policies that seek to address environmental problems like water pollution. However, the derivation and validity of delivery coefficients have not been examined carefully by empirical analyses. We derived estimates of delivery coefficients and then evaluated them as a bridge between complex simulation models and economic policies like water quality trading. We found that the allocations achieved outcomes that differed from intended water quality targets by less than 10% in most cases. For the least-cost allocation with heterogeneous costs, cost savings significantly outweighed deviations from water quality targets.