Poverty and resource dependence in rural India

Previous studies of rural households in developing countries have tended to find that the dependence of these households on common-pool resources declines with income. Our study of households in Jhabua, India, finds a more complex relationship. Using the share of resource income in total long-run or “permanent” income as our dependence measure—which we argue is more appropriate than the short-run income-based measure commonly used in the literature—we find that for households that collect any resources at all, dependence exhibits a U-shaped relationship with income. That is, the poorest and richest households depend more on resources than households with intermediate incomes. The poorest and richest households are also found to be least likely to collect, however, indicating that resource use at the income extremes is bimodal—either zero or above average. Moreover, the observed trends for resources as a whole are not mirrored in those for individual resources. Dependence on fuelwood and dung declines with income, for example, while dependence on fodder and construction wood increases. These findings suggest that common-pool resources are a productive source of income not just for the poor but also for the rich, and that improvements in the stocks of these resources can potentially form the basis of poverty reduction efforts in these economies.     

Forest incomes and rural livelihoods in Chiradzulu District, Malawi

This paper examines forest income among rural dwellers in one of Malawi's most densely populated districts, Chiradzulu. 160 households were interviewed in two sites, only 20 km apart, purposely selected on the basis of access to a forest reserve. People are extremely poor, with 97% having incomes of less than 1 USD/day. Forest income constitutes around 15% of total income; only non-farm income (47%) and agriculture (28%) rank higher. The poorest segment depends more on forest income than the least poor group, but the medium income group exhibits the highest dependence. Fuelwood constitutes the major source of such income followed by fodder. The incomes mainly support current consumption. People with better access to the forest reserve have higher total income, forest income, and relative forest income. As revealed through a Gini-coefficient analysis, forest resources have an important income equalizing effect across rural households. A particular group of resource poor farmers (8.1% of sample), with little access to agricultural land and a high representation of female heads, derives an average of 65% of their income from the forest. An important policy lesson is that restricting people's access to forest resources can have substantial effects on household livelihoods and welfare, and would serve to increase income inequalities in the area. Livelihood researchers should now recognize the substantial income from forest resources.     

江西鄱阳湖南矶湿地国家级自然保护区社区社会经济调查与分析

近20年是我国国家级自然保护区发展史上的最重要时期,但在保护事业取得巨大成就的同时,自然保护与社区社会经济发展的矛盾凸显出来。处理好这对矛盾首要条件是对自然保护区社会经济要有深入了解。基于以上目的,对江西鄱阳湖南矶湿地国家级自然保护区社区进行了深入的社会调查,包括个别访问与问卷调查,涉及新建县南矶乡总户数1 590户,这些居民全部生活在保护区试验区。本调查的覆盖率达到全部农户的45%,扣除外迁农户后覆盖率高达69.3%。调查结果表明:(1)南矶乡保持着典型的湖区社会经济特征,其对湖泊自然资源依赖性极强;(2)保护区内渔业资源较为丰富,但区内渔产量因湖池不同而不同,因此,从承包湖池的渔获量来看,拥有较优的湖池的农户收入颇丰;(3)近几年,小龙虾产量猛增,市场价格攀升,成为当地农户的主要经济来源,因此,其捕获量与市场价格的波动将直接影响居民的收入与社会稳定。认为:(1)该保护区的主要保护对象是赣江—河口湿地生态系统,在不破坏其基本特征的情况下,适度捕捞,特别是对外来种小龙虾的捕捞,与自然保护不发生根本冲突;(2)由于当地农户收入颇丰,无外出动力,如何有效管理和利用湖泊渔业资源,是解决保护区与社区共同发展的唯一途径;(3)从长远来看,在各级政府支持下管理局应当建立一种机制,从根本上解决这一冲突并把社区农户作为保护的生力军。     

Accounting for single and aggregated forest incomes: Application to public cork oak forests in Jerez (Spain) and Iteimia (Tunisia)

This study presents an applied improvement in the agroforestry accounting system (AAS) approach to two public cork oak forests in the Mediterranean region: Jerez (Spain) and Iteimia (Tunisia). Both forests have similar environments but differ in land property rights, labour markets and countries (developed and developing economy, respectively).The income analysis considers the differences between forest ownership, and household and landowner economic rationalities. In the case of Jerez, the public landowner has a right to exclude others from using the forest resources; community employment and natural resource conservation criteria determine Jerez's management. In the Iteimia case, the public landowner has regulated free-use rights for livestock grazing, firewood and crops so that local households can meet their needs and improve their income. Households operate by maximizing their income from the full employment of their own family workforce.The results show that Jerez's management generates negative commercial capital income for the public landowner, despite receiving significant public subsidies, while it maintains high internal forestry investment that generates additional local employment. Conversely, Iteimia produces positive commercial capital income for the public landowner and high household self-employed labour income per hectare.     

A metric for assessing the “goodness” of income distributions and the effect of price changes

Social welfare evaluation depends in part on value judgments as to income distribution. This paper proposes a metric for assessing the “goodness” of particular income distributions. That metric is then used to examine the effect of price changes on the “goodness” of a given distribution. Consider an increase in the price of a commodity that is disproportionately consumed by households with incomes that are high relative to the preferred income distribution. One naturally supposes that such a price increase will make the given income distribution appear less bad. Surprisingly, this is not invariably the case.     

Measuring fossil resource inequality—A case study for the UK between 1968 and 2000

This paper quantifies fossil resource inequalities amongst income quintiles in the UK between 1968 and 2000. It calculates a resource-based Gini coefficient using an input-output based resource allocation model.The results show that the Gini coefficient for total fossil resource consumption grew by 24% over the time period. By comparison the Gini coefficient for overall household expenditure rose by only 13%. The increase in resource inequality was prompted by the rising demand by high income quintiles for goods and services such as: “fuel and light” (heating and lighting the home), “car use” (private transportation), “recreation”, “travel” and “other services”. The analysis shows further that the Gini coefficient for “direct” fossil resources (“fuel and light” and “car use”) was lower and rose less steeply than the Gini coefficient for fossil resources embodied in other goods and services (indirect fossil resource requirements).Investigation into the drivers behind direct and indirect resource inequalities suggests a number of policy conclusions. Firstly, it is clear that policy initiatives to reduce fossil resource requirements (and the associated climate change impacts) must pay careful attention to distributional differences. Additionally, increased attention needs to be paid to the inequalities associated with indirect fossil resources consumption as well as the more visible direct resource inequalities.     

Socioeconomic Impacts of Public Forest Policies on Heterogeneous Agricultural Households

Nepal has a long history of returning public forests to local people as part of its community forestry programme. In principle the community forestry programme is designed to address both environmental quality and poverty alleviation. However, concern has been expressed that forest policies emphasise environmental conservation, and that this has a detrimental impact on the use of community forests in rural Nepal where households require access to public forest products to sustain livelihoods. To study the effect of government policies on forest use, an economic model of a typical small community of economically heterogeneous households in Nepal was developed. The model incorporates a link between private agriculture and public forest resources, and uses this link to assess the socioeconomic impacts of forest policies on the use of public forests. Socioeconomic impacts were measured in terms of household income, employment and income inequality. The results show that some forest policies have a negative economic impact, and the impacts are more serious than those reported by other studies. This study shows that existing forest policies reduce household income and employment, and widen income inequalities within communities, compared to alternative policies. Certain forest policies even constrain the poorest households?? ability to meet survival needs. The findings indicate that the socioeconomic impacts of public forest policies may be underestimated in developing countries unless household economic heterogeneity and forestry??s contribution to production are accounted for. The study also demonstrates that alternative policies for managing common property resources would reduce income inequalities in rural Nepalese communities and lift incomes and employment to a level where even the poorest households could meet their basic needs.     

Natural resource accounting for Indian states — Illustrating the case of forest resources

Our main objective is to set out and apply a SEEA-based methodology to reflect the true value of forest resources in India's national and state accounts. We establish that a “top-down” approach using available national databases is both feasible and desirable from a policy perspective. In this paper, we address four components of value creation in forests: timber production, carbon storage, fuelwood usage, and the harvesting of non-timber forest products. The results of our analysis suggest that prevailing measures of national income in India underestimate the contribution of forests to income. The income accounts of the Northeastern states in particular are significantly understated by these traditional (GDP/GSDP) measures. We are also able to identify some states which performed poorly in the context of our sustainability framework, reflecting natural capital losses due to degradation and deforestation. Our results highlight the need to integrate natural resource accounting into the national accounting framework in order to generate appropriate signals for sustainable forest management and for the conservation of forest resources which are widely used by the poor in India, as well as being significant stores of national wealth.     

Converting Forests to Farms: The Economic Benefits of Clearing Forests in Agricultural Settlements in the Amazon

Agricultural expansion into tropical forests is believed to bring local economic benefits at the expense of global environmental costs. The resulting tension is reflected in Brazilian government policy. The national agrarian reform program has settled farm families in the Amazon region since the 1970s, with the expectation that they will clear forests in order to farm the land. On the other hand, recent Brazilian policy initiatives seek to reduce deforestation to mitigate climate change. We contribute to the policy debate that surrounds these dual goals for the Amazon by estimating the marginal effects of new agricultural land on the full income and assets of farm settlers over a 13-year period from 1996 to 2009. Using micro panel data from agrarian settlements where forest was being rapidly cleared, and controlling for factors that would otherwise confound the relationship, we estimate the effect of converting forest to agriculture on total household income to estimate the opportunity cost of conserving forest. Our measure of income reflects any re-allocation of resources by utility maximizing households and any productivity effects due to loss of forest ecosystem services. The estimated effect of new agricultural land on income is positive, but small relative to the income per hectare of previously cleared land. However, we show that income increases investment in physical assets, which raises households’ income generating capacity and future accumulation of assets. Thus, while there is only a small immediate income gain from clearing more forest, the long-term effects on wealth are still substantial. This demonstrates that given the right conditions, conversion of forest to agricultural land can be an impetus for asset accumulation by smallholders. It also highlights the importance of considering the indirect and long-term welfare benefits of new agricultural land when assessing the opportunity costs of forest conservation.     

The myth of post-reform income stagnation: Evidence from Brazil and Mexico

Economic policies are often judged by a handful of statistics, some of which may be biased during periods of change. We estimate the income growth implied by the evolution of food demand and durable good ownership in post-reform Brazil and Mexico, and find that changes in consumption patterns are inconsistent with official estimates of near stagnant incomes. That is attributed to biases in the price deflator. The estimated unmeasured income gains are higher for poorer households, implying marked reductions in “real” inequality. These findings challenge the conventional wisdom that post-reform income growth was low and did not benefit the poor.     

Amenity driven price effects and conservation reserve site selection: A dynamic linear integer programming approach

Most conservation reserve design models presented in the literature are static and ignore the dynamic economic aspects of site selection. Typically conservation programs operate under time-related (e.g. annual) budgets and purchase land over time in a sequential manner. The uncertainty of land development has been incorporated in a few dynamic reserve selection formulations using stochastic dynamic programming. However, the existing formulations do not explicitly deal with inter-temporal price and location linkages. We address this issue here and present a two-period linear integer programming model for conservation reserve design that incorporates amenity driven price feedback effects inherent in the reserve development problem. In addition, the model includes spatial and ecological criteria. We then use this model to answer the question “How suboptimal is ignoring amenity driven price effects in reserve design models?” We apply the model to artificially generated data sets and compare the results with the results of an iterated static model that considers only one period at a time. We find that the dynamic model with price feedback effects selects sites at a lower per-site cost. The policy implication of this finding is that conservation programs should avoid purchasing land in the same neighborhood over multiple time periods.     

经济增长、物价变动对农村居民收入影响探析

基于1984-2013年全国农业生产总值、农村居民消费价格指数和农村居民家庭人均纯收入数据,研究农村经济、物价变动对农村居民收入的影响。研究表明:长期来看,三者之间存在长期均衡关系。这说明农村经济的增长会提高农村居民收入,物价的变化则会反向影响农村居民收入。而短期来看,物价的上涨会增加农村居民的人均纯收入,农村经济的增长则不会对农村居民收入有明显的影响作用。     

Assessing poverty-deforestation links: Evidence from Swat, Pakistan

This paper contributes to the debate on the links between poverty and forestry degradation; the view that due to poverty and the meeting of subsistence needs the poor use natural resources more intensively and hence cause them to degrade. Using the case of the forest rich Swat district, Pakistan, the paper addresses the issue empirically, historically, and institutionally. We do not find empirical support for the “poverty-environment nexus”, in that the poor and other income groups are equally resource dependent and also show that resource degradation is not associated with poverty. Our historical and institutional analyses provide alternative explanations for resource degradation. Selective and rotating ownership patterns, starting with the 17th century, provided limited incentive for resource conservation. It also created tension between de jure and de facto owners, that has persisted, and is one source of forest degradation. Ill-defined resource rights have also exacerbated the impacts of several other factors contributing to forest degradation which is compounded by poor management, corruption, and perverse incentives.     

Community participation in the management of wetland nature reserve：a case study of Nanjishan Nature Reserve, Jiangxi, China

In recent years, more and more conflicts have emerged in the management of nature reserves, of which themain problem is that how to carry out the campaign of conservation along with the promotion of development of localeconomics. To resolve the actual problem in Nanjishan National Wetland Nature Reserve and explore the idiographicmethod of the management of the wetland reserve, some studying methods including face-to-face interviews, informaldiscussion with local leaders and officials, group discussion with local fishers, questionnaire, and job of the conversationstation have been carried out. The results show that the education level of the local people is low; only 5% of the localpeople have an opportunity to the junior college; the main income of the local people is fishing, which accounts for 70%more or less; and the income is coming down year by year because of the unreasonable way of fishing. To cope with theproblems, some reformative way of management and the development of the reserve are introduced, such as establishingan NOG that constitutes of local fishermen to achieve the goal of community co-management, developing Bed andBreakfast and so on. Through practice of the management of the participation of the local people, we draw the conclusionthat the local people have a great desire to improve their life level, and to make the co-management of the reserve easy,it is important for the managers to play the role of pilot including engrafting the new ideas, giving some subsidy toencourage the local people to take part in the management. In addition, making local people perceive value of the reserveand the close relation between reserve conservation and the promotion of level of their life. On this basis, they incline totake part in the management of the reserve.     

China's sloping land conversion program: Institutional innovation or business as usual?

China's Sloping Land Conversion Program (SLCP) is the largest land retirement/reforestation program in the developing world, having the goal of converting 14.67 million hectares of cropland to forests by 2010 (4.4 million of which is on land with slopes greater than 25°) and an additional “soft” goal of afforesting a roughly equal area of wasteland by 2010. Pending successful completion it could represent a 10-20% increase in China's national forest area and a 10% decrease in current cultivated area. In contrast to China's other forest-sector policies, SLCP uses a public payment scheme that directly engages millions of rural households as core agents of project implementation, and has the stated principals of volunteerism. Thus, insofar as current or future de facto program implementation involves decentralized, voluntary grassroots participation, SLCP represents an important departure from “business as usual” in how China manages its forest resources. This work draws upon current available research of the program and uses a 2003 household and village-level survey conducted by the Center for Chinese Agricultural Policy, CAS, to examine program design, implementation and outcomes to date. Results indicate that significant problems in design and implementation exist, with these including shortfalls in subsidies delivered, lack of respect of the principals of volunteerism, and insufficient technical support and budgeting for local implementation costs. More fundamentally, some program goals appear to be based on common misperceptions regarding the linkages between forests and watershed services. Overall, SLCP contains both innovative elements (volunteerism and the direct engagement of farmers) as well as components that hark back to policies and mindsets of decades past (the program's top-down, simplified contract structure, lack of sufficient consultation with local communities and rural households, and campaign-style mobilization). The paper concludes by providing four main suggestions to improve the program: 1) Increase local community input in design and implementation, and ensure that households have full autonomy in participation choice; 2) improve technical support and budgeting for local administrative costs and capacity building; 3) clarify the environmental services targeted and verify the measures needed to acquire these services; and 4) integrate SLCP into an overall package of complementary policies aimed at the rural sector.     

浅析杭州市余杭区粮食安全问题及对策

粮食安全问题是国家的头等大事,在社会发展和经济发展中具有重要的现实意义。中国人口多、耕地少,粮食一直是国家不可或缺的战略资源,具有重要的政治地位;粮食也是农业发展和物价稳定的标志,具有重要的经济地位。杭州市余杭区受耕地少、人口多、农业技术落后、农业收入低和储备制度不够完善等多方面制约因素的影响,用粮缺口比较大。只有从执行耕地保护措施、提高农业科技含量、实施富农服务政策、完善粮食储备制度几个方面入手,才能保障全区人民的用粮需求,稳定本地区的粮食安全形势。     

The economic importance of non-timber forest products (NTFPs) for livelihood maintenance of rural west African communities: A case study from northern Benin

Non-timber forest products (NTFPs) contribute significantly to a rural household's livelihood in the African semi-arid tropics. This study examines the income from NTFPs and the dependency on these of different socio-economic groups in Northern Benin. Using survey data from 230 households of two villages, we firstly compared incomes of five different ethnic groups being differentiated by their traditional source of livelihood and regional provenance. Secondly, we investigated disparities between three income groups. On average, income from NTFPs accounted for 39% of total household income and had a strong equalizing effect on it. However, the economic relevance of NTFPs differs between households: Poorer households are relatively more dependent on NTFPs in order to fulfill basic needs than wealthier households. However, the latter extract more NTFPs in quantitative terms and have significantly higher cash returns than poorer ones. This is mainly due to a significant greater land holding. Moreover, our study revealed that net income from NTFPs reflects traditional sources of livelihoods of different ethnic groups. In conclusion, both conservation and development strategies should take into consideration the socio-economic context of different beneficiaries of savanna woodland resources in order to apply appropriate measures to poverty reduction.     

What explains consumption in the very short-run? Evidence from checking account data

This paper investigates consumption behavior within an intertemporal optimization model of the representative household. Our dataset consists of deposits and withdrawals from individual household checking accounts that received paychecks by direct deposit. We construct samples of panel data for households with weekly, biweekly, and semi-monthly pay-periods and form two different measures of consumption for each sample. GMM estimates of structural parameters provide mixed evidence for habit formation or durability and limited support for the permanent income hypothesis. The results instead point to “rule of thumb” consumption under liquidity constraints, where the household consumes its current disposable income each pay-period with possible debt servicing. These findings are uniform with regard to estimation of sub-samples split according to age or household income.     

Basin impacts of irrigation water conservation policy

Climate change, uncertain future water supplies, growing population, and increased water demands continue to raise the importance of finding cost-effective water conservation measures. Irrigated agriculture is the world's largest water user, so governments, donor organizations, water suppliers, and farmers continue to look for measures that would produce more crop per drop. Despite the importance of promoting water conservation in agriculture, little work has been done that integrates hydrologic, economic, institutional, and policy dimensions of water conservation. This paper presents an integrated basin scale analysis of water conservation subsidies for irrigated agriculture. A dynamic, nonlinear programming model is developed and applied for the Upper Rio Grande Basin of Colorado, New Mexico, and Texas, USA. Several potential public subsidies of drip irrigation are analyzed for their economic and hydrologic impacts at both the farm and basin levels. Results indicate that water conservation subsidies for drip irrigation produce several effects. These include greater on-farm implementation of water-conserving technology, less water applied to crops, more water consumed by crops, increased farm income, greater crop production, more land irrigated, and increased total water-related economic benefits for the basin. Findings provide a framework for designing and implementing water conservation policies for irrigated agriculture.     

西部地区农户收入水平对农村能源消费的影响分析

西部地区农村人口众多,农村能源建设是西部地区可持续发展的一个重要条件,而沼气建设是西部农村能源建设的重点。文章在介绍西部地区农村能源概况的基础上,对农户收入水平对沼气消费的影响进行理论、实证分析,得出农户人均纯收入水平对农村人均沼气消费量的影响是非线性关系的结论,提出针对不同收入水平的农户采取相应的措施来解决农村能源短缺,促进生态农业良性发展。