Our Projects
- tanzania | Agriculture Climate change Sustainable financing options of the climate change and climate variability adaptation measures by rural smallholder farmers in Tanzania A majority of the rural poor in Tanzania derive their income from agriculture. The most important input in the agricultural production is labour and the rain water. This situation implies that, very large proportion of population in the country is vulnerable to climatic change and variability. At the national level there exist various interventions in the agriculture sector to facilitate increased efficiency and productivity.
- tanzania | Climate change Policy design The Vulnerability of Households Welfare to Shocks in Tanzania Tanzania is largely an agrarian economy where over 70 percent of the population lives in the rural areas. The mainstay of the rural economy is agriculture and livestock keeping, and the agriculture production relies almost exclusively on the rainfall. As a result, changes in the rainfall pattern have a direct and immediate impact on the agriculture production, which in turn impacts on the household welfare through income and consumption.
- tanzania | Agriculture Land Conservation Technologies Adoption and its Impact on Smallholder Agriculture in Tanzania: A case study of REDD implementing areas Land degradation is a major serious problem in Tanzania that contributes greatly to decline in productivity and poses a threat to rural livelihood and the economy at large given the importance of agriculture in the country
- ethiopia | Agriculture Climate change Adaptation to climate change in Ethiopia : The potential role of sustainable land management practices This research project will contribute to sustainability and poverty reduction agenda as SLM practices can enable farmers to become resilient to climate change by improving ecosystem services and functions, increasing agricultural productivity and enhancing food security. Such practices could also help mitigate climate change which is an important added advantage.
- ethiopia | Energy Economy Wide Impact of the Electricity Sector in Ethiopia As a result of growing demand for electricity and recognizing the critical role played by the energy sector in the economic growth and development process, the Government of Ethiopia has already embarked on large scale hydroelectricity projects in view of developing renewable and sustainable energy sources. The goal of this project is to contribute to the fulfillment of these efforts in expanding modern energy access and reducing energy poverty through accelerating the growth of the economy.
- ethiopia | Policy design Economic valuation (pricing), institutions, and water use efficiency in smallholder irrigation systems in Ethiopia Overall, the study aims to enhance environmental sustainability, agriculture/food security and poverty reduction, through suggesting mechanism for irrigation water pricing and informed policy/ decision making.
- ethiopia | Forestry Local Institutions and Better Forests: Empirical Evidence from Household Data This research aims to enhance informed policy-making and sustainable management of natural resources in Ethiopia through furthering our understanding of the factors that contribute to success (better outcome in forest commons). The research intends to investigate the interplay between the user characteristics, resource characteristics, and the institutional regime as they determine better forest outcome at a more deeper level using household level dataset.
- central america | Climate change Migration as an adaptation strategy: analyzing the effects of extreme weather events on local migration in Guatemala The project estimate to what extent migration movements within a country are explained by occurrence of extreme weather events in Guatemala.
- central america | Climate change Household adaptation to seasonal drought in rural drinking water systems Project contribute to reducing vulnerability to climate change and to help promoting the development of adaptation strategies that guarantee the human right to water for poor villagers in rural areas.
- tanzania | Agriculture Climate change Fisheries Poverty-local ecosystems income generation using economic instruments for sustainable utilization of environmental resources: Case study – Lake Victoria Basin Lake Victoria basin is Africa’s largest inland water hosting more than 300 endemic fish species (NBI, 2001). The basin is endowed with a wealth of natural resources land, forest resources, minerals, fish (particularly Nile Perch), wildlife, rivers and streams, wetlands and other biological resources, which provide unique opportunities for socio-economic development. Like in other places, the natural resources found in this basin offer avenue mostly to poor people to undertake economic activities for poverty reduction and sustainability of livelihoods (Chambers, 1992; Rennie and Sigh, 1996; Carney, 1998).
- ethiopia | Agriculture Energy Profitability and Economy-wide Impact of Biofuel Investments in Ethiopia Given the volatility of world oil prices and the recent all time high, which increased their popularity, bio-fuels have received a great deal of attention globally. The central questions of interest include whether this will have a positive or a negative impact on smallholder farmers and people living in rural areas, as more agricultural land will be used for biofuels production? And what is the effect of these large scale biofuels investments on growth and poverty reduction endeavors of poor countries?
- ethiopia | Agriculture Natural Resources Degradation and Household Welfare in Rural Ethiopia Natural resources, agriculture and human activities are highly interrelated in most developing countries in general and Ethiopia in particular. Land clearing for agriculture, increase in demand for fuel wood and construction material, illegal settlement within forests, logging and the expansion of illegal trade have resulted in the deterioration of forest resources, reduction of biodiversity, incidences of soil erosion and land degradation in the country. These will increase the demand for family labor to provide essential resources such as fuel wood, fodder, and water for humans and livestock.
- ethiopia | Agriculture Local Common Property Systems in Ethiopia: An Empirical Analysis of the Link between User Characteristics, Resource Characteristics and Institutional Regime Renewable natural resources such as forests, fisheries, grazing lands, soils, groundwater, etc, most of which fall under the category of common pool resources, constitute a significant part of our planet. Common-pool resources (CPRs) constitute important sources of livelihoods to many people in developing countries including timber, fuelwood, grazing, irrigation water, and domestic water.
- ethiopia | Agriculture Forestry Determinants of Farm Households’ Agro-Forestry Technology Adoption in Ethiopia Empirical evidences from developing countries indicate that forest products play a significant role in rural livelihoods, particularly for the rural poor. Forests provide benefits in the form of wood, food, income, and watershed protection which enable people to secure stable and adequate food supply. However, deforestation and the resulting environmental degradation is a major problem in most African countries including Ethiopia. This is considered as one of the key factors challenging food security, community livelihood and sustainable development. Reports on the forest resources of Ethiopia are dominated by the alarming deforestation that goes on unabated and at an accelerating rate. The magnitude of deforestation and land degradation by far exceeds the conservation activities being carried out.
- south africa | Parks & Wildlife Evaluation of Dry-lands Ecosystem Services in the area surrounding the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park in South Africa This project is concerned with identifying, assessing and valuing ecosystem services found on the section of land belonging to the Khomani San contractual park and their farms.
- south africa | Agriculture Ambiguity Aversion in the Uptake of New Farming Practices: Experimental Evidence from South Africa This project explores whether the adoption of new farming practices is decreasing in ambiguity aversion, while conversely, the uptake of insurance is increasing in ambiguity aversion. Such a result will strengthen the argument in favour of mechanisms of risk diffusion, such as insurance products for small-scale farmers.
- tanzania | Forestry Protecting Peri-Urban forests and livelihoods: Spatial Enforcement Issues and Incentives for Community-Based Initiatives This project stems from discussions with forest managers whose existing policies have not created the hoped-for incentives for locals to engage in enforcement of access restrictions by outsiders. This is particularly important for Kibaha’s forests because of their proximity to Dar es Salaam, a large city with high demand for charcoal and timber. Forest managers do not have mechanisms for influencing where local villagers harvest NTFPs; they also have little information on which to base their allocation of scarce patrol efforts.
- ethiopia | Agriculture Impact of Climate Change on Ethiopian Economy and Agriculture In this research project EfD aims to examine the impact of climate change on agriculture using Ricardian approach. Moreover, the impact of climate change on the Ethiopian economy using CGE model will be analyzed.
- south africa | Parks & Wildlife Estimating Optimal Conservation Fees in the Presence of Land Restitution in the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park between Botswana and South Africa This project thrives to determine how the Kgalagadi Transfrontier park can serve as a drive in tourism that generates economic and social benefits to land claimants and as a result maximize the positive spill over effects on the Khomani San people.
- south africa Value of protection and management of the South African coast The objectives of this study are to provide a spatial analysis of the total economic value of the SA coast, focusing on the values generated by different types of protected areas versus other stretches of coast.
- ethiopia | Agriculture Review of local common pool resource management institutions in Ethiopia Renewable natural resources such as forests, fisheries, grazing lands, soils, groundwater, etc, most of which fall under the category of common pool resources, constitute a significant part of our planet. Common property resources constitute important sources of livelihoods to many people in developing countries including timber, fuelwood, grazing, irrigation water, and domestic water.
- ethiopia | Climate change On Adaptation to Climate Change and Food Security in Ethiopia This research will examine the impact of adaptation strategies on farmers’ food production. We will investigate whether there are differences in the food production functions of farm households that adopted adaptation strategies and those that did not adopt.
- ethiopia | Agriculture Impact of Biofuel Investment on the External Sector, Growth and Poverty Reduction in Ethiopia: CGE Analysis Given the volatility of world oil prices and the recent all time high, which increased their popularity, bio-fuels have received a great deal of attention globally. The central question in here is whether this will have a positive or a negative impact on smallholder farmers and people living in rural areas, as more agricultural land will be used for biofuels production? While some designate it as a crime against humanity, some others have argued that a greater production of biofuels will not necessarily be harmful for the poor and that they can become more food secure with the adoption of proper production technology.
- ethiopia | Climate change Common Property Forest Management: Implications for REDD in Ethiopia The proposed project seeks to contribute substantively to climate change and community forest management policies and advance the literature by analyzing the relationship between common property forest management (CPFM) in Ethiopia and climate policy within the context of the UN Collaborative Programme on Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation in Developing Countries (REDD) and proposing instruments for channeling REDD benefits to households.
- central america | Policy design Impact of uncertainty and pro-social attitudes on household’s solid waste management decisions: starting from scratch in a LDC This project addresses whether increasing uncertainty about the beneficial consequences of collected waste or other aspects of the collection-recycling process affect contribution levels and in turn prosocial attitudes.
- central america | Climate change Policy design Exploring the potential of safety nets as part of an adaptation to climate change strategy in Central America This project explores the effects and the role of safety nets in adaptation to climate change in Central America.
- central america | Fisheries Parks & Wildlife The role of coastal communities on the management of marine turtles in Central America: The case of Ostional Wildlife Refuge To understand under which conditions a co-management alternative (a shared effort between the central government and the local community) might work to guarantee the sustainable use of a complex mobile common pool resource such as marine turtles.
- central america | Climate change Policy design Measuring the effects of flood risk on migration flows: An application for Costa Rica The objective of this project is to estimate to what extent migration movements within a country are explained by occurrence of extreme weather events in general and more specifically by floods.
- china | Behavior ec. A Behavior Model of Transport Mode Choices in Beijing Beijing’s rapid economic growth in recent years has induced enormous transportation demand. Nowadays, congestion and air pollution caused by increasing use of cars are perceived as some of the most pressing problems in Beijing. To cope with these problems, the “low-fares of public transport” policy was adopted in 2007, by which passengers get 60 - 80% off the regular price; in the same year, subway fare decreases from 3-5 yuan to 2 yuan; from 2007 to 2009, 4 new subway lines and 1 airport express were constructed; and another 10 subway lines are under construction. Besides these policies and measures in effect, some other measures are under discussion, such as parking lot fees, congestion charges. To evaluate and learn from the existing programs and to design the most effective and desirable programs in the future, it is critical for the policy makers to acquire as much information about travelers' behavior as possible.
- kenya | Parks & Wildlife Park pricing policy Park pricing has been one of the major impediments to growth of the tourism sector in Kenya. Like other environmental resources and public goods, national parks benefit society in many different ways. They not only perform ecological functions but also provide recreational facilities and earn foreign exchange for the country.
- tanzania | Fisheries Incentives to Cooperate with Marine Protected Areas As a Function of Location: Mnazi Bay Ruvuma Estuary Marine Park Case Study As marine protected areas (MPAs) are applied in poor countries, and in particular in Mnazi Bay, Tanzania, managers recognize that the success of the MPA in protecting fish, biodiversity, and reefs stems from the response of local people – whether that response comes from direct enforcement activities or from incentives to cooperate with new restrictions. In Mnazi Bay, managers are combining enforcement of new regulations on fishing locations and technology with investments in community-based projects and resource management councils and widespread education efforts. In the terrestrial setting, integrated development-conservation projects (ICDPs) typically failed due to a lack of linkage between the development projects and conservation incentives and goals, leaving the development projects as compensation for losses associated with enforcement of access restrictions. MPA implementation seeks to avoid such failures and induce cooperation by focusing on projects that rely on healthy oceans and mangrove forests in addition to providing new technologies like larger mesh nets. Albers, Heidi, Elizabeth Robinson and Razack Lokina(2010), "Incentives to Cooperate with Marine Protected Areas As a Function of Location: Mnazi Bay Ruvuma Estuary Marine Park Case Study", EFD 2010 research project.
- ethiopia | Agriculture Impact of land certification on tree growing on private plots of rural households: evidence from the Amhara region of Ethiopia Sustained agricultural growth is important for poverty reduction in Africa due to the significant role of the sector in the continent. The performance of agriculture depends, among others, on appropriate investment in the sector and the latter is constrained by a multitude of factors including land tenure insecurity. In the presence of tenure insecurity, the risk of losing land will create a disincentive to undertake investments when the present value of the productivity benefits from such investments would, under full tenure security, be higher than their cost.
- ethiopia | Agriculture Impact of Biofuel Investment on Growth and Poverty Reduction in Ethiopia: CGE Analysis Given the volatility of world oil prices and the recent all time high, which increased their popularity, bio-fuels have received a great deal of attention globally. The central question in here is whether this will have a positive or a negative impact on smallholder farmers and people living in rural areas, as more agricultural land will be used for biofuels production?
- central america | Policy design Impact of uncertainty and pro-social attitudes on household’s solid waste management decisions: starting from scratch in a LDC Solid waste management is a severe environmental problem in many urban areas in the developing world. In particular, Costa Rica has been faced with an increasing amount of waste generation, with one quarter of total waste being collected and disposed by households only. Therefore, a good understanding of households as the source of waste generation and their response to policy incentives is necessary to achieve effective and efficient environmental protection (Bartone and Bernstein, 1993; Pearce and Turner, 1994). Alpízar, Francisco and Elisabeth Gsottbauer (2010) "Impact of uncertainty and pro-social attitudes on household’s solid waste management decisions: starting from scratch in a LDC" EfD 2010 project
- china eeu sweden ethiopia south africa | Agriculture Forestry Policy design Land Reforms in Asia and Africa - Impacts on Poverty and Natural Resource Management In this research project EfD aims to draw lessons from land reforms in several Asian and African countries. The findings will be presented in a book edited by Professors Stein Holden and Keijiro Otsuka and titled "Land Reforms in Asia and Africa - Impacts on Poverty and Natural Resource Management".
- ethiopia | Energy Dynamics of rural fuel demand: a two-period model for Ethiopia Most of the studies so far/literature on rural fuel demand and supply, in general, and those on Ethiopia, in particular, are apparently static, with no time dimension.
- ethiopia | Energy Forestry Urban energy transition and technology adoption: the case of Tigrai, northern Ethiopia Deforestation in Ethiopia has resulted in growing fuel scarcity and higher firewood prices in urban centers. Urban centers have long been dependent on the rural hinterlands for their fuel. The use of biofuels of rural origin covers about 90% of the urban fuel use. The dependence of urban centers on their rural hinterlands has aggravated the deforestation. One response to reducing the pressure of urban centers on their rural hinterlands could be through substitutions between or switching from one fuel to another, i.e., through energy transition. For example, through substituting away or switching from fuelwood to electricity. Electricity as cooking fuel is cleaner and do not cause deforestation.
- ethiopia | Agriculture Climate change Crop Biodiversity and Food Security in the Highlands of Ethiopia Production risk is one of the quintessential features of agriculture in Ethiopia. Unpredictable weather can expose farm households to significant production uncertainty and serious hardship. Under harsh climatic and agro-ecological conditions, this can result in food insecurity and famine. During the last 40 years, Ethiopia has experienced many severe droughts leading to production levels that fell short of basic subsistence levels for many farm households (REST and NORAGRIC 1995, p. 137). Harvest failure due to drought is the most important cause of risk-related hardship of Ethiopian rural households, with adverse effects on farm household consumption and welfare (Dercon 2004, 2005). When facing prospects of harvest failure, ex ante farm production decisions, such as crop or varietal choice, remain a part of risk-management strategies (Just and Candler 1985; Fafchamps 1992; Chavas and Holt 1996; Dercon 1996; Smale et al. 1998). In dry environments, farmers’ reliance on crop biodiversity is an essential part of ex ante risk management strategies. Thus, the conservation of relevant germplasms is instrumental to hedge against weather related uncertainty.
- central america | Parks & Wildlife Policy design Conservation Polices and Labor Markets: Unraveling the Effects of National Parks on Local Wages in Costa Rica The parks’ entrance location and the possibility of agricultural workers to switch to service activities can be important tools to take advantage of the economic benefits of parks.
- eeu sweden ethiopia | Forestry Household forest values under varying management regimes in rural Ethiopia Ethiopia’s forest cover is estimated at less than 4% of the total land area of about 1 million km2. The consequences of deforestation and forest degradation include reduced agricultural production and decreased household welfare. The Ethiopian government promulgated a forest proclamation and approved the first forest policy in 2007. In its recent comprehensive plan referred to as Plan for Accelerated and Sustained Development to End Poverty (PASDEP), the government also indicated its plan to increase forest cover from about 4% to 9% over a period of five years. The reality on the ground suggests that there is continuing deforestation and mismanagement of existing forests. The government has acknowledged in its forestry laws and regulations that depletion of these resources have resulted in reduced agricultural productivity and subsequently reduced quality of life of the rural people. Moreover, frequent restructuring of the main government body responsible for natural resources in general and forestry in particular meant different levels of attention paid to the sector with its implications for staffing and continuity of programs.
- south africa | Agriculture Quantification and valuation of the water treatment services of wetlands at a landscape scale Wetlands are considered to perform a number of ecosystem services, including the improvement of water quality. However, few empirical studies have been carried out on the capacity of wetlands to perform a water treatment function, or on the demand for this function, with the result that most estimates of the value of this service are based on a weak foundation. Furthermore, the measurement of this function is confounded by the complications in trying to assess water quality entering and leaving wetlands because of surface to groundwater interactions.
- south africa | Climate change Impact of Climate Policy and Policy Instruments on Investment on Environment Scepticism with respect to the consequences of climate change is declining worldwide as this issue takes a prominent place on global political agenda. However, the overall extent and magnitude of climate change consequences are still extremely uncertain. As such, any economic analysis of climate change must take cognisance of the economics of risk and uncertainty.
- kenya | Climate change Forestry Ex-ante Economic Analysis of Kenya’s particpation in the proposed REDD climate mitigation scheme Tropical deforestation, degradation and forest clearing are important contributors to green house emissions. Some studies approximate that as much as 25% of all carbon dioxide arise from deforestation and degradation.
- south africa | Parks & Wildlife Policy design The optimal pricing of national parks with nationality-based price discrimination and park substitution Nature based tourism is a popular and rapidly growing industry in South Africa. Developing nations are finding it useful to use their natural resources in order to create competitive advantage over the developed world.
- kenya | Forestry Policy design Corruption, Reform and Environmental Policy in the Forest Sector in Kenya In recent times many developing countries have experienced degradation of their natural resource base namely forests, water, fisheries etc. The resource degradation has largely been blamed on the management regime of these resources. In this study we investigate the local evolution and current status of forest management regimes in Kenya.
- south africa | Climate change Climate change in an experimental setting: The effect of stochastic future disasters and country vulnerability on cooperation. In this project we are investigate the trade off between countries’ investments in adaptation and mitigation. We study how the investment behaviour in these two types of investments differs between types of countries (where countries differ in terms of vulnerability).
- south africa | Fisheries Abalone poaching, methamphetamine use, criminal activity in South Africa and the associated implications for resource management This study seeks to explore the relationship between abalone poaching, use of methamphetamine and crime activity in the coastal communities of South Africa; and the associated implications for the management of the resource.
- ethiopia | Forestry Household forest values under varying management regimes in rural Ethiopia The broad objective of this project is to examine the role of forests/trees in the livelihoods of households at varying forest management regimes.
- south africa | Energy CPRs, Land Tenure, Compliance, Enforcement and Corruption: South African Case Studies Using what amounts to a field experiment we analyse whether the electricity consumption patterns of consumers are altered by the experience of blackouts and the exposure to Eskom’s communication. Secondly; we analyse bargaining experiments focussed on disputes concerning conservation-land owned by the South African National Defence Force and the conservation agencies.
- south africa | Climate change Policy design Implementing environmentally responsible investment strategies (ERI)in the South African investment and financial sector The research project led by Dr Stephanie Giamporcaro focuses on Environmental Finance and Environmental Investment. The research program aims thus to explore how environmentally responsible investment approaches are implemented currently in South Africa and how the implementation of these strategies in the country’s financial and investment sector can be facilitated in order to promote a sustainable growth in South Africa and a sustainable use of natural resources .
Projects
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