Can Labor Out-Migration Reduce Firewood Consumption by Rural Households in Western Mountainous China

The relationship between out-migration of labor in the Qinling mountain area and households’ firewood consumption is explored. Migration and remittances reduce households’ firewood consumption due to increases in both income and opportunity cost of firewood collection. Previous studies have been equivocal because they ignored uncertainty in household economy, which is widespread in forest areas of less developed countries. This study provides additional insight by considering vulnerability and subjective assessment of poverty generated by unstable income and an uncertain future. We provide evidence that the amount of firewood consumed depends on income and opportunity cost of firewood collection, but also on a prudent consumption strategy, due to farmers’ subjective assessment of their future possible poverty. We also find out-migration of labor can reduce per capita firewood consumption but subjective poverty also acts against reduction of firewood consumption.     

Distribution of benefits based on household participation roles in decentralized conservation within Kanchenjunga Conservation Area Project,Nepal

Kanchenjunga Conservation Area is located in the remote and sparsely populated mountainous region of Eastern Nepal. It has been locally managed as a decentralized Integrated Conservation and Development Project since 2006, the first of its kind in Asia. Major international donor agencies sponsor programs to empower and strengthen the capacity of local communities to manage their natural resources, while concurrently improving livelihood opportunities. We surveyed 205 randomly selected households throughout the project area to assess the factors that influence household participation roles in management and management groups, and to evaluate how benefits from program involvement were distributed among the community. Overall, the distribution of benefits was unequal: households with higher level participation roles had increased access to financial credit and capacity development trainings. Social variables such as age, level of education among head of households, the highest level education among household adults, and household size predicted participation. The region is economically homogeneous; therefore, economic factors such as remittances, off-farm income and the quantity of landholdings or livestock did not predict household participation roles. Our results demonstrate the importance of targeting and empowering disadvantaged households in decentralized conservation programs, including educating members about the relationship between participation and equitable distribution of benefits.     

Can Labor Out-Migration Reduce Firewood Consumption by Rural Households in Western Mountainous China

Abstract

The relationship between out-migration of labor in the Qinling mountain area and households’ firewood consumption is explored. Migration and remittances reduce households’ firewood consumption due to increases in both income and opportunity cost of firewood collection. Previous studies have been equivocal because they ignored uncertainty in household economy, which is widespread in forest areas of less developed countries. This study provides additional insight by considering vulnerability and subjective assessment of poverty generated by unstable income and an uncertain future. We provide evidence that the amount of firewood consumed depends on income and opportunity cost of firewood collection, but also on a prudent consumption strategy, due to farmers’ subjective assessment of their future possible poverty. We also find out-migration of labor can reduce per capita firewood consumption but subjective poverty also acts against reduction of firewood consumption.     

Shocks and coping strategies of coastal communities in war–conflict-affected areas of the north and east of Sri Lanka

A quantitative survey of 1,377 households in three war-affected coastal districts of Jaffna, Mannar and Trincomalee in the north and east of Sri Lanka shows that inflation or price hikes, specially fuel, and natural disasters such as floods and droughts are highlighted as the shocks with the biggest impacts on fisher and non-fisher households. We hypothesise that the pattern/severity of households’ coping strategies to face these shocks depends on a set of household characteristics: livelihood diversity, asset ownership, level of education and the ability to borrow. Livelihood diversity, asset ownership and borrowings correlate significantly with the severity of coping strategies adopted by households for both fisher and non-fisher households. Education and livelihood diversification does not show a significant correlation for fisher households although it significantly affects livelihood diversification of both types of households.     

The relationship between country and individual household wealth and climate change concern: the mediating role of control

The relationship between wealth and climate change concern has been a focus of several studies. In this article, we hypothesize that richer households (and countries) are less concerned about climate change because wealth provides a buffer against some of the related risks. This leads people in wealthier countries and households to perceive a greater sense of control over climate change impacts, which in turn results in lower levels of concern. We tested this hypothesis using a unique household survey encompassing 11 OECD countries and over 10,000 households and applying mixed multi-level regression models. Our results confirmed a statistically significant negative relationship between country and household wealth and individuals’ perceptions of the seriousness of climate change. This study contributes to current literature by showing that this relationship is mediated through sense of control, measured at the country level by the country’s readiness index and at the individual household level by the extent of adoption of energy efficiency improvements. These findings raise the question of how best to incentivize action on climate change amongst those with the ability—but not necessarily the motivation—to respond.

     

Forest income and dependency in lowland Bolivia

Forests contribute to livelihoods of rural people throughout the tropics. This paper adds to the emerging body of quantitative knowledge on absolute and relative economic importance, through both cash and subsistence income, of moist forests to households. Qualitative contextual information was collected in six villages in lowland Bolivia, followed by a structured survey of randomly selected households (n = 118) that included four quarterly income surveys. We employed a novel data collection approach that allows detailed estimation of total household accounts, including sources of forest income. We estimated the average forest income share of total annual household income (forest dependency) at 20%, ranging from 18 to 24%. Adding environmental income increased the average to 26%, being fairly constant across income quartiles at 24–28%. Absolute levels of forest income increased with total household income, while forest dependency was the highest in the best-off income quartile—the primary harvesters of forest products are better-off households. The pattern of high forest dependency among better-off households has also been reported from other countries, indicating that this pattern may be more common than advocated by conventional wisdom. Using ordinary least squares (OLS) regressions, we found significant determinants of absolute forest income to be household size, sex of household head and area of cultivated land; the significant determinants for forest dependency were level of education, whether household head was born in village and whether household was food self-sufficient. Better-off households were able to realise cash income from forests, while poorer households—in particular if headed by women—were more reliant on subsistence forest income. We argue that the differential patterns of forest income across income quartiles should be considered in future development interventions and that findings indicate a potential for forests to contribute to moving households out of poverty.     

Bioeconomic modeling of farm household decisions for ex-ante impact assessment of integrated watershed development programs in semi-arid India

The increasing population and urbanization have serious implications for sustainable development in less-favoured areas of developing countries. In an attempt to sustain the long-term productivity of natural resources and to meet the food and non-food demands of growing population in the semi-arid tropics, the Indian government invests and promotes integrated watershed development programs. A comprehensive tool to assess the impacts of watershed development programs on both social well-being and sustainability of natural resource is currently lacking. In this study, we develop a watershed level bioeconomic model to assess the ex-ante impacts of key technological and policy interventions on the socioeconomic well-being of rural households and the natural resource base. These interventions are simulated using data from a watershed community in the semi-arid tropics of India. The model captures the interaction between economic decisions and biophysical processes and using a constrained optimization of household decision model. The interventions assessed are productivity-enhancing technologies of dryland crops and increased in irrigable area through water conservation technologies. The results show that productivity-enhancing technologies of dryland crops increase household incomes and also provided incentives for conserving soil moisture and fertility. The increase in irrigable area enables cultivation of high-value crops which increase the household income but also lead to an increase in soil erosion and nutrient mining. The results clearly indicate the necessity for prioritizing and sequencing technologies based on potential effects and trade-offs on household income and conservation of natural resources.     

Rainfall variability and household coping strategies in northern Tanzania: a motivation for district-level strategies

Climate variability is an important stress factor for rural livelihoods in most developing countries where households have been adapting to environmental shocks for decades. Climate change results in increased variability and poses new challenges for rural livelihoods, as well as for policymakers in adjusting policies to changing conditions. This paper examines the potential relationships between rainfall data and household self-reported harvest shocks and local (spatial) variability of harvest shocks and coping strategies based on a survey of 2,700 rural households in the Kagera region of northern Tanzania. The results show that rainfall patterns in the region are very location-specific and that the distribution of household reported harvest shocks differs significantly between districts and correspond to the observed variability in local climate patterns. Coping strategies are focused on spreading risks and include reduced consumption, casual employment, new crops, external support and the selling of assets. There are no large differences in applied coping strategies across the region, but district-level data demonstrate how local strategies differ between localities within the districts. The results emphasize that in order to target rural policies and make them efficient, it is important to take into account the local conditions that rural households face when experiencing climate-related shocks. Finally, shocks reported by households appear to correspond well with observed variability in rainfall patterns.     

Unravelling the association between the impact of natural hazards and household poverty: evidence from the Indian Sundarban delta

Coastal regions have long been settled by humans due to their abundant resources for livelihoods, including agriculture, transportation, and rich biodiversity. However, natural and anthropogenic factors, such as climate change and sea-level rise, and land subsidence, population pressure, developmental activities, pose threats to coastal sustainability. Natural hazards, such as fluvial or coastal floods, impact poorer and more vulnerable communities greater than more affluent communities. Quantitative assessments of how natural hazards affect vulnerable communities in deltaic regions are still limited, hampering the design of effective management strategies to increase household and community resilience. Drawing from Driving Forces–Pressure–State–Impact–Response (DPSIR), we quantify the associations between household poverty and the likelihood of material and human loss following a natural hazard using new survey data from 783 households within Indian Sundarban Delta community. The results suggest that the poorest households are significantly more likely to endure material and human losses following a natural hazard and repeated losses of livelihood make them more vulnerable to future risk. The results further suggest that salinization, tidal surge, erosion, and household location are also significant predictors of economic and human losses. Given the current and projected impact of climate change and importance of delta regions as the world’s food baskets, poverty reduction and increase societal resilience should be a primary pathway to strengthen the resilience of the poorest populations inhabiting deltas.     

Assessment of adoption and impact of rainwater harvesting technologies on rural farm household income: the case of rainwater harvesting ponds in Rwanda

Rainwater harvesting is increasingly viewed as a major strategy for enhancing agricultural productivity and boosting farm income in many drought-prone areas. While this technology is being promoted in many developing countries, there is conflicting evidence in the literature about its impact on welfare of farm households. This study uses propensity score matching and discrete choice regression techniques to assess the impact of rainwater harvesting ponds on farm household income and factors that influence adoption of such technologies in Rwanda. It finds that households with rainwater harvesting ponds have significantly higher income than their counterparts of comparable observable characteristics. It further finds evidence that increase in farm income occurs via increased input use and that household size, asset endowments and participation in farmer organizations condition adoption of rainwater harvesting ponds. The study concludes that adoption of rainwater harvesting technologies has positive benefits on farm households. It discusses the policy implications that adoption of rainwater harvesting ponds presents a pathway for reducing rural poverty.     

补贴期后农户退耕还林的态度研究——以重庆万州为例

如何在项目结束停止补贴后长期巩固退耕还林成果,是政府和全社会共同关注的焦点。基于重庆万州退耕农户的微观调查数据,采用Ordered probit方法首次就补贴期后的农户退耕还林态度进行实证分析。数据显示,有相当大一部分农户在补贴结束不会再继续为退耕还林做出努力,项目的可持续性令人担忧;对补贴期后农户退耕还林态度的影响因素分析发现,男性、文化程度较高、非党员和非农就业的户主在补贴期后保持退耕还林的积极性较低;劳动力较多、年人均收入较低、退耕面积较大和还生态林的农户保持退耕还林的积极性较低。结论建议在现有的直接经济补偿结束后,尽快建立与生态服务提供紧密相连的生态补偿机制,并通过多种非货币性补偿方式保障退耕农户的利益。最后根据研究结果给出了巩固退耕还林成果的相关措施     

Status differences in collective action and forest benefits: evidence from joint forest management in India

Does status matter in community-based forest management? If so, are the high-status households more benefited than the low-status households? What drives status differences, if any, in the appropriation of forest resources? To address these questions, we draw on a theory of status and resource use that defines one’s status as one’s relative position in a group on the basis of power, prestige, honor and deference. Following this perspective, we surveyed the heads of 341 forest-based rural households in India from 2009 to 2010. We find that collective actions themselves are status-driven and the high-status households are more interested and involved in status-maintaining collective actions such as decision-making and implementation, while the low-status households perform general tasks like forest patrol. Moreover, the high-status households derive benefits from local forest significantly more than the low-status households. Further, decomposition analysis shows that a household’s prestige and honor measured by its access to social resources, problem faced and useful contacts explain about 56 % of the status gap in forest benefits, while socioeconomic characteristics explain only 16 % of the gap. Thus, due emphasis on household status from a broader socioeconomic perspective is required to reduce inequality in participation and the distribution of forest benefits in co-management.     

An empirical assessment of rural livelihood assets from gender perspective: evidence from Ghana

Poverty studies have demonstrated that a group’s ability to escape poverty is largely dependent on the types of assets that the group’s members possess. A major claim that has been asserted with limited empirical evidence in the asset literature is the gender disparity dichotomy. Using rural Ghana as a case study, we assess the asset levels of farm households from a gender perspective. In doing so, we theorized and empirically tested assets on case bases. A household questionnaire survey was used to collect data from two hundred households in the Fanteakwa district of eastern Ghana. An asset index was used to compute the asset levels, while Kruskal–Wallis statistics was employed to compare the significance of the temporal changes. The results show a minimum level of asset endowment. Natural, social and financial assets were the three most endowed assets, with physical and human assets being the least. A gender analysis shows no significant difference, even though the levels of assets for the female-headed households were slightly higher than those of the male-headed households. However, the study found a 22.7% increment in the accumulation of financial assets among the female-headed households over the last 5 years compared to a 9.3% decrement in the same assets for their male-headed counterparts. Applying our theory, the results present an unbalanced and unstable asset situation among the household heads. We call for improvement, in physical and human assets. The overall study results imply an improvement in gender-asset accessibility in the context of rural Ghana.     

近40年来中国农作物与耕地受灾时空特征及影响因素分析

中国作为农业大国和自然灾害最严重的国家之一,自然灾害会对农作物和耕地造成严重影响。基于1978～2017年中国31个省(自治区、直辖市)农作物受灾面积与灾毁耕地面积等灾情数据,结合气温、降水等气象数据和地形数据,采用计量分析、Morlet小波分析和空间分析等方法,分析我国农作物和耕地受灾的时空分布特征,并探究农作物受灾面积的周期性以及农作物受灾面积、灾毁耕地面积与气温、降水和地形之间的关系。结果表明:1978～2017年农作物受灾主要以旱灾和水灾为主,农作物受灾面积和灾毁耕地面积均呈下降趋势,且农作物受灾面积有30年左右的显著变化周期;不同灾种的空间分布存在差异,其中农作物受灾较大的区域主要是华北平原、东北平原和长江中下游平原等农业较为发达区域,灾毁耕地面积主要分布在毗邻胡焕庸线两侧的省份(直辖市、自治区),且以西南地区为最,洪涝、滑坡、泥石流是造成灾毁耕地的主要原因;农作物水、旱灾害与降水,农作物冷冻灾害与气温,灾毁耕地与平均坡度、坡度大于15度面积比在置信区间呈现正、负、负、正、正的相关关系。在政策设计上掌握农作物和耕地受灾的时空特征和发生规律,将对减少农业自然灾害损失和提高防灾减灾能力具有重要的意义。     

Climate change and natural disasters: macroeconomic performance and distributional impacts

Commonly occurring natural events become natural disasters when they affect the population through death and injury, and/or through the destruction of natural and physical capital on which people rely for their livelihood and quality of life. Climate change plays a role in that it tends to increase the frequency and intensity of weather-related natural disasters. Additionally, climate change may put people at risk by influencing access to water, coastal flooding, disease and hunger, and leaving them with a more degraded environment, leading, in turn, to increased vulnerability. The purpose of this paper is to present a review and synthesis of the literature and case studies addressing differential impacts of climate change-related natural disasters on a society and its economy. Developed and developing countries show different vulnerabilities to natural disasters. Even within countries, impacts vary significantly across population and economic sectors. When losses from natural disasters are large, their cumulative effect can have notable macroeconomic impacts, which feed back to further pronounce existing income inequalities and lower income levels. Impacts tend to be most pronounced for women, the young and elderly, and people of ethnic or racial minorities.

农地转出:缓解还是加剧了农户的多维贫困?

基于六盘山集中连片区的1 112户农户调研数据,在综合考虑样本选择偏差和异质性的基础上,通过构建内生转换模型分析了农户农地转出行为对多维贫困指数的影响。结果表明：农户农地转出行为能够显著地降低多维贫困指数。通过进一步的反事实假设研究,发现农地转出户如果不转出农地,多维贫困指数将提高22.16%;未转出户如果有机会转出农地,多维贫困指数将下降30.22%。尽管农地转出行为能够降低农户的多维贫困指数,但受制于以地为生思想意识的制约,集中连片区农户并不能做出合理的决策。     

The role of remittances and decentralization of forest management in the sustainability of a municipal-communal pine forest in eastern Guatemala

At the national scale, forest cover in Guatemala declined at an annual rate of 1.2% during the past quarter century because of settlement that removed primary forests in the northern region of the country; however, the majority of the population of Guatemala still resides in the densely populated central highlands and has extracted timber and fuelwood from adjacent forests for centuries. Using baseline data recorded in 1987 and 1996, this article reexamined the sustainability of a municipal-communal pine forest in San José La Arada, a municipality in eastern Guatemala. The pine forest declined from the period 1987 to 1996 because of overextraction of timber and fuelwood. Forest structure and forest use were reexamined from the period 1996 to 2007 to test the hypothesis that the forest continued to decline. Forest characteristics such as stand density, basal area, tree height, and evidence of forest use were measured to replicate the procedures from previous work at the study area. To understand changes in forest structure and forest use in the context of the rise in remittances and the introduction of decentralized forest governance that emerged since 1996, a household survey was conducted in two adjacent villages. Forest structure improved from 1996 to 2007. From 1996 to 2007, forest characteristics such as stand density, basal area, tree height, and forest regeneration improved and evidence of forest use decreased in the municipal-communal pine forest. The influence of large amounts of remittances from the United States and other regions of Guatemala to households in the adjacent villages and the decentralization of forest governance largely explains the shift toward forest sustainability in San José La Arada.     

生计资本异质对农户农地流转行为的影响——以武汉城市郊区的516户农民为例

以武汉市城郊江夏区和蔡甸区的516户农民家庭为实证,运用logistic和分位数回归模型探索家庭生计资本对农户土地流转行为的影响及阈值。结果表明:(1)人力资本和金融资本与农户农地转出行为呈显著正向相关,家庭农地资源禀赋、机耕能力、社会资源禀赋及经营能力的信任程度等与农地转出行为负向相关。相反,自然资源禀赋及农业机械投入对农户土地转入行为的正向影响显著,而家庭融资能力则对农户转入行为呈显著的负向影响。(2)分位数回归结果显示,对农户土地流转行为存在影响阈值的仅有韧性指数。当农户家庭韧性指数≤2时,随韧性指数增强农户农地转出倾向愈强;家庭韧性指数≥3时,农户农地转出倾向随指数增强而弱化。该研究从农户微观个体视角探索生计资本异质对农地流转行为的影响,为针对农户家庭需求制定差别化的农地流转政策、有效推进农业适度规模经营提供建议参考。     

Characterising the nature of household vulnerability to climate variability: empirical evidence from two regions of Ghana

This paper builds on national- and regional-level vulnerability assessments by developing and applying a livelihood vulnerability index at the community and household scales to explore the nature of climate vulnerability. It provides innovative methodological steps in relation to livelihood assessment to identify the vulnerability of households and communities to drought. This will help to improve drought vulnerability assessments in Ghana and more widely as it shows extra information can be obtained from local-level vulnerability assessment that may be lacking in national- and regional-level analysis. The research employs quantitative and qualitative data collected through participatory methods, key informant interviews and a questionnaire survey with 270 households across 6 communities in two regions in Ghana. Results show that within the same agroecological zone, households and communities experience different degrees of climate vulnerability. These differences can be largely explained by socioeconomic characteristics such as wealth and gender, as well as access to capital assets. Results identify vulnerable households within resilient communities as well as more resilient households within vulnerable communities. These outliers are studied in detail. It is found that outlier households in vulnerable communities have an array of alternative livelihood options and tend to be socially well connected, enabling them to take advantage of opportunities associated with environmental and economic changes. To sustain and enhance the livelihoods of vulnerable households and communities, policymakers need to identify and facilitate appropriate interventions that foster asset building, improve institutional capacity as well as build social capital.     

The oil palm boom: socio-economic implications for Q’eqchi’ households in the Polochic valley,Guatemala

Oil palm (Elaeis guineensis) has become one of the most rapidly expanding crops in the world. Many countries have promoted its cultivation as part of a broader rural development strategy aimed at generating paid work and producing both export commodities and biofuels. However, oil palm expansion has often occurred at the expense of ecosystems and subsistence agriculture, and on lands riddled with tenure conflicts. In this article, we analyse the implications of the combined effect of labouring in oil palm plantations and land access on households, and we discuss how these implications affect human well-being in two indigenous communities of the Polochic valley, Guatemala. Combining participant observation, semi-structured interviews, and land-time budget analysis at household level, we reveal how oil palm cultivation increases incomes for plantation workers’ households, but decreases the productivity of maize cultivation, reduces the time that household members have available for other activities and, particularly, reduces women’s resting time. In contrast, households that focus more intensively on maize cultivation show higher degrees of food security and women can allocate more time to social activities. However, our results also show that maize consumption per capita has not decreased in households working in oil palm plantations since such crop is considered sacred by the Q’eqchi’ and plays a central role in their diet and culture. In conclusion, we argue that while working for an oil palm cultivation can increase specific elements of the basic material conditions for a good life, other aspects such as food security, health, freedom of choice, and social relationships can become deteriorated.