Graduated stringency within collective incentives for group environmental compliance: Building coordination in field-lab experiments with artisanal gold miners in Colombia

Small-scale gold mining is important to rural livelihoods in the developing world but also a source of environmental externalities. Incentives for individual producers are the classic policy response for a socially efficient balance between livelihoods and the environment. Yet monitoring individual miners is ineffective, or it is very costly, especially on frontiers with scattered small-scale miners. We ask whether monitoring at a group level effectively incentivizes cleaner artisanal mining by combining lower-cost external monitoring with local collective action. We employ a mining-framed, threshold-public-goods experiment in Colombia's Pacific region, with 640 participants from frontier mining communities. To study compliance with collective environmental targets, we vary the target stringency, including to compare increases over time in the stringency versus decreases. We find that collective incentives can induce efficient equilibria, with group compliance – and even inefficient overcompliance – despite the existence of equilibria with zero contributions. Yet, for demanding targets in which the reward for compliance barely outweighs the cost, compliance can collapse. Those outcomes improve with past successes for easier targets, however, so our results suggest gain from building coordination via graduated stringency.     

A comparative assessment of land management approaches in Bhutan

Arable land in Bhutan is under serious threats of land degradation. Proper land management approach is needed to control soil erosion problems. This study is an attempt to characterize and document the conventional and the community-based land management approaches, applied in Chukha and Dagana districts, respectively. The study tried to make a comparative assessment of their social, economic and environmental impacts on the participating farmers. Farmers’ level of participation in the program, implementation of the soil erosion control measures (SECM) and subsequent social, economic and environmental impacts were found to be significantly influenced by the type of approach applied. The study found that community-based approach is by any means better suited for the study sites than the conventional approach. The social, economic and environmental attributes of respondents from the community-based approach were found to have improved significantly as compared to the conventional approach. The community-based approach was thus found to have a higher potential to meet the diverse requirements of rural subsistence farming communities in Bhutan than the conventional approach.     

农户参与农田水利建设意愿影响因素的理论与实证分析——基于江西省619户种粮大户的微观调查数据

利用江西619户种粮大户数据,运用博弈模型逻辑和Logistic模型从理论与实证上分析了农户参与农田水利建设意愿的影响因素。研究结果表明,种稻收益、粮食补贴政策评价、农业劳动力人数、易洪易涝面积比重及村庄双季稻种植比重等因素对农户参与农田水利建设意愿有显著正影响,兄弟姐妹个数对农户参与农田水利建设意愿有显著负影响,而户主年龄、文化程度、经营规模、区域类型等变量的影响不显著。     

南方丘陵山地农户对生态系统服务的感知及其影响因素——以湖南省慈利县为例

生态系统服务是保障乡村生态安全、环境健康以及经济可持续发展的重要基础,农户作为乡村地域生态系统与乡村经济发展的重要关联主体,其生产生活以及对生态系统服务的认知与感知变化对维护生态系统功能具有重要影响。以南方丘陵山地重点生态功能区——湖南省慈利县6个不同发展类型的农村社区为研究对象,基于农户访谈与入户调查,探究了2008—2018年农户对各类生态系统服务的多样性感知变化,采用多元线性回归方法构建农户对生态系统服务多样化感知指数模型,分析其影响因素,在此基础上提出两者协同发展的建议策略。结果表明：（1）农户对各类生态系统服务感知变化以及不同区域之间的感知均呈现差异性,农业生产主导区感知强于生态保护核心区和生态经济发展区;（2）农户对林地、农田、园地、湿地生态系统服务的多样性感知以及属性感知依次减弱;（3）自然环境、资源禀赋、个体特征等是影响农户生态系统服务属性感知的重要因素。研究结果以期为维护区域生态系统服务,提升农户福祉推进生态服务提升及乡村协同发展提供参考。     

The public good dilemma of a non-renewable common resource: A look at the facts of artisanal gold mining

Millions of people worldwide are involved in artisanal and small-scale gold mining. Many of them live in conditions of poverty and insalubrities due to the mercury amalgamation of gold and the application of other rudimentary techniques. In spite of this, the sector has been nearly overlooked by resource economists. In this paper we analyze the sector based on a survey of the existing literature. We find some commonalities of artisanal and small-scale gold mining in different countries of the developing world as follows: low levels of mechanization and technology, labor intensiveness, low awareness of environmental degradation, poor training, high transience among some miners, and lack of financial savings. Moreover, with these commonalities in mind, we present some topics and challenges for a research agenda in the field of environmental, ecological, and development economics.     

农户经营杉木林的碳汇供给及其影响因素

基于我国南方集体林区浙江、江西、福建三省202户农户杉木林经营数据,结合已有生长模型,采用生物量转换和扩展因子法, 测算了杉木林生态系统固碳量,并采用修正的Hartman模型,在林地期望价值最大化的决策目标下,估算出了碳汇价格、利率、木材价 格变动对杉木林碳汇供给量的影响.结果表明:①最优轮伐期及碳汇供给量与碳汇价格成正相关,与利率、木材价格成负相关.②在碳汇价格变化情况下,最优轮伐期由大到小依次为,劣等地＞中等地＞优等地,相反,碳汇供给量依次为,优等地＞中等地＞劣等地,劣等地的最优轮伐期和碳汇供给量变动幅度要明显大于中等地和优等地.③利率在7％-8％变动时,优等地的最优轮伐期和碳汇供给量均未发生变化;利率在4％-5％变动时,中等地最优轮伐期和碳汇供给量均未发生变化;而在1％-8％的变动区间,劣等地的最优轮伐期和碳汇供给量均在不断缩短和降低.④当木材价格上升10％或下降10％时,对优等地的最优轮伐期和碳汇供给量均未产生影响;对中等地而言,仅当木材价格下降10％时,最优轮伐期和碳汇供给量均发生变动;而对劣等地而言,木材价格上升或下降都对两者产生影响.研究得出如下结论:碳汇价格、利率、木材价格对杉木林经营最优轮伐期及杉木碳汇供给量有重要影响,在碳汇价格、利率、木材价格变化情况下,不同立地条件的碳汇供给价格弹性、利率弹性、木材价格弹性存在显著差异.立地条件通过影响杉木营林成本和产出量,从而对杉木林经营的最优轮伐期及碳汇供给量产生较大影响,立地条件越差的地块对碳汇供给量越敏感,随着碳汇价格逐步上升、利率和木材价格的逐步提高,碳汇供给变化为劣等地大于中等地和优等地,而碳汇供给量为优等地大于中等地和劣等地.     

Life satisfaction approach to farmers’ compensation for land acquisition: empirical study from the suburbs of Wuhan City

Farmers’ compensation for land acquisition is not only critical to increasing their income and to playing a pivotal role in maintaining rural stability, but also to the promotion of sustainable land use. Based on analysis of Chinese land acquisition policy under the Land Management Law, which provides principles or guidelines for determining compensation according to agricultural land use in regard to farmers’ previous quality of life, the Life Satisfaction Approach is introduced in this article to evaluate farmers’ compensation for land acquisition. Employing data from a questionnaire survey on 346 farming households in Wuhan Suburbs, this article examined the influence of farmland on farmers’ life satisfaction and evaluated the level of compensation for land acquisition. Results show that farmland has a significantly positive impact on life satisfaction, which fell by 0.033 on a five-point scale following a reduction farmland by of 1 mu. Respondents were willing to accept approximately RMB 3066.44 annual household income for the loss of 1 mu farmland; the level of compensation after discounting by 6.2% is RMB 750,000 per hectare. It was found in a further comparative study that the level of farmers’ compensation for land acquisition is decidedly low, and it was also shown that their compensation standards, as well as the actual compensation, could be substantially improved by expanding economic compensation to non-economic compensation to embody farmland multifunction in terms of production and non-production against farmers’ previous quality of life. This article proposes a compensation model that enriches the content of land acquisition compensation, extends the current literature on measuring compensation, and provides economic theory bases for increasing compensation standards and improving policies related to land acquisition. We consider that if this compensation model is applied, it could raise the cost of land acquisition and improve usage of land, reduce the speed of rural–urban land conversion, and improve farmers’ well-being.     

海岛养殖户台风灾害适应性行为及其影响因素分析

水产养殖是保障粮食安全、提升适应力需要关注的关键部门之一。农户层面的灾害适应性行为及其影响因素研究对增强养殖户灾害适应能力,确保养殖户生计安全、海岛可持续发展和渔村振兴具有重要价值。基于海岛水产养殖户调查数据对养殖户灾害全过程适应性行为进行研究,并运用Multivariate Probit模型实证分析了适应性行为的影响因素,结果表明：（1）较多地采用无悔反应和低悔战术,很少采用预先应对策略、更容易的早期策略以及未来获益策略使得大多数养殖户适应行为的成效不太显著。（2）同一因素对养殖户选择的多种适应策略有正负不同方向的显著影响,不同适应策略之间也存在着显著的互补和替代效应。（3）年龄、家庭劳动力、5年遭灾次数是养殖户适应行为的重要影响因素,投入、健康状况、灾害感知强度、收入、教育程度、社会资本都对养殖户采取的适应行为有显著影响。（4）海岛地区养殖户灾害适应行为的影响因素及其影响方向具有特殊性。研究识别了海岛养殖户台风灾害适应行为的关键影响因子和薄弱环节,结论可为政府和养殖户灾害适应策略的优化调整提供依据。