Local Employment Opportunities Research Articles

Rural Household Preferences for Active Participation in "Payment for Ecosystem Service" Programs: A Case in the Miyun Reservoir Catchment, China.

Many payment for ecosystem services (PES) programs, such as the Slope Land Conversion Program (SLCP), are passive and require full participation by impacted households. In contrast, this study considers the alternative of “active and incomplete” participation in PES programs, in which participants are not obliged to contract their own land, and have the right to select into the program or not. This type of program has been popular over the last decade in China; however, there have been few studies on the characteristics of willingness to participate and implementation. As such, this paper uses the Choice Experiment (CE) method to explore ways for inducing effective program participation, by analyzing the effects of different regime attributes. The case study used to analyze participation utility was the Jing-Ji Afforestation Program for Ecological and Water Protection (JAPEWP), a typical active-participation forestry PES program, and a key source of water near Beijing in the Miyun Reservoir Catchment (MRC). Analyzing rural household survey data indicated that the program faces a variety of challenges, including long-term maintenance, implementation performance, cost-effectiveness, and monitoring approaches. There are also challenges with one-size-fits-all payment strategies, due to ineffective program participation or imperfect implementation regimes. In response, this study proposes several policies, including providing secure and complete land tenure to the participants, creating more local off-farm employment opportunities, designing performance-based monitoring systems that are integrated with financial incentives, applying differentiated payment strategies, providing capacity building to support forestation activities, and establishing a comprehensive implementation regime that would address these challenges. These policy conclusions provide valuable lessons for other active-participation PES programs as well.

Street Vendors and Urban and Peri-urban Agriculture: Scenarios from Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR), India

Rapid urbanization in India creates social problems where urban and peri-urban agriculture (UPA) has a role of in reducing urban poverty and ensuring environmental sustainability. Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) is a fastest growing region in India with a population of 21 million where high proportion of urban poor along with higher migration to MMR makes the region vulnerable to food crisis. This paper focuses on the current situation street vending and UPA production systems in MMR with special attention towards their contribution towards the local services. An over view about the various concepts of street vending were also presented. The question about the various social dimensions and aspects of these marketing systems were also mentioned. Based on primary and secondary data, this paper attempts to confirm that street vending in UPA production complement rural supply chains and reduce ecological food prints. These marketing systems should be better planned and incorporated into the city architecture for ensuring local food supply and employment opportunities in MMR.

An investigation of villages in the Republic of Ireland

Major growth and change have occurred in villages of under 500 population in the Republic of Ireland. There had been no data or research on these small places. This paper reports on an investigation of twenty-six villages, one in each county. There was a high rate of natural population increase and also substantial in-migration, which was mainly over short distances. Housing was found to be a major locational factor. Village expansion had far exceeded local employment opportunities and half those at work travelled to employment elsewhere, the extent of commuting varying greatly between places. Urban orientation had increased greatly, though most villages had retained a range of basic services and the usage patterns of each place were different. Residents were generally favourably disposed towards village development and life but they suggested a wide range of improvements, led by the great need for employment. With some functional shift from service centre towards place of residence, villages have become more integrated into the national settlement system and their place in it could be strengthened, but expansion seems unlikely to continue at the recent rate.

Small-scale shrimp fishing in search of sustainability in the Magdalena-Almejas lagoon system, Baja California Sur, Mexico: a review.

The coastal lagoon system Bahía Magdalena / Almejas (BM/A) at the Pacific coast of Baja California Sur, México, is a large water body extremely important for ecological, economic and social reasons. Because of its natural environment BM/A was declared as one of the areas deserving marine conservation priority. The exact number of fishermen and their families living around the Bay is not known, and neither is the currentlyregistered small boats in service, nor the fishing efforts, expenses and yields. Recently, several civil organizations started working in the BM/A with the mission to solve some of the identified environmental and social problems. However, because of the lack of reliable data, wide spread corruption, and undirected and uncoordinated research make it very difficult to suggest ways to improve the livelihood of the small-scale shrimp fishermen without endangering the environment. Some promising options are small-scale aquaculture projects, mainly for off-shoremollusks production, and to offer eco-tourist activities as well as eco-friendly sport fishing. Both bring local employment opportunities while maintaining a quality environment.

Framing young people’s educational transitions: the role of local and contemporary economic contexts

Despite rates of participation in post-compulsory full-time education reaching approximately 84% in Wales, social class inequalities continue to shape young people’s transitions from compulsory to post-compulsory education. This article draws upon data from a project which explored how young people’s educational decisions and transitions in Wales, UK are influenced by national economic landscapes, the popular narratives framing them and the structure of local employment opportunities. The analyses revealed that young people from similar social class backgrounds, but living in different localities, make very different sorts of transition from compulsory to post-compulsory education; in essence, they are either ‘pushed’ or they ‘jump’ into post-16 education. The article aims overall to contribute both empirically and theoretically to understandings of the complexity of educational decision-making, revealing how class and location intersect to frame decision-making processes, in so doing producing and reproducing educational inequalities.

Criminals by necessity: the risky life of charcoal transporters in Malawi

The charcoal industry in sub-Saharan Africa plays a substantial role providing growing urban populations with domestic energy. However, concerns about its environmental impacts have led to punitive policies, resulting in the criminalisation of charcoal-based livelihoods. One factor constraining the development of more effective policy approaches is limited data on the impacts of regulations on the socio-economic outcomes of different value chain actors. We focus on one group of actors: charcoal transporters, who supply charcoal to Zomba, a medium-sized city in Southern Malawi. Drawing on a survey of 201 transporters, we find that they are attracted by fast cash-in-hand, low capital requirements and the lack of alternative local employment opportunities. Both men and women participate, yet transport methods are gendered. Men, who typically transport charcoal on a bicycle, earn three times as much per week as those who carry charcoal on their heads, the main method used by women. However, bicycle users incur higher financial risk due to costs associated with confiscations and damage to bicycles. Unlike in larger cities, an urban elite does not dominate the supply chain in Zomba. We argue that punitive targeting of small-scale charcoal transporters serves only to push them deeper into poverty and does nothing to contribute to sustainable resource management.

Perceived impact of offshore aquaculture area on small-scale fisheries: A fuzzy logic model approach

Recently an action plan has been put in place off southeastern Portugal, consisting in an offshore aquaculture area off the Armona sandy barrier island, Armona Pilot Production Aquaculture Area (APPAA). The infrastructure was created after the initiative of the Portuguese Government aiming to stimulate local employment opportunities related to seafood production. The APPAA aims to improve resilience of finfish and shellfish production for the future. However, the delimited infrastructure is located nearby some fishery-dependent communities. Therefore, such proximity may cause friction with some fishermen due to the limitations post APPAA development (e.g. may feel their jobs are threatened). In this study, we queried the reasoning rules elicited by local fishing communities and their perceived impact of the APPAA implementation. In that scope, a fuzzy logic expert system approach was used to investigate the interaction between three input variables (namely, ‘availability of fishable area’, ‘navigational disturbance’, and ‘catch variation’) and the output variable (i.e., overall ‘fishing community satisfaction’). The results from the fuzzy logic expert system showed that ‘catch variation’ was the input that most affected ‘fishing community satisfaction’ and seemed to be the one that suffered most changes. The results also show that, for the analyzed years, where the catch was higher, the degree of satisfaction tended to follow the trend, independently of the fishing community. The other two input variables were more conditioned by governmental arrangement (‘availability of fishable area’) and by small-scale fishermen reaction (‘navigational disturbance’). The fuzzy logic expert system proved to be a valuable tool, facilitating the analysis of governance arrangements, particularly those dealing with the interaction between the fisheries–offshore aquaculture system as a whole.

Socio-economic factors affecting the conservation of natural woodlands in Central Riyadh Area – Saudi Arabia

This study aimed to identify some socioeconomic factors affecting local people in central Riyadh area for the utilization of wood and other energy sources in cooking and heating in order to develop some recommendations for conserving woodlands. The study results revealed that gas is the most common energy source used for cooking with a mean usage level of 2.79 (SD=0.58). On the other hand, wood ranked first for heating with the highest mean, usage level of 1.90 (SD=1.06). However, electricity and gas as sources of energy for heating ranked second and third with mean usage level of 1.81 and 0.80 respectively. The study revealed that local people with the university education were significantly making higher use of electricity for both cooking and heating and those with no formal education ranked the highest on wood use for both cooking and heating. In addition, those living in traditional houses significantly used more wood for cooking than those living in villas and apartments. Also, local people with high income levels significantly were using more electricity for heating than others. The study recommended conducting extension and environmental awareness raising programs to enhance local residents’ adoption of wood substitutes, promoting employment opportunities for unemployed locals, and subsidizing prices of alternative energy sources.

Job Search Processes for Tribal People From Jharkhand and West Bengal

Millions of job seekers in South Asia, including many tribals, are forced by lack of local employment opportunities to migrate towards urban areas. This fieldwork-based study aims to understand specifically which factors influence job search processes among tribals from two states in India—Jharkhand and West Bengal. It examines their reasons for moving and factors on which job search depends, methods adopted in job search, the extent of different options and limitations because of the nature of jobs available and the skills levels of the people concerned. Based on these ethnographic findings, some policy concerns are raised in terms of monitoring of migration and protection of food security for tribal communities and other structurally disadvantaged rural people in South Asia.

Rural livelihoods and the Chinese timber trade in Zambia's Western Province

SUMMARY In recent years, the increase in China’s timber demand has brought increased sourcing by Chinese logging companies worldwide. In Africa, Chinese companies have established both timber buying and logging operations. Although Zambia is not a major producer, it is a repository of several valuable wood species, attracting several Chinese logging companies. The presence of these export-oriented companies is potentially a matter of concern in regards to rural livelihoods and the environment. Using a comparative approach to understand the differences in effect between Chinese and non-Chinese companies, we ask how the timber trade affects rural livelihoods. The results of household and community –level fieldwork in Western Province suggest that the activities of both Chinese and non-Chinese logging companies bring limited benefits to rural communities. Meanwhile, non-Chinese logging companies provided more local employment opportunities. In contrast, Chinese logging companies outbid their non-Chinese counterparts in the local timber market, providing greater opportunities to small-scale loggers.

Partnering for economic development: How town-gown relations impact local economic development in small and medium cities

Universities play an increasingly prominent role in shaping regional, social, and economic development. In Canada, however, spatial, economic, and social differences between universities and their host communities continue to challenge positive town–gown relationships and undermine the benefits associated with high concentrations of prospective young, “creative” graduates. The purpose of this article is to identify the factors that lead to positive town–gown relations and, subsequently, encourage graduate retention. Through this research, university and town administrators were found to play a key role in establishing a positive relationship between students and community members. Local employment opportunities were also found to help students build an experiential relationship with their localities and make them more likely to settle there after graduation.

Using Community Development Block Grant Dollars to Revitalize Neighborhoods: The Impact of Program Spending in Philadelphia

Since the 1930s, federal housing policy has pursued an array of goals: addressing housing quality and affordability, neighborhood conditions, and residential segregation; and seeking to increase local employment opportunities and cities' tax bases. While the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) program, established in 1974 to replace a number of categorical grants, was designed to be flexible and broad enough to include all of these goals, in most cases, local decision makers have focused program dollars on improving housing, not neighborhood-wide, conditions.Public community development and housing programs can play a central role in prompting positive neighborhood change and ultimately repositioning weaker neighborhoods. There is a growing consensus in the literature that subsidized housing investments are more likely to generate such spillover effects if they are geographically targeted. What is less well known is exactly how much spending is required—what the threshold amount is—to positively impact neighborhood-wide conditions and values.This project tests recent estimates of threshold spending amounts using data on investments funded by Philadelphia's Community Development Block Grants and Section 108 loans, and house value trends at the census-tract level. According to this analysis, Philadelphia census tracts receiving above-sample-median amounts of CDBG and/or Section 108 loan funds saw property values increase far more than those tracts receiving less subsidy or control group tracts receiving no subsidy at all. This suggests that geographically targeting subsidies can help maximize their neighborhood-wide effects.

Involving local people in sustainable rural development and conservation: a response to the economic crisis

This paper concerns the management and development of natural resources using citizens’ participation in decision-making procedures. The study examines the economic growth of gateway communities in the Amvrakikos Wetlands National Park with the use of a structured questionnaire and through personal interviews. Simple random sampling was used as a method. The case study constitutes an approach used to examine local people’s views concerning the various characteristics of the broader area, their living standards, as well as the sectors they wanted existing and future developments to be based upon. Through the research results, it is acknowledged that local people consider employment opportunities to be inadequate. They think that local development is based, partly, on the primary sector. Whereas, local people wish the primary sector to be enhanced along with the secondary, they want industry development and a tertiary sector, with the provision of services and tourism.

Government policy and women in the labour market: The importance of public sector employment

Women have made important quantitative and qualitative gains in the labour market in recent years. A key feature of women’s employment is their disproportionate concentration in the public sector, and this helps to explain the advances they have made in the labour market given the availability of high quality jobs and opportunities for skills development in this sector across many local areas. This article explores how ongoing economic, labour market and welfare policy changes may undo some of the progress that has been made by women in the labour market, especially because of their vulnerability to job cuts in the public sector, the spatially uneven impact of such job losses and the particular dependence of women on local employment opportunities.

Natural and socio-economic factors affecting food security in the Himalayas

In the Himalayas, food security of communities primarily depends on local agricultural productivity and food purchasing power. Subsistence agriculture, which is forest based, constitutes the main source of rural food and livelihoods. However, due to constraints of terrain and climate, agricultural productivity is low, resulting in large food deficits and leading to a considerable proportion of the adult male population migrating from the region in search of employment and livelihoods. Remittances from the migrants and local off-farm employment contribute to community purchasing power which may be used to buy food from the open market and government controlled Public Distribution System (PDS). Depletion of natural resources, changing climatic conditions, the recent economic recession and sharply fluctuating food prices have not only decreased local food production but also reduced employment opportunities locally as well as outside the area, rendering the entire region highly vulnerable to food insecurity. This study, which was carried out in the Upper Kosi Catchment in Kumaon Himalaya, India, revealed that not only has annual agricultural productivity declined by nearly 125 Kg per ha (25 %) during the last 30 years, causing an annual food deficit of 1883 tonnes (65 %) and massive decline in per capita food production, but that local off-farm employment opportunities in different traditional rural sectors has also declined. Furthermore, the recent economic recession and the resultant job losses for migrants has decreased incoming remittances by 20 %–25 %, causing the loss of local purchasing power and posing a serious threat to food security. Those particularly affected are marginal and smallholder farmers, and landless households, which mainly include socially backward communities and families with very low incomes. It is therefore imperative that a community oriented framework for the management of land, water and forest resources is planned and implemented in this region, together with the generation of viable means of off-farm employment at the local level

The Influence of Extracurricular Foodservice Work Experience on Culinary Graduate Industry Experience

This purpose of this article is to examine the influence of extracurricular foodservice work experience on the foodservice industry persistence of culinary graduates. The researcher used a survey methodology to obtain experiential data from culinary graduates. Post facto data from school records were used to enrich the survey data and provide an opportunity to observe the potential influence of extracurricular foodservice employment on in-school performance. A novel survey instrument was developed and validated through the use of expert reviewers, pilot testing, and internal consistency analysis. Participants in this study were graduates of a small, proprietary culinary school in a metropolitan area of Texas. Culinary graduates from the past five years and only graduates from one culinary program, the Associates of Applied Science in Culinary Arts (Culinary AAS), were used in the data analysis. The following hypotheses were addressed: H1: There is a statistically significant relationship between foodservice work experience obtained while attending culinary school and graduate career persistence in the foodservice industry. H0: There is not a statistically significant relationship between foodservice work experience obtained while attending culinary school and graduate career persistence in the foodservice industry. Moderate levels of extracurricular foodservice experience during school appeared to be a benefit to graduates. Industry persistence was higher for those graduates who worked prior to their in-school externship experience when compared to those who did not. Those students who had more robust extracurricular work experiences in the foodservice industry had higher industry persistence upon graduation. In-school performance for those students who worked in the foodservice industry while attending school was only slightly inferior to those who did not work prior to their externship experience. A decline in academic performance was observed when employment exceeded 30 hours per week. There was evidence of a synergistic effect between work and school that may alleviate the deleterious influence of extracurricular employment on academic performance. The results are of interest to culinary instructors and administrators who are seeking to strategically maximize graduate industry persistence and in-school academic performance. A limitation of this study was the reliance on survey data from former students. Examined in-school data metrics may also be influenced by other variables beyond the student's employment while attending school. Differences in school demographics, curricula, local foodservice employment opportunities, and the students themselves may influence the transferability of results to other settings. Generalization of the research method and results to other schools where students work, especially if the work is far removed from their career goals or degree focus, is not recommended.

City branding: A facilitating framework for stressed satellite cities

The emergence of the satellite cities as feeder cities to major metropolises is a phenomenon of increasing urbanization. Workers and students travel to the major city, returning on mediocre public transport or congested highways. Problems in some satellite cities range from deficient local employment opportunities, to social and cultural activities, and economic development. Concurrent local unemployment and higher crime rates suggest that citizens experience stresses. These factors affect the citizens' brand experience and identity. Conversely, self-sustaining cities associate with strong economic and social roots. The developing city branding research domain has yet to address stressed satellite cities' branding. The study's purpose is to develop the nature of a stressed satellite city brand profile. This quantitative study examines two stressed satellite cities, developing a common stressed satellite cities brand profile. The findings develop a common stressed satellite city brand profile, facilitating policies addressing stressed satellite cities' problems.

Commuting to Work: RN Travel Time to Employment in Rural and Urban Areas

To investigate the variation in average daily travel time to work among registered nurses (RNs) living in urban, suburban, and rural areas. We examine how travel time varies across RN characteristics, job setting, and availability of local employment opportunities. Descriptive statistics and linear regression using a 5% sample from the 2000 Census and a longitudinal survey of newly licensed RNs (NLRN). Travel time for NLRN respondents was estimated using geographic information systems (GIS) software. In the NLRN, rural nurses and those living in small towns had significantly longer average commute times. Young married RNs and RNs with children also tended to have longer commute times, as did RNs employed by hospitals. The findings indicate that travel time to work varies significantly across locale types. Further research is needed to understand whether and to what extent lengthy commute times impact RN workforce needs in rural and urban areas.

Thermal performance evaluation of a four pan jaggery processing furnace for improvement in energy utilization

Abstract The jaggery making from sugarcane is one of the traditional process industries contributing to the local employment and entrepreneurship opportunities to the rural population. Jaggery is a condensed form of sugarcane juice produced by evaporation of moisture. Bagasse which is internally generated during juice extraction from sugarcane is used as the fuel for evaporation in a jaggery furnace. Any efficiency improvement in the thermal performance of a jaggery furnace leads to bagasse saving which provides additional revenue for the jaggery manufacturer. A procedure for thermal evaluation using mass and energy balance for a jaggery furnace is proposed to establish furnace performance and loss stream analysis. The proposed method is used to investigate a four pan traditional jaggery furnace in India. The loss stream analysis indicates that the theoretical energy required for jaggery processing is only 29% of total energy supplied by bagasse combustion. The major loss is associated with heat carried in flue gas and wall losses. The air available for combustion depends upon the draft created by chimney in natural draft furnaces. The oxygen content in the flue gas is a measure of degree of combustion. A controlled fuel feeding based on the oxygen percentage in the flue gases is proposed and demonstrated. The traditional practice of fuel feeding rate is changed to control feeding rate leading to reduction in specific fuel consumption from 2.39 kg bagasse/kg jaggery to 1.73 kg bagasse/kg jaggery. This procedure can be used for evaluation of jaggery furnaces for identification and quantification of losses, which will help in improving thermal energy utilization.

A case study of the Flex LNG/Rift Oil floating LNG project in Papua New Guinea

Flex LNG Limited is a producer of units for the production, storage and off-take of liquefied natural gas (LNG). It currently has four of these units committed for construction by Samsung Heavy Industries in Korea, utilising the SPB LNG containment system. The world’s first floating liquefaction unit will be delivered to Flex in 2012. Floating LNG facilities have unique potential for monetising uncommitted gas reserves. In June 2008 Flex and Rift PLC entered into a co-operation agreement under which they agreed to work together to develop a floating liquefaction project offshore Papua New Guinea (PNG). The project will utilise Rift’s gas reserves and one of Flex LNG’s floating liquefaction units. Annual production capacity will be 1.5 million tonnes of LNG and start-up is targetted for 2012. The paper will be a case study of this project including: critical path, project structure and contractual matrix, upstream reserves and facilities, feed gas quantity and quality, pipeline issues and, key design parameters and liquefaction operations for the LNG producer. The paper will also cover: direct and indirect stakeholders in the project; economics and financing; PNG-specific issues such as geography, permitting, fiscal regime, local employment opportunities, marine conditions, infrastructure and sovereign risk; LNG demand in the Pacific and LNG marketing and off-take arrangements.