Natural Resource Management Policy Research Articles

Changes In Greenness Level In PT Arumin Indonesia's RPT NPLCT Area With Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI)

The observation focused on PT Arutmin Indonesia's NPLCT RPT area of 98 hectares. These observations are viewed with the help of remote sensing technology and geographic information systems (GIS). This observation aims to analyze changes in greenness levels that occur from 2019 to 2023 using the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) method and the materials used sentinel-2A imagery. The goal is to evaluate changes in greenness levels and their interpolation from 2019 to 2023. An area of 98 hectares was monitored using sentinel-2A satellite imagery with a pixel sharpness of 10 meters x 10 meters. The results show sentinel imagery from 2019 to 2020, 38.41 ha experienced reforestation, 1.65 ha experienced deforestation and 58.14 ha did not change. Sentinel-2A image from 2020 to 2021, 79.09 ha experienced reforestation, 1.35 ha experienced deforestation and 17.68 ha did not change. Sentinel-2A image from 2021 to 2022, 1.08 ha experienced reforestation, 79.48 ha experienced deforestation and 17.68 ha did not change. Sentinel-2A imagery from 2022 to 2023, 0.47 ha experienced reforestation, 40.65 ha experienced deforestation and 57.17 ha did not change. The sentinel-2A image changes from 2019 to 2023, 2.27 ha reforested, 20.35 ha deforested and 75.64. These observations highlight the importance of remote sensing technology and geographic information systems (GIS) in monitoring and analyzing land cover change to support conservation, rehabilitation and natural resource management policies in Kotabaru District, South Kalimantan.

Land Use Changes and Agricultural Developments in the Tocantins-Araguaia Basin: 1985 to 2022

Objective: To evaluate land use changes and investigate agricultural expansion in the Tocantins-Araguaia basin from 1985 to 2022. Theoretical framework: The Tocantins-Araguaia basin has undergone significant changes in land use and occupation, mainly due to the rapid expansion of agriculture and livestock. This expansion, driven by factors such as the growing demand for food and agricultural commodities, has generated socio-environmental impacts and increased discussion about sustainable use practices in the basin. Methods: Images from the MapBiomas Project were used to generate land use maps and statistical analyses. Results and discussion: The results indicate changes in land use and cover in the basin over the analyzed period. There was a reduction in forest areas, most of which were converted into agricultural areas, which showed significant growth. Analysis of the evolution of agricultural production in the basin revealed an increase in the area allocated to agriculture, mainly for crops such as soybeans, sugar cane and other temporary crops. Research implications: Patterns of change in land use highlight the pressing need to adopt sustainable agricultural development strategies that reconcile food production with the conservation of natural ecosystems and the well-being of family farmers and local communities. Originality/Value: It is important to understand the trends and effects of changes in land use in the basin to guide sustainable natural resource management policies and minimize potential negative effects of these changes on the environment and local communities.

Predicting the effect of climate change on the geographic distribution of the endemic Fritillaria aurea in Türkiye

Fritillaria aurea is a rare, high altitude, endemic, and bulbous plant species in Türkiye. Although it is classified as least concern according to IUCN criteria, the species has a narrow distribution. This study utilized ensemble modeling to forecast potential future changes in suitable habitats for F. aurea by two Shared Socio-Economic Pathways (SSPs: SSP 1-2.6 and 5-8.5). These pathways were constructed using two General Circulation Models (GCMs) and covered the years 2035, 2055, and 2085. The results showed that the minimum temperature of the coldest month (bio6), mean temperature of the wettest quarter (bio8), and precipitation of the warmest quarter (bio18) have the largest influence on the potential species distribution. The ensemble model predicted that the highly suitable habitats of F. aurea would contract under all future SSP scenarios and it would lose almost all of its potential highly suitable distribution areas by the end of the century. The remained population of F. aurea could possibly harbour in only minor areas of the North Anatolian Mountains in the north and Taurus Mountains in the south. The results of the study could contribute to establishing conservation strategies and natural resource management policies for F. aurea against the potential impacts of climate change. The highly suitable habitats under pessimistic scenarios at the end of this century projected by the present study can be determined as protected areas for the species.

Remote sensing approach in evaluating anthropogenic impacts on the spatiotemporal changes in net primary productivity of the Niger river basin, from 2000 to 2020

Deterioration of the environment can be examined by utilizing a statistical evaluation of the effects of anthropogenic activities (beneficial or detrimental) on net primary productivity. The Niger River Basin's net primary productivity is significant both theoretically and practically for the management of the natural environment. It is important for her member countries to understand vegetation dynamics, maintain carbon balance, and ensure food security in the region. The research applied remote sensing to determine the relative impact of human activities on the net primary productivity of the Niger River Basin from 2000 to 2020. The study simulated the actual and potential net primary productivity using the Carnegie Ames Stanford Approach and Thornthwaite's Memorial Model respectively, while the result of the simulations was used to calculate human-influenced net primary productivity. The slope of the three simulations was calculated and merged in several scenarios using ArcGIS 10.8 to determine the impact of human activities on net primary productivity of the study area. The negative impacts of human activities were recorded in 89.88 % of the investigated area, while 10.12 % of the NRB had signs of positive impacts. Amongst the biomes, urban areas and bare land experienced the largest negative impacts (97.2 % and 99.8 %, respectively). The study advised the effectiveness of ecological restoration programs, through sound scientific and technical methods, such as those used in rural development, nomadic herding, environmental protection, and natural resource management policies.

Assessing environmental, social, and governance performance and natural resource management policies in China's dual carbon era for a green economy

As the globe faces urgent environmental concerns and the need to move toward a greener and more sustainable economy, the idea of sustainability has received a lot of attention recently. Evaluation of the environmental, social, and governance (ESG) performance and natural resource management (NRM) policy options are crucial given the urgent environmental issues the world is facing and the requirement for sustainable development. The objective of this study is to assess China's ESG performance and NRM policy options in the dual carbon era for developing green economy. The dual carbon places a focus on the need of lessening carbon emissions and encouraging low-carbon activities and technologies. A hybrid multi-criteria decision making (MCDM) methods i.e. Fuzzy Analytical Hierarchy Process (FAHP) and Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS)-GREY are used to evaluate and prioritize the criteria, sub-criteria, and alternatives. The FAHP method is used to assess the criteria and sub-criteria of ESG performance. Moreover, the TOPSIS-Grey method is employed to prioritize the NRM policy options. The findings of FAHP analysis reveal that environment is the most crucial criteria, followed by governance and social performance. While the TOPSIS-Grey analysis show that green finance and investment, policy and regulatory reforms, and circular economy practices are the most suitable NRM policy options. China can significantly advance toward a more ecologically and socially responsible future while fostering economic growth and prosperity in the dual carbon era by implementing the recommended sustainable practices and policies.

“I Guess You Could Call It Plant Racism”: Making Kin in Australian Environmental Workfare

ABSTRACT Some scholars have drawn associations between Australian environmentalism and racism. Others have argued that natural resource management policies go beyond the science in justifying policies that have their real foundation in Australian nationalism. Yet applying semiotic analyses to focus upon such associations can risk obscuring efforts to actively loosen the nature–culture binary. Australia has a unique history of three decades of national environmental youth training programs such as Green Corps and Green Army. This environmental workfare engages a diverse range of actors: from university-qualified scientists to unemployed urban and rural youth. If any workplace culture is likely to generate a naïve environmentalist eco-nationalism, then the pseudo-military setting of national environmental workfare programs would be worthy of close examination. Based upon data collected from participants in Australian environmental workfare programs, this article explores how young workers display critical reflexivity, engaging creatively and ironically, embracing the more obscure Others. While attempting to generate cultural capital, particularly in the field of environmental science, they actively spurn naïve environmentalism. From the midst of the Australian bush, young people are answering Haraway’s call to “make kin in the Chthulucene”.

RETRACTED: Socio‐economic impact of natural resource management: How environmental degradation affects the quality of life

Sustainable development is guided by three pillars: the economy, society and the environment. Social consequences on health are shaped by economic systems and social structures, which are integrated with the larger environment and affect the global allocation of energy resources. This is the first research of its kind to examine the social and economic effects of environmental degradation changes while considering cross‐sectional dependency. This article examines the effect of natural resource management policies and socioeconomic development on Asia's ecological footprint from 1995 to 2020, considering natural resources, population growth and industrial development. Our research shows that changes in the natural resources and ecological footprint have improved economic conditions and social outcomes, including human progress and income distribution. Two different outcomes of recent natural resource management are improved operational efficiency and decreased environmental degradation. Our findings hold up even considering other possible model specifications considering the interaction impacts of power sector changes. The findings reveal a favourable correlation between ecological footprint and natural net financial accounts, natural resources and GDP growth. Long‐term environmental sustainability is a byproduct of a flourishing society and economy.

Valuing Nature in Global Production Networks: Hunting Tourism and the Weight of History in Zambezi, Namibia

Southern African ecosystems are threatened by biodiversity loss, but it remains highly controversial whether nature conservation can be successfully achieved by commodifying ecosystems through tourism or by withdrawing habitats from their integration into globalized production. This article contributes to the debate by applying the global production network (GPN) approach to analyze institutional dynamics and actors involved in the commodification of nature. While highlighting historical drivers of GPN articulation, we advance the GPN framework by integrating a practice-based perspective on value making. Based on archival research, qualitative interviews and quantitative data, this contribution examines the historical and current commodification of wildlife in the Zambezi region in northeastern Namibia. Under the umbrella of the community-based natural resource management (CBNRM) policy, the postapartheid government allows the regulated harvesting of individual animals for hunting tourism. This policy mobilizes wildlife as an endogenous natural asset that is embedded in the region. As a consequence, local institutions emerge that enable strategic coupling processes with the global hunting industry to initiate development trajectories in the remote region. The historical perspective, however, reveals that former elites are able to take advantage of these newly emerging opportunities and maintain a powerful position in the GPN until today. The analysis shows three mechanisms that drive the valuation of nature: local institution building, quota making, and revenue sharing. We conclude that the valuation of nature is a way of mobilizing regional assets through strategic coupling and gains realized from this commodification are used to build local institutions that ensure ongoing valuation.

Nature dependent tourism – Combining big data and local knowledge

The ability to quantify nature's value for tourism has significant implications for natural resource management and sustainable development policy. This is especially true in the Eastern Caribbean, where many countries are embracing the concept of the Blue Economy. The utilization of user-generated content (UGC) to understand tourist activities and preferences, including the use of artificial intelligence and machine learning approaches, remains at the early stages of development and application. This work describes a new effort which has modelled and mapped multiple nature dependent sectors of the tourism industry across five small island nations. It makes broad use of UGC, while acknowledging the challenges and strengthening the approach with substantive input, correction, and modification from local experts. Our approach to measuring the nature-dependency of tourism is practical and scalable, producing data, maps and statistics of sufficient detail and veracity to support sustainable resource management, marine spatial planning, and the wider promotion of the Blue Economy framework.

The Dynamics of Implementing Payment for Ecosystem Services Scheme in Lake Naivasha Basin Ecosystem, Kenya

Lake Naivasha Basin is located in Nakuru and Nyandarua counties in the Republic of Kenya. It is an important ecosystem to the economy of Kenya, consistently contributing upwards of 1% of the national Gross Domestic Production. However, this landscape is continuously and rapidly degrading due to intensive land use practices and land fragmentation in spite of the existence of various natural resource management policies in Kenya. The promotion of Payment for Ecosystem Services (PES) as a policy option to foster ecosystems sustainability by increasing the capacity of government authorities and local communities in Kenya to conserve riparian and forest ecosystems so as to reduce the vulnerability of dependent communities and production enterprises to the observed and anticipated effects of climate change is implied in the key environmental and natural resources policies in Kenya. We examine whether the Lake Naivasha Basin Payment for Ecosystem Services (LNB-PES) scheme embodied the critical characteristics of an effective PES mechanism and if it achieved the desired ecological and livelihood results. A total of 1,191 heads of households and 11 key informants were interviewed for this study. The study results indicate that the LNB-PES scheme had some functional and conceptual inadequacies although it achieved remarkable adoption and compliance by participating farmers. Based on these results, we recommend that a new PES scheme with a conditionalities enforcement mechanism be initiated for the LNB with a view to informing the mainstreaming of the concept of enforceable PES in the existing policy framework, the development of a national or basin-level PES policy, and, support watershed restoration and climate change adaptation through the provision of forest technical extension services to land owners for the creation of woodlots and other watershed protection initiatives at farm level.

The Green Economy and Decentralization of Natural Resources Management (DNRM) Policy in Indonesia under the International Law Framework: Quo Vadis?

The Green Economy, as the multilateral paradigm for national developments, emerges to counter an obsolete mindset of development. A green economy fosters a responsible long-term developmental attitude, emphasizing environmentally sustainable economic progress to foster low carbon and socially inclusive development. There must be a catalyzation of investment and innovation that will underpin sustained growth and give rise to new economic opportunities. Indonesia is obliged to implement green economy principles and mandates. However, on the national level, there is no specific regulation concerning implementing a Green economy. Since 1999, Indonesia has been implementing decentralization (regional autonomy). The natural resources management policy has been under the authority of regional governments. However, the decentralization has resulted only in the central government’s willingness to redistribute responsibilities but not willing to share decision-making authorities with the regional governments. This phenomenon could jeopardize the green economy implementation. Hitherto, there are a few kinds of literature discussing the implementation of a green economy and the rule of international law in Indonesia. Accordingly, this paper attempts to analyze implementing a green economy and decentralizing natural resources management policy in Indonesia. The doctrinal and comparative law methods will be employed in this research.

The Economic Value of Natural Resources and Its Implications for Pakistan’s Economic Growth

Natural resources and ecological services provide the foundation for manufactured capital, increasing public financing and decreasing inequality by diversifying the economy. The exploitation of natural resources is frequently the backbone of economic stability in developing and middle-income nations. As a result of their importance, natural resources need vigilant and long-term management. Recent research has tested two hypotheses, the natural resource blessing hypothesis and the natural resource curse hypothesis, on the impact of a country’s natural resources on its economy. This research is an essential contribution to the growing body of work that attempts to quantify natural resource endowments’ role in national economic growth. Investigations focus on Pakistan and span the years 1975 through 2020. Robust Least Square (RLS) estimations show that coal rents, energy use, inbound FDI, and oil rents contribute to a country’s economic growth. While consumption of renewable energy sources and industrial value-added have a detrimental effect. Natural resources, foreign direct investment, energy consumption, and industrial ecology are predicted to significantly impact economic growth during the next decade, according to the Impulse Response Function (IRF) and the Variance Decomposition Analysis (VDA). The findings may provide helpful information for academic and governmental institutions to develop natural resource management policies for sustainable development.

Crafting the success and failure of decentralized marine management

This paper presents an ethnographic case study of the design and revision of a decentralized marine management scheme implemented on the island of Moorea, French Polynesia named Plan de Gestion de l’Espace Maritime (PGEM). Drawing on an analysis of over 50 consultative workshops and meetings, held from 2018 to 2021 during the PGEM revision, we document the materials, discourses, and practices local stakeholders (e.g., fishers, cultural and environmental activists, government staff, and scientists) combine to build their interpretations of PGEM success or failure. We examine the diversity of domains these interpretations draw from (ecology, marine livelihoods, culture, religion, and politics) and how they are put into practice in people’s engagement with—or resistance to—the local marine management and governance design. Our results highlight how the controversies around the revision of Moorea’s PGEM overflowed the boundaries of ecology as construed by scientific experts. Stakeholders interpreted “marine resource management” as something well beyond just “marine resources” to include politics, identity, Polynesian cosmology, and livelihoods. Our findings provide generalizable patterns for understanding how natural-resource management policies are received and repurposed by local actors.

Spatio-temporal Land use/land cover dynamics and its driving forces in the Mekong Basin using Landsat imageries from 1988 to 2017

As one of the world’s biodiversity hotspots, Mekong Basin has experienced a dramatic change in land-use and land-cover (LULC) over the past three decades, which could have a profound effect on regional biodiversity patterns. However, LULC dynamic and their driving forces in the Mekong Basin are still not well understood due to the complex geographical environment and the lack of efficient approaches to consistently produce accurate and timely LULC maps. In this study, we divided the Mekong Basin into three geographical units based on topographic and landscape heterogeneity. Then a rule-based method was employed to map LULC for each geographical unit from Landsat images. Finally, LULC dynamics and associated driving forces in the Mekong Basin from 1988 to 2017 were analysed. The results showed that: (1) the rule-based classification framework could accurately produce time series of LULC maps with overall accuracies over 86% for all single-year classifications. (2) Forest (49.92%) and cultivated land (34.89%) were the dominant LULC types in the Mekong Basin during the study period. Between 1988 and 2017, about 20.98% of the study area experienced LULC changes, in which the artificial surface increased by 3980.31 km2, mainly at the expense of forest and cultivated land. (3) Human disturbances were identified as the major driving forces of LULC changes. This study present essential source of information for policymakers to formulate sustainable natural resources management policies in the study site. In addition, this rule-based classification provides an insight into improving the accuracy of LULC mapping in complex geographical environment.

The possible future changes in potential suitable habitats of Tetrastigma hemsleyanum (Vitaceae) in China predicted by an ensemble model

Tetrastigma hemsleyanum ( Vitaceae ) is an endangered subtropical herbaceous perennial climbing liana mainly distributed south of the Yangtze River (China). It is widely used in medical and phylogeographic applications, and its growth is restricted to certain climate conditions. In this study, we applied ensemble modeling approaches to investigate the possible changes in potential suitable habitats of T. hemsleyanum in the future under all shared socioeconomic pathway (SSP) scenarios. The results showed that the mean diurnal range (bio2) and precipitation of the warmest quarter (bio18) were the most important variables affecting the potential suitable habitats of T. hemsleyanum . Currently, the area of highly suitable habitat for T. hemsleyanum is approximately 1.38 × 10 6 km 2 . The ensemble model predicted that the highly suitable habitat of T. hemsleyanum will contract under all future SSP scenarios and that the more severe the global warming is, the more highly suitable habitats will be lost. The contracted high suitable habitats ranged from 20% (SSP126, best case) to 90% (SSP585, worst case) at the end of this century. The results of this work may provide useful information for formulating conservation and natural resource management policies for T. hemsleyanum . The remained high suitable habitats under SSP585 at the end of this century projected by the current work can be selected as nature reserves.

How prominent are coastal and marine environments in Australia's natural resource management regions? A reflection of past arrangements and current conditions

Coastal Natural Resources Management (NRM) is a distinct sector in Australia with a focus on biodiversity conservation. It is a sector worthy of scrutiny because coastal and marine environments are arguably more complex and dynamic than their terrestrial counterparts thus creating more diverse challenges for managers. Land tenure at the coast in Australia also sets these environments apart and has direct implications for NRM governance, including reliance on a volunteer workforce. Numerous politically driven federal policy and funding cycles have shaped what has become Australia's current NRM system. It is argued that over time the coastal sector has become increasingly marginalised through these cycles. Here we concentrate on the devolved governance framework established in the mid-2000s as the federal government's ‘regional delivery’ model. While NRM policy has since re-centralised and shifted focus, regions and their administration have endured and are significant entities but have received little recent attention. This paper presents a brief history of NRM in Australia including the emergence of state NRM architecture and an update of the status of coastal NRM regions. We use a sample of ten NRM regions selected based on coastline length to land area ratios and affluence attributes. The prominence of coasts is considered through three pillars essential to the NRM system: Boards of Management; strategic planning, and support for the volunteer community. While a regional NRM framework is in place, the prominence of coastal and marine environments is questionable in relation to Boards of Management expertise. This has implications for strategic planning. The interrogation of plans suggests that overall, the focus of stakeholders is not primarily on conservation of coastal assets and the past levels of support for coastal volunteers is a but shadow of previous programs. A set of national guidelines or principles to integrate coastal and marine priorities in NRM planning cycles offer one mechanism to amend this situation along with a reinvigoration of a community support program.

Change Detection of Amazonian Alluvial Gold Mining Using Deep Learning and Sentinel-2 Imagery

Monitoring changes within the land surface and open water bodies is critical for natural resource management, conservation, and environmental policy. While the use of satellite imagery for these purposes is common, fine-scale change detection can be a technical challenge. Difficulties arise from variable atmospheric conditions and the problem of assigning pixels to individual objects. We examined the degree to which two machine learning approaches can better characterize change detection in the context of a current conservation challenge, artisanal small-scale gold mining (ASGM). We obtained Sentinel-2 imagery and consulted with domain experts to construct an open-source labeled land-cover change dataset. The focus of this dataset is the Madre de Dios (MDD) region in Peru, a hotspot of ASGM activity. We also generated datasets of active ASGM areas in other countries (Venezuela, Indonesia, and Myanmar) for out-of-sample testing. With these labeled data, we utilized a supervised (E-ReCNN) and semi-supervised (SVM-STV) approach to study binary and multi-class change within mining ponds in the MDD region. Additionally, we tested how the inclusion of multiple channels, histogram matching, and La*b* color metrics improved the performance of the models and reduced the influence of atmospheric effects. Empirical results show that the supervised E-ReCNN method on 6-Channel histogram-matched images generated the most accurate detection of change not only in the focal region (Kappa: 0.92 (± 0.04), Jaccard: 0.88 (± 0.07), F1: 0.88 (± 0.05)) but also in the out-of-sample prediction regions (Kappa: 0.90 (± 0.03), Jaccard: 0.84 (± 0.04), and F1: 0.77 (± 0.04)). While semi-supervised methods did not perform as accurately on 6- or 10-channel imagery, histogram matching and the inclusion of La*b* metrics generated accurate results with low memory and resource costs. These results show that E-ReCNN is capable of accurately detecting specific and object-oriented environmental changes related to ASGM. E-ReCNN is scalable to areas outside the focal area and is a method of change detection that can be extended to other forms of land-use modification.

Donor-side evaluation of the spatiotemporal variation in the rural land natural capital value and its influencing factors: A case study of Chongqing, China

Measuring the value of natural capital provides decision support in regard to the trade-off between natural capital use and protection. Evaluating the natural capital value of land from the perspective of the rural land ecosystem is helpful for better understanding its value. Moreover, research on the spatiotemporal variation characteristics of the natural capital value of land facilitates determination of the rural land natural capital value (RLNCV) evolution trend. This study constructed an accounting system of the RLNCV in Chongqing from the donor side based on emergy theory combined with a spatial analysis method. The spatiotemporal characteristics, spatial correlation, and spatial differentiation in the RLNCV were studied. The main conclusions are described as follows: (1) The RLNCV in Chongqing increased year by year, from 31.035 billion yuan in 2005 to 204.087 billion yuan in 2018. The high-value areas were mainly distributed in the northeast and southeast regions, and the low-value areas were largely located in the Metropolitan Economic Circle (MEC) and the region around the main city. The change rates of most districts and counties in the southeastern region were high, while those of certain districts and counties in the northeastern region were low. However, due to the large base, the value was relatively high. (2) The global Moran's I of the RLNCV in Chongqing increased from 0.602 in 2005 to 0.624 in 2018, indicating that the geographical spatial autocorrelation was increasing, there was a spatial agglomeration effect, and the coefficient of variation increased from 0.096 in 2005 to 0.808 in 2018; these findings indicate that the regional difference was increasing, and the spatial imbalance was notable. (3) The RLNCV spatial association types in Chongqing indicated a significant positive correlation-related agglomeration distribution. The high-value agglomeration association types were mainly distributed in the northeastern and southeastern regions, and the low-value agglomeration association types largely occurred in the western part of the region near the main city. (4) The rainfall factor attained the highest explanatory power regarding the spatial differentiation in the RLNCV in Chongqing, and the human activity factor had limited influence. However, the synergistic effect of the human and socioeconomic factors continuously increased, and the influence of the policy factors increased. Chongqing was as selected the case study in this work, and it yields important reference significance for rural land natural capital evaluation in the unique area of human-land relationship change and facilitates the implementation of appropriate government policies for rural land natural resource management. Based on this study, policymakers should optimize the spatial differentiation control mechanism, accounting evaluation mechanism, and green development. This study provides a reference for understanding the RLNCV from the donor side and can guide the maintenance and appreciation of natural capital in areas with complex and diverse human land relationships and unbalanced development.

Government Policies for the Natural Resource Management of Minerals and Coal Based on Social Welfare

<em>This research aims to describe the natural resources management policies in the mineral and coal sectors. The description is based on the social welfare value contained in Law No. 3 of 2020 concerning Amendment of Law No. 4 of 2009 concerning Mineral and Coal Mining, as well as Law No. 11 of 2020 concerning Employment and Labour Law. This research employed a normative judicial method based on law regulations that are conceptualized as principles or norms and have evolved into proper human behavior standards. Secondary data were employed by exploring literature correlated with the mineral and coal mining management law and analyzed using juridical-qualitative techniques. Subsequently, the research indicated that the Indonesian government policy in the Mineral and Coal, alongside Omnibus Laws, are unable to accommodate social welfare values and support only profit-oriented businesspersons. This research is expected to proffer suggestions for the central or regional government to make regulations prior to the social welfare principle.</em>

The Impact of China, the EU, and the US on Africa through the Lens of Output Growth and FDI

This study uses a vector of FDI-weighted real gross domestic product (GDP) growth rates as proxy for the output growth of China, the European Union (EU), and the United States (US). Using a two-stage least squares estimator over a sample of 42 sub-Saharan African countries for the period 2003–2012, our findings reveal that only the EU’s output spillovers have a significant impact on sub-Saharan Africa’s growth: a 1% increase (decrease) in the EU’s output growth can lead to a 0.02% increase (decrease) in sub-Saharan Africa’s real GDP per capita. The results obtained from the panel threshold regression analysis indicate that this linkage is not conditional on the availability of natural resources, unlike the output spillovers from the US and China, which bear a positive impact only in countries with resource rents of at least 24.3% and 24.1%, respectively. These are mostly oil-abundant countries, implying that China’s motive for natural resources in Africa is not different from that of the US. While the resource rents threshold level of 24.3% can serve as the benchmark for natural resource management policies to benefit from both China and the US output spillovers, a diversified FDI is also encouraged to minimize the risk associated with the resource growth paradigm.