Natural Resource Policy Makers Research Articles

Energy prices volatility, natural resource policy-making and green economic recovery in post COVID-19 era: Evidence from BRICS countries

The connectedness of natural resource volatility and economic growth has been an area of central attention for academicians and researchers before and even after the COVID-19 pandemic. The global as well as the Asian financial crises have negatively impacted the natural resources and economic growth of countries. Literature lacks the impact of crises on natural resources especially in BRICS economies. Hence, the current study examines the agriculture, livestock, crude oil, metal, and, coal-based natural resource commodities in determining the sustainable economic growth of BRICS countries. To achieve the objectives, data from the GSC index (Goldman Sachs Commodity Index) and different World Bank indicators is collected over a period from 2002 to 2022 which also includes the era of Post COVID-19 pandemic. Augmented dicky fuller test is used to explore the stationarity of constructs while ECM (error correction model) and Granger causality test are used to capture the connectedness between the explanatory and dependent variables. The empirical results infer that prices of commodities based on agriculture, livestock, oil, coal, and valuable metals are positively linked with sustainable economic performance in BRICS Countries. The results may be supportive of accelerating economic growth by improving the extraction and consumption of natural resources, livestock, agriculture, precious metals, oil, and coal.

Optimal profitable allocation of associated natural gas resource on a countrywide basis to mitigate flaring

The flaring of large volumes of the natural gas that is produced as a by-product of crude oil, has puzzled the energy-hungry world for long. In recent years, it has also drawn the angst of the environmental and global-warming advocacy groups. The issues behind gas flaring are complex, as they involve a dynamic interplay of geosciences, engineering, economics, finance and natural resource policy-making.The purpose of this research is to analyze the associated gas problem quantitatively from a country-wide perspective. Unlike prior studies, this work focusses on the upstream side where the crucial strategic decisions are made upfront. To this end, a mathematical model is proposed for seeking the optimal integrated management strategy for the said national resource. The model is based on the Mixed Integer Linear Programming (MILP) technique and consists of scores of techno-economic decision variables and constraint equations along with a profit maximization objective.The model is general in nature but is applied herein to Nigeria as a case study. Several simulation runs are made to provide results for explanatory and prediction purposes. Model results indicate, for example, that a minimum gas price of $4.4/Mscf and minimum spend of $22B are jointly required to achieve zero-flaring, yielding a $10B profit. This is achievable via a strategy of reinjecting all associated gas produced from medium and large-sized fields, but gathering and selling all gas from small fields. Capital availability, rather than nationwide government-decreed flaring control, is shown to be the dominant determinant of profitable flaring mitigation. The model has proven to be a valuable tool for establishing the inter-relations between the key problem parameters under various pricing and resource base scenarios, and for prognosticating the trajectory of the gas industry in various jurisdictions.

The influence of age-specific migration on housing growth in the rural Midwest (USA)

Natural resource policymakers and planners increasingly rely on regional and national-level spatial data describing projections of future housing growth, to anticipate development impacts on natural resources and identify policy and planning needs. Such projections have not always been well-grounded in demographic and other factors that influence population and thus housing growth. We develop an empirical model describing population change and housing growth in the rural Midwestern U.S., as a function of demographic transition, socioeconomic factors, and natural amenities. The empirical model is estimated as a set of three equations characterizing: (1) population growth within three age groups, (2) the influence of farmland cover and other county level variables, and (3) household size, housing services, and second home ownership. The estimated population and housing growth models provide a consistent estimate of past change and can be used to project future change. We found age-structure to be an important factor in housing location decisions. Specifically, the influence of natural amenities on both population growth within counties and subsequent housing density changes varies by age group.

Determinants and efficacy of social capital in lake associations

The hundreds of lake associations in Minnesota are examples of voluntary collective action organizations. Although these groups are organized for several purposes, their main concern is environmental management and specifically the improvement or preservation of lake water quality. Social capital probably affects organizational effectiveness. Survey and biophysical data were used to examine the determinants and efficacy of social capital in lake associations. Social capital production in lake associations was associated with water quality, lake size, recreational preferences, seasonality of residents, location, information sharing, per caput budget and relations with local government. Social capital also had a significant but small positive relationship with lake water clarity. Natural resource policy makers might consider investments in social capital as part of their strategy portfolio. Although statistical analyses of the role of social capital in local environmental management using large sample sizes are promising, several measurement and methodological difficulties remain.

Adaptive Governance, Integrating Science, Policy and Decision Making

Drawing on five detailed case studies from the American West, the authors explore and clarify how to expedite a transition toward adaptive governance and break the gridlock in natural resource policymaking. Unlike scientific management, which relies on science as the foundation for policies made through a central bureaucratic authority, adaptive governance integrates various types of knowledge and organizations. Adaptive governance relies on open decision-making processes recognizing multiple interests, community-based initiatives, and an integrative science in addition to traditional science. Case studies discussed include a program to protect endangered fish in the Colorado River with the active participation of water developers and environmentalists; a district ranger's innovative plan to manage national forestland in northern New Mexico; and how community-based forestry groups are affecting legislative change in Washington, D.C.

A TALE OF TWO SPECIES: HABITAT CONSERVATION PLANS AS BOUNDED CONFLICT

Abstract Worldwide human population expansion and rising standards of living place increasing pressure on wildlife populations and their habitats. Conflict regarding conservation and preservation of endangered species is among the greatest challenges of the 21st century. Endangered species management on private lands magnifies the problems encountered by natural resource policy-makers and managers. Given that conservation of endangered species increasingly depends on securing cooperation of private property owners in local communities, understanding how to secure that cooperation is important. We used an ethnographic approach to critically review the Habitat Conservation Plan (HCP) processes used in attempts to develop regional HCPs to benefit the Houston toad (Bufo houstonensis) and the Florida Key deer (Odocoileus virginianus clavium; hereafter, Key deer). In both cases, the process was framed as a search for the optimum solution through collaboration and consensus building, and in neither case was the ...

The Contribution of Scenic Beauty Indicators in Estimating Environmental Welfare Measures: A Case Study.

Aesthetic indicators of landscapes, expressedas individual scenic beauty estimates, may beused as proxies of individuals' specificaesthetic values, and improve the properties ofwelfare estimates produced by contingentvaluation models. This work presents resultsfrom an interdisciplinary study where forestscenic beauty indicators are utilized in aneconomic valuation study approximating welfareestimates from increased forest fireprotection. The omission of scenic beautyindicators from the economic valuation ofenvironmental resources produces biased andoverestimated welfare measures. Combiningeconomic and environmental indicatorssignificantly improves the explanatory power ofeconomic valuation models and of the producedwelfare measures. Such a combination, however,is only possible when carried out byinterdisciplinary research teams. The resultsof such research are significant toenvironmental and natural resource policymakers and planners.

Visibility and Natural Quiet in National Parks and Wilderness Areas

For over a century, authorities have recognized cultural and psychological benefits of preserving national parks and wilderness areas. Yet, with increasesin visitation and mechanized travel, air and noise pollution are intruding moreand more into preserved natural areas. Psychological research shows that humans can detect very lowlevels of these pollutants in natural and laboratory settings, that air and noise pollution detract from the enjoyment of the visitor experience, and that people place a high value on naturally quiet, pollution-free settings. This article discusses how psychological research is essential for a more complete understanding of the value and the influence of both visibility and quiet surroundings with a focus on applied, field-based research in national parks and wilderness areas. The article concludes with recommendations for future directions in research in these areas and argues that implications of psychological research results should be addressed in the natural resource policy-making process.

The Importance of Land-Use Legacies to Ecology and Conservation

Abstract Recognition of the importance of land-use history and its legacies in most ecological systems has been a major factor driving the recent focus on human activity as a legitimate and essential subject of environmental science. Ecologists, conservationists, and natural resource policymakers now recognize that the legacies of land-use activities continue to influence ecosystem structure and function for decades or centuries—or even longer—after those activities have ceased. Consequently, recognition of these historical legacies adds explanatory power to our understanding of modern conditions at scales from organisms to the globe and reduces missteps in anticipating or managing for future conditions. As a result, environmental history emerges as an integral part of ecological science and conservation planning. By considering diverse ecological phenomena, ranging from biodiversity and biogeochemical cycles to ecosystem resilience to anthropogenic stress, and by examining terrestrial and aquatic ecosyst...

Cultural Conflict and the Endangered Florida Key Deer

Conflict regarding the conservation and preservation of natural resources is among the greatest challenges of the 21st century. Given that management of natural resources increasingly depends on securing cooperation of culturally diverse groups of people, it is important to understand how to secure that cooperation. Endangered species management on private lands both typifies and magnifies the environmental conflicts encountered by natural resource policy makers and managers. Using an ethnographic approach, we analyzed the conflict surrounding management of the endangered Florida Key deer (Odocoileus virginianus clavium) to explore how conflict and moral culture apply to natural resource policy formation and implementation. We found disputants on Big Pine Key divided into 2 moral cultures-1 grounded in stewardship and the other in private property rights. These moral cultures augmented the conflict by perpetuating divergent ethical perspectives and aspirations. The conflict then escalated through de-individualization, dehumanization, and demonization of those informed by the opposing moral culture. Finally, as typically occurs with serious conflicts, incompatible frames of reference created by the cultural divide not only prevented rapid de-escalation but promoted conflict-reinforcing mechanisms such as selective perception and judgment, moral exclusion, and rationalization, which led to communication breakdown and autistic hostility. Temporary solutions to superficial problems that were maladapted to conflicts involving moral culture did not ameliorate conditions and often exacerbated them. In emotionally charged decision-making venues, wildlife managers should take a proactive approach designed to encourage collaborative development of common ground among disputants. When conflicts reach a highly escalated state, as many inevitably will, their resolution will require meeting appropriate pre-negotiation conditions, then applying strategies that respond to both the level of escalation and the moral cultures involved in the particular conflict.

Assessing regional impacts of change: linking economic and environmental models

Increasingly, natural resource policy makers and program administrators are requiring that analysis of proposed changes include estimates of both environmental and economic implications. That requirement poses a difficulty for researchers since the spatial scale of models used for environmental analysis and for economic analysis are structured differently. In this paper we show how the differing spatial scales can be reconciled in a national analysis involving an agricultural model with state- and county-level-based geographical boundaries and a watershed model involving watershed boundaries. This type of modeling system integration has been done in analysis of single or multiple watershed-level issues, but our paper is the first to show a method for a national-level analysis involving state- and substate-level economic results and small watershed environmental results. The procedures and results are shown for a national cropland erosion control policy and for the release by one state experiment station of improved crop varieties.

Politicians and Poachers: The Political Economy of Wildlife Policy in Africa

Although wildlife fascinates citizens of industrialized countries, little is known about the politics of wildlife policy in Africa. In this innovative book, Clark Gibson challenges the rhetoric of television documentaries and conservation organizations to explore the politics behind the creation and change of wildlife policy in Africa. This book examines what Clark views as a central puzzle in the debate: Why do African governments create policies that apparently fail to protect wildlife? Moving beyond explanations of bureaucratic inefficiency and corrupt dictatorships, Gibson argues that biologically disastrous policies are retained because they meet the distributive goals of politicians and bureaucrats. Using evidence from Zambia, Kenya, and Zimbabwe, Gibson shows how institutions encourage politicians and bureaucrats to construct wildlife policies that further their own interests. Different configurations of electoral laws, legislatures, party structures, interest groups, and traditional authorities in each country shape the choices of policymakers - many of which are not consonant with conservation. This book will appeal to students of institutions, comparative politics, natural resource policymaking, African politics, and wildlife conservationists.

Interest Group Influence in State Natural Resource Policymaking

Past research concerning interest group influence on natural resource policy devel opment and implementation has focused primarily on the federal arena . This study describes the influence of interest groups on the development and implementation of the Arizona Heritage Fund, a state-level natural resource funding policy. Three variables-group interest, power, and access-are examined in a case study analysis of how interest groups influenced the Arizona Heritage Fund policy process. Study results suggest that interest groups played a crucial role in the devel opment and implementation of the Arizona Heritage Fund and, on a broader level, that there are differences between interest group activity in federal and state natural resource policymaking.

Setting priorities for adapting to climate change

It is not likely that efforts to control greenhouse gas emissions will completely eliminate the risk of climate change. Thus, policymakers will eventually have to address adaptation to the effects of climate change. Given the uncertainties about the timing, direction, and magnitude of regional climate change, it might seem preferable to postpone adaptive measures until after climate changes. Yet, this may not produce satisfactory results if climate change impacts are irreversible or catastrophic, long-lived resource systems are affected, or current trends make adaptation less likely to succeed in the future. In these cases, policy changes in anticipation of climate change may be justified. Anticipatory climate change measures need to be flexible—they should absorb impacts or enable a system to quickly recovery under a wide variety of climate situations. In addition, they should be economically efficient, that is their benefits should exceed their costs. Although many measures are appropriate anticipatory measures, not all of them need to be implemented now. Those most in need of immediate implementation should meet at least one of the following criteria: 1. (1) address irreversible or costly impacts; 2. (2) be urgent, i.e. reverse trends that make adoption of the measure more difficult over time; or 3. (3) address long-term decisions, such as building infrastructure. A method is proposed for natural resource policymakers to use in analyzing the need for anticipatory adaptation policies and the effectiveness of policy options to anticipate climate change. This method enables policy makers to identify those anticipatory policies most in need of immediate implementation.

Local Struggles over Rain-Forest Conservation in Alaska and Amazonia

The ecological effectiveness and the social costs and benefits of international conservation strategies are coming under increasing scrutiny. This is especially true in restricted-use nature reserves, also called protected areas,(1) which traditionally have been modeled on the U.S. National Park System (Allin 1990) or derived from European colonial systems of game and forest reserves (Grove 1995). Natural-reserve establishment has long represented the leading strategy for maintaining biotic diversity, preserving scenic landscapes, perpetuating natural ecological services, and containing humanity's drive to blanket the globe with its handiwork. Of late this natural-reserve strategy has been criticized for a variety of reasons, with consideration of social justice a prominent concern.(2) In many documented cases the establishment of a restricted-use reserve has had serious negative social consequences, including the forced dislocation of residents and severe - even lethal - sanctions against those who persist in attempting to extract resources (Anderson and Grove 1987; West and Brechin 1991b; Bonner 1993). Critics have demonstrated that the imposition of U.S. and European conservation models represents a form of environmental intervention in local affairs that is designed to serve the interests of foreigners and local elites while overlooking the basic human rights and needs of many local peoples (Schroeder and Neumann 1995). Although promoted under the banner of common global interests, international preservation strategies, in this accounting, actually amount to imperialist interventions (Cosgrove 1995, 38). Even those who would defend conventional protected areas acknowledge a need for increased local involvement in nature-reserve management (McNeely 1994). Consensus exists on this point for the very pragmatic reason that effective enforcement of a reserve's use restrictions requires that local opposition be reduced by shifting the balance of the social costs and benefits of nature reserves more in favor of local people (Hobbs 1996). Still, questions of power sharing, such as who should establish conservation priorities and strategies and who should be involved in natural-resource policymaking and implementation, are highly contentious. TO BE LOCAL OR NONLOCAL - IS THIS THE QUESTION? Such debates over conservation strategies, particularly those that deal with the establishment of nature reserves, have commonly been framed in terms of the spatial location and cultural attributes of different groups of people who have interests in a given territory. Consideration of location and culture is, undoubtedly, essential for conservation policy. But there has also been an unfortunate tendency in much of the literature to reduce spatial and cultural categories to a misleading dichotomy between two poorly differentiated social groups: so-called local people and outsiders.(3) This has led to arguments over the relative merits of local resource management versus outside intervention. It would seem, in this formulation, that everyone must choose sides, either supporting the devolution of power over nature reserves to local people or adhering to the customary approach, with power to set agendas for international nature preservation relatively centralized among a nonlocal political and scientific elite. The word local is almost never precisely defined in this literature. A general, if unwritten, assumption seems to be that local people can be empirically identified in purely spatial terms, by measuring the proximity of their residence and/or work to any given nature reserve or potential reserve. Another characteristic of this debate, though, is that it quite often intertwines spatial and cultural descriptors, so that local may imply indigenous or traditional. In the debate over conservation politics, a potentially confusing and inaccurate conflation of the spatial and the cultural is understandable, because many people who reside in or close to the remaining large, undeveloped spaces could be described as indigenous peoples or, at least, as culturally traditional with respect to majority populations in their respective regions. …

Book Reviews

Book reviewed in this article:Cedric Pugh. Housing and Urbanisation: A Study of IndiaGil Shidlo, Social Policy in a Non‐Democratic Regime: The Case of Public Housing in BrazilLars Marcussen, Third World Housing In Social and Spatial DevelopmentPhilip Amis and Peter Lloyd (eds), Housing Africa's Urban PoorAlan Gilbert and Ann Varley, Landlord and Tenant. Housing the Poor in Urban MexicoPatrkia Adams, Odious Debts: Loose Lending, Corruption and the Third World's Environmental LegacyElmar Altvater, Kurt Hiibner, Jocben Lorentzen and Rall Rojas (eds), The Poverty of Nations: A Guide to the Debt Crisis from Argentina to ZaireCheryl Payer, Lent and Lost: Foreign Credit and Third World DevelopmentJames Pickett and Hans Singer (eds), Towards Economic Recovery in Sub‐Suharan Africa: Essays in Honour of Robert Cardiner.Roger C. Riddell, Manufacturing Africa. Performance and Prospects of Seven Countries in Sub‐Saharan AfricaRobert Klitgmrd. Tropical Gangsters: One Man's Experience with Development and Decadence in Deepest Africa.Oda van Cranenburgh, The Widening Gyre: The TanrruriOn One‐Party State and Policy towards Rural CooperativesWilliam Ascher and Robcrt Healy, Natural Resource Policymaking in Developing Countries. Environment, Economic Growth and Income Distribution.Asit K. Bisweo, T.N. Khoshoo and Ashok Khosla (eds), Environmental Modelling for Developing Countr & s.Barbara J. Cummings, Dam the Rivers, Damn the People: Development and Resistance in Amazonian Brazil.David Barkin, Rosemary L. BIatt and Bilk R. DeWalt, Food Crops vs. Feed Crops. GlobalSubstitution of Grains in Production. Boulder, CO and London:Chris Milaer (ed.), Exporl Promotion Strategies: Theory and Evidence from Developing CounlrlcsJairus Bannji and Rohini Hensman, 6eyond Multinationalism: Management Policy and Bargaining Rehtionships in International Companies. (Indo‐Dutch Studies in Development Alternatives No. 2)Santosb Mehrotra, India and the Soviet Union: Trade and Technology TransferJohn Child and Martin Lockett (eds), Reform Poky and the Chinese EnterpriseMicbael C. Howard, FQi: Ruceund PoUricsin un IslundStuteStephanie Lawson, The Fuilure of Democrutic PoUtics in FQiMark Turner, Pepuo New Guinea: The Challenge of IndependenceSePn Dorney, Papua New Guinea. People, Polfries and History since 1975Peter Knapp and Alan J. Spector, Chis and Change: Basic Questions of Morxist Sociology.Adrian P. Wood, Stuart A. Keaa, John T. Mllimo and Dennis Michael Warren (eds), The Dynamics of Agricultural Policy and Reform in Zambialsmael P. Cetublg, Jr, V.L. Choprn and M.S. Swaminathan (eds), Biotcchnologyfor Asian Agriculture: Public Policy Implicotions.

Natural Resource Policymaking in Developing Countries: Environment, Economic Growth, and Income Distribution. By William Ascher and Robert Healy. Durham, North Carolina: Duke University Press, 1990. xiv + 223 pp. Notes, references, index. Cloth $32.50, paper $15.95

<i>Natural Resource Policymaking in Developing Countries: Environment, Economic Growth, and Income Distribution.</i> By William Ascher and Robert Healy. Durham, North Carolina: Duke University Press, 1990. xiv + 223 pp. Notes, references, index. Cloth $32.50, paper $15.95

Natural Resource Policymaking in Developing Countries. William Ascher , Robert HealyEnvironment and Development: An Economic Approach. Jan Bojö , Karl-Göran Mäler , Lena UnemoNatural Resources, Growth, and Development: Economics, Ecology, and Resource-Scarcity. Clement A. Tisdell

Previous articleNext article No AccessReviewsNatural Resource Policymaking in Developing Countries. William Ascher , Robert Healy Environment and Development: An Economic Approach. Jan Bojö , Karl-Göran Mäler , Lena Unemo Natural Resources, Growth, and Development: Economics, Ecology, and Resource-Scarcity. Clement A. Tisdell Richard B. NorgaardRichard B. Norgaard Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Economic Development and Cultural Change Volume 40, Number 3Apr., 1992 Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/451971 Views: 4Total views on this site Copyright 1992 The University of ChicagoPDF download Crossref reports no articles citing this article.

Natural resource policymaking in developing countries: environment, economic growth, and income distribution

Drawing on case studies developed over a two-year period, 1987-1989, by Fellows in the Program in International Development Policy at Duke University, including experienced representatives from developing countries, the World Bank, and scholars, the authors integrate the growing interest in environmental protection and resource conservation into the existing body of knowledge about the political economy of developing countries. This book is about the links that tie resource use, environmental quality, and economic development, and the way in which those links are affected by the distribution of income and resource ownership. The links may be relatively simple, as in the case of peasant farmers too poor to conserve resources for the future and with nothing to gain from sound environmental practices. Or they may be very complex--as the authors find when they demonstrate how achievement of higher incomes by the rich can increase environmentally destructive behavior by the poor. Many of the links in some way involve rural land use, whether for agriculture or forestry. Natural Resource Policymaking in Developing Countries argues that the policies that matter are not merely those dealing with resources and the environment, but a much broader set that includes income distribution and asset ownership.

The good guys and bad guys in natural resource politics: Content and structure of perceptions of interests among general and attentive publics

The political battleground for contesting environmental and natural resource policies can be thought of quite usefully as entailing a mixture of cloistered group politics and direct citizen action. The strong federal mandate for citizen involvement in natural resource policy making of recent heritage, bolstered by American political traditions of citizen activism and easy access to the ballot and political candidacy, make public perceptions of the policy process and its major participants significant phenomena for understanding the dynamics of public policy formation. This article analyzes the content and structure of public perceptions of relevant environmental interests (e.g., environmentalists, developers, timber companies, recreationists, farmers, etc.). The focus of attention is the question of the degree of preferred influence to be accorded each group, with particular attention given to the patterns of relationship to be found among these groups. The findings reported indicate the importance of distinguishing between the “general public” and the “attentive public” in seeking to understand how public input into the natural resource policy-making process is likely to influence the direction of governmental affairs.