Natural Resource Sectors Research Articles

Use and effectiveness of health impact assessment in the energy and natural resources sector in the United States, 2007 – 2016

ABSTRACTDecisions made in the energy and natural resources sector can affect public health. This report reviews the characteristics and assesses the effectiveness of health impact assessments (HIAs) conducted in this sector. A total of 30 HIAs conducted in 14 states in the United States were identified using a targeted literature search. Five HIAs illustrative of the different source and sub-sector categories, and with identifiable impacts on decision-making processes were selected for review. An existing conceptual framework (Wismar) was used to assess the effectiveness of the five selected HIAs on decision-making related to non-renewable energy, renewable energy, mining, and energy conservation. The 30 HIAs were performed for a variety of projects and assessed health impacts ranging from metabolic disorders to community livability. Eight of the 30 reports were incorporated into environmental impact assessments. All five selected HIAs were generally effective and raised awareness of the health effects of the projects being assessed; four were directly effective and led to changes in final project decisions. Their variable effectiveness may be related to the extent of community engagement and consideration of equity issues, differences in the details and quality of monitoring and evaluation plans devised as part of the HIA process, and whether the outcomes of monitoring and evaluation are reported.

Bringers of light: Performing resource revenue transparency in Liberia

Initiatives designed to increase transparency have become a tool for improving governance and fighting corruption in the natural resource sector. The Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) is an international organisation that administers a voluntary standard for natural resource revenue transparency. In line with liberal democratic ideals, EITI aims to empower citizens through the dissemination of information supporting governance improvements, public scrutiny and accountability in the sharing of benefits from resource extraction. Adopting a critical lens to transparency, the article examines EITI's efforts to disseminate natural resource revenue data in rural Liberia. By focusing on how transparency is performed through dissemination workshops, the article creates a nuanced understanding of transparency by analysing how it is operationalised and practiced in encounters with people in areas where resource extraction takes place. The paper begins with an overview of relevant research and the conceptual framing of the study focusing on the performance in and of transparency and continues with a discussion of EITI internationally and in Liberia. Then follows a discussion of the ethnographic approach - travelling with the Liberian EITI-team on their dissemination trip. Through the analysis the article enables an understanding of the workings of transparency by examining how practitioners perform transparency through the performance in the workshops: the structure and orchestration of the workshops; and the performance of transparency by understanding the ways in which the workshops become spectacles that help to legitimise, rationalise and camouflage the fragmented and contradictory realities of extractive industries and their implications for people.

Incorporating governance into forest transition frameworks to understand and influence Cambodia's forest landscapes

Academic inquiry into forest transitions has produced a rich body of literature examining the shift from net deforestation to net reforestation at multiple land use scales. However, researchers, practitioners, and policy analysts question the utility of current forest transition theory. Does it accurately describe and provide insight into strategies to influence patterns of forest change in countries where forest cover continues to decline? Forest transition theory has provided important insights into the ‘necessary but not sufficient’ conditions for countries shifting from net deforestation to net reforestation. To advance forest transition theory, scholars should recognize forests as complex and dynamic social-ecological systems and use analytical methods that accommodate that complexity. Transdisciplinary research that incorporates a broader range of qualitative and quantitative methods and tools is required. We analyzed the historical, social, and political factors influencing forest transition pathways in Cambodia. Cambodia exhibits similar economic pre-conditions to its neighbors, which have passed through a forest transition, yet deforestation rates remain high with no indication of slowing. We found that complex governance arrangements at multiple scales negatively influences Cambodia's forest cover and development trajectory. Attempts to nurture Cambodia's forest transition will require strengthening governance and institutions across all of the natural resource sectors. Further research that incorporates governance into forest transition frameworks is required to improve policy responses for post-transition forest outcomes.

“Social licence to operate” and the human services: A pathway to smarter commissioning?

AbstractExternalised service provision is now an embedded feature of Australia's service delivery architecture. However, the lessons drawn from two decades of contracted service delivery suggest that “competition” is an imperfect platform for the delivery of public services, especially where issues of trust in government come into play. Could the concept of a “social license to operate” (SLO), which has been in use in the natural resources sector for over two decades, help to facilitate the conferral of greater trust, credibility and legitimacy upon governments, and externalised service providers in social policy spaces?

Penegakan Hukum Pemberantasan Tindak Pidana Korupsi Pasca Putusan Mahkamah Konstitusi Nomor 25/PUU-XIV/2016

This study aims to determine the perspectives of Advocates and Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) on the decision of the Constitutional Court (MK) No. 25/PUU-XIV/2016 concerning the removal of the word “can”; and how the law enforcement practices were carried out by Advocates and KPK after the Constitutional Court's decision. This research is normative with an empirical dimension and a juridical approach. The method used in analyzing the data is qualitative. The results show that, the perspective of the post-verdict advocate MK No. 25/PUU-XIV/2016 namely the change in formal offense to material offense is considered to provide fairer legal certainty. While the KPK's perspective on the decision was considered counterproductive in an effort to prevent state financial losses due to corruption. The implication is that the KPK is increasingly difficult to ensnare criminal acts of corruption from the natural resource or environmental sector that are potentially detrimental to state finances. Law enforcement practices carried out by lawyers after the Constitutional Court's decision have not been fully optimal. While the law enforcement practices carried out by the KPK after the Constitutional Court's ruling are as usual because before the Constitutional Court's ruling, the KPK always bases state financial losses with certainty, even if they create potential state losses, also attaching certainty (Both).

Automated Predictive Monitoring and Diagnosis in the Energy and Natural Resources Sector

This paper explores strategies for automated, predictive monitoring and diagnosis (M&D) using advanced intelligent systems technologies within the Energy and Natural Resources (ENR) sector to address safety implications and costs associated with downtime and emergency breakdown repairs. Automated, predictive M&D lends itself towards application within centralized M&D centers to allow monitoring across an entire fleet, to improve efficiency, reduce duplication of functions and allow for consistent, best practice operation and higher quality repairs across distributed assets. However, centralization is often accompanied by a reduction in the number of on-site personnel and loss of critical knowledge for the operation and maintenance of assets. Therefore, the selection of appropriate data, sensors, algorithms, a suitable platform, analytical tools, visualizations and ERP/CMMS integration form the basis for automated and predictive M&D of asset performance (intelligent Asset Performance Management (iAPM)) making it possible to detect and diagnose issues across geographically dispersed assets so that results are available in daily operational workflow for executive, analytical and operational personnel before they impact production, operations and safety.

Natural resource dependence, public education investment, and human capital accumulation

This paper examines the relationships between natural resource dependence, public education investment, and human capital accumulation. It addresses why the “blessing” of abundant natural resources often turns into a “curse” in many countries and regions, focusing on the crowding-out effect of natural resources on human capital. According to our empirical analysis of provincial panel data from China, natural resource dependence is significantly and negatively correlated with human capital accumulation. The crowding-out effect of natural resources on human capital exists only in the central and western regions of China. Our introduction of an interaction term for natural resource dependence and public education investment underscores the possibility of investing in public education to reduce the crowding-out effect of natural resource dependence on human capital. The government should utilize the income of the natural resource sector to increase investment in education to enhance local human capital.

The glocal dynamics of land reform in natural resource sectors: Insights from Tanzania

Several global governance initiatives have tried to address the heightened interest in land reform across sub-Saharan Africa, each identifying principles of good governance to promote investment while minimizing exploitation of local populations. Tanzania has been particularly earnest in seeking to implement land reform. Yet in spite of legislative reforms, several communities in Tanzania are still crying foul over perceptions of being marginalized as well as experiencing negative impacts on household human security in the form of access to food and employment. A useful way to investigate these perceptions is to situate analyses of land reform and natural resource governance within the interplay of ‘global’ and ‘local’ forces – glocal dynamics. Based on recently conducted field research and participant observations, this article provides timely analyses of Tanzania’s land governance reforms. This article identifies gaps in how policies have been conceived and in turn impacted vulnerable populations including rural women. The article also finds that global governance institutions need to pay greater attention to how land reform recommendations are implemented in order to cultivate equity and effectiveness.

The Effects of Capital Flight from Oil and Wood Sectors on Economic Growth in Cameroon

This study analyses the relationship between capital flight in natural resource (oil and wood) sector and economic growth in Cameroon. Specifically, we: (1) estimate capital flight from trade in invoicing in the wood and the oil sector in Cameroon; (2) simulate the impact of this capital flight on economic growth. To achieve these objectives, methodology proposed by Boyce and Ndikumana (2012) and the Incremental Output Ratio (ICOR) are used. Data come from the World Bank and IMF. Results confirm that the natural resources sector and particularly oil is a major source of capital flight in Cameroon. If these capitals were reinvested in the economy, this would have caused DGP’s growth to increase on average by 0.21 additional points over the 1995-2001 period, about 0.54 on average for the period 2002-2012 and about 0.41 on average for the period 1995-2012. By cleaning-up the oil and wood sector through adequate governance schemes and quality institutions, the effects on economic growth is undeniable.

FDI and economic growth: the role of natural resources?

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to investigate the foreign direct investments (FDI)-growth nexus and the impact of natural resource abundance in the host country on the FDI-growth nexus.Design/methodology/approachFor a large data set of 104 countries for the period 1996-2015, Arellano and Bond’s GMM estimation method is applied to investigate the impact of FDI inflow on economic growth and the role of the natural resource sector on the FDI-growth relationship.FindingsThe paper found a positive and significant effect of FDI inflows on economic growth of the host country. However, the impact of FDI inflows on economic growth changes with the changes in the size of the natural resource sector. The estimated positive impact of FDI inflows on economic growth declines with the expansion in the size of natural resources. Beyond a certain limit, a further expansion in the size of natural resource sector will lead to a negative effect of FDI on economic growth.Research limitations/implicationsThe paper found a positive and significant impact of FDI inflows on economic growth of the host country. However, the impact of FDI inflows on economic growth changes with the changes in the size of the natural resource sector. The estimated positive impact of FDI inflows on economic growth declines with the expansion in the size of the natural resources. Beyond a certain limit, a further expansion in the size of the natural resource sector will lead to a negative effect of FDI on economic growth. The same analysis is repeated for groups of countries divided into different income groups. FDI inflows are found to have significant growth enhancing role in all three groups of countries. However, FDI inflows-induced growth was found to be more pronounced in the middle- and low-income countries compared to high-income countries. Further, FDI-induced economic growth is slowed down in low-income and middle-income countries by the increase in size of the natural resource sector. While in high-income countries, the size of the natural resource sector has no significant role on the FDI-growth nexus.Practical implicationsWhile countries use their natural resource sector as an instrument to attract FDI into the countries, low- and middle-income countries face the dilemma of experiencing the resource curse in the form of watered down FDI-induced growth. Therefore, low- and middle-income countries need to try at the same time to attract FDI into the non-resources sector to keep the relative size of the natural resource sector low as to avoid hampering the FDI-induced economic growth. High-income countries, on the other hand, do not experience the FDI-induced growth hampering impact of the natural resource sector. Therefore, high-income countries should attract FDI into the countries regardless of the sector attracting the foreign investments.Originality/valueThe paper is part of the author’s PhD research and is an original contribution.

FDI technology spillovers in the mining industry: Lessons from South Africa's mining sector

Resource-rich countries are increasingly aiming to benefit from technology and knowledge spillovers in their extractive industries. In order to enhance knowledge spillovers, host country governments require natural resources companies to hire and train local workers, to engage in supplier development programs, and to be active in cooperative research agreements with local partners. Based on the South African innovation survey, this paper shows that companies active in the natural resources sector will more likely introduce product or process innovations if they engage in cooperative research agreements with foreign customers or suppliers. Furthermore, compared to mining companies and downstream firms, mining suppliers are more likely to introduce product innovations that are new to the market. Furthermore, the absorptive capacity of firms, proxied by a firm's own investment in R&D is an important determinant of both product and process innovations by firms in the mining sector. Finally, firms with more skilled workers will more likely introduce new or significantly improved services.

Natural resource sector FDI, government policy, and economic growth: Quasi-experimental evidence from Liberia

Governments use a variety of policies to increase the impact of foreign investment on economic growth. An increasingly popular policy is to require that foreign companies provide public goods near the communities where their commercial investments are sited. This approach seeks to crowd in additional investments, create clusters of interconnected firms, and set in motion economic agglomeration processes. Post-2006 Liberia represents an ideal empirical setting to test the effectiveness of this approach. We construct a new dataset that measures the precise locations of 557 natural resource concessions granted to investors. We then merge these data with a remotely sensed measure of nighttime light growth at the 1 km × 1 km grid cell level and analyze it using a matched difference-in-differences strategy. We find heterogeneous treatment effects across sectors and investor types: mining (specifically iron-ore) investments projects have positive growth effects, while agriculture and forestry investment projects do not; furthermore, concessions granted to Chinese investors have positive growth effects while those given to U.S. investors do not. These patterns of heterogeneous treatment effects across sectors and investor types are consistent with the theory of change underpinning the government’s development corridor strategy.

The power of consensus: Developing a community voice in land use planning and tourism development in biodiversity hotspots

In regions rich in natural resources, nature-based tourism is advancing rapidly. This form of development is identified as an important economic opportunity for local communities but can impact ecosystem services through rapid landscape transformation, threatening the livelihoods of the most impoverished sectors of a community. While it is accepted that communities should participate in the planning process, variation in community and household-level landscape dependencies and priorities can create a fractured viewpoint that is difficult to integrate into the land planning process. Power structures and special interests can subvert participatory processes and input at the community level. In the Chobe District, Northern Botswana, tourism, and other related developments had occurred at a rapid pace around the Chobe National Park creating access barriers, in some instances, to essential natural resource areas. We evaluate community landscape dependencies and participatory approaches to the development of inclusive land use maps. Spatial information on land use dependencies from household surveys were used to form the bases of reiterative village-level participatory mapping exercises (n = 179 households, six villages). The activities were conducted through traditional leadership structures. Landscape dependencies were widespread across study villages in both natural resource and agricultural sectors. Cluster and CART analysis of household data identified important variation in landscape dependencies between and within study villages. Fishing was the most important factor predicting gender of headship with male-headed households using this resource more frequently. Spatial data from these household consultations were used to create a draft map that was reiteratively refined through participatory map building exercises until final approval was provided by community members and their traditional leaders in a village. Scaled consultations and involvement of the traditional leadership limited the ability of power structures to control the process and/or subvert the interests of more vulnerable members of a community. Mapping outputs were later successfully used in land planning exercises and consultations. Development of inclusive community consensus on landscape dependencies should be undertaken before lucrative tourism ventures and land allocations are advanced in competition to the needs of more vulnerable and often voiceless sectors of a community.

Corporations and Nations: Power Imbalance in the Extractive Sector

AbstractThis article examines the nature and significance of the power imbalance between developing countries and transnational corporations (TNCs) in the natural resource sector. It situates this power imbalance within the context of global economic realities, including the high profitability of extractive TNCs; rampant poverty in developing countries; dependence of many developing countries on the extractive sector for economic sustenance; and lack of regulatory expertise on the part of developing countries. The article suggests two potential avenues for addressing this power imbalance. First, it advocates for the recognition of TNCs as “subjects” of international law, thus paving way for the imposition of some international law duties on TNCs. Secondly, the article argues that civil society groups should be empowered to participate actively in the regulatory process and that an empowered civil society could potentially counterbalance the power of TNCs and other corporations.

The environmental Kuznets curve in the presence of corruption in developing countries.

Environmental degradation is at an alarming level in developing economies. The present paper examines the direct and indirect impacts of corruption on environmental deterioration using the panel data of 64 developing countries. Adopting the generalized method of moments (GMM) technique, the paper finds evidence that corruption exhibits a positive impact on pollution. Subsequently, there is also evidence indicating that the level of pollution tends to be higher in countries with a higher level of corruption, eliminating the effectiveness of income effect on environmental preservation. These results also suggest that environmental degradation is monotonically increasing with higher corruption and invalidate the presence of the EKC. Hence, a policy focuses that an anti-corruption particularly in the environmental and natural resources sector needs to be emphasized and enforced in order to reduce or possibly to totally eliminate the rent for corruption.

Have the generous tax incentives in the natural resource sector been commensurate with FDI flows? A critical analysis from an emerging economy

Even though Ghana is well endowed with many natural resources, the country's economy is characterised by high budget deficits, rising debt-to-gross domestic product (GDP) ratios, persistent trade and current account deficits, and unemployment. Consequently, the country continues to rely on foreign direct investment (FDI) to drive economic growth. The paper sought to examine whether the generous tax incentives have been commensurate with FDI flows. The study relied on data from world development indicators (WDI) and Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) to justify the need to relook at the commensurate gains of FDI flows in response to tax incentives. The paper found that despite numerous justifications for a tax incentive policy to attract FDI flows, their efficacy to attract commensurate with FDI flows is doubtful. We conclude that tax incentives to multinational companies (MNCs) have not had their desired impact; hence, policy makers should rather create the enabling investment environment to attract FDIs.

Alternative environmentalities: recasting the assessment of Canada’s first Marine Stewardship Council-certified fishery in social terms

We use a Foucault-inspired environmentalities analytical lens to conceptualize alternative sustainability auditing frameworks. The Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) claims to administer the international gold standard for sustainability evaluation of fisheries, yet the livelihoods of many people who depend on Canada’s first MSC-certified fishery are in serious jeopardy. After decades of growth that helped fishers and coastal communities alleviate the social consequences of the infamous cod collapse, the northern shrimp fishery in eastern Canada is experiencing ecological change and social conflict over the distribution of quota reductions. However, recent disputes over the distribution, and social consequences, of quota reductions in this fishery are completely invisible in assessment and auditing documents for the successful recertification of the fishery to the MSC’s standard for “sustainable and well managed fisheries” in 2016. We draw upon aspects of an alternative assessment framework to highlight information and knowledge that a socially attentive sustainability audit of this fishery might consider. The alternative auditing framework renders visible social dimensions of Canada’s northern shrimp fishery, including government decision making that incorporates ethical and moral economy principles, the distribution of access to various interests, uses of access benefits for regional and community development purposes, and conflict over policy and resource access during a period of resource decline and dispossession. Although the spread of auditing frameworks across natural resource sectors tends to reinforce neoliberal interests and undermine social justice aims, we argue that the development of alternative assessment frameworks that clearly make visible materialist social development relationship and knowledge can enable action in support of social justice objectives.

Have the generous tax incentives in the natural resource sector been commensurate with FDI flows? A critical analysis from an emerging economy

Have the generous tax incentives in the natural resource sector been commensurate with FDI flows? A critical analysis from an emerging economy

Is There a Fiscal Resource Curse? Resource Rents, Fiscal Capacity and Political Institutions

While several studies have focused on the effect of natural resources on economic development, less attention has been paid to their effects on other development outcomes. We contribute to this literature by studying the impact of resource rents on fiscal capacity, i.e., the ability of states to raise revenues from broad tax bases. We posit that natural resource rents reduce the incentives to invest in fiscal capacity. However, political institutions that limit the power of the executive, by reducing rulers’ discretion over the use of resource revenues, may mitigate, neutralise or reverse such negative effect. We provide empirical support for this hypothesis using a recently constructed data set on non-resource taxes and panel methods for 98 developing countries covering the period 1981-2011. Moreover, we show that the effect of resource rents is likely to work mainly through institutions that make the tax system accountable and transparent to citizens. Our findings imply that it is possible to develop both fiscal capacity and the natural resources sector, without any trade-off. Whether a fiscal resource curse exists or not is a question of what type of political institutions countries have adopted before they became resource-rich.

The elusive quest for high income status—Malaysia and Thailand in the post-crisis years

Both Malaysia and Thailand were seen to be part of the miracle growth economies of East Asia and fast moving into high income status in the early 1990s. Following the Asian Financial Crisis (AFC) of the mid 1990s, both countries have observed prolonged growth slowdowns. In this paper, we offer a political economy explanation of the growth slowdown in Malaysia and Thailand in their post AFC phases. We argue that the nature of the political settlement in these two countries determined a growth strategy that was predicated on offering open deals in the export-oriented manufacturing sector that were accessible to most firms, while at the same time, offering closed deals to politically connected firms in the natural resource and services sectors. As the political settlement moved to a vulnerable authoritarian one in both countries, such a dualistic deals strategy became patronage based over time and detrimental to growth.