The core idea of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment is that the human condition is tightly linked to environmental condition. This assertion suggests that conservation and development projects ...should be able to achieve both ecological and social progress without detracting from their primary objectives. Whereas "win-win" projects that achieve both conservation and economic gains are a commendable goal, they are not easy to attain. An analysis of World Bank projects with objectives of alleviating poverty and protecting biodiversity revealed that only 16% made major progress on both objectives. Here, we provide a framework for anticipating win-win, lose-lose, and win-lose outcomes as a result of how people manage their ecosystem services. This framework emerges from detailed explorations of several case studies in which biodiversity conservation and economic development coincide and cases in which there is joint failure. We emphasize that scientific advances around ecosystem service production functions, tradeoffs among multiple ecosystem services, and the design of appropriate monitoring programs are necessary for the implementation of conservation and development projects that will successfully advance both environmental and social goals. The potentially bright future of jointly advancing ecosystem services, conservation, and human well-being will be jeopardized unless a global monitoring effort is launched that uses the many ongoing projects as a grand experiment.
At the foot of the snow-capped Cascade Mountains on the forested shores of Puget Sound, Seattle is set in a location of spectacular natural beauty. Boosters of the city have long capitalized on this ...splendor, recently likening it to the fairytale capital of L. Frank Baum'sThe Wizard of Oz, the Emerald City. But just as Dorothy, Toto, and their traveling companions discover a darker reality upon entering the green gates of the imaginary Emerald City, those who look more closely at Seattle's landscape will find that it reveals a history marked by environmental degradation and urban inequality.
This book explores the role of nature in the development of the city of Seattle from the earliest days of its settlement to the present. Combining environmental history, urban history, and human geography, Matthew Klingle shows how attempts to reshape nature in and around Seattle have often ended not only in ecological disaster but also social inequality. The price of Seattle's centuries of growth and progress has been paid by its wildlife, including the famous Pacific salmon, and its poorest residents. Klingle proposes a bold new way of understanding the interdependence between nature and culture, and he argues for what he calls an "ethic of place." Using Seattle as a compelling case study, he offers important insights for every city seeking to live in harmony with its natural landscape.
•Large farms are more likely to adopt improved crop varieties.•Land tenure security encourages the adoption of sustainable land management practices.•For improved varieties, extension substitutes for ...formal education.•For natural resource management, extension and formal education are complementary.•Effects are heterogeneous and no variables are universal predictors of adoption.
Agricultural technologies have long been promoted by governments and development organizations as effective ways to increase farm productivity and reduce poverty. However, adoption of many seemingly beneficial technologies remains low. Empirical adoption studies attempt to identify the motivation for adoption based on differences in characteristics between adopters and non-adopters. This study investigates variables that regularly explain adoption across technologies and contexts using a meta-analysis of 367 regression models from the published literature. We find that, on average, farmer education, household size, land size, access to credit, land tenure, access to extension services, and organization membership positively correlate with the adoption of many agricultural technologies. Technologies in the categories of improved varieties and chemical inputs are adopted more readily on larger farms, which casts doubt on the scale-neutrality of these technologies. Agricultural credit can positively influence adoption, but researchers should measure whether farmers are credit constrained, rather than simply whether or not they have access to credit. While extension services may substitute for education in the case of improved varieties, the two variables appear to be complementary for natural resource management technologies. Land tenure can encourage adoption of natural resource management techniques, and we find it to be most influential in the adoption of technologies with long planning horizons, such as erosion control methods. Unsurprisingly, although some patterns are identified when results are averaged, most adoption determinants vary widely by technology, cultural context, and geography. Based on these observations, we provide some recommendations for adoption researchers and policy makers, but, given the variability of the results, conclude that efforts to promote agricultural technologies in the developing world must be adapted to suit local agricultural and cultural contexts.
Improving economic growth performance is largely dependent on financial development. Natural resource revenues are among the main sources that can be used in the development of financial systems. The ...aim of this study is to analyze the effects of each natural resource revenue on financial development in 16 developing countries (Albania, Argentina, Brazil, Bulgaria, China, Colombia, Georgia, Iran, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Mexico, Peru, Romania, South Africa, Thailand, and Turkey) which gain different natural resources revenue using the data of 1994–2017 period. Panel cointegration analysis was used to investigate long-term relationships between series. Long-term relationships between the series were determined and then PMG and DFE methods were preferred to obtain long-term and short-term coefficients. Empirical results showed that an increase in oil revenues has a positive effect on financial development in the long term. However, in the short-term natural resources rents do not have an impact on financial development.
•The effects of natural resource revenues on financial development are investigated for 16 developing countries.•Oil rents, natural gas rents, coal rents, mineral rents and forest rents are preferred as natural resources revenues.•Panel cointegration analysis used to investigate long-term relationships, PMG and DFE methods used to obtain long-term and short-term coefficients.•While oil revenues have positive and significant effects on financial development in the long term, such an impact was not found in the short-term.
Over half of the European landscape is under agricultural management and has been for millennia. Many species and ecosystems of conservation concern in Europe depend on agricultural management and ...are showing ongoing declines. Agri‐environment schemes (AES) are designed partly to address this. They are a major source of nature conservation funding within the European Union (EU) and the highest conservation expenditure in Europe. We reviewed the structure of current AES across Europe. Since a 2003 review questioned the overall effectiveness of AES for biodiversity, there has been a plethora of case studies and meta‐analyses examining their effectiveness. Most syntheses demonstrate general increases in farmland biodiversity in response to AES, with the size of the effect depending on the structure and management of the surrounding landscape. This is important in the light of successive EU enlargement and ongoing reforms of AES. We examined the change in effect size over time by merging the data sets of 3 recent meta‐analyses and found that schemes implemented after revision of the EU's agri‐environmental programs in 2007 were not more effective than schemes implemented before revision. Furthermore, schemes aimed at areas out of production (such as field margins and hedgerows) are more effective at enhancing species richness than those aimed at productive areas (such as arable crops or grasslands). Outstanding research questions include whether AES enhance ecosystem services, whether they are more effective in agriculturally marginal areas than in intensively farmed areas, whether they are more or less cost‐effective for farmland biodiversity than protected areas, and how much their effectiveness is influenced by farmer training and advice? The general lesson from the European experience is that AES can be effective for conserving wildlife on farmland, but they are expensive and need to be carefully designed and targeted.
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