•Sustainability is converting natural to human and produced capital via discovery, extraction, appropriation, and reinvestment.•We estimate causal effects of energy resource conversion on Genuine ...Savings, the main metric of weak sustainable development.•Energy extraction and exports jointly lower Genuine Savings, except for countries with strong institutions.•Comparative advantage in the traded energy sector fosters sustainable development for selected countries.•Countries lacking a comparative advantage can convert energy resources sustainably by avoiding exports.
Natural resource-rich countries face the challenge of harnessing their resources for sustainable economic development. Although existing literature extensively studies the resource curse phenomenon, gaps remain in understanding exactly how natural resource use impacts sustainable development. This study addresses this gap by analyzing how the natural resource conversion process affects sustainable economic development, using Genuine Savings as the key indicator. The natural resource conversion process encompasses four distinct stages—discovery, extraction, appropriation, and (re-)investments—that transform natural resources into human- and produced capital assets to achieve sustainable development, consistent with the weak sustainability paradigm. Employing a comprehensive dataset spanning 118 countries over 20 years, we use an instrumental variable approach to estimate the causal effects of four variables corresponding to the four stages of conversion: natural capital, natural resource rents, resource exports, and government resource revenues. Results show that energy rents (oil, gas, and coal) and exports jointly decrease Genuine Savings, except in countries with good institutions. Contrary to previous studies, we demonstrate that economies specializing heavily in energy exports successfully leverage their comparative advantage, increasing Genuine Savings. Other countries achieve sustainable development through energy extraction and domestic use of resources. We conclude that successful resource management for sustainable economic development aims to achieve two objectives. First, it seeks to reduce energy exports when at a comparative disadvantage or harness them when at a comparative advance. Second, it focuses on improving institutional quality.
Community-based natural resource management (CBNRM) is a major global strategy for enhancing conservation outcomes while also seeking to improve rural livelihoods; however, little evidence of ...socioeconomic outcomes exists. We present a national-level analysis that empirically estimates socioeconomic impacts of CBNRM across Tanzania, while systematically controlling for potential sources of bias. Specifically, we apply a difference-in-differences model to national-scale, cross-sectional data to estimate the impact of three different CBNRM governance regimes on wealth, food security and child health, considering differential impacts of CBNRM on wealthy and poor populations. We also explore whether or not longer-standing CBNRM efforts provide more benefits than recently-established CBNRM areas. Our results show significant improvements in household food security in CBNRM areas compared with non-CBNRM areas, but household wealth and health outcomes in children are generally not significantly different. No one CBNRM governance regime demonstrates consistently different welfare outcomes than the others. Wealthy households benefit more from CBNRM than poor households and CBNRM benefits appear to increase with longer periods of implementation. Perhaps evidence of CBNRM benefits is limited because CBNRM hasn't been around long enough to yield demonstrable outcomes. Nonetheless, achieving demonstrable benefits to rural populations will be crucial for CBNRM's future success in Tanzania.
Information and communication technologies (ICTs) influence economic growth, yet, innovation in natural resource development and energy demands is seldom considered. Will the development of ICTs aid ...in alleviating this natural resource curse? An analysis of time-series data from 30 Chinese provinces confirms this effect, and this finding is especially robust. In particular, some Chinese regions are affected by an abundance of natural resources. Computing, telephone, cellular connections, and incentives for technological collaboration result in greater energy demands and, thus, greater CO2 emissions. In short, ICT growth somewhat alleviates the resource curse. This effect is heterogeneous in terms of the level of regional financial development and the presence of a resource curse in the location. Policymakers seeking to develop long-term, nationwide e-sustainable strategies must then lower natural resource prices and pollution abatement costs through technologically driven natural resource expansion.
•Information and communication technologies (ICTs) can alleviate the resource curse.•Some Chinese regions were affected by the curse of abundant natural resources.•With ICT growth, the resource curse in China is alleviating.•ICT impact on resource curve alleviation depends on regional financial development.•E-sustainable strategies or technologically driven natural resource expansion are recommended.
COP27 sets new targets for economies around the globe to attain the Paris Agreement goals which are based on GHG emissions and to limit the global temperature to 1.5 °C. Hence in the context of COP ...27, the current study intent to investigate the impact of educational expenditures, renewable energy innovation, mineral rents, and economic growth on carbon emissions. The study used data for China from 1988 to 2021. The study used novel time series methods. The results are robust and provide greater insight to policymakers. The finding shows that mineral rents help limit carbon emissions with renewable energy innovation and education expenditures. Education expenditures are crucial and touch a novel dimension of the growth-emissions nexus. The research also confirmed the positive influence of economic growth on CO2 emissions. The study recommends further encouraging expenditures on education, mineral rents, and renewable energy innovation to attain China's COP27 target regarding carbon emissions, and further policies are recommended for the increasing sustainability of mineral rents to achieve sustainable development and reduce GHG emissions. Moreover, it is also recommended that policymakers should incentivize the fossil fuels sectors and low-income households who are struggling to pay for energy in the shape of investments in renewable energy projects and renewable energy initiatives. It is also advised that governments should ensure access of households to cleaner energies and technologies in order to reduce the GHG emissions related to CO2 emissions which come under the targets of COP27.
•Natural resources-growth nexus has been explored for China.•Novel econometric method are used for estimations.•Mineral rents are found to be supportive in limiting emissions.•Technological Innovation also contribute to achieve COP27 targets.
The dark side of the consumption of Natural Resources (NTR) is the carbon dioxide emissions (CO2) resulting from the extraction of NTR as well as the increasing level of consumption within the ...economy. Besides, the massive expansion and growth of the Chinese economy have also meant its CO2 is at an all-time high, thus making China one of the leading contributors to global warming. Hence the current study fills a knowledge vacuum by analyzing the relationships governing NTR and technological innovation (TIN) in countering the environmental damage due to CO2, by revisiting the EKC in the Chinese context through “Quantile Autoregressive Distributed Lag” (QARDL). The results validate the EKC where NTR consumption worsens the environment further; however, TIN is a potential solution in countering CO2. In accordance with the findings, it is recommended that government institutions need to ensure the preservation of NTR without conceding the economic benefits and prosperity.
•Sophisticated estimation of the time series “Quantile Autoregressive Distributed Lag” (QARDL) has used.•Environment Kuznets Curve (EKC) was tested with the recent data as well as the aforementioned variables.•Rule of Law (LAW) and Technology Innovation (TIN) were found to reduce the level of CO2.•Consumption of Natural Resources (NTR) leads to an increase in CO2.
Habitat loss and fragmentation due to human activities is the leading cause of the loss of biodiversity and ecosystem services. Protected areas are the primary response to this challenge and are the ...cornerstone of biodiversity conservation efforts. Roughly 15% of land is currently protected although there is momentum to dramatically raise protected area targets towards 50%. But, how much land remains in a natural state? We answer this critical question by using open-access, frequently updated data sets on terrestrial human impacts to create a new categorical map of global human influence ('Low Impact Areas') at a 1 km
resolution. We found that 56% of the terrestrial surface, minus permanent ice and snow, currently has low human impact. This suggests that increased protected area targets could be met in areas minimally impacted by people, although there is substantial variation across ecoregions and biomes. While habitat loss is well documented, habitat fragmentation and differences in fragmentation rates between biomes has received little attention. Low Impact Areas uniquely enabled us to calculate global fragmentation rates across biomes, and we compared these to an idealized globe with no human-caused fragmentation. The land in Low Impact Areas is heavily fragmented, compromised by reduced patch size and core area, and exposed to edge effects. Tropical dry forests and temperate grasslands are the world's most impacted biomes. We demonstrate that when habitat fragmentation is considered in addition to habitat loss, the world's species, ecosystems and associated services are in worse condition than previously reported.
An important economic paradox in the economic literature is that countries with abundant natural resources are poor in terms of real gross domestic product per capita. This paradox, known as the ...‘resource curse’, is contrary to the conventional intuition that natural resources help to improve economic growth and prosperity. Using panel data for 95 countries, this study revisits the resource curse paradox in terms of oil resources abundance for the period 1980–2017. In addition, the study examines the role of trade openness in influencing the relationship between oil abundance and economic growth. The study finds trade openness is a possible avenue to reduce the resource curse, in our sample, trade openness reduces oil curse by around 25%. Trade openness allows countries to obtain competitive prices for their resources in the international market and access advanced technologies to extract resources more efficiently. Therefore, natural resource–rich economies can reduce the resource curse by increasing exposure to international trade.
•Using panel data for 95 countries, this study revisits the resource curse paradox in terms of oil resources abundance for the period 1980–2017•We also investigate the role of trade openness in reducing the oil course•Results suggest that having an abundance of oil resources plays a significant role in slowing economic growth•Our study shows that around 25% of the decline in GDP per capita caused by the oil curse can be mitigated by trade opening policies•Our hypothesis is that increased trade helps to lessen the resource curse by reallocating resources more efficiently
•The CGIAR was created in 1971 and the IARCs became a major institutional innovation for development assistance.•The ‘invention’ of the IARC has been attributed to US Foundations starting in Mexico ...in 1943.•This review uses new sources to identify the role of many other actors in developing the IARC model starting from the 1920s.•The IARCs inherited a proven model of crop research but have struggled with a model and stable funding for NRM.•Core elements of the IARC model remain relevant today but require further evolution, especially integration as a system.
On the eve of the 50th anniversary of the founding of the CGIAR, this paper revisits the genesis of the international center model for agricultural research (IARC). This model became fashionable in the 1960s and was arguably the major institutional innovation of the 20th century for foreign assistance to agriculture. While the founding of the first IARCs is universally attributed to the Rockefeller and Ford Foundations, we argue that based on new evidence, the creation of the IARCs was a logical conclusion of a process involving many actors that began immediately after World War I. First, we review FAO efforts to build regional and global research networks for the major cereals in the immediate post-WWII period. These networks linked closely to USDA and its legacy of scientific collaboration across US states that together with the Foundations, strongly influenced the design of the first two international centers for the major cereals. In Latin America, the various efforts by the US National Academy of Sciences, the US government and the countries of the region resulted in the creation of three centers for tropical agriculture, (only two of which exist today) with a broader research focus on farming systems and natural resources. Finally, we show how the establishment of four IARCs in Africa in different ways drew on a colonial legacy that had moved toward centralization of research across colonial territories since before WWII. All of these efforts over many decades involved a good deal of experimentation in organization, funding and governance to arrive at the standard IARC model that emerged. By the late 1960s, the genesis of another six IARCs was already in place stimulating the creation of the CGIAR to fund and coordinate the IARCs. The review concludes with a brief reflection on the successes and challenges of the IARC model over 50 years, and its relevance today.
Kelp forests form an important biogenic habitat that responds to natural and human drivers. Global concerns exist about threats to kelp forests, yet long-term information is limited and research ...suggests that trends are geographically distinct. We examined distribution of the bull kelp Nereocystis luetkeana over 145 years in South Puget Sound (SPS), a semi-protected inner basin in a fjord estuary complex in the northeast Pacific Ocean. We synthesized 48 historical and modern Nereocystis surveys and examined presence/absence within 1-km segments along 452 km of shoreline. Compared to the earliest baseline in 1878, Nereocystis extent in 2017 decreased 63%, with individual sub-basins showing up to 96% loss. Losses have persisted for decades, across a range of climate conditions. In recent decades, Nereocystis predominantly occurred along shorelines with intense currents and mixing, where temperature and nutrient concentrations did not reach thresholds for impacts to Nereocystis performance, and high current speeds likely excluded grazers. Losses predominated in areas with elevated temperature, lower nutrient concentrations, and relatively low current velocities. The pattern of long-term losses in SPS contrasts with stability in floating kelp abundance during the last century in an area of the Salish Sea with greater wave exposure and proximity to oceanic conditions. These findings support the hypothesis that kelp beds along wave-sheltered shorelines exhibit greater sensitivity to environmental stressors. Additionally, shorelines with strong currents and deep-water mixing may provide refugia within sheltered systems.
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