Ana R. Rios

Can the poor participate in payments for environmental services? Lessons from the Silvopastoral Project in Nicaragua

This paper uses data from a Payments for Environmental Services (PES) project being implemented in Nicaragua to examine the extent to which poorer households that are eligible to participate are in fact able to do so, an issue over which there has been considerable concern. The study site provides a strong test of the ability of poorer households to participate, as it requires participants to make substantial and complex land use changes. The results show that poorer households are in fact able to participate – indeed, by some measures they participated to a greater extent than better-off households. Moreover, their participation was not limited to the simpler, least expensive options. Extremely poor households had a somewhat greater difficulty in participating, but even in their case the difference is solely a relative one. Transaction costs may be greater obstacles to the participation of poorer households than household-specific constraints.

Poor household participation in payments for environmental services in Nicaragua and Colombia

We evaluate the extent to which poor households are able to participate in Payments for Environmental Services (PES) scheme using data from a PES scheme implemented at two sites in Latin America. This allows us to compare environmental and livelihood impacts of PES across regions with different agronomic and socio-economic characteristics. In particular, one of our sites is composed almost entirely of poor or extremely poor households, while the other has households ranging from extremely poor to very well off. The results show that poorer households are in fact able to participate—indeed, by some measures they participated to a greater extent than better-off households. Moreover, their participation was not limited to the simpler, least expensive options. Extremely poor households had a somewhat greater difficulty in participating, but even in their case the difference is solely a relative one. Transaction costs may be greater obstacles to the participation of poorer households than household-specific constraints.

FARM SIZE, IRRIGATION INFRASTRUCTURE, AND THE EFFICIENCY OF COFFEE PRODUCTION IN VIETNAM

ABSTRACT Data from a 2004 survey of farms in two districts in Dak Lak Province in Vietnam were used in a two-step analysis to assess the efficiency of smallholder coffee farms. In the first step, technical and cost efficiency measures were calculated using Data Envelopment Analysis. In the second step, Tobit regressions were used to identify factors correlated with technical and cost inefficiency. Results indicate that small farms were generally less efficient than large farms. Inefficiencies observed on small farms appear to be related, in part, to the scale of investments in irrigation infrastructure, education levels and the degree to which households are reliant on coffee.

GTAP-POV: A Framework for Assessing the National Poverty Impacts of Global Economic and Environmental Policies

The goal of this technical paper is to provide sufficient detail to permit readers to bring into the GTAP poverty framework additional countries for which suitable household data are available. With the inputs from processed household data - as per the guidelines provided here - the poverty framework can be readily used to assess the likely poverty impacts of global economic policies across a wide range of developing countries, in a fashion which enables systematic cross-country comparisons.