Anthony Leiman

Fynbos (fine bush) vegetation and the supply of water: a comparison of multi-criteria decision analysis and cost-benefit analysis

Abstract This paper examines the advantages and disadvantages of a multi-criteria decision analysis approach to public sector decision making as opposed to cost-benefit analysis, particularly in the developing world where much of the population is outside of a market setting, where there is extreme inequality in the distribution of income, and the environment is a major factor of production. Multi-criteria decision analysis approaches are especially appropriate in participatory democracies where decision-making methods need to allow for direct input from those affected. The expansion of water provision to the Greater Metropolitan Cape Town area and the threats which it poses to the last relatively pristine fynbos mountain catchment areas in the Western Cape, is used as an illustrative example.

Elasticity of demand, price and time: lessons from South Africa's plastic-bag levy

Policy makers in many countries have perceived plastic-bag litter as a problem, and have used a variety of regulatory tools to address it. South Africas current legislation on plastic-bags came into effect on 7 May 2003. It increased the thickness of the plastic used, charged a small levy and required that bags be sold rather than distributed gratis. These regulations sharply reduced consumption of plastic bags in the short term, but unlike the Irish and Danish levies have failed to curb their use meaningfully in the long run. It is suggested that the initial sharp fall in use of bags was a result of loss aversion rooted in an endowment effect (the bags having long been a free good). Once consumers became accustomed to paying for bags, demand slowly rose to its historic levels.

Resource rents and resource management policies in Namibia’s post-Independence hake fishery

This study reviews the nature and outcomes of policies, incentives and management procedures in the Namibian hake industry from independence in 1990 to the present. It is argued that, although based on individual quotas, Namibia’s post-independence management procedures have conflicted with the State’s commitment to efficiency. Its ‘Namibianization’ policy and its attempt to increase domestic control of the hake industry both increased fishing effort and depressed hake stocks below economically optimal levels. Despite current over-capacity, government continues to reward new investments. Industry inefficiency has been further compounded by inconsistent rights allocation policies and the fragmentation of quota shares, which have reduced right-holders’ sense of stewardship over the resource. If the resulting loss of rents is to be reversed, the present policies and the associated perverse incentives will need to be re-evaluated.

A green revolution betrayed? Seed technology and small-scale maize farmers in Zimbabwe

Since the 1960s both large- and small-scale Zimbabwean maize farmers have been replacing open pollinated varieties (OPVs) with locally developed hybrids. By the 1990s, most were buying hybrid seed, though the adoption rates of new seed types were slowing. With the collapse of the Zimbabwean economy many small farmers returned to planting OPVs and saving seed, not only because hybrid seed was unavailable but also as a rational response to economic risks. Initially these risks were tied to Zimbabwes economic structural adjustment programme, which cut extension services, reduced short-term credit and destabilised maize prices. Subsequently risks increased as land invasions on seed producing farms forced the importation of seeds with which small-scale farmers were unfamiliar, and when escalating inflation precluded the use of money as a store of value. Control of inflation, better marketing and restored supplies of local seed should see restored planting of hybrid seed.