Gunnar Köhlin

Fuelwood, forests and community management – evidence from household studies

This paper reviews the state of economic understanding about fuelwood in developing countries. It synthesizes the main results from numerous empirical studies with the intent of identifying implications for policy and pointing out where important questions remain unanswered. Overall, the empirical results reviewed reinforce the contention that households alter their behavior in the presence of sufficient scarcity in ways that are least costly to them. Still, the cost can be substantial and many cases remain where policy intervention is justified to address concerns of both equity and efficiency. Addressing the coping capabilities of the very poor and the open access conditions of woodlands appear to be two ways of dealing with fuelwood scarcity that are likely to yield high social rates of return. Community forestry has the potential to address these two important areas, but there is little evidence to date that this is being done with fuelwood in mind.

Welfare Implications of Community Forest Plantations in Developing Countries: The Orissa Social Forestry Project

Community forest plantations are a common intervention in developing countries. We use household and remote sensing data from Orissa, India, to estimate welfare effects of community forest plantations, in terms of the value of decreased collection times plantations afford users. A selection model, accounting for possible jointness in site location and productivity, is used to estimate collection production functions for different household labor categories in natural and community forests. Two measures of an opportunity cost of time are used to determine welfare effects of time saved due to community forests. We find access to community forests is important to marginal productivity of different labor categories, but to different degrees, highlighting the need to disaggregate household data when analyzing these interventions. We also find substantial welfare improvements from time savings for many households and villages.

Energy, Gender and Development: What are the Linkages? Where is the Evidence?

The objective of the report is to review the literature on the links between energy access, welfare, and gender in order to provide evidence on where gender considerations in the energy sector matter and how they might be addressed. Prepared as a background document for the 2012 World Development Report on gender equality and development, as well as a part of the social development departments ongoing work on gender and infrastructure, the report describes and evaluates the evidence on the links between gender and energy focusing on the following areas: increased access to wood fuel through planting of trees and forest management; improved cooking technologies; and access to electricity and motive energy. The report is intended to complement ongoing efforts to formulate a gender business plan for the sustainable development network of the World Bank. It focuses on reviewing the academic evidence and does not aim to offer specific operational recommendations which are better left for the gender business plan and other documents that follow up on the 2012 World Development Report. Focusing on the academic peer-reviewed literature, fairly inclusive screening criteria are applied when selecting the evidence to consider. Thus, much of this review is based on quantitative studies with samples that are relatively small, yet sufficient to support multivariate regressions to control for confounding effects. The main finding of this review is that energy interventions can have significant gender benefits which can be realized via careful design and targeting of interventions based on a context-specific understanding of energy scarcity and household decision-making. The Bank may also want to consider a program of rigorous impact evaluations and participatory monitoring of household energy projects.

Soil Conservation in Kenya

This case is concerned with the nationwide soil conservation programme (SCP) in Kenya, supported by Sweden, through SIDA. Since its inception in 1974, it has developed into a vast rural development scheme, essential to Kenya’s agriculture, currently covering all districts in the country and estimated as supporting 1.1 million farms in need of soil conservation. The SCP comprises many components which call for a wide range of adequate evaluation criteria. The current main objectives, though, are economically related, which renders it of the utmost importance to apply evaluations complying with those.

Property rights, tenure security and forest investment incentives: evidence from China's Collective Forest Tenure Reform

This paper assesses how tenure reform in Chinas collective forest sector affects Chinese farmer households’ perception of tenure security and propensity to invest in their forestland. A large database consisting of information from 3,180 households in eight provinces from south to north is used to explore factors correlated with more strongly perceived tenure security and determinants of forest-related investment. The study adds to the limited research testing whether there is endogenous causality between investment and tenure security in forestland, and finds that investment was not undertaken to enhance tenure security. In addition, the data allow for differentiation between perceived tenure security and contracted use and transferability rights. Overall, stronger contracted rights were found to affect investment. Chinas forest tenure reform – where individual households can manage forestland, empowered by legal certification and stronger contract rights – has thus enhanced tenure security and encouraged forest investment.

DOES ADOPTION OF MULTIPLE CLIMATE-SMART PRACTICES IMPROVE FARMERS’ CLIMATE RESILIENCE? EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE FROM THE NILE BASIN OF ETHIOPIA

There is a paucity of information on conditioning factors that hinder or promote adoption of multiple climate-smart practices and on the synergies among such practices in increasing household resilience by improving agricultural income. This study analyzes how heat, rainfall, and rainfall variability affect farmers’ choices of a portfolio of potential climate smart practices — agricultural water management, improved crop seeds, and fertilizer — and the impact of these practices on farm income in the Nile Basin of Ethiopia. We apply a multinomial endogenous switching regression approach by modeling combinations of practices and net farm income for each combination as depending on household and farm characteristics and on a set of climatic variables based on geo-referenced historical precipitation and temperature data. A primary result of this study is that farmers are less likely to adopt fertilizer (either alone or in combination with improved varieties) in areas of greater rainfall variability. However, even when there is high variability in rainfall, farmers are more likely to adopt these two yield-increasing inputs when they choose to (and are able to) include the third part of the portfolio: agricultural water management. Net farm income responds positively to agricultural water management, improved crop variety or fertilizer when they are adopted in isolation as well as in combination. But this effect is greater when these practices are combined. Simulation results suggest that a warming temperature and decreased precipitation in future decades will make it less likely that farmers will adopt practices in isolation but more likely that they will adopt a combination of practices. Hence, a package approach rather than a piecemeal approach is needed to maximize the synergies implicit in various climate smart practices.

Capacity Building to Deal With Climate Challenges Today and in the Future

Climate change represents a serious threat to the economic growth potential in low income countries. Instead of investing in growth, they may be drawn into strife and conflict. Climate change and the global politics to deal with it, could however also present a number of interesting opportunities for developing countries. Such opportunities may arise in sustainable forestry, new forms of solar, wind or bioenergy and related industries, agriculture or in the programs for abatement and mitigation that are likely to be created. It is an important priority for low-income countries to develop local knowledge and understanding concerning climate change in order to better prepare for both the costs and challenges posed by climate change, as well as to defend their national interests and participate in international negotiations. Creating academic capacity is however a long and painstaking process. We discuss a number of existing initiatives but conclude that more is needed, particularly at the higher level of PhD studies.

Climate Change Policy in Africa with Special Reference to Energy and Land Use

Abstract While Africa has contributed marginally to climate change, the continent will be disproportionately affected by it, particularly the agricultural sector. Climate change demands policy action to address mitigation and adaptation needs, and it poses opportunities in implementation of international instruments. Two sectors, energy and land use, are particularly important. Over 85% of anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions in Africa come from energy supply and agriculture. African governments will have to synchronize national development plans and strategies with adaptation and mitigation plans, as well as safeguard that adherence to the rules of international funding mechanisms do not unnecessarily constrain national development strategies.

Climate change adaptation: a study of multiple climate-smart practices in the Nile Basin of Ethiopia

Improving farm-level use of multiple climate change adaptation strategies is essential for improving household food security, particularly against a backdrop of a high risk of climatic shocks. However, the empirical foundation for understanding how farm households choose multiple climate-smart practices is far from being established. In this paper, the effects of household, farm and climatic factors on farmers’ decisions to use multiple adaptation practices are analysed. A survey of 921 farm households and 4312 farm plots combined with historical climate data in the Nile Basin of Ethiopia is explored using multivariate and random effect ordered probit econometric models. Results show agricultural production can be characterized by complementarities between adaptation practices. This result is important to designing packages of adaptation practices. The econometric results confirm that social capital, tenure security and climatic shocks are important determinants of the choice of the type and number of adaptation practices. The results suggest the need for carefully designing combinations of adaptation strategies based on agro-ecological conditions.

The Environment for Development Initiative: lessons learned in research, academic capacity building and policy intervention to manage resources for sustainable growth

This article reviews the history of the Environment for Development (EfD) initiative, its activities in capacity building and policy-oriented research, and case studies at its centres in Chile, China, Costa Rica, Ethiopia, Kenya, South Africa and Tanzania. EfD promotes research-based policies to manage natural resources as engines of development. Since 1991, the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida) has provided funding for students from developing countries to earn a PhD at the Environmental Economics Unit (EEU) of the University of Gothenburg. Returning home, these economists face institutional and academic gaps that limit the adoption of research-based policies. In response, the first EfD centre was founded in 2004, and six more followed. Research focuses on agriculture, climate, fisheries, parks, wildlife, forestry, energy and policy design. This has yielded 200 peer-reviewed articles. Successful policy outcomes depend on relationships with policy makers, community involvement in livelihood strategies, strengthened institutional support, interdisciplinary approaches, and dissemination of research results.