James MacGregor

Fuelwood scarcity, energy substitution, and rural livelihoods in Namibia *

In Namibia, as in many parts of Africa, households are highly dependent on forest resources for their livelihoods, including energy needs. Using data originally collected for Namibias forest resource accounts and insights from a non-separable household model, this paper estimates household fuelwood demand. Specifically, the factors underlying the substitution between fuelwood collected from open access forest resources, cow dung, and fuelwood purchased from the market are analysed. Heckman two-step estimates show that households respond to economic scarcity, as measured by the opportunity costs of collecting fuelwood, by reducing energy consumption slightly more than by increasing labour input to collection. There is limited evidence for substitution from fuelwood to other energy sources, particularly with declining availability of forest stocks. Market participants may be more sensitive to price changes than non-participants. All estimated elasticities are low, similar to those observed in previous studies.

The value of Namibia's forest resources: Preliminary economic asset and flow accounts

A national forest inventory completed in 2004 enabled the development of preliminary forest resource accounts for Namibia. The total woody resources volume was estimated at 257 million m3. Forest products used for fuel, poles, timber and non-timber were included in the accounts, but charcoal production on private land was excluded. Forest use directly contributed some 3 per cent of the gross national product, N

Livestock production economics on communal land in Botswana: effects of tenure, scale and subsidies

1 billion (US

Formal microlending and adverse (or nonexistent) selection: a case study of shrimp farmers in Bangladesh

160 million), and the total direct and indirect economic impact of forest use in the broader economy was some N

Climate change impacts on Namibia's natural resources and economy

1.8 billion (US

The economic impact of climate change in Namibia. How climate change will affect the contribution of Namibia’s natural resources to its economy

288 million). The standing forest assets had an estimated capital value of N

Fuelwood Scarcity, Energy Substitution and Rural Livelihoods in Namibia

19 billion (US

Environmental accounting as a tool for policy analysis : examples from Namibia

304 million), comparable with the values for fish, minerals and wildlife. On a national level, stocks are underused. However, some localised over-harvesting occurs, which might be ameliorated through community forest management and trade in products, but capture of resource rent by government should be restricted to commercial forest use.

Towards Inclusion through Lessons from Informal Money Lenders

This study looked at the economic and financial characteristics of three range-based livestock systems on communal land in Botswana. Small-scale traditional livestock keeping is inherently efficient and provides important household income. However, these private returns are attributable to subsidies, and economic efficiency is very low due to open access. Low input, unfenced, cattle post production is economically efficient, but the returns to land are low. Fenced commercial ranching is not privately or economically viable in the more remote communal land. The loss of favoured European market access for beef could make all the systems studied economically unsound. The current subsidies to livestock production might be more economically efficient if they were redirected, from input costs reduction, to directly support initiatives that enhance the average herd productivity.

Giving credit to the microlenders. Formal microlending, credit constraints and adverse selection: a case study of shrimp farmers in Bangladesh

Microcredit schemes have become a popular means of improving smallholders’ access to credit and making long term investment possible. However, it remains to be explored whether the current microcredit schemes are more successful than earlier formal small scale lending in identifying successful borrowers. We studied shrimp farming in a rural region in Bangladesh where formal microlending is well established, but where more expensive informal microlending coexists with the formal schemes. Farmers – both those who exclusively use formal loans and those who also use informal loans – remain credit-constrained; both types overutilize labour in order to reduce the need for working capital. However, the credit constraint is actually milder for the informal borrowers: the implicit shadow price of working capital is substantially higher in the group that only takes formal loans than in the group that also uses informal loans. These results suggest that informal lenders – with their closer ties to the individual farmers – remain more successful in identifying those smallholder farmers that are most likely to use the borrowed funds successfully. Informal lenders have an information advantage that formal microlenders lack: the latter need to find routes to access this information in order for formal microcredit schemes to succeed.