Kerstin K. Zander

Socioeconomic Aspects of Rice-Fish Farming in Bangladesh: Opportunities, Challenges and Production Efficiency

In spite of the potential for rice-fish farming in Bangladesh, it has been adopted by relatively few farmers because of socioeconomic, environmental, technological and institutional constraints. Rice monoculture remains the main farming system in Bangladesh even though integrated rice-fish farming is the best farming system in terms of resource utilisation, diversity, productivity, production efficiency and food supply. Only a small number of farmers involve in integrated rice-fish farming. This study concludes that rice-fish farming is as production efficient as rice monoculture and that integrated performs better in terms of cost and technical efficiency compared with alternate rice-fish farming. Integrated rice-fish farming can help Bangladesh keep pace with the current demand for food through rice and fish production. However, a lack of technical knowledge of farmers, high production costs and risks associated with flood and drought are inhibiting more widespread adoption of the practice.

Economic valuation of sheep genetic resources: implications for sustainable utilization in the Kenyan semi-arid tropics

Sheep, recognised as one of the important livestock species especially in the semi-arid tropics with high genetic resource potentials, can be exploited through sustainable utilization in order to improve livestock keepers’ livelihoods. This study presents the evaluation of the economic values of sheep genetic resources (SGR) in terms of the important non-market traits embedded in sheep and how this information can be utilised to improve livelihoods in semi-arid regions. The results obtained from mixed logit models results derived from stated choice data collected from 157 respondents in the semi-arid Marsabit district of Kenya reveal that disease resistance is the most highly valued trait whose resultant increment results into a welfare improvement of up to KShs.1537. Drought tolerance and fat deposition traits were found to be implicitly valued at KShs.694 and 738 respectively. The results further point out that for livestock stakeholders to effectively improve the livelihoods of poor livestock-keepers, development strategies for improving the management and/or utilisation of SGR in terms of drought tolerance, should not only be tailor made to target regions that are frequently devastated by drought but should also succeed other strategies or efforts that would first lead to the improvement of producers’ economic status.

Investing in Threatened Species Conservation: Does Corruption Outweigh Purchasing Power?

In many sectors, freedom in capital flow has allowed optimization of investment returns through choosing sites that provide the best value for money. These returns, however, can be compromised in countries where corruption is prevalent. We assessed where the best value for money might be obtained for investment in threatened species that occur at a single site, when taking into account corruption. We found that the influence of corruption on potential investment decisions was outweighed by the likely value for money in terms of pricing parity. Nevertheless global conservation is likely to get best returns in terms of threatened species security by investing in “honest” countries than in corrupt ones, particularly those with a high cost of living.

Valuing goat genetic resources: a pro-poor growth strategy in the Kenyan semi-arid tropics

Goats, “the poor man’s cow”, provide very important genetic resources that can be exploited for continued improvements of the livelihoods of poor livestock keepers in the semi-arid tropics. This study presents the evaluation of the economic values of goat genetic resources (GGRs) in terms of the important non-market traits embedded in goats and how this information can be utilised to improve livelihoods in semi-arid regions. The results obtained from mixed logit models derived from stated choice data collected from 314 respondents in the semi-arid Marsabit district of Kenya reveal that disease resistance is the most highly valued trait whose resultant augmentation results into a welfare improvement of up to KShs.2899. Drought tolerance and milk traits were found to be implicitly valued at KShs.2620 and 1179 respectively. The study further revealed that improvement in milk trait in does, body size and disease resistance traits in bucks, and drought tolerance trait in both does and bucks will collectively improve the producers’ welfare hence should be given priority. However, improvement in the reproduction and production (“overall body condition/ meatiness” trait) potential of goats will be worthwhile only if issues concerning access to pasture and water resources are addressed prior and simultaneously.

Minimum viable population limitations ignore evolutionary history

Flather et al. [1] argue convincingly that calls to incorporate a median minimum viable population (MVP) size of 5000 individuals into considerations of conservation funding [2] should be ignored. This is especially important given the apparent biases within the data set used to develop the median MVP on which the policy advice was based [3]. First, the data set is biased towards publications in which MVP is explicit. Selection for inclusion in the database was largely based on the search terms “minimum & viable” and “extinction”.

Water ecosystem services in Northern Australia - how much are they worth and who should pay for their provision?

There is ongoing pressure to develop the largely unaltered Daly River catchment in northern Australia for agriculture. However, a choice experiment among people in the region and in Australia’s largest city, Sydney, shows that people are prepared to pay substantial amounts to maintain the quality of its ecosystem services. The total stated willingness-to-pay (WTP) for a Daly River conservation programme was about

Threatened Bird Valuation in Australia

300, of which people would be willing to pay over half (

Control of vegetable pests in Benin - Farmers' preferences for eco-friendly nets as an alternative to insecticides

161) if the programme retained waterholes for Aboriginal people in good condition. The WTP for high quality recreational fishing and biodiversity values was

Does the type of job matter? Recruitment to Australia's Northern Territory

120 and

Wild and valuable? Tourist values for orang-utan conservation in Sarawak

91 respectively. Using the average cost of a recreational fishing license in Australia (