Martin K. Luckert

Challenges to Proponents of Common Property Recource Systems: Despairing Voices from the Social Forests of Zimbabwe

Abstract There is a fair degree of misplaced optimism about common property resource (CPR) management. In investigating common property issues for woodlands in communal areas in Zimbabwe, we are struck by the numerous case studies showing a breakdown of local institutions for CPR management, and the lack of any emerging alternative institutions for such management. There are a number of contributing economic, social and ecological factors to this phenomenon. We argue that the formal rule-based systems that form the cornerstones of the proposed CPR systems are far removed from the current institutional systems, rooted in norm-based controls. We suggest that advocacy of CPR systems has to be tempered with critical analysis.

Economic comparisons of livestock production in communal grazing lands in Zimbabwe

Abstract During the last decade a ‘new rangeland science’ has emerged. One of the tenets of the new science is that pastoralists should not adhere to a single conservative stocking rate, but rather adopt an opportunistic strategy, where numbers will fluctuate widely in response to good and bad seasons. It is further argued that opportunistic strategies give higher economic returns compared to strategies based on conservative stocking rates. In the current paper we compare the economics of four cattle management scenarios. The analysis is based on a simulation model of the fluctuation over time of animal numbers, outputs and prices, using data from field surveys and the literature. Our results suggest that strategies based on conservative stocking rates would have higher net present values than strategies based on opportunistic stocking rates. Previous analyses have failed to account for losses due to drought and the costs of capital tied up in livestock, and the analyses have tended to compare commercial with communal production rather than considering different kinds of small holder production methods. To receive the full benefits of destocking, however, a decision to destock has to be made at the level of the community, as the benefits of improved outputs can only be achieved if the stocking rates of the communal grazing lands are reduced. Making collective decisions about managing numbers is a process with considerable transaction costs, and thus the likelihood of new institutions emerging are lessened. It is surprising that a tight tracking scenario (where numbers of cattle are managed by purchasing and selling so as to maintain numbers in equilibrium with the available feed resources) is being recommended in the most recent literature. Our results suggest that such a system would come with considerable economic losses. The costs of a current programme to reclaim small dams illustrate the environmental costs of the opportunistic scenario. A tight tracking policy is likely to further increase environmental degradation and its associated costs. We identify several serious flaws in the papers that elevate opportunistic pastoral systems as giving higher economic returns than other systems.

Forestry, economics and the environment

Global environmental value and the tropical forests - demonstration and capture local timber production and global trade - the environmental implications of forestry trade pluralism and pragmatism in the pursuit of sustainable development managing forests for all of their services measuring recreation use and general public preservation values for forest resources - evidence from contingent valuation surveys timber, adaptability, and social change in the Pacific Northwest perspectives on educating forestry professionals in an environmentally conscious age.

In search of forest resource values of indigenous peoples: Are nonmarket valuation techniques applicable?

This article examines issues surrounding the potential applicability of nonmarket valuation techniques to indigenous peoples. A conceptual model examines relationships between natural and cultural environments and value systems. Problems of valuation identified include eliciting values for individuals, aggregating individual values into measures of social welfare, and comparisons of welfare across culturally different groups. The influence of sacred or taboo goods, the potential for satiation, and variations in property rights are factors to address in assessing individual values. Differences in political and property rights systems, and unique demographic structures are seen as limits to aggregating values for randomly selected individuals. Since valuation is endogenous to specific social environments, aggregations of indigenous and nonindigenous measures of social welfare may be inappropriate.

What Is Tenure Security?: Conceptual Implications for Empirical Analysis

Security of property rights, or tenure, is central to the economics of development and is recognized as important for the adoption and implementation of sustainable forest management. Despite the potential importance of tenure security, this paper shows that there is a great deal of variation in how security is defined and measured, which may be responsible for difficulties that empirical studies have had in linking tenure security with economic behavior. The objective of this paper is to clarify concepts of tenure security that will hopefully allow for improvements in empirical studies. (JEL Q15)

A Cointegration Analysis of Canadian Wood Pulp Prices

The effects of the Canada-U.S. exchange rate, the U.S. pulp price, and the domestic use of pulp on the Canadian pulp price are investigated using a cointegration analysis. Results suggest that the U.S. pulp price is more important than other variables in determining the price of pulp in Canada. The incomplete pass-through of the exchange rate indicates that Canadian pulp producers may not have market power to increase their price of pulp. The temporary increase in the price of Canadian pulp in response to a devaluation of the Canadian dollar may be due to short-term contracts which Canadian pulp producers have with their importers. Copyright 1997, Oxford University Press.

Forest certification: economic issues and welfare implications

Forest certification has emerged as a means of promoting the elusive goal of sustainable forest management. This paper reviews the economic issues and potential welfare implications of forest certification in light of this management goal, but finds that the effect of certification on forest product markets is uncertain. We examine why certification schemes may fail to regulate optimally market failures, and may actually decrease welfare compared to a non-certified state. Forest certification, it turns out, may not be the best policy tool for promoting sustainable forest management.

Empirical measures of factors affecting social rates of discount

Economists have long considered possible divergences between private and social rates of time preferences. In this paper, we investigate factors hypothesized to affect this potential divergence. Results indicate that time preferences of individuals may be influenced by: 1. whether the resource in question is publicly or privately managed (respondents tend to have lower rates of time prefernce for publicly managed resources); and 2. the type of good being managed (respondents tend to have lower rates of time preference for income derived from a forest than for income derived from a portfolio of stocks and bonds). Additional factors which may influence the revealed rate of time preference include the pattern of benefits derived over time and various personal characteristics of the respondent. Although numerous methodological problems cloud the issues, our results suggest that capital markets may fail to aggregate utility over individuals and between goods, and that it may therefore be appropriate for governments to consider using lower rates of discount than the private sector, and to vary the rate used according to the type of good being evaluated.

SPECIAL SECTION: LAND USE OPTIONS IN DRY TROPICAL WOODLAND ECOSYSTEM IN ZIMBABWE: Household resource allocations in response to risks and returns in a communal area of western Zimbabwe

Abstract A household production model is constructed in the context of a subsistence economy, influenced by fluctuating rainfall, increasing populations, and relationships to the natural resource base. Households are modelled as attempting to optimally allocate their resources among four sectors: agriculture, woodlands (with wood and non-wood sub-sectors), livestock and urban. Simulations show that, although welfare decreases over the 50-year simulation period, the resource base appears to be able to sustain the increased pressure. Data to feed the model are limited, implying further research is needed on: resources expended by households by sector, perceptions of risk, and differentiation within and among households according to gender and wealth. Despite data limitations, results show the importance of considering that households may allocate resources between multiple sectors, as these options may buffer their welfare from rainfall shocks and increasing population pressures.

Is the tragedy of the commons likely? Factors preventing the dissipation of fuelwood rents in Zimbabwe.

Although village “rules” classify fuelwood resources in rural Zimbabwe as being open-access, theory suggests that social norms and/or heterogeneity among users prevents rents from being dissipated. Results from a Random Utility Model suggest that social norms and heterogeneous travel costs significantly influence site choice. Welfare measures suggest that there are positive site rents, and that these rents vary because social norms and/or heterogeneity are preventing rent dissipation at some sites more than others. Given the prevalence of social norms and heterogeneity in costs, the “tragedy-of-the commons” is unlikely. (JEL Q23)