Pamela Jagger

Environmental Income and Rural Livelihoods: A Global-Comparative Analysis

Summary This paper presents results from a comparative analysis of environmental income from approximately 8000 households in 24 developing countries collected by research partners in CIFOR’s Poverty Environment Network (PEN). Environmental income accounts for 28% of total household income, 77% of which comes from natural forests. Environmental income shares are higher for low-income households, but differences across income quintiles are less pronounced than previously thought. The poor rely more heavily on subsistence products such as wood fuels and wild foods, and on products harvested from natural areas other than forests. In absolute terms environmental income is approximately five times higher in the highest income quintile, compared to the two lowest quintiles.

Impacts of programs and organizations on the adoption of sustainable land management technologies in Uganda

The government of Uganda is currently decentralizing many of its services including those directly related to agriculture and the environment. Non-government organizations (NGOs) and community-based organizations (CBOs) are being asked to take the lead in the provision of government services such as agricultural extension during the transition to demand driven fee-for-service. This paper explores the role of government programs, NGOs and CBOs in the adoption of land management technologies. We find that government programs were better distributed throughout Uganda and were more likely to operate in poorer areas than NGOs and CBOs. This raises the question of whether or not incentives should be provided for NGOs and CBOs to locate or evolve in less-favored areas. Our analysis of household level involvement in organizations between 1990 and 2000 indicates that female-headed households, households with higher proportions of women, and households with higher levels of natural resource dependence were more likely than other households to be involved in organizations whose main focus was not agriculture or the environment. We also found that social capital is an important determinant of organizational participation. The results of our analysis indicate that the presence of an agriculture or environment focused program or organization at the community level had a negative effect on the adoption of animal manuring and a positive affect on the adoption of pesticides. This suggests that spillover effects of programs and organizations may be greater for technologies that have short-term benefits, and which require some degree of coordination to be most effective. Household level involvement in an agriculture or environment focused organization had a positive effect on the adoption of inorganic fertilizer and mulching. Adoption of land management technologies such as manuring that yield longer-term benefits apparently do not spill over to non-participants in local programs and organizations. Thus, direct involvement of households in programs and organizations that promote such technologies may be necessary to ensure technology diffusion throughout communities. This information may be taken as an indicator of the effectiveness or impact of agriculture and environment focused organizations in Uganda, and should be considered in the broader context of the government devolution of services to NGOs and CBOs. Our findings indicate that careful consideration needs to be given to the potential for NGOs and CBOs to fulfill the roles traditionally filled by government programs in the context of land management. The limited impact of agriculture and environment focused organizations on technology adoption is discouraging though may be linked to the limited profitability of technology adoption in the short-run.

The contribution of institutional theories to explaining decentralization of natural resource governance

Governments are increasingly devolving governance of natural resources from central administrations to subnational levels. Researchers routinely document the complexity and contradictions of this process, but policy prescriptions and their underlying theoretical models remain overly simplified. Going beyond classical statements in the policy literature that emphasize interjurisdictional competition, we draw on recent developments in the multidisciplinary literature on institutional theory and the growing stock of research on natural resource governance. We develop an “institutional mediation” approach, which emphasizes the multilevel nestedness of rules and highlights the role of institutional incentives, contradictions, and complementarities in shaping how actors navigate decentralization reforms. Brief case studies of decentralization of forest governance in Bolivia and Uganda lend initial credence to the claims of this approach, and preliminary hypotheses for further research are proposed.

Building the evidence base for REDD+: Study design and methods for evaluating the impacts of conservation interventions on local well-being

Climate change mitigation in developing countries is increasingly expected to generate co-benefits that help meet sustainable development goals. This has been an expectation and a hotly contested issue in REDD+ (reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation) since its inception. While the core purpose of REDD+ is to reduce carbon emissions, its legitimacy and success also depend on its impacts on local well-being. To effectively safeguard against negative impacts, we need to know whether and which well-being outcomes can be attributed to REDD+. Yet, distinguishing the effects of choosing particular areas for REDD+ from the effects of the interventions themselves remains a challenge. The Global Comparative Study (GCS) on REDD+ employed a quasi-experimental before-after-control-intervention (BACI) study design to address this challenge and evaluate the impacts of 16 REDD+ pilots across the tropics. We find that the GCS approach allows identification of control groups that represent the counterfactual, thereby permitting attribution of outcomes to REDD+. The GCS experience belies many of the common critiques of the BACI design, especially concerns about collecting baseline data on control groups. Our findings encourage and validate the early planning and up-front investments required to evaluate the local impacts of global climate change mitigation efforts with confidence. The stakes are high, both for the global environment and for local populations directly affected by those efforts. The standards for evidence should be concomitantly high.

Profits and margins along Uganda's charcoal value chain

SUMMARY This paper characterizes the charcoal value chain in Uganda, focusing on production and trade in three districts in the west central region of the country. Data come from surveys of 407 charcoal value chain participants undertaken in 2008. The surveys included 171 charcoal-producing households and 236 non-producer participants including agents, traders, transporters and retailers. Linear regression models are used to study overall profits and per-unit marketing margins along the value chain and to test several hypotheses regarding the importance of location, human and social capital, and asset ownership on observed economic returns and scale of activity. Evidence suggests the greatest overall returns to participation in the charcoal value chain are found among traders. Returns are positively correlated with the scale of activity. Controlling for a participants role in the charcoal trade, his or her characteristics, and available assets, we find little or no evidence of differences in economic returns among districts, despite widespread popular views of differences in available supply of charcoal. Location of production relative to major markets, and location-specific levels of monitoring and enforcement are not strongly correlated with observed outcomes.

Environmental income, rural livelihoods, and income inequality in western Uganda

The contribution of forest and wild products to the rural economy is typically undervalued in standard socioeconomic surveys. In this paper, we analyze the contribution of forests and other wild areas to the subsistence and cash incomes of rural households for a large sample of households in western Uganda (N = 521) and explore the role of these typically underestimated income sources in interhousehold measures of income inequality. We find that households in rural Uganda derive 26% of total household income from forests and other wild areas including fallows, agricultural lands, wetlands, grasslands, and shrub land. In general, households in the lower income quartiles are more dependent on forest and wild products for subsistence income, whereas wealthier households are more engaged in the sale of higher value forest products for cash income. Forests, fallows, and agricultural lands are the most important sources of environmental income for households in western Uganda. Income from forest and wild products plays an important role in reducing income inequality between households. The loss of this income due to deforestation and environmental degradation has implications for rural livelihood portfolios and for the well-being of relatively poor households.

The Uneven Reach of Decentralization: A Case Study among Indigenous Peoples in the Bolivian Amazon

Decentralization reforms aim at strengthening democracy by promoting political participation among citizens. Research shows (1) that information is a prerequisite for political participation and (2) that people face different private costs in acquiring information. Here we combine the two lines of research and ask: what private costs hamper the acquisition of information on decentralization? For the analysis, we use data from an indigenous population of lowland Bolivia. We surveyed 319 Tsimane’ adults in 12 villages. We found that nine years after the passage of the decentralization laws, knowledge about those reforms had only partially reached the Tsimane’. People who live closer to municipal towns, had more schooling, and participated in the market economy were more aware of decentralization. Political authorities trying to spread the potential benefits of decentralization should address the structural limitations of the dissemination of political knowledge.

Implications of co-management for benefits from natural resources for rural households in north-western Zimbabwe

Abstract Addressing issues of resource management in sub-Saharan Africa has prompted the consideration of joint management policies that incorporate the needs of several stakeholder groups. This study examines the short and long-term use of natural resources in north-western Zimbabwe in a complex ecological–economic setting using a simulation model. Land and resource ownership in the model is divided between communal lands, which are managed by local inhabitants, and State Forest, which is managed by the Forestry Commission. Three different resource users rely on the stock of resources that the woodlands and grasslands (dambos) produce: the Zimbabwe Forestry Commission, communal land residents and illegal occupants of the State Forest. Net benefits to each of the three user groups are estimated under four different management scenarios, two of which advocate for the expulsion of illegal forest dwellers from the State Forest, and two of which involve a degree of joint management of the State Forest by the Forestry Commission and inhabitants neighbouring the forest. If the status quo is maintained, or if access by local people to the forest is severely limited, forest quality will decline due to the impacts of increased fires (which are limited when livestock are in abundance). Eviction of the forest dwellers results in a serious loss of benefits for that stakeholder group, but does not result in a significant increase of benefits for other stakeholder groups. The economic impacts of the different management scenarios are not very different because of the low values of the forest resources. Compared to the status quo, co-management provides for slightly greater net benefits, but the transaction costs associated with the establishment of co-management may be too high to justify this option.

Balancing carrots and sticks in REDD+: implications for social safeguards

Reducing carbon emissions through avoided deforestation and forest degradation and enhancement of carbon stocks (REDD+) is key to mitigating global climate change. The aim of REDD+ social safeguards is to ensure that REDD+ does not harm, and actually benefits, local people. To be eligible for results-based compensation through REDD+, countries should develop national-level safeguard information systems to monitor and report on the impacts of REDD+. Although safeguards represent a key step for promoting social responsibility in REDD+, they are challenging to operationalize and monitor. We analyzed the impacts of different types of REDD+ interventions (incentives vs. disincentives) on key safeguard-relevant indicators, i.e., tenure security, participation, and subjective well-being, as well as on reported forest clearing. We used household-level data collected in Brazil, Peru, Cameroon, Tanzania, Indonesia, and Vietnam from approximately 4000 households in 130 villages at two points in time (2010-2012 and 2013-2014). Our findings highlight a decrease in perceived tenure security and overall perceived well-being over time for households exposed to disincentives alone, with the addition of incentives helping to alleviate negative effects on well-being. In Brazil, although disincentives were associated with reduced reported forest clearing by smallholders, they were the intervention that most negatively affected perceived well-being, highlighting a clear trade-off between carbon and noncarbon benefits. Globally, although households exposed to REDD+ interventions were generally aware of local REDD+ initiatives, meaningful participation in initiative design and implementation lagged behind. Our analysis contributes to a relatively small literature that seeks to operationalize REDD+ social safeguards empirically and to evaluate the impacts of REDD+ interventions on local people and forests.

Biomass Cooking Fuels and Health Outcomes for Women in Malawi

In sub-Saharan Africa, biomass fuels account for approximately 90% of household energy consumption. Limited evidence exists on the association between different biomass fuels and health outcomes. We report results from a cross-sectional sample of 655 households in Malawi. We calculated odds ratios between hypothesized determinants of household air pollution (HAP) exposure (fuel, stove type, and cooking location) and five categories of health outcomes (cardiopulmonary, respiratory, neurologic, eye health, and burns). Reliance on high- or low-quality firewood or crop residue (vs. charcoal) was associated with significantly higher odds of shortness of breath, difficulty breathing, chest pains, night phlegm, forgetfulness, dizziness, and dry irritated eyes. Use of high-quality firewood was associated with significantly lower odds of persistent phlegm. Cooks in rural areas (vs. urban areas) had significantly higher odds of experiencing shortness of breath, persistent cough, and phlegm, but significantly lower odds of phlegm, forgetfulness, and burns. With deforestation and population pressures increasing reliance on low-quality biomass fuels, prevalence of HAP-related cardiopulmonary and neurologic symptoms will likely increase among cooks. Short- to medium-term strategies are needed to secure access to high-quality biomass fuels given limited potential for scalable transitions to modern energy.