Ricardo Godoy

The economic value and sustainable harvest of plants and animals from the tropical forest: Assumptions, hypotheses, and methods

Recent studies of non-timber products from tropical rain forests have emphasized the economic value of these products and the sustainability of present harvests. Many of these studies rely upon a set of untested assumptions about the effects of harvesting upon the forest and the economic value of non-timber forest products in both the marketplace and in the daily life of rural people. These assumptions were formulated as a series of hypotheses during the workshop held in the Regional Community Forestry Training Center, Kesetsart University, Bangkok, in May 1992. The six hypotheses developed by workshop participants will be used to guide future research. As the hypotheses are tested, the data will be used to create a more realistic assessment of the sustainability and economic value of extraction of non-timber products from tropical forests.

A method for the economic valuation of non-timber tropical forest products

By drawing on quantitative studies in social anthropology, zoology, ethnobotany, and economics we present a method for conducting an economic valuation of non-timber forest products. A review of 24 studies suggests that the median value for non-timber forest products is about

Household determinants of deforestation by amerindians in honduras

50/ha/year. We discuss problems with past studies and suggest ways to get better estimates of output quantities, marginal costs, and prices.

The Effect of Income on the Extraction of Non-Timber Tropical Forest Products: Model, Hypotheses, and Preliminary Findings from the Sumu Indians of Nicaragua

Abstract A survey of Amerindian households in the Honduran rain forest was done to test hypotheses about the effects of household variables on deforestation and identify policies to lower neotropical deforestation. The results suggest that: 1. (a) the relation between income or age and deforestation resembles an inverted U; 2. (b) fallow lands and illness had a positive link to deforestation; 3. (c) household residence duration and size, education, off-farm income, credit, wealth, and rice yields reduced clearance.

Determinants of smallholder commercial tree cultivation

We use microeconomic theory to frame hypotheses about the effects of income on the use of non-timber rain forest products. We hypothesize that an increase in income: (a) encourages foraging specialization, resulting in the extraction of fewer goods; (b) increases the share of household income from occupations besides foraging; (c) produces a yearly value from the extraction of nontimber forest goods of about

Ecological Degradation and Agricultural Intensification in the Andean Highlands

50 per hectare; and (d) produces depletion of forest goods entering commercial channels and sustainable extraction of goods facing cheaper industrial substitutes. To examine these hypotheses we present worldwide ethnographic information and preliminary findings from field work carried out among the Sumu Indians of Nicaragua. Field work suggests that higher income produces: (a) foraging specialization with animals rather than with plants; (b) a decline in the economic importance of forest goods in household income; (c) and a rise in the value of non-timber goods removed from the forest to about

The profitability of smallholder rattan cultivation in Southern Borneo, Indonesia

35/ha/year. We did not have time to test hypothesis “d.”

The economics of traditional rattan cultivation.

Abstract This article contains a discussion of how output prices, tenure, information, credit, technology, government policies, and labor availability affect smallholder commercial tree cultivation. Output prices play the key role in smallholder commercial tree cultivation, even in the face of insecure tenure. Output prices, however, are a necessary but not a sufficient condition to induce smallholders to undertake commercial fuelwood cultivation.

The Economic Consequences of Cocaine Production in Bolivia: Historical, Local, and Macroeconomic Perspectives

Andean cultural ecologists have made two claims in recent years: ecological decomposition is absent due to effective indigenous management of communal resources, and agricultural intensification is inversely related to altitude. Drawing on material from the Jukumani Indians of Northern Potosi, Bolivia, these assertions are challenged. First, there is little evidence to prove or disprove ecological degradation. Second, the location of agricultural intensification, as the Jukumani data suggests, is influenced by altitude as well as by the presence of market.

Agricultural diversification among smallholder rattan cultivators in Central Kalimantan, Indonesia

Fieldwork in the village of Dadahup along the Lower Barito basin in Central Kalimantan (Southern Borneo, Indonesia) shows that smallholder rattan cultivation is financially profitable to smallholders and economically profitable to the nation. The financial net present value (NPV) for green and processed canes is Rp 828,000 and Rp 946,000;the economic rate of return is about 22% for both green and processed canes. The article contains a discussion of the methodology for evaluating the shadow price of a nontimber forest good.