Forest Industry and Policy Design
in the Brazilian Amazon
Natural Resource Development and Health in the
Tigray Region of Northern Ethiopia
Designing Forest Incentives Policies in Chile:
Micro and Macroeconomic Effects
Upland Migration and Deforestation
in the Philippines
The Economics of Social Forestry
in Asia: An Empirical Introduction
Royalties, Rents, and Deforestation
Large Scale Ecosystem Model for
the Brazilian Amazon
Forest Industry and Policy Design
in the Brazilian Amazon
Project Dates: 2002-2004
Collaborators: Woods Hole Research Center & Instituto de Pesquisa
Ambiental da Amazônia.
This project aims at an assessment
of the timber industry, and an evaluation of the most effective
policies to curb deforestation, through three complimentary sub-objectives.
The first is an extension-type activity with individual mills in
return for the compiling and submitting cost data, during which
time we will assist the sawmills owners in accounting for their
production costs. The second is estimation of stochastic efficiency
frontiers for the industry. These frontiers will depend on mill
location, type, and market characteristics. The third sub-objective
is an evaluation of the impacts forest policies have on mill efficiency
and wood use. The impetus will be to find the most efficient means
with which to reduce wood dependence and associated frontier deforestation.
Natural Resource Development
and Health in the Tigray Region of Northern Ethiopia
Project Dates: 1996-2000
Project Collaborators: World Health Organization.
The purpose of this project was to
study the benefits and costs of microdam development projects in
Tigray. Dam projects bring a source of fuelwood and irrigation to
households, but the standing water has led to fear that these projects
might increase water borne disease. Disease reduces household productivity
by increasing time spent caring for the sick or time spent not working.
A household econometric model is used to evaluate the benefits and
costs of these dams, using data from a 1998 sample of 26 villages
and 800 households. The results will be useful in the future targeting
of development projects designed to increase productivity but that
could have spillover effects on disease in developing countries.
Designing Forest Incentives
Policies in Chile: Micro and Macroeconomic Effects
Project Dates: 1996-1998
Project Collaborators: The World Bank, ILADES
The purpose of this project was to
propose a new way to design forest incentives when governments face
revenue constraints, and when incentives affect the distribution
of both private (timber) and public (nontimber) goods produced in
the economy. Policies targeting both the forest stock and those
targeting prices were examined. A model of second best was used
to determine how government budgets affect the optimal targeting
of policies,in a setting where forest policies may shift land from
native forests to plantations. Macroeconomic impacts of forest incentives
were assessed by determining their impact on exchange rates and
exports. The model was tested using a time series cross section
data set for several regions and 25 years of data.
Upland Migration and Deforestation
in the Philippines
Project Dates: 1997-1998
Project Collaborators: The World Bank
The spillover of upland migration
on deforestation was investigated for various regions of the Philippines.
A model of migration was constructed which accounted for the various
choices affecting population migration streams observed from urban
to rural areas. Both characteristics of the destination (such as
forest stock, political stability, access to markets, etc) and those
of the origin sites (income, employment, etc) were used to construct
a prediction model for future migration. This model could be used
to determine those characteristics that are most likely to impact
deforestation and future pressure on native forests for populations
in transition, or where population migration from urban or peri-urban
areas is placing pressures on frontier forest stocks.
The Economics of Social Forestry
in Asia: An Empirical Introduction. Hyde and Amacher. University
of Michigan Press. 2001.
Project Timetable: 1999-2001
This book is the first to study household
resource rent models within a developing-country forestry context.
The empirical models are motivated by specifying and formally testing
linkages between labor, time, and other input decisions. The book
also is the first self-contained study using data from several countries
to study a common set of problems such as forest use pressure, the
relationship between forest exploitation, household allocation of
time, and rents, the adoption of technologies to mitigate exploitation
of forest resources, and the importance of population pressure and
spatial aspects of deforestation. The book fills a niche by bringing
rigorous economic theories and hypothesis testing to social aspects
of resource use. It will be of interest to a range of professionals,
from academic economists working in forestry and development to
resource policy professionals at international development agencies,
especially those struggling with developing incentives to reduce
forest degradation.
Royalties, Rents, and Deforestation
Project Timetable: 2002
This project considers the design
of royalties. Specifically, the government revenue potential is
compared with the potential to control high grading for a variety
of policies. The efficiency of enforcement expenditures is also
examined. An important aspect of the study is the relationships
between increasing royalty rates and cheating. Cheating decreases
government revenues and increases high grading and deforestation,
yet low royalties decrease government rent collections. This work
is being applied in Malaysia and Indonesia.
to the top
Large Scale Ecosystem Model for
the Brazilian Amazon
Project Timetable: 2002-2004
Project Collaborators: Woods Hole Research Center & Instituto
de Pesquisa Ambiental da Amazônia
In this project, the International
Forestry Center of Virginia Tech is providing research collaboration
with Woods Hole and IPAM in a large-scale ecosystem model of the
Brazilian Amazon. The research results from the Forest Industry
and Policy project listed above will be incorporated into a large
multi-faceted model that examines the impact of changes in the forest
sector (among many other parameters) on the ecosystem of the Amazon.
