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Hans De Graaf
Environmental Biology, Institute of Evolutionary and Ecological Sciences, Leiden University, The Netherlands


C. J. M. Muster
Environmental Biology, Institute of Evolutionary and Ecological Sciences, Leiden University, The Netherlands

W. J. ter Keurs
Environmental Biology, Institute of Evolutionary and Ecological Sciences, Leiden University, The Netherlands

Multiple land-use: a key-concept in the search for opportunities for sustainable development in rural areas

In rural areas the search for sustainable development can be regarded as aimed at the economic, ecological and social goals of all stakeholders within a limited area. In intensively used areas this can only be accomplished if all available resources are used optimally. Combined resources should be identified and used in order to reach multiple goals. This is the idea behind 'Multiple Land-use'. An example of a multiple land-use would be farms that not only produce crops, but also preserve wildlife, produce drinking water and electricity, and offer facilities for recreation and education. But how does one assess the available combinations of resources? How can one design new land-use activities that make optimal use of these combinations? And how can one estimate the regional consequences of multiple land-use, so that different options for regional sustainable development can be assessed? In order to find answers to these and other questions, the Dutch government started a 'Sustainable Multiple Land-use' program. Within this framework, we developed a procedure for identifying combined resources and estimating the consequences of multiple land-use in a rural area near the eastern border of the Netherlands ('Winterswijk'). The preliminary results, problems and perspectives of this case will be used to illustrate the concept of 'Multiple Land-use' and to present and discuss the practical problems that are met when one tries, with the aid of stakeholders, to incorporate the idea into rural land-use planning.

Rob Dellink
Environmental Economics Group, Wageningen University, The Netherlands


Pollution and abatement in dynamic applied general equilibrium modelling

http://www.sls.wau.nl/me/organisation/Dellink/dellink.html

This article presents a dynamic applied general equilibrium (AGE) model with pollution and abatement for the Netherlands. A new methodology is introduced in which the advantages of the AGE approach are combined with technical and economic information on abatement techniques. The multi-sectoral AGE model is kept relatively simple, to allow maximum focus on the dynamic interactions between economy and environment. Producers and consumers have the endogenous choice of either paying for their pollution by buying pollution rights or investing in pollution abatement. They will always choose the least expensive of the two, based on the price of the pollution right (modelled as a clearing market with fixed supply by the government) and the sector- and environmental theme-specific marginal abatement costs. Abatement is itself also a production sector. A distinguishing feature of the model is that not all pollution can be abated: some pollution can only be reduced through a reduction in production / consumption quantities. The dynamic issues can be specified in several ways. In this paper, the differences between some of the most common specifications are analysed (steady state, recursive-dynamic and perfect-foresight specifications). The numerical results show that the specification of the dynamics is relevant for both the transition paths as well as the new equilibrium growth paths.

Jacques Demajorovic
Universidade de Sao Paulo and Universidade Ibirapuera, Sao Paulo, Brazil


Carmen Silvia Sanches
Escola de Administracao de Empresas de Sao Paulo-Fundacao Getulio Vargas (EAESP-FGV), Sao Paulo, SP, Brazil

Social learning and environmental indicators: prospects for companies

This paper evaluates how corporate training and education programs are affecting the economic, environmental and social performance of industrial companies. To this end, two sets of indicators were defined, one reflecting learning programs and processes, and another considering economic, environmental and social performance. A comparison of these two sets will enable the identification of any positive correlation between learning policies and socio-environmental performance. For the case study, data related to these indicators were collected from two Brazilian companies in the chemical and petro-chemical sectors. The first company, with a U.S. based majority shareholder, is located in Cubatao, an urban area known in Brazil as 'Death Valley'. This situation resulted from a regional industrial development model based on highly polluting industries, with little or no regard to environmental and social impacts. The second company, recently privatised, operates in the Greater Sao Paulo area, the most important industrial and commercial region of the country. Even though in the companies examined it was not possible to identify an integrated and comprehensive model for corporate education, this research suggest that companies which devote some degree of attention to a learning strategy can expect to benefit in the long term in economic, environmental and social terms. Further application of this methodology will be required to establish more reliable conclusions. The indicators developed can be replicated for other companies in the industrial sector in Brazil and in other developing countries where environmental issues and organisational knowledge are recent but pressing concerns.

Richard Denniss
The Australia Institute, Canberra, ACT, Australia


Paying to protect the environment: any volunteers?

This paper examines the effectiveness of voluntary schemes in general, and the 'green power' scheme in particular, in encouraging the use of non coal-fired electricity. Under the Pure Energy scheme consumers can elect to pay a premium price for their electricity in order to contribute funds towards the development of alternative energy sources. It is argued that this scheme is an ineffective and inefficient way to achieve the objective of reduced greenhouse gas emissions due to the existence of major market failures and the substantial expense incurred in marketing the scheme. Data on the outcomes of the scheme so far are presented. It is argued that rather than passing on lower prices to consumers which are resulting from deregulation, the government should impose a small carbon tax to at least maintain the wholesale price of coal fired electricity. This will prevent an increased reliance on coal powered electricity, raise substantially more revenue than the 'green power' scheme and ensure that the right price signals are sent in the market.

Mark Diesendorf
Institute for Sustainable Futures, University of Technology, Sydney, NSW, Australia


Least cost planning applied to urban passenger transportation

http://www.isf.uts.edu.au

Integrated least-cost planning is well established for the energy services and is becoming established for water services. However, little has been published so far on least cost planning for services involving transportation and communication. This paper commences the process of devising a least-cost approach to urban transportation services. Using Sydney as a case study, we calculate the costs of cars, heavy rail and buses, measured in dollars per passenger per kilometre travelled. We take into account some of the costs that are not normally considered, such as land, traffic policing and trauma. However, even before environmental and medical/hospital costs are included, the preliminary results suggest that the cost to society of transportation by motor car is much higher than that recovered by user charges and is also much higher than that of the other two transportation modes considered here. This is to a large degree the result of the high cost of land used by motor cars for roads and parking. Therefore, the least cost or optimal mix of transportation modes for Sydney and similar cities would contain much higher proportions of public transport, walking and cycling, compared with motor car use, than exists at present. The results suggest that governments should spend less on land and infrastructure for cars and more on land and infrastructure for light and heavy rail, buses, cycling and walking.

Stephen Dovers
Centre for Resource and Environmental Studies, The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT, Australia


Approaching policy processes and institutions informed by sustainability, history, ecology and traditional fields of public policy.

From a public policy perspective, problem attributes such as pervasive uncertainty, cross-problem connectivity, broadened and deepened spatial and temporal scales, poorly-assigned policy and property rights and demands for community involvement suggest a recasting of policy processes and institutional arrangements so as to allow both near term directed decisions but also long term learning and evolution. This paper considers such an 'adaptive' recasting, adding to traditional public policy thinking important insights from the fields of sustainability, history and ecology to the issue of policy process and institutional design. A framework for policy and institutional analysis and prescription is described, application of this to selected natural resource management sectors discussed, and the disciplinary and interdisciplinary demands that arise from such a framework noted.

Adam G. Drucker
Animal Genetic Resources Valuation Programme, International Livestock Research Institute, Nairobi, Kenya


Open format session. Panel participants: Adam G. Drucker, Riccardo Scarpa, Clem Tisdell, Frank G. Muller

Domestic animal genetic resource diversity and valuation

Worldwide the erosion of domestic animal genetic diversity has, according to the FAO, placed 30% of all breeds at risk of extinction. The vast majority of these are in developing countries. Animal genetic resource (AnGR) valuation has an important role to play in their conservation/sustainable use but has in fact received very little attention. The International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) has, however, recently established a global AnGR valuation program for testing and applying valuation methodologies in this field. Such research is very much at the "cutting-edge" of methodological development and also includes issues related to breed-related animal production characteristics, as well as the identification/measurement of the genetic distances between breeds. The Panel will cover AnGR issues in general and valuation issues in particular, together with an exploration of the future contribution that the ecological economics community could make to this field.

Adam G. Drucker
Wye College, University of London, United Kingdom and Autonomous University of Yucatan, Merida, Yucatan. Mexico


Simon Anderson
Wye College, University of London, United Kingdom Autonomous University of Yucatan, Merida, Yucatan. Mexico

Veronica Gomez
Autonomous University of Yucatan, Merida, Yucatan. Mexico

Putting domestic animal genetic resource valuation methodologies into practice: The case of the Mexican Criole Pig

http://www.uady.mx/~veterina/eambes.html

Worldwide, the erosion of domestic animal genetic diversity has placed 30% of all breeds at risk of extinction (FAO, 1996), often as a result of government policy/programs promoting a small range of specialised 'improved' breeds. Livestock keeping by poor farming families in semi-commercial and subsistence agriculture is multi-purpose and 'improved' breeds often don't have the attributes required to enable them to fulfil the multi-faceted roles allocated them. Thus livelihoods of poor families can be negatively affected by replacing traditional with 'improved' breeds. Conservation/sustainable development of animal genetic resources (AnGRs) requires a shift towards a broad focus on the many 'adaptive' breeds that survive well in the low external input agriculture typical of developing countries. In this context environmental economics has an important role to play (Artuso, 1996). In particular, valuation can guide resource allocation between biodiversity conservation and other activities; between various types of genetic resource conservation, research and development; and can assist in the design of economic incentives and institutional arrangements. AnGR, in general, and valuation in particular, have received very little attention, with the latter being virtually non-existent and drawing heavily on the scarce and not always compatible valuation literature for plants. However, AnGR issues/valuation have recently been receiving more attention in international fora (e.g. FAO/ILRI/CBD). This paper presents the results of Mexican field work regarding poor subsistence farmers and their rearing of increasingly rare criole pigs (<1% of pig population). The project tests the practical viability and usefulness of some of the more promising AnGR valuation methodologies.

David Dumaresq
Dept. Geography and Human Ecology, The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT, Australia


Theory and practice in 20 years of interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary eduction in human ecology and methods

The paper explores the practical difficulties of conveying the 'adisciplinary' nature of the world through the disciplinary nature of university education. It is proposed that effective integrative frameworks are created not only by engaging and connecting disciplines but also by transcending them, i. e. by creating explicit transdisciplinary approaches and methods. These approaches and methods are explicated through those developed over 20 years of operation of the Human Sciences and Human Ecology teaching and research programs at the Australian National University. Teaching practice and theory are linked to broader issues of creating solutions to environmental, social and resource management problems through integrative processes. Examples are drawn from a range of course materials concerned with the historical development of human use of natural ecosystems, consumption and sustainable and non-sustainable behaviour, and the development of sustainable urban, industrial and agricultural systems. The underlying principles of the transdisciplinary approaches to teaching and research are detailed. These include course content and structures, teaching and assessment methods, styles of learning, class activities and styles of student work, methods of inquiry, values clarification, types of interdisciplinary engagement, and the development of co-operative learning. Key concepts are examined that lead to transdisciplinary activity that maybe substantially different to disciplinary based actions.

Joanna Ejdys
Technical University of Bialystok, Kleosin, Poland


Sustainable development strategy in areas valuable with respect to their natural values

The Bialowieza National Park is a part of the Bialowieza Forests that covers at present the area of 10500 hectares of the northeastern part of Poland. Almost half of that area is a strict nature reserve. In 1997 by decision of UNESCO it was included into the world network of biosphere reserves and two years later it was deemed a world heritage area. The Bialowieza National Park is known all over the world as a forest complex of unique natural values and the habitat of the European bison. The forests are under strict protection. From the point of view of nature it is an area of protected landscape, from the point of view of economy it is an area of the State Forests with limited economic activity. Ecological organisations in Poland and abroad demand that the whole area of the Bialowieza Forests be declared a strict nature reserve. The Polish authorities indeed plan to enlarge the area of the Park. The inhabitants of the area object to such plans. In 1999 the government carried out a survey of the social and economic situation in the area of the Bialowieza Forests. It revealed that the area is far behind the rest of the country as regards the development of technical, social and economic infrastructure. Living conditions in the area are worse than in the rest of the country. Preservation of the unique character of the area can be possible only through the implementation of the principles of sustainable social, economic and ecological development. The paper will present the strategy of sustainable development for the eight gminas of the Bialowieza Forests. The strategy aimed not only at the protection of nature but also at the protection of people. We should not forget that people are also a part of the natural environment. The strategy was developed by means of the participation method, i.e. with the participation of all the members of the local community: representatives of business, local government, local organisations and the very inhabitants of the area.

Alfred Endres
Department of Economics, University of Hagen, Germany


Cornelia Ohl
Department of Economics, University of Hagen, Germany

International environment cooperation in the one shot prisoners' dilemma

Our analysis simultaneously deals with two types of uncertainty: first, the uncertainty of the behaviour of nature (stochastic or parametric uncertainty) and second, the uncertainty of the behaviour of nations (strategic uncertainty). This risk-strategic analysis points out that chances of international coalition formation to protect the global commons depend on the characteristics of the national welfare distributions and the country specific risk attitudes. We point out that risk aversion is a prerequisite for transforming a static prisoners' dilemma (according to the order of expected national welfare) into a game of higher cooperation possibilities. For different intensities of risk aversion we develop a typology of cooperative behaviour showing that enforcing an environmental agreement is not necessarily harder than initiating it. Moreover, we investigate how the design of strategies of international risk management (here: emission trading with and without trade restrictions) feeds back to the incentive structure of an international treaty like the Kyoto protocol. We argue that the traditional judgement criteria of policy assessment in an international setting should be put into a wider context by the criterion of 'cooperative push'. This criterion reflects the ability of instruments and technologies to initiate and self-enforce international environmental agreements. Thereby it provides the necessary link between local and global concern.

Roberto Enriquez-Andrade
Faculty of Marine Sciences, Universidad Autonoma de Baja California, Ensenada, Mexico


Institutional failure, public planning and sustainability of coastal-marine resources in a developing country

For the most part of this century, Mexico has resorted to centralised public planning in an effort to speed up the process of economic development and to protect the environment. In this country, public planning is mandated by the Constitution, which also includes provisions for strong governmental control over most natural resources. Increasingly over the last decade, scarce public resources have been devoted to strengthen environmental planning. Notwithstanding such efforts, planning has been largely ineffective in reversing environmental degradation trends. Particularly distressing is the incapacity of public planning efforts to take advantage of the country's vast stock of natural capital to produce opportunities for socioeconomic development in a sustainable fashion. This paper looks, in a qualitative way, at the institutional framework in which environmental planning is embedded in an effort to better understand what are the driving forces behind planning failure. Among the major obstacles detected are population growth, excessive centralisation of decision-making, undefined or unenforced property and access rights, improper assessment methods and a wide array of market and regulatory disincentives. These problems are compounded by the failure to consider the biophysical constraints of natural resources in the planning process. The paper suggests some general institutional changes needed for effective environmental planning.

Elena Escudero
Department of Economic Analysis, Valladolid University, Spain


Trade policy and /or environmental policy

The interlinkages between trade policy and environmental policy in open economies are multiple and complex. Conceptually the link between trade and environment goes two ways: first, trade and trade liberalisation can have an impact on environmental quality and policy and, second, environmental policies can have effects on trade. Policy debates on trade and the environment frequently refer to a need for countries linked by trade to coordinate or even harmonise their purely domestic environmental policies. Underlying this argument is a concern that national governments will not fully internalise environmental externalities. Two significant conflicts may arise when environmental policy does not sufficiently aim at, or is not in a position to sufficiently internalise these potential externalities. A first conflict is linked to concerns about the potential inefficiencies that are introduced in the adjustment process of the production structure of those countries that internalise environmental externalities and those countries that do not. In such a situation, the required adjustments that non-discriminatory trading implies are potentially larger than in a situation where all trading partners internalise external environmental costs. A second conflict can arise when the spatial dimension of environmental externalities goes beyond the boundaries of the jurisdiction conducting and implementing the policy. The question arises as to what environmental and trade policy instruments should be chosen to implement efficient and environmentally effective policies whilst guaranteeing a non-discriminatory multilateral trade regime. In the presence of a global environmental externality the ideal policy action to tackle the problem is an international or multilateral environmental agreement. However, as costs and benefits of environmental actions are not evenly spread over nations, the risks of not reaching agreement and a non-stability of the agreement exist. Given the incentives to free ride, the profitability and the optimality of environmental agreements are separated from their stability. This paper reviews the recent advances in this area and discusses the role played by international institutions in achieving effective international environmental agreements. We argue that international institutions can intervene in the framing of the strategic interactions between countries and can influence the actual agreement reached when different outcomes of the negotiation game can be equilibria.

Joshua Farley
University of Maryland, Institute for Ecological Economics, Center for Environmental Science, Solomons, Maryland, USA


Obstacles and incentives to socially rational investment in natural capital: the case of riparian rainforest restoration in the Atherton Tablelands, Queensland, Australia

The Atherton Tablelands of Far North Queensland, Australia, have lost over 90% of their rainforest cover since the 1880s. In contrast to many rainforest soils, much of the Atherton Tablelands are covered in rich, productive basalts, and the region now boasts many productive farms. Deforestation has nonetheless had many negative impacts; both on ecological functions and the economic services they provide. As a result, in the last ten years, both farmers and ecological restoration groups have been attempting to ameliorate those impacts with various reforestation schemes. This paper provides local examples of both market and non-market benefits from reforestation. It then discusses how a number of market failures keep reforestation efforts at sub-optimal levels, placing a special emphasis on the problems of public goods, externalities, ignorance and the failure to account for future generations. For the most part, these are the same market failures that led to excessive deforestation to begin with. The paper further discusses how these failures lead to some landowners continuing to clear forests for very small gains, while the reforestation projects spend up to $25,000/ha on restoration. Many economists argue that these market failures can be resolved within the market framework. I show that in many cases this is simply not true, for a variety of reasons. I then discuss the types of extra-market interventions required to resolve the most serious of these failures, as well as the obstacles to implementing them.

Shuyi Feng
Nanjung Agricultural University, China


Nico Heerink
Wageningen Agricultural University, The Netherlands

Qu Futian
Nanjing Agricultural University, China


Rured Ruben
Wageningen Agricultural University, The Netherlands

Study on socio-economic policy reforms and sustainable land use at farmer household level: a case study in Jiangsu Province, China

This paper focuses on the analysis of the effect of socio-economic policy reforms on sustainable land use at farm household level. With the introduction of the 'household responsibility system', farm management and decision-making authority has been transferred from the communes to individual households. Thus, farmer households represent the key decision-making units for production in rural economies. Under these reforms, farmers can organise their agricultural production according to the principle of the maximisation of short-run profit. Farmers become the main link between the economy and natural resource base. Their production behaviour may have important effects on sustainable land use. The paper starts with a brief introduction to recent socio-economic policy reforms and their impact on agricultural price change and farmer household decision-making, and the present situation of soil degradation. Next, based on neo-classical production theory, a two-stage model is developed. An empirical study is subsequently carried out by using the data from farm interviews and soil surveys carried out between 1991 and 1997 in Jiangsu province. Then, the paper simulates the effect of agricultural price change on soil fertility at farmer household level. Finally, this paper draws some conclusions, and discusses the suitability of the approach and its potential improvement. Results indicate that the price increase of rice and rapeseed and the price decrease of chemical fertiliser have a negative effect on soil-K change, while the price increase of wheat and maize have a positive effect. It can also be found that the poorer the soil, the more sensitive the soil-K change.

Marcelo Firpo de Souza Porto
National School of Public Health and Fundação Oswaldo Cruz, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil


Carlos Machado de Freitas
National School of Public Health and Fundação Oswaldo Cruz, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Inequity, vulnerability and externalities: the case of work and environmental accidents in Brazil

Inequity and vulnerability are important dimensions of an analysis of environmental and industrial hazards in the context of industrialising countries such as Brazil. Risks, as well as externalities, are distributed unequally among different countries, regions and people, according social and power relations. The aim of this paper is to examine the vulnerability of the so-called industrialising countries regarding work and environmental accidents. Social, institutional and economic aspects of the Brazilian reality are used to show how vulnerability influences several vicious circles of externalisation and decision-making processes. These factors create the type of settings where technical approaches used more or less efficiently in highly industrialised and institutionalised societies prove more limited when analysing and proposing solutions in the context of countries like Brazil. As a consequence, being aware that we can not solve the whole problem in the short term we can still enhance the role of institutions and professionals. However, in order to promote a better quality of life, we can incorporate questions and methods capable of improving social and institutional dynamics related to structural changes in society. For this proposal, it is necessary to contextualise the understanding of environmental problems within the needs and priorities of vulnerable populations, developing new forms of dialogues and risk communication with the poor and people of low formal education, creating possibilities of reciprocal exchanges between lay and scientific knowledge.

Dina Franceschi
Department of Economics, Fairfield University, Fairfield, Connecticut, USA


James Randall Kahn
University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Tennessee, USA

Can joint implementation lead to global agreement on greenhouse gas emissions: A preliminary analysis of the potential for trade

Joint implementation is a form of emissions trading, whereby developed countries (or firms in developed countries) undertake projects to reduce emissions in developing countries (or to sequester carbon through afforestation projects). Since only projects that represent a net cost savings will be undertaken, joint implementation represents an actual, rather than potential, Pareto improvement. Despite the potential gains from trade associated with joint implementation, developing countries are reluctant to accept an international agreement that packages joint implementation and emissions limitation on developing countries. Our paper explores the capacity of the overall economic system to accommodate such an international agreement. The first step in this process is to estimate country-level production functions, with carbon emissions as a factor of production. The second step is to determine the GDP implications of a baseline set of emissions reductions, based on the estimated production functions. In addition to across the board reductions, scenarios are explored where more stringent restrictions are place on developed countries, while allowing developing countries to grow to some fixed percent above current levels. The next set of scenarios looks at the capital infusion that would be required to offset the negative impact of emissions reductions on GDP, and allow for some future growth. Finally, we conduct a scenario analysis where we look at alternative assumptions concerning technological innovation, and its impact on the GDP implications of emission reductions. As our conclusion, we use the information produced in our analysis of the alternative scenarios to suggest a package of greenhouse gas reductions that might be acceptable to both sets of countries.

Dina Franceschi
Department of Economics, Fairfield University, Fairfield Connecticut, USA


James Randall Kahn
University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Tennessee, USA

The role of capital, mineral resources and environmental resources in the sustainable development of the Brazilian Amazon

Since the Brundtland Commission's delineation of the term sustainable development in 1987, virtually every country has incorporated the terms sustainability and sustainable development into their planning vocabulary. However, many issues remain unresolved, and broad and sweeping references to sustainability and sustainable development do not necessarily translate into implementable policies to achieve these goals. In particular, unresolved issues include how one sector of the economy can contribute to the sustainable development of the economy as a whole and the role of ecological resources in sustainable development. Our paper provides an initial examination of these questions by examining the potential of mining to contribute to sustainable development, with specific application to mining in the Brazilian Amazon.

Christopher Fulcher
Center for Agricultural, Resource and Environmental Systems (CARES), University of Missouri, Columbia, Missouri, USA


Tony Prato
Center for Agricultural, Resource and Environmental Systems (CARES), University of Missouri, Columbia, Missouri, USA

A web-based integrated resource management system (IRMS)

http://www.cares.missouri.edu/irms/reports/isee2000

The upsurge of interest in Participatory Action Research has increased the need for user-friendly, interactive methods to evaluate the economic and ecological consequences of alternative land use and management practices. The World Wide Web is rapidly becoming a dominant computing environment. Specifically, decision support systems that employ geographic information systems (GIS) are now emerging on the Web. Therefore, knowledge and information from several disciplines are incorporated into a Web-based Integrated Resource Management System (IRMS). This system adopts a community-based landscape perspective, a way to view interactive parts of the land, rather than focusing on their isolated components. IRMS consists of a Web-based GIS, the Cost and Returns Estimator (CARE) model, and Bobwhite Quail habitat suitability models. The system allows stakeholders to visually change land use activities or management practices via the Web and evaluate the impact on quail habitat as well as the impact on cost and returns to the landowner. IRMS generates model-input files based on user-defined attributes, executes these models and imports the model output into the Web-based GIS. The technical expertise required to manipulate the data is embedded in IRMS. Stakeholders only need a low-cost browser such as Netscape or Internet Explorer to zoom-in on a given spatial extent and add or edit geographic features. Specifically, points (e.g., quail nesting sites), lines, and polygons (e.g., cropland or uncultivated fields) are digitised via the Web. Stakeholders then select these features to enter or edit the attributes required to run the economic and ecological models.

Caroline Gallez
Interdisciplinary Centre for the Environment, The Technical University of Mons, Belgium


Sustainable behaviour of industry induced by regional environmental policies: application to the Belgium hydroecosystems

This paper studies business responses to pressure for more environmentally friendly behaviour that mainly comes from environmental protection agencies. Since sufficient data is not available for all sectors of industry and sizes of firms, a qualitative approach is chosen. The so-called Enterprise-Environment Connections Diagram is proposed. It is based on business stimulus-response dynamics and provides a contingency table with classes of business environmental actions in rows and pressures for more environmentally friendly behaviour (among which are environmental instruments) in columns. Various factor analyses can be performed on such a contingency table. To assess feedback from ecosystems on policy, three kinds of variables are taken into account: (1) ecosystem quality parameters, (2) ecosystem boundaries, and (3) cosystem resources used. A case study describes the hydrological ecosystems, water protection policy, and Belgian industries. The results of five factor analyses are detailed, from which practical recommendations to improve water protection policy are drawn. Water pollution management policy seems to be efficient but water resource management policy should be strengthened. Reliance on physico-chemical parameters in environmental instruments is not sufficient to guarantee sustainable behaviours from firms. Biological parameters should also be considered.

Caroline Gallez
Interdisciplinary Centre for the Environment, The Technical University of Mons, Belgium


Environmental management: one name, various behaviours towards sustainability

An overview of environmental management typologies shows that principles of classification are not always respected. Problems include the exhaustion nature of typologies, the discriminative characteristic and the measurability of their criteria, and the convergence of evidence of their categories. Besides, a typology of environmental management respecting the sustainability concept should not be absolute or deterministic, but should refer to context and appeal for a strategic choice perspective. Following these remarks, an inductive approach is advised to select some discriminative criteria to describe environmental management. The purpose of this paper is to identify some distinctive features of environmental management in order to rethink the criteria associated with typologies of environmental management. It is based on a study financed by the Walloon Ministry for the Environment (Belgium). An empirical study of forty industries details two main criteria used in environmental management typologies: business responses and motivations. The qualitative data gathered are structured in a so called Enterprise-Environment Connections Diagram, which allows the study of some unknown aspects of the above two criteria. These aspects include the chain reactions of responses, the natures of responses, the response's executioner, the nature of motives, and the requested number of motives to induce a response. The results prove that environmental management is, as we assumed, influenced by context. Some interesting observations are made, which highlight the differences between conventional management and environmental management and suggest how to integrate them to evolve towards sustainability.

Michael Getzner
Department of Economics, University of Klagenfurt, Austria


Economics of species and nature protection: empirical evidence from Austria

http://econ.uni-klu.ac.at/mgetzner/wetlands.ps

Quantitative explorations of species protection decisions by public authorities regularly show that ecological factors such as the probability of extinction often play a minor role in decision-making. The taxonomy of the species or its potential to conflict with economic development are more powerful influences. The paper presents quantitative empirical research on the protection of wetlands in Austria. Econometrically estimated models show that geographical and ecological factors (such as size of the area, elevation, importance for biodiversity) play a significant role in the protection of wetlands. Additionally influential are conflict variables encoding negative effects of the primary sector as well as of tourism.

Mwangi Githinji
Honors College, Florida Atlantic University, Jupiter, Florida, USA


Thomas J. Kelly
Middlebury College, Vermont, USA

German Zarate
El Colegio de Frontera Norte, Tijuana, Mexico

Disappearing biodiversity, emerging rural markets and changing household labour allocation in the Yucatan Peninsula

http://www.honorscollege.edu

The potential effects of increased economic integration on environmental quality have been much discussed in the literature, but there have been very few empirical examinations of the phenomenon. This paper uses an original data set created from surveys of agricultural households in rural communities in the Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico to examine the relationship between household labour allocation decisions and on-farm biodiversity. In particular, an empirical analysis of the effect of increased off-farm employment by women in rural maquiladoras on on-farm biodiversity (variously defined) is examined.

Romy Greiner
CSIRO, Davies Laboratory, Douglas, Townsville, Queensland, Australia


Managing tourist access to the Daintree National Park

A conceptual framework and empirical analysis of managing tourist access to the Daintree National Park in Tropical North Queensland are presented. Access to the northern parts of the national park is via the Daintree River car ferry. A charge for ferry crossings applies but there is no entry fee to the national park. Sealing the road north of the ferry has made the area accessible to hire cars and traffic now poses a serious problem during peak tourist season. Surveys of self-drive tourists were conducted during four survey periods between July 1999 and April 2000. The demand function for car access to the area is estimated. Consumer surplus and price elasticity are calculated. The results indicate that a fourfold increase in the ferry charge would be required to halve the traffic volume of self-drive tourists to the national park. This would also significantly increase revenue generated by the ferry which could be used for improved management of the area north of the Daintree River. Financial, management, ecological, tourist satisfaction and social equity considerations are presented in the debate about imposing an access fee to the area on top of the ferry charge.

Peter Grist
Department of Forestry, The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT, Australia


Sustainability of upland agriculture in the Philippines: evaluating the potential of a tree fallow system

Smallholder farmers in the uplands of Southeast Asia, practice a form of short fallow shifting cultivation that has been shown to be unsustainable in the long term. This study examines the potential of a Gliricidia fallow system that can improve soil fertility, crop yield and the farmer's economic situation. The Gliricidia fallow system involves the establishment of a Gliricidia plantation during a short fallow period. The Gliricidia foliage is used as green manure, maintaining soil fertility and providing improved crop yields. A bioeconomic model is used to compare the Gliricidia fallow system with a traditional short fallow shifting cultivation system. The model is a combination of cost benefit analysis and the SCUAF model (Soil Changes Under Agriculture, Agroforestry and Forestry). Cost benefit analysis is used to identify the most economically efficient system. The SCUAF model is integrated within the cost benefit analysis framework, and is used to observe changes in crop productivity over time. SCUAF is a relatively simple deterministic model designed to predict the effect of various tree and crop combinations on soils and commodity outputs. Under the Gliricidia fallow system, soil nutrient levels (carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus) improved by up to 80%, soil erosion decreased and crop yield was found to be sustainable, over the 48 years of the analysis. In comparison, under an Imperata fallow system, soil nutrients fell to approximately 30% of their initial levels, soil erosion increased and crop yield declined over time. The Gliricidia fallow system was shown to be quite profitable from both social and private perspectives when a market for firewood is available, but showed a small loss based on revenue from maize only. The Imperata fallow system, in comparison, was only marginally profitable from a private perspective, and unprofitable from a social perspective. Thus, once established the Gliricidia fallow system has significant potential to improve the situation for smallholder farmers in the uplands of Southeast Asia that currently practice short Imperata fallow systems.

Brent M. Haddad
Department of Environmental Studies, University of California, Santa Cruz, U.S.A.

Kimberly Merritt
Department of Environmental Studies, University of California, Santa Cruz, U.S.A.

Evaluating regional impacts of climate change: the case of California water

This paper contributes to efforts to improve the accuracy of estimating damages resulting from climate change. It examines potential hydrological impacts on California, and how the state might adapt. For a doubled-CO2 scenario, general circulation models coupled with California hydrological data predict increased winter precipitation and dryer summers, elevated snowlines with correspondingly reduced snow pack, shifts in seasonal peak runoff patterns, increased numbers and intensity of extreme weather events, increased evapotranspiration, and declining soil moisture. Adaptations by water managers could include de-emphasizing the role multi-purpose reservoirs play in flood control in order to enhance their water-storage capabilities, making firm long-term commitments to provide water to wetlands and other ecologically-sensitive areas, and increasing the management flexibility available to local water agencies through intra-regional contracting and mergers. With respect to valuation, while the water sector is accustomed to adapting to climatic variation, adaptations may not be consistent with an integrated assessment model's least-cost path. Further, a region's gain or loss of overall water supplies should be evaluated in the context of its ongoing reallocation of water among competing uses. And in order to capture an appropriate level of detail, the scale of impact studies needs to be reduced to the national or sub-national level.

Stefan Hajkowicz
CSIRO Land and Water, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia


Mike Young
CSIRO Land and Water, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia

Assessing the economic impacts of land degradation in Australia

This paper describes the methodological approach used in a transdisciplinary assessment of the economic impacts of land degradation throughout Australia. The output of this process will be geo-referenced cost estimates of land degradation covering the entire continent. Estimates of cost are to be provided for current and 2020scenarios. Clearly the process requires integration of large and complex data sets derived from many different scientific disciplines. Conversion of such disparate data into information of use to policy makers presents several conceptual issues that are addressed in the paper. The issues covered relate to: (i) how costs of land degradation and the benefits of remedial works are assessed over time; (ii) what definitions / understandings of 'cost' have most relevance to decision makers; (iii) how data uncertainty should be treated; (iv) how spatial aspects of the problem should be handled; and (v) how the data should be presented to policy makers and the public. Although supported by previous research, some of the methods presented represent new strategies for determining the costs of land degradation. This largely results from the lack of studies that have sought to quantify the economic impacts of land degradation over such a large area encompassing a multitude of issues. The results of this study will become available by late 2000 or early 2001 and will have significant implications for the manner in which Australia's natural resources are managed.

Clive Hamilton
The Australia Institute and Australian National University, Canberra, ACT, Australia


Hal Turton
Sustainable Energy Development Authority, NSW, Australia

Applying the IPAT formula: population growth and greenhouse gas emissions in OECD countries

The IPAT formula is conceptually helpful but of little practical use without much more careful specification. This paper disaggregates growth of greenhouse gas emissions (I) into population growth (P), GDP per person (A) and four energy consumption and fuel mix factors (T) to explain the growth in emissions in a number of OECD countries over the period 1982-1997. The decomposition analysis shows that in most OECD countries economic growth is the main factor driving growth in greenhouse gas emissions. In a few countries, including Australia, population growth has also been important, but in all cases economic growth and population growth have been offset by a fall in energy use per unit of economic output. The policy implications of the research are discussed.

Rob Hart
Department of Economics, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Uppsala, Sweden


Mark Brady
Dept. of Economics, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Uppsala, Sweden


Restoring aquatic ecosystems -- the policy implications

Eutrophication of coastal waters is a serious and intensifying international problem. It has lead to a dramatic decline in the quality of the Baltic Sea ecosystem, a unique body of brackish water. Despite decades of intensive marine research and politically sanctioned cleanup programs the results have been disappointing. We show that framing policy analysis in a static framework will most likely make things worse before they get better-- a risky strategy for a heavily depleted ecosystem. We do this by applying optimal control theory to the problem of reducing the nutrientload from agriculture, a common cause of eutrophication. An agricultural optimisation model is linked to changes in Baltic Sea ecosystem quality over time. Given choices of agricultural practices, submodels determine in turn; nitrogen (N) leakage to the root zone, net coastal N load, the Baltic Sea N pool and an ecosystem quality indicator. Time lags are present in the system because changes in agricultural practices do not result in instantaneous changes in the N pool nor in ecosystem quality. We show that dynamic aspects of the ecosystem rejuvenation process have important policy implications. Adaptation to new nutrient levels takes time and that means politically pledged quality goals are actually impossible given current abatement strategies and profit maximising behaviour by farmers. Further, an ecosystem quality goal in contrast to an abatement goal shows that more needs to be done sooner if we are to avoid potential thresholds or excessive costs to future generations.

Joy E. Hecht
IUCN-The World Conservation Union, Washington, DC, USA
jhecht@iucnus.org

Open-format session. Panel-members: Glenn-Marie Lange, Joy E. Hecht, Ann de los Angeles, Clive Hamilton

Policy applications of environmental accounting: lessons from international experience

http://www.iucnus.org/greenacct.html

Over the past three decades, economists and statisticians have proposed many methods for environmental accounting, addressing different limitations of the conventional System of National Accounts (SNA), and striving for varying goals. Some approaches involve relatively modest adjustments to the SNA, linking it to physical data on pollution and resource use, and disaggregating environment-related data already in the accounts. Others build monetary accounts for the costs of further pollution control or the depletion of natural resources. Others go further, estimating the value of non-marketed environmental goods and services and the damages caused by pollution. Some approaches calculate environmentally adjusted macroeconomic indicators like green GDP or genuine savings, while others consider these unreliable and misleading. Still others calculate sustainable national income or alternate indicators such as the Index of Social and Economic Welfare. Although many countries have experimented with environmental accounts, relatively few have made a systematic commitment to implementing them, in part because of the cost of doing so and the international controversy about methodology. This panel looks at international experiences implementing environmental accounts, to assess how different approaches have contributed to policy debate and public decision-making in about a dozen countries. Our goal is to shed light on whether some approaches to accounting, or some institutional frameworks for implementation of the accounts, lead to the development of more useful results than others do. We will consider the experiences in Europe, Canada, and the Philippines, and several southern African countries.

Gamini Herath
School of Business, La Trobe University, Wodonga Campus, Victoria, Australia


Gary Musselwhite
La Trobe University, Wodonga Campus, Victoria, Australia

Sustainable Development and Forest Management in Australia: A Chaos Theory Interpretation

The allocation of land in Australia among competing uses such as agriculture, national parks, wilderness areas, logging enterprises, mining etc. have always been controversial and politically divisive issues. These areas provide public and private goods, and also have intrinsic values all of which have complicated the allocation problem. Management efforts have created conflicts specially during the 1970s and 1980s. Some of these conflicts have arisen between the Commonwealth Government and the State governments and some have been due to pressure groups such as the farmers, mining lobby and the green groups. The Regional Forest Agreement (RFA) is the latest attempt to introduce the sustainable development concept to forest management in Australia. Despite the much publicised interest on sustainable management of forests, decision have been made on the basis of political and interest group pressure. There is considerable displeasure on how forest management was done in Australia in the past. Even the RFA has come under criticism from many quarters. Despite the seemingly ad hoc nature forest policy where policies appear to have been changed at random, Chaos theory applied to forest policy making reveals that policies are not random but that they have some patterns. There are the so called "strange attractors" which can explain the dynamic changes that have occurred in Australia.

Gamini Herath
School of Business, La Trobe University, Wodonga Campus, Victoria, Australia


Angela Dwyer
School of Business La Trobe University, Wodonga Campus, Victoria, Australia

The use of the precautionary principle in the management of the environment in Australia: The issues

This paper examines the issues that affect the extent of use and the degree of success of the application of the 'precautionary principle' in managing the environment in Australia. The 'precautionary principle' is one of the core concepts of ecologically sustainable development. Its application is required for situations characterised by uncertainty and irreversibility. The principle states that where there are threats of serious irreversible environmental damage, lack of full scientific certainty should not be used as a reason for postponing measures to prevent environmental degradation. Whilst Australia has agreed to the adoption of the principle, implementation both judicially and administratively is problematic. The application of the principle has suffered from a lack of clear definition, failure to support it with legislative enactment and lack of guidance for the judiciary. In the Redbank Power Case it was noted that there was no legislative guidance on how the principle should be applied and other cases have been decided on the 'commonsense principle' without further definition. The Nyngan case being a further case in point. (Nakken and Cripps, 1999) Legislative reform especially in the EIA processes is a source of concern (Gullett, 1998). Rogers and Sinden (1994) used the SMS to determine tradeoffs between income and preservation of old-growth forest in New South Wales. The 'Safe Minimum Standard' (SMS) is a popular approach to the use of the principle. Hohl and Tisdell (1993) refer to the uncertainty of environmental standards in Australia as a factor impeding the use of SMS. Economists are constrained in defining risk and uncertainty using the Knightian framework but recent work suggests that further improvements on the Knightian definition are possible. The moral and cultural arguments of the principle are easy to dispute if there is no significant following in the community, precaution can be ignored by the political process as exemplified by the Australian wilderness conservation experience (Wright, 1993).

Simon Hill
Land Use Study Centre, University of Southern Queensland, Toowoomba, Queensland, Australia


Charlie Zammit
Land Use Study Centre, University of Southern Queensland, Toowoomba, Queensland, Australia

The identification of community values for regional sustainable land use planning and management

This paper evaluates alternative methods of determining community values for sustainable land use and how the results can be integrated into a regional planning framework. Community participation in regional planning and the identification of stakeholder value sets for such poses real challenges and highlights weaknesses, as well as strengths, of existing methodologies and institutional frameworks. This paper first reviews the methods that are available for identifying community values including an analysis of the assumptions, theoretical underpinnings and the form of information output of the techniques. The paper then reviews methods and institutional arrangements available for integrating identified value sets into a regional planning framework. An analysis of the effectiveness of applications of various methods will follow a review of where and how they have been applied. This paper then focuses on the potential use of various community value identification methods and institutional arrangements, in the context of their assumptions, theoretical underpinnings and the form of information output, for regional sustainable land use planning.

Richard Howarth
Environmental Studies Program , Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, USA


Kjell Arne Brekke
Statistics Norway

Contingent wants and climate stabilisation

Economic models typically assume that forces exogenous to the economic system determine individual wants. Anthropology, sociology, and social psychology, in contrast, provide conceptual frameworks and empirical evidence supporting the view that the perceived benefits of goods and services are strongly affected by endogenously determined social norms. This paper presents a selective overview of the literature on the relationship between consumption and well-being, exploring the ways in which informal arguments from the descriptive social sciences might be linked to formal models of economic behaviour. In particular, the paper incorporates relative consumption effects into William Nordhaus' Dynamic Integrated model of Climate and the economy (DICE), which seeks to identify optimal time paths for greenhouse gas emissions in the global economy. Although the base version of DICE supports emissions levels that rise from 8.5 to 21.8 billion tonnes of carbon equivalent between 1995 and 2095, the present analysis finds that this result depends strongly on the assumption that preferences are independent of social context. Under plausible assumptions regarding the empirical magnitude of relative consumption effects, optimal levels of greenhouse gas emissions rise from just 5.8 to 12.8 billion tonnes over the period of analysis. The implication is that the failure to account for relative consumption effects can cause analysts to overstate the social benefits of consumption and underestimate the true benefits of long-term environmental quality.