The IPCC warns that in order to keep global warming under 1.5°, global emissions must be cut to zero by 2050. Policymakers and scholars debate how best to decarbonise the energy system, and what socio-economic changes might be necessary. Here we review the strengths, weaknesses, and synergies of two prominent climate change mitigation narratives: the Green New Deal and degrowth. Green New Deal advocates

Forest industry companies are the chief exploiters of forest resources, and their day-to-day decisions and actions may have major implications for the sustainable development of forests, and for those who depend on them. Russian companies have a special place in this regard as they operate in the most forested country in the world and the local forest resources have considerable global effects. In

Although the social-ecological impacts of resettlement have been widely assessed, the concrete mechanisms by which ecological resettlement influences the livelihoods of resettled households have rarely been examined. Using data collected from a large household survey in southern Shaanxi, China and a propensity score matching method, this study explores the potential impact of resettlement on livelihood

The cost of the ongoing degradation of natural capital will inevitably be borne by the younger generations. And, as the wave of school strikes for action against climate change have proved, they do not want their voice to be ignored. Discrete Choice Experiments are increasingly used for the valuation of environmental goods, but they have never been conducted with minors. We designed and administered

The Canadian Arctic is a unique food producing region. Much of the food produced in the Canadian Arctic has a strong tie with Indigenous cultures and communities, is produced or harvested in a pristine environment, and features species not commonly consumed in other parts of Canada. Building upon previous work and using data from a survey of Canadian consumers featuring a discrete choice experiment

Smallholder farmers in developing countries encounter multiple barriers in access to inputs and technology, which prevent them from reaping the benefits from market participation. Women farmers face additional constraints due to gender norms that further limit their engagement in productive activities. While collective action has been shown to improve access to markets and economic outcomes for farmers

This paper examines the innovative behavior of agri-food firms located in Central and Eastern Europe. In the literature, empirical analyses on innovation activities of firms focus on various case studies from around the world. However, very few studies explore the innovation of small and medium sized enterprises from Central and Eastern Europe’s agri-food sector. The analysis uses the logit estimation

A more efficient use of natural resources is considered a necessary condition for their sustainable use. When firms use resources circularly they aim to contribute to using resources more eco-efficiently, and thus in a more sustainable way than when adopting more linear systems. Eco-efficiency in linear systems can be determined by aggregating each individual instance of resource use. However, in circular

Excess nutrients have led to eutrophication of the Chesapeake Bay, USA. It has been suggested that oyster restoration can play an important role in achieving water quality goals in the Bay. An optimal control bioeconomic model is applied to the management of oysters in the Chesapeake Bay, taking into account nutrient removal by the oysters. Optimal management of oyster harvests in the Bay reduces the

In order to avoid environmental catastrophe we need to move to a post-growth economy that can deliver rapid reductions in environmental impacts and improve well-being, independent of GDP growth. Such a move will entail considerable structural change in the economy, implying different goals and strategies for different economic sectors. So far there are no systematic approaches for identifying the desired

Adoption of innovations is central to improved livelihoods of smallholders and agricultural modernization. The means of achieving optimum adoption rates, however, remain blurred amidst decades of research and interventions. This paper employed both content and meta-analysis to summarize the theoretical and empirical studies conducted in the past three decades in agroforestry (AF) adoption practice

Weak forest governance is posited as a key underlying driver of deforestation and forest degradation, but empirical evidence of this linkage is scarce. Many related studies capture the de jure (legal) conditions and miss out the de facto (implementation practices on the ground), particularly when considering the proximate drivers and other factors of deforestation. However, this is central for identifying

Food waste has drawn increasing public attention, and the high levels of estimated waste are largely considered to be a failure of our current food system. Recently, economists have begun to weigh in, showing food waste can emerge as the result of a complex equilibrium affected by consumers’ preferences for convenience; expectations about future food prices and availability; food safety concerns; producers’

Climate change increases the need for better insurance solutions that enable farmers to cope with drought risks. We design weather index insurance using drought indices based on precipitation, soil moisture and evapotranspiration as underlying drought index and compare their risk-reducing potential for winter wheat producers in Eastern Germany. In general, we find that all drought indices can reduce

Fulani ethnic militia (FEM) violence has increased significantly in recent years, making it one of the most lethal groups in the world. However, empirical evidence on the impacts of FEM on agriculture is scarce. We investigate the agricultural impacts of such violence in the case of Nigeria using a nationally representative panel dataset and armed conflict data. We find that increased FEM violence

This article evaluates the short-term impacts of a fruit fly integrated pest management program in Peru. Exploiting arbitrary variation in the program’s intervention borders, we use a geographical regression discontinuity design to identify the program’s effects on agricultural outcomes. Pre-treatment balance tests show that producer and farm-level pre-treatment characteristics evolve smoothly at the

In semi-arid lands, the resilience of farmers facing climate change is uncertain. The main objective of this paper is to explore whether mutual assistance within a group of cotton farmers implies reduced adoption of risk-mitigating strategies. I investigate the case of Burkina Faso where cotton farmers collectively purchase inputs from the cotton wholesale companies and pay for their purchase under

Understanding the drivers and income effects of land rental markets is important to facilitate agricultural transformation. This study uses a panel dataset of rural households in Vietnam to examine the efficiency, equity and income effects of land rental markets. Probit and tobit models find that land is transferred from less to more efficient farmers and thus removing administrative barriers to the

With the emergence of large, horizontally integrated farm enterprises especially in Eastern European countries, the question arises whether these agroholdings exercise market power in (local) land markets. Using a theoretical framework of spatial competition that accounts for the presence of multi-farm agroholdings, we derive equilibrium prices under alternative spatial competition settings. Based

We investigate the impact of per-unit duties (i.e. tariffs expressed in US dollars per unit of imported product) on world agricultural trade patterns. Using detailed data on trade and tariffs, we show first that they induce higher export unit values, confirming that the Alchian–Allen conjecture can be extended to per-unit duties. Second, we show that this effect is higher for developed countries, which

This article investigates the stability of farmers’ risk attitude over time. To this end, we estimate responses to changes in agricultural policies and production shocks. We use a unique panel data of over 36,000 Italian farms specialised in cereals, during the period 1989–2009. We find evidence of risk preference changes over time in response to changes in the European Union Common Agricultural Policy

We employ a discrete choice experiment to elicit demand and supply side preferences for insurance‐linked credit, a promising market‐based tool for managing agricultural weather risks and providing access to credit for farmers. We estimate preference heterogeneity using primary data from smallholder farmers and managers of lenders/insurers combined with household socio‐economic survey data in Kenya

Increasing production of salmon open-net pen culture has raised concerns about the negative impact of this aquaculture technology on the marine environment. In British Columbia (BC), Canada, benthic deposition of organic nutrients (faeces and waste feed) is identified as a potential source of localized environmental degradation from salmon farming. In this paper, we develop a marginal damage cost function

We aim to advance our understanding of the adverse effects of extreme temperatures by examining the extent to which high temperatures affect stock market activity. We address this question by analyzing the trading volumes on the French stock market on days when the weather in Paris is excessively hot over the period 1995–2019. Our empirical analyses show that, on average, trading volumes fall significantly

Climate change impacts pose a great challenge to agriculture in sub-Saharan Africa as droughts become more frequent and more severe. A major roadblock to implementing climate change adaptation measures is poor governance. Given their experience with governing organizations, farmers are highly suitable to assess the appropriateness of different governing organizations to implement adaptation measures

Habitat loss and degradation are recognised as the most important causes of species decline and extinction in marine ecosystems. It is also widely recognised that a range of restoration actions are now essential to halt further decline. From a policy perspective, demonstration that restoration activity is in the interest of society is an important goal. In this paper, the welfare impacts of restoring

This study uses a choice experiment design to elicit the public's willingness to pay (WTP) for the highly endangered Red-crowned Crane (Grus japonensis) in Yancheng National Wetland Nature Reserve (YNWNR) in coastal China. It particularly analyzes the extent to which marginal WTP (MWTP) is influenced by conservation attitudes and income. Using a dataset collected from 262 respondents from Beijing through

Traditional benchmarking implicitly assumes that decision making units operate in isolation from their peers. For arable production systems in particular, this assumption is unlikely to hold in reality. This paper quantifies spatial spillovers on input‐specific inefficiency using data envelopment analysis and a second‐stage bootstrap truncated regression model. The bootstrap algorithm is extended to

Extraction of environmental resources and migration are closely related livelihood strategies of rural households in developing countries. Therefore, a deeper understanding of the relationship between environmental income and remittances is needed to lower the existing pressure on environmental resources and to promote rural development. This study aims at investigating this relationship by using panel

Food insecurity is a pervasive problem in the United States and it is particularly acute in high cost areas. This study focuses on the diets and food expenditures of food bank clients in two Northern California counties located in what is commonly known as Silicon Valley. The results indicate that the study group spent 27% more than the federal government’s Thrifty Food Plan, but consumed a lower amount

Socio-economic metabolism (SEM) occupies a central place in the study of agri-food systems. While researchers are asked to address growing environmental and social issues, the link between theoretical choices of representation and action is rarely discussed as such. We propose a cross-sectional analysis between the way SEM is described and how researchers propose to act, based on a literature concerned

This article, using an institutional and political ecological perspective, analyses the role of knowledge networks supporting peasant seed groups in France. These groups promote a dynamic approach to agrobiodiversity restoration, developing new models of collaborative “peer-to-peer genetics” and distributed participatory breeding. Our analysis focuses here on the small grain cereal participatory breeding

Ecologically unequal exchange theory posits asymmetric net flows of biophysical resources from poorer to richer countries. To date, empirical evidence to support this theoretical notion as a systemic aspect of the global economy is largely lacking. Through environmentally-extended multi-regional input-output modelling, we provide empirical evidence for ecologically unequal exchange as a persistent

In this study, we tested a novel approach for indirectly detecting participation of the local population in illegal harvesting of Protected Areas (PAs) natural resources and its spatial distribution. The research was conducted in the Niassa National Reserve (NNR), the third-largest PA in Africa, and included a face-to-face survey to 339 households. The householders were asked about the importance of

Curtailing deforestation and the negative environmental and social externalities of oil palm expansion in the tropics requires a clear understanding of the associated economic benefits. Through analyzing regency-level panel data for 2005–2014 from rural Indonesia, we find that oil palm expansion has had a robust and positive impact on the provision of private goods (i.e., amenities owned and benefited

This contribution shows that a relevant curtailment of carbon emissions results from productivity-led working time reduction, i.e. increases in labour productivity converted into less working time. However, the interaction between working time reduction and GDP can constrain the achievement of emission reductions. To explore these interactions, we apply Eurogreen, a dynamic macro-simulation model,

Nordhaus' DICE model is used to investigate the economics of planting trees on 900 million ha of lands that can be reforested or afforested, as proposed by a number of researchers. By looking at the most optimistic restoration case, a large terrestrial sink can reduce projected future temperatures by more than 30%, with accompanying smaller marginal damages. It also turns out that optimal levels of

The implicit value to Chinese consumers of the country-of-origin (COO) characteristic of dairy products is of great importance to estimate. This study adopted the hedonic price model to evaluate the shadow price of the COO attribute of both UHT fluid milk and infant formula collected from the five leading e-commerce platforms (Alibaba’s Tmall Supermarket, Jingdong, Suning Purchase, COFCO I buy nets

This study is motivated by a real project in China in the context of “Green Mountains and Clear Water”. As pointed out by Xi (2016), “to improve the environment is to boost productivity”. The purpose of this paper is to devise optimal capital allocation and compensation mechanisms when there exist social and environmental responsibility risks. A firm with access to a single investment project in an

This paper investigates an unresolved question in environmental economics: An Environmental Kuznets Curve for deforestation (EKCd). It relies on a 55 year panel of forest cover data reconstructed from the periodic national forest inventories of 114 countries clustered in low, middle, and high income groups—as defined by the World Bank—and examines these clusters within both static and dynamic frameworks

The UK exited the EU on 31 January 2020, with a transition period agreed as part of the Withdrawal Agreement. During this transition period the UK and the EU will decide on their future trading relationship. No matter what form this relationship takes, there will be disturbances to agri‐food markets. This study analyses four different scenarios with increasing barriers to trade, ranging from a very

Nature-based flood defences (NBFD) are receiving considerable attention in the coastal adaptation field. Advocates of NBFD point to their cost-effectiveness, flexibility and the range of co-benefits they produce beside flood risk reduction. However, NBFD are not yet common practice. One reason for this may be found in financial barriers. To date, there has been little attention for financial aspects

We consider the management of a mono-specific even-aged forest at the stand level. Optimal silviculture based on timber income and sequestered carbon income in an no risk case and a risky case are compared. In this study, using calculus of variations we discuss the validity of using a risk adjusted discount rate (a rate of natural risk added to the discount rate) or using a carbon adjusted discount

Forests are prone to direct and indirect effects of climate change. Adaptation strategies have been developed to increase the resistance of forests towards climate change and to reduce the associated risks. However, the direction and degree of climate change remain deeply uncertain. This deep uncertainty is often neglected in forest management. Thus, alternative approaches such as robust decision-making

China’s new wave of collective forest tenure reform since 2003 (post-2003 reform) has been the research hotspot for years. However, the research is insufficient on how communities restructured forest tenure throughout this top-down devolution reform and the evolution and dynamics of community-level forest tenure changes over a long-term period. Based on the mixed methodology and multiple data sources

Agenda 2030 and its 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) form an overarching framework to guide development at all scales from local to global. They are intended to holistically address sustainability across its economic, ecological and social dimensions. A core tenant of this holistic approach is that all dimensions of sustainability are interlinked, such that changes in one dimension can have

This article conducts a systematic literature review of journal articles on innovation in forestry and forest-based industries. We include international, English language, peer-reviewed research articles included in the scientific databases Scopus and Web of Science since the 1980s. Our search for articles that specifically mention “innovation/innovativeness” and “forest/wood/timber” from a social

In many legal frameworks, corporate directors are selected by shareholders. Proposed legislature in the US seeks to enable employee representation on corporate boards as well. Nevertheless, current approaches to corporate board selection could result in the systematic discounting of the needs of other, unrepresented stakeholder groups beyond shareholders and employees. To investigate this issue, we

Palm oil is very important exported commodity in Indonesia, which currently generates more than USD18 billion to the national earnings. Oil palm (Elaeis guineensis, Jacq.) is the most efficient crop in terms of productivity in producing oil compared with other crops, such as soybean, rapeseed and sunflower. Indonesia is a major palm oil producer in the world, where the oil palm plantation covers more

Climate induced events exacerbate food production and distribution risks, posing a threat to global food security. Though many studies focus on farmer adaptation to climate change, there are few studies of actors in the middle of agricultural value chains such as traders, logistics providers, and processors. The activities of these actors, referred to as the ‘hidden middle’, are key determinants of

Effective biosecurity systems are important for protecting trade and the environment from the introduction of exotic pests and diseases, particularly as the movement of goods and people increases worldwide. But systems are complex and the optimal division of resources between biosecurity operations is difficult to determine. In this paper we formulate tractable, stochastic, bio-economic models to guide

Value theory forms the bedrock of several economic paradigms. It shapes how economists think about the purpose and functioning of the system as a whole. I identify three approaches to understanding value in economics: the British classical approach, exemplified by Smith and Ricardo, the neoclassical approach based on marginal utility theory, and Marxian value theory. The classical and neoclassical

Since 2013, the Chinese government has implemented a series of waste paper import regulations with the aim of improving the quality of imported waste paper. The purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of these new regulations on the quality of imported waste paper. The study analyzed the asymmetric effects and dynamics between China's domestic and imported waste paper prices and between

Although forest concessions have the potential to regulate the use and conservation of forest resources and protect the rights of traditional populations, international experiences have been controversial. In 2018, the Food and Agriculture Organization established 39 guidelines for tropical concession systems based on UN Agenda 2030. In this study, we compared the Brazilian experience in forest concessions

Agroforestry is a multifunctional and climatically smart agriculture that combines high food productivity with environmental protection according to the local sociocultural context, these advantages have prompted several countries that have developed national agroforestry initiatives, and policies. The main objective of this paper is to propose a Mexican precision agroforestry policy to promote economic

In the wake of the substantial increases in farmland values that have occurred in Ontario since 2008, concerns have been expressed regarding the potential influence of nonfarmer buyers, such as investment companies and foreign buyers, on prices paid for farmland. To examine whether these concerns may be warranted, this paper estimates the impact of nonfarmer buyers on sale prices for farmland in Ontario

Russia possesses the world's largest forest reserves and is one of the major exporters in the world timber market. This paper explores the role of Russian forest products on the global market, taking into account competitiveness both at national and regional levels. The competitiveness level of traded goods was measured with three indicators using the approach of revealed comparative advantages. Analysis

Increasing sustainable productivity growth in the food and agriculture sector is a common goal of all OECD and G20 countries. At the same time, an important policy question for many governments is how the current set of agricultural policies affects both productivity growth and environmental performance of the sector. Despite the high relevance of this issue, empirical evidence on the effects of specific

This paper assesses the proposal to transform the monetary system into an Ecology of money, that is, into a system made of a large diversity of complementary currencies. Its central aim is to examine whether this proposal could provide a systemic solution to both the ecological and financial crises, as several authors, most notably Lietaer and Douthwaite, have argued. To this end, it analyses the two