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The reform of the European Common Fisheries Policy ( CFP) in 2013 decides whether the European fisheries can be put on a sustainable course in the next 10 years. The CFP reform must halt overexploitation of fish resources and stop harm to the marine environment by fishing activities. The European Commission published a reform proposal just recently. This proposal is already an important first step in the right direction, but is under threat of being watered down by the Fisheries Council. Necessary improvements of the current CFP include among others a binding definition of a sustainable stock management, a discard ban for all fish species, transferable fishing concessions and a cessation of all aid for building new vessels. These modifications pave the way for placing micromanagement in the hands of regions and fisheries so as to foster self-responsibility among fishers and give greater consideration to regional circumstances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This paper analyzes the effects of social influence and participation in collective action initiatives on soil conservation effort among smallholder farmers in Lake Naivasha basin, Kenya. We apply binary and ordered probit models in a two stage regression procedure to cross-sectional data collected through a household survey among randomly selected smallholder farmers. Smallholder farming systems in the research area are associated with practices that render farmlands susceptible to soil erosion causing negative impacts on land and the environment. Therefore, strategies that encourage soil conservation are likely to also offer solutions for dealing with agri-environmental challenges and poverty alleviation. Results indicate that social capital facilitates participation in collective action initiatives which then influence individual soil conservation efforts. Neighborhood social influences, subjective norms, gender, education level, farm size, access to credit and livestock ownership also emerge as key determinants of soil conservation effort. Policy implications drawn by this study encourage strategies to increase participation and effectiveness in collective action initiatives as a boost to soil conservation. Implementation of soil conservation practices could also be encouraged through awareness increasing instruments, facilitating access to agricultural micro-credit and paying attention to gender related challenges on knowledge access and rights over land and other natural resources. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Biodiversity is an essential resource, which we classify as conditionally-renewable. In order to achieve conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity virtually all nation states signed the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity. In this paper we investigate how the heterogeneity of countries in regard to ecosystems and wealth influences the stability of international biodiversity conservation agreements both without and with transfers. We further examine the effect of different degrees of ecosystem substitutability. We model a coalition formation game with players that have a continuous conservation choice. The conservation benefit is dependent on wealth and ecosystem quality. Aggregation of global benefits respects differences in ecosystem substitutability. In case of transfers, a fund redistributes coalition benefits according to a sharing rule. The main finding is that in the absence of transfers, compared to the homogeneous situation, heterogeneity in ecosystems and wealth reduces the size of a stable coalition. The destabilising effect is stronger the higher the ecosystem substitutability. Optimal transfers facilitate a large stable coalition. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Disease resistant crop varieties are important for both disease control and for reducing chemical pesticide use. However, there is often a trade-off between disease resistance and yield. While the European Union has banned the use of some pesticides in agriculture, large amounts are still applied to various crops, including wheat. Market-based instruments could motivate farmers to adopt more environmentally friendly production methods. In this study we aimed to explore farmers' adoption of resistant varieties in different wheat price scenarios and their willingness to forgo yield when cultivating more resistant varieties. We conducted face-to-face interviews with 192 farmers using a choice experiment. Results showed that farmers preferred traits of yield stability (fungal disease resistance, lodging resistance and drought tolerance) over yield. Preferences for traits varied with the production system; livestock production was negatively associated with the importance of yield; cultivated land area was positively associated with protein content. The market price scenario did not change preferences. We calculate that farmers are willing to forgo more yield by cultivating highly disease resistant varieties than they are likely to recuperate from reducing costs of pesticides. Overall, we conclude that farmers' choices are based more on a combination of the production system, drought experience, climate change belief and the potential impact of further regulations to reduce the use of chemical pesticides than on the expected wheat price. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper shows the strong relation between the factors that lead to the resource curse ( RC) and factors that lead to a decline of genuine savings ( GS). There is substantial empirical evidence that economies that rely predominantly on their natural resources are also characterized by slower economic growth. This so-called RC is commonly traced back to the fact that natural resources' generate rents that are independent of a country's economic performance, which can lead to suboptimal reinvestments of this consumed natural capital. We argue that the factors responsible for the RC also have a negative effect on GS, a concept that measures 'weak' sustainable development by considering reinvestment of natural capital rents in physical and human capital. We discuss whether the RC hampers possibilities for resource abundant countries to obtain sufficiently high rates of GS, and find indeed many reasons why resource-dependent countries have problems achieving positive GS rates. We survey both areas of research, emphasizing the influence of the exogenous and endogenous determinants of economic growth, which are usually used to theoretically and empirically explain the RC on the three different forms of capital considered by GS. We specify why most countries suffering from the RC have negative GS rates and explain in detail where the linkages are. This overview could help with potential advancements in the explanation of GS through the inclusion of RC effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses conservation payments to reindeer herders in Sweden for losses by carnivores. The payments are made for surviving offspring of wolverines, lynx, and wolves. According to the authors, the system works because payments are made based on conservation outcomes not numbers of livestock lost. They argue that this avoids moral issues and payments are made before there is damage so there is no delay. They state that payments are based on expected losses during the lifetime of the carnivore and the money is divided among the villagers in the area where the carnivore offspring are found.

In the EU, several environmental regulations aim at protecting the environment from agricultural nitrogen and phosphorus losses. The German regulation on farmers' nutrient management, especially implementing the EU Nitrates Directive, was revised in 2017. It comprises considerable tightening of numerous measures and costs for farmers to comply with. We provide the first systematic farm-level analysis of compliance costs of the recent revision in a case study for the federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia. To do so, we apply a bio-economic optimisation model at farm level to a representative sample of specialized dairy and pig farms. The sample is derived by Latin Hypercube sampling based on the observed distribution of farm characteristics from official agricultural statistics. Modelling results are evaluated by grouping of farms and a statistical meta-model. Results show highly heterogeneous compliance costs reaching from 0 to 2.66 Euro per pig and 0 to 0.83 cent per kg milk. 47.3% of pig and 38.4% of dairy farms do not face any costs. Pig farms with high compliance costs are characterized by high stocking density, the absence of low-emission manure application techniques and phosphorus-enriched soils. Dairy farms with high compliance costs have no low-emission manure application techniques and a high share of grassland. For dairy farms, stricter thresholds for nutrient application do not cause any compliance costs. The meta-model reveals the large effect of prices and assumptions regarding the fertilizer management on compliance costs. Results are of relevance beyond the case study area as other regions in the EU have a similar agricultural structure and need to fulfill the same EU directives. Policymakers need to be aware that high compliance costs increase the incentive of non-compliance and also consider heterogeneous impacts when designing complementary policies. Future research should focus on long-term adaption of farmers and include transaction costs as well as technical progress. • German implementation of the Nitrates Directive was revised in 2017. • On-farm compliance costs are highly heterogeneous between farms. • For pig and dairy farms, existing manure application technique is major cost driver. • Pig farms with high stocking density face costs to lower phosphate surplus. • Sampling approach generates representative farm sample under restricted data access. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the relationships between the marginal abatement costs ( MAC) of greenhouse gas ( GHG) emissions on dairy farms and factors such as herd size, milk yield and available farm labour, on the one hand, and prices, GHG indicators and GHG reduction levels, on the other. A two-stage Heckman procedure is used to estimate these relationships from a systematically designed set of simulations with a highly detailed mixed integer bio-economic farm-level model. The resulting meta-models are then used to analyse how MAC vary across farm-level conditions and GHG measures. We find that simpler GHG indicators lead to significantly higher MAC, and that MAC strongly increase beyond a 1-5% emission reduction, depending on farm attributes and the chosen indicator. MAC decrease rapidly with increasing farm size, but the effect levels off beyond a herd size of 40 cows. As expected, the main factors driving gross margins per dairy cow also significantly influence mitigation costs. Our results indicate high variability of MAC on real life farms. In contrast to time consuming simulations with the complex mixed integer bio-economic programming model, the meta-models allow the distribution of MAC in a farm population to be efficiently derived and thus could be used to upscale to regional or sector level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The location of first generation processing plants for biogas using bulky inputs is a prominent example of locational decisions of plants that face high per unit transport costs of feedstock and simultaneously depend to a large extent on feedstock availability. Modelling the resulting regional feedstock markets then requires a spatially explicit representation of demand. With production capacities of plants small in comparison to market size, large numbers of possible type-location combinations need to be considered, requiring considerable computation time under existing integer programming-based approaches. Therefore, in this paper we aim to present an alternative, faster and more flexible iterative solution approach to simulate location decisions for processing plants. And with greater flexibility, this approach is able to take into account spatially heterogeneous transport costs depending on total demand. The approach is implemented in a modelling framework for biogas production from green maize in Germany, which currently accounts for ca. five per cent of Germany’s agricultural area. By modifying green maize prices, demand functions are derived and intersected with regional supply functions from an agricultural model to simulate market clearing prices and quantities. The application illustrates that our approach efficiently simulates markets characterised by small-scale demand units and high, spatially heterogeneous transport costs. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

If Noah had had the opportunity to select the animals he took on board his Ark, he would have had to choose between many species, breeds and types within breeds, all containing different genetic material. How could he have made the right choice and which would he have taken on board given the constraints he had to face? Those trying to save threatened livestock breeds within a tight conservation budget face similar questions. In this paper we assess how different types of Borana cattle, a culturally significant breed in East Africa, might be prioritized for conservation. By applying a cost-effectiveness analysis on the basis of Weizmann's approach we conclude that the highest priority should be given to the Ethiopian Borana type (EB) in Ethiopia. Noah, however, would also have been concerned about the problems of inbreeding and effective population size. To overcome this problem we suggest that, rather than loading just two animals, he should have loaded on board 1000 female and 100 male animals as a safe minimum. The minimum cost of conserving 1100 animals of the EB type with the participation of Ethiopian communities is calculated to be €7700 per year, mostly in the form of compensation payments to meet the opportunity costs of livestock-keepers that arise when maintaining the EB. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Cost-effectiveness is an important aspect in the assessment of payments for environmental services (PES) initiatives. In participatory field trials with communities in Western Kenya, we combined procurement auctions for forest enrichment contracts with performance-based payments and compared the outcomes with a baseline scenario currently used by the Kenyan Forest Service. Procurement auctions were the most cost-effective. The competitive nature of the auction reduced contracting expenses (provision costs), and the result-oriented payments provided additional incentives to care for the planted seedlings, resulting in their improved survival rates (service quantity). These gains clearly exceeded increases in transaction costs associated with conducting an auction. The number of income-poor auction participants and winners was disproportionately high and local institutional buy-in was remarkably strong. Our participatory approach may, however, require adaptations when conducted at a larger scale. Although the number of contracts we monitored was limited and prohibited the use of statistical tests, our study is one of the first to reveal the benefits of using auctions for PES in developing countries. Combinando Subastas y Pagos Basados en Desempeño en un Ensayo de Campo de Enriquecimiento de Bosques en el Oeste de Kenia [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]