TY - RPRT TI - Empirical insight into Section 10 permitting under the Endangered Species Act AU - Galik, C.S. AU - Bowman, J.T. A3 - Duke University DA - 2014/// PY - 2014/// M1 - NI WP 14-02 PB - Duke University SN - NI WP 14-02 ER - TY - RPRT TI - Biogas in the United States: An assessment of market potential in a carbon-constrained future AU - Murray, B.C. AU - Galik, C.S. AU - Vegh, T. A3 - Duke University DA - 2014/// PY - 2014/// M1 - NI R 14-02 PB - Duke University SN - NI R 14-02 ER - TY - RPRT TI - Effect of policies on pellet production and forests in the U.S. South: a technical document supporting the Forest Service update of the 2010 RPA Assessment AU - Abt, Karen L. AU - Abt, Robert C. AU - Galik, Christopher S. AU - Skog, Kenneth E. A3 - U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Southern Research Station DA - 2014/// PY - 2014/// DO - 10.2737/srs-gtr-202 PB - U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Southern Research Station UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.2737/srs-gtr-202 DB - Crossref ER - TY - CHAP TI - The Travel Cost Model AU - von Haefen, Roger H. T2 - Environmental and Natural Resource Economics: An Encyclopedia A2 - Haab, T.C. A2 - Whitehead, J.C. A2 - Caviglia, J.L. PY - 2014/// PB - Greenwood SN - 9781440801198 9781440801204 ER - TY - JOUR TI - Are hydropower and irrigation development complements or substitutes? The example of the Nam Ngum River in the Mekong Basin AU - Lacombe, G. AU - Douangsavanh, S. AU - Baker, J. AU - Hoanh, C.T. AU - Bartlett, R. AU - Jeuland, M. AU - Phongpachith, C. T2 - Water International AB - Hydropower and irrigation developments to address rising demand for food and energy are modifying the water balance of the Mekong Basin. Infrastructure investment decisions are also frequently made from a sub-catchment perspective. This paper compares river flows with irrigation development stages in the Nam Ngum sub-basin where the potential for irrigation and hydropower expansion is largely untapped. It shows that full hydropower development in this basin allows irrigation water use to triple, even as it reduces competition with environmental flow requirements. The implications for the wider Mekong are, however, unclear, particularly given uncertainty over parallel transformations elsewhere in the basin. DA - 2014/7/29/ PY - 2014/7/29/ DO - 10.1080/02508060.2014.956205 VL - 39 IS - 5 SP - 649-670 J2 - Water International LA - en OP - SN - 0250-8060 1941-1707 UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02508060.2014.956205 DB - Crossref KW - water resources development KW - water balance KW - optimization/simulation model KW - Mekong ER - TY - JOUR TI - The costs of uncoordinated infrastructure management in multi-reservoir river basins AU - Jeuland, Marc AU - Baker, Justin AU - Bartlett, Ryan AU - Lacombe, Guillaume T2 - Environmental Research Letters AB - Though there are surprisingly few estimates of the economic benefits of coordinated infrastructure development and operations in international river basins, there is a widespread belief that improved cooperation is beneficial for managing water scarcity and variability. Hydro-economic optimization models are commonly-used for identifying efficient allocation of water across time and space, but such models typically assume full coordination. In the real world, investment and operational decisions for specific projects are often made without full consideration of potential downstream impacts. This paper describes a tractable methodology for evaluating the economic benefits of infrastructure coordination. We demonstrate its application over a range of water availability scenarios in a catchment of the Mekong located in Lao PDR, the Nam Ngum River Basin. Results from this basin suggest that coordination improves system net benefits from irrigation and hydropower by approximately 3–12% (or US$12-53 million/yr) assuming moderate levels of flood control, and that the magnitude of coordination benefits generally increases with the level of water availability and with inflow variability. Similar analyses would be useful for developing a systematic understanding of the factors that increase the costs of non-cooperation in river basin systems worldwide, and would likely help to improve targeting of efforts to stimulate complicated negotiations over water resources. DA - 2014/10/1/ PY - 2014/10/1/ DO - 10.1088/1748-9326/9/10/105006 VL - 9 IS - 10 SP - 105006 J2 - Environ. Res. Lett. OP - SN - 1748-9326 UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/9/10/105006 DB - Crossref KW - hydroeconomic models KW - water resources planning and management KW - cooperation KW - reservoir coordination KW - irrigation KW - hydropower KW - Mekong ER - TY - CHAP TI - REDD+ on the ground: The need for scientific evidence AU - Sunderlin, W.D. AU - Pratama, C.D. AU - Bos, A.B. AU - Avitabile, V. AU - Sills, E. AU - Sassi, C. AU - Joseph, S. AU - Agustavia, M. AU - Pribadi, U.A. AU - Anandadas, A. T2 - REDD+ on the ground: A case book of subnational initiatives across the globe A2 - Sills, E. PY - 2014/// PB - Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) ER - TY - CHAP TI - REDD+ in-depth costing AU - Marinho, E. AU - Greenberg, N. AU - Kweka, D.L. AU - Sills, E. T2 - REDD+ on the ground: A case book of subnational initiatives across the globe A2 - Sills, E. PY - 2014/// PB - Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) ER - TY - CHAP TI - REDD+ on the ground: Global insights from local contexts AU - de Sassi, C. AU - Sunderlin, W.D. AU - Sills, E.O. AU - Duchelle, A.E. AU - Ravikumar, A. AU - Luttrell, C. AU - Atmadja, S. T2 - REDD+ on the ground: A case book of subnational initiatives across the globe. A2 - Sills, Erin PY - 2014/// PB - Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) ER - TY - CHAP TI - Economics of the Evolution of the Amazon Frontier AU - Sills, E. T2 - Handbook of Forest Resource Economics A2 - Kant, S. A2 - Alavalapati, J. PY - 2014/// DO - 10.4324/9780203105290 PB - Routledge ER - TY - CHAP TI - Forestry AU - Sills, E. T2 - Environmental and Natural Resource Economics: An Encyclopedia A2 - Haab, Timothy C. A2 - Whitehead, John Claiborne A2 - Caviglia, Jill L. PY - 2014/// PB - Greenwood/Praeger ER - TY - BOOK TI - REDD+ on the ground: A case book of subnational initiatives across the globe A3 - Sills, E.O. A3 - Atmadja, S. A3 - de Sassi, C. A3 - Duchelle, A.E. A3 - Kweka, D. A3 - Resosudarmo, I.A.P. A3 - Sunderlin, W.D. AB - REDD+ is one of the leading near-term options for global climate change mitigation. More than 300 subnational REDD+ initiatives have been launched across the tropics, responding to both the call for demonstration activities in the Bali Action Plan and the market for voluntary carbon offset credits.
This book describes 23 initiatives in six different countries, including their:

Early expectations of significant funding for REDD+ encouraged proponent organizations to test a wide range of strategies to reduce emissions while also delivering co-benefits. Only some have chosen the strategy of direct payments conditional on actions to reduce deforestation or degradation, and only a very few have sold carbon credits, demonstrating how REDD+ on the ground is actually a mix of old and new strategies.
Faced with enormous challenges, proponents have developed a menu of ways to: secure financial support; clarify forest tenure; cooperate and act across scales; measure, report and verify emissions; and respond to the imperative of safeguarding local livelihoods.
While subnational initiatives have successfully piloted and generated lessons for REDD+, many now face the choice of either ending or transforming into something else, due to the political uncertainty and funding constraints stemming from the failure to reach a global climate change agreement. This book highlights both the critical importance of such an agreement and in its absence, the creative ways that subnational initiatives are operating on the ground.

Contents

Executive summary

Part 1. Introduction

1 REDD+ on the ground: The need for scientific evidence

Part 2. Case reports

BRAZIL

2 Acre's State System of Incentives for Environmental Services (SISA), Brazil
3 Bolsa Floresta, Brazil
4 Cotriguaçu Sempre Verde, Brazil: Conservation and sustainable management of natural resources
5 Jari/Amapá REDD+ Project, Brazil
6 Sustainable Landscapes Pilot Program in São Félix do Xingu, Brazil
7 Sustainable Settlements in the Amazon, Brazil

PERU

8 The REDD Project in Brazil Nut Concessions in Madre de Dios, Peru
9 Valuation of Environmental Services in the Managed Forests of Seven Indigenous Communities in Ucayali, Peru

CAMEROON

10 REDD+ around Mount Cameroon, southwest region of Cameroon
11 Community Payments for Ecosystem Services in the south and east regions of Cameroon

TANZANIA

12 Building REDD Readiness in the Masito Ugalla Ecosystem Pilot Area in Support of Tanzania’s National REDD Strategy
13 Piloting REDD in Zanzibar Through Community Forest Management, Tanzania
14 Making REDD Work for Communities and Forest Conservation in Tanzania
15 Mpingo Conservation and Development Initiative: Combining REDD, PFM and FSC certification in southeastern Tanzania
16 Pilot project on Community-Based REDD Mechanisms for Sustainable Forest Management in Semiarid Areas: The Case of Ngitilis in the Shinyanga Region, Tanzania

INDONESIA

17 Kalimantan Forests and Climate Partnership, Central Kalimantan, Indonesia
18 Katingan Peatland Restoration and Conservation Project, Central Kalimantan, Indonesia
19 Ketapang Community Carbon Pools, West Kalimantan, Indonesia
20 Rimba Raya Biodiversity Reserve Project, Central Kalimantan, Indonesia
21 TNC's initiative within the Berau Forest Carbon Program, East Kalimantan, Indonesia
22 Ulu Masen REDD+ initiative, Aceh, Indonesia

VIETNAM

23 Cat Loc Landscape – Cat Tien National Park Pro-Poor REDD+ Project, Vietnam

Part 3. Synthesis

24 REDD+ on the ground: Global insights from local contexts DA - 2014/// PY - 2014/// DO - 10.17528/cifor/005202 SP - 505 PB - Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.17528/cifor/005202 ER - TY - ENCYC TI - The Travel Cost Model AU - Haefen AU - H, Roger T2 - Greenwood A2 - Haab, T. A2 - J. DA - 2014/// PY - 2014/// PB - Whitehead, Greenwood Publishing ER - TY - JOUR TI - A new look at residential electricity demand using household expenditure data AU - Fell, Harrison AU - Li, Shanjun AU - Paul, Anthony T2 - International Journal of Industrial Organization AB - Many electricity demand estimates have been obtained based on the assumption that consumers optimize with respect to known marginal prices, but increasing empirical evidence suggests that consumers are more likely to respond to average prices. Under this assumption, this paper develops a new strategy based on Generalized Method of Moments to estimate household electricity demand. Our demand estimation approach uses publicly available expenditure data and utility-level consumption data from several major U.S. cities, complementing studies that use individual billing data which are richer yet often proprietary. We estimate the price elasticity near − 0.50, which is at the upper end (in magnitude) among the estimates from previous studies. This could have important implications for policy analysis such as those on climate policies that may affect electricity prices. DA - 2014/3// PY - 2014/3// DO - 10.1016/j.ijindorg.2014.02.001 VL - 33 SP - 37-47 J2 - International Journal of Industrial Organization LA - en OP - SN - 0167-7187 UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijindorg.2014.02.001 DB - Crossref KW - Electricity demand KW - CEX KW - GMM KW - Cap-and-trade ER - TY - JOUR TI - Can decentralized planning really achieve first-best in the presence of environmental spillovers? AU - Fell, Harrison AU - Kaffine, Daniel T. T2 - Journal of Environmental Economics and Management AB - It is generally accepted that decentralized policy choice in the presence of interjurisdictional spillovers is inefficient. Strikingly, Ogawa and Wildasin (2009) find that in a model with heterogenous jurisdictions, interjurisdictional capital flows, and interjurisdictional environmental damage spillovers, decentralized planning outcomes are equivalent to that under a centralized planner. We first show the critical importance of two key assumptions (no retirement of capital, fixed environmental damages per unit of capital) in obtaining this result. Second, we consider a more general model allowing for capital retirement and abatement activities and show that the outcome of a decentralized market generally differs from the solution of a centralized planner׳s social welfare-maximizing problem. DA - 2014/7// PY - 2014/7// DO - 10.1016/j.jeem.2014.04.001 VL - 68 IS - 1 SP - 46-53 J2 - Journal of Environmental Economics and Management LA - en OP - SN - 0095-0696 UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jeem.2014.04.001 DB - Crossref KW - Fiscal federalism KW - Environmental spillovers KW - Abatement KW - Environmental policy ER - TY - JOUR TI - Alternative approaches for addressing non-permanence in carbon projects: an application to afforestation and reforestation under the Clean Development Mechanism AU - Galik, Christopher S. AU - Murray, Brian C. AU - Mitchell, Stephen AU - Cottle, Phil T2 - Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change DA - 2014/5/19/ PY - 2014/5/19/ DO - 10.1007/s11027-014-9573-4 VL - 21 IS - 1 SP - 101-118 J2 - Mitig Adapt Strateg Glob Change LA - en OP - SN - 1381-2386 1573-1596 UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/S11027-014-9573-4 DB - Crossref KW - Afforestation KW - Carbon KW - Clean Development Mechanism KW - Insurance KW - Non-permanence KW - Reforestation KW - Temporary credit ER - TY - CHAP TI - Occupational and Environmental Health Impacts from Mining in Orissa, India AU - Sanglimsuwan, Karnjana AU - Sills, Erin O. AU - Pattanayak, Subhrendu K. AU - Saha, Shubhayu AU - Singha, Ashok AU - Sahoo, Barendra T2 - Environment and Development Economics AB - Mining brings jobs and economic development, but also significant health impacts. This chapter provides empirical estimates of the environmental health impacts of mining in Orissa, India. People working in the mine are found to be more vulnerable to respiratory diseases, but less vulnerable to fever. People living near the mine, by contrast, are found to be more vulnerable to waterborne diseases and fever. The implication is that mining development needs to be supported by cost-benefit analysis, and accompanied by appropriate regulation. PY - 2014/4/17/ DO - 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199677856.003.0015 SP - 310-331 OP - PB - Oxford University Press SN - 9780199677856 UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199677856.003.0015 DB - Crossref ER - TY - JOUR TI - Detecting and interpreting secondary forest on an old Amazonian frontier AU - Caviglia-Harris, Jill L. AU - Toomey, Michael AU - Harris, Daniel W. AU - Mullan, Katrina AU - Bell, Andrew Reid AU - Sills, Erin O. AU - Roberts, Dar A. T2 - Journal of Land Use Science AB - Land uses that replace tropical forests are important determinants of terrestrial carbon storage and biodiversity. This includes secondary forest growth after deforestation, which has been integrated into the REDD+ (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation) concept as a means to enhance current forest carbon stocks. Incorporating secondary forest into climate change mitigation efforts requires both accurate measurements and a means to target interventions to achieve additionality. We demonstrate how remote sensing and household survey data can be combined to meet these requirements in ‘old frontiers’ of the Brazilian Amazon and introduce the idea that annual land-cover transitions − measured at the pixel level and over time − can serve as leading indicators of secondary forest regrowth. The patterns we observe are consistent with the suggested tension between equity and additionality in REDD+: the poorest households on the poorest quality lots already allow forest regeneration. Policy interventions to encourage regeneration are likely to have the greatest additional impact on higher quality lots owned by better capitalized households. DA - 2014/8// PY - 2014/8// DO - 10.1080/1747423x.2014.940614 VL - 10 IS - 4 SP - 442-465 J2 - Journal of Land Use Science LA - en OP - SN - 1747-423X 1747-4248 UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/1747423x.2014.940614 DB - Crossref KW - secondary forest KW - tropical deforestation KW - Amazon KW - remote sensing data KW - survey data KW - Benford's law KW - reliability index ER - TY - RPRT TI - Greening Household Behaviour: Overview of Results from Econometric Analysis and Policy Implications AU - Serret, Y. AU - Brown, Z.S. T2 - OECD Environment Working Papers A3 - OECD Publishing AB - The second round of the OECD Survey on Environmental Policy for Individual Behaviour Change (EPIC) was implemented in 2011. A publication providing an overview of the survey data from over 12 000 households in eleven countries (Australia, Canada, Chile, France, Israel, Japan, Korea, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland) is available.1 Follow-up econometric analyses were conducted in each of the thematic areas covered (energy, food, transport, waste and water), as well as on cross-domain comparisons in environmental attitudes and behaviours.2 This report presents a synthesis of main results from econometric analysis using the data from the 2011 EPIC survey, as well as policy implications. C6 - 797979 DA - 2014/// PY - 2014/// DO - 10.1787/5jxrcllt1kq5-en M1 - 79 PB - OECD Publishing SN - 79 UR - https://ideas.repec.org/p/oec/envaaa/79-en.html#more ER - TY - RPRT TI - Greening Household Behaviour: Cross-Domain comparisons in environmental attitudes and behaviours using spatial effects AU - Brown, Z.S. T2 - OECD Environment Working Papers A3 - OECD Publishing AB - Discussions of the importance of public attitudes in shaping policy often lack clear evidence on causal relations between stated attitudes and observed behaviours. The 2011 OECD Survey of over 12,000 households allows analysing households’ environmental attitudes and behaviours in five different domains (electricity, food, transport, waste and water). Using econometric analysis, we investigate the relationship between stated environmental attitudes and indicators of civic engagement, such as voting in local elections, charity membership and membership in environmental organisations... C6 - 686868 DA - 2014/// PY - 2014/// DO - 10.1787/5jxrclsj8z7b-en M1 - 68 PB - OECD Publishing SN - 68 UR - https://ideas.repec.org/p/oec/envaaa/68-en.html ER - TY - JOUR TI - The Response of Corn Acreage to Ethanol Plant Siting AU - Fatal, Yehushua Shay AU - Thurman, Walter N. T2 - Journal of Agricultural and Applied Economics AB - U.S. ethanol production capacity increased more than threefold between 2002 and 2008. We study the effect of this growth on corn acreage. Connecting annual changes in county-level corn acreage to changes in ethanol plant capacities, we find a positive effect on planted corn. The building of a typical plant is estimated to increase corn in the county by over 500 acres and to increase acreage in surrounding counties up to almost 300 miles away. All ethanol plants are estimated to increase corn production by less than their annual requirements. DA - 2014/5// PY - 2014/5// DO - 10.1017/s1074070800000717 VL - 46 IS - 02 SP - 157-171 ER - TY - SOUND TI - Welfare Impacts of Pollinator Health Challenges AU - Thurman, Walter N. DA - 2014/7// PY - 2014/7// ER - TY - CONF TI - Global timber investments and trends, 2005-2011 AU - Cubbage, Frederick AU - Abt, Robert C2 - 2014/// C3 - Proceedings of the Third International Congress on Planted Forests DA - 2014/// ER - TY - JOUR TI - Have We Managed to Integrate Conservation and Development? ICDP Impacts in the Brazilian Amazon AU - Bauch, Simone C. AU - Sills, Erin O. AU - Pattanayak, Subhrendu K. T2 - WORLD DEVELOPMENT AB - Integrating conservation and development is central to the mission of many protected areas in the tropics, yet there is limited empirical evidence on the effectiveness of alternative strategies for ICDPs (Integrated Conservation and Development Projects). We evaluate an enterprise-based conservation strategy in a high-profile and well-funded ICDP in the Tapajós National Forest of Brazil. Using survey data from participating and non-participating households collected pre and post intervention, we find positive impacts on household income, but almost no discernible impacts on household assets, livelihood portfolios, or forest conservation. DA - 2014/12// PY - 2014/12// DO - 10.1016/j.worlddev.2014.03.009 VL - 64 SP - S135-S148 SN - 0305-750X KW - Impact evaluation KW - Integrated conservation and development projects KW - Amazon KW - Brazil ER - TY - JOUR TI - Forest Carbon Accounting Considerations in US Bioenergy Policy AU - Miner, Reid A. AU - Abt, Robert C. AU - Bowyer, Jim L. AU - Buford, Marilyn A. AU - Malmsheimer, Robert W. AU - O'Laughlin, Jay AU - Oneil, Elaine E. AU - Sedjo, Roger A. AU - Skog, Kenneth E. T2 - JOURNAL OF FORESTRY AB - Four research-based insights are essential to understanding forest bioenergy and “carbon debts.” (1) As long as wood-producing land remains in forest, long-lived wood products and forest bioenergy reduce fossil fuel use and long-term carbon emission impacts. (2) Increased demand for wood can trigger investments that increase forest area and forest productivity and reduce carbon impacts associated with increased harvesting. (3) The carbon debt concept emphasizes short-term concerns about biogenic CO2 emissions, although it is long-term cumulative CO2 emissions that are correlated with projected peak global temperature, and these cumulative emissions are reduced by substituting forest bioenergy for fossil fuels. (4) Considering forest growth, investment responses, and the radiative forcing of biogenic CO2 over a 100-year time horizon (as used for other greenhouse gases), the increased use of forest-derived materials most likely to be used for bioenergy in the United States results in low net greenhouse gas emissions, especially compared with those for fossil fuels. DA - 2014/11// PY - 2014/11// DO - 10.5849/jof.14-009 VL - 112 IS - 6 SP - 591-606 SN - 1938-3746 KW - biogenic emissions KW - biomass energy KW - carbon debt KW - carbon dioxide KW - forestry investment KW - forest landowner KW - greenhouse gas KW - wood markets KW - wood products KW - wood fuel ER - TY - JOUR TI - Efficient Use of Information in Adaptive Management with an Application to Managing Recreation near Golden Eagle Nesting Sites AU - Fackler, Paul L. AU - Pacifici, Krishna AU - Martin, Julien AU - McIntyre, Carol T2 - PLOS ONE AB - It is generally the case that a significant degree of uncertainty exists concerning the behavior of ecological systems. Adaptive management has been developed to address such structural uncertainty, while recognizing that decisions must be made without full knowledge of how a system behaves. This paradigm attempts to use new information that develops during the course of management to learn how the system works. To date, however, adaptive management has used a very limited information set to characterize the learning that is possible. This paper uses an extension of the Partial Observable Markov Decision Process (POMDP) framework to expand the information set used to update belief in competing models. This feature can potentially increase the speed of learning through adaptive management, and lead to better management in the future. We apply this framework to a case study wherein interest lies in managing recreational restrictions around golden eagle (Aquila chrysaetos) nesting sites. The ultimate management objective is to maintain an abundant eagle population in Denali National Park while minimizing the regulatory burden on park visitors. In order to capture this objective, we developed a utility function that trades off expected breeding success with hiker access. Our work is relevant to the management of human activities in protected areas, but more generally demonstrates some of the benefits of POMDP in the context of adaptive management. DA - 2014/8/6/ PY - 2014/8/6/ DO - 10.1371/journal.pone.0102434 VL - 9 IS - 8 SP - SN - 1932-6203 ER - TY - JOUR TI - Assessing Independent Variables Used in Econometric Modeling Forest Land Use or Land Cover Change: A Meta-Analysis AU - Jeuck, James A. AU - Cubbage, Frederick W. AU - Abt, Robert C. AU - Bardon, Robert E. AU - McCarter, James B. AU - Coulston, John W. AU - Renkow, Mitch A. T2 - FORESTS AB - We conducted a meta-analysis on 64 econometric models from 47 studies predicting forestland conversion to agriculture (F2A), forestland to development (F2D), forestland to non-forested (F2NF) and undeveloped (including forestland) to developed (U2D) land. Over 250 independent econometric variables were identified from 21 F2A models, 21 F2D models, 12 F2NF models, and 10 U2D models. These variables were organized into a hierarchy of 119 independent variable groups, 15 categories, and 4 econometric drivers suitable for conducting simple vote count statistics. Vote counts were summarized at the independent variable group level and formed into ratios estimating the predictive success of each variable group. Two ratios estimates were developed based on (1) proportion of times the independent variables had statistical significance and (2) proportion of times independent variables met the original study authors’ expectations. In F2D models, we confirmed the success of popular independent variables such as population, income, and urban proximity estimates but found timber rents and site productivity variables less successful. In F2A models, we confirmed success of popular explanatory variables such as forest and agricultural rents and costs, governmental programs, and site quality, but we found population, income, and urban proximity estimates less successful. In U2D models, successful independent variables found were urban rents and costs, zoning issues concerning forestland loss, site quality, urban proximity, population, and income. In F2NF models, we found poor success using timber rents but high success using agricultural rents, site quality, population, and income. Success ratios and discussion of new or less popular, but promising, variables was also included. This meta-analysis provided insight into the general success of econometric independent variables for future forest-use or -cover change research. DA - 2014/7// PY - 2014/7// DO - 10.3390/f5071532 VL - 5 IS - 7 SP - 1532-1564 SN - 1999-4907 KW - forestland use change KW - meta-analysis KW - econometric modeling ER - TY - JOUR TI - The cost of gypsy moth sex in the city AU - Bigsby, Kevin M. AU - Ambrose, Mark J. AU - Tobin, Patrick C. AU - Sills, Erin O. T2 - URBAN FORESTRY & URBAN GREENING AB - Since its introduction in the 1860s, gypsy moth, Lymantria dispar (L.), has periodically defoliated large swaths of forest in the eastern United States. Prior research has suggested that the greatest costs and losses from these outbreaks accrue in residential areas, but these impacts have not been well quantified. We addressed this lacuna with a case study of Baltimore City. Using two urban tree inventories, we estimated potential costs and losses from a range of gypsy moth outbreak scenarios under different environmental and management conditions. We combined outbreak scenarios with urban forest data to model defoliation and mortality and based the costs and losses on the distribution of tree species in different size classes and land uses throughout Baltimore City. In each outbreak, we estimated the costs of public and private suppression, tree removal and replacement, and human medical treatment, as well as the losses associated with reduced pollution uptake, increased carbon emissions and foregone sequestration. Of the approximately 2.3 M trees in Baltimore City, a majority of the basal area was primary or secondary host for gypsy moth. Under the low outbreak scenario, with federal and state suppression efforts, total costs and losses were $5.540 M, much less than the $63.666 M estimated for the high outbreak scenario, in which the local public and private sectors were responsible for substantially greater tree removal and replacement costs. The framework that we created can be used to estimate the impacts of other non-native pests in urban environments. DA - 2014/// PY - 2014/// DO - 10.1016/j.ufug.2014.05.003 VL - 13 IS - 3 SP - 459-468 SN - 1610-8167 KW - Biological invasions KW - Economic assessment KW - Lymantria dispar KW - Non-native forest pests KW - Residential impacts KW - Urban forestry ER - TY - JOUR TI - Reducing fatigue damage for ships in transit through structured decision making AU - Nichols, J. M. AU - Fackler, P. L. AU - Pacifici, K. AU - Murphy, K. D. AU - Nichols, J. D. T2 - MARINE STRUCTURES AB - Research in structural monitoring has focused primarily on drawing inference about the health of a structure from the structure’s response to ambient or applied excitation. Knowledge of the current state can then be used to predict structural integrity at a future time and, in principle, allows one to take action to improve safety, minimize ownership costs, and/or increase the operating envelope. While much time and effort has been devoted toward data collection and system identification, research to-date has largely avoided the question of how to choose an optimal maintenance plan. This work describes a structured decision making (SDM) process for taking available information (loading data, model output, etc.) and producing a plan of action for maintaining the structure. SDM allows the practitioner to specify his/her objectives and then solves for the decision that is optimal in the sense that it maximizes those objectives. To demonstrate, we consider the problem of a Naval vessel transiting a fixed distance in varying sea-state conditions. The physics of this problem are such that minimizing transit time increases the probability of fatigue failure in the structural supports. It is shown how SDM produces the optimal trip plan in the sense that it minimizes both transit time and probability of failure in the manner of our choosing (i.e., through a user-defined cost function). The example illustrates the benefit of SDM over heuristic approaches to maintaining the vessel. DA - 2014/10// PY - 2014/10// DO - 10.1016/j.marstruc.2014.04.002 VL - 38 SP - 18-43 SN - 1873-4170 KW - Structured Decision Making KW - Fatigue damage KW - Structural reliability ER - TY - JOUR TI - Monitoring as a partially observable decision problem AU - Fackler, Paul L. AU - Haight, Robert G. T2 - RESOURCE AND ENERGY ECONOMICS AB - Monitoring is an important and costly activity in resource management problems such as containing invasive species, protecting endangered species, preventing soil erosion, and regulating contracts for environmental services. Recent studies have viewed optimal monitoring as a Partially Observable Markov Decision Process (POMDP), which provides a framework for sequential decision making under stochastic resource dynamics and uncertainty about the resource state. We present an overview of the POMDP framework and its applications to resource monitoring. We discuss the concept of the information content provided by monitoring systems and illustrate how information content affects optimal monitoring strategies. Finally, we demonstrate how the timing of monitoring in relation to resource treatment and transition can have substantial effects on optimal monitoring strategies. DA - 2014/8// PY - 2014/8// DO - 10.1016/j.reseneeco.2013.12.005 VL - 37 SP - 226-241 SN - 1873-0221 KW - Environmental monitoring KW - Dynamic programming KW - Partial observability KW - Value of information KW - POMDP ER - TY - JOUR TI - The Reliability of Retrospective Data on Asset Ownership as a Measure of Past Household Wealth AU - Mullan, Katrina AU - Sills, Erin AU - Bauch, Simone T2 - FIELD METHODS AB - Asset ownership is frequently used to assess the welfare status of households in rural areas of developing countries. Researchers often want to know the prior status of households or how that status has changed over time. In a case study in the Brazilian Amazon, we compare recall data with contemporary reports on assets from a panel survey. We consider multiple dimensions of the consistency of retrospective and contemporary data and seek to identify characteristics that lead to more accurate recall. We find that although retrospective data provide some information on past assets owned by households, they do not provide a highly accurate measure of either individual asset ownership or counts of types of assets owned. Consistent with previous studies, we find that items with greater salience are recalled more accurately. We also find that wealthier households exhibit upward bias when recalling assets owned in a previous period. DA - 2014/8// PY - 2014/8// DO - 10.1177/1525822x13510370 VL - 26 IS - 3 SP - 223-238 SN - 1552-3969 KW - household survey KW - recall data KW - Brazil KW - asset ownership ER - TY - JOUR TI - Better the devil you throw: Experience and support for pay-as-you-throw waste charges AU - Brown, Zachary S. AU - Johnstone, Nick T2 - ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE & POLICY AB - Environmental taxes have long been proposed as an efficient means of improving the fiscal solvency of governments, while at the same time correcting for environmental externalities. However, public support for environmental taxes is often low, making the implementation of these instruments politically challenging in some settings. Scholars have explored the reasons for this broad, negative attitude towards environmental taxes, especially since these taxes are by design supposed to be welfare-improving. But previous empirical analysis on this topic is sparse and limited in context. Here, we empirically analyze support for environmental taxes across four countries, using a household survey on environmental attitudes, behaviour and policy exposure conducted by OECD during 2011. The environmental tax we focus on is pay-as-you-throw (PAYT) charges for mixed waste collection. Looking at expressed levels of support for PAYT charges, we find that people who are exposed to such systems tend to be significantly more supportive of them. This indicates that ex ante public resistance to such schemes is likely to dissipate following their introduction, a pattern which is supported by other, anecdotal reports and by lab experiments with generic Pigouvian taxes which we summarize in the literature review. DA - 2014/4// PY - 2014/4// DO - 10.1016/j.envsci.2013.11.007 VL - 38 SP - 132-142 SN - 1873-6416 KW - Behavioural environmental economics KW - Pay-as-you-throw KW - Pigouvian taxes KW - Political economy ER - TY - JOUR TI - Targeting areas for Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation (REDD+) projects in Tanzania AU - Lin, Liwei AU - Sills, Erin AU - Cheshire, Heather T2 - GLOBAL ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGE-HUMAN AND POLICY DIMENSIONS AB - Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation (REDD+) has gained momentum as a climate mitigation strategy that can be implemented at multiple scales. Sub-nationally, REDD+ projects that aim to capture carbon funding are implemented throughout tropical countries. A spatial targeting approach for optimal REDD+ project landscape is demonstrated using Tanzania as an example. This study used GIS-based Multi-criteria Decision Analysis to identify potential areas for REDD+ projects development incorporating different combinations of criteria. The first approach, efficient targeting, focuses on areas with high forest carbon content, high deforestation risk and low opportunity cost. The second approach, co-benefits targeting, aims at areas with high biodiversity and high poverty rate on top of criteria in efficient targeting. The resulting suitability maps displays areas of high, medium and low suitability for future REDD+ projects development based on the targeting approaches. Locations of current REDD+ projects in Tanzania were also overlaid with suitability map to visually inspect how they match up. This approach allows decision-makers to prioritize preferences for various site-selection criteria and make informed decisions about REDD+ projects locations. DA - 2014/1// PY - 2014/1// DO - 10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2013.12.003 VL - 24 SP - 277-286 SN - 1872-9495 KW - REDD plus project KW - Spatial targeting KW - Multi-criteria Decision Analysis ER - TY - JOUR TI - Economics, environmental impacts, and supply chain analysis of cellulosic biomass for biofuels in the Southern US: pine, eucalyptus, unmanaged hardwoods, forest residues, switchgrass, and sweet sorghum AU - Daystar, J. AU - Gonzalez, R. AU - Reeb, C. AU - Venditti, R. AU - Treasure, T. AU - Abt, R. AU - Kelley, S. T2 - BioResources AB - The production of six regionally important cellulosic biomass feedstocks, including pine, eucalyptus, unmanaged hardwoods, forest residues, switchgrass, and sweet sorghum, was analyzed using consistent life cycle methodologies and system boundaries to identify feedstocks with the lowest cost and environmental impacts. Supply chain analysis was performed for each feedstock, calculating costs and supply requirements for the production of 453,592 dry tonnes of biomass per year. Cradle-to-gate environmental impacts from these modeled supply systems were quantified for nine mid-point indicators using SimaPro 7.2 LCA software. Conversion of grassland to managed forest for bioenergy resulted in large reductions in GHG emissions due to carbon uptake associated with direct land use change. By contrast, converting forests to cropland resulted in large increases in GHG emissions. Production of forest-based feedstocks for biofuels resulted in lower delivered cost, lower greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and lower overall environmental impacts than the agricultural feedstocks studied. Forest residues had the lowest environmental impact and delivered cost per dry tonne. Using forest-based biomass feedstocks instead of agricultural feedstocks would result in lower cradle-to-gate environmental impacts and delivered biomass costs for biofuel production in the southern U.S. DA - 2014/// PY - 2014/// DO - 10.15376/biores.9.1.393-444 VL - 9 IS - 1 SP - 393-444 ER - TY - JOUR TI - Combining expert elicitation and stated preference methods to value ecosystem services from improved lake water quality AU - Van Houtven, George AU - Mansfield, Carol AU - Phaneuf, Daniel J. AU - Haefen, Roger AU - Milstead, Bryan AU - Kenney, Melissa A. AU - Reckhow, Kenneth H. T2 - ECOLOGICAL ECONOMICS AB - With increasing attention on the contribution of ecosystems to human well-being, there is a need for tools that integrate ecological and economic models for valuing ecosystem services. To address this, we develop a protocol for linking ecological processes and outcomes to human preferences, which combines environmental modeling, expert elicitation, and nonmarket valuation methods. Our application values reductions in nutrient loads to lakes in the southeastern US. The innovation centers on how biochemical measures of water quality (e.g., chlorophyll a) are translated into terms that are meaningful to individuals who derive ecosystem services from them. Using expert elicitation data, we estimate a model linking changes in biochemical measures to an index of eutrophication in lakes. We then develop a stated preference survey including (a) detailed descriptions of the perceptible outcomes – e.g., water color, clarity – associated each eutrophication index level; and (b) policy scenarios involving state-level changes in lake eutrophication conditions. We estimate a function that predicts households' willingness to pay for changes in lake water quality. We demonstrate the protocol through a case study examining the benefits of lake quality improvement in Virginia as a result of recent policies to reduce nutrient loads in the Chesapeake Bay watershed. DA - 2014/3// PY - 2014/3// DO - 10.1016/j.ecolecon.2013.12.018 VL - 99 SP - 40-52 SN - 1873-6106 KW - Ecosystem services valuation KW - Water quality KW - Expert elicitation KW - Stated preference KW - Water quality modeling ER - TY - JOUR TI - Linking Forest Tenure Reform, Environmental Compliance, and Incentives: Lessons from REDD plus Initiatives in the Brazilian Amazon AU - Duchelle, Amy E. AU - Cromberg, Marina AU - Gebara, Maria Fernanda AU - Guerra, Raissa AU - Melo, Tadeu AU - Larson, Anne AU - Cronkleton, Peter AU - Boerner, Jan AU - Sills, Erin AU - Wunder, Sven AU - Bauch, Simone AU - May, Peter AU - Selaya, Galia AU - Sunderlin, William D. T2 - WORLD DEVELOPMENT AB - Pervasive tenure insecurity in developing countries is a key challenge for REDD+. Brazil, a leader in REDD+, has advanced efforts to link forest tenure reform and environmental compliance. We describe how these policies have shaped sub-national interventions with detailed data on land tenure and livelihoods in four REDD+ pilot sites in the Brazilian Amazon. Despite different local contexts, REDD+ proponents have converged on a similar strategy of collaborating with government agencies to clarify tenure and pave the way for a mix of regulatory enforcement and incentive-based REDD+ mechanisms. This polycentric governance model holds promise for effective and equitable REDD+ implementation. DA - 2014/3// PY - 2014/3// DO - 10.1016/j.worlddev.2013.01.014 VL - 55 SP - 53-67 SN - 0305-750X KW - Latin America KW - Brazil KW - climate change KW - deforestation KW - forest degradation KW - property rights ER - TY - JOUR TI - effect of conservation priority areas on bidding behavior in the conservation reserve program AU - Jacobs, K. L. AU - Thurman, W. N. AU - Marra, M. C. T2 - Land Economics AB - We explore how a landowner’s bid to enroll in the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) is influenced by his parcel’s designation as a Conservation Priority Area (CPA). A theoretical model of a landowner’s optimal bid is presented, and we demonstrate the ambiguity in a landowner’s optimal bid response to CPA designations. The bid choice is analyzed using a data set of accepted and unaccepted offers during three CRP sign-up periods. We focus empirically on a subset of offers from the Prairie Pothole CPA to identify whether bid responses to exogenous location factors differ across landowners with varying opportunity costs to enrollment. (JEL Q15, Q18) DA - 2014/// PY - 2014/// DO - 10.3368/le.90.1.1 VL - 90 IS - 1 SP - 1-25 ER - TY - JOUR TI - Addressing structural and observational uncertainty in resource management AU - Fackler, Paul AU - Pacifici, Krishna T2 - JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT AB - Most natural resource management and conservation problems are plagued with high levels of uncertainties, which make good decision making difficult. Although some kinds of uncertainties are easily incorporated into decision making, two types of uncertainty present more formidable difficulties. The first, structural uncertainty, represents our imperfect knowledge about how a managed system behaves. The second, observational uncertainty, arises because the state of the system must be inferred from imperfect monitoring systems. The former type of uncertainty has been addressed in ecology using Adaptive Management (AM) and the latter using the Partially Observable Markov Decision Processes (POMDP) framework. Here we present a unifying framework that extends standard POMDPs and encompasses both standard POMDPs and AM. The approach allows any system variable to be observed or not observed and uses any relevant observed variable to update beliefs about unknown variables and parameters. This extends standard AM, which only uses realizations of the state variable to update beliefs and extends standard POMDP by allowing more general stochastic dependence among the observable variables and the state variables. This framework enables both structural and observational uncertainty to be simultaneously modeled. We illustrate the features of the extended POMDP framework with an example. DA - 2014/1/15/ PY - 2014/1/15/ DO - 10.1016/j.jenvman.2013.11.004 VL - 133 SP - 27-36 SN - 1095-8630 KW - Adaptive management KW - Natural resources KW - Partial observability KW - Partially observable Markov decision process KW - Structural uncertainty ER -