(This abstract was borrowed from another version of this item.)"> (This abstract was borrowed from another version of this item.)">
[go: up one dir, main page]
More Web Proxy on the site http://driver.im/
IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bin/indiap/v3y2006i2006-1p125-277.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Managing the Environmental Consequences of Growth: Forest Degradation in the Indian mid-Himalayas

Author

Listed:
  • Jean-Marie Baland

    (University of Namur)

  • Pranab Bardhan

    (University of California, Berkeley)

  • Sangmitra Das

    (Indian Statistical Institute New Delhi)

  • Dilip Mookherjee

    (Boston University)

  • Rinki Sarkar

    (Centre for Interdisciplinary Studies in Environment & Development Bangalore)

Abstract
This paper assesses the relation between living standards and forest degradation in the Indian mid-Himalayas, and related policy questions. It is based on detailed household, village and ecology surveys in a sample of 165 villages in Uttaranchal and Himachal Pradesh. Our prior fieldwork in this region indicates that forest degradation rather than deforestation is the key problem, driven primarily by collection of firewood and fodder by residents of neighbouring villages. An econometric model relating household collections to relevant characteristics of households, villages and forests is estimated. We find that collections are inelastic with respect to income, and unit elastic with respect to population; hence economic growth is expected to have negligible impact on anthropogenic pressures on the forest, while population growth will aggravate those pressures substantially. We subsequently assess the impact of forest degradation on local living standards. An increase in collection time by one hour, representative of changes observed over the past two decades, is predicted to lower income of neighbouring households by less than 1%. Hence the size of the local externality is small, providing an explanation for lack of collective action among local villagers to regulate forest use. The argument for external policy interventions therefore depends on the significance of associated non-local externalities related to ecological effects of Himalayan forest degradation. A Rs 200 subsidy per LPG cylinder is estimated to raise the proportion of households in these villages using LPG from 7% to 78% , and lower wood use by 44%, at a cost of approximately 4% of average consumption. These subsidies are likely to be more effective than conversion of state owned forests to local communities, on the model of the Uttaranchal van panchayats.
(This abstract was borrowed from another version of this item.)

Suggested Citation

  • Jean-Marie Baland & Pranab Bardhan & Sangmitra Das & Dilip Mookherjee & Rinki Sarkar, 2006. "Managing the Environmental Consequences of Growth: Forest Degradation in the Indian mid-Himalayas," India Policy Forum, Global Economy and Development Program, The Brookings Institution, vol. 3(1), pages 125-277.
    • Handle: RePEc:bin:indiap:v:3:y:2006:i:2006-1:p:125-277
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.brookings.edu/press/Books/2007/indiapolicyforum20062007.aspx
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Musa Abdullahi Sakanko & Joseph David & Abdullahi Yakubu, 2018. "Appraisal of the Determinants of Energy Use in LAPAI Local Government," Pakistan Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences, International Research Alliance for Sustainable Development (iRASD), vol. 6(4), pages :443-457, December.
    2. Novice Patrick Bakehe, 2020. "L'accès à l’électricité: une solution pour réduire la déforestation en Afrique?," African Development Review, African Development Bank, vol. 32(3), pages 338-348, September.
    3. Jean-Marie Baland & Pranab Bardhan & Sangharmitra Das & Dilip Mookherjee, 2009. "Forest Degradation in the Himalayas: Determinants and Policy Options," Working Papers 1002, University of Namur, Department of Economics.
    4. Jean-Marie Baland & François Libois & Dilip Mookherjee, 2018. "Forest Degradation and Economic Growth in Nepal, 2003–2010," Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, University of Chicago Press, vol. 5(2), pages 401-439.
    5. Baland, Jean-Marie & Bardhan, Pranab & Das, Sanghamitra & Mookherjee, Dilip, 2010. "Forests to the People: Decentralization and Forest Degradation in the Indian Himalayas," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 38(11), pages 1642-1656, November.
    6. Guta, Dawit Diriba, 2014. "Effect of fuelwood scarcity and socio-economic factors on household bio-based energy use and energy substitution in rural Ethiopia," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 75(C), pages 217-227.
    7. Fidelis O. Ogwumike & Uchechukwu M. Ozughalu & Gabriel A. Abiona, 2014. "Household Energy Use and Determinants: Evidence from Nigeria," International Journal of Energy Economics and Policy, Econjournals, vol. 4(2), pages 248-262.
    8. Raghavan, Roopali & Shrimali, Gireesh, 2015. "Forest cover increase in India: The role of policy and markets," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 70-76.
    9. World Bank, 2007. "Poverty and Environment : Understanding Linkages at the Household Level," World Bank Publications - Reports 7744, The World Bank Group.
    10. Ashokankur Datta, 2008. "The incidence of fuel taxation in India," Discussion Papers 08-05, Indian Statistical Institute, Delhi.
    11. Kaczan, David J., 2020. "Can roads contribute to forest transitions?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 129(C).
    12. Datta, Ashokankur, 2010. "The incidence of fuel taxation in India," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 32(Supplemen), pages 26-33, September.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bin:indiap:v:3:y:2006:i:2006-1:p:125-277. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Jennifer Ambrosino (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/brookus.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.