Research Interests
Natural Goods and Services
Even though high value is placed on goods and services generated by ecosystems, existing institutions have not managed natural resources based on their goods and services characteristics. The root causes for this is firstly they focus on specific ecosystem services (ES) for the environmental issue without regarding on the nature of ES which is interactive and balancing each other out to form equilibrium in nature. Also, each service provides various uses that directly or indirectly involve multiple groups. Second cause is they separate human welfare and ES from distinct view of socioeconomic or environment in conservation and development without regarding ES and human welfare are intertwined with socioeconomic and environmental views. According to these reasons, policies such as command and control, co-management, multitier social-ecological systems (SESs), and payments for ecosystem services (PES) have not seemed to have much effect on reducing the rate of environmental degradation. Therefore, the aim of this research stream is to revisit the definitions of goods and services applied to natural goods and services and to provide a new framework for their characterization. Excludability and rivalry can no longer be the main parameters that we use to define natural goods and services as they seem limited in scope.
Agricultural commodities: Despite its simple definition, food security is an enormously complex issue and cannot be simply reduced to a single, atomistic poverty issue. It has multi-dimensional assumptions including social, economic and environmental aspects, which increase the number of factors influencing it and make it a real challenging task to achieve. According to the United Nations, projected world population growth is from 6.1 billion in 2000 to 8.9 billion in 2050, increasing therefore by 47 per cent. Notwithstanding the apparent abundance of food, yet, over one third of the population is starving, one third is under-fed and only one third is well-fed to over-fed. This project provides the advancement of knowledge on theory of value in regards to agricultural commodities, making emphasis on the differences between agricultural crops of high use value produced in developing countries.
Wetland good and services: Despite varying degrees of regulation, policies and standards across different nations, wetlands are consistently being destroyed, devastated and converted to other land uses at a rate more rapid than any other ecosystem. We attempt to understand this disconnection between policy and wetland protection by comparing how wetlands are portrayed in different national wetland policies.
Agricultural commodities: Despite its simple definition, food security is an enormously complex issue and cannot be simply reduced to a single, atomistic poverty issue. It has multi-dimensional assumptions including social, economic and environmental aspects, which increase the number of factors influencing it and make it a real challenging task to achieve. According to the United Nations, projected world population growth is from 6.1 billion in 2000 to 8.9 billion in 2050, increasing therefore by 47 per cent. Notwithstanding the apparent abundance of food, yet, over one third of the population is starving, one third is under-fed and only one third is well-fed to over-fed. This project provides the advancement of knowledge on theory of value in regards to agricultural commodities, making emphasis on the differences between agricultural crops of high use value produced in developing countries.
Wetland good and services: Despite varying degrees of regulation, policies and standards across different nations, wetlands are consistently being destroyed, devastated and converted to other land uses at a rate more rapid than any other ecosystem. We attempt to understand this disconnection between policy and wetland protection by comparing how wetlands are portrayed in different national wetland policies.
Markets for Nature
The analysis of emerging markets for nature's services is considered one of the most important themes in critical geography and environmental research. There is therefore a need to identify and address their pitfalls, and challenge their logic by looking at whose interests pricing and marketing serve, and why money and monetary valuation are considered so useful and persuasive as a sign of ultimate worth.
Payments for watershed services: have been identified as a conceptually attractive policy tool to target both conservation and well-being objectives through their use of negotiated incentives to engage in more sustainably-oriented land management activities and improve consensus and watershed management between upstream and downstream communities. The primary objectives this research seeks to address include: a) the use of multi-criteria valuation of compensation options which maximise individual and collective well-being; b) identifying trade-offs that exist in designing a compensation scheme which not only targets the most environmentally vulnerable locations for ensuring the delivery of regulating or cultural ecosystem services, but achieves the expectations and desires of the poorest individuals and communities in the catchment area.
Payments for watershed services: have been identified as a conceptually attractive policy tool to target both conservation and well-being objectives through their use of negotiated incentives to engage in more sustainably-oriented land management activities and improve consensus and watershed management between upstream and downstream communities. The primary objectives this research seeks to address include: a) the use of multi-criteria valuation of compensation options which maximise individual and collective well-being; b) identifying trade-offs that exist in designing a compensation scheme which not only targets the most environmentally vulnerable locations for ensuring the delivery of regulating or cultural ecosystem services, but achieves the expectations and desires of the poorest individuals and communities in the catchment area.
Ecosystem Services and Human Wellbeing
Man with zebu, Madagascar - S Blyth
Policies and valuations that are based primarily on formal market interactions and consider the value of private goods rather than the total public or social value that they have to meet the health and livelihood requirements of human populations. The level of consumption that occurs to support or improve current levels of human well-being are at least partially dependent on resources that exist in informal markets and subsistence economies that are directly supplied through ecosystem services. Policy makers must incorporate the importance of informal markets and more complete methods of deliberative contingent resource valuation into their actions.
Coastal ES: Mangroves provide an example of how coastal ecosystems can generate services that are essential to the health and wellbeing of coastal populations. Many of these services exist or are managed outside of formal markets but play large roles in mixed economies and are of great social importance on a local level. Evaluation of the socio-environmental relationships existing around these resources and the reliance upon ES can be used to guide policies into the multidimensional framework that is necessary to meet the actual needs of efficient and sustainable human and environmental interactions.
Agricultural ES and food security: A plural methodological approach to food security analysis whereby all four dimensions of food security should inform planned interventions. A systematic analysis of interactions among food security, smallholder export agriculture, and ecosystem services is needed to unravel the complex issue of food security. Smallholder export agriculture is often promoted as a strategy to improve the incomes – and by extension, the food security – of the rural poor in developing countries. However, to understand the implications of exports model for food security, a multidimensional approach to food security analysis is required. Moreover, food system stability should be reprioritized as a dimension of food security on equal footing with the others. Ecosystem services provide the basis for food system stability and that agricultural development hinges on the stable provisioning of multiple ecosystem services from agroecosystems.
Coastal ES: Mangroves provide an example of how coastal ecosystems can generate services that are essential to the health and wellbeing of coastal populations. Many of these services exist or are managed outside of formal markets but play large roles in mixed economies and are of great social importance on a local level. Evaluation of the socio-environmental relationships existing around these resources and the reliance upon ES can be used to guide policies into the multidimensional framework that is necessary to meet the actual needs of efficient and sustainable human and environmental interactions.
Agricultural ES and food security: A plural methodological approach to food security analysis whereby all four dimensions of food security should inform planned interventions. A systematic analysis of interactions among food security, smallholder export agriculture, and ecosystem services is needed to unravel the complex issue of food security. Smallholder export agriculture is often promoted as a strategy to improve the incomes – and by extension, the food security – of the rural poor in developing countries. However, to understand the implications of exports model for food security, a multidimensional approach to food security analysis is required. Moreover, food system stability should be reprioritized as a dimension of food security on equal footing with the others. Ecosystem services provide the basis for food system stability and that agricultural development hinges on the stable provisioning of multiple ecosystem services from agroecosystems.
