TY - BOOK

T1 - Economic development and natural resource consumption in sub-Saharan Africa

AU - Morton, Huon

N1 - Doctoral thesis

PY - 2018

Y1 - 2018

N2 - In remote areas of developing countries, the livelihoods of many rural households are highly dependent on natural resources. However, the impact of poorly defined property rights, extreme levels of poverty, dysfunctional markets and government institutions place the natural resources, and the communities that depend on them, at risk of becoming another tale of the “tragedy of the commons”. Community based natural resource management (CBNRM) was promoted as an approach that would enable communities to sustainably manage their natural resources which would also enhance economic development and economic and social equality. CBRNM has become increasingly popular in sub-Saharan Africa, and governments and NGOs alike continue to promote the perceived benefits of CBNRM programmes. The few extant empirical studies, however, that investigate economic and environmental impacts of CBNRM derive inconsistent conclusions whether CBNRM impacts are positive or negative. The aim of this thesis is to evaluate the role of social, natural, physical, human and financial capital in influencing the impact of CBNRMs. This thesis therefore takes a holistic approach by means of a detailed case study on a single CBNRM area (the Sikunga Conservancy) in the north-eastern Zambezi region of Namibia, this thesis focuses on three specific research objectives: (1) to identify the different livelihood strategies within the community, to investigate the extent to which different strategies utilize natural resources, and to analyse how this improves economic equality within the community; (2) to examine the economic linkages between the different environmental and non-environmental activities within the CBNRM-economy; and (3) to investigate how individual and environmental factors may degrade cooperation to protect natural resources. The first two objectives are met using household survey data from 200 households in the Sikunga Conservancy collected in September and October 2012. The data set contains detailed information on income sources, time-use, consumption and expenditure data, harvesting of natural resources, livestock and crop management. Information on each household’s socio-demographics and social capital was also collected. The survey data is utilized in two different empirical strategies that build upon each other. To meet the first research objective, a two-step cluster analysis is conducted, identifying the unique groups of households within the study area which adopt similar livelihood strategies. The household clusters were 9 then used to develop an environmentally extended village social accounting matrix (ESAM). According to the second objective, the ESAM serves as a basis to conduct a series of unconstrained and constrained multiplier analyses to identify the linkages between environmental and non-environment based activities, and the different household groups and other institutions within the community. The third objective is addressed via a series of artefactual lab-in-the-field experiments to elicit community members’ behaviour towards public goods that were conducted in the same community, with a partial overlap between households, in September and October 2014. The lab-in-the-field experiment data follows the form of panel data. As such, a series of Generalized Least Squares Random Effects and Poisson Random Effects models are applied. Methodologically, the thesis makes several contributions to the current research of behavioural economics in public good literature. First, it provides a real-effort based public good game which can be implemented in the field as well as in laboratories. Whilst laboratory real-effort tasks are common place and have been relatively standardized over time, the conduct in the field has several challenges. For example, these tasks are heavily biased towards basic levels of numeracy, literacy or even simple physical characteristics such as level of sight. Especially in rural areas of sub-Saharan Africa where numeracy and literacy levels may be well below the western world, and simple things such as sight or hearing deprivation remain untreated. This thesis details a real-effort task which overcomes these constraints by utilising a simple physical sorting task. Second, it is the first empirical study of its kind to consistently examine the impact of risk in a public good game; by simultaneously applying risk to the private and public goods. By comparing participants’ behaviours in a risk neutral and risky setting in two sequential public good games the experiment is able to limit the impact of risk aversion and probability weighting and finally, identify the impacts of risk on cooperative behaviour. In this way, it adds a new dimension to the virtuous circle of cooperation developed by Ostrom. Furthermore, by utilising a real-effort based experiment, it also quantifies the impact of risk on exertion levels in a controlled environment. Whilst many studies have used quasi-experimental methods and econometrics to quantify the impact of risk on effort levels, this is the first time that it has been quantified in a controlled environment. Empirically, the results obtained in this thesis contribute to existing knowledge and help improve CBNRM programme designs. Firstly, in the study area, the structure of the economy is heavily biased towards the wealthier households, and those located near the main infrastructure such as roads and electricity. CBNRM has transferred property rights for natural resources to the community, but without development policies that specifically target vulnerable households within the community the elite and wealthy households have been able to extract greater rents from the natural resources via more commercial harvesting and trading. Poorer households largely continue to rely on natural resources for subsistence. Secondly, when the biological limits of the conservancy are taken into consideration, there is little economic integration between the environmental and non-environmental activities within the village economy. Conversely, there are strong interlinkages within different environmental activities, with increased demand for natural resources, leading to increased demand for most other environmental resources, rather than stimulating other off-farm sectors within the village economy. Therefore, communities may struggle to use income derived from CBNRM to diversify their economy and shift away from natural resource consumption. Thirdly, as well as highlighting the importance of the local underlying economic structures when designing CBNRM programmes, this study also identifies potential behavioural factors which may limit the positive impact of CBNRM. The results of the lab-in-the-field experiment show that risk negatively impacts on effort and cooperation levels. Faced with pay-off equivalent situations, households were more likely to invest in public goods in risk neutral contexts than in risky contexts. Furthermore, common strategies to enhance cooperation such as communication and observation proved to be ineffective in the presence of risk. This highlights a potential flaw in the design of many CBNRM programmes where the risk to community owned assets and enterprises are unmitigated and uninsured. The uninsured risks in community assets may create the incentive for households to reduce their contributions to public goods and invest in their own private assets and enterprises, to the detriment of community-owned ones such as the conversion of community-owned wildlife grazing lands to private land for agriculture. Overall the results of the case study show that the CBNRM programme in the study area is likely to have limited benefits. With respect to the literature they may help to explain why the literature to date onthe economic impacts of CBNRM has been inconclusive. It is recommended to consider multiple methods and empirical strategies that consider individual households and livelihood strategies at the centre of analysis. Finally, the experiment results suggest that the presence of unmitigated risk poses a threat to community projects that are dependent on cooperation. Development practitioners may need to consider ways of insuring community projects against risks such as weather and wild-life conflicts.

AB - In remote areas of developing countries, the livelihoods of many rural households are highly dependent on natural resources. However, the impact of poorly defined property rights, extreme levels of poverty, dysfunctional markets and government institutions place the natural resources, and the communities that depend on them, at risk of becoming another tale of the “tragedy of the commons”. Community based natural resource management (CBNRM) was promoted as an approach that would enable communities to sustainably manage their natural resources which would also enhance economic development and economic and social equality. CBRNM has become increasingly popular in sub-Saharan Africa, and governments and NGOs alike continue to promote the perceived benefits of CBNRM programmes. The few extant empirical studies, however, that investigate economic and environmental impacts of CBNRM derive inconsistent conclusions whether CBNRM impacts are positive or negative. The aim of this thesis is to evaluate the role of social, natural, physical, human and financial capital in influencing the impact of CBNRMs. This thesis therefore takes a holistic approach by means of a detailed case study on a single CBNRM area (the Sikunga Conservancy) in the north-eastern Zambezi region of Namibia, this thesis focuses on three specific research objectives: (1) to identify the different livelihood strategies within the community, to investigate the extent to which different strategies utilize natural resources, and to analyse how this improves economic equality within the community; (2) to examine the economic linkages between the different environmental and non-environmental activities within the CBNRM-economy; and (3) to investigate how individual and environmental factors may degrade cooperation to protect natural resources. The first two objectives are met using household survey data from 200 households in the Sikunga Conservancy collected in September and October 2012. The data set contains detailed information on income sources, time-use, consumption and expenditure data, harvesting of natural resources, livestock and crop management. Information on each household’s socio-demographics and social capital was also collected. The survey data is utilized in two different empirical strategies that build upon each other. To meet the first research objective, a two-step cluster analysis is conducted, identifying the unique groups of households within the study area which adopt similar livelihood strategies. The household clusters were 9 then used to develop an environmentally extended village social accounting matrix (ESAM). According to the second objective, the ESAM serves as a basis to conduct a series of unconstrained and constrained multiplier analyses to identify the linkages between environmental and non-environment based activities, and the different household groups and other institutions within the community. The third objective is addressed via a series of artefactual lab-in-the-field experiments to elicit community members’ behaviour towards public goods that were conducted in the same community, with a partial overlap between households, in September and October 2014. The lab-in-the-field experiment data follows the form of panel data. As such, a series of Generalized Least Squares Random Effects and Poisson Random Effects models are applied. Methodologically, the thesis makes several contributions to the current research of behavioural economics in public good literature. First, it provides a real-effort based public good game which can be implemented in the field as well as in laboratories. Whilst laboratory real-effort tasks are common place and have been relatively standardized over time, the conduct in the field has several challenges. For example, these tasks are heavily biased towards basic levels of numeracy, literacy or even simple physical characteristics such as level of sight. Especially in rural areas of sub-Saharan Africa where numeracy and literacy levels may be well below the western world, and simple things such as sight or hearing deprivation remain untreated. This thesis details a real-effort task which overcomes these constraints by utilising a simple physical sorting task. Second, it is the first empirical study of its kind to consistently examine the impact of risk in a public good game; by simultaneously applying risk to the private and public goods. By comparing participants’ behaviours in a risk neutral and risky setting in two sequential public good games the experiment is able to limit the impact of risk aversion and probability weighting and finally, identify the impacts of risk on cooperative behaviour. In this way, it adds a new dimension to the virtuous circle of cooperation developed by Ostrom. Furthermore, by utilising a real-effort based experiment, it also quantifies the impact of risk on exertion levels in a controlled environment. Whilst many studies have used quasi-experimental methods and econometrics to quantify the impact of risk on effort levels, this is the first time that it has been quantified in a controlled environment. Empirically, the results obtained in this thesis contribute to existing knowledge and help improve CBNRM programme designs. Firstly, in the study area, the structure of the economy is heavily biased towards the wealthier households, and those located near the main infrastructure such as roads and electricity. CBNRM has transferred property rights for natural resources to the community, but without development policies that specifically target vulnerable households within the community the elite and wealthy households have been able to extract greater rents from the natural resources via more commercial harvesting and trading. Poorer households largely continue to rely on natural resources for subsistence. Secondly, when the biological limits of the conservancy are taken into consideration, there is little economic integration between the environmental and non-environmental activities within the village economy. Conversely, there are strong interlinkages within different environmental activities, with increased demand for natural resources, leading to increased demand for most other environmental resources, rather than stimulating other off-farm sectors within the village economy. Therefore, communities may struggle to use income derived from CBNRM to diversify their economy and shift away from natural resource consumption. Thirdly, as well as highlighting the importance of the local underlying economic structures when designing CBNRM programmes, this study also identifies potential behavioural factors which may limit the positive impact of CBNRM. The results of the lab-in-the-field experiment show that risk negatively impacts on effort and cooperation levels. Faced with pay-off equivalent situations, households were more likely to invest in public goods in risk neutral contexts than in risky contexts. Furthermore, common strategies to enhance cooperation such as communication and observation proved to be ineffective in the presence of risk. This highlights a potential flaw in the design of many CBNRM programmes where the risk to community owned assets and enterprises are unmitigated and uninsured. The uninsured risks in community assets may create the incentive for households to reduce their contributions to public goods and invest in their own private assets and enterprises, to the detriment of community-owned ones such as the conversion of community-owned wildlife grazing lands to private land for agriculture. Overall the results of the case study show that the CBNRM programme in the study area is likely to have limited benefits. With respect to the literature they may help to explain why the literature to date onthe economic impacts of CBNRM has been inconclusive. It is recommended to consider multiple methods and empirical strategies that consider individual households and livelihood strategies at the centre of analysis. Finally, the experiment results suggest that the presence of unmitigated risk poses a threat to community projects that are dependent on cooperation. Development practitioners may need to consider ways of insuring community projects against risks such as weather and wild-life conflicts.

U2 - 10.15488/3529

DO - 10.15488/3529

M3 - Doctoral thesis

CY - Hannover

ER -