This paper analyzes the economy-wide gains obtainable from the allocation of surface irrigation water to its most productive use, and evaluates a decentralized mechanism for achieving this result in a spatially heterogeneous environment. The focus country for the analysis is Morocco. The analysis is based on a general equilibrium model that, in addition to the rest of the economy, captures 82 agricultural production activities, 66 of which are in seven separately identified water districts that span the entire country. The results suggest that a decentralized water trading mechanism could increase agricultural output by 8.3 per cent, affect the rental rates of other agricultural inputs at the national level, including labour, and have economy-wide effects that entail a decline in the cost of living, an increase in aggregate consumption, and expansion of international trade.

This paper investigates factors determining participation and effort in illegal hunting, using cross-section survey data from households in western Serengeti, Tanzania. One purpose of the analysis is to study the impact on illegal hunting of the integrated conservation and development project established in this area, namely the Serengeti Regional Conservation Project (SRCP). The paper also investigates how the pattern of crop production in agriculture, market accessibility and wildlife-induced damage to crops and domestic animals affect illegal hunting. The empirical results suggest that effort in illegal hunting is inversely related to participation in SRCP. The results also show that the likelihood of illegal hunting is a decreasing function of the amount of agricultural land cultivated for maize production. Further, the hunting effort is negatively related to the size of cotton and maize land, as well as wildlife-induced damage to crops and domestic animals.

Biodiversity ‘hotspot’ areas, which are characterized by concentrations of endemic species and severe anthropogenic loss of natural habitat, might be thought to present steep opportunity costs for maintaining forest cover against pressures of agricultural conversion. We examine this proposition for the southern part of the state of Bahia, a center of endemism within the Brazilian Atlantic Forest, which has less than 8 per cent of its original primary forest cover remaining. Using data from a survey of property values, we relate land price to land characteristics, including land cover, soil quality, slope, climate, and road proximity. We find median land values of R$725/hectare, or about US$400/hectare at recently prevailing exchange rates. Remaining land under forest has a market value 70 per cent below comparable cleared land.

We analyse data from sample surveys of water use and prices for households in 17 cities in Central America and Venezuela. In some of the cities, almost all sampled households have tap water, but in others many rely on nontap (‘coping’) sources. Coping households use less than one-fifth as much water as metered tap households do, face average water prices ten times as high, are much poorer, and face substantial water hauling costs. Water demand functions are estimated for metered tap households and coping households separately and jointly. Increasing block rates complicate estimation on metered tap households. Using 2SLS, we find price elasticities of water demand, with respect to both average and marginal water price, of about −0.3, with average price giving the greater partial effect. Coping demand has price elasticity closer to −0.1, and is also negatively affected by increased hauling costs. Estimations on the joint data indicate that the water connection itself explains most of the difference between tap and coping consumption and indicate serious problems in such data pooling.

This paper discusses the factors guiding household choices of cooking fuels. This is crucial for policies to combat indoor air pollution. Household income is an important, but not the only, factor. Opportunity costs of firewood also play an essential role. Empirical results are based on the 2000 Guatemalan LSMS survey, which includes a detailed section on energy use. Patterns of fuel use, energy spending, Engel curves, multiple fuels, the extent of fuel switching, and the determinants of fuel choice are analyzed.

It is common in Guatemala to use multiple fuels for cooking – 48 and 27 per cent of urban and rural households do so. Modern fuels are often used alongside traditional solid fuels; modern fuels thus fail to displace solid fuels in many cases, particular in rural areas and the urban bottom half. This is paradoxical since a significant share of firewood users buy wood from the market, incurring costs that are substantial, also in comparison with the costs of modern fuels.

Occasionally, households use forests as a source for collecting minor forest products. These goods can serve as an important additional source of income or nutrient supply. Considering this link between forest production and the agricultural sector, we estimate the collection function of the extractive good in a sample selection framework in which the wealth status, the prime agricultural cash source, and paid labour are assumed to influence the decision about collecting minor forest products. Results show that poorer households are more dependent on minor forest products. We also find that returns to labour in the agriculture and forestry sectors are not significantly different. We use these returns to establish shadow prices for the extractive good and in turn, use these to estimate price and income elasticities for the good's demand. The minor forest product is a normal good with unit elasticity; shadow income elasticity is equal to 0.82.