The ICMS-Ecológico is a fiscal transfer mechanism from states to municipalities, implemented in the early 1990's in Brazil, to reward municipalities for the creation and management of protected areas. This paper investigates the efficiency of this mechanism by testing for the presence of...

Various conservation initiatives have been implemented in developing countries with increasing involvement on the part of local governments. A concern in entrusting decisions to local governments is that the effectiveness of the conservation instrument can be threatened by interactions among...

This paper aims to test the effect of smallholder farmers' participatory social learning on their gain of performance in a village of southwest China. By exploring a panel structure survey data collected in the village, we identify the social learning effect using a Spatial Autoregressive (SAR)...

This case study compares the environmental efficiency of non-certified organic and conventional rice production in southern China. Using plot-season level survey data, we first test the existence of a "technology gap" between the two types of production, and then calculate the environmental...

Is there a strategically beneficial time for political leaders to make international environmental commitments? Based on the political cycles theory we argue that leaders have incentives to delay costly ratification of international environmental agreements to the post-electoral period. However,...

This paper aims at assessing the determinants of Amazon deforestation, with an emphasis on the role played by off-farm income. We first present a microeconomic model which relates off-farm income to deforestation patterns. We then test the empirical implications by using data on the 2006...

This presentation discusses the new water policy in Brazil. The examples of the State of Ceará, the State of São Paulo and the Federal River Basin of Paraíba do Sul are given. In addition, the criteria of charges applied are detailed along with the formulae for the total monthly water charge....

This presentation discusses water management policy in France and the water charge design process. The discussion includes institutional and legal barriers and the three different periods of implementation. Also included: comparisons of subsidies and charge rates, drawbacks of the current water...

Esta presentación fue comisionada por la Red de Medio Ambiente del Diálogo Regional de Política para la II Reunión Hemisférica celebrada los días 25 y 26 de febrero de 2003. Ausencia de enfoque integral de la gestión del agua. Tratamiento independiente de las categorías de usuarios....