1st Edition
Environmental Economics in Developing Countries Issues and Challenges
The COVID-19 pandemic has laid bare the vulnerabilities of socio-economic systems globally and exposed the risks that natural capital degradation imposes on human health, economy, and society. This book studies the environmental challenges faced by developing economies in a post-COVID-19 world.
Exploring diverse case studies from South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa, the volume discusses the impact that economic development and, recently, COVID-19 has had on the environment, ecology, and economy of these regions. It analyses nature conservation policies aimed at minimizing ecological damage arising from economic development and discusses the policy objectives of sustainable development. It also highlights the significant role that environmental economics networks have played in capacity building, framing of policies using ecological economics tools, and developing a local leadership trained in addressing local sustainability issues.
An important contribution to the study of environmental economics of the Global South, the book will be of interest to students and researchers of economics, environment, development studies, development economics, environmental policies, and South Asia studies. It will also be useful for policymakers and NGOs working in this field.
List of Figures
List of Tables
List of contributors
Foreword by Partha Dasgupta
Preface
Acknowledgments
List of Abbreviations
Introduction and Overview: Environmental Economics in Developing Countries
Achiransu Acharyya
Part I. Environment, Ecology and Development
1. Three Theories of Growth, Environment and Poverty Nexus
M N Murty
2. Natural Capital, Pandemic and Development: Exploration of Nexus and Solutions Pushpam Kumar, Amelia Holmes and Samia Islam
3. COVID-19: A Neo-Malthusian Event? Ecological links, Challenges and Opportunities Ramprasad Sengupta and Chetana Chaudhuri
4. Electrification and Development: Empirical evidence on the effect of electricity provision on household welfare
Ujjayant Chakravorty and Martino Pelli
Part II. Economics of Nature Conservation
5. Incentive-Based Approaches to Nature Conservation
E. Somanathan
6. Forests, Carbon Sequestration, and Ecosystem Services: Are There “Two-For-One” Deals?
R. David Simpson
7. Incentives for Rural Households to Establish Tree Cover on Agricultural Land in Andhra Pradesh, India
Stella Z. Schons, Gregory S. Amacher, Kelly M. Cobourn, Nilesh Shinde and Haripriya Gundimeda
8. Minimizing Ecological Damage from Road Improvement in Tropical Forests
Susmita Dasgupta and David Wheeler
Part III. Climate Change and Development
9. Regional Climate Vulnerabilities in South Asia: A Development Perspective
Anil Markandya, Muthukumara Mani, Vaideeswaran Sankaran and Prema Sai Narasimhan
10. Climate Smart Agriculture in Developing Economies: An Analysis of Strategies and Policies
Achiransu Acharyya
11. Pandemic, Climate Change and Sustainable Development
Jyoti K. Parikh
Part IV. Economics of Environmental Policy
12. Environmental Policy in India: Retrospect and Recent Developments
Kanchan Chopra
13. Household waste management and the role of gender in Nepal
Mani Nepal, Marina Cauchy, Apsara Karki Nepal and Chanda Gurung Goodrich
14. Fabricated Electric Fencing: A Promising Strategy for Reducing Crop Damages from Wildlife in Bhutan
Jamyang Choda, Heman Das Lohano and Priya Shyamsundar
15. Revisiting the Regional Environmental Economics Networks: Some Lessons and Reflections
Bhim Adhikari and Lowine Hill
Index
Biography
Achiransu Acharyya is Assistant Professor in the Department of Economics at Visva-Bharati (A Central University) situated in Santiniketan, West Bengal, India. Previously he has taught at the Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Ahmedabad and St. Xavier’s University, Kolkata. His areas of teaching and research are mainly in Natural resource and Environmental Economics, Agricultural Economics and Economics of Water Resources. For the past several years, he has been working on areas involving property rights and ownership of land and water, the economics of groundwater resources in agriculture, the use of energy for agriculture and sustainable development. He has got several national and international publications in journals and books to his credit. He has done several national and international research projects related to agriculture, the environment, and sustainable development. He visited the University of Oregon, USA, on a Teaching cum Research Fellowship. He has also visited the University of Nijmegen in The Netherlands as a Visiting Scholar. He has received various awards for his research, including the Third Prize in the James D. Wolfensohn Essay Competition sponsored by The World Bank, Washington D.C., and the Dr. N.A. Mujumdar Prize awarded by the Indian Society of Agricultural Economics. He is the Chief Editor of a water related journal titled Indian Groundwater. He is also an Associate Editor of a reputed Bengali social science journal titled Anustup.
"Professor Rabindra Nath Bhattacharya’s research in environmental economics ranges from the micro to the macro, from investigations of common property resource institutions on land and at sea to the interrelationships among economic growth, energy consumption, and climate change. This volume assembles works written in his honour by a distinguished group of scholars from institutions in South Asia and around the world. In addition to paying tribute to Prof. Bhattacharya’s diverse contributions, the chapters demonstrate the ability of economics to help us understand and address some of the most challenging problems facing humanity."
Jeffrey R. Vincent, Korstian Distinguished Professor in Forest Economics and Management in the Nicholas School of the Environment and Earth Sciences, Duke University, USA
