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In southern Nepal, it is common practice to dispose crop residue (such as rice straw) by burning it in the field
. This causes many environmental problems because biomass burning contributes to smoke, black carbon and greenhouse gases. To try and find a solution to this challenge a SANDEE study from Nepal has looked at what incentives might stop farmers from burning their rice straw. The study is the work of Krishna Prasad Pant, from the Economic Development and Policy Analysis Centre in Kathmandu
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In southern Nepal, rice straw burning in open fields is common practice
. This is problematic because biomass burning contributes to smoke, black carbon and greenhouse gases. While some studies have examined the reasons for burning, few have tried to identify incentives that might stop farmers from burning. In this study, we use a uniform price unitsupply reverse auction, followed by an actual payment, in order to measure the amount of incentive required to stop smallholder farmers from burning rice straw. 317 farmers from 18 villages in Rupandehi and Kapilvastu districts participated in the reverse auction and signed an agreement to avoid burning for a payment. About 86 percent of the farmers fully complied with the agreement for a median payment of NPR 5,610 per ha (USD 78/ha). We also assessed the factors affecting the bid amount and compliance with the agreement. The supply of ecosystem services by the farmers through avoided burning is unit elastic, indicating that there is a linear relationship between monetary incentives and avoided burning
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Although mountains are rich in natural resources and provide vital ecosystem services to the global community, mountain people are marginalised
. As the ecosystem services they provide are mostly free of charge, they have no incentive to invest in the conservation. We examine the feasibility of improving their livelihoods through the sale of water services to downstream communities. Using hydro-meteorological data, we assessed the effects of forest conservation on water yield and estimated the value of water services to downstream communities. Results show that if a system of payment for ecosystem services is established, mountain communities can improve their livelihoods by converting their farmland into conservation areas. However, it will take 15 years to increase the water yield, which means that external assistance is required in early years. Policy measures are suggested to establish a market for ecosystem services to encourage upstream communities to take conservation measures
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Although mountains are rich in natural resources and provide vital ecosystem services to the global community, mountain people are marginalised
. As the ecosystem services they provide are mostly free of charge, they have no incentive to invest in the conservation. We examine the feasibility of improving their livelihoods through the sale of water services to downstream communities. Using hydro-meteorological data, we assessed the effects of forest conservation on water yield and estimated the value of water services to downstream communities. Results show that if a system of payment for ecosystem services is established, mountain communities can improve their livelihoods by converting their farmland into conservation areas. However, it will take 15 years to increase the water yield, which means that external assistance is required in early years. Policy measures are suggested to establish a market for ecosystem services to encourage upstream communities to take conservation measures
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The ecosystem services derived from conservation areas have a high value for human wellbeing, but they do not receive due consideration in public policy in the Hindu Kush Himalayan region
. As a result, conservation areas do not receive adequate public support for participatory management and other conservation approaches. The lack of recognition is in part due to the lack of explicit calculations of the actual economic value of these areas for the local, regional, and global populations. This paper presents the results of an attempt to estimate the monetary value of the goods and services provided by the forest ecosystems of three districts around Mount Kangchenjunga in eastern Nepal. A market method was used for valuation of the provisioning services, a benefit transfer method for the regulating services, and a productivity method for the supporting services. The economic benefits of the forest ecosystem services in the three districts were estimated to be approximately USD 125 million, equivalent to about USD 360 per hectare per year. Almost 80 per cent of the total benefits were found to be from provisioning services, i.e., goods from the forests used directly or indirectly. It is hoped that estimating the economic value of the ecosystem services will help facilitate understanding of the importance of services that are otherwise ignored, and can be used to create awareness of the importance of conservation for rural households residing in or near conservation areas. This will help in advocating for incentive mechanisms for local communities to maintain the ecosystem and meet their livelihood needs by sustaining the flow of services. Planners and policy makers can also use the estimates in cost benefit analyses and in support of appropriate conservation related decisions. The methodology used in this study can be scaled up to support regional collaboration in conservation, and can be applied in other areas of the region after modification to take into account the local conditions
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A majority of rural households in developing countries still use solid fuels for cooking
. Many studies show linkages between the indoor air pollution from solid fuels with respiratory health problems. These estimates, however, suffer from an endogeneity bias arising from the effects of health conditions on fuel choice. This study estimates the effects of indoor air pollution on respiratory health after adjusting for endogenous health behaviors. Our study, which includes measurements on indoor air pollution, is based on a detailed survey of 600 rural households from Syangja and Chitwan districts of Nepal. We employ instrumental variable probit regressions to find the effects of pollution-reducing interventions on chronic bronchitis, asthma and acute respiratory infections. The estimates with the instrumental variable approach are found to be larger than those that do not correct for endogeneity. Improved cook stoves and biogas are found to reduce respiratory diseases. We also estimate household shadow values for chronic bronchitis, asthma and acute respiratory infections using the cost of illness method. We estimate the annual reduction in health costs per intervention of stove to be Rs 1,217 and that of biogas to be Rs 647. The health benefits from improved stoves are many times higher than the cost while the health benefits from biogas plant are nearly equal to its cost. We, however, do not include other benefits of the interventions like energy efficiency, forest conservation and reduction in carbon emissions. The comparison between annual health benefits and costs shows that there is no clear reason for not buying the interventions
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