Publication:
Environmental Economics in Sub-Saharan Africa : Towards Sustainable Development

Loading...
Thumbnail Image
Files in English
English PDF (706.8 KB)
441 downloads
English Text (8.14 KB)
24 downloads
Published
1995-07
ISSN
Date
2012-08-13
Editor(s)
Abstract
Environmental concerns must be integrated into the development process, but African countries still face many challenges as they work to achieve development that is economically, socially, and environmentally sustainable. Many countries have already launched National Environmental Action Plans (NEAPs) and National Conservation Strategies; however, in preparing and implementing them, economics was used sparingly because techniques and skills available to do so were in short supply. This paper was written to fill this gap, to show how environmental economics could and should be used to improve the quality of decision making in the NEAP process. The paper is written for the practitioner in the field who needs to make immediate decisions and cannot wait for more data. After presenting the theory of environmental economics, the text goes on to show its practical application in Africa.
Link to Data Set
Citation
Convery, Frank J.. 1995. Environmental Economics in Sub-Saharan Africa : Towards Sustainable Development. Africa Region Findings & Good Practice Infobriefs; No. 44. © World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/9991 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.
Digital Object Identifier
Associated URLs
Associated content
Report Series
Other publications in this report series
Journal
Journal Volume
Journal Issue

Related items

Showing items related by metadata.

  • Publication
    Investing in Trees and Landscape Restoration in Africa
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2011-11) Dewees, Peter; Place, Frank; Scheer, Sara J.; Buss, Chris
    Reforestation measures for degraded lands, strategies for the sustainable management of forest resources, and agroforestry practices that incorporate trees into farming systems are increasingly demonstrating their promise for producing commercialized tree products. Although the level of investment so far has remained modest, the challenge is to find ways to scale up promising investments in a way that will have a clear impact at the landscape level. These types of investments can help achieve the triple wins of climate-smart agriculture: increased incomes and yields, climate change adaptation and greenhouse gas mitigation.Market trends are promising for a wide range of tree-based technologies, including tropical fruits, cashews, honey, timber and wood products, lipids, gums and resins, tree crops, and agroforestry systems. In many cases, African entrepreneurs, farmers, civil society, and governments have responded dynamically to the widespread challenge of land degradation. The continent is dotted with landscapes where production of trees on farms and in managed forests has grown dramatically to meet market and subsistence needs; sustainable agricultural practices and revegetation have restored soils and watersheds; and key conservation areas are being protected. However, this is not happening at the scale required by societal needs in Africa. In part, this is due to a lack of strategic cooperation and coordination between private sector investors and land managers (who are focused on realizing profitable opportunities and meeting their own needs) and public and civil society actors (who are focused on restoring forest cover and ecosystem services). Such coordination is only possible when the biophysical potential for landscape restoration, private sector investment opportunity and incentives, and societal demand for multiple benefits converge. Much can be learned from examples of large-scale landscape restoration in Ethiopia, Kenya, Niger, Tanzania, and Zambia, and the variable roles of the private sector, farmers, government, and civil society in supporting and undertaking investment.
  • Publication
    Uganda Sustainable Land Management : Public Expenditure Review
    (Washington, DC, 2008-11-06) World Bank
    This report summarizes the findings of the Uganda Sustainable Land Management Public Expenditure Review (SLM PER). The SLM PER was undertaken to achieve six main objectives: (i) establish a robust data base on SLM-related public expenditure that can support credible empirical analysis; (ii) develop a sound methodology for conducting SLM PERs, which could guide similar work in the future; (iii) analyze the level and composition of SLM spending in the recent past; (iv) identify potential entry points for public support based on the concept of development pathways; (v) understand the institutional arrangements for coordination on SLM issues; and (vi) draw policy recommendations for the land use sector. Overall the SLM PER aims at informing the current policy dialogue with and within Uganda and thereby contributing to the development of a common national strategy for the efficient and effective scale-up of SLM interventions. The review is expected to provide important input to: (i) the on-going Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Program (CAADP) process, including the SLM Country Strategic Investment Framework (CSIF); and (ii) the Ugandan SLM Country Program that will be supported by the World Bank and the Global Environment Facility (GEF) through TerrAfrica. Uganda is preparing a CSIF with the goal of establishing a country-led operational roadmap for developing a sequenced program of SLM interventions. The PER is among the recommended diagnostic tools for CSlF preparation and SLM awareness building. In general, this analytical work complements the on-going Agriculture PER in Uganda.
  • Publication
    Sustainable Land Management : Challenges, Opportunities, and Trade-offs
    (Washington, DC: Wolrd Bank, 2006) World Bank
    Land is the integrating component of all livelihoods depending on farm, forest, rangeland, or water (rivers, lakes, coastal marine) habitats. Due to varying political, social, and economic factors, the heavy use of natural resources to supply a rapidly growing global population and economy has resulted in the unintended mismanagement and degradation of land and ecosystems. This book provides strategic focus to the implementation of sustainable land management (SLM) components of the World Bank's development strategies. Sustainable land management is a knowledge-based procedure that integrates land, water, biodiversity, and environmental management to meet rising food and fiber demands while sustaining livelihoods and the environment. This book articulates priorities for investment in sustainable land management and natural resource management and identifies the policy, institutional, and incentive reform options that will accelerate the adoption of productivity improvements and pro-poor growth with sustainable land management.
  • Publication
    Watershed Management Approaches, Policies, and Operations : Lessons for Scaling Up
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2008-05) Darghouth, Salah; Ward, Christopher; Gambarelli, Gretel; Styger, Erika; Roux, Julienne
    The report begins with definitions of watersheds and watershed management, a characterization of the problem of watershed degradation, and a short history of watershed management operations and policies (Chapter 1). The following four chapters discuss the findings from experience with implementing watershed management programs over the last 20 years based both on the project review and on the literature. The second chapter discusses the findings on watershed management approaches and methodologies. The third chapter looks at findings on institutions for watershed management. The fourth chapter reviews the economics of watershed management. In the fifth chapter, issues of watershed management interactions with the environment and the water cycle are discussed, as well as the challenge of climate change. A brief sixth and the final chapter summarizes the principal conclusions and recommendations of the report.
  • Publication
    Integrating Communities into REDD+ in Indonesia
    (PROFOR, Washington, DC, 2013-06) Jurgens, Emile; Kornexl, Werner; Oliver, Chloe; Gumartini, Tini; Brown, Tim
    The Government of Indonesia (GOI) is in the process of designing a national REDD+ mechanism to allow it to access donor funding in the medium term, and funding from a potential performance based mechanism in the long term. This policy brief is focused on the broad question of how REDD+ can address underlying community issues such as lack of access to forest land, and does not deal with the more specific questions of legal and institutional frameworks for such a mechanism. More specifically, the brief highlights the need and opportunity for integrating community development approaches into a REDD+ framework. The brief is based largely on a review of literature on Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES) programs, on interviews with a number of representatives from Indonesian small grants programs, and on discussions with the team that is involved in the implementation of PNPM programs at the World Bank Office in Jakarta. Indonesia is a major Green House Gas (GHG) emitter (about 2.1 gigatons of carbon dioxide equivalent in 2005) and most of the emissions come from deforestation and peatland degradation. Indonesia has approximately 94 million hectares of natural and planted forests, representing around 52 percent of its total land area. The Ministry of environment estimates that in 2000, as much as 60 percent of Indonesia's total GHG emissions were due to land use changes, including deforestation, forest degradation and peat loss. In recent years, REDD+ has become a focus of policy development in Indonesia. The Forestry Research and Development Agency (FORDA) took the lead in 2007 by forming the Indonesia Forest Climate Alliance (IFCA) to articulate a national approach in response to shifting opportunities emerging from international negotiations on climate action and financing.

Users also downloaded

Showing related downloaded files

  • Publication
    Mapping and Valuing Ecosystem Services for Sustainable Landscape Management in Zimbabwe
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2023-07-31) World Bank
    Productive natural ecosystems are being lost and degraded by poorly planned and managed commercial and small-scale livelihood activities in Zimbabwe, and threats will be further exacerbated by climate change. This report identifies the drivers of ecosystem degradation and assesses the value of ecosystems that are key to Zimbabwe’s sustainable development. It also highlights investments that are necessary to protect the landscape and deliver ecosystem services for sustainable livelihood and climate resilience.
  • Publication
    Mobility and Development Periodical, Fall 2024
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-10-01) World Bank
    The fourth edition of the Mobility and Development periodical presents nine stories of how countries have evolved transport sector innovations, policy reform, and technical solutions to improve the quality of life. Opening with big data readiness for urban transport in Latin America, the narrative zooms out to present the potential of drones in the region. After unpacking the fiscal risks of the transport sector, experts unpack pressing urban mobility challenges. Dhaka offers an example of how critical governance can help metropolitan transit agencies deliver value. Keeping inclusion in focus, the next article shows how effective public transportation can boost economic opportunities for women in Middle East and North Africa. Moving to the Europe and Central Asia region offers a perspective of how improved roads influence jobs in rural Armenia. Travelling to Pakistan, authors discuss how to accelerate electric mobility adoption. The final article shows how an economic corridor approach to harness lithium could transform Argentina’s northwest.
  • Publication
    Africa’s Resource Future
    (Washington DC : World Bank, 2023-04-03) Cust, James; Zeufack, Albert G.
    This book examines the role for natural resource wealth in driving Africa’s economic transformation and the implications of the low-carbon transition for resource-rich economies. Resource wealth remains central to most Sub-Saharan African economies, and significant untapped potential is in the ground. Subsoil assets—such as metals, minerals, oil, and gas—are key sources of government revenues, export earnings, and development potential in most countries in the Africa region. Despite large reserves, success in converting subsoil wealth into aboveground sustainable prosperity has been limited. Since the decline in commodity prices in 2014, resource-rich Africa has grown more slowly than the region’s average growth rate. Finding ways to more effectively harness natural resource wealth to drive economic transformation will be central to Africa’s economic future. As the world moves away from fossil fuels in alignment with commitments under the Paris Agreement, Africa’s resource-rich countries face new risks and opportunities. Recent estimates suggest that 80 percent of the world’s proven fossil fuel reserves must remain underground to meet the Paris targets, and much of these stranded reserves may be in Africa. This issue of stranded assets and, relatedly, “stranded nations,” has major implications for the many African economies that are dependent on petroleum extraction and export. On the other hand, the energy transition will increase demand for raw material inputs involved in clean energy technologies. The transition from fossil fuels to clean energy may create demand by 2050 for 3 billion tons of minerals and metals that are needed to deploy solar, wind, and geothermal energy. How can African economies tap into these opportunities while managing the downside risk to their fossil fuel wealth? "Africa’s Resource Future" explores these themes and offers policy makers insights to help them navigate the coming years of uncertainty.
  • Publication
    Labor Productivity and Access to Markets Matter for Pro-Poor Growth
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2005-06) Bernabe, Sabine; Krstic, Gorana
    Employment is widely perceived as being amongst the most important channels for translating growth into poverty reduction. However there has been limited empirical research to date on the relationship between growth, employment and poverty reduction. This paper focuses on two countries, Burkina Faso and Vietnam, with very distinct patterns of growth and poverty reduction. It examines how employment transmitted growth to the poor during the 1990s in each of these cases and what the role was of specific policies and initial country conditions. In particular, we attempt shed some light on Vietnam’s relative success in terms of pro-poor growth. Understanding these questions will be important in informing the formulation of policies that maximize the participation of the poor in the growth process.This paper is undertaken within the broader framework of the Operationalising Pro-poor Growth (OPPG) study, which is based on 14 country case studies that examine linkages between growth and poverty reduction during the 1990s. The aim of this paper is to supplement the more general labor market analysis contained in the case studies, with a detailed inspection of how employment serves as a transmission channel from growth to poverty reduction.There are two important factors that maximize the effectiveness of employment in transmitting growth to the poor: (1) an increase in labor productivity that is (a) broad based and (b) concentrated in sectors where the poor are disproportionately employed or to which they have access, and (2) strong (domestic and foreign) demand for the goods and services produced by the poor and access to these markets.The paper is organized as follows. It begins with a brief review of what the existing literature tells us regarding the linkages between growth, labor markets and poverty reduction. We then briefly review what can be learned from the 14 OPPG country case studies is this respect. Section four introduces Burkina Faso and Vietnam and provides some basic stylized facts at the beginning of the 1990s, with an aim to set out the initial country conditions. It also highlights how these two countries represent the two extreme patterns of growth and poverty reduction observed in the 14 OPPG country case studies. Section five provides a profile of poverty in the labor market in Burkina Faso and Vietnam, identifying who the poor were at the beginning of the 90’s, which groups faced the highest risks of poverty and how this changed during the 1990s. In section six, examine how labor markets transmitted growth to the poor in Vietnam. It analyzes how growth was reflected in the structure of employment and the extent of underemployment and what the impact was on earnings in sectors where the poor and non-poor were employed. Using panel data we then examine the extent to which the poor in Vietnam were able to benefit from growth by moving out of agriculture and into faster-growing industrial and services sectors. In section seven examines how growth affected the structure of employment and earnings in Burkina Faso during the 1990s. We then briefly analyze how employment affected the distributional pattern of growth in both countries in section eight. Finally, section ten draws some conclusions on how specific policies and initial country conditions affected the way in which employment transmitted growth to the poor in Burkina Faso and Vietnam and what factors can help to explain Vietnam’s relative success in terms of growth and poverty reduction.
  • Publication
    Digital Africa
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2023-03-13) Begazo, Tania; Dutz, Mark Andrew; Blimpo, Moussa
    All African countries need better and more jobs for their growing populations. "Digital Africa: Technological Transformation for Jobs" shows that broader use of productivity-enhancing, digital technologies by enterprises and households is imperative to generate such jobs, including for lower-skilled people. At the same time, it can support not only countries’ short-term objective of postpandemic economic recovery but also their vision of economic transformation with more inclusive growth. These outcomes are not automatic, however. Mobile internet availability has increased throughout the continent in recent years, but Africa’s uptake gap is the highest in the world. Areas with at least 3G mobile internet service now cover 84 percent of Africa’s population, but only 22 percent uses such services. And the average African business lags in the use of smartphones and computers as well as more sophisticated digital technologies that catalyze further productivity gains. Two issues explain the usage gap: affordability of these new technologies and willingness to use them. For the 40 percent of Africans below the extreme poverty line, mobile data plans alone would cost one-third of their incomes—in addition to the price of access devices, apps, and electricity. Data plans for small- and medium-size businesses are also more expensive than in other regions. Moreover, shortcomings in the quality of internet services—and in the supply of attractive, skills-appropriate apps that promote entrepreneurship and raise earnings—dampen people’s willingness to use them. For those countries already using these technologies, the development payoffs are significant. New empirical studies for this report add to the rapidly growing evidence that mobile internet availability directly raises enterprise productivity, increases jobs, and reduces poverty throughout Africa. To realize these and other benefits more widely, Africa’s countries must implement complementary and mutually reinforcing policies to strengthen both consumers’ ability to pay and willingness to use digital technologies. These interventions must prioritize productive use to generate large numbers of inclusive jobs in a region poised to benefit from a massive, youthful workforce—one projected to become the world’s largest by the end of this century.