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I Sverige började processen med att skydda natur redan 1909 och arbetet har fortsatt fram till idag. Även om naturskyddet ska gynna oss alla, är arbetet med det sällan problemfritt. Mitt intresse för dessa problem, hur de kan förstås och hanteras på ett konstruktivt sätt, är utgångspunkten för denna kandidatuppsats. Studien ämnar undersöka hur information och kommunikation har påverkat de närboendes upplevelse till Sand Life, i samband med utökandet och restaureringen av naturreservatet Haväng och Vitemölla strandbackar. I fallstudien undersöks delvis också den konflikt som uppstod i processen. Undersökningen möjliggjordes i tre steg: intervjuer med länsstyrelsen och Sand Lifes medarbetare; enkätundersökning och djupintervjuer med ett antal närboende i Vitemölla. Resultatet tyder på att de närboende som grupp, initialt var negativt inställda till Sand Life. Inställningen tycks bottna i att man upplevt länsstyrelsen och Sand Lifes ursprungliga planer som alltför omfattande och inte tillräckligt förankrade, utifrån ett lokalt perspektiv. Det framkom också att informationen om projektet hade varit bristfällig, vilket möjligen kan kopplas till den inställning man initialt hade. Idag pekar resultaten på att de närboende som grupp är neutrala till försiktigt positiva i sin upplevelse av Sand Life. I huvudsak verkar detta bero på att åtgärderna i naturreservatet blev tilltalande; möjligen kan inställningen också kopplas till att länsstyrelsen och Sand Life tog hänsyn och reviderade skötselplanen samt visade större öppenhet mot de närboende. Eventuellt kan proaktiv information, tydliga avsikter och viljan att utveckla olika planer och projekt i en kontinuerlig dialog med lokalbefolkningen begränsa naturskydd- och förvaltningskonflikters omfattning. / Although nature conservation is supposed to benefit all of us, the work is rarely trouble-free. My concern for these problems is the starting point for this candidacy. The study intends to investigate how information and communication has influenced the residents' attitude to Sand Life, in connection with the development of Haväng and Vitemölla nature reserve. The case study also examines the conflict that arose in the process. The investigation was made possible in three steps: interviews with the county administrative board and Sand Life staff members; questionnaire and interviews with residents around Vitemölla. The result indicates that the residents as a group initially were negative in their attitude to Sand Life. The attitude seemed to be caused by the experience that the county administrative board and Sand Lifes' original plans for the nature reserve was too extensive and not sufficiently anchored, from a local perspective. It was also found that the information about the project had been inadequate, which could possibly be linked to the initial attitude. Today the results indicate that the residents as a group are neutral to cautiously positive in their attitude to Sand Life. Possibly due to the fact that the measures taken in the nature reserve became appealing; the attitude can perhaps also be linked to the authorities revising the care plan and showing greater openness towards the residents. Proactive information, clear intentions and the willingness to develop different plans and projects in a continuous dialogue with locals, can possibly limit the extent of conflicts.

Lake Okeechobee is the largest lake in the southeastern United States and is a central component of the hydrology and environment of the Everglades ecosystem in South Florida. The natural state of the lake has been degraded as wetlands and natural habitats in the Lake Okeechobee watershed have been replaced with farms, urban areas, and dairy operations. Excessive phosphorus loadings from these diverse sources have been identified as the leading causes of the lake’s impairment. For more than four decades, many resources have been allocated to regional and local restoration efforts to reduce phosphorus loadings into the lake. However, phosphorus loadings have not decreased and the recovery of the lake could take more time, particularly with today’s limited local budgets. Market-based instruments, such as water quality trading programs, have emerged over the past decades to cost-effectively achieve water quality objectives in impaired watersheds. The main objective of this dissertation was to assess the environmental and economic benefits of implementing a phosphorus trading program in Lake Okeechobee watershed, compared to a conventional command-and-control approach. A comprehensive literature overview of nationally and internationally implemented trading programs was conducted to highlight advantages and challenges of these programs towards achieving water quality goals, and to outline the essential elements of a successful program. Furthermore, a modeling framework, integrating a hydrologic-water quality model with an economic model, was developed to assess the potential cost savings that trading might offer over a command-and-control approach. The modeling framework was applied in three priority basins of the Lake Okeechobee watershed. In each case, while developing trading scenarios to achieve phosphorus load reduction targets, the trading program was less expensive than the conventional command-and-control approach. This research provided the foundation for stakeholders to better understand whether water quality trading has the potential to work in the Lake Okeechobee watershed and to facilitate the development of a pilot program. In addition, it offered some insights on the potential economic opportunities that pollution sources would have by participating in the trading program. The modeling framework developed in this dissertation could facilitate the assessment of future water quality trading programs in other watersheds.

The Mara River Basin (MRB) is endowed with pristine biodiversity, socio-cultural heritage and natural resources. The purpose of my study is to develop and apply an integrated water resource allocation framework for the MRB based on the hydrological processes, water demand and economic factors. The basin was partitioned into twelve sub-basins and the rainfall runoff processes was modeled using the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) after satisfactory Nash-Sutcliff efficiency of 0.68 for calibration and 0.43 for validation at Mara Mines station. The impact and uncertainty of climate change on the hydrology of the MRB was assessed using SWAT and three scenarios of statistically downscaled outputs from twenty Global Circulation Models. Results predicted the wet season getting more wet and the dry season getting drier, with a general increasing trend of annual rainfall through 2050. Three blocks of water demand (environmental, normal and flood) were estimated from consumptive water use by human, wildlife, livestock, tourism, irrigation and industry. Water demand projections suggest human consumption is expected to surpass irrigation as the highest water demand sector by 2030. Monthly volume of water was estimated in three blocks of current minimum reliability, reserve (>95%), normal (80–95%) and flood (40%) for more than 5 months in a year. The assessment of water price and marginal productivity showed that current water use hardly responds to a change in price or productivity of water. Finally, a water allocation model was developed and applied to investigate the optimum monthly allocation among sectors and sub-basins by maximizing the use value and hydrological reliability of water. Model results demonstrated that the status on reserve and normal volumes can be improved to ‘low’ or ‘moderate’ by updating the existing reliability to meet prevailing demand. Flow volumes and rates for four scenarios of reliability were presented. Results showed that the water allocation framework can be used as comprehensive tool in the management of MRB, and possibly be extended similar watersheds.

This diploma thesis aims to give a comprehensive picture of a phenomenon called The Dutch Disease whose symptoms had been increasing in many countries during the second half of the 20th century, especially in connection with mining. The first part deals with the detailed description of traditional economic theory and its later upgrades. In the second part, the Dutch Disease theory is applied to the member countries of the European Monetary Union and highlights the problems of asymmetric shocks, which may include among others the discovery of mineral resources. The third part then attempts to look at the recent European balance of payments crisis through the eyes of the Dutch Disease theory and to highlight a number of common symptoms.

Cette thèse s'articule autour de trois propositions de représentation de la structure incitationnelle qui sous-tend les contextes de régulation environnementale dans lesquels les agents producteurs de l'externalité adoptent des comportements proactifs pour devancer et prévenir la mise en place d'une éventuelle mesure contraignante par l'autorité régulatrice. Ces trois propositions sont faites dans une perspective normative, i.e. en considérant que l'autorité régulatrice peut jouer sur les modalités et résultats de l'autorégulation des agents par le moyen de menaces, d'effets d'annonce, pour d'induire les comportements souhaités, et atteindre l'efficacité environnementale et/ou de coût. Les mécanismes étudiés sont regroupés sous une dénomination commune d' 'approche volontaire collective préventive' (AVCP). La menace, sous la forme d'une taxe unitaire en cas de non-atteinte volontaire d'un objectif environnemental, est au centre de résultats de la thèse. D'abord dans un jeu statique d'émission (premier essai), ensuite dans un jeu différentiel d'extraction (second essai), et enfin, dans un jeu général de participation à l'AVCP (troisième essai). Dans chacun des contextes de régulation environnementale décrits, cette taxe est formalisée comme endogène, ce qui permet de considérer les AVCP comme de réels instruments de régulation, rejoignant la famille des outils dits basés sur les incitations. / This dissertation consists of three essays on the specific incentive structure that underlies regulation contexts in which the agents generating an environmental externality self-regulate in order to preempt the enforcement of a mandatory policy by a regulatory agency. The three essays take a normative perspective, i.e. investigate the way the regulatory agency may induce efficient proactive behavior by the mean of purposely designed threat and announcement effects. Such mechanisms fall under the common denomination of 'collective voluntary-threat policies' (CVTP). The three essays' results focus on the threat, formalized as a unit tax that is said to be implemented by the regulator if the environmental target is not reached voluntarily : first in a two-stage and static emission game (first essay) ; then in a differential extraction game (second essay) ; finally in a general participation game to the CVTP (third essay). In each framework, the tax is considered as endogenous, and thereby, the CVTP being studied as part of the Incentive-Based Regulatory Approaches.

Cette thèse est composée de trois essais; dans le premier essai je traite les questions de la détermination, de la variance et des répercussions de la corruption. J’ai montré que la corruption est déterminée par la part des travailleurs non qualifiés sur la population. Si cette part est large alors il existe une corruption, si elle est faible la corruption est inexistante, et pour des niveaux intermédiaires, il existe une multiplicité d’équilibres. La corruption augmente les inégalités salariales entre travailleurs qualifiés et non qualifiés, et une perte de bien-être. Dans le deuxième essai je traite la question de lutte contre la corruption à travers l’incitation salariale. Avec une technologie de contrôle endogène, je montre que le gouvernement peut mieux accepter la corruption lorsqu’il est coûteux de contrôler. Lorsqu’il est optimal de combattre alors le gouvernement peut le faire soit à travers des salaires d’efficience ou soit par le contrôle. Néanmoins le rôle des salaires d’efficience dans la lutte contre la corruption est moindre dans les sociétés avec un niveau de malhonnêteté élevé. Le troisième essai traite la malédiction des ressources naturelles. Je montre que l'éducation et la corruption sont déterminées conjointement ; les ressources naturelles affectent l’incitation à investir en éducation et en ‘rent-seeking’ ce qui en retour affecte la croissance. En outre, la relation entre une abondance et la malédiction des ressources naturelles n’est pas monotone. Pour un niveau d’inégalité d’accès à l’éducation faible et un coût élevé de participation dans la vie politique, un niveau de croissance élevé et la trappe à la pauvreté coexistent. / This dissertation consists of three essays. The topics cover determination, variance and repercussions of corruption (essay one), corruption deterrence through wage incentives (essay two), and natural resource curse (essay three). In the first essay, I show that for a larger population of unskilled labor, there is a widespread corruption and for a smaller population there is no corruption. For the intermediate levels there are multiple equilibria. On its consequences, corruption increases wage inequality between skilled and unskilled workers, and results in output and welfare losses. In the second essay, I argue that deterring corruption through efficiency wage may become prohibitively expensive. With endogenous monitoring technology that allows capturing the dual role of auditing, as a complement with and as a substitute for wage incentives, I find that the government is better-off accepting corruption when it is costly to monitor. When it is optimal to deter bribery, the government can do it either through efficiency wages or monitoring. The role of efficiency wages decreases in societies with higher level of dishonesty. In the third essay, I build a theory explaining a resource curse. In contrast to the existing literature which generally considers low education, corruption and natural resources separately, I combine three strands of literature. Natural resources affect incentives to invest in education and rent seeking that in turn affects growth. Second, the relationship between resource-abundance and resource-curse is non-monotonic. For low inequality in access to education and high cost of political participation, high-growth and poverty-trap equilibria co-exist.

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Thesis (M.Sc. (Geography)) -- University of Limpopo, 2020 / This work aimed at assessing the implications of involving local communities in biodiversity conservation in Blouberg Nature Reserve (BNR) in Limpopo Province, South Africa. To achieve this objective, firstly biodiversity status before and after involving local communities in conservation initiatives was assessed using multi-temporal medium-resolution Landsat series data and species diversity indices. The results showed that there were significant variations (α = 0.05) in tree species diversity in BNR for before and after involving local communities. For example, tree species diversity was low after involving communities particularly for the years 1996 and 2019. Secondly, benefits and costs of involving local communities in biodiversity conservation as well as their investigate views, perceptions and attitudes BNR management were assessed. The study demonstrated local communities do not obtain sufficient benefits or incur numerous costs from the nature reserve. Despite this, there was considerable support for biodiversity conservation (84.2%) since household respondents still held positive attitudes towards biodiversity conservation in the reserve. For, example most of them indicated that they would report illegal activities to the authorities. However, despite lack of participation by the majority of the household respondents (89.6%) in biodiversity conservation, they demonstrated understanding of the relevance of nature conservation. In contrary, the BNR Manager stated that the local communities received benefits in the form of fuel-wood for special occasions such as funerals and bush meat sold at treasury approved tariffs during culling. However, illegal activities like poaching are still experienced in the nature reserve. Thus, the study underscores the relevance the integrating satellite data and qualitative information in assessing the ecological condition of PAs. Such information can help in biodiversity monitoring and decision-making on conservation of biodiversity. Keywords: biodiversity conservation; community-based natural resource management approach; ecological status; mapping; satellite data; spatial characterisation; species diversity; statistical analysis.

MENVSC / Department of Geography and Geo-Information Sciences / The purpose of this study was to contribute towards a better understanding of the effectiveness of Biosphere Reserve as a tool in managing natural resources in the Vhembe District Municipality (VDM), Limpopo Province of South Africa. There are limited documented materials for a better understanding of the effectiveness of Biosphere Reserve (BR) as a tool in managing natural resources in the Vhembe District Municipality (VDM). As a result, this study was undertaken to bridge this gap and to discover new insights to assist in understanding the effectiveness of BR as a tool in managing natural resources. This study adopted a pragmatic research approach, which is a mixture of the qualitative and quantitative research approaches, wherein data were collected using primary and secondary sources. Both primary and secondary data were used, in order to obtain information concerning the effectiveness of biosphere reserve in the study area. Primary data were obtained using a combination of methods, including participatory rural appraisal (PRA) tools and techniques, and informal and formal surveys. The secondary data was collected from desk-based examination of relevant documentation relating to conservation of the Biosphere Reserves areas. The documents included previous reports from Greenest Municipality Competition (GMC) results for all local municipalities from 2012 to 2017, Management Effective Tracking Tool (METT-SA) from 2016 to 2018, and previous research data on conservation. The results obtained revealed that Biosphere Reserve (BR) is an effective tool for the conservation of natural resources within Vhembe District, South Africa. This is because natural resources are taken into consideration when there are developments and projects being undertaken. Furthermore, the communities in Vhembe District Municipality benefit from the programmes and projects aimed at conserving natural resources within the VBR. The study also revealed that there are environmental challenges within the Vhembe Biosphere Reserve due to mining activities, climate change, developments in natural resources and deforestation, which require the enforcement of by-laws and programmes and projects aimed at conserving natural resources. / NRF