published_or_final_version / Management Studies / Master / Master of Business Administration

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Decades of overgrazing have left many rangelands in northwestern Mexico in poor condition. This has led to the practice of converting native rangeland plant communities to buffelgrass pastures. Buffelgrass (Pennisetum ciliare) is a perennial bunchgrass native to Africa. Both the extent of buffelgrass pastures within Mexico and the impacts of land conversion on biodiversity and ecosystem functioning. In the present study I address the effects of land conversion on the productivity and diversity of rangelands in the southern Sonoran Desert in the state of Sonora, Mexico. First, using satellite imagery from the Landsat mission, I found that rates of land conversion in the most heavily affected region of Sonora have continued to accelerate over the past three decades and that productivity of buffelgrass pastures is lower than that of native rangeland. Next, I examined the impacts of land conversion on the diversity and structure of plant communities and ant assemblages across a rainfall driven gradient of productivity in central Sonora. The regional extent of this land use change allowed me to explore the interaction between site productivity and land conversion. Within native rangeland I detected strong positive relationships between productivity and the species richness of perennial plant communities, but only weak positive relationships between productivity and species richness of ant assemblages. These results were discussed in the context of species diversity theory. Land conversion reduced the species richness of perennial plant communities by approximately 50% at both local and regional scales, whereas the species richness of ant assemblages was reduced by 17% at the local scale and only 8% at the regional scale. I found no evidence for an interaction between site productivity and land conversion in either plant communities or ant assemblages. The implications of these findings for long-term trajectories of biodiversity in the southern Sonoran Desert are discussed.

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M.Ed. (Educational Management) / Please refer to full text to view abstract

Protected forests need to be a representative selection of the natural proportion of forest types, including distribution of productivity levels, age classes and nature types This is important for the possibility to preserve biodiversity. In addition, the protected areas has to be of sufficient size and not isolated from each other, to function as effective biodiversity preservers. The question is, how does it look in reality? The objective with this study was to get an overall picture of the current forest protection situation in Östergötland, Sweden, and how it has changed the last 60 years. Are all ecologically relevant forest habitat types represented in appropriate proportions in protected forests? To evaluate where the protected areas are located in relation to each other, a connectivity index was calculated for each patch of protected area. Together with a value for size, a value index was created and applied to all protected areas, and it turns out that the protected areas of Östergötland is not totally representative when it comes to nature types, age classes and levels of productivity.For example, there is an underrepresentation of both pine and spruce forests on high-productivity soils. However, areas with higher productivity levels have been protected over time. The age distribution seems to be skewed towards older forests in protected areas. There are some underrepresented nature types, as well as overrepresented ones in nature reserves, a small overrepresentation of unproductive impediments, and only spruce and mixed forests seems well connected in the landscape. The greatest differences in protected and unprotected forests is the productivity level, were focus should be on protecting higher productivity areas in order to succeed in preserving the biodiversity of forests as intended.

A maior integração entre os mercados traz novos desafios às empresas que se arriscam no comércio internacional. Para competir no mercado global, as firmas nacionais precisam atingir patamares de produtividade compatíveis com as suas concorrentes estrangeiras. Além disso, existem sunk-costs que precisam ser pagos pelas firmas estreantes no mercado externo. Assim, uma empresa que deseja exportar precisa (1) atingir níveis de produtividade competitivos e (2) ter fluxo de caixa ou condições de tomar crédito para pagar os sunk-costs. A pesquisa se propõe justamente a analisar os efeitos do acesso ao comércio internacional sobre as firmas industriais brasileiras. Observaremos quais os impactos da exportação sobre a produtividade e da restrição de crédito das empresas sobre a exportação. Três artigos serão elaborados. No primeiro, estudaremos o número de destinos atendidos pelas firmas brasileiras nas suas vendas ao exterior. Queremos analisar as diferenças entre as empresas que exportam para muitos países das empresas que exportam para poucos. Também, queremos saber quais mercados as firmas priorizam e se há uma ordem de entrada nos países. No segundo artigo, avaliaremos os ganhos de produtividade ex-ante e ex-post que são obtidos pelas empresas que exportam para quatro blocos econômicos: o Mercosul, o Nafta, a Comunidade Européia e o Leste Asiático. Procuraremos detectar qual bloco oferece maior efeito aprendizado (ex-post) e qual bloco favorece nossas empresas mais produtivas (ex-ante). A análise é relevante diante da atual discussão acerca de qual estratégia de integração é mais vantajosa para o Brasil. Por fim, no terceiro artigo, trataremos da relação entre restrição de crédito e a decisão de exportar. Procuraremos testar uma direção de causalidade entre os dois: se firmas com menor restrição financeira são mais propensas a exportar, ou se firmas exportadoras tem a sua restrição de crédito reduzida. O estudo objetiva colaborar com políticas de crédito a empresas exportadoras. Nos três ensaios, confrontaremos os resultados obtidos no Brasil com o que foi observado por trabalhos feitos em outros países, procuraremos justificativas para as diferenças e, se possível, proporemos temas para pesquisas futuras. / International trade brings new challenges to companies that start to export. To compete in global markets, national firms need to reach levels of productivity similar to those of foreign competitors. Moreover, there are sunk costs which have to be paid by entrant firms in foreign markets. Hence, a company that wants to export has to: (1) reach competitive levels of productivity, and (2) have internal funds or access to credit to pay the sunk costs. This research aims at analyzing the impact of international trade on Brazilian manufacturing companies. We observe the effects of export on productivity and the relation between exports and credit constraints. Three essays will be presented. In the first one, we study the number of destinations attended by Brazilian companies when they sell abroad. We want to analyze the differences between companies that export to many countries, and companies that attend a few ones. Also, we want to know which markets Brazilian firms prioritize and if there is an order of entry in international markets. In the second essay, we evaluate ex-ante and ex-post productivity gains which are obtained by companies that export to four economic blocs: the Mercosur, the Nafta, the European Community and the East Asia. We want to discover which bloc offers the higher learning-effect (ex-post) and which bloc favors the most productive firms (ex-ante). In the third essay, we treat the relation between credit constraints and the decision to export. We test a direction of causality between the two: if companies with less credit constraints have more chances to export or if exporting firms have less credit constraints than domestic firms and novice exporters.