O presente trabalho buscou encontrar indicadores através da análise de parâmetros de qualidade da água, que sirvam como referência para avaliação de áreas com práticas conservacionistas, oriundas de um sistema de Pagamentos por Serviços Ambientais (PSA). A área estudada foi implantada pela Prefeitura do Município de Extrema, MG, na Micro-Bacia do Ribeirão das Posses, durante a estruturação do plano de manejo do município. Este estudo foi desenvolvido em parceira com a organização não governamental (ONG) The Nature Conservancy (TNC) e com a prefeitura de Extrema, MG, e buscou comparar áreas reflorestadas com diferentes idades de plantio, remanescentes florestais e áreas de agropecuária, analisando as melhoras nas questões que envolvem a qualidade da água. As avaliações de qualidade de água apresentaram respostas que variaram de acordo com o tempo de implantação dos PSA e os índices de vegetação nas áreas de drenagem de cada ponto e em relação à sazonalidade ao longo das 22 campanhas de coleta. Os resultados obtidos demonstraram que dentre os parâmetros avaliados, a CE e o CID apresentaram-se como possíveis parâmetros de qualidade da água que poderão ser enquadrados como os indicadores de alteração em função de áreas de PSA. Os resultados demonstraram que os dados analisados durante o desenvolvimento do projeto, indicam que existe uma influência significativa da presença de vegetação arbórea e o isolamento no entorno das nascentes, em reduzir o aporte de sedimentos e nutrientes causados pelas ações antrópicas de uso e ocupação do solo, assim como os efeitos da sazonalidade apresentada neste estudo. As concentrações de CE e DIC encontradas em PSA mais antigo e remanescentes são menores quando comparadas a PSA mais recentes. Além disso a porcentagem de vegetação nas áreas de drenagem demonstrou correlações significativas com a variação destes parâmetros. O isolamento, a presença de vegetação do entorno e seu estado de desenvolvimento, reduzem os efeitos causados pelo carreamento destes nutrientes, sedimentos e cargas orgânicas através das águas das chuvas e contribuem para a conservação dos recursos hídricos da região. / This study aimed to find indicators through analysis of water quality parameters , which serve as a reference for evaluation of areas with conservation practices, derived from a system of Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES). The study area was implemented by the Municipality of Extrema , MG , in Ribeirão das Posses micro-basin during the structuring of the management plan of the municipality. This study was developed in partnership with non-governmental organization (NGO) The Nature Conservancy (TNC) of Brazil and the prefecture of Extrema, MG , and aimed to comparing reforested areas with different ages of plantation, forest fragments and agricultural areas improvements in analyzing the issues involving water quality. The water quality evaluations demonstrated that responses varied according to the time of implantation of the PES and vegetation indices in the drainage areas of each point and in relation to seasonality over the 22 collection campaigns . The results showed that among the evaluated parameters, the EC and the DIC presented themselves as potential water quality parameters that can be framed as indicators of change in terms of areas of PES. The results showed that the data analyzed during the development of the project indicates a significant influence of the presence of forest vegetation and the insulation surrounding the springs, to reduce the accumulation of sediments and nutrients caused by human actions and land use as well as seasonal effects presented in this study. The isolation the presence of the surrounding vegetation and its state of development reduces the effects caused by the entrainment of these nutrient sediments and organic loads and contribute to the conservation of water resources in the region.

Migrant labourers who cross borders often have to send money back to their various countries of origin. These monetary transfers are known as remittances. To send these funds migrants often opt to rely on informal mechanisms as opposed to the remittance services of formal financial institutions such as banks. Informal remittance mechanisms raise a number of concerns such as those related to consumer protection. In contrast to formal channels informal channels are not based on any legally binding agreements. They are highly based on trust and do not offer any legally binding guarantee that the funds will be delivered or that the remitter will be reimbursed in the event of non-delivery. Aside from consumer protection concerns, informal remittances also raise security related concerns. These channels are not subject to the supervision of any regulatory authority and usually offer a high level of anonymity. They can act as an attractive mechanism for terrorists and criminal organisations to launder and mobilise their illicit funds. Taking into mind the concerns mentioned above, as well as others, it would be preferable for more remittances to be channeled through formal financial mechanisms. In conducting research on remittance transactions financial, as well as other institutions and organisations, have outlined legal and regulatory provisions in sending and recipient countries as being a factor that often hinders migrants from accessing formal financial services. This dissertation examines how the South African legal and regulatory framework affects the formalisation of remittances by migrant labourers, with a focus on the context of low-income migrants. The study identifies the Exchange control, immigration, anti-money laundering and anti-terrorism legislative provisions as being the most significant provisions that affect the formalisation of migrant remittances. So as to make an analysis and gather recommendations were possible, a comparison of the South African legal and regulatory provisions is made to those of Zambia and Zimbabwe. The dissertation comes to the conclusion that South African legal and regulatory provisions hinder the formalisation of migrant remittances to a certain extent. They do so by collectively and individually restricting migrants who do not fulfill legislative requisites from accessing formal remittance channels. It is submitted that such migrants are inclined to rely on informal remittance mechanisms when the need to send money arises. Furthermore, South African law restricts competition within the remittance market by making it difficult for service providers to enter the market. The lack of an adequate competitive level fosters the prevalence of high remittance costs which can pose a significant barrier to low income migrants that wish to channel funds via formal means. Taking into mind the significance of formalising remittances as well as the objectives that the laws that hinder them seek to attain, which are equally significant, it is necessary for the regulatory authorities to investigate ways on how to possibly cater for both. It is submitted that if more remittances were to be channeled through official means the objectives sought to be attained by some of these legislative provisions would be attained more efficiently.

Despite substantial investments in biodiversity conservation interventions over the past two decades there is relatively little evidence about whether interventions work, and how they work. Whether an intervention is deemed to “work” depends upon how goals are defined and then measured, which is complex given that different stakeholders have very different expectations for any intervention (including species conservation, habitat protection, human wellbeing or participation goals), and because the process of measuring impacts can involve a simplification of more sophisticated ideals. These questions were investigated for a suite of biodiversity conservation interventions, implemented during 2005-2012 in the Northern Plains landscape of Cambodia. The interventions included the establishment of Protected Areas (PAs), village-level land-use planning, and three different types of Payments for Environmental Services (PES) instituted within the PAs. The PES programmes were (1) direct payments for species protection; (2) community-managed ecotourism linked to wildlife and habitat protection; and (3) payments to keep within land-use plans. The impact evaluation compared the results of each of the interventions with appropriate matched controls, considering both environmental and social impacts between 2005-2011. Both PAs and PES delivered additional environmental outcomes: reducing deforestation rates significantly in comparison with controls and protecting species for those cases where appropriate data was available. PAs increased security of access to land and forest resources for local households, benefiting forest resource users, but restricting households’ ability to expand and diversify their agriculture. PES impacts on household wellbeing were related to the magnitude of the payments provided: the two higher-paying PES programmes had significant positive impacts for participants, whereas a lower-paying programme that targeted biodiversity protection had no detectable effect on livelihoods, despite its positive environmental outcomes. Households that signed up to the higher-paying PES programmes, however, typically needed more capital assets and hence they were less poor and more food secure than other villagers. Therefore, whereas the impacts of PAs on household wellbeing were limited overall and varied between livelihood strategies, the PES programmes had significant positive impacts on livelihoods for those that could afford to participate. This is one of the first evaluations of the social impacts of PES that has been completed globally. The PA authorities were primarily effective at deterring external drivers of biodiversity loss, especially large-scale developments, land grabbing and in-migration, and had much more limited impact on local residents as the impact evaluation results demonstrated. The PES programmes had little or no effect on the external drivers, and instead explicitly targeted the behaviour of local residents. The three PES programmes differed in the extent to which they rewarded changes in individual or collective behaviour, and whether or not they were managed locally or externally. Household-level, conditional, payments were more effective at changing individual behaviour than collective payments; although there was evidence that both types of payments did lead to protection of forests at the village scale. Village-managed PES programmes empowered a subset of households that were then effective at enforcing regulations within the village. Externally managed PES programmes were more popular and viewed as fairer, but did not change collective behaviour. The general conclusion is that the design and institutional arrangements of PES programmes determines how participants perceive the programmes, and then the extent to which they bring about changes in behaviour.

This thesis is focused on lower-level territorial self-governing units of the Czech Republic which take over a part of public administration of the state, therefore are entitled to receive transfer payments from government budget to cover part of related expenditures. The aim of this thesis is to assess effectiveness and transparency of the system of financing public administration executed by municipalities. The first chapter defines municipalities within the system of public administration and explains its function. The second chapter focuses more on the system of financing public administration executed by municipalities. Final part of the thesis deals with analysis of transfer payments from government budget provided to cover a part of the expenditures of municipalities on public administration (period 2010 to 2015). This analysis creates a basis for further assessment on the system of financing. The main methods used in this thesis are analysis and explanation.

International efforts to promote REDD+ (reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation, and the role of conservation, sustainable management of forests and enhancement of forest-carbon stocks) have enjoyed widespread support in climate negotiations. While proponents of this ‘payments for ecosystem services’ approach proclaim win-win benefits, others critique this commodification of forest carbon for contributing to social and environmental injustices that will undermine conservation and development in the longer-term. In this dissertation I respond to these concerns by critically examining how REDD+ initiatives emerge in the context of Lindi Region, Tanzania. I specifically investigate how REDD+ initiatives interact with local livelihood practices, local forest governance and the drivers of land use in order to interrogate the mechanism’s contribution to local development. I conducted ethnographic fieldwork in two villages, both characterised by relatively large forest areas and ‘shifting cultivation’, where different REDD+ projects are underway. In total I stayed in Tanzania for 11 months and applied qualitative and quantitative methods that resulted in 116 recorded interviews, one focus group discussion, innumerable journal entries from ethnographic interviewing and participant observation, 118 household surveys and data from document analysis. Drawing on debates within international development and neoliberalisation of nature I conceptualise REDD+ initiatives as processes promoting ‘inclusive’ neoliberal conservation. In doing so I point at the inherent contradictions of this mechanism that aims to combine a neoliberal conservation logic with inclusive development objectives. I empirically examine local livelihood practices to question popular notions of land use and argue that REDD+ initiatives must grapple with poverty, intra-village inequality and villagers’ dependence on land for crop production to contribute to inclusive economic development. I follow up on this argument by discussing the importance of material and discursive effects of REDD+ initiatives to the livelihoods of poor, middle income and wealthy households and to forest conservation. I then link these effects to an examination of how power and politics shape the implementation of REDD+ initiatives on the ground, specifically discussing the technically complex and politically contested process of territorialisation and the local practices of community-based forest management. I illustrate how seemingly technical REDD+ initiatives are inherently political, which gives them the potential to contribute to local empowerment. At the same time I question naïve assumptions over community conservation and good governance reforms by showing in detail how community-based forest management institutions are practiced on the ground and how this affects benefit distribution within the villages. My last empirical chapter examines how Conservation Agriculture is introduced in the villages as the best way to reconcile agricultural development with forest protection. I specifically discuss the role of social relations in shaping the dissemination and adoption of this new technology in rural Tanzania. Throughout this thesis I argue that local livelihood practices, power struggles and politics over land and people shape how REDD+ initiatives, as inherently contradictory processes of ‘inclusive’ neoliberal conservation, emerge on the ground and I empirically show what this means to different forest stakeholders.

The thesis is focused on exchange rate policy of the Czech Republic. Its goal is to analyze this policy in connection with reaching an external balance of the economy and also from the point of view of its role during transformation in the Czech Republic. The common European currency and its possible introduction in the Czech Republic is also an issue associated with the exchange rate policy. At the beginning, basic terms and related theoretical approaches are introduced and in the next part, balance of payments approaches are analyzed using selected examples. The following chapter deals with exchange rate policy transformation process in Czechoslovakia and then in the Czech Republic. The last part is aimed at European monetary integration and especially at potential Czech accession to the euro area.

This thesis deals with the meaning of agriculture in the country area and its effect on the development of the rural areas. My goal is to evaluate the actual realization of resources, which are spent on the support of farmers, who practice in areas with less favourable conditions. This is performed on a regional analysis of the number of handed and accepted requests and on the amount of the land usage in disadvantaged areas with the result that my thesis will concentrate on the evaluation of a regional differentiation. This diploma work will deal with the issue of what kind of the Czech agricultural disadvantaged areas happen to use the financial resources in terms of LFA, and what are the main factors of such differentiation in the relation with the aims of this support. The theoretical part of this thesis targets on the country development and the meaning of agriculture in the country area. It describes methods and approaches of determination of the rural area and less-favoured areas. It also characterizes the Rural Development policy in Czech Republic. The analytical part of this work contains a regional payment analysis (in the concept of the rural area) for a natural disadvantage provided in the mountain areas, and payments provided in other less-favoured areas (LFA) in the programming period 2007-2013 in the Czech Republic. For this regional analysis there are used data especially from the implementation organ SZIF, data from the Agricultural Accounting Data Network FADN, and finally data from the Annual Report of the Rural Development Program. Such data are interpreted on the basis of the method of cartographical projection. Farther, this thesis tries to find out if the aim of such action is realized. On account of the performed analysis, my thesis summarizes acquired findings and draws consecutive conclusions from the realization of support.

This diploma thesis focuses on changes in the external balance of Portugal, Italy, Greece and Spain in the period of financial and economic crisis after 2008. The theoretical framework is based on an exact definition of external balance, ultimately as neither surplus nor deficit of a relevant balance in terms of balance of payments. Potential impacts of monetary and fiscal policies on the external balance are described there as well, using the IS-LM-BP model. The second part of the thesis, which employs this theory, is mainly based on an analysis of relevant balances of payments of the aforementioned countries, focusing on their external balance in the period before as well as during the economic crisis. The aim of the analysis is to identify the main causes of external imbalance in the Southern European countries and to find out whether these played a key role as a trigger and accelerator in their recession after 2008. Specific changes during the crisis identified in balances of payments will also be depicted in the IS-LM-BP model. Leading to the conclusion, the outcomes of a correlation analysis are used as well, looking into causal relationships between specific balance of payments variables on the one hand, and macroeconomic variables on the other. A minor part also deals with the role played in this context by the TARGET2 payment system and answers the question to which extent this system took part in the elimination of the external imbalance of the Southern European countries during the crisis.

Mesmo com o crescimento da dependência da vida humana em relação aos serviços ecossistêmicos, a taxa de perda de diversidade genética no planeta tem alcançado níveis semelhantes à de grandes eventos de extinção, evidenciando a necessidade de ações para a conservação dos recursos naturais. Em adição aos tradicionais instrumentos de comando e controle para a conservação, os instrumentos econômicos têm tido crescente atenção no mundo nos últimos anos, com especial destaque para os Pagamentos por Serviços Ambientais (PSA). A abordagem de pagamentos de incentivos tem crescido na última década e, apesar das potencialidades que o PSA apresenta, muitos programas falham em incorporar o conhecimento científico em sua execução, sendo esse um dos aspectos que podem acarretar baixo desempenho ambiental e econômico. Neste contexto, o presente projeto buscou avaliar a custo-eficácia do PSA em paisagens fragmentadas. A área de estudo é o estado de São Paulo, cuja fragmentação historicamente ocorre pela expansão agropecuária e pelos diversos impactos decorrentes do grande crescimento populacional em seu território. Foram distribuídos questionários para a obtenção das preferências dos proprietários rurais paulistas em relação aos programas de PSA para restauração de vegetação nativa. Os dados coletados foram relacionados a características socioeconômicas e ambientais e um modelo beta inflacionado de zero misto dentro da classe GAMLSS foi utilizado. Em seguida, o modelo foi utilizado para predizer os resultados para os proprietários não entrevistados e a curva de investimento para diferentes retornos para conservação foi construída. Os resultados apontaram que o PSA é uma alternativa muito custosa frente aos orçamentos ambientais paulistas e que traz poucos benefícios para a restauração no estado de São Paulo. A pesquisa possui uma vertente teórica, pois contribui para a compreensão da adequabilidade do PSA em paisagens fragmentadas, e uma vertente prática, pois explicita a quantidade de recursos necessária para a execução dos programas analisados. / Although the dependence of human activities on ecosystem services has risen in the past decades, the current rate of genetic diversity loss has substantially declined and reached alarming levels. In addition to the traditional command and control approach for the promotion of conservation, growing attention has been given to economic instruments, especially to Payments for Environmental Services (PES). Despite all potentialities of the PES instrument, many programs fail to introduce scientic knowledge in the execution. Such a lack of foundation may result in low environmental and economic performance. The present research aims at evaluating the cost-effectiveness of PES in fragmented landscapes. The study area is the state of São Paulo, which has been fragmented by the agricultural and pasture expansion, and the impacts linked to the large population growth. A survey with dierent PES programs was sent to rural landowners and responses were analyzed and linked to socioeconomic and environmental characteristics through a zero-inflated beta mixed model, within the GAMLSS framework. The model was used to predict enrollment of non-respondents in different PES programs. Finally, the relationship between total area for restoration and the amount of resources needed for each program was compared to the environmental budget of the state of São Paulo. Results show that PES is a very costly alternative that can provide only few results for restoration. The present work has a theoretical orientation, as it contributes to the comprehension of the feasibility of PES programs in fragmented landscapes, and a practical orientation, as it quantifies the amount of resources required by the programs analyzed.

Det här är ett examensarbete som avhandlar ämnet privatekonomi och unga, i detta abete definieras unga som personer mellan 16 - 21 år. Arbetet har utförs med kvalitativa och kvantitativa undersökningsmetoder. Samarbetspartners i projektet är Malgomajskolan i Vilhelmina, Dragonskolan i Umeå samt Järfälla Gymnasium i Järfälla. Resultatet är ett mobilt gränssnitt som hanterar och visualiserar tillgångar, sparande och betalningar med ambitionen att öka engagemanget och inspirationen kring ämnet privatekonomi. / This is a degreework that touches the subject of matters of personal finance for young people, in this thesis young persons is defined as people aged 16 -2. This thesis has been carried out with both qualitative and quantitative research methods. Collaboration partners are Malgomajskolan in Vilhelmina, Dragonskolan in Umeå and Järfälla Gymnasium in Järfälla, all located in Sweden. The result is a mobile application that handles and visualises assets, savings and payments with the aspiration of increasing engagement and sense of inspiration for personal finance.