The large-scale expansion of rubber plantations in southern India: major impacts and the changing nature of drivers.

This study investigates the major environmental and socio-economic impacts of an increase in the area of rubber plantations and the changing patterns of drivers of land use changes. Using a combination of geospatial techniques and socio-economic methods, we mainly analyzed the rate of increase in area under rubber plantations, the major impacts of land use changes, and the changing drivers of land use changes. Our results show that the area under rubber plantations has increased significantly within the study area, with the area under rubber plantations increasing from 30 to 74% of the total area within five decades. Impact assessment of land use changes based on household surveys showed significant improvement in the socio-economic conditions of the farmers, however, at the expense of severe environmental degradation. Our results also indicate that while areas under rubber plantations continue to increase, the drivers of land use changes have changed over time. Furthermore, it has been observed that in the past, many interventions prioritized social and economic development and placed less emphasis on the ecological stability of the region. Perceptions of farmers revealed that the effects of ecological fragility already affected the economic robustness of the whole area. Therefore, we conclude that government interventions to support additional rubber cultivation should also focus on ecosystem stabilization in order to minimize the risk of an ecological catastrophe that would significantly affect the economic prosperity of the region.

The symmetric and asymmetric impacts of green energy, eco-innovation, and urbanization in explaining low-carbon economy for Pakistan.

Over the past three decades, global economic development patterns have considerably affected the natural environment, and economies have endured a plethora of environmental concerns as a result of the negative effects of climate change. Among them, Pakistan is the fifth most vulnerable country, and climate change has harmfully affected the ecological and socio-economic conditions of the country. In this regard, this study aimed to investigate the role of green energy consumption, eco-innovation, and urbanization while explaining the dream of low-carbon economy and environmental sustainability in the context of Pakistan using annual time series dataset spanning from 1990 to 2020. The short-run and long-run associations among explained and explanatory variables were investigated using the symmetric, asymmetric, and quantile autoregressive distributed lag models. The findings of the study demonstrated that low-carbon economy, green energy consumption, ecological innovation, urbanization, GDP per capita, and labor force are cointegrated for the long-term association in symmetric, asymmetric, and quantile autoregressive distributed lag models. Furthermore, green energy consumption and effective eco-innovation are the most important paths to ensure environmental sustainability, while urbanization, GDP per capita, and labor force contribute negatively to the low-carbon economy. The findings of the study provide a policy framework for the development of a comprehensive strategy to promote environmental sustainability in Pakistan by emphasizing green energy consumption, ecological innovation, and controlled urbanization, as well as the incorporation of environment friendly policies into economic development policies.

Land-use change in Indian tropical agro-ecosystems: eco-energy estimation for socio-ecological sustainability.

This study was carried out to understand the ecological and economic sustainability of floriculture and other main crops in Indian agro-ecosystems. The cultivation practices of four major flower crops, namely Jasminum multiflorum, Crossandra infundibuliformis, Chrysanthemum and Tagetes erecta, were studied in detail. The production cost of flowers in terms of energy was calculated to be 99,622-135,996 compared to 27,681-69,133 MJ ha-1 for the main crops, namely Oryza sativa, Eleusine coracana, Zea mays and Sorghum bicolor. The highest-energy input amongst the crops was recorded for Z. mays (69,133 MJ ha-1) as this is a resource-demanding crop. However, flower cultivation requires approximately twice the energy required for the cultivation of Z. mays. In terms of both energy and monetary inputs, flower cultivation needs two to three times the requirements of the main crops cultivated in the region. The monetary inputs for main crop cultivation were calculated to be ₹ 27,349 to ₹ 46,930 as compared to flower crops (₹ 62,540 to ₹ 144,355). Floriculture was found to be more efficient in monetary terms when compared to the main crops cultivated in the region. However, the energy efficiency of flower crops is lower than that of the main crops, and the energy output from flower cultivation was found to be declining in tropical agro-ecosystems in India. Amongst the various inputs, farmyard manure accounts for the highest proportion, and for its preparation, most of the raw material comes from the surrounding ecosystems. Thus, flower cultivation has a direct impact on the ecosystem resource flow. Therefore, keeping the economic and environmental sustainability in view, this study indicates that a more field-based research is required to frame appropriate policies for flower cultivation to achieve sustainable socio-ecological development.

Spatial targeting of agri-environmental measures: cost-effectiveness and distributional consequences.

Agri-environmental measures are payments to farmers to reduce environmental risks or to preserve cultivated landscapes. These measures are codified in European Union regulations. Poor spatial targeting is one of the major causes of low cost-effectiveness in agri-environmental measures. Existing studies on spatial targeting focus primarily on selected individual measures; hence, they do not allow for conclusions at the program level, where the planning and implementing of decisions on a number of different measures has to be made. In this study, we analyzed the impacts of two spatial targeting options (targeting of erosion-reducing measures on erosion vulnerable areas; targeting of grassland extensification on N-pollution vulnerable areas) on the cost-effectiveness of the single measures and the entire agri-environmental program of the federal state of Brandenburg in Germany. The methodological steps included an analysis of empirical data on land use and program participation, an expert-based environmental impact assessment and a spatial allocation procedure based on linear programming. The environmental impact assessment delivered goal-specific index values for each measures-land parcel combination expressing the suitability of the measures for contributing to four regionally relevant program objectives. The cost-effectiveness of the measures and the program were calculated by putting budgetary costs in relation to the achieved environmental index sum. The calculated cost-effectiveness of the program in 2006 was 89.6% of the simulated optimal cost-effectiveness. The spatial targeting of erosion-reducing measures on erosion vulnerable areas caused an increase in the cost-effectiveness at the measures level and almost no changes at the program level. The spatial targeting of grassland extensification on N-pollution vulnerable areas, despite also improving the cost-effectiveness of this measure, had negative effects on the cost-effectiveness of the program.

Natural resource management in a protected area of the Indian Himalayas: a modeling approach for anthropogenic interactions on ecosystem.

The concept of ecosystem conservation as a broad theme came into existence during the 1970s under the Man and Biosphere Programme (MAB) of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). The Indian Government followed this approach and chose the method to segregate the landscape for conservation of the ecosystem as well as for the development of the local economy and its people. We have examined the effect of this policy and concurrently developed a theoretical modeling approach to understand how human behavior is changing under shifting political, socioeconomic and environmental conditions. A specific focus has been on how the landscape is changing in the mountains of the Indian Himalayan region where about 10% of the total geographical area is converted into protected landscape for conservation of biodiversity. For local people living in the Himalayan mountains in India, agriculture is the main land use activity and is strongly linked to the forests in providing sustainability. There are several branches in the rural ecosystems where the local people's economy was centered. These include agriculture, animal husbandry, medicinal and aromatic plants cultivation, forest resource collection, tourism and other occupations. The greatest proportion of the population was engaged in the agriculture sector, whose contribution is high in the rural economy (61%); followed by animal husbandry (19%), forest resource collection for economic gain (18%), and medicinal and aromatic plants cultivation (1.5%). However, three decades ago the animal husbandry branch of the rural ecosystem was contributing the maximum share towards rural household income (40%) followed by tourism (35.2%), and lastly agriculture (14%). The desire of farmers to secure the optimum output from agricultural land use has resulted in an increase for resource collection from the forests. The people's perception (n = 1,648) regarding overall changes occurring in the region was varied and most showed that the current trend within rural ecosystems has emerged because of the implementation of conservation policies/creation of national park and biosphere reserve (80%), followed by limitation (22%), climate (20%), population growth (7%), national economy (10%) and least by socioeconomic change (5%). The theoretical agent model developed here draws attention to agent/farmer behavior and land resource use for his livelihood in the temporal dimension. The current study would be helpful to introduce new approaches for the development of the methodological and theoretical aspects associated with the complex human and ecosystem interactions in the Himalayan mountains for sustainable landscape development.