Environmental Economics in Developing Countries Issues and Challenges

The COVID-19 pandemic has laid bare the vulnerabilities of socio-economic systems globally and exposed the risks that natural capital degradation imposes on human health, economy, and society. This book studies the environmental challenges faced by developing economies in a post-COVID-19 world. Exploring diverse case studies from South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa, the volume discusses the impact that economic development and, recently, COVID-19 has had on the environment, ecology, and economy of these regions. It analyses nature conservation policies aimed at minimizing ecological damage arising from economic development and discusses the policy objectives of sustainable development. It also highlights the significant role that environmental economics networks have played in capacity building, framing of policies using ecological economics tools, and developing a local leadership trained in addressing local sustainability issues. An important contribution to the study of environmental economics of the Global South, the book will be of interest to students and researchers of economics, environment, development studies, development economics, environmental policies, and South Asia studies. It will also be useful for policymakers and NGOs working in this field.

List of Figures List of Tables List of contributors Foreword byPartha Dasgupta Preface Acknowledgments List of Abbreviations Introduction and Overview: Environmental Economics in Developing Countries Achiransu Acharyya Part I.Environment, Ecology and Development 1. Three Theories of Growth, Environment and Poverty Nexus M N Murty 2. Natural Capital, Pandemic and Development: Exploration of Nexus and SolutionsPushpam Kumar, Amelia Holmes and Samia Islam 3. COVID-19: A Neo-Malthusian Event? Ecological links, Challenges and OpportunitiesRamprasad Sengupta and Chetana Chaudhuri 4. Electrification and Development: Empirical evidence on the effect of electricity provision on household welfare Ujjayant Chakravorty and Martino Pelli Part II. Economics of Nature Conservation 5. Incentive-Based Approaches to Nature Conservation E. Somanathan 6. Forests, Carbon Sequestration, and Ecosystem Services: Are There “Two-For-One” Deals? R. David Simpson 7. Incentives for Rural Households to Establish Tree Cover on Agricultural Land in Andhra Pradesh, India Stella Z. Schons, Gregory S. Amacher, Kelly M. Cobourn, Nilesh Shinde and Haripriya Gundimeda 8.Minimizing Ecological Damage from Road Improvement in Tropical Forests Susmita Dasgupta and David Wheeler Part III. Climate Change and Development 9. Regional Climate Vulnerabilities in South Asia: A Development Perspective Anil Markandya, Muthukumara Mani, Vaideeswaran Sankaran and Prema Sai Narasimhan 10. Climate Smart Agriculture in Developing Economies: An Analysis of Strategies and Policies Achiransu Acharyya 11. Pandemic, Climate Change and Sustainable Development Jyoti K. Parikh Part IV. Economics of Environmental Policy 12. Environmental Policy in India: Retrospect and Recent Developments Kanchan Chopra 13. Household waste management and the role of gender in Nepal Mani Nepal, Marina Cauchy, Apsara Karki Nepal and Chanda Gurung Goodrich 14. Fabricated Electric Fencing: A Promising Strategy for Reducing Crop Damages from Wildlife in Bhutan Jamyang Choda, Heman Das Lohano and Priya Shyamsundar 15. Revisiting the Regional Environmental Economics Networks: Some Lessons and Reflections Bhim Adhikari and Lowine Hill Index

Achiransu Acharyyais Assistant Professor in the Department of Economics at Visva-Bharati (A Central University) situated in Santiniketan, West Bengal, India. Previously he has taught at the Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Ahmedabad and St. Xavier’s University, Kolkata. His areas of teaching and research are mainly in Natural resource and Environmental Economics, Agricultural Economics and Economics of Water Resources. For the past several years, he has been working on areas involving property rights and ownership of land and water, the economics of groundwater resources in agriculture, the use of energy for agriculture and sustainable development. He has got several national and international publications in journals and books to his credit. He has done several national and international research projects related to agriculture, the environment, and sustainable development. He visited the University of Oregon, USA, on a Teaching cum Research Fellowship. He has also visited the University of Nijmegen in The Netherlands as a Visiting Scholar. He has received various awards for his research, including the Third Prize in the James D. Wolfensohn Essay Competition sponsored by The World Bank, Washington D.C., and the Dr. N.A. Mujumdar Prize awarded by the Indian Society of Agricultural Economics. He is the Chief Editor of a water related journal titledIndian Groundwater. He is also an Associate Editor of a reputed Bengali social science journal titledAnustup.