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This paper assesses the potential for the 'payments for environmental services' (PES) conservation approach in Vietnam. This was done by conducting an experimental PES scheme involving sustainable forest management. The work was constrained by the fact that all land in Vietnam is state-owned and that there has been limited PES market development in the country. However; the results of the experiment (in forest areas where the fundamental conditions for PES were met) were quite promising. Participation in the trial scheme was good, despite the fact that it was an experiment of limited duration. Moreover, institutional support was already available and effective. Expected environmental impacts were also observed: the sustainable forest management regime that was tied to the PES scheme resulted in a reduction in both soil erosion and in destructive natural forest extraction activities. In light of these findings, it is suggested that more practical policy/programme trials should be implemented. These will allow Vietnamese policy-makers to gain more experience and knowledge before the large-scale implementation of PES is tried in the country. Keywords- sustainable forest management, payments for environmental services scheme, willingness-toaccept, socio-economic and environmental impacts, Vietnam., I. Introduction The majority of the poor in Vietnam Five in the country's hilly and mountainous areas. Many upland farmers provide significant environmental services that benefit the wider community. They [...]

This paper examines several policy regimes to deal with the problem of households suffering from environmental damage by firms in the same region. We employ an evolutionary framework to analyze migration movements in the course of time, since firms and households will not relocate immediately in response to payoff differentials. We show that taxation gives firms and households an incentive to stay away from each other. Laissez faire (compensation) only gives households (firms) an incentive to stay away from firms (households). We find that taxation creates the right incentives to reach a local welfare maximum. However, when there are multiple local maxima, circumstances may arise under which compensation leads to a better outcome than taxation. JEL classification: Q28; R20; R30 Keywords: Environmental policy; Location choice; Evolutionary game theory

We study the optimal environmental taxation and enforcement policy when (i) the regulator does not know the firms' abatement costs, (ii) penalties for tax evasion are limited, and (iii) monitoring of pollution is costly. We show that the threat of being audited alter the usual firms' incentives to over-estimate their abatement costs. In particular, depending on the firms' abatement costs, the optimal policy may involve over or under-deterrence compared to the full information outcome. We then investigate the properties of a pollution standard. We show that this policy comes close to an environmental tax once the economic incentives of the accompanying enforcement policy are considered. Keywords: Environmental taxation; Law enforcement; Tax evasion; Adverse selection

IN FEBRUARY 2001, the European Union released a plan for a sweeping reform of chemical regulatory policy. The plan, known as REACH, requires manufacturers to provide safety information about chemicals [...]

IN AUGUST 2002, THE LARGEST FIRE IN THE NATION that year skittered and leaped across a steep and rocky landscape, through a unique ecosystem and the Kalmiopsis Wilderness in the [...]

THE PAPER IN THE PRINTER at your office or school might once have been part of a rare 500-year-old tree. So might the door into your house, or its shingles, [...]

An Interview with Andy Stahl Andy Stahl is executive director of Forest Service Employees for Environmental Ethics (FSEEE), a nonprofit organization founded in 1989 by a timber sale planner who [...]

FACED WITH THE COLLAPSE OF MARINE WILDLIFE from overfishing, habitat-destroying coastal sprawl, increased beach closures from polluted runoff and intensified hurricanes driven by fossil-fuel fired climate change, most people might [...]

This paper identifies information sources and practices of environmental scanning preferred by managers of globally oriented small and medium-sized enterprises (GOSMEs). Data were collected using a Delphi technique and were [...]

Abstract This study presents theoretical arguments and evidence that attempt to show the contribution of economic mechanisms typical of a business for resolving problems of environmental protection. Firstly, a brief [...]

The purpose of this study was to determine if any factors exist which can be used to predict the level of environmentally responsible (`green') business behaviour amongst SMEs (small and [...]

Striving for a common foreign environmental policy, the European Union (EU) has developed from a laggard in the mid- 1980s to a partial leader in the 1990s in international co-operation on protection of the ozone layer. Factors specific to the EU which impact on its performance in this area point to more general constraints on EU foreign environmental policy-making. The EU has had difficulties in leading on issues not firmly established on its policy agenda. On subjects for which European legislation existed, coherent EU leadership at the international level has been more frequent. Implementation problems, however, undermine the international credibility of the EU.

This article explores problems surrounding the implementation of European Union (EU) environmental policy within Member States. It focuses on harmonization and flexibility within the implementation process, for both a free-trade and an environmental perspective. The context is the packaging Waste Directive, legislation requiring member States to establish packaging waste recycling systems. The directive has encouraged Member States to employ economic instruments in the implementation process, a strategy which has led to the development of various national packaging waste systems. As a result differences between the British and German approaches to environmental policy have become apparent, despite the adoption by both of systems based on economic instruments. The two national models are contrasted and the extent to which flexible implementation has produced harmonized legislative standards, threats to free trade, and improved environmental quality are reviewed. The article proposes that where relatively peripheral conflicts between the operation of the single market and environmental policy objectives occur, genuine environmental protection measures should not automatically be impeded by free-trade technicalities.

TEXAS GOVERNOR - and probable presidential candidate - George W. Bush rarely agrees with Texas environmentalists. But, at a time when Texas is displacing California as the nation's smog capital, [...]

Four years ago, the Clinton Administration considered promulgating an executive order which would have required the federal government to purchase totally chlorine-free (TCF) paper to satisfy a small portion of [...]

CASHIKIARI, PERU - The highland forests near this tiny, remote indigenous village in central Peru's Urabamba region are abuzz every day with several large, black ex-army Chinook helicopters, Soviet-designed Antonov [...]

Introduction The Swiss economy's use of environmental resources is among the least intensive in the OECD. In part, this reflects Switzerland's industrial structure, with relatively little heavy industry, and the [...]

KOPERAPOKA, New Guinea - On Friday, March 8, 1996, a vehicle belonging to mining company Freeport McMoRan knocked down William Kogoya, a Dani person from Waa, near the company's giant [...]

The fate of the largest unprotected redwood forest in the world may now rest in the hands of an unlikely savior, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC). Since the 1985 [...]

MADRAS, INDIA -- 'We want safe drinking water, not Pepsi,' proclaim signs posted in Sambalpur, in the eastern Indian province of Orissa, where Indians are campaigning against Pepsi. Hundreds of [...]

WITHIN A SPAN OF TWO WEEKS in August 1993, major accidental fires broke out at three chemical factories owned by multinational corporations in Ireland. The fires focused attention on the [...]

Agriculture affects the environment in a vast number of ways. It can help maintain rural landscapes, preserve wildlife habitat and biodiversity, and provide a carbon sink by trapping carbon which [...]

DURBAN, SOUTH AFRICA -- The Fifth World Parks Congress, held here in September, started as a surreal affair. A major draw for the 3,000 conservationists who jetted in from 150 [...]