1,721,085 research outputs found
Mapping NTFP collection in Tanzania: a comparison of surveys
Full text linkThis paper presents an analysis of Non-Timber Forest Product (NTFP) collection and income in the Eastern Arc Mountains (EAM) in Tanzania, using data of the Tanzanian National Household Budget Survey 2007. The results are compared with the analysis presented in Schaafsma et al. (2011), which is based on a pooled dataset of 7 different local surveys. For both datasets, a household production function of NTFP collection is estimated, and then transferred and aggregated across the EAM to estimate the economic value of the annual flow of NTFP benefits. Although both analyses suffer from data limitations related to the employed survey methods and valuation inaccuracies related to inexistent markets, the resulting value estimates are of a comparable order of magnitude and are also comparable to earlier NTFP valuation studies. This result is important for the validation of the results presented in Schaafsma et al. (2011) and their use in future cost-benefits analyses
Assessing smallholder preferences for incentivised climate-smart agriculture using a discrete choice experiment
Full text linkThe promotion of climate smart agriculture (CSA) techniques to increase farmer resilience against climate
change and improve their livelihoods is high on the international development agenda and aims to help achieve
Sustainable Development Goals of food security (SDG 2), climate resilience and mitigation (SDG 13). We present
the results of a discrete choice experiment (DCE) conducted in face-to-face interviews. In a study in Malawi,
farmers responded to a series of questions about different cropping techniques and tree planting options to
improve soil fertility and climate change resilience. A combination of financial and non-financial incentives was
proposed to increase adoption and success rates. The results show that for different policy objectives, different
climate smart packages are suitable. Our results demonstrate that farmers prefer options that secure the production
of maize and include crops with both domestic use and local markets. The drought-resistant crop sorghum
was unpopular among respondents; achieving SDG 13 through this CSA approach would therefore require
high incentive payments. If CSA is to help achieve multiple goals e.g. poverty and inequality reduction (SDGs 1
and 10) as well as SDGs 2 and 13, a range of CSA packages, with different types of crops, rotation versus
intercropping techniques and incentive levels, should be offered to smallholders
Towards sustainable palm oil production:The positive and negative impacts on ecosystem services and human wellbeing
No full textPalm oil is an important commodity contributing to livelihoods of many communities, GDP of governments and the achievement of several sustainable development goals (SDG) including no poverty, zero hunger, and decent work and economic growth. However, its cultivation and continuous expansion due to high and increasing demand has led to many negative effects and subsequent calls to make production sustainable. To this end, information is needed to understand the negative and positive impacts on both the environment and human wellbeing to respond appropriately. Sustainability in palm oil trade entails having a global supply chain based on environmentally friendly and socially acceptable production and sourcing. Much has been done in understanding and responding to impacts on the environment but not so much on social impacts partly due to a lack of information. The direct (socio-economic) and indirect (through ecosystem services) impacts of palm oil trade were reviewed using peer-reviewed literature and the Environmental Justice Atlas (EJA). Our results show that most of the 57 case studies were conducted in Indonesia and Malaysia where 85% of global production of palm oil occurs. The results show both negative (109) and positive (99) direct impacts on humans. Indirect impacts through ecosystems services were predominantly negative (116) as were the direct negative impacts. The most frequently studied direct negative impacts were conflicts (25%), housing conditions (18%) and land grabbing (16%) while the most frequently studied direct positive impacts were income generation (33%) and employment (19%). Ongoing initiatives to make the palm oil sector sustainable such as the RSPO are focused on the environment but need to pay more attention to (related) social impacts. To make palm oil production sustainable and to meet SDGs such as ensuring healthy lives and promoting wellbeing as well as responsible consumption and production, negative social impacts of palm oil trade need to be addressed.</p
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Full text linkWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Full text linkWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
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