WHY
WAS THIS BOOK WRITTEN ?
Natural
resource management is an important issue that affects us all.
Everyone's well-being, indeed livelihood, depends directly and
indirectly on natural resources. In recent years, degradation
of these resources and the environment have increasingly become
the focus of attention because of its harmful impact on people's
lives. Water scarcity, air and water pollution, energy scarcity,
deforestation, soil degradation - all of these natural resource
degradation problems hamper people's ability to earn a living
or reduce the quality of their lives.
Natural resources degradation problems can be analysed as biological,
physical or socioeconomic problems. While all of these perspectives
offer important insights, economic analysis is particularly
useful for asking three kinds of questions: What factors lead
people to degrade natural resources? What are the economic consequences
of natural resource degradation and efforts to reverse it? And
what kinds of policies can be used to change the way people
manage natural resources?
For the economist, however, problems of natural resource management
are not always the same as those found in other situations.
These differences raise issues that economists do not otherwise
need to think about and thus require different analytical approaches.
Natural resource economics differs from agricultural economics,
for example, in its concern about property rights, externalities
and the temporal and spatial characteristics of natural resource
processes. As a result, different analytical approaches are
sometimes needed. Trained economists can readily learn the principles
of natural resource economics; the important point is that if
they do not pay attention to the factors that distinguish natural
resource management from other economic problems, their analysis
is likely to be flawed.
India
has a long history of teaching and research in theoretical and
applied economics. While it also has some excellent natural
resource economists, only in the last few years has any university
or research institute had specific programmes for teaching and
research in this field. This is now changing - many university
and research Institutes have initiated such programmes. But
because natural resource economics is in its developmental stages
in India, it is difficult to obtain good reading materials;
no textbooks are readily available.
This book was written to fill that shortage and to support the
natural resource economics teaching programmes emerging throughout
the country and many other parts of the developing world. Most
of the book's contributing authors are Indian or have experience
in the subcontinent. While its examples are largely Indian,
and it is published in India to make it readily available to
Indian readers, the nature of these resource problems is common
to many developing countries. The analyses used to solve them
are thus widely useful.
WHAT IS THIS BOOK ALL ABOUT?
This
is an introductory textbook in natural resource economics. It
is not an exhaustive account of the subject, but it will provide
readers with a good beginning, and it will help them identify
where to find additional literature. The book focuses mainly
on what distinguishes natural resource economics from agricultural
econo-mics and other applied economic fields - especially property
rights, externalities, time, and space. We have taken this approach
because India has a strong agricultural economics tradition,
and many of its natural resource economists will be trained
in institutions that focus mainly on agricultural economics.
This approach reflects the strengths and interests of the editors
and authors.
This book also places much emphasis on how to approach research
problems - how to identify researchable issues, ask the right
research questions, and develop hypotheses. These skills are
important to conduct quality research that produces useful results.
The book emphasises that research must be client-driven. Clients
come in many forms: they can be policymakers who need economics
information to set priorities or design policies; resource managers
who need to make economically sound management decisions; scientific
journals that seek to expand the frontiers of scientific knowledge;
or the researcher's own simple curiosity to solve a riddle.
All of these are valid clients for whom research can be conducted;
the point is to identify the client, understand the client's
needs, and conduct research that meets those needs.
HOW
TO USE THIS BOOK?
This
book is organised under three major headings - concepts, methods
and applications - plus introductory and summary chapters. This
organisation provides latitude for use by many different kinds
of readers. Advanced under-graduates and postgraduates may wish
to read and refer to the whole book. Policymakers, resource
managers, and other professionals concerned with natural resources
and the environment may benefit most by reading the section
on applications, as will readers who already have a strong background
in natural resource economics.
These case studies and the examples of Indian natural resource
management problems throughout the book are the features that
most distinguish this text from other natural resource economics
books.
Each chapter concludes with a list of discussion questions.
These range from simple questions that can be answered by reviewing
the preceding chapter to problems whose solutions would require
detailed research. While we do not expect readers to embark
on ambitious research projects to answer these discussion questions,
we feel strongly that groups of students should use them to
identify researchable questions and develop research plans about
how they would proceed to answer them. The discussion questions
may contain the seeds for many useful M.Sc. and Ph.D. thesis
topics.
Another unique feature of this book is that 33 experts, most
from India, were contributing authors. All have experience in
the kinds of natural resource management problems that are important
not only to India, but to developing nations facing problems
of natural resource and environmental degradation everywhere.
Most address problems important to their region, but these regional
perspectives are linked by the common conceptual and analytical
framework of natural resource economics. The authors have been
aided in preparing their chapters by each other's reactions
and suggestions.
The
book was made possible by the India Natural Resource Economics
Programme established by Winrock International Institute for
Agricultural Development with grants from the Ford and Rockefeller
Foundations. The book was first conceived and inaugurated at
a workshop in May 1991 at the University of Horticulture and
Forestry near Solan, Himachal Pradesh, in which applied economists
from all over India brainstormed to develop the book's initial
outline. Dr. William Bentley was responsible for mobilising
financial resources for the book. Dr. John Kerr coordinated
the textbook project and bore the overall responsibilities for
making the book a reality. Ms. Karen Seckler, who spent many
childhood years in India and has worked with many South Asian
authors, was general editor helping each of the authors convey
their ideas in a clear and interesting manner. The technical
editing was shared by all of us, but our results were made possible
only by the hard and willing volunteer work of each author.
In all humility, it is our hope that this book will contribute
to continued growth of the discipline of natural resource economics
in the developing world, particularly in South Asia.
This is the first of the series of publications to be released
by the India Natural Resource Economics and Management (INREM)
Foundation. Royalties earned from the sale of this textbook
will be devoted to improving the educational opportunities for
natural resource economists and managers in India.
The
Editors
John M. Kerr
Dinesh K. Marothia
Katar Singh
C. Ramasamy
William R. Bentley
