Agglomeration payments for catchment conservation and improved livelihoods in Malawi

Groupon是一种流行的零售技术，它是一种系统，在这种系统中，如果个人消费者能够说服其他人也参与进来，他或她的回报就会得到提高。类似于Groupon的做法在土地管理中也是可能的，可以采用基于邻居参与的奖金支付，以实现土地使用的连续性、防止土地退化、增强生物多样性和其他生态服务。这种支付--在生态经济学文献中被称为“集聚支付”--也可能通过减少道德风险和鼓励持续采用来抵消一些项目成本。这项研究采用集聚付款，作为马拉维夏尔河谷盆地土地保护实践的鼓励设计的一部分。我们的研究将与马拉维土地资源和保护部(DLRC)和马拉维全国小农协会(NASFAM)合作，评估集聚付款对马拉维政府目前正在推动的农业保护技术的采用的影响，以及因采用农场而产生的空间毗连可能对夏尔河谷流域产生的积极外部性。在这一领域采用可持续农业做法的情况仍然有限，这给评估影响带来了挑战。我们的双管齐下的研究战略包括首先进行一项试验性研究，采用4处理激励设计，以评估在DLRC主导的计划下在夏尔山谷改善保护性农业(CA)技术采用的策略。这些治疗方法将比较推广服务、传统支付和集聚支付在鼓励采用可持续农业做法(如CA)方面的作用。其次，我们建议开发一个基于主体的夏尔河谷流域系统模型(ABM)，以评估改进可持续农业做法的后果，以加强提供生态系统服务，如改善水质和径流调节，或增加自然捕食者和授粉服务。基于主体的模型将系统中的行为者(如农民)视为个体主体，其决策和相互作用导致土地覆盖、水质或生态系统水平的影响等新的景观级结果。我们试点研究的社会互动和决策数据将为这一区域规模的ABM提供信息，再加上已经为撒哈拉以南非洲开发的土壤-水评估模型以及提供捕食者和授粉服务的文献模型，将允许评估试点研究中评估的不同激励措施的景观规模后果。评估侧重于可持续农业实践的项目的影响的一个挑战是，虽然一些影响(如降低成本和劳动力)迅速增加，但其他影响(如产量或水质的变化)可能需要数年的持续CA实施才能出现。这里提出的设计通过将实地数据收集与建模相结合来克服这一限制，旨在解决三个关键问题：Q1)聚集支付如何改变农民之间的互动，以及采用CA等做法的比率/模式？Q2)聚集支付能否导致增强景观规模的生态系统服务提供？Q3)相对于传统激励措施，聚集支付是否促进了具有成本效益的生态系统服务提供？

A popular retail technique, the 'Groupon', is a system in which returns to an individual consumer are enhanced if he or she can convince others to participate as well. Analogs to the Groupon are possible in land management, where bonus payments based on the participation of neighbors can be employed to achieve contiguity of land use, prevention of land degradation, enhancement of biodiversity and other ecological services. Such payments - termed 'agglomeration payments' in the ecological economics literature - may also offset some program costs by reducing moral hazard and encouraging sustained adoption. This study applies agglomeration payments as part of an encouragement design for land conservation practices in Malawi's Shire Valley basin. In partnership with the Malawi Department of Land Resources and Conservation (DLRC) and the National Smallholder Farmers' Association of Malawi (NASFAM), our research will evaluate the impacts of agglomeration payments on the adoption of agricultural conservation technologies being promoted currently by the Government of Malawi, and the positive externalities for the Shire Valley basin that may accrue from the resulting spatial contiguity of adopting farms. The adoption of sustainable agricultural practices in this area is still modest, making it challenging to evaluate impacts. Our two-pronged research strategy includes first a pilot study with a 4-treatment encouragement design to evaluate strategies for improving adoption of conservation agricultural (CA) technologies under DLRC-led programs in the Shire Valley. The treatments will compare the roles of extension services, conventional payments, and agglomeration payments in encouraging adoption of sustainable agricultural practices such as CA. Second, we propose to develop an agent-based model (ABM) of the Shire Valley basin system to evaluate consequences of improved adoption of sustainable agricultural practices for the enhanced provision of ecosystem services such as improved water quality and runoff regulation, or increased natural predator and pollination services. Agent-based models treat actors in the system (such as farmers) as individual agents whose decisions and interactions lead to emergent landscape-level outcomes such as land cover, water quality or ecosystem-level impacts. Data on social interactions and decision making from our pilot study will inform this regional-scale ABM which, coupled to soil-water assessment models already developed for Sub-Saharan Africa and to literature models for provision of predator and pollination services, will allow assessment of the landscape-scale consequences of the different incentives evaluated in the pilot study. A challenge in evaluating impacts from projects focused on sustainable agricultural practices is that while some impacts (such as reduced costs and labor) accrue rapidly, others (such as shifts in yields or water quality) may take years of consistent CA implementation to emerge. The design proposed here overcomes this limitation by combining field data collection with modeling, aiming to address three key questions:Q1) How do agglomeration payments shift interactions among farmers, as well as rates/patterns of adoption of practices such as CA?Q2) Can agglomeration payments lead to enhanced landscape-scale ecosystem service provision?Q3) Do agglomeration payments facilitate cost-effective ecosystem service provision, relative to conventional incentives?