Dhr. R.L. (Romanus) Dimoso: “Environmental Degradation and Intra-Household Welfare: The Case of the Tanzanian Rural South Pare Highlands”

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12 Jun 2009 13:30
Unit: Wageningen University
Location: Aula, building 362, Gen. Foulkesweg 1, Wageningen
Organisation: Wageningen University
Promotor: prof.dr. G. Antonides (Economics of Consumers and Households)

 The study presents an empirical analysis of the effects of environmental degradation on household welfare. The analysis is based on cross-sectional data collected  in 2006/2007 from households in the Tanzania’s rural South Pare highlands. The study was guided by four hypotheses each of which formed the basis of an empirical chapter of the thesis.

Short summary:
The rural South Pare highlands in Tanzania experience a deteriorating environmental situation. Of particular importance is the disappearance of forests and woodlands. The consequences are declining amounts and reliability of rainfall, declining amounts of water levels and loss of biodiversity. Deterioration of environmental resources increases costs of collecting environmental products, which in many respects have no feasible close substitutes. One of the major components of the increased costs is labour time allocated by household members to collecting environmental products and/or grazing activities.

This study presents an empirical investigation of the impact of this reallocation of intra-household labour resources on livelihood for different members of a household. We used cross-sectional data. To analyse how variations in environmental degradation affect intra-household labour allocation, three types of areas were distinguished: severely-degraded, medium-degraded, and non-degraded environments.

Our findings show that (1) the environmental products collection and/or grazing activities were gender biased with husbands specializing in grazing while wives and children fetching water and fuel wood; and labour time allocation was significantly influenced by environmental condition; (2) environmental degradation was limiting the production and consumption potentials in the area and a limited adoption of agricultural modernization further aggravated this problem; (3) factors like school crowdedness, illness, bad weather, poor school quality, and school absenteeism due to street vending contributed negatively to the probability of primary school attainment for children apart from the environmental degradation situation; and (4) subjective welfare and well-being of household members were affected by the quality of the environment.

This study contributes to the understanding of the situation and setting proper measures towards solving the problems of sustainable development, poverty alleviation, environmental policy, and human capital formation in South Pare.
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