International Economics: IB Economics

Another environmental outrage, or the cost of progress? There's controversy over the Ugandan government's decision to permit the creation of a sugar plantation next to Bugamo Forest. 

Environmentalists are up in arms, but supporters of the project say it will enhance developmental opportunities. However, there's been an alarming rise in deforestation in the country since 1990.

This World Bank clip looks at the impact of climate change, and more generally human activity on the environment in Malawi - highlighting the extent of resource depletion and degradation - up to 60% of Malawian land is affected by soil degradation.

However, it also looks at the steps that the World Bank's Global Wildlife Program is trying to tackle the issues involved.

What a pity! I've just marked an essay by my Year 12 group on common access resources and this would have been worth their time.

Common access resources are non-excludable and rivalrous, and as a result likely to be overused. To the individual fisherman, the marginal private benefit of exploiting the resource is likely to be greater than the marginal private cost, and thus they will consume until MPB = MPC. Unfortunately, beyond the level of fishing which allows stocks to self-replenish,  any extra fish caught will have a higher marginal social cost than marginal private cost because the invdiidual's share of the external cost is so small.

This clip look at how the World Bank can help, in this case in Peru, by intervening to fund small-scale fisheries in a sustainable fashion, promoting development and protecting the environment.