Sustainable use of ecosystem services under multiple risks: a survey of commercial cattle farmers in semi-arid rangelands in Namibia

Research output: Working paperWorking papers

Authors

Studying the sustainable use of ecosystem services under uncertainty requires the consideration of the stochastic dynamics of the system under study, risk and time preferences, risk management strategies and normative views pertaining to sustainability. To gather this information for an important ecological-economic system, we conducted a survey of commercial cattle farmers in semi-arid rangelands of Namibia, a system that features risks on various space and time scales. Here we present a description of the research aims, design and conduction of the survey, and analyze and discuss the homogeneity and representativeness of our survey population. The survey consisted of a mail-in questionnaire and in-field experiments. We combined two existing farm-address databases, reaching 77% of the estimated 2,500 cattle farmers. The return rate of questionnaires exceeded 20%, and response rate to individual questions surpassed 95% and 90% for the majority of non-sensitive and sensitive questions, respectively. Distinct sub-sample groups within the survey population did not differ in the analyzed characteristics with the exception of ethnicity, regional location of farmland and an intentionally induced bias for residency on farm. It has turned out that we have undersampled distinct population segments of farmers, such as indigenous farmers or farmers not belonging to the main interest group of commercial cattle farming. Notwithstanding, we consider the survey to be highly successful, yielding a rich dataset which allows diverse analyses. -- Survey ; cattle farming ; semi-arid ; rangeland management ; sustainability ; risk
Original languageEnglish
Place of PublicationLüneburg
PublisherInstitut für Volkswirtschaftslehre der Universität Lüneburg
Number of pages52
Publication statusPublished - 2009

Documents

Recently viewed

Publications

  1. Innerparteilicher Wettbewerb bei der Kandidatenaufstellung
  2. Anwesenheitszeiten der Kinder und zeitliche Bedarfsplanung
  3. Advanced ice-clamping control in the context of Industry 4.0
  4. Gesundheitsförderung in kleinen und mittleren Unternehmen
  5. Ungleiche Partizipationschancen in heterogenen Lerngruppen
  6. China’s role in mitigating poverty and inequality in Africa
  7. Ecosystem services as a boundary object for sustainability
  8. Inklusive Basiskompetenzen in den Fachdidaktiken entwickeln
  9. Maschinelles Lernen als bildungspolitischer Kontrollverlust
  10. Eine verlorene Generation – Die Jugend in Europa ohne Arbeit
  11. Erfassung des Selbstkonzepts von Kindern im Grundschulalter
  12. Promoting pro-environmental behavior through citizen science?
  13. Multilevel knowledge management for municipal climate action
  14. Nachhaltigkeit im (neuen) Deutschen Corporate Governance Kodex
  15. Naturwissenschaftlichen Unterricht inklusiv gestalten (Nawi-In)
  16. Belastungserleben von Lehrkräften durch schulische Inklusion
  17. Wahnehmung und Anpassungsverhalten der Landwirte an Greening
  18. Caroline Struchholz: Geflüchtete im deutschen Hochschulsystem
  19. Lebensstil und Rationalität als Erklärung des Museumsbesuchs
  20. Buch 11. Justizielle Zusammenarbeit in der Europäischen Union
  21. Relating the philosophy and practice of ecological economics
  22. Guidance for assessing interregional ecosystem service flows
  23. Math-Bridge: Adaptive Plattform für Mathematische Brückenkurse
  24. Die Zusammenarbeit zwischen Aufsichtsrat und Abschlussprüfer
  25. Recognition and approach responses toward threatening objects
  26. Wahrnehmung und Anpassungsverhalten der Landwirte an Greening
  27. Gender-Mainstreaming-Aspekte im Rahmen von Anrechnungsverfahren
  28. Improving the end-of-life management of solar panels in Germany