Marco M Barzman
email: barzman@nature.berkeley.edu

Miguel Altieri

Abou Thiam

Alejandro Rojas
email: arojas@capcollege.bc.caandrésyurjevicclades

Anne-Marie Izac
email: a.izac@cgiar.org

Arthur Getz-Escudero
email: arthurg@wri.org

Assétou Kanouté

Bruce Beehler
email: bbeehler@counterpart.org

Carlos Pérez
email: perez@care.org

Claudia Carr
email: cjcarr@nature.berkeley.edu

Danièle Perrot-Maître
email: d.perrot-maitre@cgiar.org

Donald Winkelman

Eduardo Sevilla-Guzmán

Elias Fereres

Jacqueline Ashby
email: j.ashby@cgiar.org

Jane Toll
email: j.toll@cgiar.org

Josh Posner
email: j.posner@cgiar.org

Juan Sánchez

Julian Gonsalves

Larry Harrington
email: l.harrington@cgiar.org

Lori Ann Thrupp
email: athrupp@igc.org

Manuel Lantin
email: m.lantin@cgiar.org

Maria João Santos
email: mariasantos@isa.utl.pt

Maria Fernandez
email: m.fernandez@cgiar.org

Mariana Purnell

Mike Swift
email: kenyamike.swift@tsbf.unon.org

Mohan Saxena
email: m.saxena@cgiar.org

Nils Christoffersen

Norman Uphoff

Peter Hazell
email: p.hazell@cgiar.org

Peter Rosset
email: rosset@socrates.berkeley.edu

Rafaralahy Sébastien

Madagascar Tefy Saina

Ralph Von Kaufmann
email: r.von-kaufmann@cgiar.org

Ranil Senanayake

Richard Harwood
email: rharwood@pilot.msu.edu

Robert Hart
email: rdhart@arches.usa.edu

Rolando Bunch

Susana Hecht
email: sbhecht@ucla.edu

Victor Toledo
email: vtoledo@oikos.unam.mx

Towards defining a pro-poor Natural Resources Management Strategy in the CGIAR

come   L'archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire

Goal of the consultation

On October 22-23, 1998, the CGIAR NGO Committee (NGOC) convened a consultation on Natural Resources Management (NRM) involving 45 participants from NGOs, TAC, IARCs, Universities and NARIs. The consultation came as a response to the newly-recognized importance that the CGIAR within its renewed mission has given to NRM, calling it "one of the fundamental research pillars of the CGIAR". The goal of the consultation was to initiate a dialogue among the various partners in order to define an NRM strategy congruent with both the CGIAR mission of poverty alleviation, food security and preservation of the natural resource base, and with a responsiveness to the needs and circumstances of resource-poor households located in marginal or less-favored areas in the developing world.

Key Questions Addressed at the NRM Workshop

n What is the scientific basis underlying a pro-poor NRM technological strategy? n What are the methodological tools needed for the NRM strategy to be relevant to resource poor farmers? n How does this NRM strategy fit into the broader goals of a sustainable rural development approach?

The NRM challenges facing the CGIAR

There is widespread agreement on the fact that the Green Revolution was an important strategy to raise grain yields. There is also realization that in the most intensively cropped lands there are observable trends of yield declines (i.e. rice-wheat systems in India and rice under continuous cropping in the Philippines), linked to the cumulative effect of environmental degradation, partly caused by the use of high-input technologies. New approaches to enhance productivity in such high-potential areas will have to depart in significant ways from the Green Revolution, emphasizing resource-conserving technologies (i.e. incorporation of legumes in rotation schemes) that enhance the sustainability of agroecosystems. Biotechnological innovations may provide some tools only if they address constraints relevant to poor farmers (i.e. drought tolerance, soil acidity, etc.). When appropriate, such innovations should be integrated into a broader natural resource management (NRM) strategy which emphasizes environmental rather than gene manipulation.

More challenging however, for the "renewed" CGIAR, is the realization that resource-poor farmers gained very little from the processes of development and technology transfer of the Green Revolution. Many analysts of the Green Revolution have pointed out that the new technologies were not scale-neutral. The farmers with the larger and better-endowed lands gained the most, whereas farmers with fewer resources often lost, and income disparities were often accentuated.

Not only were technologies inappropriate for poor farmers, but peasants were excluded from access to credit, information, technical support and other services that would have helped them use and adapt these new inputs. Although subsequent studies have shown that the spread of highyielding varieties among small farmers occurred in Green Revolution areas where they had access to irrigation and subsidized agrochemicals, disparities remain. In many countryside areas, intensified social differentiation and concentration of wealth have set in. Perhaps even more significant is that the areas characterized by traditional agriculture remain poorly served by the transfer-of-technology approach, due to its bias in favor of modern scientific knowledge and its neglect of local participation and traditional knowledge. The historical challenge of the GGIAR is therefore to refocus its efforts on marginalized farmers and agroecosystems and assume responsibility for the welfare of their agriculture. The private sector and advanced research institutions have no interest in targeting such groups.

In order to benefit the poor more directly, an NRM approach must be applicable under the highly heterogeneous and diverse conditions in which smallholders live, it must be environmentally sustainable and based on the use of local and indigenous resources. The emphasis must be on improving whole farming systems at the field or watershed level rather than specific commodities. Technological generation must be demand driven which means that research priorities must be based on the socio-economic and environmental needs and circumstances of resource-poor farmers.

The urgent need to combat rural poverty and to conserve and regenerate the deteriorated resource base of small farms requires an active search for new kinds of agricultural research and resource management strategies. NGOs have long argued that a sustainable agricultural development strategy that is environmentally enhancing must be based on agroecological principles and on a more participatory approach for technology development and dissemination. Focused attention to the linkages between agriculture and natural resource management will help greatly in solving the problems of poverty, food insecurity and environmental degradation.

To be of benefit to the rural poor, agricultural research and development should operate on the basis of a "bottom-up" approach, using and building upon the resources already available: local people, their knowledge and their autochthonous natural resources. It must also seriously take into consideration, through participatory approaches, the needs, aspirations and circumstances of smallholders.

New Mission of the CGIAR

Defining the target population of a pro-poor NRM strategy

Although estimates of the number and location of resource-poor farmers vary considerably, it is estimated that about 1.9 to 2.2 billion people remain directly or indirectly untouched by modern agricultural technology. In Latin America, the rural population is projected to remain stable at 125 million until the year 2000, but over 61% of this population is poor and is expected to increase.

The projections for Africa are even more dramatic. The majority of the rural poor (about 370 million of the poorest) live in areas that are resource-poor, highly heterogeneous and risk prone.

Their agricultural systems are small scale, complex and diverse. The worst poverty is often located in arid or semi-arid zones, and in mountains and hills that are ecologically vulnerable. These areas are remote from services and roads and agricultural productivity is often low on a crop by crop basis, although total farm output can be significant. Such resource-poor farmers and their complex systems pose special research challenges and demand appropriate technologies.

Characteristics of Poor

Agroecology as a fundamental scientific basis for NRM

For years several NGOs in the developing world have been promoting agroecologically-based NRM approaches. Agroecology provides a methodological framework for understanding the nature of farming systems and the principles by which they function. It is the science that provides ecological principles for the design and management of sustainable and resource-conserving agricultural systems-offering several advantages for the development of farmer-friendly technologies. First, agroecology relies on indigenous farming knowledge and selected modern technologies to manage diversity, incorporate biological principles and resources into farming systems, and intensify agricultural production. Second, it offers the only practical way to restore agricultural lands that have been degraded by conventional agronomic practices. Third, it provides for an environmentally sound and affordable way for smallholders to intensify production in marginal areas. Finally, it has the potential to reverse the anti-peasant bias of strategies that emphasize purchased inputs as opposed to the assets that small farmers already possess, such as their low opportunity costs of labor. Ecological concepts are utilized to favor natural processes and biological interactions that optimize synergies so that diversified farms are able to sponsor their own soil fertility, crop protection and productivity. By assembling crops, animals, trees, soils and other factors in spatial/temporal diversified schemes, several processes are optimized. Such processes are crucial in determining the sustainability of agricultural systems. For example, cover crops function as an "ecological turntable" which activates and influences key processes and components of the agroecosystem: the complex of beneficial fauna, soil biology, weed suppression, nutrient cycling, etc. Similarly the incorporation of green manures not only provides nutrients, but also increases soil organic matter and hence water retentive capacity, further reducing susceptibility to erosion.

Agroecosystem Processes to

Optimize

There are many proven and promising agroecological technologies that can be integrated to enhance the sustainability of farming systems. Throughout the developing world, farmer groups in

Group I

The scientific basis of a pro-poor NRM strategy

Role of Ecology in NRM

The scientific field which is best equipped to address issues that emerge from the interaction of humans and the environment is ecology. Ecological principles of diversity, adaptability, flexibility and stability cross over into the social scientific realm and are useful for understanding the complexity of social systems and their coevolution with natural resource management systems.

Because ecology deals with interactions in complex systems, it can also provide an appropriate framework for a dialogue between scientists and local farmers whose traditional knowledge is also relational and complex in nature. The ecological knowledge and principles emerging from such a dialogue would therefore integrate elements from both modern science and local and traditional sources of knowledge.

Just as genetics and molecular biology provide the scientific basis for integrated gene management, the science of ecology should be the scientific paradigm that provides the principles to manage natural resources (soil, water and biological resources) in a sustainable manner.

The participants identified several fundamental ecological concepts and principles which should be taken into account when devising an NRM strategy. These include:

1. Biodiversity, which is crucial in enhancing productivity, resiliency and ecosystem services. 2. Resource flows, which can be managed to restore and maintain natural, human and capital resources.

3. Productivity, which is directed to ensure a multiplicity of products and services that satisfy ecological, economic and social needs. 4. Ecosystem resilience, which must be maintained or even enhanced so that ecological and economic services and productivity are sustained even when environmental, economic or other conditions change.

These principles interact and have operational implications across different scales in space (field, landscape, watershed) and in time. Their application translate into specific management and technological options that optimize the ecological function of agricultural and forestry systems, depending on environmental, social, cultural and economic factors specific to each target region.

Interactions between ecological factors in NRM

Key Ecological Principles for NRM in Agriculture

1. The ecosystem is the major landscape ecological unit. It contains both biotic and abiotic components through which nutrients are cycled and energy flows.

2. To permit these cycles and flows the ecosystem must possess a number of structured interrelationships among its components (soil, water, nutrients, producers, consumers, and decomposers). 3. The function of ecosystems is related to the flow of energy and the cycling of materials through the structural components of the ecosystem.

4. Ecosystems tend toward maturity. In so doing they pass from a less complex to a more complex state. This directional change is called succession.

5. When an ecosystem is exploited or mismanaged, the maturity and biodiversity of the ecosystem declines and resources become degraded.

6. Working toward sustainability, farmers and researchers should strive as much as possible to use the ecosystem concept in designing and managing the agroecosystem.

7. Energy flow can be designed to depend less on renewable sources, and a better balance achieved between energy used to maintain the internal processes of the system and that which is available for export as harvestable goods.

8. Population regulation mechanisms can depend more on system-level resistance to pests, through an array of mechanisms that range from promoting horizontal resistance and increasing habitat diversity to ensuring the presence of natural enemies and antagonists. 9. As the use of external human inputs for control of agroecosystem processes is reduced, a shift can be expected from systems dependent on synthetic inputs to systems designed to make use of natural ecosystem processes and interactions and materials derived from within the system.

10. An agroecosystem that incorporates the natural ecosystem qualities of resilience, stability, productivity, and balance will better ensure the maintenance of the dynamic equilibrium necessary to establish an ecological basis for sustainability.

Importance of site specificity in NRM

The high variability of ecological processes and their interactions with heterogeneous social, cultural, political, and economic factors generate local systems which are exceptionally unique. When the heterogeneity of the rural poor is considered, the inappropriateness of technological recipes or blueprints becomes obvious. The only way that the specificity of local systems--from regions to watersheds and all the way down to a farmer's field--can be taken into account is through site-specific NRM. However, technologies adapted to specific agroecological conditions may be applicable at ecologically and socially homologous larger scales which can be identified using GIS methods.

Such site-specificity requires an exceptionally large body of knowledge that no single research institution can generate and manage on its own. This is one reason why workshop participants identified the inclusion of local communities at all stages of projects (design, experimentation, technology development, evaluation, dissemination, etc.) as a key element in successful rural development. The inventive self-reliance of rural populations is a resource that must be urgently and effectively mobilized.

Group II A methodological framework for NRM

In order for the NRM guiding principles to translate into management options appropriate to poor farmers, methodological mechanisms must be in place so that technologies reach poor

Participatory research and development approaches

A key methodological theme that cuts across NRM is how to best integrate the various social actors involved in the process of generation and diffusion of innovations. Much has been said about the potential role of farmer knowledge and experimentation as a critical link in the research process, but there are very few practical examples.

Most development programs that placed the interests of small-scale farmers high on their agenda, fell short in their expectations as they failed to seriously address popular participation. The implication here however is not for researchers to promote participatory approaches so that farmers put to better use already made or new "technological packets".

The few existing examples of generation and diffusion of "farmer friendly" technologies suggest that full participation of farmers is essential to the development and dissemination of sustainable agriculture methods and technologies. In such cases horizontal and equitable interaction among actors replaces top-down relations, and promoted initiatives are responsive to farmer needs and ideas. In fact, farmer knowledge is melded with current scientific knowledge.

The existing farmer-to-farmer networks and methods of communication have proven invaluable in the spreading of ideas and innovations. In turn, these participatory arrangements strengthen and empower local farmer and community organizations, and furthers learning and adoption of alternatives.

Partnerships and intercultural dialogue

The site-specific nature of sustainable NRM strategy places farmers, herders, fishermen, and other rural people in a central position. They are the ones with the greatest knowledge of local conditions and needs. Working with farmer organizations, NGOs, and other civil society groups, CGIAR centers can provide some of the tools that will help these groups determine the way in which natural resources are better managed. Thus, the CGIAR centers must develop site-specific NRM strategies in partnership with NGOs and the rural communities they set out to help.

These partnerships will require mutual respect, a common language, a new appreciation of indigenous knowledge and new methodologies. This is an area in which anthropologists and social scientists have much to contribute. They can help biophysical scientists develop truly participatory methodologies and increase their appreciation and understanding of local knowledge and conditions. Local knowledge is in fact considered so valuable that it should in itself become an important topic of research.

Participants also felt that these kinds of partnerships require a complete re-training of scientists. For example, the language ordinarily used by scientific researchers is usually incomprehensible to peasant farmers. Conversely, traditional and agroecological concepts and terminology are not understood by scientists. Here again, cultural anthropologists could help develop a language common to both researchers and community members.

Scaling up of successful local initiatives

Many initiatives promoting agroecologically based NRM have crystallized at the local level, positively impacting a few rural communities in terms of food security, environmental preservation and income generation. In order to extrapolate to a more regional level the full benefits of such sustainable agriculture initiatives, the scaling up of successful local projects is a key requirement. This remains however a major research and methodological challenge and there are no recipes on how to proceed with scaling up. It is known that in order for these efforts to be expanded, major changes need to take place in the areas of institutional partnerships, agricultural policies, research agendas and educational processes.

A possible approach would be to provide through new institutional partnerships, additional methodological or technical ingredients to existing cases that have already reached a certain level of success. This would complement the efforts of local NGOs and communities who are already involved in NRM field work, carrying out networking activities, and engaged in advocacy work to influence research direction and/or policies that will benefit resourcepoor farmers.

Group III Linking NRM and rural development

Although appropriate NRM strategies are key to improving the livelihoods of poor farming communities, effective social organization, empowerment of communities, access to land, and enabling policies are also crucial for an NRM strategy to significantly impact poor farmers of the developing world.

Other roles for social scientists

With the aim of avoiding increasing inequities, social scientists are needed to help foresee the consequences of change on the social fabric of communities before projects or policies are implemented. After intervention, as scientists develop indicators of sustainable NRM using ecological tools, social scientists can assist them by including social criteria.

Many poor rural communities are from indigenous ethnic groups which have traditionally been marginalized. By working with indigenous communities, cultural anthropologists can help empower these groups and provide a bridge between them and scientists.

Empowerment of rural communities

Because rural communities are affected by factors which are in constant flux and because NRM projects have a finite life, it is crucial that the process by which new NRM strategies are developed enhance the ability of rural communities to innovate, to respond to new challenges, and to influence the policies which affect them. This is yet another reason for including members of rural communities in the research process.

The benefits gained from NRM research and development include both the end-product-i.e., new strategies and technology to sustainably manage natural resources--and the process used to arrive at the end-product. By using an empowering methodology, members of rural communities, such as women's groups and indigenous peoples learn not only the technical tools for sustainable NRM but also gain much needed political power and recognition that will ensure enduring results. This process makes use of a methodology in which rural people participate in setting research agendas. For example, members of the communities could be included on the boards of CG centers. Farmers, herders, and fishermen should also determine goals and design of research agendas and be involved in carrying out and evaluation of projects. This can be achieved using approaches such as farmer-to-farmer training, farmer-led research, "land-to-lab extension", and multi-directional technology dissemination instead of one-way technology transfer from lab to land. The ability of rural communities to innovate and to respond to new challenges will then be enhanced and will continue beyond the time period of projects.

Policy

Many of the causes of poverty and environmental degradation have their roots in policies which affect the price of agricultural products and access to good land. If, for example, a rural community is poor because of a history and policies which have forced it into cultivating marginal land, does it make sense to develop ways in which this inherently less productive and fragile land might be improved? Or would it make more sense to promote land reform to eliminate some of the causes of poverty? The NRM consultation participants were faced with this dilemma. Even though the mandate of the CGIAR is not in the realm of policy formulation, the participants arrived at the conclusion that the CGIAR can nevertheless, within the limits of its abilities, bring the "voice" of poor farmers to relevant international fora and attempt to influence the policy-making process. For example, when conducting participatory programs, national and international decision-makers should be included in the process. This would ensure that policy makers are at least kept informed on the evolving situation in rural communities.

Some policy issues which affect the price of agricultural goods and access to land directly affect the goals of poverty alleviation and sustainable management of natural resources. This is why participants felt that the CGIAR, within the limits of its mandate, should support efforts to obtain fair prices for raw agricultural products, land redistribution, and ending trade liberalization, at least in the case of staple foods, which are crucial to food security.

Self-sufficiency

Before the rural poor in marginal areas can be expected to be a part of and compete with powerful and fluctuating global forces, they must build up a minimum level of local selfsufficiency. This prevents them from sinking to levels at which their food security is threatened. The kinds of technologies developed should therefore emphasize as a prerequisite food self-sufficiency and independence from outside resources. Research can help develop these kinds of technologies by using existing production systems as a starting point while reinforcing the innovative characteristics of these local systems.

Similarly, at the level of economics, local agricultural production should gain some independence from global market prices of agricultural goods. This can be done by encouraging local circuits of production and consumption or by linking farmers to export markets mediated by organizations involved in fair-trade schemes.

Conclusions

Several conclusions can be drawn from the rich discussions held during the workshop:

1. Improving the management of natural resources is not only linked to the alleviation of poverty but it is also essential to achieving sustainable productivity increases in traditional and ecologically vulnerable areas. For this to happen, the proposed NRM strategy, however, has to deliberately target the poor, and not only aim at increasing production and conserving natural resources, but to create employment, provide access to local inputs and output markets.

2. Researchers and rural development practitioners will need to translate general ecological principles and natural resource management concepts into practical advice directly relevant to the needs and circumstances of small-holders.

3. The new pro-poor technological agenda must incorporate agroecological perspectives.

A focus on resource conserving technologies, that uses labor efficiently, and on diversified farming systems based on natural ecosystem processes will be essential. The focus should be in strengthening local research and problem-solving capacities.

Organizing local people around NRM projects that make effective use of traditional skills and knowledge provides a launching pad for additional learning and organizing, thus improving prospects for community empowerment and self-reliant development.

5. A pro-poor NRM strategy should include delineating an agenda for policy formulation that facilitates participatory natural resource management practice based on both farmer-based traditional innovations and selected external inputs when appropriate.

The strengthening of local institutional capacity and widening access of farmers to support services that facilitate use of technologies will be critical. There is also need to increase rural incomes through interventions other than enhancing yields, such as complementary marketing and processing activities. To design and implement such an agenda, cooperation among governments, international agencies, NGOs, committed members of the private sector, and the technical and scientific communities will be required.

Elements of an appropriate

  , adapted to farmer circumstances n Enhance total farm productivity and stability

n

  Organic matter accumulation and nutrient cycling n Soil biological activity n Natural control mechanisms (disease suppression, biocontrol of insects, weed interference) n Resource conservation and regeneration (soil, water, germplasm, etc.) n General enhancement of agrobiodiversity Agroecology takes greater advantage of natural processes and beneficial on-farm interactions in order to reduce off-farm input use and to improve the efficiency of farming systems. Technologies emphasized tend to enhance the functional biodiversity of agroecosystems as well as the conservation of existing on-farm resources. Promoted technologies are multi-functional as their adoption usually means favorable changes in various components of the farming systems at the same time.

  collaboration with NGOs are implementing at the local level hundreds of local agroecologicallybased initiatives. Many of theses experiences demonstrate the feasibility of stabilizing yields, regenerating and conserving soils and water, preserving agrobiodiversity and enhancing food security, all based on agroecological technologies and locally available resources. Documented Benefits of Agroecological Technologies n Enhancement of total output per unit area of land n Conservation of soil, water and genetic resources n Regulated pests at acceptable levels n Reduced use of agrochemicals n Improved soil quality n Conservation and enhancement of general agrobiodiversity Conclusions from the working groups Group I: The scientific basis of a pro-poor NRM strategy Group II: A methodological framework for NRM Group III: Linking NRM and rural development

  farmers and CGIAR goals are achieved. Such methodological mechanisms include: ß Effective partnerships which include farmer organizations ß Participatory research and development methods ß Empowerment of local communities in defining research agendas ß Scaling-up of successful local sustainable agriculture initiatives ß Development of indicators of sustainable NRM.

  Technological solutions will be location specific and information intensive rather than capital intensive. The many existing examples of traditional and NGO-led methods of natural resource management provide opportunities to explore the potential of combining local farmer knowledge and skills with those of external agents to develop and/or adapt appropriate farming techniques. 4. Any serious attempt at developing sustainable agricultural technologies must bring to bear local knowledge and skills on the research process. Particular emphasis must be given to involving farmers directly in the formulation of the research agenda and on their active participation in the process of technological innovation and dissemination.

CGIAR-NGOC consultation on natural resources management which took place in Washington DC from October 22 to 23, 1998. This document is issued as background material to


Docu|i

Introduction

In an economy where public intewentions are in constant decrease in almost all the sectors, national and European public interventions in the French fishing industry remain numerous.

Indeed since the start of the nineties the weight of public grants, in this sector, has been getting more and more significant in France with by consequently, an increase of the complexity of the public assistance system. At the moment, there exist three levels of public interventions. Thus, if the European Union @U) provides some allocations, the French government allots grants too-Moreover local communities (regions and departments), even if they have a lower budget at their disposal, are great suppliers ofsubsidies too.

Public assistance to the French fishing industry includes budgetary and non-budgetary assistance (protectionism, acc€ss to resources, derogatory arrangements concerning competition. .. ).

In this paper we focus on budgetary assistance which is usually more simple to qumtify.

Budget subsidies can be distinguished into varied grants: some ofthem are public expenses while the others are fiscal subsidies. The latter is of considerable importance but will not be considered in our study which is focused on public expenses and more particularly on public expenses aimed at structural actions. Two kinds of structural actions are financed by public funding. Financial support can be allocated for the construotion and modemisation of fishing vessels to ensure the competitiveness of the fleet but grant aid can be allocated to eliminate excess capacity too. (Giguelay,I 999) In this presentation we focus, on public amounts given out to encourage fishermen to end their activity by scrapping their vessel or export them out of the Community waters.

The objective of this contribution is to underline some numerous assets of the Data envelopment Analysis (DEA) method in the evaluation of the performance of the decommissioning scheme policy introduced in the French legislation at the beginning of the nineties in order to reduce French fishing fleet capacity. Even if this paper is a preliminary analysis to present data and DEA models tltat we are going to use, it allows to present DEA models specified in an original context far from the traditional theory of production. The paper is organised as follows:

In a first time we are interested in the reasons why decommissioning schemes were launched in France.

Then we introduce some questions regarding this public action by presenting data and models we are going to use.

I Decommissioning scheme: a new tool in French oublic interyentions I I Overcapitalisation and public intervention

The introduction of withdrawals' policy in the fisheries sector comes from the peculiarities of fish resource. Indeed, sea fishes are a natural, renewable and mobile resource whose reproduction and movements cannot be controlled. Fish resource is a common resource. So no one can own fishes until they have been captured. Equally every fish that is taken from the sea is one fewer available to dte rest of fishermen. These two above properties of fish resource are commonly called non-exclusivity and soustractibility [START_REF] Berkes | The benefits of the commons[END_REF]. The combination of these properties naturally leads to a phenomenon of overcapitalisation. This combination supplies some negative externalities between fishermen who exploit a same fish stock.

Consequently, every fisherman is vulnerable to the actions of ttre other catchers. These peculiarities of fish resource leads to a situation of overcapacity which is the natural consequence of the exploitation even if the natural exploitation is not efficient. . [START_REF] Giguelay | Gestion d'une rrssource corlmunc renouvelable: le cas des plans de sortie de flotte mis en rruvne dans le cadre de ta Politique Commune des Pêches[END_REF] Overcapitalisation, which rnduces smaller stocks, would lead to endanger fishermen. That is why the European Commission tries to obtain a better balance between vessels and fish resource available. Overfishing due to overcapitalisation is a real threat for fish and for fishermen too! This justifies the necessity of a public intervention in order to decrease fishing capacity.

12 Weight of decommissioning schemes in public subsidies The European structuml policy of the Common fisheries policy introduced in 1983 the first Multi-arurual guidance program (MAGP) with the main goal of limiting the excess of fishing capacity. Even if overfishing and fish stock decline was obvious, this first progrirm had a very low impact on the European flect structue. Nobody was really concemed by fishing resource protection.

However, at the beginning of the nineties the actors of ttre fishing industry and the state members become aware of the fact that there are too many vessels in the European Union for the frsh availability. This new awareness of the overcapitalisaeion appears when the European Commission threat stale-members which do not decrease the fishing effort of their fleet to suppress ttreir subsidies for new vessels' construction. It was up to each member state to decide how to reach the restricting targets agreed in the MAGp.

In March l99l the French govemment chooses to introduce a policy of public financial incentives to boat decommissioning to meet the European requirements of the 2nd MAGP conceming fleet capacity reductions for the period 1987-1991. The launch of the first decommissioning scheme -known as "ttre Mellick Plan" was intended to reduce the porer capacity of the French fleet of l\o/o.The aim was to withdraw as quickly as possible more than 100.000 kW.

The idea was to scrap vessels, to use them in other sectors or to transfer vessels outside Commmity waters.

Sinae 1993, several ottrer plans w€re adopted, aiming like the first one at fulfilling European fleet capacity reduction targets but the first scheme stays the plan where the higher amounts of grants lvere allocated. Indeed financial support to decommissioning, which had fallen in relative and absolute terms after the achievement of the "Mellick Plan" at the beginning of the decade, increased again with the new schemes which were launched from 1993, without reaching the level of I 991 .

The following tables depict the place taken by decommissioning schemes (in bold characters) within the general frame of EU and Govemment assistance to the French fishing industry and aquaculture over the period I 99 l -I 996 (MAP, 1997) (INSEE 1997/l the price index) With an average of 56 million French Francs per year, the amounts allocated by ùe EU and ttre French Government to decommissioning schemes represent only slightly more than l% of the total expenditures of these authorities in aid to the sector over the period l99l-96. The financing of decommissioning schemes represents 13% of the total EU and Govemment expenditures for the'txploitation ofnalural resources" area (not including aquacutture), far behind subsidies to investment (representing 50% of ttre whole set, and constituted up to 98% by direct subsidies to ship building or modemising and by compensation of reduced interest rates of loans to fishing firms), and support to landing pnces (24% of the whole set). [START_REF] Giguelay | Gestion d'une rrssource corlmunc renouvelable: le cas des plans de sortie de flotte mis en rruvne dans le cadre de ta Politique Commune des Pêches[END_REF] Thus it appeam that, during the period under survey, EU and government subsidies, aiming at reducing the pressure on fish stocks, were ouûlumbered by subsidies liable to have the opposite effect. This phenomenon will have to be taken into account to interpret some results of our models. The priority stays the investment and the competitiveness of the fleet.

1,3 Characteristics of the decommissioning schemes.

The evaluation of a public action is not always simple. Some different parameters and constraints have to be taken into consideration. In the case ofthe policy offinancial incentives launched by the French govemment to withdraw vessels from French fleet, the direct effects of the scheme are obvious enough to bring to the fore. Indeed the withdrawal of a vessel is the directconsequence ofthe allocalion ofthe grand aid. Thus, it is possible to quantifr the direct effects ofthe financial support. In the evaluation of a public action it is not always the case.

For example, a region launches a program of public subvention to increase employment. (Badillo, Romain, 1999). Some months later a raising of the employrnent can be underscore.

The cause of ttris fact is probably not the program alone, some other factors can explain this increase (the revival in the economics..) Moreover, it is diffrcult to define the opportune time to evaluate the impact of this policy. ln the case of French decommissioning schemes the judicious moment of the evaluation is when every vessels are withdrawn consequently to the allocation of the grand aid.

Thus we can provide a "real" evaluation ofthe French decommissioning schemes.

French public decommissioning schemes can be appraised according to two points of view

The instigator of the public measrues appraised the effects of the action but fishermen who benefit by this program have an opinion and their own appraisal ofthe public action too.

In this paper we made up our mind to assess the consequences of the launch of decommissioning schemes according to the only view of the public actors which financed these programs. From a public point of view, this study provides an evaluation of the performance of subsidies, involved in the decommissioning scheme policy, in reducing fishing capacily.

This approach rests on an ex-post evaluation of the launch of a decommissioning scheme. This analysis will be based on the use of different input-oriented DEA modelsr. [START_REF] Cooper | Measuring the elffciency of decision making units[END_REF], (Banker, Cooper, Charnes, 1984) Let us underline the original use of these models. Most of the time, they attracl economists' interest in aproduction context. How produce better? How produce cheaper?

In our study the target is the suppression of the capacity of production! This kind of poliry remains relatively rare.

2 Data and models

2.lData

The first decommissioning schemes will be the subject of our study for two reasons. It inaugurated the beginning of the use of a new tool and it was the most important scheme launched in term of money.

The choice to assess the performance of public subsidies by using the DEA method needs to define inputs and outputs used in the different models.

So three kinds of subsidies are allocated to each fisherman who wants to withdraw his vessel from the French fleet. These subsidies have to take into account not only the cost ofthe vessel but also the psychological cost of ttre end of his activity for the fisherman too.

These subsidies have to be just incentive enough to incite fishermen to withdraw their vessels from fleet. Thus, the inputs are the three gand aids allocated by the French state, by the region of Brittany and by the department of Morbihan. Indeed the first decommissioning scheme was co-financed by French govemment and local communities (regions and departments).

It was necessary to collect data by getting in touch with each region and departmen! a task which up to now has been undertaken only for the region of Brittany and the department of Morbihan.

I In itrther research the use oF output-oriented DEA models witl enable us to exploit fhe DEA method in a decision perspective. The fixed funding will le.ad us to evaluate the fishing capacity which could have been eliminated in the scope of a decommissioning scheme. At the same time we will assess the performance of the policy according to the point ofview ofthe fishermen.

Brittany was not chosen simply for practical reasons of proximity, but mainly for its prominent position in the French fishing industry.

We shall therefore limit our presentation to the department of Morbihan for which a complete set of data conceming public subsidies at lhe national, regional and department levels has been collected. (Giguelay, Boncoeur, I999) However the official aim of the schemes is not the withdrawal of vessels but the destruction of the excess of fishing capacity2. It is worth withdrawing a very powerfrd vessel than two little smdl fishing boats if the state really wants to get the requirements of the European Commission.

A recent report of the European Commission brings to the fore the fact that the decrease of the fishing capacity can represent a good indicator of the reduction of fishing effort even if fishing effort is defined as capacity multiplied by activity expressed in days spent at sea. Thus, we take account of technical attributes of vessels to assess a certain decreaee of fishing effort.

For each vessel scrapped, we have collected its attributes. The capacity ofa fishing vessel is measured according to its size (tonnage, length), the power of its engines and the age of tre vessel which is an indirect indicator of the measure of the fishing effort too. Indeed, new vessels have greater fishing power than old ones thanks to advances in technology. The impact of technological progress on the fishing capacity of the fleet is real. Thw, four outputs will be taken into account to evaluate ttre eliminating of excess capacity.

The table below sum up the inputs and outputs collected for 69 vessels. Table 3. Variable description2.2 Models Consider lhere are N vessels scrapped in the scope of the first decommissioning scheme in the deparhnent of Morbihan and P subsidies allocated by the French public institutions (the French state, the region of Brittany, the department of Morbihan) to withdraw, from the fleet, C fishing capacity.

Note r" > 0 the amount of subsidies p allocated to the owner of the vessel j to withdraw it from the fleet and ./a 2 0 the fishing capacity c eliminated by the fisherman j in tlre scope of the decommissioning scheme.

The interest of the society is that public authorities larmch the less expensive policies as possible.

A decommissioning scheme is deemed inefficient when a lower level of subsidies would have led to a higher or an equal fishing capacity reduction.

In political context the questorl which guides our interpretation of the results, is : could the same fishing capacity reduction be obtained with a lower amount of public financing? (the fishing capacity is reduced in this model to the power engine of the vessel). Notice that a positive answer to this question do not always mean that the policy is inefficient. We will come back on this cerûain contradiction below... The fint model is an input-oriented model wittr 3 inputs (the grand aid allocated by the French Statg the region of Brittany and the department of Morbihan). In order to meet the first requirernents of the European Community, which goal is to reduce the power of the European fleet, we just consider I output the power engine of the vessel expressed in kW. We can underline thar reducing fishing capacity to the power of the vessel is not very rigorous. A vessel can be fewer powerful and can bring a high pressure on lhe fish resource if its tonnage is importan! it depends on the kind of fishing activity practised.

Conclusion

Results provided by these models will allow us to analyse the effrciency of the decommissioning schemes according to the score obtained by the different vessels involved in the scheme. Let us consider some possible analysis ln a first time, a comparison of the results of the fust models (model I, model II and model III) will be necessary to appreciate the logic ofthe tables based on the tonnage as regards lhe objective which is to decreasethe power-engine of the fleet! Then a second stage of the study will be to find some relation between in the hand the efficient vessels and in the other hand the non-efficient ones in order to determine the real targets of the launch of the decommissioning schemes.

Iaet's suppose thal the policy is not efficient as regards a category of vessels, it will be interesting to analyse this inefficiency. Perhaps this inefficienry is not a real inelficiency but an incentive means to convince some reticent fishermen to end their activities... Finally, the last three models which introduce the slack variables will be particularly interesting to underline the windfall effects which are omnipresent in the results of this kind of policy but which are very difficult to prove. ln the scope of the first decommissioning schemes, we suppose that the omers of the old vessels benefited by a windfall effect as regards their age. They would have received too much money regard to their age. The combination of a low score and a positive slack variable on the construction year of ùe vessel would justify the windfall effect...

  variablesIhe JÏshing capcity eliminated is represented by every technical attribute of the vessels

r flilI ililIilIil illlt ilIil llilt lill lilt *005019x Typhaine

  Gieuelav CEDEM. Université de Bretaette Occidentale 12. rue de Kerçoat, BP 816, 29285 Brest cedex. France Typh ain e. gi gu e I ay @un iv -b re s t.fr Adolphe Bobierre, CS 61 I 03, 3501 I Rennes cedex, France I sa b e I I e.P i o t@roa zh o n. i n ra rfr t

	Isabelle Piot-Lepetit
	INRA-Economie,

Rue

Table l .

 l Evolution ofEU and Frenoh govemment expenditures in aid ofthe French lishing industryand aquaculture, 1991-1996 (millions of constant 1996 FF)

:

Calculated ûom MAP 1997

Table 2 .

 2 EU and French government exp€nditues in aid of the French lishing industry and aquaculture.

	Yearly average 199l-1996 (constant French Francs)

The elimination ofthe excess ofcapacity is an intermediary goal. The real aim is to preserve fish resource to insure the durabilityof the activity of fishermen.

TheJishing capacity eliminated is represented by only one attlibute : ,he polryer4ngine.

Iaet us consider a vessel t (f = 1..."f).

v* and r"r will be the weigha dercrmined for every variable by the solution of tre model for the vessel Ë. For each vessel we search ttre weights which maximise the efficienry of the vessel according to the official view of the public actors.

The model can be defined as followb Mmwr= gr Vt E, -lv rox . <0 i = 1,...,J (Xn) v ,r=l

Er20 urr>A p= 1,...,P

The subject of this model is to reduce to a single dimension the three subsidies allocated by the public suppliers. We construct a single "virhral'subsidy.

In this non-parametric analysis, the mathematical programme consists in J optimisations (one for each vessel withdrawn in the scope of the scheme.)

ra. is the radial measwe of the technical efficiency which projects an 'lnefticient" vessel on the efficient frontier (accordng the public suppliers..)

In this model the efficiency score of an efficient vessels will show a value of l(this value is inferior to I for the inefficient vessels). This efticient vessel is on the technical ûontier, it is efficient according the Farrell definition.

A variable retwns to scale âssumplion is made since we c:mnot assume the existence of a proportionality between the allocated $ants and the eliminaeed fishing capacity.

So we obtain the following model: -7,r' i the intensity variable of the vessel È associated wittr the wittrdrav'rn vessel 7, -4: efficiencyscore.

A vessel &will be efficient on two conditions : every variable will be equal to 0 excepted 2o

and &. which will be equal to I while a vessel & is inefficient if i, is less than writy.

As regards the inefficient vessels, lhe ).n will be equal to 0 excepted when the vessel 7 is used to construct a '"virtual vessel" wittr which the vessel /c can be compared. we try to minimise the subsidies allocated to this "virtual vessel" which would be a linear combination of ûre real efficient vessels which enter the construction of this "virtual" vqssel.

In order to obtain an efficient allocatiorq the non-efficie,nt vessel would have to present all the attributes of the "virtual vessel". Even if they are very interesting, the results of these models present certain limits.

Indeed the first one is thatthe projection on the frontier is not pareto-optimal. This projection is based on the Debreu-Farrell measure of the efiiciency which presents problems when the section of the piecewise linear frontier nm parallel to the a;<es. (Fanell, 1957) The non-radial measurement allows us to find a pareto-optimal efficient projected point according to Koopmans.(Koopmarrs, I 95 I )

The inhoduction provided by the slacks variables leads to determine a pareto-efficient projection on the frontier.

In this paper we consider the following model which inhoduces slacks variables in the previous models:

The Jishing capcity eliminated is represented by only one attribute : the tonnage.

This programme can be solved by using the tonnage as the only one representation of the fishing capacity of the vessel. lndeed the French schemes allocate subsidies in frrnction of the tonnage of the vessel even if thery want to reduce the power of the fleet. Thus, the same model as presented above is computed by using the tonnage as the only output or representation of the fishing capacity of the vessel.

Then, it will be interesting to compare the results provided by of the models I and II.

Model III:

The Jishing capacity eliminated is represented by every technical attribute of the vessels Model IV:

Introduction of slack variable s

The fshing capacity eliminated is represented by only one attribute : the power-engine. The model presented below deems to be the most realist model in function of the official targets announced. Indeed every attribute (engttr, tonnage, power-engine and construction year of the vessel) is taken into account to evaluate the fishing capacity of a vessel. Even if the fishing capacity is not the fishing effort, the capacity of a vessel can be considered as a good indicator of the pressue on the fish stocks of a vessel. So in these models we construct a "vfutual" output thanls all atfibutes ofthe vessels.

-Zxn, , + hrx*> 0 p= 1,...,P lvrr') LLn=I (p)

(3) Ln20 i = 1,...,J

fr"e

Every constraint is presented in equalities form.

Two slacks' vector are introduced:

- Model IY:

Introduct i on of s lack var i ab les

The Jishing capacity eliminated is represented by only one attribute : the tonnage.

The same model as presented above is computed by using the tonnage as the only output or representation ofthe fishing capacity ofthe vessel.

Model Y:


Mohamed Faize

Marie-Noelle Brisset

Jean-Pierre Paulin

Michel Tharaud

Michel Tharaud Réponses

Réponses du Pommier à l'inoculation par des mutants hrp d'Erwinia amylovora

à la diffusion de documents scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, émanant des établissements d'enseignement et de recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires publics ou privés.


Philippe Le

Philippe Le Goffe
email: le-goffe@epi.roazhon.inra.fr

Hedonic pricing of agriculture and forestry externalities

Keywords: hedonic pricing, externality, valuation, benefit, damage, agriculture, forestry, envirortment, tou rism. DOCUII4EI, ITATOI

ou non, émanant des établissements d'enseignement et de recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires publics ou privés.

The European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists Seventh Annual Conference, Lisbon, Portugal, June 27-29,1996

1. lntroduction N atu re of external ities

Vermersch (1992) and Rainelli and Vermersch (1992) discussed the environmental consequences of seeking Pareto optimality in the French agricultural sector. On the one hand, technical progress, the regulation of agricultural prices, and the evolution of the relative prices of production factors have been responsible for an ever-increasing use of factors of industrial origin, relatively to land (intensification).

On the other hand, the existence of short-term economies and the absence of diversification economies have caused producers to specialize. At the same time, agricultural productions have concentrated in the regions where they are strongest : cereal crops in the north central France, dairy and intensive livestock farming in the West, whereas more and more farms are closing in other regions, most specifically in the southern half of France. The result is a double blow to the environment, which is perceptible on the national level, as well as on a regional level, and even on the level of the single farm. The first is well known and is characterized by the appearance of negative externalities: the harmful effects on the health of humans and on ecosystems caused by the discharge of pesticides, and nutrients of either chemical or animal origin, the denaturation of the countryside by livestock buildings, the odor of animal manure, the erosion linked to farming of certain crops, etc... The second blow to the environment concerns the cancellation of positive services or externalities brought on by agriculture; for example, one can mention the problems of the loss of biodiversity and of aesthetic and recreational services which are brought on by the destruction of hedgerows and the supression of wetlands, but also by the abandoning of farmland.

Phenomena of the same order, even if they are not so pronounced, characterize the recent evolution of French forests (lFEN, 1994). Since the Second World War, the productive function of the forest has been favored, to the detriment of its ecological and recreational functions. ln order to make up for the imbalance between the supply of and demand for forest products, we have reafforested using essentially conifers, fast-growing species which guarantee a higher profitability. Even if only a part of the surface-area of the forest is concerned, intensive management like that practiced in agriculture is accompanied by similar environmental consequences. The question is mainly one of the loss of positive external factors :

the homogenization of plant populations, whether it be by their age or by their species, reduces landscape quality and biodiversity, which in turn reduces the recreational functions of these areas. On the other hand, the potential negative externalities seem less important and more unknown r repercussions of the use of fertilizers and of phytocides, choice of species and water acification, etc...

French policies and evaluation ln the forest domain, environmental policies are essentially regulatory, notably with the creation of natural reserves, biotope designation, protective forests. But there are also more specific measures allowing for an agriculture/forest zoning policy in mountain areas, whose goal is to limit the expansion of the forest in order to avoid rural desertification and the closing in of landscape. Agricultural environmental policies, which appeared more recently because of a later realization of the scope of the problems, concern externalities and instruments which are more numerous and varied, The recourse to regulation can be illustrated by the policies of classified installations and the nitrate directive which aim to curb of the negative externalities linked to intensive livestock farming, or by the dispositions of the landscape law which preside over land development and land reallotment. At the same time, reflection on the use of economic incentives is progressing rapidly, taking into account both the curbing of negative externalities (programs designed to control agricultural pollution : livestock buildings improvements and nitrogen-pollution tax, Bonnieux et Rainelli, 1995), and the production of positive services (agri- environmental contracts : local operations designed to protect rare and fragile biotopes, to fight against the effects of farm closings, or to manage the fauna and the flora).

The conception of such policies raises the problem of the choice of the objectives of depollution or amenity level. The general answer is to set norms such as 50mg of nitrate per liter of water meant for human consumption. But we know as well that the economic response must also be found by comparing the rèal costs of depollution at the source, and the benefits reaped by society from the improvements of uses of water (water which has different functions : drinkable, productive, recreational, and ecological, Amigues et al, 1995). A recent report from the Finance Commission of the French General Assembly speaks of the possibility of imposing cost-benefit analysis of environmental regulations, similar to what already exists in the United States (Brard, 1995). What's more, such an approach would clear up the debate over the way economic incentives will be designed.

Hedonic prices and rural amenities ln this study, the hedonic price method (HPM) was used to detect certain external damages or benefits of agriculture and forestry. The HPM allows us to monetarize non-market environmental assets, by examining the differences of housing price due to variations in the quality of the environment. The hypothesis put forth is that the increase of the value of homes brought on by the increased quality of the environment would represent the Willingness to pay (WTP), for an improved environment. We seek to emphasize a relationship between housing prices and their attributes of livability, of location, and of environmental quality. This relationship, the hedonic price function, allows us to obtain the implicit price of the environment and, with other information concerning consumers, to trace the demand for a healthy environment, and then the welfare changes caused by environmental policies. The theoretical and practical questions raised by the environmental application of the HPM have been gathered in various surveys (Freeman, 1979 ; Follain and Jimenez, 1985 ; Johansson, 1987 ; Bartik and Smith , 1987 ; Palmquist , 1991 ; Freeman, 1993 ; Desaigues and Point, 1993 ; Le Goffe, 1995). The empirical applications of the HPM involve essentially the valuation of urban assets, such as noise and air-quality (Soguel, 1994 ; Nelson, 1978). Several studies have emphasized the positive effects of trees (Anderson and Cordell, 1988) and of city parks (More et al, 1988) on property value. The rural applications are very limited : the results concern forests and natural areas, but nothing in-depth has been done on agriculture (Garrod and Willis, 1992 and 1993 ; Delache and Jacques, 1994). ln our article, the hedonic approach was applied to the renting-price of rural self catering cottages, or gîtes. The study was limited to Brittany, in Western France.

Here, the environmental effects are partially internalized since the gîte owners, who are often farmers, benefit from the price-differentials resulting from the environmental quality that they themselves have been instrumental in creating. However, we hope to transpose these findings to other rural properties in which welfare changes do not necessarily give rise to monetary compensation. Our research had three main objectives:

-to identify the agricultural or sylvicultural elements which effectively result in welfare changes.

to found the public policies of pollution control and of providing of amenities, in particular those requiring economic incentives, the rate of which must be debated.

to examine the methodological problems raised by the HPM and its application to the countryside. '|

The Data

Se/ecfing the properties ln the last twenty years, hedonic studies on housing have been carried out essentially in Anglo-Saxon countries, and particularly in the United States, where there is a more simplified access to computerized files of transactions, classifying the price and the characteristics of both lodging and pf house-buyers. ln France, this type of access is not possible. ln order to study housing transactions, nevertheless, it is possible to resort to specific or existing surveys. lf the homes surveyed are main residences, we are dealing with numerous local markets which are influenced by the work market in particular. The need to carry out our study in a large geographical area, in order to have at our disposal a sufficient variety of the effects of agriculture, would have led us to group separate markets. According to Palmquist (1991), such a grouping leads to a biased estimation of the coefficients of the hedonic price function. This problem does not exist when one deals with rented accomodations, such as gîtes, the market of which is more regional, or even national. Moresoever, compared to a main residence, the demand (and thus the price) for rented accomodations is undoubtedly more influenced by environmental attributes , and less so by the need to be near certain tertiary sectors, one's job, or road systems.... This < hedonic > attitude of the consumer choosing rented accomodations is favorable to the detecting of environmental effects in the price, at the same time eliminating other parasitic variation factors. As gîtes are necessarily located outside of towns, it is fair to think that their agricultural and forest settings influence the price of rent. Finally, a centralized file of gîtes exists. lt is available in regional catalogues, with information classified according to season, to the size of the accomodations, the quality of services, etc1... The sample retained assembles roughly 600 gîtes dispersed_ nearly equally between the departments of Finistère, Côtes d'Armor, and Morbihan2. 45 percent of the gîtes are located in the north of Brittany, and 55 percent in the south. We chose to limit the sample to a region whose countryside is sufficiently homogeneous; in fact, a national study would have involved a risk of confusion of environmental effects with the specificities of the regions involved (relief, geology, rural architecture, patrimony, etc...). Nevertheless, the gîtes were selected in such a way as to create a sufficient variability in the use of the soil, notably in connection to the intensive or extensive nature of the agriculture, as well as to the degree of forest cover.

Prices of the gîfes

The information concerning the gîtes is taken from the 1995 catalogues. The weekly renting prices were recorded for the high, middle, and low touristic seasons (table 1;3. We of course dealt with the price lËted and not with equilibrium prices. This makes the assimilation of implicit prices to marginal WTP a difficult affair. The study of the rate of occupancy of the gîtes does, however, lead us to make a distinction between the renting seasons. Whereas the rate of occupancy is nearly 100 percent in the high season, it is much lower in the middle season and especially in the low season. This is a common phenomenon which can be observed for all forms of tourist accomodations in Brittany [START_REF] Bonnieux | Catastrophe écologique et dommages économiques, problèmes d'évaluation à paftir de l'Amoco Cadiz[END_REF]. The process of determining the price of gîtes is thus most likely different according to the season. ln the high season, the proprietor takes into account the rate of occupancy and adjusts his price from one year to the next, in order to fill his gîte at the highest price. On the other hand, the need to make a profit does not allow for too great a reduction in the price of rent, during the middle and low seasons. As the demand during these seasons is lower, there is a resulting partial rate of occupation. ln order to take into account the process of price-adjustment, which most certainly takes place in the high season, we limited ourselves to gîtes which have existed for at least 8 years. The idea was that renting price of the gîte, which was set arbitrarily the first year of its existence, has had the time to adjust, notably to the demand for environmental amenities. As these environmental attributes are not listed in the gîte catalogues, we must beware of a lack of consumer information, which might cast doubt on the application of the method. The customer surveys performed by Breton gîte associations contain two elements which help assuage that misgiving. First of all, a majority of gîtes are rented through the intermediary of connections. Second, the gîte clientele is a very faithful one; a vast majority of vacationers plan on coming back to the department and using the same system of accomodation. lt is thus t Gîtes de France.

'The total number of gîtes in the three departments is approximately 3000, which means that our survey represents 20 percent of the gîtes. probable that a significant portion of the clientele are already familiar with the gîte environment, either indirectly or directly (regular customers).

Attributes of the gîfes

The gîtes are characterized by three main categories of attributes : intrinsic, geographic, and environmental. Table 1 gives statistics describing the attributes later chosen in the hedonic models. The intrinsic attributes of the gîtes are the number of people they can lodge, the gîte-catalogue rating (rating given according to the quality and comfort), and the separation from other buildingsa. The geographical situation of the gîte can be classified according to several distances (various were tested) which are likely to influence the welfare of its users. We chose the distance from Paris to give an indication of the average cost of reaching the gîtes for the French clientele, and of easUwest location as well. The proximity of the sea is a well-known factor of influence on the price of holiday accomodations, and recreational users of the coastline make up the bulk of the Breton clientele. Finally, the climatic factor was taken into account by locating the gîtes in the north or the south of Brittany. Defining environmental attributes raises difficult questions, often discussed in writings on the topic (Freeman, 1993). ln our study, the most obvious approach would have been to index the renting price of gîtes according to the environmental parameters which are influenced by agriculture and by the forest. Thus, we would have needed data concerning water-quality (content of nutrients and of pesticides), the biodiversity of the aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems, different elements of the landscape, etc... These data are not readily available, for one thing, and for another thing, it can sometimes be difficult to determine the specific role farming plays in the evolution of these parameters. Lacking trustworthy indicators to measure external influences, we adopted a global approach mesuring the use of the soil by agriculture and by the forest. Each gîte was described according to the proportion of the surface area of its commune dedicated to forest, permanent grassland, cereal and fodder crops; these are the main uses of the soil in Brittany. We completed the data on plant production with statistics about the density of livestock compared to the surface area of the commune. With this approach, the agricultural and sylvicultural variables synthesize several environmental influences, which become impossible to isolate. ln this way, the existence of fodder crops implies the use of species (corn) and/or farming practices which are potentially harmful to the environment, the systematic recourse to fertilizers and pesticides, the frequent destruction of hedgerows, and a high density of dairy cattle. On the contrary, permanent grassland characterize more extensive systems which have a greater respect for hedgerows, the soil and water- quality. At the same time, a high density of either pigs or poultry causes problems of noxious odors, the degradation of the landscape by livestock buildings, the pollution of the air and water by animal manure. This is the reason for which these monogastric species have been grouped on the basis of the nitrogen contained in their manure.

Table 1 -Descriptive statistics of prices and attributes of the gîtes used in the hedonic models (n=580) TSA = Total Surface Area 1 Animal Nitrogen Unit; 1 pig = 0.1 ANU ; 1 poultry = 0.005 ANU

The Model

Most of the hedonic studies applied to the environment in the last twenty years have been based on the work of Rosen (1974), dealing with the theoretical model of markets of differentiated goods. According to this model, the characteristics constituting the differentiated good come to play simultaneously in the utility function of the consumer and in the cost function of the producer. The hedonic price function represents the geometrical place of equilibrium between the supply of and the demand for the different goods. Following the example of Freeman (1993), we will confine ourselves to the demand of .a housing market with environmental attributes.

The utility of the consumer U iS a function of the characteristics of his accomodations, and of the consumption of other goods, represented by the vector X (price vector { ). Thus I , L, and p, respectively, are the vectors of the intrinsic, High season price (FFlweek) Middle season price (FF/week) Low season price (FFlweek) Lodging capacity (Number of persons) Gîte rating (stars) Adjacent gîte (1=yes, O=no) Shared courtyard (1=yes, O=no) Distance from the sea (km) Distance from Paris (km) Geographical location ( 1=north, 0=south)

Pigs (head/ha TSA) Poultry (head/ha TSA) Monogastric animals (ANU'/ha TSA) Fodder crops (%TSA) Permanent Grassland (%TSA) Cereal crops (%TSA) Forests (%TSA) location, and environmental characteristics of the lodging, which are also arguments for hedonic price function P. The program of the consumer is : Max U(X,I,L,Q) Subject to budget constraint : PxX+P(I,L,Q)=R Solving this equation with 4; being one of the environmental attributes, and x, being one of the other good consumed leads us to the optimal solution which checks: ôU I ôa, Px,=ôPlôq, ôUlôx, I 'r ln equilibrium, the consumer chooses his level of characteristic gi by matching his marginal bid 'for q, to the implicit marginal market-price of 81. As a result, in a market in which consumers maximize their utility, the implicit marginal price observed at a given level of a characteristic, obtained by the derivation of the hedonic price function, supplies the consumer's marginal WTP for this characteristic.

The hypothesis of a market in equilibrium, which implies that consumers constantly reexamine their choice and that all differentiated goods find a taker, was dicussed by Freeman (1979 and1993) concerning the housing market. The second step then consists in identifying the demand function, thus opening the way to calculating the welfare changes due to environmental policies.

The Breton gîte market probably satisfies the hypothesis of uniqueness (see above), and perhaps the hypothesis of equilibrium in the high season, all the more so since, unlike the situation of the market for main residences, the consumer is free to reexamine his choice, practically without incurring mobility expenses. As this was an exploratory study, and as we lacked information about the clientele of gîtes, we confined ourselved to the first step, which leads to the hedonic price function and to the implicit price of environmental attributes, without identifying the demand. This will cause several problems for the calculation of the welfare changes due to environmental policies. The hedonic price function is specified empirically as follows:

P, = P(l,,L,,Q,)
where { is the price of weekly rent for gîte i (a model was estimated for each season), and where 1,, L,, and Q designate the vectors of the intrinsic, local, and environmental attributes of gîte i . Lacking a simple analytical solution of the Rosen model, the theory gives few indications about the specification of the functional form of the hedonic equation, which, however, is known for affecting implicit prices (Graves et al, 1988; Cropper et al, 1988). ln our study the choice of attributes was guided by the desire to reconcile two antagonistic constraints. lt was important first to not omit any key characteristics, in order to not bias our estimations (Bateman, 1993). But it was also important to avoid I the multicolinarity brought on by a multiplication of variables. For this reason, we linked the agricultural indicators to neighboring environmental effects : wheat, barley and corn in cereals, temporary grasses and corn fodder in fodder crops, pigs and poultry in monogastrics. The different functional forms found in literature were tested : linear, log-linear, log-log, Box-Cox. lt seems important to seek out flexible forms : the transformation of Box-Cox of the dependent variable p()")=(p\ -I)l),, thus allows us to obtain rising implicit marginal prices, constant or lowering with the level of the characteristic, according to the value of À (Bateman, 1993). We should note on this point that the identification of the demand is impossible when the hedonic price function is linear,

The Results

The best results were obtained for the weekly price in the high season, with 65% of variation explained by the model (table 2). The functional form we chose was linear; we could not improve the signification of the coefficients and the R2 by testing more complex flexible functional forms. lt is also profitable to express the.agricultural variables according to the total surface area of the commune, rather than in utilized agricultural area. A graphic test of heteroscedasticity proved negative. The attributes which play a role, and the sign of implicit prices seem to be generally in keeping with the hypotheses and with the empirical intuitions. Among the intrinsic attributes tested, three had an influence on the price of gîtes. The first important attribute was lodging capacity ; renting price went up by approximately FF200 per extra person accomodated. Next came the rating, with an increase of FF180 per each extra star. Finally, the separation of the gîte from other buildings is also taken into account : a completely independent gîte will rent for FF120 more than a gîte adjacent to other buildings, and FF80 more than an independent gîte sharing a courtyard with other gîtes. On the other hand, the further the gîte is from Paris, the more expensive it is (FF1.4 per kilometer), whereas we had expected the opposite effect because of travel expenses. A possible interpretation of this effect lies in the consumer's desire for a certain < Breton > character (landscapes, homes, place names) which are more frequent the further west one goes. There may also be a question of a relief which is much more impressive in the west. Finally, we remarked a FF90 price difference between the north and the south, with, as expected, the south being more expensive.

We maintained five environmental attributes in the model, of which only two are clearly significant. lt appears that the price of gîtes is negatively influenced by intensive :fodder and livestock farming, with robust signs and coefficients when one modifies the model. The result is approximately FFS per point for the fodder crops and FF120 per additonal ANU5 per hectar for monogastric animals, which represents in both cases a range of FF300 renting price between the extremes gîtes, the average price of which was FF2000. We deteriorate the accuracy of our estimations when we attempt to disassociate the pigs and poultry, or, conversely, when we attempt to include monogastrics animals and cattle in the same index. The implicit index. The implicit prices of the proportions of permanent grassland and of forests, even if not significant, have a fairly robust sign. Whereas the price of gîtes increases with the proportion of permanent pasture, it is diminished by forest cover, but these are only trends. The influence of cereal crops is less robust.

When we now look at the models for the middle and low seasons, the percentage of variation explained by the model is clearly lowered. ln the middle season, we can find almost the same significant attributes as in the high season, with the same signs, but the influence of north-south location disappears. The effects have diminished, more or less proportionally to the average renting prices, except for the rating and the distance from the sea, where we can remark a clear drop. In the low season, the renting prices of gîtes are influenced essentially by their intrinsic attributes and the distance from the sea. The density of monogastric animals is now the only significant environmental attribute. Nevertheless, the sign of the variables is maintained all year long. (-3,9) -85 (-2,5) -8,2 (-9,4)

1,4 (4,9) -92 (-3,5) -120 (-3,3) -4,7 (-3,5) 4,8 (1,8) 3,4 (1,6) -3,2 (-1,5) 371 (2,1) 134 (17 ,1) 73 (4,3) -77 (-2,8) _46 (-1,5) -4,4
' (-5,5) One important limitation of this study comes from the fact that the environmental attributes and the prices were available for different years, respectively 1988 and 1995. Did agriculture and forestry evolve significantly during that period ? The answer can by found by comparing agricultural statistics for Brittany for 1988 and 1993. We can remark a drop of 6 percent in the number of bovines, most probably due to milk quotas and the increase of productivity. This drop is logically accompanied by a global decrease in the land used for fodder (fodder crops : -10 o/o, permanent grassland : -8 7o), even though the amount of land reserved for corn fodder increased by 10 percent. At the same time the amount of land used for cereal farming increased by 11 percent, and the number of monogastric animals increased rapidly (pigs: 12 o/o; poultry : more than 20 %). lt is difficult to say to what point this evolution influenced our results. We can assume that the intensification of crop-farming and especially of animal breeding occurred more frequently in areas where the practice of intensive farming was already more widespread, thus widening the differences between the communes. Following this hypothesis, the implicit price associated with the density of monogastric animals, for example, would be overestimated.

0,7 (2,9) -4 (-0,2) -83 (-2,5) -2,5 (-2,1) 2,0 (0,8) 3,7 (2,0) -2,7 (-1,4) 467 (2,7) 112 (15,0) 62 (3,7) -71 (-2,8) -71 (-2,5) -3,8 (-4,8) 0,3 (1,3) -50 (-2,2) -71 (-2,2) -0,7 (-0,6) 1,1 (0,5) 2,7 (1,5) -1,6 (-0,9) R" Adjusted R2 0,
The environmental influences all turned out generally as we expected, except perhaps the influence of the forestry, which was negative, but not significantly so, ln an attempt to explain its influence, we decided to study the characteristics of the Breton forest. ln Brittany, the forest is mainly private property, and since World War ll, reafforestation has been done with mainly conifers, resulting in a proportion of this species which is higher than the average for France. This situation is not favorable for the recreational use of the forest ; it can be likened to the reduction of housing prices caused by conifers, observed by [START_REF] Garrod | The environmental economic impact of woodland : a two stage hedonic prices model of the amenity value of forestry in Britain[END_REF]. More generally, we can rethink our choice of indexing external factors according to variable of the use of the soil. Over and beyond the aspects which have already been discussed (global or indirect character), it is probable that the aesthetic function of the countryside is not as well taken into account as its ecological function. First of all, archichectural elements, which, along whith the agricultural or sylvicultural uses of the soil, form the rural French countryside, have been badly thought out. Secondly, it is probable that the willingness to pay for the aesthetic function of the countryside is determined by a global conception of its various elements. lt seems then that the contingent valution method would be the most adapted for dealing with these types of problems. ln evaluating the damages caused by the Amoco Cadiz oil-spill, [START_REF] Bonnieux | Catastrophe écologique et dommages économiques, problèmes d'évaluation à paftir de l'Amoco Cadiz[END_REF], proposed an interpretation of the equilibrium of the tourist market in Brittany. We can use their example to attempt to explain the differences between the models according to the renting season for gîtes. Figure 1 represents the demand for a gîte during the high season (D1), for the off-season (D2), as well as the supply of the gîte in term of maximum lodging capacity (S). During the high season, the gîte owner adjusts his price P1 in such a way as to obtain a maximum rate of occupancy. During the off-season (middle and low seasons), the price P2 brings about a rate of ll ".i occupancy T2 which explains the gap between P2 and the equilibrium price. lnformation from Breton gîte associations indicates that the rate of occupancy during the off-season varies in individual cases, notably according to the distance from the sea. This additional, unknown factor of variation in the off-season models, might explain the drop of R2 and the lesser signification of the variables, notably environmental ones, compared to the high-season model. Knowing implicit prices allows us to envision a cost-benefit analysis of intensification of fodder and livestock farming, comparing the losses in the tourism sector and the non-market damages incurred by local residents (differences in housing prices), to the increase in added value brought on to the considered activitieso. This exercise, however, presents numerous difficulties, several of which will be dealt with. The first difficulty comes from the linear form of the hedonic equation ; a more eleborated form could not be obtained, most likely because of the imprecise nature of the data (non-equilibrium prices, prices and attibutes gathered in different years, global and indirect environmental attributes...). This constraint imposes unchanging implicit prices, whereas we should rather expect an increase of marginal damages with the intensification of farming. This lack of realism is compounded by the impossibility of estimating the demand function for environmental attributes (a double problem, since we had no data concerning gîte clientele). As we could not estimate the welfare change, we are reduced to resorting to the differential in the renting price of gîtes, which, according to Bartik and Smith (1987), overestimate the welfare change. A third difficulty lies in the transfer of our findings to residents, who are much more numerous than tourists and who are present all year long. To what extent can we assimilate the WTP of tourists during the high season, which is the only element we can claim to reach from the implicit price, to the average WTP of year-long residents ? Taking into account the difficulties S o 6 We should also measure the market damages involving water-treatment, fish farming, etc. t2 t involved in applying the HPM to main residences in rural areas, the use of the contingent valuation method seems the appropriate way to answer the question. However, we must assume that the tourist, who is more "hedonic" than the year-long resident, and who does not benefit from the social external factors of agriculture (notably in terms of employment), is much more sensitive to the attributes of the environment surrounding his accomodations.

We also attempted to compare the level of implicit prices (marginal damages or benefits) during the high season to the rate of the economic incentives which have been, or will soon be, brought into play. Two cases were considered : the annual subsidy of FF3,000 per ha allotted for converting arable land into permanent grassland (agri-environmental contract for water-protection), and the annual increase of the nitrogen pollution tax brought on by the increase of animal density (+1 ANU per ha). The subsidy per ha and the additional tax per ANU were compared, respectively, with the benefit of the increase of permanent grassland, and the damage caused by the increase in monogastric density. ln each case, the benefit per ha or damage per ANU is obtained by spreading the implicit annual price over all of the resident Breton households, and dividing it by the appropriate surface area or livestock. The benefit per ha of permanent grassland is FF9,000, and the damage per ANU is 20 times higher than the additional tax linked to increase of animal density. For the reasons mentioned earlier (evolution of agriculture between 1988 and 1995, calculation of the welfare changes based on price differentials, transfer tourist-resident), values are overestimated. On the contrary, we did not take into account certain damages to the tourism sector that should be added. Finally, we should remark that the damage linked to intensive livestock farming involves a large number of harmful elements (odors, degradation of the landscape, water pollution), whereas the tax punishes only nitrogen pollution.

Gonclusion

This study has shown that the HPM, a method traditionally reserved for the urban domain, can contribute to the valuation of the externalities of agricutlture and forestry. lt is one of the first studies to furnish figures for agriculture, even if they are debatable. Before quantification, our study permitted the identification of the main agricultural variables whose effects to the environment are well-known, but influence on welfare had, to our knowledge, never been proven in housing markets. Fodder crops and intensive livestock farming (pigs and poultry) generate negative externalities, whereas permanent grassland seem to create positive services. The effects of the forest and of cereal-farming on the price of gîtes, which are, respectively, positive and negative, need to be confirmed and explained. When we compare homogeneous data, the implicit price of the variables responsible for external effects is clearly superior to the subsidy or tax considered, notably in the case of nitrogen pollution caused by^breeding. Affined and proven, the implicit prices could be used to evaluate the loss to the tourism sector, and, on a more ambitious level, to evaluate the non-market losses to residents caused by the intensification of fodder farming and animal breeding.

Nevertheless, the study comports certain methodological limitations which inform us of the improvements which need to be made on concerning rural applications of the HPM. These limits stem from the specificity of gîtes (incomplete information concerning consumers, institutional nature of prices, tourist-resident transfer), the difficulty of indexing external factors (global and indirect agrictultural variables) and the impossibility of estimating a ratio of demand (lack of data and linear functional form).

It seems that the development of rural applications of the HPM will require the acquisition of data-bases recording the selling or renting prices of property on the market. ln order to control the factors of variation linked to employment and the size of the market, it would be interesting to consider studies including second homes, or perhaps homes of the rural zones around large cities. ln addition to the classic model, models of discrete choice or studies of multiple sales should be experimented with (Bartik and Smith, 1987). ln addition, in order to confirm the global valuations indexed according to agricultural variables, it would be useful to further elaborate the environmental variables. This objective calls for the creation of data-bases recording water-quality, biodiversity, landscape.... The recourse to geographical information systems should prove to be useful in the latter case (Bateman, 1994). ln the forest domain, data concerning the composition of species and the structure of tree populations should also permit us to explain observed effects.

We should also plan on gathering information about housing consumers.This information, unfortunately, is absent from our exploratory study. lt is a question of measuring the preference for certain environmental criteria (perception, sensitivity, hierarchy...), in order to interpret hedonic equations. We must then obtain the socioeconomic characteristics which are essential to successfully identify the demand function ;the identification must be made from multiple markets (Palmquist, 1984).

Finally, future, specific surveys, should put into play the contingent valuation method, in order to confirm the WTP resulting from the HPM, which also causes comparison difficulties (Bonnieux and Weaver, 1995).

-0ooo0-

t

  High season : July and August ; miàOte season : June and September ; low season : from October to May.

Figure 1 -

 1 Figure 1 -Renting price and occupancy rate of a gîte for different seasons renting price

Table 2 -

 2 Estimation of the hedonic functions (linear models)l

	Variable	High season	Middle Season	Low season
	Constant	363
		(1,9)
	Lodging Capacity	196
		(22,6)
	Gîte Rating	180
		(9,5)
	Adjacent gîte	-1 18
	Shared courtyard
	Distance from the sea
	Distance from Paris
	Geographical location
	Monogastric animals
	Fodder crops
	Permanent grassland
	Cereal crops
	Forests

A distinction is made among gîtes which are adjacent to other accomodations, non-adjacent gîtes located in a group of buildings sharing one courtyard, and gîtes which are completely independent.

Animal Nitrogen Unit calculated on the basis of nitrogen excreted.