Jyothis Sathyapalan | Centre for Economic and Social Studies

Papers by Jyothis Sathyapalan

This document contains the draft Chapter 4 of the IPBES Global Assessment on Biodiversity and Eco... more This document contains the draft Chapter 4 of the IPBES Global Assessment on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services. Governments and all observers at IPBES-7 had access to these draft chapters eight weeks prior to IPBES-7. Governments accepted the Chapters at IPBES-7 based on the understanding that revisions made to the SPM during the Plenary, as a result of the dialogue between Governments and scientists, would be reflected in the final Chapters.IPBES typically releases its Chapters publicly only in their final form, which implies a delay of several months post Plenary. However, in light of the high interest for the Chapters, IPBES is releasing the six Chapters early (31 May 2019) in a draft form. Authors of the reports are currently working to reflect all the changes made to the Summary for Policymakers during the Plenary to the Chapters, and to perform final copyediting.

The argument that the use rights arising out of the conventional arrangements play an important r... more The argument that the use rights arising out of the conventional arrangements play an important role in the degradation of protected areas has motivated this paper. This study adopting a dichotomous choice contingent valuation survey among the urban people in Kerala, India examines the preference and value to conserve biodiversity in Periyar Tiger Reserve, India where different types of de facto user rights exists. It has been found that although such de facto rights like pilgrimage leads to the degradation of the reserve, the preference and value elicitation shows that there is scope for improving biodiversity conservation by paying due attention to the preference and value of those who exercise or perceive informal property rights over the resource. This is very important in such socio-cultural context where the total ban of such activities is impossible or ineffective. It is urged that with the design of appropriate institutional mechanisms perhaps such rights can be converted fr...

Indian journal of agricultural economics, 2005

It is generally argued that in rural areas people depend more on natural environment like forest ... more It is generally argued that in rural areas people depend more on natural environment like forest due to the economic compulsions arising out of poverty (Dasgupta and Maler, 1995). A number of forest resources are complimentary in production and consumption to other goods and services and supplement household incomes especially in times of acute economic stress (Falconer and Arnold, 1989). The contribution of non-timber forest products to the total households’ income is found to be a significant factor that support rural livelihood (Nadkarni et al., 1989; Appasamy, 1993; Chopra, 1993; Mallik, 2000). To take the case of Orissa, the nontimber forest products contribute about 22.4 to 54.5 per cent of the total households’ income (Mallik, 2000). However, serious constraints on the access and appropriation of these products have been enforced by the state while establishing protected areas as a part of the forest policy. There is evidence to show that setting up of protected forest areas ...

This paper analyses the economics of biodiversity conservation in the context of a tropical fores... more This paper analyses the economics of biodiversity conservation in the context of a tropical forest ecosystem in India, where coffee is the main competitor for land use. Using primary data covering a cross-section of coffee growers, the study notes that the opportunity costs of biodiversity conservation in terms of coffee benefits foregone are quite high. Even after including external costs due to wild life damages and defensive expenditure to protect against wild life, the NPVs and IRRs from coffee for all land holding groups were high. Even if the expected benefits were to decrease by 20% and costs rise by a similar proportion, still the IRRs from coffee were quite high (19.5 to 20.1 per cent). The study notes that the external costs accounted for between 7 to 15 per cent of the total discounted costs of coffee cultivation, and smaller holdings proportionately incurred higher external costs as compared to large holdings. The study also notes high transaction costs incurred by the g...

PBL Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency is the national institute for strategic policy an... more PBL Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency is the national institute for strategic policy analysis in the fields of the environment, nature and spatial planning. We contribute to improving the quality of political and administrative decision-making by conducting outlook studies, analyses and evaluations in which an integrated approach is considered paramount. Policy relevance is the prime concern in all of our studies. We conduct solicited and unsolicited research that is both independent and scientifically sound.

The study tries to examine the implementation process of the Forest Rights Act 2006 in Kerala, in... more The study tries to examine the implementation process of the Forest Rights Act 2006 in Kerala, in terms of providing individual holding land rights and community rights over forest products. The study also tries to evaluate the scope and feasibility of taking up the implementation of community rights and conservation duties consistent with the participatory forest management programmes of the state

In this chapter, we wrestle with the question that motivates this book: how to value small-scale ... more In this chapter, we wrestle with the question that motivates this book: how to value small-scale fisheries? We do so in relation to an empirically rich case, the small-scale fishery of Gujarat, India. Our investigation of historical and social relational factors influencing the Gujarat fishery reveals the complexity of the notion of value. The fishery of Gujarat State is large, economically significant, internally diverse, and complex in organization and practice. Yet, even in comparison to other marginalized small-scale fisheries, Gujarat’s small and large scale fisheries are peripheral to the consciousness of most Gujaratis. We reflect on how the predominant value orientation of Gujarat has shaped its fisheries’ historical development and led to significant ecological and social contradictions in them. We argue that social wellbeing provides a productive analytical framework for understanding value in the Gujarat small-scale fishery in relation to history, social positionality, an...

Research Papers in Economics, 2003

This paper analyses the economics of biodiversity conservation in the context of a tropical ecosy... more This paper analyses the economics of biodiversity conservation in the context of a tropical ecosystem in India, where coffee is the main competitor for land use.Using primary data covering a cross section of coffee growers,the study notes that the opportunity costs of biodiversity conservation in terms of coffee benefits foregone are quite high.Even after including external costs due to wild life damages and defensive expenditures to protect against wild life, the NPVs and IRRs from coffee for all land holding groups were high.The study notes that the external costs accounted for between 7 to 15% of the total discounted costs of coffee cultivation, and smaller holdings proportionately incurred higher external costs as compared to larger holdings. The study also notes high transaction costs incurred by the growers to claim compensation for wild life damages. Notwithstanding these disincentives, the study notes that the local community were willing to pay in terms of time for particip...

This study of the implementation of the Forest Rights Act 2006 in the Western Ghats of Kerala ide... more This study of the implementation of the Forest Rights Act 2006 in the Western Ghats of Kerala identifies the main constraints to the working of the legislation. Community rights and conservation provisions seem to be ignored. The paper also highlights the importance of integrating the implementation of the fra with the participatory forest management programmes for providing community rights to the use of forests products. It also recommends a need for sensitising communities to various provisions of the legislation.

Scientists have repeatedly argued that transformative, multiscale global scenarios are needed as ... more Scientists have repeatedly argued that transformative, multiscale global scenarios are needed as tools in the quest to halt the decline of biodiversity and achieve sustainability goals. As a first step towards achieving this, the Expert Group on Scenarios and Models of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) entered into an iterative, participatory process that led to the development of the Nature Futures Framework (NFF). The NFF is a heuristic tool that captures diverse, positive relationships of humans with nature in the form of a triangle. It can be used both as a boundary object to open up more plural perspectives in the creation of nature scenarios and as a framework for developing consistent nature scenarios across multiple scales. Here, we describe the methods employed to develop the NFF and how this is part of a longer-term process to create transformative, multiscale scenarios for nature. We argue that the contribution of...

Nature Ecology & Evolution

Economic and political weekly

I am grateful to the Jamsetji Tata Trust, Mumbai for providing financial support for this study t... more I am grateful to the Jamsetji Tata Trust, Mumbai for providing financial support for this study through the Research Unit for Livelihoods and Natural Resources at the Centre for Economic and Social Studies, Hyderabad. The support from the government of Kerala and its various ...

World Small-Scale …, Jan 1, 2012