Personal norms of sustainability and their impact on management: The case of rangeland management in semi-arid regions

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We empirically study personal norms of sustainability, conceptualized according to the normactivation theory and operationalized under the notion of strong ecological-economic sustainability, for commercial cattle farmers in semi-arid rangelands of Namibia, a system that is subject to extensive degradation. We characterize farmers' personal norms, study their determinants, and analyze their impact on actual management based on the dual-preferences model. We find personal norms of sustainability that are heterogeneous across farmers, but vary little with socio-demographic or environmental characteristics. We find no evidence for a significant impact of personal norms on actual management behavior, which may be due to farmers not feeling capable for averting adverse long-term consequences of their management. This may contribute to the observed degradation of rangelands in Namibia.

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• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: Working Paper Series in Economics ; No. 209

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Equity, Justice, Inequality, and Other Normative Criteria and Measurement ; Micro Analysis of Farm Firms, Farm Households, and Farm Input Markets ; Ecological Economics: Ecosystem Services; Biodiversity Conservation; Bioeconomics; Industrial Ecology
• Subject: commercial cattle farming ; Namibia ; norm-activation theory ; personal norms ; dual-preferences model ; semi-arid rangelands ; sustainability ; Weidewirtschaft ; Rinderhaltung ; Landwirte ; Umweltbewusstsein ; Nachhaltige Entwicklung ; Landwirtschaftliche Bodennutzung ; Bodenbelastung ; Namibia

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Olbrich, Roland ; Quaas, Martin F. ; Baumgärtner, Stefan
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): Leuphana Universität Lüneburg, Institut für Volkswirtschaftslehre
• (where): Lüneburg
• (when): 2011

Further information

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/57142