title: Bush encroachment control and risk management in semi-arid rangelands.
abstract: We study the role of bush encroachment control for a farmer's income and income risk in a stochastic ecological-economic model of grazing management in semi-arid rangelands. In particular, we study debushing as an instrument of risk management that complements the choice of an adaptive grazing management strategy for that sake. We show that debushing, while being a good practice for increasing the mean pasture productivity and thus expected income, also increases the farmer's income risk. The optimal extent of debushing for a risk-averse farmer is thus determined from balancing the positive and negative consequences of debushing on intertemporal and stochastic farm income.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Evolutionary Biology and Environmental Studies, University of Zurich, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Natalia
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Lukomska
authors.affiliation: Department of Economics, University of Kiel, Germany.
authors.forename: Martin F
authors.initials: MF
authors.lastname: Quaas
authors.affiliation: Department of Sustainability Sciences and Department of Economics, Leuphana University of Lüneburg, Germany. Electronic address: baumgaertner@uni.leuphana.de.
authors.forename: Stefan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Baumgärtner
mesh_terms: D000383:Agriculture / Q000191:economics*; D003247:Conservation of Natural Resources; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D010944:Plants; D012306:Risk; D012308:Risk Management / Q000191:economics
keywords: Bush encroachment; Expected utility; Farm income; Intertemporal optissmization; Risk aversion; Risk management; Semi-arid rangeland