In educational environments, proximity to greenspace can increase concentration, attentiveness, self-discipline, improve classroom engagement, and support cognitive development. This study contributes to this growing literature by examining the potential benefits associated with public parks on academic performance across different grade levels in four counties in western Washington state, USA. We use a five-year panel data set to assess the impact of a school's proximity to a public park on the percentage of students in each grade who meet or exceed proficiency standards for statewide assessment tests while controlling for general greenness, along with a number of socioeconomic and demographic factors. Our results suggest that having a public park within 800 meters of the school is associated with an increase in the percentage of students that meet or exceed the standard for language arts and math standardized tests for middle schoolers. The local greenness of the school grounds and surrounding area, measured by NDVI, had no impact on test scores. This suggests that the parks themselves could have a positive relationship, beyond increased exposure to greenness, and potentially provide academic benefits to students. We do not find a significant impact of a school's proximity to public parks for elementary or high school students, which we hypothesize could be for various reasons. Though the literature on the benefits associated with public parks is well established, this is the first study, to our knowledge, to investigate their potential relationship with educational performance.

This paper examines the role of community forest management coupled with mandatory forest certification in Guatemala's Maya Biosphere Reserve (MBR). Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification aims to promote sustainable forest practices and increase economic returns for harvesting certified timber through price premiums gained through eco-labeling and specialized access to international markets. Guatemala established community and industrial forest concessions in the reserve as a way to stem rampant deforestation in the region in the 1990s. Concessions are required to obtain FSC certification to maintain their harvesting rights to the forest. The communities that manage the concessions vary across a number of cultural and socio-demographic characteristics, such as income, educational attainment, and previous forest experience. Some community concession members have lived in the region for multiple generations and have historically depended on the forest for their livelihoods, while other groups are comprised of more recent migrants that come primarily from agricultural backgrounds. The differences among the community forest groups, along with the private industrial concessions, allow for a robust examination of the impact of forest certification across different institutional approaches to forest management. Using Hansen's forest loss data from 2000 to 2017 for Guatemala, we employ a random effects model to compare the effectiveness of the community and industrial concessions in reducing deforestation compared to a matched control group. Additionally, we test whether the benefit of increased market access that comes with FSC certification further decreases deforestation. Our findings suggest that sustainable forest management practices have continued to reduce forest loss in the MBR, just as well, if not more so than the industrial concessions, but the impact varies based on community characteristics. The market access component of FSC certification also impacts deforestation, although the effect is small.& COPY; 2023 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

AbstractTropical forests in developing countries are important for the provision of global ecosystem services, but also tend to be characterized by weak formal governance, high dependence on natural resource use, and, hence, rapid depletion of natural resources. Depending on the context, informal institutions may be insufficient as well. Focusing on native forests and the Forest Stewardship Council forest management certification scheme, we examine the role of markets and global supply chains as a mechanism for overcoming institutional failures and legitimizing rights to natural resources by rural communities. We posit that, in the absence of effective local institutions, voluntary certification, under certain conditions, can be a viable mechanism for the fair delineation, monitoring, and enforcement of forest property rights in developing countries.

Penny M. Rowea* , Lea Fortmannb, Timothy L. Guascoc , Aedin Wrightd, Amy Rykene , Emma Sevierf, Grace Stokesg, Amanda Mifflind , Rachel Wadeh, Haiyan Chengi, William Pfalzgraffj , Justin Beaudoink, Isha Rajbhandarib, Kena Fox-Dobbsf & Steven Neshybad a NorthWest Research Associates, Bellevue, Washington 98052b Economics, University of Puget Sound, Tacoma, Washington 98416c Chemistry, Millikin University, Decatur, Illinois 62522d Chemistry, University of Puget Sound, Tacoma, Washington 98416e Education, University of Puget Sound, Tacoma, Washington 98416f Geology, University of Puget Sound, Tacoma, Washington 98416g Chemistry & Biochemistry, Santa Clara University, Santa Clara, California 95053h Physics, Edmonds Community College, Lynnwood, Washington 98036i Computer Science, Willamette University, Salem, Oregon 97301j Chemistry, Chatham University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15232k Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences, University of Washington Tacoma, Tacoma, Washington 98402

The authors of this article introduce two teaching modules that aim to increase climate literacy and active learning in undergraduate economics courses through the incorporation of real-world data and modeling. These modules are based on the concept of computational guided inquiry (CGI), which combines a guided inquiry approach within a computational framework, such as Excel. In one module, students estimate and graph expected marginal damages due to regional sea level rise for various polar ice melt scenarios. In the second module, students partially replicate a journal article estimating the total economic value of ecosystem services in the Arctic. These modules have been used in urban, environmental, and climate change economics courses, and are ready to be implemented with minimal upfront cost to instructors.

Forests in developing tropical countries are frequently overexploited because they are essentially treated as open access due to the lack of resources dedicated to protect the area. In response, some governments have shifted towards community-based, common property resource management policies. While there is emerging evidence that these policies can reduce deforestation, there has been less research assessing the effect of these concessions on rural livelihoods. This is surprising, since sustainable income generation is an important outcome that can influence the long-term success of concession policies. This study examines the effect of community-managed forest concessions on income in the context of the Maya Biosphere Reserve in northern Guatemala. In this region, forest concessions have been established in the past 20 years to give local residents access to the forests. Residents granted access to a forest concession are required to reduce overexploitation by abiding by a sustainable forest management plan and obtaining certification from the Forest Stewardship Council. In the Maya Biosphere Reserve, the characteristics of concession communities vary and the sustainable management plan is often tailored to meet the needs of the community. The results show that the effects of participating in a forest concession on income are generally positive, although there is significant heterogeneity among communities with different socioeconomic characteristics. (C) 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

This paper describes a method of teaching image processing in a computer science (CS) course in which students obtain and analyze polar data through a computational guided inquiry (CGI) module. In CGI, the instructor guides the students in the process of learning, through the use of a computational tool: for this course, a Jupyter Notebook is used, consisting of alternating text and blocks of Python code that the students can modify as needed and execute. The students obtain images of polar ice and use them to learn about image processing while increasing their climate literacy. Students demonstrated learning of course disciplinary objectives through assessments built into the CGI module. Pre- and post-module surveys indicate increases in student self-reporting of comfort with Python and exposure to polar data. Over half of students indicated increased interest in learning more about polar research, and students overall rated the CGI modules positively. Improvements in climate literacy were tested through asking students to ask a question about a visual representation of polar data; results of this assessment were inconclusive. Future work will focus on strengthening the connection between goals, activities, and assessment, in order to better understand whether the goal of improved climate literacy was achieved.

We use land use data from Guatemala to estimate the impact of a community forest concession policy on avoided deforestation when accounting for group heterogeneity. Our analysis includes communities with significant forestry experience, along with communities comprising recent settlers with primarily agricultural backgrounds. Employing a matched difference-in-differences approach, we compare deforestation in community concessions relative to a matched control area. We find the concession policy reduced deforestation throughout the study region, with the most significant effects in the recently settled concessions. While there is also evidence of leakage in this group, overall, there is a net reduction in deforestation. (JEL Q57)

Implementation arrangements for Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation can be seen as contracts that could address some of the inherent problems with forest carbon credits that often lead to high transaction costs -- measuring, monitoring, and verification. Self-enforcing contracts, where it is in the best interest of the environmental service providers to comply with the contracts, may be one way to reduce these costs if providers have incentives to uphold their end of the contract. While the literature on Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation is extensive, there is little information available to guide policy makers or investors on what form such contracts should take. After providing an overview of the current status of Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation and its role as a tool for reducing carbon emissions on an international scale, the paper describes key issues regarding implementation and reviews the literature on contracts from the related area of Payments for Ecosystem Services programs, which face similar challenges. The remainder of the paper reviews various contractual mechanisms from agricultural and forestry related projects that have been proposed or are being used in practice and discusses the various implications associated with their design and implementation.