Modern agricultural technologies hold huge potential for increasing productivity and reducing poverty in developing countries. However, adoption levels of these technologies have remained disappointingly low in Africa. This paper analyzes the effect of access to credit on the likelihood of adoption and use intensity of chemical fertilizers using data from large rural surveys in Ethiopia. Using a heteroscedasticity-based identification strategy to address the endogenous nature of access to credit, we find that access to credit has significant positive effects on adoption and intensity of use of chemical fertilizers. However, important heterogeneities are observed. Credit obtained from formal sources is more important for the intensity of use than for the decision to adopt chemical fertilizers. Credit taken with the primary purpose of financing agricultural inputs is more likely to promote adoption of chemical fertilizers than credit taken per se. Furthermore, reported credit effects are larger when estimated against the sample of credit- constrained non-users as compared with the pool of the whole sample of credit non-users. The results remain robust to several sensitivity analyses. Our results yield useful implications for the design, promotion, and targeting of credit services to leverage their effect on adoption of agricultural technologies. Resume : Les technologies agricoles modernes recelent un enorme potentiel pour accroitre la productivite et reduire la pauvrete dans les pays en developpement. Cependant, les niveaux d'adoption de ces technologies sont restes decevants en Afrique. Cet article analyse l'effet de l'acces au credit sur la probabilite d'adoption et l'intensite d'utilisation des engrais chimiques en utilisant les donnees de grandes enquetes rurales en Ethiopie. En utilisant une strategie d'identification basee sur l'heteroscedasticite pour aborder la nature endogene de l'acces au credit, nous constatons que l'acces au credit a des effets positifs significatifs sur l'adoption et l'intensite d'utilisation des engrais chimiques. Cependant, d'importantes heterogeneites sont observees. Le credit obtenu aupres de sources formelles est plus important pour l'intensite d'utilisation que pour la decision d'adopter des engrais chimiques. Le credit contracte dans le but principal de financer les intrants agricoles est plus susceptible de promouvoir l'adoption d'engrais chimiques que le credit contracte general. En outre, les effets de credit signales sont plus importants lorsqu'ils sont estimes par rapport a l'echantillon de non-utilisateurs de credit limite par rapport a l'ensemble de l'echantillon de non-utilisateurs de credit. Les resultats restent robustes a plusieurs analyses de sensibilite. Nos resultats ont des implications utiles pour la conception, la promotion et le ciblage des services de credit afin de tirer parti de leur effet sur l'adoption des technologies agricoles. Remerciements : Nous remercions l'Agence centrale de statistique (CSA) d'Ethiopie et l'Institut international de recherche sur les politiques alimentaires (IFPRI) d'avoir elargi l'acces aux donnees. Nous remercions egalement l'editeur et deux relecteurs anonymes pour leurs commentaires constructifs et leurs suggestions qui ont ameliore le manuscrit. Toutes les erreurs sont de la seule responsabilite des auteurs.

Environmental benefits have become priority objectives for the management of forests, including for private forest owners in many countries. Understanding and promoting environmental-friendly private forest management requires a measure of environmental concern of forest owners and knowledge of factors that influence it. Such a measure allows to explore underlying motivations of forest owners to include environmental aspects in their forest management. This in turn helps in developing and implementing effective pro-environmental forestry policies. In this paper, we assess environmental concern in forest management of 226 non-industrial private forest (NIPF) owners in Sweden. In particular, we sought to achieve a two-fold objective: a) to quantitatively explore the content and dimensionality of the environmental concern construct of forestry owners and b) to identify the association between environmental concern of forest owners and their personal values and personality traits. A principal factor analysis resulted in a two-dimensional environmental concern construct encompassing: environmental strategy and environmental orientation. Hierarchical seemingly unrelated regressions (SUREG) showed that personal values and personality traits help to explain environmental concern in forest management of NIPF owners. A better understanding of environmental concern of forest owners and its relation with individuals' attributes will help in better designing, framing and targeting of tailor-made interventions to promote environmental considerations in forest management.

With the increasing expansion of large-scale forest plantations in developing countries, concerns are rising about relationships between plantations and local communities. Community participation in forest plantation management can improve relationships between forestry companies and adjacent communities and affect the distribution of benefits from plantations. The social dimension of the Forest Stewardship Council's (FSC) responsible forest management standard targets the participation of local communities in plantation management. Using household survey data from villages adjacent to plantations owned by two private forest companies in Mozambique, we assess households' perceptions about their participation in plantations' activities. We compare the perspectives of households in villages adjacent to FSC-certified plantations with those of households in villages adjacent to non-certified plantations. Our quantitative analyses show that communities adjacent to the certified plantations are more likely to perceive that they participate in activities of plantations. In terms of socio-economic characteristics, male-headed households and households with plantation employees were more likely than their counterparts to participate in plantations' activities. However, we did not find statistically significant relationships between the perceptions of communities near the certified plantations and those near the non-certified plantations regarding their satisfaction with their participation, the extent to which they consider the plantation a ‘friendly good neighbor’ and whether households have benefitted from the plantations. Our results suggest that market-based approaches of forest governance, such as forest management certification, can complement state policy towards responsible forest management.

As large-scale forest plantations expand in developing countries, concerns are rising about their relation to and integration with adjacent local communities. In developing countries with weak enforcement of property rights, private plantations are more likely than state-owned plantations to involve villagers in plantation's activities in order to secure and guarantee their access to land and labor resources. Certification standards of the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) and adherence to responsible investment guidelines further strengthen this likelihood by requiring plantations to consult and engage local communities. Using household data from Tanzania, we assess households' experiences with their participation in plantation activities by comparing the experiences of households in villages adjacent to private, FSC-certified plantations with those of households in villages adjacent to a non-certified, state-owned plantation. Our quantitative analyses show that households in the villages adjacent to the private, certified plantations are more likely to report to participate in plantation activities. Our results show that the certified plantations are more likely to respond to community complaints and grievances. We further find that male-headed households and households of plantation employees are more likely than female-headed households and households without plantation employees to participate in plantations' activities. Our results imply that forest management certification can complement state policy approaches of sustainable forest management to enhance community participation in forest management.

With the rapid expansion of forest plantations worldwide, communities, NGOs and researchers are increasingly expressing their concerns about the outcomes of plantations' activities for local households. This study investigates the perceptions of local households about forest plantations' investments in social services and local infrastructure in rural Tanzania. We consider households living in villages adjacent to private, FSC certified forest plantations and households in villages adjacent to a state-owned, non-certified plantation. We use survey data from 338 households to analyze perceived changes in school enrolment, quality of education, and the number and quality of health centers, roads and bridges associated with investments by plantations. We use a mixed method approach and complement the results from a logistic regression model with observations of the size and quality of social services and infrastructure in the villages and with findings from focus group discussions. The results show that households in the villages adjacent to both the private, FSC certified and state-owned, non-certified forest plantations associate the plantations with improved social services and local infrastructure in the study villages. Moreover, we find that the private, FSC certified forest plantations are viewed more favorably than the state-owned, non-certified plantation in terms of their contributions to social services and local infrastructure in the study areas. Richer households tend to perceive the investments of the plantations more favorably than poorer households in the study villages.

With the expansion of large-scale forest plantations in developing countries, concerns are rising about their relation and integration with adjacent local communities. Local participation in forest governance can potentially affect the distributional effects of plantations benefits and mitigate their adverse effects. Using data from villages adjacent to plantations in Tanzania and Mozambique, we explore differences in local participation between plantations Our quantitative analyses show that households in villages adjacent to private certified plantations are more likely to have a say in the activities of the plantations than households in villages adjacent to non-certified or state owned plantations. We use insights from access theory to explain our findings: private plantations may have more incentives to involve local people to guarantee their investments in plantations than state-owned plantations. Certification requirements may also strengthen these incentives by requiring plantations to identify and uphold customary rights of local communities. We further found that some social groups (male-headed, more educated and plantation workers) are more likely to have a say in plantations activities than their counterparts. We emphasize that increased and fair local participation in governance of plantations is vital in terms of the sustainability of large-scale plantations and integrating them in rural landscapes. Key words: Forest plantations, local governance, participation, access , Tanzania, Mozambique Acknowledgement :

With the rapid expansion of private forest plantations worldwide, their impacts on local development are under scrutiny by NGOs and researchers alike. This study investigates the impacts of private forest plantations on local infrastructure and social services in rural Tanzania. We take a comparative approach involving households living in villages adjacent to private forest plantations and households in villages adjacent to a state-owned plantation. We use survey data from 338 households to analyze their perceptions about the impacts of the plantations on the number and quality of roads, bridges, and health centers, as well as on school enrolment and quality of education. We triangulate the results from a logistic regression model with observations of the size and quality of infrastructure and social services in the villages and with findings from focus group discussions. The results show that the private forest plantations have positively affected local infrastructure and social services in adjacent villages. The results suggest that large-scale private forest plantations can contribute to rural development in developing countries. We highlight the importance of taking into account the perceptions of various groups in society when assessing the sustainability of forestry investments and their impacts on local communities.