The Broker Online

Author

Erwin Bulte

Erwin Bulte

Erwin Bulte is professor of economics at Wageningen University and Tilburg University. He is also a research fellow at the University of Cambridge, UK, and an advisor to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization. His research interests lie at the interface of natural resources, economic growth and development, and institutional change.

The resource curse hype - Paradox or red herring?

I am the proud father of three little boys, and have the privilege to learn a bit about human nature as I watch them grow up. Currently the oldest two, aged 4 and 6, seem to have only one thing on their minds – Pokémon. For non-insiders, I am referring to artistically decorated paper cards featuring fantasy creatures with make-believe powers of destruction. Our kids go nowhere without their collection of precious cards, and neither do their friends. It is common to see groups of children sitting together, exchanging cards and commenting on each others’ latest conquests. For them, Pokémon is real, and they are unaware of the fact that they are in the middle of an enormous hype.

Nature pays, but who pays for nature?

Many western politicians are fond of giving public money to farmers to grow more food. A relatively recent phenomenon is to pay farmers to not produce food – or, more accurately, to pay them to produce nature. In Europe we spend billions of euros to promote nature conservation in agricultural landscapes. There are now proposals to extend such ‘payments for ecosystem services’ (PES) schemes to include farmers in developing countries.

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