The Long Term Impact of Environmental Degradation on Women in Nepal

Priscilla Cooke, Department of Economics, Kenyon College

In rural Nepal environmental degradation is a serious problem that has more impact on women who are usually responsible for collecting environmental products such as fuel wood, leaf fodder, and water. Analysis using the 1982/83 Nepal Energy and Nutrition Survey (NENS) undertaken with IFPRI assistance, revealed that women account for over 80% of the total increase in household collection time when environmental degradation increases the shadow price of environmental goods. Little is known, however, of the dynamics of the intrahousehold change in resource allocation, in the longer term, as a result of environmental degradation.

This study proposes to re-survey 120 households from the earlier NENS sample. Despite the lapse of 14 years a full sample listing has been obtained for the previous survey and it is believed that sample attrition is no more than 10%. The new survey will repeat a subset of modules from the previous survey, but extend the detail of those modules, including socioeconomic data, time allocation and consumption of environmental products. An environmental goods market has increasingly developed over the past 14 years, and a new module will focus on household activities in this market. In addition retrospective histories will be obtained from households, to gain information on changing household composition, and economic and other household shocks. Current and retrospective community questionnaires will also be implemented. Additional data from a full re-survey over multiple rounds for a separate IFPRI study on property rights will also be analyzed.

The objectives of the proposed research are to examine:

• whether women/girls from households with high costs of environmental goods collection, and thus a higher opportunity cost of school time, have received less education;
• whether these households have shown slower economic growth due to less female own-farm agricultural labor and/or labor market participation;
• whether longitudinal evidence corroborates cross-sectional findings.