مجله اقتصاد محیط زیست و منابع طبیعی
پیاپی 6 (پاییز 1398)

Forests, as a renewable resource, play an important role in creating a suitable platform for the development of economic and social activities. In this research, various objectives such as forest biodiversity, the importance of forests from environmental and economic view points, destructive factors of forests, impact of forests on people's lives, interaction of people with forests are the most important issues discussed in this paper. The survey method and the statistical population of this study include the three groups of citizens, villagers and tourists over 15 years old in Mazandaran, Gilan, and Golestan provinces. The sample size of the three groups is 1892 people in which 68.9%, 19.9% and 11.2% are citizens, rural and tourists, respectively. The findings of this study show that 53.2% of the people have heard the name of Hyrcanian forests while 46.6% of them were unaware of this name. In addition, 62.4% have said that the hunting of birds and wildlife would destroy the nature and the forest, 32.7% are on the opinion that the hunting cannot have any particular impact, and only 7.4% of the respondents have said that hunting of birds and wildlife would preserve the forest. 87.7% of the subjects under this study are aware of the benefits, importance and the role of Hyrcanian forests in terms of their environmental impacts. Fire, illegal harvesting from the forest, and dumping of garbage in the forest by the public are considered as the most destructive factors of the Hyrcanian forests. Based on the findings, 72.4% of the people are concerned about the destruction of the Caspian forests, and 7.2% are not worried at all about the destruction of the Hyrcanian forests. The objective of the greatest number of people using the forest was for recreation, picking plants and forest fruits, benefiting from medicinal plants, and collecting firewood. Pavement and road problems, lack of facilities, gas shortages, insecurity in the forest and the problems of health issues are among the most important concerns of forest residents.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between CO2 emissions and energy productivity as an index of energy consumption, alongside the other explanatory factors in Iranian economic sectors (industry, transportation and agriculture) in the period of 1376-1394. To achieve this objective, we have used a Panel-VAR multivariable model including the intensity of CO2 emissions, energy productivity, labor power and capital, energy carriers’ price increase, sectoral value added, and the cost of research and development in selected sectors. This model is then used to test the effect of lagged variables on CO2 emissions. In addition, we have used the impulse-response approach to determine the share of shocks in changes of CO2 emission for the short, medium, and long-terms. The results indicate the shocks of energy productivity have negative and significant effect on the intensity of CO2 emissions.

The Kuznets Environmental Curve (EKC) hypothesis shows that there is an inverse relationship between environmental pollution and per capita income. This study examines the impact of economic growth on environmental quality using meta-analysis in Iran and a number of selected countries. We have chosen and examined 13 research works with 84 regression models. The related data are analyzed using STATA and CMA softwares. The results show that the effect of economic growth on environmental quality is approximately 0.22, hence confirming the EKC hypothesis. In other words, by achieving higher levels of economic growth the quality of the environment would improve. The effect size of energy consumption and urbanization is 1.4 and 0.34, respectively. This result, according to Kuhn's interpretation, indicates the effect size at the upper and lower levels, respectively. Population, literacy rate, degree of trade openness and fixed foreign investment are also other variables affecting the quality of the environment.

Due to the increasing demand for water, energy and food in the following decades, the pressure on these sectors will increase, hence a systemic approach to Water-Energy-Food (WEF) nexus would be of prime importance. The main objective of this study is to present a conceptual model of the nexus between water-energy-food, using a dynamic system for Iran and an analysis of the factors influencing this relationship. Towards achieving this objective, we have firstly, modeled each of the sub-sectors of water, food and energy and secondly, presented an integrated conceptual model for WEF nexus. In order to reduce the risk of energy-water-food security, these three sectors should be considered in a regulated and coordinated mechanism. The economic productivity (EP) index for the nexus in Iran is calculated for the period of 2004-2017 and its trend is analyzed. The findings of this study highlight the necessity of taking into account the linkage between water, energy and food in policy making and regulation in Iran.

One of the most important greenhouse gases is CO2. Based on statistical evidence, the transport sector has a remarkable contribution to CO2 emission. Vehicle taxation is basically regarded as a tool which may control CO2 emissions. Theoretically, car taxation inclines consumers’ interest towards purchasing less-polluting vehicles with less tax burden. However, empirically the question arises as whether vehicle taxes could combat carbon dioxide emission and if so which form of veicle taxes would be the most effective one? In this paper, by using the panel data method, the impact of car acquisition and ownership taxes on carbon dioxide emissions of new cars is studied in the 14 member countries of the European Union over 2007 to 2012. The results suggest that implementating these two types of taxes has a significant and negative impact on CO2 emission, provided that CO2 parameter included in the tax base. Furthermore, the simultaneous implementation of these taxes could be more effective in reducing CO2 emission produced by cars.

This study is carried out to measure the technical and environmental efficiencies of reverse osmosis desalination plant by Data Envelopment Analysis (DAE) approach in the South Pars Special Economic Zone during the nine years from 2007 to 2016. The energy efficiency is estimated by Total Factor Energy Efficiency Index. The results reveal that the technical efficiency of the plant throughout the years in operation averaged out at 90.8% and 98.4%, based upon the assumption of constant and variable returns to scale, respectively. Scale inefficiency proved to be the most decisive factor leading to technical efficiency under the assumption of CRS, implying the relative neglect of scale efficient production in this unit. Eco-efficiency is assessed by adding undesirable outputs to this model. The highest level of eco-efficiency (99.9%) was observed in the year 2008, while the year 2016 demonstrated the lowest figure in this regard, i.e., 76.8%. The average eco-efficiency of the desalination plant in question during the whole years in operation amounted to 90%. Finally, using the Total Factor Energy Efficiency Index the average of energy efficiency of the desalination plant is estimated at 91%. The results showed that the temperature is the most important factor in energy efficiency, whose increase would result in significant energy efficiency decrease.