Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin - Resource Economics

In the process of globalisation actors increasingly raise demands on the use of natural resources globally. The conflict dimensions of globalisation become evident with an increase of claims on the use of natural resources. A fundamental challenge of globalisation is to meet and balance the different and growing demands on the use of natural resources. This endeavour gains significance and urgency in view of the rising claims on natural resources and at the same time decreasing stocks of the respective resources due to resource depletion and degradation. A difficulty in search of solutions is the overlay of property rights of decision makers at all levels from local to global regarding the use of natural resources. A further challenge in the quest to meet diverging claims is that actors and societies involved in globalisation have different political, economic and social starting situations. However, pressures from global resource claims on local production, trade and the supply of goods and services from agriculture and forestry increase in the course of globalisation. As a consequence, the drive for structural change in agriculture increases, as well as need to adapt environmental and agricultural policy to changing demands and conditions for policy making.

The rules of societies and their economic activities have a central impact on structural change and the adaptation of natural and social systems in the progress of globalisation. Institutional resource economics is especially concerned with the use of natural resources and studies focally the systems of rules and actors who influence the use of resources. The research activities at the Division of Resources Economics contribute to the quest of explaining the interplay of values, social organisation, technology development, knowledge generation, resources use and environmental changes. Further, our results add to the formation and design of formal rights and informal rules on the use of natural resources.

This problem dimension has been addressed in the following research projects:

• COOP
  Support for Farmers' Cooperatives

• ARC
  The Changing Role of Agricultural Institutions and Farming: A Collaborative Project in Germany and United Kingdom

• GRANO
  Approaches for a Sustainable Agricultural Production in North-eastern Germany (GRANO); Project group 1: Decentral evaluation and coordination mechanisms

• ITAES
  Integrated Tools to Design and Implement Agri-Environmental Schemes

• MULTAGRI
  Capitalisation of Research Results on the Multifunctionality of Agriculture and Rural Areas
• Land Use Conflicts (Spreewald)
  Does Money Solve Land Use Conflicts? On Governance Problems of Agri-Environmental Support Programs
• SEAMLESS
  A System for Environmental and Agricultural Modelling; Linking European Science and Society
• SENSOR
  Sustainability Impact Assessment: Tools for Environmental, Social and Economic Effects of Multifunctional Land Use in European Regions
• COST A 12 RURAL INNOVATION
  European Cooperation in the Field of Scientific and Technical Research
• TERESA
  Types of interaction between Economy, Rural Society, Environment and Agricultural activities in European regions