| Budget Amount *help |
¥2,500,000 (Direct Cost: ¥2,500,000)
Fiscal Year 2003: ¥1,100,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,100,000)
Fiscal Year 2002: ¥1,400,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,400,000)
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| Research Abstract |
This project is the first stage of an international collaborative research on the link between poverty alleviation and environmental conservation in rural tropics. The purpose of the project is : (1)to develop dynamic theories on household, community, and the environment, and (2)to do preliminary work -site selection, field research design, and research method design -for household and community surveys which are scheduled in and after the year of 2004. Our theoretical and empirical works shed new lights on the role of natural resource use as a coping strategy among tropical farmers. After we examined several countries in Southeast Asia and the Pacific, we selected Fiji as a study site, mainly because in Fiji the role of traditional communities is very strong, existing empirical studies are limited, and a historical cyclone caused serious damages in January, 2003. To examine households' responses to this shock in a timely manner, we changed our original plan and conducted the first household and community surveys among 361 households in 9 villages in 2003 with less emphasis on theoretical works. Specifically, we conducted : (1)preliminary research (literature survey and interviews at the University of the South Pacific, and village selection), (2)questionnaire design, (3)survey pretest and training and other preparations, (4)full survey, (5)date entry and management. We conducted (1)-(4) in Fiji in January-December, 2003 and plan to complete (5) in the summer of 2004. This survey is the first systematic household and community surveys conducted in the Pacific. The primary data on demographics, assets, savings, income, transfer, property rights, and resource management allow us to examine livelihood diversification, risk coping, natural and social capital, and ecotourism.
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