2022 Fiscal Year Research-status Report
Land policies and household economic situations in Cambodia
| Project/Area Number |
22K13396
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| Research Institution | Sophia University |
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Principal Investigator |
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| Project Period (FY) |
2022-04-01 – 2024-03-31
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| Keywords | Development / Land policies / Cambodia / Nutrition / Deforestation |
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| Outline of Annual Research Achievements |
I am working on developing various papers from this project. I have started writing the manuscript of two papers related to land policies in Cambodia. The first one deals with deforestation and child nutrition. I combine precise forest loss data with geocoded data from the Cambodian Demographic Health Surveys to investigate the impact of deforestation on child stunting. Deforestation is mostly driven by economic activities such as Economic Land Consessions. I find that girls living in areas with high deforestation rates are more likely to be stunted whereas boys are not. Stunted is a measurement for long-term undernourishment. I also find that girls living in areas with high rates of deforestation are more likely to have fever.I finalized writing the manuscript and there is a pre-publication online version available on SSRN. This manuscript is corrently under review in a peer-reviewed economic journal and I will deliver a talk in the 15th World Congress of the International Health Economics Association in Cape Town, South Africa. The second paper is about community forestry and food consumption. I apply a difference in differences approach to understand how community forest impact food consumption. I find that households living in areas near to these forests have higher levels of food consumption than their counterparts without. I am still working on this manuscript and I have presented the preliminary findings of this study in a seminar at Tohoku University.
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| Current Status of Research Progress |
Current Status of Research Progress
2: Research has progressed on the whole more than it was originally planned.
Reason
I am progressing at the expected pace. I was able to have access to secondary data early that helped me finalized the first paper. I'm still working on the project and need to visit the study side for the second and third potential manuscripts.
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| Strategy for Future Research Activity |
I am working on how land policies have impacted household socioeconomic conditions in Cambodia. One of the most important land changes that have occurred in the last three decades in the study side is deforestation driven by household activities and land policies like economic land consessions. Therefore, I am interested how deforestation that is driven by economic activities also impact households. In the case of economic land consessions, I want to test how these changes have affected the living conditions of individuals living near the areas. I am planning to visit the study side and also to talk to NPO workers as well as government officials to further understand the impact of the policies.
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| Causes of Carryover |
In the next months, I am planning on visiting the study site in Cambodia, I will attend an international conference in South Africa, and will purchase additional data for the development of the next two manuscripts from the National Insitutute of Statistics in Cambodia. I am also planning on applying to additional international conferences to present my results during this academic year. And I will present my preliminary findings in seminars and conferences in Japan. In July, I will be going to Cape Town to deliver a talk at the International Health Economic Association Congress and I am goint to stay there at least 3 nights. In August, I will be visiting the capital of Cambodia to talk to people from NPOs and governamental organizations dealing with land policies and forests. Then, I will visit at least two community forestries to further understand the conditions on the ground. If time allows, I would also like to visit villages that are located near economic land consessions. In the second semester, I will like to attend to at least two internation conferences, one in Asia and one in the US to further disseminate the findings.
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