Economic models

This paper consists of a review of socio-economic conceptual frameworks, tools and methodologies relevant to HDN, and looks at the different (socio-economic) conceptual frameworks and techniques that could be used to address the key issues of the framework. Case studies are used throughout the paper to illustrate how particular conceptual frameworks and tools have been used to explain socio-economic dimensions of human dependence on nature.

How to sustain our world for future generations has perplexed us for centuries. This book uses systems thinking to understand the dominant forces that are shaping our hope for sustainability. It first describes a mental model - the bubble that holds our beliefs - that emerges from preponderant world views and explains current global trends. The model emphasizes economic growth and drives behavior toward short-term and self-motivated outcomes that thwart sustainability.

Pavan Sukhdev lays out a sweeping new vision for tomorrow’s corporation: one that will increase human wellbeing and social equity, decrease environmental risks and ecological losses, and still generate profit. Corporation 2020 presents new approaches to measuring the true costs of business and the corporation’s obligation to society.

‘Inclusive business models’ have attracted renewed interest in recent years, as part of wider debates about growing agricultural investment in developing countries. This report discusses joint ventures in South Africa’s agricultural sector. The South African experience features major specificities linked to the country’s history and recent land reform programme. Land reform beneficiaries entered into a range of joint ventures with commercial partners.

Concerns about food and energy security, coupled with increasing returns from agriculture, have increased interest in agricultural investments in developing countries. Public debates about 'land grabbing' have questioned the socio-economic impacts of large-scale land acquisitions. There is new interest in business models involving collaboration between companies and communities. In Eastern Malaysia, community-investor business models have been implemented for several years to expand oil palm cultivation in customarily held lands.