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Domestic Consumption (domestic + consumption)
Selected AbstractsUnderstanding pressures on fishery resources through trade statistics: a pilot study of four products in the Chinese dried seafood marketFISH AND FISHERIES, Issue 1 2004Shelley Clarke Abstract This study investigates the dried seafood trade, centred in Chinese markets, in order to better understand the pressures its demand exerts on global marine resource stocks. Using Hong Kong, the region's largest entrepôt, as a focal point, the trade in shark fins, abalone, bêche-de-mer and dried fish is characterized in terms of product history, volume, source fisheries and species composition. Trends identified in the Hong Kong market are interpreted in the context of the larger Chinese market. Shark fin imports grew 6% per year between 1991 and 2000, most likely because of market expansion in Mainland China, posing increasingly greater pressures on global shark resources. In contrast, the quantities of dried abalone traded through Hong Kong remained steady, but inferences based on this trend are discouraged by suggestions of increasing preferences for fresh product forms and growing domestic production in Mainland China. Hong Kong's imports of dried bêche-de-mer (sea cucumber) have decreased, while the percentage of imports re-exported has remained steady, suggesting that Hong Kong continues as an entrepôt for Mainland China despite declining domestic consumption. Few conclusions can be drawn regarding dried fish products, including whole fish and fish maws, because of a lack of product differentiation in customs data, but a market survey was conducted to provide information on species composition. Comparison of Hong Kong dried seafood trade statistics to those of other key trading partners indicates that, in general, Hong Kong's duty-free status appears to encourage more accurate reporting of traded quantities. Under-reporting biases ranged from 24 to 49% for shark fin and bêche-de-mer, respectively. Comparison to United Nations (UN) Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) databases indicates additional under-reporting for shark fin such that an alternative minimum estimate of world trade is at least twice the FAO estimates in 1998,2000. The results of a survey of Hong Kong traders provide insight into their attitudes toward harvest, economic and regulatory factors, and suggest that conservation efforts are unlikely to emerge from, or be actively supported by, dried seafood trade organizations. The market's apparent sensitivity to economic sentiment, however, reveals an opportunity for consumer education to play a role in shaping future market growth and resource conservation. Recommendations are provided for improving trade statistics and for developing better analytical techniques to complement traditional methods for monitoring the exploitation and management of fisheries resources. [source] Asymmetric Abstraction and Allocation: The Israeli-Palestinian Water Pumping RecordGROUND WATER, Issue 1 2009Mark Zeitoun The increased attention given to international transboundary aquifers may be nowhere more pressing than on the western bank of the Jordan River. Hydropolitical analysis of six decades of Israeli and Palestinian pumping records reveals how ground water abstraction rates are as asymmetrical as are water allocations. The particular hydrogeology of the region, notably the variability in depth to ground water, variations in ground water quality, and the vulnerability of the aquifer, also affect the outcome. The records confirm previously drawn conclusions of the influence of the agricultural lobby in maintaining a supply-side water management paradigm. Comparison of water consumption rates divulges that water consumed by all sectors of the farming-based Palestinian economy is less than half of Israeli domestic consumption. The overwhelming majority of "reserve" flows from wet years are sold at subsidized rates to the Israeli agricultural sector, while very minor amounts are sold at normal rates to the Palestinian side for drinking water. An apparent coevolution of water resource variability and politics serves to explain increased Israeli pumping prior to negotiations in the early 1990s. The abstraction record from the Western Aquifer Basin discloses that the effective limit set by the terms of the 1995 Oslo II Agreement is regularly violated by the Israeli side, thereby putting the aquifer at risk. The picture that emerges is one of a transboundary water regime that is much more exploitative than cooperative and that risks spoiling the resource as it poisons international relations. [source] Indonesia fights off oil and gas crisesOIL AND ENERGY TRENDS, Issue 4 2005Article first published online: 12 APR 200 Rising domestic consumption and falling output have turned Indonesia into a net importer of oil, forcing it to consider withdrawing from OPEC. In recent years, Jakarta has depended on gas for its export revenues. Now, the gas industry is in trouble. Output from the Arun gas fields is declining and the state oil and gas company, Pertamina, was recently forced to delay LNG shipments to its three largest customers. The government is looking for new investment in an attempt to stave off an energy crisis, but foreign companies are unhappy about business conditions there. Meanwhile, oil and gas consumption is rising rapidly thanks to a system of domestic price subsidies, which the government has been unable to end. The delay to much needed reforms in the energy sector threatens not only the oil and gas industries but the economic and political stability of the country as well. [source] Energy consumption in the Islamic Republic of IranOPEC ENERGY REVIEW, Issue 3 2000A.M. Samsam Bakhtiari During the 20th century, energy consumption in the Islamic Republic of Iran was continually on the increase, from a per capita level of 200 kilogrammes of oil equivalent (koe) for traditional energies at the onset to more than 1,700 koe for commercial energies at the century's close. The main stimulants fuelling Iran's energy consumption were: (i) revenue from oil exports (wealth-creating); (ii) a growing population; (iii) the countrywide rural-urban shift; and (iv) relatively low domestic retail prices charged for energy vectors. For a country well endowed with hydrocarbon resources, it is not surprising that the internal consumption of refined products and natural gas grew to fill 99 per cent of its primary energy needs. During the 1990s, domestic consumption of natural gas exploded. Gas even came to rival refined products, securing up to 45 per cent of total primary energy. Future natural gas expansion will be based upon the country's ample reserves, and gas will undoubtedly become Iran's dominant source of internal energy in the 21st century,thereby liberating liquid fuels for export. Iran's dwindling crude oil production will also put pressure on the internal use of refined products, as consumption and exports come to vie for the same barrel. Exports being vital to the national economy, consumption will have to be reined in. [source] Fisheries, large-scale trade, and conservation of seahorses in Malaysia and ThailandAQUATIC CONSERVATION: MARINE AND FRESHWATER ECOSYSTEMS, Issue 4 2010Allison L. Perry Abstract 1.All seahorse species (genus Hippocampus) are listed under CITES Appendix II, requiring that exports of these fishes must be regulated for sustainability. Preliminary trade surveys and anecdotal reports suggested Malaysia and Thailand represented an important source for seahorses used globally in traditional medicine, curios, and aquarium display, but few historic trade or fisheries data are available. Baseline information about pre-CITES catch and trade is essential for managing seahorse fisheries and trade under CITES, and for understanding present-day effects of CITES regulation on the seahorse trade. 2.In 1998,1999, seahorse fisheries and trade in both countries were assessed by interviewing participants at many levels of the trade and corroborating those surveys with official trade documents. 3.Seahorses were found to be landed primarily as trawl bycatch. Malaysia's catch of 2900,kg year,1 was less than the estimated domestic consumption (5500,6000,kg year,1), whereas Thailand's catch of 6600,kg year,1 apparently far exceeded domestic consumption (,520,kg year,1). 4.Both countries imported seahorses from and exported to other Asian nations. Import statistics from Hong Kong SAR and Taiwan recorded maximum annual trade from Malaysia at 1280,kg year,1. Trade surveys indicated that Thailand exported at least 5000,kg annually (similar to the estimation of catch), but national Customs records reported 10,500,kg year,1 in exports, supported by official import records from Hong Kong SAR and Taiwan which indicated that Thailand was the source of up to 11,400,kg year,1. 5.Fishers and traders in both countries reported decreasing availability of seahorses, raising conservation concerns. These apparent declines, in combination with substantial domestic consumption, point towards the challenges that Malaysia and Thailand face in establishing sustainable levels of exports under CITES. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] How China Could Contribute to a Benign Global Rebalancing?CHINA AND WORLD ECONOMY, Issue 5 2008Pingfan Hong E21; F32 Abstract Our study shows that China could contribute to an orderly global rebalancing using a package of policies to stimulate its domestic consumption. These policies include a progressive appreciation of the RMB, fiscal stimulation by increasing expenditure on education, health care, social safety nets and poverty reduction, income policies to reduce inequality and to strengthen wage income, and reforms of the financial system to improve financial efficiency and to mitigate financial constraints. By implementing such policies, China's external surplus could be narrowed and its domestic imbalances improved. The excessively high savings rate could be lowered and the share of household consumption increased, even though GDP growth would moderate slightly. [source] | ||||||||||