https://hdl.handle.net/10419/204304 2026-11-07T18:09:28Z 2026-11-07T18:09:28Z Duan, Yeqing Droste, Nils Danley, Brian https://hdl.handle.net/10419/341136 2026-05-26T15:51:21Z 2026-01-01T00:00:00Z

Title: Modelling land use transition through social learning Authors: Duan, Yeqing; Droste, Nils; Danley, Brian Abstract: Land use transition toward multifunctional practices is greatly affected by social learning, yet the temporal interaction between learning mechanisms and network structure remains underexplored. This study examines two social learning channels, information exchange and normative pressure, and how network architecture shapes their effects on transition outcomes. We developed SALT (Social learning in Agent-based Land use Transitions), a spatially explicit model that integrates the Consumat framework and reinforcement learning. The model is parameterized using a Swedish forestry context, simulating landowner adaptive decisions under integrated and modular social networks. Results show that the two channels play distinct roles across transition phases. Lack of knowledge limits adoption in early adoption. Individual experience is the main source of knowledge accumulation, and social learning alone cannot close the knowledge gap. As adoption spreads, normative pressure constrains implementation intensity to the prevailing local average, explaining the gap between behavioral and actual landscape changes. Network architecture shapes both channels. Integrated networks widen information exchange and allow alternative-use norms to strengthen over time, while modular networks restrict information circulation and lock in lowimplementation local norms. Landscape change organizes along social ties rather than geographic proximity, with architecture determining whether adoption clusters into cohesive blocks or disperses as a diffuse mosaic in the social network. Landowner types contribute differently to behavior change and landscape change across both architectures. These findings suggest that effective transition governance must be tailored to both phase and social context. Early interventions should prioritize technical assistance, while raising the visible norm of implementation intensity matters more as adoption spreads. In modular communities, consolidating norms within communities before extending outreach is more effective than diffuse seeding. Instruments targeting behavior change need to be paired with those that directly support implementation intensity of alternative practice among less conformity-constrained landowners.

2026-01-01T00:00:00Z Theden-Schow, Fritz Nielsen, Max Tveteraas, Sigbjorn Landazuri Højland Jacobsen, Brian Cabell, Joshua Nielsen, Rasmus https://hdl.handle.net/10419/342351 2026-07-22T15:27:54Z 2026-01-01T00:00:00Z

Title: Exploring economic feasibility of marine-based organic fertilizers: Expert insights from industry informants Authors: Theden-Schow, Fritz; Nielsen, Max; Tveteraas, Sigbjorn Landazuri; Højland Jacobsen, Brian; Cabell, Joshua; Nielsen, Rasmus Abstract: Worldwide, fisheries and related industries produce large quantities of marine residues, such as fish cutoffs, heads and backbones, often ending up as waste or only extracting the fish oil and soluble protein via hydrolysis, leaving sediment of bone particles, etc. unused. However, research and practice show that these residues can be applied as fertilizers with an immediate effect on plant growth. If production of fertilizers is economically viable, utilization of marine residues can be improved and simultaneously meet a demand for fertilizers in certified organic farming. This paper analyzes economic viability of producing marine-based organic fertilizers in Norway and Denmark. From interviews with fertilizer producers, the willingness to pay for one kilogram of an acid preserved bone material of captured white fish, made from minced heads, backbones, skin, organs etc., appearing as a residue product when extracting fish oil and soluble proteins during hydrolysis, was identified. With an average N-content of 4.2%, a positive willingness to pay was identified, between 0.078 and 0.272 €/kg, dependent on market conditions. With the positive willingness to pay, it may be economically viable to apply the material to produce marine-based organic fertilizers, revealing a potential for further exploitation of the by-products from captured white fish for fertilizers in certified organic farming.

2026-01-01T00:00:00Z Lancker, Kira Barrett, Christopher B. Fiorella, Kathryn J. Aura, Christopher M. Awandu, Hezron Awuor, Fonda J. Otuo, Patrick https://hdl.handle.net/10419/324882 2025-09-05T06:37:49Z 2025-01-01T00:00:00Z

Title: Understanding Nutrient - Contaminant Tradeoffs in fish consumer demand: Evidence from Kenya Authors: Lancker, Kira; Barrett, Christopher B.; Fiorella, Kathryn J.; Aura, Christopher M.; Awandu, Hezron; Awuor, Fonda J.; Otuo, Patrick Abstract: Fish consumers are often challenged by tradeoffs between nutritional benefits and contaminant risks, which increase due to environmental pollution. Health campaigns and labeling initiatives can guide decision-making by providing information both on contaminant risk and nutritional value of a product, but it is not well understood how consumers react to such complex dual labels. We use data from a stated choice experiment in Kenya's Lake Victoria region to study how consumers respond to dual labels on fish products, and how their responses to each label interact. We focus on the tradeoff between polyunsaturated fatty acids and contamination with microcystin, a toxin that accumulates in fish during harmful algae blooms. Our findings suggest that, faced with a dual information policy, consumers react rationally to dual health attribute labeling, and that nutrient labels and contaminant warnings can function concurrently, indeed even be mutually reinforcing, but pose a risk of inadvertently concentrating unhealthful consumption in less responsive subpopulations.

2025-01-01T00:00:00Z Aïhounton, Ghislain B. D. Henningsen, Arne https://hdl.handle.net/10419/307980 2025-01-04T02:29:41Z 2024-01-01T00:00:00Z

Title: Organic farming and happiness: A path analysis Authors: Aïhounton, Ghislain B. D.; Henningsen, Arne Abstract: While price premiums incentivise farmers to engage in organic farming, these premiums are frequently insufficient to compensate for lower yields, resulting in no monetary benefits from adopting organic farming. This study goes beyond purely monetary outcomes and investigates how organic farming is related to both monetary and non-monetary outcomes, including farmers' general life satisfaction or 'happiness'. We use data collected from organic and conventional cotton growing households in Benin and employ Structural Equation Modelling in order to investigate the pathways through which organic farming is related to happiness. Our findings indicate that organic farming is positively associated with happiness through farmers' improved (self-reported) health and increased satisfaction with their work as well as through a direct relationship between organic farming and happiness. While a negative association between organic farming and income exists, it only reduces the overall positive relationship between organic farming and happiness to a very limited extent. Thus, our results show that non-monetary outcomes may be important drivers of the adoption of sustainability standards as well as relevant measures of farmers' welfare when evaluating policies and programmes.

2024-01-01T00:00:00Z