Abstract
In this paper, I first conduct a preliminary analysis of monthly rainfall data from West Kalimantan, Indonesia that indicates that (1) dry periods periodically occur in this otherwise humid environment; (2) these dry periods are often linked to El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) events; and (3) the intensity of these ENSO linked dry periods has been increasing over the past two or three decades. I then examine the economic costs of the 1991 dry period to residents of several small villages near Gunung Palung National Park. Costs I considered included reduced durian fruit harvest, loss of coffee gardens, delayed rice crops, increased water hauling labor, lost wages in the forest product industry, and increased health problems. The total cost was estimated to be between approximately one-quarter and one-half of annual township income. These results of this ‘economic ground truthing’ indicate that even in one of the wettest places of the world, droughts occur and can have serious welfare consequences. To the extent that the increasing intensity of these droughts may be linked to climate change, prudence dictates that policy and decision makers should use these results to plan accordingly.
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Salafsky, N. Drought in the rain forest: Effects of the 1991 El Niño-Southern Oscillation event on a rural economy in West Kalimantan, Indonesia. Climatic Change 27, 373–396 (1994). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01096268
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01096268