Since before joining the Faculty of Land and Food Systems as an Assistant Professor in July of this year, Frederick Noack has been interested in the interaction of economic development and the environment on a global scale.
While a postdoctoral fellow at the Bren School of Environmental Science & Management at the University of California Santa Barbara in 2016, Noack’s research targeted fisheries in developing countries. “We found that if fishermen have no secure property rights over fisheries, access to the credit market lead to more fishing effort and subsequently to more overfishing” he said. “However, the effect reverses if fishermen have secure property rights, as they are able to reap the benefits in the future.”
Before that, Noack worked for international organizations such as the World Bank and the World Wildlife Fund. “While working as an ecologist or economist in developing countries, I discovered that in order to understand what is effecting a particular environment, you first need to understand what drives the people’s actions who live there. Not surprising, I found that people are driven by the need to make a living.”
“I began asking myself questions that were not easy to answer: how can we become richer and make the world a better place without destroying the environment? How can we reduce poverty without destroying the environment?”
Noack believes the Faculty of Land and Food System is in a unique position to answers these questions. “My particular research area requires collaboration across disciplines, and the Food and Resource Economics program at LFS is unique in that it bridges that gap between economics and the environment. I am collatorating with environmental scientists to better understand and quantify the environmental impacts of economic development.”
His current project is looking at trade and agriculture in India, where more roads are being built to connect rural areas to cities. “If more people work in or travel to the city, the surrounding land use will change dramatically,” he said. “With less labour in the fields, it effects which crops can be grown, which in turn effects the local economy.” This is particularly important in developing countries like India, where 50% of the workforce is employed in agriculture.
“There is no separation between the economy and the environment, and both need to be taken into consideration when making these kind of decisions.”