IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/zbw/crc990/25.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Promoting sustainable land use choices in Indonesia: Experimental evidence on the role of changing mindsets and structural barriers

Author

Listed:
  • Romero, Miriam
  • Wollni, Meike
  • Rudolf, Katrin
  • Asnawi, Rosyani
  • Irawan, Bambang

Abstract

This study evaluates the effects of two environmental policy instruments on the adoption of native tree planting in oil palm plantations. The first instrument is an information campaign on tree planting in oil palm. The second instrument combines the information campaign with a structural intervention that provides native tree seedlings for free. We implemented a randomized controlled trial in oil palm growing villages in Jambi, Indonesia. Our study addresses the underlying mechanisms of behavioral change, by investigating how the policy instruments shape farmers' perceptions, intentions and actual adoption decisions. The results show that information campaigns and structural interventions can motivate tree planting among smallholder oil palm farmers in Indonesia. While both treatments have a positive and significant effect, the intervention combining information with seedling provision leads to significantly higher adoption rates, indicating that overcoming structural barriers is critical. While changes in perceptions and intentions fully mediate the effect of the information campaign on adoption, they can only partially explain the effect of the combined intervention. Thus, to promote a transition towards more sustainable development pathways, facilitating easy access to critical inputs may be key to motivate adoption among large numbers of potential users.

Suggested Citation

  • Romero, Miriam & Wollni, Meike & Rudolf, Katrin & Asnawi, Rosyani & Irawan, Bambang, 2019. "Promoting sustainable land use choices in Indonesia: Experimental evidence on the role of changing mindsets and structural barriers," EFForTS Discussion Paper Series 25, University of Goettingen, Collaborative Research Centre 990 "EFForTS, Ecological and Socioeconomic Functions of Tropical Lowland Rainforest Transformation Systems (Sumatra, Indonesia)".
    • Handle: RePEc:zbw:crc990:25
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/195913/1/106777694X.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. John Fitzgerald & Peter Gottschalk & Robert Moffitt, 1998. "An Analysis of Sample Attrition in Panel Data: The Michigan Panel Study of Income Dynamics," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 33(2), pages 251-299.
    2. Ajzen, Icek, 1991. "The theory of planned behavior," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 50(2), pages 179-211, December.
    3. Robin Burgess & Matthew Hansen & Benjamin A. Olken & Peter Potapov & Stefanie Sieber, 2012. "The Political Economy of Deforestation in the Tropics," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 127(4), pages 1707-1754.
    4. Michael R. Carter & Rachid Laajaj & Dean Yang, 2013. "The Impact of Voucher Coupons on the Uptake of Fertilizer and Improved Seeds: Evidence from a Randomized Trial in Mozambique," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 95(5), pages 1345-1351.
    5. Adeline Delavande & Xavier Giné & David McKenzie, 2011. "Eliciting probabilistic expectations with visual aids in developing countries: how sensitive are answers to variations in elicitation design?," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 26(3), pages 479-497, April.
    6. Acharya, Avidit & Blackwell, Matthew & Sen, Maya, 2016. "Explaining Causal Findings Without Bias: Detecting and Assessing Direct Effects," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 110(3), pages 512-529, August.
    7. Helena Hansson & Richard Ferguson & Christer Olofsson, 2012. "Psychological Constructs Underlying Farmers’ Decisions to Diversify or Specialise their Businesses – An Application of Theory of Planned Behaviour," Journal of Agricultural Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 63(2), pages 465-482, June.
    8. Michael Euler & Stefan Schwarze & Hermanto Siregar & Matin Qaim, 2016. "Oil Palm Expansion among Smallholder Farmers in Sumatra, Indonesia," Journal of Agricultural Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 67(3), pages 658-676, September.
    9. Klasen, Stephan & Meyer, Katrin M. & Dislich, Claudia & Euler, Michael & Faust, Heiko & Gatto, Marcel & Hettig, Elisabeth & Melati, Dian N. & Jaya, I. Nengah Surati & Otten, Fenna & Pérez-Cruzado, Cés, 2016. "Economic and ecological trade-offs of agricultural specialization at different spatial scales," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 122(C), pages 111-120.
    10. Delavande, Adeline & Giné, Xavier & McKenzie, David, 2011. "Measuring subjective expectations in developing countries: A critical review and new evidence," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 94(2), pages 151-163, March.
    11. Esther Duflo & Michael Kremer & Jonathan Robinson, 2011. "Nudging Farmers to Use Fertilizer: Theory and Experimental Evidence from Kenya," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 101(6), pages 2350-2390, October.
    12. B. Kelsey Jack, 2013. "Private Information and the Allocation of Land Use Subsidies in Malawi," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 5(3), pages 113-135, July.
    13. Gatto, Marcel & Wollni, Meike & Asnawi, Rosyani & Qaim, Matin, 2017. "Oil Palm Boom, Contract Farming, and Rural Economic Development: Village-Level Evidence from Indonesia," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 95(C), pages 127-140.
    14. Pamuk, Haki & Bulte, Erwin & Adekunle, Adewale A., 2014. "Do decentralized innovation systems promote agricultural technology adoption? Experimental evidence from Africa," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 227-236.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Romero, Miriam & Wollni, Meike & Rudolf, Katrin & Asnawi, Rosyani & Irawan, Bambang, 2019. "Promoting biodiversity enrichment in smallholder oil palm monocultures – Experimental evidence from Indonesia," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 124(C), pages 1-1.
    2. Romero, M. & Rudolf, K. & Wollni, M., 2018. "Promoting trees at the oil palm frontier: experimental evidence from Indonesia," 2018 Conference, July 28-August 2, 2018, Vancouver, British Columbia 277356, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    3. Rudolf, Katrin & Romero, Miriam & Asnawi, Rosyani & Irawan, Bambang & Wollni, Meike, 2020. "Effects of information and seedling provision on tree planting and survival in smallholder oil palm plantations," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 104(C).
    4. Santika, Truly & Wilson, Kerrie A. & Budiharta, Sugeng & Law, Elizabeth A. & Poh, Tun Min & Ancrenaz, Marc & Struebig, Matthew J. & Meijaard, Erik, 2019. "Does oil palm agriculture help alleviate poverty? A multidimensional counterfactual assessment of oil palm development in Indonesia," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 120(C), pages 105-117.
    5. Cisneros, Elías & Kis-Katos, Krisztina & Nuryartono, Nunung, 2021. "Palm oil and the politics of deforestation in Indonesia," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 108(C).
    6. Brenneis, Karina & Irawan, Bambang & Wollni, Meike, 2023. "Promoting agricultural technologies with positive environmental effects: Evidence on tree planting in Indonesia," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 204(PB).
    7. Teresa Molina Millán & Karen Macours, 2017. "Attrition in randomized control trials: Using tracking information to correct bias," FEUNL Working Paper Series novaf:wp1702, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Faculdade de Economia.
    8. Kubitza, Christoph & Dib, Jonida Bou & Kopp, Thomas & Krishna, Vijesh V. & Nuryartono, Nunung & Qaim, Matin & Romero, Miriam & Klasen, Stephan, 2019. "Labor savings in agriculture and inequality at different spatial scales: The expansion of oil palm in Indonesia," EFForTS Discussion Paper Series 26, University of Goettingen, Collaborative Research Centre 990 "EFForTS, Ecological and Socioeconomic Functions of Tropical Lowland Rainforest Transformation Systems (Sumatra, Indonesia)".
    9. Bou Dib, Jonida & Alamsyah, Zulkifli & Qaim, Matin, 2018. "Land-use change and income inequality in rural Indonesia," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 94(C), pages 55-66.
    10. Ayako Matsuda & Takashi Kurosaki, 2017. "Temperature and Rainfall Index Insurance in India," OSIPP Discussion Paper 17E002, Osaka School of International Public Policy, Osaka University.
    11. Yokoo, Hide-Fumi & Arimura, Toshi H. & Chattopadhyay, Mriduchhanda & Katayama, Hajime, 2023. "Subjective risk belief function in the field: Evidence from cooking fuel choices and health in India," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 161(C).
    12. Shapiro, Jeremy, 2019. "The impact of recipient choice on aid effectiveness," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 116(C), pages 137-149.
    13. Li, Zhengtao & Hu, Bin, 2018. "Perceived health risk, environmental knowledge, and contingent valuation for improving air quality: New evidence from the Jinchuan mining area in China," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 31(C), pages 54-68.
    14. Baranov, Victoria & Bennett, Daniel & Kohler, Hans-Peter, 2015. "The indirect impact of antiretroviral therapy: Mortality risk, mental health, and HIV-negative labor supply," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 195-211.
    15. Nadjia Mehraban & Christoph Kubitza & Zulkifli Alamsyah & Matin Qaim, 2021. "Oil palm cultivation, household welfare, and exposure to economic risk in the Indonesian small farm sector," Journal of Agricultural Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 72(3), pages 901-915, September.
    16. Sylvester Ochieng Ogutu & Andrea Fongar & Theda Gödecke & Lisa Jäckering & Henry Mwololo & Michael Njuguna & Meike Wollni & Matin Qaim, 2020. "How to make farming and agricultural extension more nutrition-sensitive: evidence from a randomised controlled trial in Kenya [Agricultural extension: good intentions and hard realities]," European Review of Agricultural Economics, Oxford University Press and the European Agricultural and Applied Economics Publications Foundation, vol. 47(1), pages 95-118.
    17. Musa Hasen Ahmed & Kassahun Mamo Geleta & Aemro Tazeze & Hiwot Mekonnen Mesfin & Eden Andualem Tilahun, 2017. "Cropping systems diversification, improved seed, manure and inorganic fertilizer adoption by maize producers of eastern Ethiopia," Journal of Economic Structures, Springer;Pan-Pacific Association of Input-Output Studies (PAPAIOS), vol. 6(1), pages 1-16, December.
    18. Chrisendo, Daniel & Krishna, Vijesh V. & Siregar, Hermanto & Qaim, Matin, 2020. "Land-use change, nutrition, and gender roles in Indonesian farm households," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 118(C).
    19. Sann VATHANA & Sothea OUM & Ponhrith KAN & Colas CHERVIER, 2013. "Impact of Disasters and Role of Social Protection in Natural Disaster Risk Management in Cambodia," Working Papers DP-2013-10, Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia (ERIA).
    20. Batista, Catia & Vicente, Pedro C., 2020. "Improving access to savings through mobile money: Experimental evidence from African smallholder farmers," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 129(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    tree-planting; oil palm; intentions; mediation; Asia;
    All these keywords.

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:zbw:crc990:25. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.uni-goettingen.de/en/310995.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.