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Protecting forests, biodiversity, and the climate: predicting policy impact to improve policy choice

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  • Alexander Pfaff
  • Juan Robalino

Abstract

Policies must balance forest conservation’s local costs with its benefits—local to global—in terms of biodiversity, the mitigation of climate change, and other eco-services such as water quality. The trade-offs with development vary across forest locations. We argue that considering location in three ways helps to predict policy impact and improve policy choice: (i) policy impacts vary by location because baseline deforestation varies with characteristics (market distances, slopes, soils, etc.) of locations in a landscape; (ii) different mixes of political-economic pressures drive the location of different policies; and (iii) policies can trigger ‘second-order’ or ‘spillover’ effects likely to differ by location. We provide empirical evidence that suggests the importance of all three considerations, by reviewing high-quality evaluations of the impact of conservation and development on forest. Impacts of well-enforced conservation rise with private clearing pressure, supporting (i). Protection types (e.g. federal/state) differ in locations and thus in impacts, supporting (ii). Differences in development process explain different signs for spillovers, supporting (iii). Copyright 2012, Oxford University Press.

Suggested Citation

  • Alexander Pfaff & Juan Robalino, 2012. "Protecting forests, biodiversity, and the climate: predicting policy impact to improve policy choice," Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Oxford University Press and Oxford Review of Economic Policy Limited, vol. 28(1), pages 164-179, Spring.
  • Handle: RePEc:oup:oxford:v:28:y:2012:i:1:p:164-179
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    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/oxrep/grs012
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    Cited by:

    1. Keles, Derya & Delacote, Philippe & Pfaff, Alexander & Qin, Siyu & Mascia, Michael B., 2020. "What Drives the Erasure of Protected Areas? Evidence from across the Brazilian Amazon," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 176(C).
    2. Alexander Pfaff & Juan Robalino, 2017. "Spillovers from Conservation Programs," Annual Review of Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 9(1), pages 299-315, October.
    3. Delacote, Philippe & Robinson, Elizabeth J.Z. & Roussel, Sébastien, 2016. "Deforestation, leakage and avoided deforestation policies: A spatial analysis," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 192-210.
    4. Sims, Katharine R.E. & Alix-Garcia, Jennifer M., 2017. "Parks versus PES: Evaluating direct and incentive-based land conservation in Mexico," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 86(C), pages 8-28.
    5. Julio Aguirre & Elmer Guerrero & Yohnny Campana, 2021. "How effective are protected natural areas when roads are present? An analysis of the Peruvian case," Environmental Economics and Policy Studies, Springer;Society for Environmental Economics and Policy Studies - SEEPS, vol. 23(4), pages 831-859, October.
    6. Philippe Delacote & Gwenolé Le Velly & Gabriela Simonet, 2018. "A tale of REDD+ projects. How do location and certification impact additionality?," Working Papers 1808, Chaire Economie du climat.
    7. Pfaff, Alexander & Robalino, Juan & Lima, Eirivelthon & Sandoval, Catalina & Herrera, Luis Diego, 2014. "Governance, Location and Avoided Deforestation from Protected Areas: Greater Restrictions Can Have Lower Impact, Due to Differences in Location," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 7-20.
    8. Sauquet, Alexandre & Marchand, Sébastien & Féres, José Gustavo, 2014. "Protected areas, local governments, and strategic interactions: The case of the ICMS-Ecológico in the Brazilian state of Paraná," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 107(C), pages 249-258.
    9. Delacote, Philippe & Le Velly, Gwenolé & Simonet, Gabriela, 2022. "Revisiting the location bias and additionality of REDD+ projects: the role of project proponents status and certification," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 67(C).
    10. Felipe de Figueiredo Silva & Richard K. Perrin & Lilyan E. Fulginiti, 2019. "The opportunity cost of preserving the Brazilian Amazon forest," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 50(2), pages 219-227, March.
    11. R A Arriagada & E O Sills & P J Ferraro & S K Pattanayak, 2015. "Do Payments Pay Off? Evidence from Participation in Costa Rica’s PES Program," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 10(7), pages 1-17, July.
    12. Blanco, Esther & Moros, Lina & Pfaff, Alexander & Steimanis, Ivo & Velez, Maria Alejandra & Vollan, Björn, 2023. "No crowding out among those terminated from an ongoing PES program in Colombia," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 120(C).
    13. Charles Palmer & Salvatore Di Falco, 2012. "Biodiversity, poverty, and development," Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Oxford University Press, vol. 28(1), pages 48-68, Spring.
    14. Pfaff, Alexander & Santiago-Avila, Francisco & Carnovale, Maria & Joppa, Lucas, 2014. "Protected Areas' Impacts Upon Land Cover Within Mexico: the need to add politics and dynamics to static land-use economics," 2014 Annual Meeting, July 27-29, 2014, Minneapolis, Minnesota 177195, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    15. Robalino, Juan & Sandoval, Catalina & Villalobos, Laura & Alpizar, Francisco, "undated". "Local Effects of Payments for Environmental Services on Poverty," RFF Working Paper Series dp-14-12-efd, Resources for the Future.
    16. Alix-Garcia, Jennifer & Wolff, Hendrik, 2014. "Payment for Ecosystem Services from Forests," IZA Discussion Papers 8179, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    17. Juan Robalino & Catalina Sandoval & David N Barton & Adriana Chacon & Alexander Pfaff, 2015. "Evaluating Interactions of Forest Conservation Policies on Avoided Deforestation," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 10(4), pages 1-16, April.
    18. Philippe Delacote & Gwenolé Le Velly & Gabriela Simonet, 2020. "Distinguishing potential and effective additionality to revisit the location bias of REDD+ project," Working Papers hal-01954923, HAL.
    19. Le Coq, Jean-François & Froger, Geraldine & Pesche, Denis & Legrand, Thomas & Saenz, Fernando, 2015. "Understanding the governance of the Payment for Environmental Services Programme in Costa Rica: A policy process perspective," Ecosystem Services, Elsevier, vol. 16(C), pages 253-265.
    20. Yan, Youpei, 2017. "Unintended Land Use Effects of Afforestation in China," 2017 Annual Meeting, July 30-August 1, Chicago, Illinois 258280, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.

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