An Evaluation of Protected Area Policies in the European Union

The European Union designates 26% of its landmass as protected areas, limiting economic development for biodiversity. We use the staggered introduction of protected areas between 1985 and 2019 to study the selection of protected land and the causal effect of protection on vegetation cover and nightlights. We find no meaningful impacts on either outcome across four decades, countries, protection cohorts, or land characteristics. These null effects are consistent with the political economy of EU land protection: weak incentives to internalize biodiversity gains, green-glow motives, and area-based targets shape local siting and stringency choices. In practice, strict protection is applied where development pressure is low–so that protection has little bite—while in high-pressure regions, protection is typically weak, imposing only limited constraints on economic activity.