IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/nbr/nberwo/31873.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The Environmental Impacts of Protected Area Policy

Author

Listed:
  • Mathias Reynaert
  • Eduardo A. Souza-Rodrigues
  • Arthur A. van Benthem

Abstract

The world has pledged to protect 30 percent of its land and waters by 2030 to halt the rapid deterioration of critical ecosystems. We summarize the state of knowledge about the impacts of protected area policies, with a focus on deforestation and vegetation cover. We discuss critical issues around data and measurement, identify the most commonly-used empirical methods, and summarize empirical evidence across multiple regions of the world. In most cases, protection has had at most a modest impact on forest cover, with stronger effects in areas that face pressure of economic development. We then identify several open areas for research to advance our understanding of the effectiveness of protected area policies: the use of promising recent econometric advancements, shifting focus to direct measures of biodiversity, filling the knowledge gap on the effect of protected area policy in advanced economies, investigating the long-run impacts of protection, and understanding its equilibrium effects.

Suggested Citation

  • Mathias Reynaert & Eduardo A. Souza-Rodrigues & Arthur A. van Benthem, 2023. "The Environmental Impacts of Protected Area Policy," NBER Working Papers 31873, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:31873
    Note: EEE
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.nber.org/papers/w31873.pdf
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text is generally limited to series subscribers, however if the top level domain of the client browser is in a developing country or transition economy free access is provided. More information about subscriptions and free access is available at http://www.nber.org/wwphelp.html. Free access is also available to older working papers.
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version below or search for a different version of it.

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Cheng, Audrey T. & Sims, Katharine R.E. & Yi, Yuanyuan, 2023. "Economic development and conservation impacts of China's nature reserves," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 121(C).
    2. Derya Keles & Alexander Pfaff & Michael B. Mascia, 2023. "Does the Selective Erasure of Protected Areas Raise Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon?," Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, University of Chicago Press, vol. 10(4), pages 1121-1147.
    3. Robalino, Juan & Villalobos, Laura, 2015. "Protected areas and economic welfare: an impact evaluation of national parks on local workers' wages in Costa Rica," Environment and Development Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 20(3), pages 283-310, June.
    4. Clément de Chaisemartin & Xavier D'Haultfœuille, 2020. "Two-Way Fixed Effects Estimators with Heterogeneous Treatment Effects," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 110(9), pages 2964-2996, September.
    5. Albers, H. J. & Lee, K. D. & Sims, K. R. E., 2018. "Economics of Habitat Fragmentation: A Review and Critique of the Literature," International Review of Environmental and Resource Economics, now publishers, vol. 11(2), pages 97-144, May.
    6. Diego Herrera & Alexander Pfaff & Juan Robalino, 2019. "Impacts of protected areas vary with the level of government: Comparing avoided deforestation across agencies in the Brazilian Amazon," Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, vol. 116(30), pages 14916-14925, July.
    7. Jeffrey R. Vincent, 2016. "Impact Evaluation of Forest Conservation Programs: Benefit-Cost Analysis, Without the Economics," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 63(2), pages 395-408, February.
    8. Blackman, Allen, 2015. "Strict versus mixed-use protected areas: Guatemala's Maya Biosphere Reserve," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 112(C), pages 14-24.
    9. Kere, Eric Nazindigouba & Choumert, Johanna & Combes Motel, Pascale & Combes, Jean Louis & Santoni, Olivier & Schwartz, Sonia, 2017. "Addressing Contextual and Location Biases in the Assessment of Protected Areas Effectiveness on Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazônia," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 136(C), pages 148-158.
    10. Eduardo Souza-Rodrigues, 2019. "Deforestation in the Amazon: A Unified Framework for Estimation and Policy Analysis," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 86(6), pages 2713-2744.
    11. Stefan Wager & Susan Athey, 2018. "Estimation and Inference of Heterogeneous Treatment Effects using Random Forests," Journal of the American Statistical Association, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 113(523), pages 1228-1242, July.
    12. Alexander Pfaff & Juan Robalino, 2017. "Spillovers from Conservation Programs," Annual Review of Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 9(1), pages 299-315, October.
    13. Juliano Assunção & Robert McMillan & Joshua Murphy & Eduardo Souza-Rodrigues, 2023. "Optimal Environmental Targeting in the Amazon Rainforest," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 90(4), pages 1608-1641.
    14. Miranda, Juan José & Corral, Leonardo & Blackman, Allen & Asner, Gregory & Lima, Eirivelthon, 2016. "Effects of Protected Areas on Forest Cover Change and Local Communities: Evidence from the Peruvian Amazon," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 288-307.
    15. Rasker, Ray & Gude, Patricia H. & Delorey, Mark, 2013. "The Effect of Protected Federal Lands on Economic Prosperity in the Non-metropolitan West," Journal of Regional Analysis and Policy, Mid-Continent Regional Science Association, vol. 43(2).
    16. Sims, Katharine R.E., 2010. "Conservation and development: Evidence from Thai protected areas," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 60(2), pages 94-114, September.
    17. Jan Börner & Dario Schulz & Sven Wunder & Alexander Pfaff, 2020. "The Effectiveness of Forest Conservation Policies and Programs," Annual Review of Resource Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 12(1), pages 45-64, October.
    18. Tristan Grupp & Prakash Mishra & Mathias Reynaert & Arthur A. van Benthem, 2023. "An Evaluation of Protected Area Policies in the European Union," NBER Working Papers 31934, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    19. Callaway, Brantly & Sant’Anna, Pedro H.C., 2021. "Difference-in-Differences with multiple time periods," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 225(2), pages 200-230.
    20. Abman, Ryan, 2018. "Rule of Law and Avoided Deforestation from Protected Areas," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 146(C), pages 282-289.
    21. Matthew A. Turner & Andrew Haughwout & Wilbert van der Klaauw, 2014. "Land Use Regulation and Welfare," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 82(4), pages 1341-1403, July.
    22. 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.
    23. Juan Robalino & Alexander Pfaff & Laura Villalobos, 2017. "Heterogeneous Local Spillovers from Protected Areas in Costa Rica," Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, University of Chicago Press, vol. 4(3), pages 795-820.
    24. Andrew Metrick & Martin L. Weitzman, 1998. "Conflicts and Choices in Biodiversity Preservation," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 12(3), pages 21-34, Summer.
    25. Alexander Pfaff & Juan Robalino, 2017. "Spillovers from Conservation Programs," Annual Review of Resource Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 9(1), pages 299-315, October.
    26. Seth Morgan & Alexander Pfaff & Julien Wolfersberger, 2022. "Environmental Policies Benefit Economic Development: Implications of Economic Geography," Annual Review of Resource Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 14(1), pages 427-446, October.
    27. Bonilla-Mejía, Leonardo & Higuera-Mendieta, Iván, 2019. "Protected Areas under Weak Institutions: Evidence from Colombia," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 122(C), pages 585-596.
    28. Kathryn Baragwanath & Ella Bayi, 2020. "Collective property rights reduce deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon," Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, vol. 117(34), pages 20495-20502, August.
    29. Amin, A. & Choumert-Nkolo, J. & Combes, J.-L. & Combes Motel, P. & Kéré, E.N. & Ongono-Olinga, J.-G. & Schwartz, S., 2019. "Neighborhood effects in the Brazilian Amazônia: Protected areas and deforestation," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 93(C), pages 272-288.
    30. JunJie Wu & Jialing Yu & Walid Oueslati, 2023. "Open Space in US Urban Areas: Where Might There Be Too Much or Too Little of a Good Thing?," Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, University of Chicago Press, vol. 10(2), pages 315-352.
    31. Charles A. Taylor & Hannah Druckenmiller, 2022. "Wetlands, Flooding, and the Clean Water Act," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 112(4), pages 1334-1363, April.
    32. Katharine Sims, 2014. "Do Protected Areas Reduce Forest Fragmentation? A Microlandscapes Approach," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 58(2), pages 303-333, June.
    33. 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.
    34. Pfaff Alexander & Robalino Juan & Sanchez-Azofeifa G. Arturo & Andam Kwaw S & Ferraro Paul J, 2009. "Park Location Affects Forest Protection: Land Characteristics Cause Differences in Park Impacts across Costa Rica," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 9(2), pages 1-26, July.
    35. BenYishay, Ariel & Heuser, Silke & Runfola, Daniel & Trichler, Rachel, 2017. "Indigenous land rights and deforestation: Evidence from the Brazilian Amazon," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 86(C), pages 29-47.
    36. Yuanning Liang & Ivan J. Rudik & Eric Zou & Alison Johnston & Amanda D. Rodewald & Catherine L. Kling, 2020. "Conservation Co-Benefits from Air Pollution Regulation: Evidence from Birds," NBER Working Papers 27415, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    37. Lina O Anderson & Samantha De Martino & Torfinn Harding & Karlygash Kuralbayeva & Andre Lima, 2016. "The Effects of Land Use Regulation on Deforestation:," OxCarre Working Papers 172, Oxford Centre for the Analysis of Resource Rich Economies, University of Oxford.
    38. David Mwesigye Tumusiime & Espen Sjaastad, 2014. "Conservation and Development: Justice, Inequality, and Attitudes around Bwindi Impenetrable National Park," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 50(2), pages 204-225, February.
    39. Heidi J. Albers & Madison F. Ashworth, 2022. "Economics of Marine Protected Areas: Assessing the Literature for Marine Protected Area Network Expansions," Annual Review of Resource Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 14(1), pages 533-554, October.
    40. Juliano Assunção & Clarissa Gandour & Romero Rocha, 2023. "DETER-ing Deforestation in the Amazon: Environmental Monitoring and Law Enforcement," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 15(2), pages 125-156, April.
    41. Victor Cazalis & Karine Princé & Jean-Baptiste Mihoub & Joseph Kelly & Stuart H. M. Butchart & Ana S. L. Rodrigues, 2020. "Effectiveness of protected areas in conserving tropical forest birds," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 11(1), pages 1-8, December.
    42. Jeffrey R. Vincent, 2016. "Erratum to: Impact Evaluation of Forest Conservation Programs: Benefit-Cost Analysis, Without the Economics," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 63(2), pages 409-409, February.
    43. Eichman, Henry & Hunt, Gary L. & Kerkvliet, Joe & Plantinga, Andrew J., 2010. "Local Employment Growth, Migration, and Public Land Policy: Evidence from the Northwest Forest Plan," Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Western Agricultural Economics Association, vol. 35(2), pages 1-18, August.
    44. Uchida, Emi & Xu, Jintao & Xu, Zhigang & Rozelle, Scott, 2007. "Are the poor benefiting from China's land conservation program?," Environment and Development Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 12(4), pages 593-620, August.
    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. 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. 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.
    3. Li, Yi & Song, Zhenjiang, 2022. "Have protected areas in China achieved the ecological and economic “win-win” goals? Evidence from the Giant Panda Reserves of the Min Mont Range," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 144(C).
    4. Garcia, Alberto & Heilmayr, Robert, 2024. "Impact evaluation with nonrepeatable outcomes: The case of forest conservation," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 125(C).
    5. Cisneros, Elías & Börner, Jan & Pagiola, Stefano & Wunder, Sven, 2022. "Impacts of conservation incentives in protected areas: The case of Bolsa Floresta, Brazil," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 111(C).
    6. Shang Xu & H. Allen Klaiber & Daniela A. Miteva, 2023. "Impacts of forest conservation on local agricultural labor supply: Evidence from the Indonesian forest moratorium," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 105(3), pages 940-965, May.
    7. Rico-Straffon, Jimena & Wang, Zhenhua & Panlasigui, Stephanie & Loucks, Colby J. & Swenson, Jennifer & Pfaff, Alexander, 2023. "Forest concessions and eco-certifications in the Peruvian Amazon: Deforestation impacts of logging rights and logging restrictions," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 118(C).
    8. Gwenolé Le Velly & Céline Dutilly, 2016. "Evaluating Payments for Environmental Services: Methodological Challenges," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 11(2), pages 1-20, February.
    9. Vélez, Maria Alejandra & Robalino, Juan & Cardenas, Juan Camilo & Paz, Andrea & Pacay, Eduardo, 2020. "Is collective titling enough to protect forests? Evidence from Afro-descendant communities in the Colombian Pacific region," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 128(C).
    10. Szabó, Andrea & Ujhelyi, Gergely, 2024. "National parks and economic development," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 232(C).
    11. Heidi J. Albers, 2022. "Protected Area Network Expansion and Management: Economics to improve conservation outcomes," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 83(4), pages 955-972, December.
    12. Francisco B. Galarza & Joanna Kámiche Zegarra & Rosario Gómez, 2023. "Roads and Deforestation: Do Local Institutions Matter?," Working Papers 192, Peruvian Economic Association.
    13. Auliz-Ortiz, Daniel Martín & Arroyo-Rodríguez, Víctor & Mendoza, Eduardo & Martínez-Ramos, Miguel, 2023. "Are there trade-offs between conservation and development caused by Mexican protected areas?," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 127(C).
    14. Robalino, Juan & Pfaff, Alexander & Sandoval, Catalina & Sanchez-Azofeifa, G. Arturo, 2021. "Can we increase the impacts from payments for ecosystem services? Impact rose over time in Costa Rica, yet spatial variation indicates more potential," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 132(C).
    15. Wumeng He & Orapan Nabangchang & Krista Erdman & Alex C. A. Vanko & Prapti Poudel & Chandra Giri & Jeffrey R. Vincent, 2023. "Inferring Economic Impacts from a Program’s Physical Outcomes: An Application to Forest Protection in Thailand," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 84(3), pages 845-876, March.
    16. Jean-Louis Combes & Pascale Combes Motel & Manegdo Ulrich Doamba & Youba Ndiaye, 2023. "Mining the forests: do protected areas hinder mining-driven forest loss in Sub-Saharan Africa?," Working Papers hal-04061084, HAL.
    17. Carrilho, Cauê D. & Demarchi, Gabriela & Duchelle, Amy E. & Wunder, Sven & Morsello, Carla, 2022. "Permanence of avoided deforestation in a Transamazon REDD+ project (Pará, Brazil)," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 201(C).
    18. Bhattacharjee, Arnab & Aravena, Claudia & Castillo, Natalia & Ehrlich, Marco & Taou, Nadia & Wagner, Thomas, 2022. "Agroforestry Programs in the Colombian Amazon: Selection, Treatment and Exposure Effects on Deforestation," National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR) Discussion Papers 537, National Institute of Economic and Social Research.
    19. Miranda, Juan Jose & Corral, Leonardo & Blackman, Allen & Asner, Gregory & Lima, Eirivelthon, 2014. "Effects of Protected Areas on Forest Cover Change and Local Communities," RFF Working Paper Series dp-14-14, Resources for the Future.
    20. Miguel Cantillo, 2015. "Dynamic Investment with Adverse Selection and Moral Hazard," Working Papers 201501, Universidad de Costa Rica, revised Mar 2015.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • Q23 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Renewable Resources and Conservation - - - Forestry
    • Q24 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Renewable Resources and Conservation - - - Land
    • Q57 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Ecological Economics
    • R14 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - General Regional Economics - - - Land Use Patterns

    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:nbr:nberwo:31873. 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: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/nberrus.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.