Title
Impacts of conservation incentives in protected areas: The case of Bolsa Floresta, Brazil
Date Issued
01 January 2022
Access level
open access
Resource Type
journal article
Author(s)
Cisneros E.
Börner J.
Pagiola S.
Center for International Forestry Research
Publisher(s)
Academic Press Inc.
Abstract
Conditional incentives are a promising complementary approach to conserve tropical forests, for example, in multiple-use protected areas. In this paper we analyze the environmental impacts of Bolsa Floresta, a forest conservation program that combines direct conditional payments with livelihood-focused investments in 15 multiple-use reserves in the Brazilian state of Amazonas. We use grid-based data, nearest-neighbor matching, and panel data econometrics to compare three forest-related program outcomes – deforestation, degradation, and fires – of participating and non-participating reserve areas. Forest threats were low before and after treatment, because the program prioritized low-pressure sites. Thus, we find significant but small additional conservation effects from the implementation of the program. Notwithstanding, treatment effects are relatively larger in areas with higher deforestation pressure and higher potential agricultural income. Our findings add to the growing body of evidence showing that adverse spatial targeting of conservation incentives, i.e. disproportionally enrolling low–pressure sites, is a prime cause for the low additionality found in rigorous impact evaluations of many existing initiatives.
Volume
111
Language
English
OCDE Knowledge area
Conservación de la Biodiversidad
Scopus EID
2-s2.0-85120742766
Source
Journal of Environmental Economics and Management
ISSN of the container
00950696
Sponsor(s)
This study was partially supported by the Norwegian Agency of Development Cooperation (Norad) through CIFOR's Global Comparative Study on REDD+, QZA-21/0124, the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), 031B0019, 01LC1824D, and the German Research Foundation under Germany's Excellence Strategy, EXC-2070 - 390732324 – PhenoRob, and under the collaborative research project CRC990, 192626868–SFB 990 – EFForTS. The authors are thankful to two anonymous referees and an editor, Esteve Corbera, Alexander Pfaff, seminar participants at the Universities of Bonn, Barcelona, Monpellier, as well as participants at the 2016 ISEE conference for their useful comments and suggestions. We would like to thank Virgilio Viana, Gabriel Ribenboim and Suelen Marostica (Amazonas Sustainable Foundation, FAS) for valuable program-related information, comments, and support, and Peter May for various conceptual contributions. We are also thankful to Matthew Rudh and Quentin Seifert for excellent research assistance. The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed in this paper are entirely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views of their institutions.
Sources of information: Directorio de Producción Científica Scopus