Abstract
Efforts to promote forest conservation have focused on two separate types of policy reforms. Decentralization reforms have attempted to make local forest governance more accountable to demands from voters. Meanwhile, Payment for Ecosystem Services (PES) schemes like the REDD program (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation) have sought to use economic incentives to promote conservation. These programs make different assumptions about the incentives most likely to work in forest conservation. Decentralization reforms assume that citizen pressures on politicians will encourage conservation, while PES approaches assume that an economic incentive—money—is the best approach. Which type of incentive works best in settings with weak institutions? Here, using a unique longitudinal dataset of forest policy in 100 Bolivian municipalities, we examine the relationships between citizen pressures and economic incentives on forest policy. We find that both types of incentives are positively and significantly associated with government investments in forest conservation, and that the magnitudes of these relationships are similar. Further, we find that economic incentives may be especially effective at promoting conservation where citizen pressures are weak or absent.
Highlights
In recent years, many scholars and policy makers have accepted the idea that forest conservation is part of a successful climate change strategy (UN-REDD Programme 2010, 2011; United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization et al 2008)
Decentralization reforms assume that citizen pressures on politicians will encourage conservation, while Payment for Ecosystem Services (PES) approaches assume that an economic incentive – money – is the best approach
We unpack “economic incentives” to determine whether funding transfers from central governments for forestry services function differently than locally-generated revenues
Summary
Many scholars and policy makers have accepted the idea that forest conservation is part of a successful climate change strategy (UN-REDD Programme 2010, 2011; United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization et al 2008). It is important to know whether such economic incentives effectively motivate governments to invest in forest conservation. Bolivia is a good place to examine the effects of economic incentives on investments in municipal forest conservation because Bolivian municipal governments often generate income from local forestry sources and receive transfers from national governments to provide forestry services. After outlining our data and methods, we present our statistical findings and discuss our results in three short sections outlining the results of three sets of tests We find that both democratic pressures and economic benefits are associated with more energetic forest conservation policy, and our findings suggest that economic incentives most strongly motivate conservation where democratic pressures are absent. We conclude with a discussion about the policy implications of these results and topics for future research
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