Conservation Policy Instruments Research Articles

Research on Mexican Oak Forests Subject to Public Policy Instruments for Conservation and Use

Research on Mexican Oak Forests Subject to Public Policy Instruments for Conservation and Use

Potential conservation gains from improved protected area management in the Brazilian Amazon

Protected areas (PAs) are important policy instruments for forest conservation, but it is unclear if improved management can increase PA effectiveness. In Brazil, formal management plans are required to be in place shortly after the creation of a PA. This requirement is rarely enforced and, as a result, several PAs undergo many years without approved plans. We take advantage of this variation among PAs to study the impact of management plans on deforestation. We provide estimates from two quasi-experimental evaluation approaches based on the generalization of the difference-in-differences estimator: (1) matching-based methods for time-series cross-sectional data analysis and (2) the generalized synthetic control (GSC) method. We find weak, yet generally consistent, evidence across these two methods suggesting that PAs with approved management plans protect forests more effectively over time. Significant impact estimates from the matching-based approach ranged more widely than the GSC method (0.01%–0.09% versus 0.04%–0.05% of avoided deforestation per year, respectively). The effect size of these impacts is relatively substantial given that the average annual forest loss from our PA sample was 0.07% (±0.40%). To the extent that PAs with approved management plans reflect actual differences in PA management quality, our findings suggest that investments in improving PA management could result in positive conservation gains over time.

Connectivity conservation at the crossroads: protected areas versus payments for ecosystem services in conserving connectivity for Colombian carnivores.

Protected areas (PAs) constitute one of the main tools for global landscape conservation. Recently, payments for environmental services (PES) have attracted interest from national and regional governments and are becoming one of the leading conservation policy instruments in tropical countries. However, the degree to which areas designated for PES overlap with areas that are critical for maintaining species' landscape connectivity is rarely evaluated. We estimated habitat distributions and connectivity for 16 of the 22 mammalian carnivores occurring in the Caribbean region of Colombia, and identified the overlap between existing PAs and areas identified as being important for connectivity for these species. We also evaluated the potential impact of creation of new PAs versus new PES areas on conserving connectivity for carnivores. Our results show that PAs cover only a minor percentage of the total area that is important for maintaining connectivity (). On the other hand, PES, if implemented extensively, could contribute substantially to mammalian carnivores’ connectivity (). However, in a more realistic scenario with limited conservation investment in which fewer areas are set aside, a strategy based on implementing new PAs seems superior to PES. We argue that prioritizing designation of new PAs will be the most efficient means through which to maintain connectivity.

Global typologies of coastal wetland status to inform conservation and management

Global-scale conservation initiatives and policy instruments rely on ecosystem indicators to track progress towards targets and objectives. A deeper understanding of indicator interrelationships would benefit these efforts and help characterize ecosystem status. We study interrelationships among 34 indicators for mangroves, saltmarsh, and seagrass ecosystems, and develop data-driven, spatially explicit typologies of coastal wetland status at a global scale. After accounting for environmental covariates and gap-filling missing data, we obtained two levels of clustering at 5 and 18 typologies, providing outputs at different scales for different end users. We generated 2,845 cells (1° (lat) × 1° (long)) globally, of which 29.7% were characterized by high land- and marine-based impacts and a high proportion of threatened species, 13.5% by high climate-based impacts, and 9.6% were refuges with lower impacts, high fish density and a low proportion of threatened species. We identify instances where specific actions could have positive outcomes for coastal wetlands across regions facing similar issues. For example, land- and marine-based threats to coastal wetlands were associated with ecological structure and function indicators, suggesting that reducing these threats may reduce habitat degradation and threats to species persistence. However, several interdimensional relationships might be affected by temporal or spatial mismatches in data. Weak relationships mean that global biodiversity maps that categorize areas by single indicators (such as threats or trends in habitat size) may not be representative of changes in other indicators (e.g., ecosystem function). By simplifying the complex global mosaic of coastal wetland status and identifying regions with similar issues that could benefit from knowledge exchange across national boundaries, we help set the scene for globally and regionally coordinated conservation.

Heterogeneity in Preferences for Nonfinancial Incentives to Engage Landholders in Native Vegetation Management

Most of Australia's native forest vegetation is located on private land, and conservation success often depends on landholders' participation in bush management programs. To understand landholders' preferences for these programs'attributes, we surveyed 251 landholders within historical deforestation hot spots across Queensland, Australia. Landholders were asked to make pairwise comparisons of 10 nonfinancial incentives and one financial compensation scheme. Based on a latent class analysis, we identify three distinct landholder classes. We discuss the implication of our results for the future design of native vegetation management and conservation policy instruments.

Benefits and costs of incentive-based forest conservation in the Peruvian Amazon

A growing literature focuses on evaluating the effectiveness of forest conservation policies, but few studies explore where and under which conditions programs produce net positive benefits. Quantifying the costs and benefits of conservation policy instruments contributes to making impact evaluation more relevant for policy makers and can help to improve program design. Here we analyze the costs and benefits of deforestation avoided by the Peruvian Programa Bosques between 2011 and 2015. Our approach builds on an ex post counterfactual-based impact evaluation and considers spatial heterogeneity in conservation opportunity costs as well as uncertainty across a wide range of parameters. We rely on existing social cost of carbon estimates to value benefits and calculate implementation and administration costs from primary and secondary sources. Our estimates suggest that deforestation was avoided at a negative net future value of US$ 13.7 Million in 2015. Poor conservation performance is mainly due to high implementation and administration costs (~67% of total budget). Nevertheless, participating communities benefited from an estimated net transfer of US$ 7.7 Million. Our result emphasizes the need to boost impact, secure the permanence of the avoided deforestation, and minimize program implementation costs, while paying carefully attention to distributional outcomes.

Heterogeneity in Preferences for Nonfinancial Incentives to Engage Landholders in Native Vegetation Management

Most of Australia’s native forest vegetation is located on private land, and conservation success often depends on landholders’ participation in bush management programs. To understand landholders’ preferences for these programs’ attributes, we surveyed 251 landholders within historical deforestation hot spots across Queensland, Australia. Landholders were asked to make pairwise comparisons of 10 nonfinancial incentives and one financial compensation scheme. Based on a latent class analysis, we identify three distinct landholder classes. We discuss the implication of our results for the future design of native vegetation management and conservation policy instruments.

An economic evaluation framework for land-use-based conservation policy instruments in a changing climate.

Climate change is a key threat to biodiversity. To conserve species under climate change, ecologists and conservation scientists suggest 2 main conservation strategies regarding land use: supporting species' range shifts to enable it to follow its climatic requirements by creating migration pathways, such as corridors and stepping stones, and conserving climate refugia (i.e., existing habitat areas that are somewhat buffered from climate change). The policy instruments that could be used to implement these conservation strategies have yet to be evaluated comprehensively from an economic perspective. The economic analyses of environmental policy instruments are often based on ecological effectiveness and cost-effectiveness criteria. We adapted these general criteria to evaluate policy instruments for species' conservation under climate change and applied them to a conceptual analysis of land purchases, offsets, and conservation payments. Depending on whether the strategy supporting species' range shifts or conserving climate refugia is selected, the evaluation of the policy instruments differed substantially. For example, to ensure ecological effectiveness, habitat persistence over time was especially important for climate refugia and was best achieved by a land-purchase policy instrument. In contrast, for the strategy supporting range shifts to be ecologically effective, a high degree of flexibility in the location of conserved sites was required to ensure that new habitat sites can be created in the species' new range. Offset programs were best suited for that because the location of conservation sites can be chosen comparatively freely and may also be adapted over time.

Protection or Prevention - Conservation Policy and Planning Instruments for Adaptation of Historically Built Areas in Central Europe

Protection or Prevention - Conservation Policy and Planning Instruments for Adaptation of Historically Built Areas in Central Europe

Landholder typologies illuminate pathways for social change in a deforestation hotspot

Psychosocial factors determine individual and collective behaviours, and there is growing evidence of their influence on land management behaviours. Native vegetation management encompasses biophysical, economic, political, and cultural dimensions that are immensely complex, and a more thorough understanding of the personal and cultural dimensions of deforestation activity is required. We emphasise this interdisciplinary imperative using Queensland, Australia, as an exemplar case study, where the controversial Vegetation Management Act1999 has been met with significant scrutiny over its effects on private landholders and its ability to curb deforestation behaviours. We surveyed landholders across Queensland in order to identify different landholder typologies based upon (1) their recent tree clearing behaviours and (2) their psychosocial characteristics, mapped their distribution in the landscape, and determined the unique demographic and psychosocial factors associated with typology membership. We identified a heterogeneous mosaic of landholders in the clearing landscape, composed of four clearing typologies and five psychosocial typologies. Social norms, identity, trust, and security played crucial roles in distinguishing different types of landholders. The two most contrasting clearing typologies—active and inactive clearers—were primarily located in hot- and cold-spots of deforestation, respectively; in contrast, most psychosocial typologies could be found throughout the landscape, highlighting the potential benefit of complementing generalised state-wide psychosocial targets with localised behavioural targets. We discuss how conservation policy instruments can be regionally tailored, and relevant strategies for effective communication and engagement can be developed to create behaviour change by understanding the characteristics and distribution of these types of landholders. If modified top-down efforts (e.g. strategic messages, community-based communication) can be supplemented with more bottom-up approaches (e.g. collective learning, building network support), sustainable land management in deforestation hotspots around the world may be achievable.

Toward a policy mix in conservation governance: A case of Gunung Palung National Park, West Kalimantan, Indonesia

This paper aims to demonstrate the effectiveness of articulating a policy mix in conservation governance noting that various conservation policy instruments are currently under implementation elsewhere in tropical regions. However, an approach of strategically combining these policy instruments in their application as a policy mix is still limited. The paper finds, by referring to the case of Gunung Palung National Park, Indonesia, that interactions of different policy instruments can produce either positive or negative outputs depending on their processes so that a strategic coordination of policy instruments becomes essential. Also, non-conservation policy instruments for economic or business development under implementation by various stakeholders such as local governments or private companies sometimes have a significant impact on conservation governance. Therefore, incorporating such instruments into a policy mix should be part of strategic coordination. To realize an effective policy mix for mitigating anthropogenic disturbance on biodiversity and forest ecosystems, adopting a parallel approach of overall policy coordination through a multi-stakeholder platform and field-based experimentation of policy interactions prior to their scaling-up are suggested.

Forest Owner Objectives Typologies: Instruments for Each Owner Type or Instruments for Most Owner Types?

The extensive literature on non-industrial private forest owner typologies often assumes that different forest owner types will respond to different policy instruments according to shared forest ownership objectives. Forest owner typologies using principal component analysis and subsequent k-means clustering techniques are now prolific. The surprisingly little empirical work linking forest owner objectives typologies with forest owner opinions or experiences of different policy instruments, however, shows ambiguous support for recommended targeting efforts. This study uses standard tools of analysis to investigate the relationship between private forest owners’ ownership objectives and their opinions on forest conservation policy instruments. Results show some statistically significant, but in absolute terms weak relationships between ownership objectives and Sweden’s command and control green tree retention measures, participation in voluntary forest stewardship certification, acceptance of a hypothetical financial incentive, and overall interest in taking more environmentally beneficial forest management measures. These results suggest the benefits of targeting different kinds of instruments to different kinds of ownership objectives may be limited.

Forest owner objectives typologies: Instruments for each owner type or instruments for most owner types?

The extensive literature on non-industrial private forest owner typologies often assumes that different forest owner types will respond to different policy instruments according to shared forest ownership objectives. Forest owner typologies using principal component analysis and subsequent k-means clustering techniques are now prolific. The surprisingly little empirical work linking forest owner objectives typologies with forest owner opinions or experiences of different policy instruments, however, shows ambiguous support for recommended targeting efforts. This study uses standard tools of analysis to investigate the relationship between private forest owners' ownership objectives and their opinions on forest conservation policy instruments. Results show some statistically significant, but in absolute terms weak relationships between ownership objectives and Sweden's command and control green tree retention measures, participation in voluntary forest stewardship certification, acceptance of a hypothetical financial incentive, and overall interest in taking more environmentally beneficial forest management measures. These results suggest the benefits of targeting different kinds of instruments to different kinds of ownership objectives may be limited.

Social-Ecological System constraints of Protected Areas. A case study of Mexican protected forests

Protected Areas are worldwide accepted as conservation policy instrument. However, effectiveness of this instrument for sustainability management of protected resources is still problematic. It is in this context this paper investigates Social-Ecological System constraints which lead to unsuccessful situations in protected forests in Mexico. To achieve this objective, a methodology of E. Ostrom SES framework to carry out meta-analysis of case studies of Mexican forests is used. The results show that constraints are imbedded into attributes of governance of these resources by local communities through a set of variables whose patterns of interactions lead to successful or unsuccessful situations. These variables are variables characterizing governance system and variables characterizing actors’ system. The interactions of these variables lead to successful situations in case studies in which local community members highly participate in governance system.

Export tariffs combined with public investments as a forest conservation policy instrument

The forest conservation policy instrument REDD+ (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation) is designed to compensate governments of tropical countries for their efforts to conserve forests. Food insecure countries that are specialized in agriculture and have weak political institutions, are likely to face difficulties to enforce forest conservation. This article explores in how far export tariffs on agricultural goods combined with public investments, could be used as a forest conservation policy mix in such contexts. We first show empirically that structural constraints to forest conservation policies are particularly pronounced in one third of countries where REDD+ programs are planned to be rolled out. We then develop a two sector competing land use model with a domestic food producing and an exporting agricultural sector. We show that it is possible to combine export tariffs with public investments such that deforestation decreases, while agricultural production levels and food prices remain constant.

The case of conflicting Finnish peatland management – Skewed representation of nature, participation and policy instruments

Peatlands that are close to a natural state are rich in biodiversity and are significant carbon storages. Simultaneously, peat resources are of interest to industry, which leads to competing interests and tensions regarding the use and management of peatlands. In this case study, we studied knowledge–management interactions through the development of participation and the resulting representation of nature (how nature was described), as well as the proposed and implemented conservation policy instruments. We focused on the years 2009–2015, when peatland management was intensively debated in Finland. We did an interpretative policy analysis using policy documents (Peatland Strategy; Government Resolution; Proposal for Conservation Programme) and environmental legislation as central data. Our results show how the representation of nature reflected the purpose of the documents and consensus of participants' values. The representation of nature changed from skewed use of ecosystem services to detailed ecological knowledge. However, simultaneously, political power changed and the planned supplementation programme for peatland conservation was not implemented. The Environment Protection Act was reformulated so that it prohibited the use of the most valuable peatlands. Landowners did not have the chance to fully participate in the policy process. Overall, the conservation policy instruments changed to emphasize voluntariness but without an adequate budget to ensure sufficient conservation.

Payments for Ecosystem Services as a Policy Mix: Demonstrating the institutional analysis and development framework on conservation policy instruments

AbstractPolicy mix analysis has been applied in research on energy, climate, urban and transport policy, and more recently biodiversity conservation and ecosystem services. However, policy mix analysis has thus far been employed at a high conceptual level, focusing on describing interactions between instrument types. Policy mix analysis rarely describes instrument ‘structure’ or functional characteristics in a way that would answer the question ‘what constitutes an instrument’? We describe how the rules‐in‐use taxonomy of the Institutional Analysis and Development (IAD) framework, developed for research on common pool resource management, can be used to characterize conservation policy instrument interactions. We demonstrate the approach on the well‐known payments for ecosystem services (PES) program in Costa Rica and cross‐compliance policies, arguing that PES is a policy mix rather than a single economic instrument. Our analysis shows how design features of PES described in the economics literature map to ‘rules‐in‐use’ in the IAD framework. The framework provides a terminology for defining what constitutes institutional context, comparing economic, regulatory and information instruments, and studying their interactions. The rules‐in‐use taxonomy of IAD is a ‘structural’ diagnostic approach, which needs to be combined with other tools that analyse the role and ‘agency’ of actors, as part of integrative environmental governance research. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment

Export Tariffs Combined with Public Investments As a Forest Conservation Policy Instrument

The forest conservation policy instrument REDD (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation) is designed to compensate governments of tropical countries for their efforts to conserve forests. Food insecure countries that are specialized in agriculture and have weak institutions, are likely to face difficulties to enforce forest conservation. This article explores how far export tariffs on agricultural goods combined with public investments, could be used as a forest conservation policy mix in such contexts. We first show empirically that structural constraints to forest conservation policies are particularly pronounced in one third of countries where REDD programs are planned to be rolled out. We then develop a two sector competing land use model with a domestic food producing and an exporting agricultural sector. We show that it is possible to combine export tariffs with public investments such that deforestation decreases, while agricultural production levels and food prices remain constant.

Can green infrastructure help to conserve biodiversity?

The gradually decreasing connectivity of habitats threatens biodiversity and ecological processes valuable to humans. Green infrastructure is promoted by the European Commission as a key instrument for the conservation of ecosystems in the EU biodiversity strategy to 2020. Green infrastructure has been defined as a network of natural and semi-natural areas, designed and managed to deliver a wide range of ecosystem services. We surveyed Finnish experts' perceptions on the development of green infrastructure within the existing policy framework. Our results show that improving the implementation of existing conservation policy instruments needs to be an integral part of developing green infrastructure. Despite the potential of green infrastructure to benefit biodiversity, existing conceptual ambiguity of green infrastructure with rather complex role of ecosystem services – and the possible interpretation of this in practice – raises concerns regarding its ability to contribute to biodiversity conservation.

Comparing two sensitivity analysis approaches for two scenarios with a spatially explicit rural agent-based model

In this paper two sensitivity analysis approaches are applied for scenario analysis in a spatially explicit rural agent-based simulation. The simulation aims to assess the socioeconomic and ecological impacts of agricultural policy interventions, market dynamics and environmental change on a regional scale. Two different methods of sensitivity analysis are investigated: i) a one-at-a-time approach where each parameter is varied one after the other, while all other parameters are kept at their nominal values; and ii) a procedure based on Monte Carlo sampling where random sets of input parameter values are related to outputs of the simulation. The complementarity of both approaches and their contribution to the overall interpretation of the model is shown in two scenarios simulating alternative European policy instruments for biodiversity conservation. Results show that a mixed approach of sensitivity analysis leads to a better understanding of the model's behaviour, and further enhances the description of the simulation's response to changes in inputs and parameter settings.