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Title Do Payments for Environmental Services Affect Forest Access and Social Preferences in the Long Run? Experimental Evidence from Uganda
Full text https://dspace.library.uu.nl/handle/1874/432659
Date 2023
Author(s) Vorlaufer, Tobias; de Laat, Joost; Engel, Stefanie
Contributor(s) Global Economic challenges; UU LEG Research UUSE Multidisciplinary Economics
Abstract Conservation policies and programs may trigger unintended, potentially irreversible, changes that were initially not anticipated. Concerns have been raised that the introduction of payments for environmental services (PES) fosters the pri-vatization of natural ecosystems to the detriment of marginalized groups. We assess the long-term impacts of PES on sharing of access to natural resources, associated norms, and social preferences. The studied PES program was implemented as a randomized control trial in western Uganda. Using survey and experimental data collected six years after the last payments were made, we find that the PES program did not lead to a lasting shift in resource sharing practices but did induce stronger social norms for resource sharing. Moreover, landowners in former PES villages exhibit more egalitarian social preferences than landowners in control villages. These results highlight that de-spite introducing unequal conservation benefits to communities, long-lasting negative spillovers of PES could be avoided.
Subject(s) forest resources; impact evaluation; payment for ecosystem services; PES; RCT; sharing; social impact; social norms; Taverne; Economics and Econometrics; Nature and Landscape Conservation; Management, Monitoring, Policy and Law
Language en
Relation 2333-5955
Type of publication Article
Format application/pdf
Rights info:eu-repo/semantics/OpenAccess
Identifier Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists 10(2), 389-412 (2023)
Repository Utrecht - University of Utrecht
Added to C-A: 2024-03-20;11:37:18