WEAI/AERE 2012 - Individual Paper Abstract
Title: Causal Mechanisms of Protected Area Impacts
Author(s): Merlin HANAUER, Department of Economics, Sonoma State University, 1801 East Cotati Ave., Rohnert Park, CA 94928, USA, hanauer at sonoma dot edu; Paul Ferraro, Georgia State University [Photo credit: Sergio Baltz Alquisalet; Bolivia sunset]
Abstract:
The proliferation of protected areas in recent decades has led to increased interest in understanding their economic impacts on surrounding populations. However, there have been few studies with the requisite data and methodologies to accurately estimate the socioeconomic impacts of protected areas. The few studies that satisfy the conditions for an impact study of high quality, have found the establishment of protected areas to be associated with poverty reductions in surrounding areas. Such results run counter to the conventional wisdom and limited theory. Unfortunately the quasi-experimental methods employed in the previous pro- tected area impact evaluations are not suitable for addressing the underlying mechanisms through which protected areas affect poverty. Therefore, the question of why protected areas have been found to be associated with reductions in poverty remains. An understanding of these mechanisms would help explain why impacts occur, rather than simply quantifying the impacts.
The establishment of protected areas has elicited concern from poverty advocates due to their associated land-use restrictions. Coupled with the facts that, historically, protected areas have been placed on marginal lands (which is correlated with poverty), and much of the remaining global biodiversity (land likely to be targeted for protection) lies in areas of high poverty, land-use restrictions are expected to impose economic hardship on already imperiled popula tions. This concern is formalized in a Von Thunen model developed by in which the author shows that land-use restrictions associated with protected areas are predicted to negatively impact landless workers. Therefore, from a policy standpoint, identifcation of the mechanisms through which protected areas affect poverty is of particular interest; especially if negative channels can be mitigated, or positive channels bolstered, through social policy.
We use rich biophysical and socioeconomic data from Costa Rica, a developing country with a renowned protected area network, to identify and quantify the causal mechanisms through which protected areas established prior to 1980 impacted poverty between 1973 and 2000. Using recently developed quasi-experimental approaches to mechanism analysis which allow for both causal inter- pretation of mechanism effects and salient comparison to previous studies of Costa Rica, we quantify the proportion of estimated poverty alleviation from tourism, infrastructure de- velopment and ecosystem services due to the establishment of protected areas. By proxying for the respective mechanisms with park entrances, changes in road networks and changes in forest cover, we find that nearly half of the poverty alleviation associated with the establishment of pro- tected areas is causally attributable to tourism. Conversely, infrastructure development accounts for a relatively small proportion of the estimated poverty alleviation. Finally, because we proxy for ecosystem services with avoided deforestation (which is associated with potentially negative poverty mechanisms), we argue that our findings of no mechanism affect due to the prevention of deforestation implies a positive impact on poverty due to the preservation of ecosystems associated with protected areas. In addition, we conduct several robustness checks which provide evidence that our general findings are likely not an artifact of our econometric strategy.