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Zhang Q, Tao S, Jagger P, Band LE, Bilsborrow RE, Zhang Z, Huang Q, Zhang Q, Moody A, Song C. Remittance from migrants reinforces forest recovery for China's reforestation policy. PLoS One 2024; 19:e0296751. [PMID: 38923961 PMCID: PMC11207146 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0296751] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/04/2023] [Accepted: 12/13/2023] [Indexed: 06/28/2024] Open
Abstract
Forests play a key role in the mitigation of global warming and provide many other vital ecosystem goods and services. However, as forest continues to vanish at an alarming rate from the surface of the planet, the world desperately needs knowledge on what contributes to forest preservation and restoration. Migration, a hallmark of globalization, is widely recognized as a main driver of forest recovery and poverty alleviation. Here, we show that remittance from migrants reinforces forest recovery that would otherwise be unlikely with mere migration, realizing the additionality of payments for ecosystem services for China's largest reforestation policy, the Conversion of Cropland to Forest Program (CCFP). Guided by the framework that integrates telecoupling and coupled natural and human systems, we investigate forest-livelihood dynamics under the CCFP through the lens of rural out-migration and remittance using both satellite remote sensing imagery and household survey data in two representative sites of rural China. Results show that payments from the CCFP significantly increases the probability of sending remittance by out-migrants to their origin households. We observe substantial forest regeneration and greening surrounding households receiving remittance but forest decline and browning in proximity to households with migrants but not receiving remittance, as measured by forest coverage and the Enhanced Vegetation Index derived from space-borne remotely sensed data. The primary mechanism is that remittance reduces the reliance of households on natural capital from forests, particularly fuelwood, allowing forests near the households to recover. The shares of the estimated ecological and economic additionality induced by remittance are 2.0% (1.4%∼3.8%) and 9.7% (5.0%∼15.2%), respectively, to the baseline of the reforested areas enrolled in CCFP and the payments received by the participating households. Remittance-facilitated forest regeneration amounts to 12.7% (6.0%∼18.0%) of the total new forest gained during the 2003-2013 in China. Our results demonstrate that remittance constitutes a telecoupling mechanism between rural areas and cities over long distances, influencing the local social-ecological gains that the forest policy intended to stimulate. Thus, supporting remittance-sending migrants in cities can be an effective global warming mitigation strategy.
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Affiliation(s)
- Qi Zhang
- Department of Geography and Environment, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, United States of America
| | - Shiqi Tao
- Department of Geography and Environment, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, United States of America
| | - Pamela Jagger
- School for Environment and Sustainability, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, United States of America
| | - Lawrence E. Band
- Department of Environmental Sciences, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, United States of America
| | - Richard E. Bilsborrow
- Department of Geography and Environment, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, United States of America
- Carolina Population Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, United States of America
| | - Zhiqiang Zhang
- School of Soil and Water Conservation, Beijing Forestry University, Beijing, China
| | - Qingfeng Huang
- School of Forestry and Landscape Architecture, Anhui Agricultural University, Hefei, Anhui, China
| | - Quanfa Zhang
- Wuhan Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan, China
| | - Aaron Moody
- Department of Geography and Environment, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, United States of America
| | - Conghe Song
- Department of Geography and Environment, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, United States of America
- Carolina Population Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, United States of America
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Hagen S, Nolte C, Chang Y, Morgan S, Boccaletti G, Reddy SMW. Understanding variation in impacts from private protected areas across regions and protection mechanisms to inform organizational practices. CONSERVATION BIOLOGY : THE JOURNAL OF THE SOCIETY FOR CONSERVATION BIOLOGY 2024; 38:e14225. [PMID: 38328897 DOI: 10.1111/cobi.14225] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/12/2023] [Revised: 09/20/2023] [Accepted: 09/21/2023] [Indexed: 02/09/2024]
Abstract
Private land protection is an important and growing tool to address biodiversity loss and climate change. Thus, better empirical evidence on the effectiveness of private land protection and organizational practices, such as targeting of lands for protection and choice of protection mechanism (i.e., fee simple land acquisition and conservation easements), is needed. We addressed this gap by estimating the impacts of The Nature Conservancy's (TNC) (a large nongovernmental organization with relatively decentralized management) conservation land acquisitions and easements from 1988 to 2016 in three regions of the United States (Mid-Atlantic, New England and New York, and California). We estimated impact in terms of avoided conversion by comparing natural land cover on 3179 protected parcels with matched unprotected parcels. Nineteen of 21 ecoregional plans used threats of agriculture and development to identify priorities for protection. When regions and protection mechanisms were pooled, on average there was no evidence of avoided conversion from 1988 to 2016. Accounting for mechanisms, TNC land acquisitions avoided conversion and easements did not. TNC's easements on parcels acquired by conservation partners did avoid conversion. Limitations of these results include focus on a single measure of impact, inability to capture future avoided conversion, and low land cover change accuracy in California. Our results suggest that private land protection managers who seek to avoid land conversion in the near to medium term should increase focus on areas with higher threats. Special attention should be paid to strengthening accountability and the role of partners, improving or clarifying how easements are used, and facilitating the flow of resources to work with the greatest potential impact.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sarah Hagen
- LANDFIRE Team, North America Region, The Nature Conservancy, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA
- Illinois Field Office, The Nature Conservancy, Chicago, Illinois, USA
| | - Christoph Nolte
- Department of Earth & Environment, Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
- Faculty of Computing and Data Science, Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
| | - Yuhe Chang
- Department of Earth & Environment, Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
| | - Seth Morgan
- Chief Conservation Office, The Nature Conservancy, Durham, North Carolina, USA
| | | | - Sheila M W Reddy
- Chief Conservation Office, The Nature Conservancy, Durham, North Carolina, USA
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3
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Sharma R, Jones S, Robinson D, Gordon A. Evaluating the impact of private land conservation with synthetic control design. CONSERVATION BIOLOGY : THE JOURNAL OF THE SOCIETY FOR CONSERVATION BIOLOGY 2023; 37:e14150. [PMID: 37461881 DOI: 10.1111/cobi.14150] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/03/2022] [Revised: 06/20/2023] [Accepted: 06/20/2023] [Indexed: 10/06/2023]
Abstract
Programs to protect biodiversity on private land are increasingly being used worldwide. To understand the efficacy of such programs, it is important to determine their impact: the difference between the program's outcome and what would have happened without the program. Typically, these programs are evaluated by estimating the average program-level impact, which readily allows comparisons between programs or regions, but masks important heterogeneity in impact across the individual conservation interventions. We used synthetic control design, statistical matching, and time-series data to estimate the impact of individual protected areas over time and combined individual-level impacts to estimate program-level impact with a meta-analytic approach. We applied the method to private protected areas governed by conservation covenants (legally binding on-title agreements to protect biodiversity) in the Goldfields region of Victoria, Australia using woody vegetation cover as our outcome variable. We compared our results with traditional approaches to estimating program-level impact based on a subset of covenants that were the same age. Our results showed an overall program-level impact of a 0.3-0.8% increase in woody vegetation cover per year. However, there was significant heterogeneity in the temporal pattern of impact for individual covenants, ranging from -4 to +7% change in woody vegetation cover per year. Results of our approach were consistent with results based on traditional approaches to estimating program-level impact. Our study provides a transparent and robust workflow to estimate individual and program-level impacts of private protected areas.
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Affiliation(s)
- Roshan Sharma
- Interdisciplinary Conservation Science Group (ICON), RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia
| | - Simon Jones
- School of Science, RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia
| | | | - Ascelin Gordon
- Interdisciplinary Conservation Science Group (ICON), RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia
- School of Global, Urban and Social Studies, RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia
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Kemink KM, Pressey RL, Adams VM, Olimb SK, Healey AM, Liu B, Frerichs T, Renner R. Quantifying population-level conservation impacts for a perpetual conservation program on private land. JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT 2023; 345:118748. [PMID: 37666135 DOI: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2023.118748] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/03/2023] [Revised: 07/21/2023] [Accepted: 08/09/2023] [Indexed: 09/06/2023]
Abstract
Area-based targets, such as percentages of regions protected, are popular metrics of success in the protection of nature. While easily quantified, these targets can be uninformative about the effectiveness of conservation interventions and should be complemented by program impact evaluations. However, most impact evaluations have examined the effect of protected areas on deforestation. Studies that have extended these evaluations to more dynamic systems or different outcomes are less common, largely due to data availability. In these cases, simulations might prove to be a valuable tool for gaining an understanding of the potential range of program effect sizes. Here, we employ simulations of wetland drainage to estimate the impact of the United States Fish and Wildlife Service Small Wetlands Acquisition Program (SWAP) across a ten-year period in terms of wetland area, and breeding waterfowl and brood abundance in the Prairie Pothole Region of North Dakota, South Dakota, and Montana. Using our simulation results, we estimate a plausible range of program impact for the SWAP as an avoided loss of between 0.00% and 0.02% of the carrying capacity for broods and breeding waterfowl from 2008-2017. Despite the low programmatic impact that these results suggest, the perpetual nature of SWAP governance provides promising potential for a higher cumulative conservation impact in the long term if future wetland drainage occurs.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kaylan M Kemink
- Ducks Unlimited Inc, 2525 River Road, Bismarck 58503, ND, United States; College of Science and Engineering, James Cook University, Townsville 48114, Queensland, Australia.
| | - Robert L Pressey
- College of Science and Engineering, James Cook University, Townsville 48114, Queensland, Australia; Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane 4000, Queensland, Australia.
| | - Vanessa M Adams
- School of Geography, Planning, and Spatial Sciences, University of Tasmania, Hobart 7001, Tasmania, Australia.
| | - Sarah K Olimb
- World Wildlife Fund Northern Great Plains Program, 13 S. Wilson Suite 1, Bozeman 59715, MT, United States.
| | - Aidan M Healey
- Ducks Unlimited Inc, 2525 River Road, Bismarck 58503, ND, United States.
| | - Boyan Liu
- Ducks Unlimited Inc, 2525 River Road, Bismarck 58503, ND, United States.
| | - Todd Frerichs
- United States Fish and Wildlife Service, Western SD WMD Complex, Sand Lake National Wildlife Refuge/Wetland Management District, 39650 Sand Lake Drive, Columbia 57433, SD, United States.
| | - Randy Renner
- Ducks Unlimited Inc, 2525 River Road, Bismarck 58503, ND, United States.
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zu Ermgassen SOSE, Devenish K, Simmons BA, Gordon A, Jones JPG, Maron M, Schulte to Bühne H, Sharma R, Sonter LJ, Strange N, Ward M, Bull JW. Evaluating the impact of biodiversity offsetting on native vegetation. GLOBAL CHANGE BIOLOGY 2023; 29:4397-4411. [PMID: 37300408 PMCID: PMC10946555 DOI: 10.1111/gcb.16801] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/23/2023] [Accepted: 04/20/2023] [Indexed: 06/12/2023]
Abstract
Biodiversity offsetting is a globally influential policy mechanism for reconciling trade-offs between development and biodiversity loss. However, there is little robust evidence of its effectiveness. We evaluated the outcomes of a jurisdictional offsetting policy (Victoria, Australia). Offsets under Victoria's Native Vegetation Framework (2002-2013) aimed to prevent loss and degradation of remnant vegetation, and generate gains in vegetation extent and quality. We categorised offsets into those with near-complete baseline woody vegetation cover ("avoided loss", 2702 ha) and with incomplete cover ("regeneration", 501 ha), and evaluated impacts on woody vegetation extent from 2008 to 2018. We used two approaches to estimate the counterfactual. First, we used statistical matching on biophysical covariates: a common approach in conservation impact evaluation, but which risks ignoring potentially important psychosocial confounders. Second, we compared changes in offsets with changes in sites that were not offsets for the study duration but were later enrolled as offsets, to partially account for self-selection bias (where landholders enrolling land may have shared characteristics affecting how they manage land). Matching on biophysical covariates, we estimated that regeneration offsets increased woody vegetation extent by 1.9%-3.6%/year more than non-offset sites (138-180 ha from 2008 to 2018) but this effect weakened with the second approach (0.3%-1.9%/year more than non-offset sites; 19-97 ha from 2008 to 2018) and disappeared when a single outlier land parcel was removed. Neither approach detected any impact of avoided loss offsets. We cannot conclusively demonstrate whether the policy goal of 'net gain' (NG) was achieved because of data limitations. However, given our evidence that the majority of increases in woody vegetation extent were not additional (would have happened without the scheme), a NG outcome seems unlikely. The results highlight the importance of considering self-selection bias in the design and evaluation of regulatory biodiversity offsetting policy, and the challenges of conducting robust impact evaluations of jurisdictional biodiversity offsetting policies.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sophus O. S. E. zu Ermgassen
- Department of BiologyUniversity of OxfordOxfordUK
- Durrell Institute of Conservation and Ecology, School of Anthropology and ConservationUniversity of KentCanterburyUK
| | - Katie Devenish
- School of Natural Sciences, College of Environmental Science and EngineeringBangor UniversityBangorUK
| | | | - Ascelin Gordon
- School of Global Urban and Social StudiesRMIT UniversityMelbourneVictoriaAustralia
| | - Julia P. G. Jones
- School of Natural Sciences, College of Environmental Science and EngineeringBangor UniversityBangorUK
| | - Martine Maron
- The University of Queensland, School of Earth & Environmental Sciences, and Centre for Biodiversity and Conservation ScienceBrisbaneQueenslandAustralia
| | | | - Roshan Sharma
- School of Global Urban and Social StudiesRMIT UniversityMelbourneVictoriaAustralia
| | - Laura J. Sonter
- The University of Queensland, School of Earth & Environmental Sciences, and Centre for Biodiversity and Conservation ScienceBrisbaneQueenslandAustralia
| | - Niels Strange
- Department of Food and Resource EconomicsUniversity of CopenhagenCopenhagenDenmark
| | - Michelle Ward
- The University of Queensland, School of Earth & Environmental Sciences, and Centre for Biodiversity and Conservation ScienceBrisbaneQueenslandAustralia
- WWF—AustraliaBrisbaneQueenslandAustralia
| | - Joseph W. Bull
- Department of BiologyUniversity of OxfordOxfordUK
- Durrell Institute of Conservation and Ecology, School of Anthropology and ConservationUniversity of KentCanterburyUK
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Buckley Biggs N. Drivers and constraints of land use transitions on Western grasslands: insights from a California mountain ranching community. LANDSCAPE ECOLOGY 2022; 37:1185-1205. [PMID: 35013646 PMCID: PMC8731682 DOI: 10.1007/s10980-021-01385-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/18/2021] [Accepted: 12/08/2021] [Indexed: 06/14/2023]
Abstract
CONTEXT Land use change drives a host of sustainability challenges on Earth's grasslands. To understand the relationship between changing land use patterns, human well-being, and ecosystem services, research is needed into land use transitions on privately-owned grasslands. Such inquiry lies at the intersection of land system science, landscape sustainability science and environmental governance. OBJECTIVES This study investigated land use change in a mountain ranching community in the Sierra Nevada, California. The research objective was to highlight factors influencing land use transitions and corollary ecological outcomes on privately-owned grasslands in the Western US. METHODS This mixed methods case study integrated participant observation, 30 semi-structured interviews, and analysis of land cover and real estate data. Interviews were conducted with ranchers, public agencies, and conservation and real estate industry representatives, and analyzed with the constant comparison method using NVivo 12. RESULTS Land use transitions in the case study region include agricultural intensification, residential and solar development, and disintensification. These transitions were influenced by many factors including decreasing land access and water availability, amenity migration, intergenerational succession, and conservation policy. CONCLUSIONS By highlighting factors influencing land use transitions on working lands, this study can be applied to improve the uptake of environmental policies. For the future, several approaches may support grasslands conservation: ensuring grazing lands access, income diversification, groundwater regulations, agriculture-compatible conservation easements, and land use policies supporting ownership transition to amenity purposes rather than low-density residential development. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10980-021-01385-6.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nicole Buckley Biggs
- School of Earth, Energy & Environmental Sciences, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305 USA
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Desbureaux S. Subjective modeling choices and the robustness of impact evaluations in conservation science. CONSERVATION BIOLOGY : THE JOURNAL OF THE SOCIETY FOR CONSERVATION BIOLOGY 2021; 35:1615-1626. [PMID: 33751669 DOI: 10.1111/cobi.13728] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/08/2020] [Revised: 11/25/2020] [Accepted: 12/22/2020] [Indexed: 06/12/2023]
Abstract
Arbitrary modeling choices are inevitable in scientific studies. Yet, few empirical studies in conservation science report the effects these arbitrary choices have on estimated results. I explored the effects of subjective modeling choices in the context of counterfactual impact evaluations. Over 5000 candidate models based on reasonable changes in the choice of statistical matching algorithms (e.g., genetic and nearest distance mahalanobis matching), the parametrization of these algorithms (e.g., number of matches), and the inclusion of specific covariates (e.g., distance to nearest city, slope, or rainfall) were valid for studying the effect of Virunga National Park in Democratic Republic of the Congo on changes in tree cover loss and carbon storage over time. I randomly picked 2000 of the 5000 candidate models to determine how much and which subjective modeling choices affected the results the most. All valid models indicated that tree cover loss decreased and carbon storage increased in Virunga National Park from 2000 to 2019. Nonetheless, the order of magnitude of the estimates varied by a factor of 3 (from -4.78 to -13.12 percentage points decrease in tree cover loss and from 20 to 46 t Ce/ha for carbon storage). My results highlight that modeling choices, notably the choice of the matching algorithm, can have significant effects on point estimates and suggest that more structured robustness checks are a key step toward more credible findings in conservation science.
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Nieminen E, Kareksela S, Halme P, Kotiaho JS. Quantifying trade-offs between ecological gains, economic costs, and landowners' preferences in boreal mire protection. AMBIO 2021; 50:1841-1850. [PMID: 33825157 PMCID: PMC8363685 DOI: 10.1007/s13280-021-01530-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/05/2020] [Revised: 11/29/2020] [Accepted: 01/29/2021] [Indexed: 05/21/2023]
Abstract
Private land often encompasses biodiversity features of high conservation value, but its protection is not straightforward. Commonly, landowners' perspectives are rightfully allowed to influence conservation actions. This unlikely comes without consequences on biodiversity or other aspects such as economic considerations, but these consequences are rarely quantitatively considered in decision-making. In the context of boreal mire protection in Finland, we report how acknowledging landowners' resistance to protection changes the combination of mires selected to conservation compared to ignoring landowners' opinions. Using spatial prioritization, we quantify trade-offs arising between the amount of landowners' resistance, protected biodiversity, and financial costs in different conservation scenarios. Results show that the trade-offs cannot be fully avoided. Nevertheless, we show that the systematic examination of the trade-offs opens up options to alleviate them. This can promote the evaluation of different conservation policy outcomes, enabling better-informed conservation decisions and more effective and socially sustainable allocation of conservation resources.
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Affiliation(s)
- Eini Nieminen
- Department of Biological and Environmental Science, University of Jyväskylä, P.O. Box 35, 40014 Jyväskylä, Finland
| | - Santtu Kareksela
- Parks and Wildlife Finland, Metsähallitus, P.O. Box 36, 40101 Jyväskylä, Finland
| | - Panu Halme
- Department of Biological and Environmental Science, University of Jyväskylä, P.O. Box 35, 40014 Jyväskylä, Finland
| | - Janne Sakari Kotiaho
- Department of Biological and Environmental Science, University of Jyväskylä, P.O. Box 35, 40014 Jyväskylä, Finland
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Shumba T, De Vos A, Biggs R, Esler KJ, Clements HS. The influence of biophysical and socio-economic factors on the effectiveness of private land conservation areas in preventing natural land cover loss across South Africa. Glob Ecol Conserv 2021. [DOI: 10.1016/j.gecco.2021.e01670] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/21/2022] Open
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Palfrey R, Oldekop J, Holmes G. Conservation and social outcomes of private protected areas. CONSERVATION BIOLOGY : THE JOURNAL OF THE SOCIETY FOR CONSERVATION BIOLOGY 2021; 35:1098-1110. [PMID: 33210742 DOI: 10.1111/cobi.13668] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/25/2019] [Revised: 10/18/2020] [Accepted: 10/20/2020] [Indexed: 06/11/2023]
Abstract
Government administered protected areas (PAs) have dominated conservation strategies, discourse, and research, yet private actors are increasingly managing land for conservation. Little is known about the social and environmental outcomes of these privately protected areas (PPAs). We searched the global literature in English on PPAs and their environmental and social outcomes and identified 412 articles suitable for inclusion. Research on PPAs was geographically skewed; more studies occurred in the United States. Environmental outcomes of PPAs were mostly positive (89%), but social outcomes of PPAs were reported less (12% of all studies), and these outcomes were more mixed (65% positive). Private protected areas increased the number or extent of ecosystems, ecoregions, or species covered by PAs (representativeness) and PA network connectivity and effectively reduced deforestation and restored degraded lands. Few PPA owners reported negative social outcomes, experienced improved social capital, increased property value, or a reduction in taxes. Local communities benefited from increased employment, training, and community-wide development (e.g., building of schools), but they reported reduced social capital and no significant difference to household income. The causal mechanisms through which PPAs influence social and environmental outcomes remain unclear, as does how political, economic, and social contexts shape these mechanisms. Future research should widen the geographical scope and diversify the types of PPAs studied and focus on determining the casual mechanisms through which PPA outcomes occur in different contexts. We propose an assessment framework that could be adopted to facilitate this process.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Johan Oldekop
- Global Development Institute, University of Manchester, Manchester, M13 9PL, U.K
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Additionality and Leakage Resulting from PES Implementation? Evidence from the Ecuadorian Amazonia. FORESTS 2021. [DOI: 10.3390/f12070906] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/16/2022]
Abstract
Payments for Environmental Services (PES) are instruments which seem well suited for forest conservation. However, their impact on reducing deforestation might be weakened by negligible additionality and leakage effects; the first refers to the low variation in net deforestation rates even in the absence of PES, and the second refers to the displaced deforestation behavior to other areas not covered by PES. For the case of Ecuador, we examine both issues by assessing the historical deforestation trend of selected PES-enrolled areas and that of their adjacent areas to identify deforestation patterns before and after PES implementation. We analyze the additional effect of PES on reducing deforestation by comparison to a baseline as well as to comparable reference sites at two different spatial scales. We also analyze potential leakage effects of PES by comparing deforestation development in adjacent areas. We show that PES has achieved marginally low conservation impacts in enrolled areas with an average difference in net deforestation rates of 0.02 percent points over a period of 28 years. Overall, PES-enrolled areas depict lower annual net deforestation rates than unenrolled areas, albeit at a negligible rate, and there is also some evidence that deforestation decreased in adjacent areas after PES implementation. Additionally, there exists a statistically significant linear increasing deforestation trend in adjacent areas as distance increases from the PES-enrolled area. Our empirical results, however, raise the suspicion that the choice of PES-enrolled areas might have been influenced by self-selection.
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Wang K, Wu W, Jabbar A, Wolde Z, Ou M. Dynamic Evolution and Spatial Convergence of the Virtual Cultivated Land Flow Intensity in China. INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH AND PUBLIC HEALTH 2021; 18:ijerph18137164. [PMID: 34281102 PMCID: PMC8297327 DOI: 10.3390/ijerph18137164] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/07/2021] [Revised: 06/28/2021] [Accepted: 07/02/2021] [Indexed: 11/16/2022]
Abstract
Exploring the flow intensity of virtual cultivated land is the key to improving the ecological compensation and food security policy. This study aimed to analyze the dynamic evolution, spatial convergence, and its affecting factors of the virtual cultivated land flow intensity. The spatial convergence model was used in this study. The results showed that, during 2000-2018, the growth rate of the surplus state of virtual cultivated land at the national level is less than that of the deficit state of virtual cultivated land in China. Moreover, the number of deficit provinces of virtual cultivated land flow intensity is increasing. The absolute β-convergence characteristics of the virtual cultivated land flow intensity are significant at the national, northeast, central, and western regions. Additionally, the conditional β-convergence exists at the national and four regional levels. Meanwhile, cultivated land resource endowment, population scale, regional economic development level, and agricultural mechanization level play an important role in the convergence process of inter-regional virtual cultivated land flow intensity. However, the influence degree of different control variables on different regional virtual cultivated land flow intensity is not consistent. Therefore, policymakers should pay attention to cultivated land resources' spatial transfer mechanism when making regional cultivated land ecological compensation policies to coordinate the interesting relationship between the deficit area and surplus area of virtual cultivated land. Therefore, it is necessary to take the virtual cultivated land flow intensity as the reference index and use the combination of market guidance and government control to stimulus the stakeholders to protect cultivated land by taking different measures.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kunpeng Wang
- College of Land Management, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing 210095, China; (K.W.); (W.W.); (A.J.); (Z.W.)
| | - Wenjun Wu
- College of Land Management, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing 210095, China; (K.W.); (W.W.); (A.J.); (Z.W.)
| | - Awais Jabbar
- College of Land Management, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing 210095, China; (K.W.); (W.W.); (A.J.); (Z.W.)
| | - Zinabu Wolde
- College of Land Management, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing 210095, China; (K.W.); (W.W.); (A.J.); (Z.W.)
| | - Minghao Ou
- College of Land Management, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing 210095, China; (K.W.); (W.W.); (A.J.); (Z.W.)
- Center of Urban-Rural Joint Development and Land Management Innovation, Nanjing 210095, China
- Correspondence: ; Tel.: +86-188-3911-9896
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13
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Effectiveness of private land conservation areas in maintaining natural land cover and biodiversity intactness. Glob Ecol Conserv 2020. [DOI: 10.1016/j.gecco.2020.e00935] [Citation(s) in RCA: 19] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/23/2022] Open
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Nolte C, De Vos A, Schöttker O. Cost‐effectiveness of public policy for the long‐term conservation of private lands: What is the deal? Conserv Lett 2019. [DOI: 10.1111/conl.12691] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/30/2022] Open
Affiliation(s)
- Christoph Nolte
- Department of Earth and EnvironmentBoston University Boston Massachusetts
| | - Alta De Vos
- Department of Environmental ScienceRhodes University Grahamstown South Africa
| | - Oliver Schöttker
- Chair of Environmental EconomicsBrandenburg University of Cottbus‐Senftenberg Cottbus Brandenburg Germany
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