Do Payments for Environmental Services Affect Forest Access and Social Preferences in the Long Run? Experimental Evidence from Uganda

Tobias Vorlaufer; Joost de Laat; Stefanie Engel

doi:10.1086/721440

Do Payments for Environmental Services Affect Forest Access and Social Preferences in the Long Run? Experimental Evidence from Uganda

Tobias Vorlaufer^*, Joost de Laat, Stefanie Engel

^*Corresponding author for this work

Osnabrück University

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Academic › peer-review

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.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	389-412
Number of pages	24
Journal	Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists
Volume	10
Issue number	2
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1086/721440
Publication status	Published - Mar 2023

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
for this research was provided by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation in the framework of the Alexander von Humboldt Professorship endowed by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. We thank all participants and communities for their support and hospitality. Special thanks to go to Mathew Kato Ahimbisibwe, Gloria Ayesiga, Lotte van der Haar, Angélica López Ardila, and Christine Nabulumba for their support during and after the data collection. We are grateful for feedback from Bosco Lliso and from two anonymous reviewers on an earlier version of the manuscript.

Funding Information:
([email protected]). Funding for this research was provided by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation in the framework of the Alexander von Humboldt Professorship endowed by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. We thank all participants and communities for their support and hospitality. Special thanks to go to Mathew Kato Ahimbisibwe, Gloria Ayesiga, Lotte van der Haar, Angélica López Ardila, and Christine Nabulumba for their support during and after the data collection. We are grateful for feedback from Bosco Lliso and from two anonymous reviewers on an earlier version of the manuscript.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 The Association of Environmental and Resource Economists. All rights reserved.

Funding

for this research was provided by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation in the framework of the Alexander von Humboldt Professorship endowed by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. We thank all participants and communities for their support and hospitality. Special thanks to go to Mathew Kato Ahimbisibwe, Gloria Ayesiga, Lotte van der Haar, Angélica López Ardila, and Christine Nabulumba for their support during and after the data collection. We are grateful for feedback from Bosco Lliso and from two anonymous reviewers on an earlier version of the manuscript. ([email protected]). Funding for this research was provided by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation in the framework of the Alexander von Humboldt Professorship endowed by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. We thank all participants and communities for their support and hospitality. Special thanks to go to Mathew Kato Ahimbisibwe, Gloria Ayesiga, Lotte van der Haar, Angélica López Ardila, and Christine Nabulumba for their support during and after the data collection. We are grateful for feedback from Bosco Lliso and from two anonymous reviewers on an earlier version of the manuscript.

Keywords

forest resources
impact evaluation
payment for ecosystem services
PES
RCT
sharing
social impact
social norms

Access to Document

10.1086/721440

vorlaufer-et-al-2023-do-payments-for-environmental-services-affect-forest-access-and-social-preferences-in-the-long-runFinal published version, 2.56 MBLicence: Taverne

Cite this

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title = "Do Payments for Environmental Services Affect Forest Access and Social Preferences in the Long Run? Experimental Evidence from Uganda",

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.",

keywords = "forest resources, impact evaluation, payment for ecosystem services, PES, RCT, sharing, social impact, social norms",

author = "Tobias Vorlaufer and {de Laat}, Joost and Stefanie Engel",

note = "Funding Information: for this research was provided by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation in the framework of the Alexander von Humboldt Professorship endowed by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. We thank all participants and communities for their support and hospitality. Special thanks to go to Mathew Kato Ahimbisibwe, Gloria Ayesiga, Lotte van der Haar, Ang{\'e}lica L{\'o}pez Ardila, and Christine Nabulumba for their support during and after the data collection. We are grateful for feedback from Bosco Lliso and from two anonymous reviewers on an earlier version of the manuscript. Funding Information: ([email protected]). Funding for this research was provided by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation in the framework of the Alexander von Humboldt Professorship endowed by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. We thank all participants and communities for their support and hospitality. Special thanks to go to Mathew Kato Ahimbisibwe, Gloria Ayesiga, Lotte van der Haar, Ang{\'e}lica L{\'o}pez Ardila, and Christine Nabulumba for their support during and after the data collection. We are grateful for feedback from Bosco Lliso and from two anonymous reviewers on an earlier version of the manuscript. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2023 The Association of Environmental and Resource Economists. All rights reserved.",

year = "2023",

month = mar,

doi = "10.1086/721440",

language = "English",

volume = "10",

pages = "389--412",

journal = "Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists",

issn = "2333-5955",

publisher = "University of Chicago Press",

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}

Do Payments for Environmental Services Affect Forest Access and Social Preferences in the Long Run? Experimental Evidence from Uganda. / Vorlaufer, Tobias; de Laat, Joost; Engel, Stefanie.
In: Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, Vol. 10, No. 2, 03.2023, p. 389-412.

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Academic › peer-review

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AU - de Laat, Joost

AU - Engel, Stefanie

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Do Payments for Environmental Services Affect Forest Access and Social Preferences in the Long Run? Experimental Evidence from Uganda

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Funding

Keywords

Access to Document

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