Experimental evidence on payments for forest commons conservation

• Published in: Nature sustainability Vol. 1; no. 3; pp. 128 - 135
• Main Authors: Andersson, Krister P., Cook, Nathan J., Grillos, Tara, Lopez, Maria Claudia, Salk, Carl F., Wright, Glenn D., Mwangi, Esther
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 01-03-2018; Nature Publishing Group
• Subjects: 704/844/2175; 704/844/685; Earth and Environmental Science; Ecosystem services; Environment; Environmental behavior; Environmental protection; Forest conservation; Forest resources; Forest Science; Interpersonal communication; Payments; Skogsvetenskap; Sustainable Development; Tropical forests
• ISSN: 2398-9629; 2398-9629
• DOI: 10.1038/s41893-018-0034-z

Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES) represent a popular strategy for environmental protection, and tropical forest conservation in particular. Little is known, however, about their effectiveness. Many argue that even if PES increase conservation while payments last, they may adversely affect other motivations for pro-environmental behaviour in the longer term. We test whether conditional payments also encourage forest users to conserve shared forest resources after payments end. Using a framed field experiment with 1,200 tropical forest users in five countries, we show that (1) during the intervention, conditional payments increased conservation behaviour; (2) after payments stopped, users continued to conserve more on average than they did before the intervention, especially when they were able to communicate with each other; and (3) trust amplified the lasting conservation effects of the interventions. PES effectiveness may increase when interventions facilitate interpersonal communication and when implemented in contexts where forest users enjoy high levels of trust.
A framed field experiment in five countries shows that Payments for Ecosystem Services increase forest conservation, that communication contributes to payment effectiveness and that positive effects outlast payments.