Protected areas reduced poverty in Costa Rica and Thailand
Open accessAbstract
As global efforts to protect ecosystems expand, the socioeconomic impact of protected areas on neighboring human communities continues to be a source of intense debate. The debate persists because previous studies do not directly measure socioeconomic outcomes and do not use appropriate comparison groups to account for potential confounders. We illustrate an approach using comprehensive national datasets and quasi-experimental matching methods. We estimate impacts of protected area systems on poverty in Costa Rica and Thailand and find that although communities near protected areas are indeed substantially poorer than national averages, an analysis based on comparison with appropriate controls does not support the hypothesis that these differences can be attributed to protected areas. In contrast, the results indicate that the net impact of ecosystem protection was to alleviate poverty.
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Previous studies suggest that both the rate of land-use change and the growth of human populations can be fastest near protected area boundaries.
“Previous studies suggest that both the rate of landuse change and the growth of human populations can be fastest near protected area boundaries ( 13 -16 ), which accelerate the rate of edge degradation through increased livestock production, crop cultivation, and extraction of natural resources such as charcoal and bushmeat.”
From Cross-boundary human impacts compromise the Serengeti-Mara ecosystem (2019) · cites this paper as [16]
The References list a study titled “Accelerated human population growth at protected area edges,” and the note following the paper discusses that study’s population-growth result. But this paper’s Results find no significant population-growth effect in Costa Rica or Thailand, and its Discussion does not say that land-use change is fastest near protected-area boundaries. No page numbers are available in our copy. (LLM, conf=0.78)
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- Authors
- Andam, K. S., Ferraro, P. J., Sims, K. R. E., Healy, A., & Holland, M. B.
- Affiliations
- International Food Policy Research Institute (US)
- Georgia State University (US)
- Amherst College (US)
- Loyola Marymount University (US)
- Conservation International (US)
- Venue
- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
- Publisher
- National Academy of Sciences
- Published
- 2010-05-24
- Volume
- 107
- Issue
- 22
- Pages
- 9996-10001
- ISSN
- 0027-8424 (ISSN-L)
- 1091-6490
- PMC
- PMC2890456
- OpenAlex
- W2069792774
- Cited by
- 486
- References
- 55
- Citations by year
- 2026: 18 · 2025: 15 · 2024: 21 · 2023: 34 · 2022: 38 · 2021: 28 · 2020: 32 · 2019: 54 · 2018: 33 · 2017: 22 · 2016: 35 · 2015: 42 · 2014: 33 · 2013: 32 · 2012: 20
- FWCI
- 22.97
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Locations
- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- IFPRI E-brary (International Food Policy Research Institute) (submittedVersion)
- CGSPace A Repository of Agricultural Research Outputs (Consultative Group for International Agricultural Research) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- International Food Policy Research Institute (International Food Policy Research Institute) (submittedVersion)
- Maryland Shared Open Access Repository (USMAI Consortium) (submittedVersion)
- Digital Repository at the University of Maryland (University of Maryland College Park)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Global and Planetary Change › Conservation, Biodiversity, and Resource Management
- Social Sciences › Economics, Econometrics and Finance › Economics and Econometrics › Socioeconomics of Resources and Conservation
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Global and Planetary Change › Land Use and Ecosystem Services
- Keywords
- protected areas, poverty reduction, ecosystem conservation, comparison groups, Costa Rica, Thailand
- MeSH terms
- Conservation of Natural Resources, Costa Rica, Humans, Poverty, Poverty Areas, Public Policy, Thailand, Ecosystem, Models, Economic, Biodiversity
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