‘Forest conservation and slippage: evidence from Mexico’s national payments for ecosystem services program’
Open accessAbstract
We investigate a Mexican federal program that compensates landowners for forest protection. We use matched controls from the program applicant pool to establish counterfactual deforestation rates. Deforestation was reduced by 50% in enrolled parcels, but expected average clearing rates without the program were low (0.8% per year), suggesting modest total avoided deforestation benefits. We test for two types of slippage: increased deforestation on other property belonging to program recipients and increased deforestation within markets where there are high levels of program participation. We find evidence of both, with substitution impacts reducing program effectiveness in common properties by about 4% on average. (JEL O13, Q24)
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These effects will be detectable only where markets are localised, for instance in the presence of poor road infrastructure.
“Ultimately, the authors note that these effects will be detectable only where markets are localised, for instance in the presence of poor road infrastructure.”
From The Effect of Rural Credit on Deforestation: Evidence from the Brazilian Amazon (2020) · cites this paper as Alix-Garcia et al. (2012)
For credit constrained households, the introduction of a PES programme could perversely increase deforestation in other locations within the household's property through a substitution effect, and increase deforestation in other locations outside the household's property through output price effects.
“The authors focus on a PES scheme, and theoretically demonstrate that, for credit constrained households, the introduction of a PES programme could: (i) perversely increase deforestation in other locations within the household's property through a substitution effect, and (ii) increase deforestation in other locations outside the household's property through output price effects.”
From The Effect of Rural Credit on Deforestation: Evidence from the Brazilian Amazon (2020) · cites this paper as Alix-Garcia et al. (2012)
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Cites
Designing payments for environmental services in theory and practice: An overview of the issues
Engel, S., Pagiola, S., & Wunder, S. (2008) · Ecological Economics · doi:10.1016/j.ecolecon.2008.03.011 · Cited by 2,466 · cited 1× · see citing works
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The Effect of Rural Credit on Deforestation: Evidence from the Brazilian Amazon
Assunção, J., Gandour, C., Rocha, R., & Rocha, R. (2020) · The Economic Journal · doi:10.1093/ej/uez060 · Cited by 174 · see citing works
- Authors
- Alix-Garcia, J. M., Shapiro, E. N., & Sims, K. R. E.
- Affiliations
- University of Wisconsin–Madison (US)
- Venue
- Land Economics
- Publisher
- University of Wisconsin Press
- Published
- 2012-08-15
- Volume
- 88
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 613-638
- ISSN
- 0023-7639 (ISSN-L)
- 1543-8325
- OpenAlex
- W1946078025
- Cited by
- 345
- References
- 1
- Citations by year
- 2026: 13 · 2025: 18 · 2024: 11 · 2023: 18 · 2022: 19 · 2021: 28 · 2020: 16 · 2019: 37 · 2018: 31 · 2017: 32 · 2016: 27 · 2015: 33 · 2014: 19 · 2013: 20 · 2012: 13
- FWCI
- 21.01
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- Land Economics (publishedVersion)
- RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
- AgEcon Search (University of Minnesota, USA) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- Project Muse (Johns Hopkins University) (submittedVersion)
- DukeSpace (Duke University) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- AgEcon Search (University of Minnesota, USA)
- 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 › Forest Management and Policy
- Keywords
- payments for ecosystem services, forest conservation, deforestation, slippage, program effectiveness, landowner compensation, avoided deforestation, substitution effect, common property
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