Assessing the Permanence of Land Use Change Induced by Payments for Environmental Services : Evidence from Nicaragua
There have been few efforts to evaluate whether the positive land use changes induced by conservation interventions such as Payments for Environmental Services (PES) persist once the interventions end. Since gains achieved by conservation intervent...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Working Paper |
| Language: | English en_US |
| Published: |
World Bank, Washington, DC
2017
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/473751495468210827/Assessing-the-permanence-of-land-use-change-induced-by-payments-for-environmental-services-evidence-from-Nicaragua http://hdl.handle.net/10986/27537 |
| Summary: | There have been few efforts to evaluate
whether the positive land use changes induced by
conservation interventions such as Payments for
Environmental Services (PES) persist once the interventions
end. Since gains achieved by conservation interventions may
be lost upon termination of the program, even apparently
successful interventions may not result in longterm
conservation benefits, a problem known as that of
permanence. This paper examines the permanence of land use
changes induced by a short-term PES program implemented
between 2003 and 2008 in Matiguas-Rio Blanco, Nicaragua.
This PES program had been found to have a positive and
highly significant impact on land use, and particularly on
the adoption of silvopastoral practices. To assess the
long-term permanence of these changes, participants were
re-surveyed in 2012, four years after the last payment was
made. We find that the land use changes that had been
induced by PES were broadly sustained in intervening years,
with minor differences across specific practices and
sub-groups of participants. The patterns of change in the
period after the PES program was completed help us
understand the reasons for the program's success, and
rule out alternative explanations for the program's
success. Our results suggest that, at least in the case of
productive land uses such as silvopastoral practices, PES
programs can be effective at encouraging land owners to
adopt environmentally beneficial land use practices and that
the benefit will persist after payments cease. |
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