The mission of the Latin American and Caribbean Environmental Economics Program (LACEEP) is a cap... more The mission of the Latin American and Caribbean Environmental Economics Program (LACEEP) is a capacity building program that leverages environmental economics as a field of relevant and rigorous scientific research in Latin America by linking internationally recognized researchers with Latin American and Caribbean young innovators. LACEEP provides financial support for selected grant proposals, meetings with peers, close advice and supervision by specifically appointed scientists, access to literature, publication outlets, and opportunities for comparative research. This report provides a review of activities, workshops, training, proposals, and funded research
Spillovers can significantly reduce or enhance the effects of land-use policies, yet there exists... more Spillovers can significantly reduce or enhance the effects of land-use policies, yet there exists little rigorous evidence concerning their magnitudes. We examine how national parks within Costa Rica affect the clearing of forest nearby. We find that average deforestation spillover impacts are not significant within 0-5km and 5-10km rings around parks. However, we argue that this average blends multiple spillover effects, each of which is likely to vary in magnitude across the landscape, yielding varied net effects. We distinguish these effects using distances to roads and park entrances, given the importance of transport costs and, for Costa Rica, tourism. We find large and statistically significant leakage close to roads in areas without tourism, i.e., far from the park entrances. In contrast, no leakage is found far from roads or close to park entrances. In sum, the combination of low transport costs and low returns to forest is conducive to deforestation leakage around the parks.
Although developing countries have established scores of new protected areas over the past three ... more Although developing countries have established scores of new protected areas over the past three decades, they often amount to little more than ‘‘paper parks’’ that are chronically short of the financial, human, and technical resources needed for effective management. It is not clear whether and how severely under-resourced parks affect deforestation. In principle, they could either stem it by, for example, creating an expectation of future enforcement, or they could spur it by, for example, creating open access regimes. We examine the effect of Mexico’s natural protected areas (NPAs) on deforestation from 1993 to 2000, a period when forest clearing was rampant and the vast majority of protected areas had negligible resources or management. We use high-resolution satellite data to measure deforestation and (covariate and propensity score) matching to control for NPAs’ nonrandom siting and for spillovers. Our broad finding is that Mexico’s paper parks had heterogeneous effects both i...
En este artículo, se busca determinar si las transferencias sociales del Gobierno en Costa Rica h... more En este artículo, se busca determinar si las transferencias sociales del Gobierno en Costa Rica han sido procíclicas o contra-cíclicas. Para examinar la presencia de ciclicidad, se utilizó correlaciones entre las series de producción y de transferencias, luego de que las variables fueran filtradas con el método de Hodrick-Prescott. También se utilizan métodos de regresión explicando el crecimiento de las transferencias con el crecimiento de la producción, tanto de forma contemporánea como rezagada. Se utilizaron datos trimestrales para las estimaciones y se encontró que las transferencias contemporáneas no responden con fuerza al ciclo; sin embargo, sí responden al rezago (trimestre anterior), donde hay una fuerte relación contra-cíclica. Por otra parte, se determina que la mayoría de los programas sociales importantes tienen una relación negativa con la producción trimestral rezagada. Esto implica que, cuando la producción se desacelera, hay un aumento en el siguiente trimestre del...
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2019
SignificanceAs protected areas (PAs) are a leading conservation strategy, understanding what cond... more SignificanceAs protected areas (PAs) are a leading conservation strategy, understanding what conditions affect their impacts is critical. We expect different government agencies to vary in their PA locations and management. We offer a test of whether PA impacts vary across agencies. For the Brazilian Amazon, we compare deforestation impacts for 3 types of agencies: federal indigenous lands, federal PAs, and state PAs. Across states within the “arc of deforestation,” internal PA impacts are higher for indigenous lands and federal PAs than for state PAs. In Pará State, federal agencies also have spillover impacts: Indigenous lands raise deforestation nearby, and federal PAs lower deforestation nearby. Agencies’ objectives and capacities affect impacts, and thereby are important considerations for implementing international environmental agreements.
To reduce SDG tradeoffs in infrastructure provision, and to inform searches for SDG synergies, th... more To reduce SDG tradeoffs in infrastructure provision, and to inform searches for SDG synergies, the authors show that roads’ impacts on Brazilian Amazon forests varied significantly across frontiers. Impacts varied predictably with prior development – prior roads and prior deforestation – and, further, in a pattern that suggests a potential synergy for roads between forests and urban growth. For multiple periods of roads investments, the authors estimate forest impacts for high, medium and low prior roads and deforestation. For each setting, census-tract observations are numerous. Results confirm predictions for this kind of frontier of a pattern not consistent with endogeneity, i.e., short-run forest impacts of new roads are: small for relatively high prior development; larger for medium prior development; and small for low prior development (for the latter setting, impacts in such isolated areas could rise over time, depending on interactions with conservation policies). These Amaz...
Protected areas (PAs) are a prominent approach to maintaining and enhancing biodiversity and ecos... more Protected areas (PAs) are a prominent approach to maintaining and enhancing biodiversity and ecosystem services. A critical question for safeguarding these resources is how PA governance processes and management structures influence their effectiveness. We conduct an impact evaluation of 12 PAs in three Central American countries to assess how processes in management restrictions, management capacity, and decentralization affect the annual change in the satellite-derived Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI). NDVI varies with greenness that relates to plant production, biomass, and important ecosystem functions related to biodiversity and ecosystem services such as water quality and carbon storage. Any loss of vegetation cover in the form of deforestation or degradation would show up as a decrease in NDVI values over time and gains in vegetation cover and regeneration as an increase in NDVI values. Management restriction categories are based on international classifications ...
Conservation programs have increased significantly, as has the evaluation of their impacts. Howev... more Conservation programs have increased significantly, as has the evaluation of their impacts. However, the evaluation of their potential impacts beyond program borders has been scarce. Such spillovers can significantly reduce or increase net impacts. In this review, we discuss how conservation programs might affect outcomes beyond their borders and present some evidence of when they have or have not. We focus on five major channels by which spillovers can arise: (1) input reallocation; (2) market prices; (3) learning; (4) nonpecuniary motivations; and (5) ecological-physical links. We highlight evidence for each channel and emphasize that estimates often may reflect multiple channels. Future research could test for spillovers within different contexts and could separate the effects of different channels.
We estimate the effects on deforestation that have resulted from policy interactions between park... more We estimate the effects on deforestation that have resulted from policy interactions between parks and payments and between park buffers and payments in Costa Rica between 2000 and 2005. We show that the characteristics of the areas where protected and unprotected lands are located differ significantly. Additionally, we find that land characteristics of each of the policies and of the places where they interact also differ significantly. To adequately estimate the effects of the policies and their interactions, we use matching methods. Matching is implemented not only to define adequate control groups, as in previous research, but also to define those groups of locations under the influence of policies that are comparable to each other. We find that it is more effective to locate parks and payments away from each other, rather than in the same location or near each other. The high levels of enforcement inside both parks and lands with payments, and the presence of conservation spill...
IOP Conference Series: Earth and Environmental Science, 2009
Page 1. Location affects protection & the generation of REDD: Observable char... more Page 1. Location affects protection & the generation of REDD: Observable characteristics drive park impacts in Costa Rica This article has been downloaded from IOPscience. Please scroll down to see the full text article. 2009 IOP Conf. Ser.: Earth Environ. Sci. 6 252023 (http://iopscience.iop.org/1755-1315/6/25/252023) Download details: IP Address: 66.249.66.173 The article was downloaded on 08/07/2012 at 14:24 Please note that terms and conditions apply. View the table of contents for this issue, or go to the journal homepage for more ...
The mission of the Latin American and Caribbean Environmental Economics Program (LACEEP) is a cap... more The mission of the Latin American and Caribbean Environmental Economics Program (LACEEP) is a capacity building program that leverages environmental economics as a field of relevant and rigorous scientific research in Latin America by linking internationally recognized researchers with Latin American and Caribbean young innovators. LACEEP provides financial support for selected grant proposals, meetings with peers, close advice and supervision by specifically appointed scientists, access to literature, publication outlets, and opportunities for comparative research. This report provides a review of activities, workshops, training, proposals, and funded research
Spillovers can significantly reduce or enhance the effects of land-use policies, yet there exists... more Spillovers can significantly reduce or enhance the effects of land-use policies, yet there exists little rigorous evidence concerning their magnitudes. We examine how national parks within Costa Rica affect the clearing of forest nearby. We find that average deforestation spillover impacts are not significant within 0-5km and 5-10km rings around parks. However, we argue that this average blends multiple spillover effects, each of which is likely to vary in magnitude across the landscape, yielding varied net effects. We distinguish these effects using distances to roads and park entrances, given the importance of transport costs and, for Costa Rica, tourism. We find large and statistically significant leakage close to roads in areas without tourism, i.e., far from the park entrances. In contrast, no leakage is found far from roads or close to park entrances. In sum, the combination of low transport costs and low returns to forest is conducive to deforestation leakage around the parks.
Although developing countries have established scores of new protected areas over the past three ... more Although developing countries have established scores of new protected areas over the past three decades, they often amount to little more than ‘‘paper parks’’ that are chronically short of the financial, human, and technical resources needed for effective management. It is not clear whether and how severely under-resourced parks affect deforestation. In principle, they could either stem it by, for example, creating an expectation of future enforcement, or they could spur it by, for example, creating open access regimes. We examine the effect of Mexico’s natural protected areas (NPAs) on deforestation from 1993 to 2000, a period when forest clearing was rampant and the vast majority of protected areas had negligible resources or management. We use high-resolution satellite data to measure deforestation and (covariate and propensity score) matching to control for NPAs’ nonrandom siting and for spillovers. Our broad finding is that Mexico’s paper parks had heterogeneous effects both i...
En este artículo, se busca determinar si las transferencias sociales del Gobierno en Costa Rica h... more En este artículo, se busca determinar si las transferencias sociales del Gobierno en Costa Rica han sido procíclicas o contra-cíclicas. Para examinar la presencia de ciclicidad, se utilizó correlaciones entre las series de producción y de transferencias, luego de que las variables fueran filtradas con el método de Hodrick-Prescott. También se utilizan métodos de regresión explicando el crecimiento de las transferencias con el crecimiento de la producción, tanto de forma contemporánea como rezagada. Se utilizaron datos trimestrales para las estimaciones y se encontró que las transferencias contemporáneas no responden con fuerza al ciclo; sin embargo, sí responden al rezago (trimestre anterior), donde hay una fuerte relación contra-cíclica. Por otra parte, se determina que la mayoría de los programas sociales importantes tienen una relación negativa con la producción trimestral rezagada. Esto implica que, cuando la producción se desacelera, hay un aumento en el siguiente trimestre del...
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2019
SignificanceAs protected areas (PAs) are a leading conservation strategy, understanding what cond... more SignificanceAs protected areas (PAs) are a leading conservation strategy, understanding what conditions affect their impacts is critical. We expect different government agencies to vary in their PA locations and management. We offer a test of whether PA impacts vary across agencies. For the Brazilian Amazon, we compare deforestation impacts for 3 types of agencies: federal indigenous lands, federal PAs, and state PAs. Across states within the “arc of deforestation,” internal PA impacts are higher for indigenous lands and federal PAs than for state PAs. In Pará State, federal agencies also have spillover impacts: Indigenous lands raise deforestation nearby, and federal PAs lower deforestation nearby. Agencies’ objectives and capacities affect impacts, and thereby are important considerations for implementing international environmental agreements.
To reduce SDG tradeoffs in infrastructure provision, and to inform searches for SDG synergies, th... more To reduce SDG tradeoffs in infrastructure provision, and to inform searches for SDG synergies, the authors show that roads’ impacts on Brazilian Amazon forests varied significantly across frontiers. Impacts varied predictably with prior development – prior roads and prior deforestation – and, further, in a pattern that suggests a potential synergy for roads between forests and urban growth. For multiple periods of roads investments, the authors estimate forest impacts for high, medium and low prior roads and deforestation. For each setting, census-tract observations are numerous. Results confirm predictions for this kind of frontier of a pattern not consistent with endogeneity, i.e., short-run forest impacts of new roads are: small for relatively high prior development; larger for medium prior development; and small for low prior development (for the latter setting, impacts in such isolated areas could rise over time, depending on interactions with conservation policies). These Amaz...
Protected areas (PAs) are a prominent approach to maintaining and enhancing biodiversity and ecos... more Protected areas (PAs) are a prominent approach to maintaining and enhancing biodiversity and ecosystem services. A critical question for safeguarding these resources is how PA governance processes and management structures influence their effectiveness. We conduct an impact evaluation of 12 PAs in three Central American countries to assess how processes in management restrictions, management capacity, and decentralization affect the annual change in the satellite-derived Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI). NDVI varies with greenness that relates to plant production, biomass, and important ecosystem functions related to biodiversity and ecosystem services such as water quality and carbon storage. Any loss of vegetation cover in the form of deforestation or degradation would show up as a decrease in NDVI values over time and gains in vegetation cover and regeneration as an increase in NDVI values. Management restriction categories are based on international classifications ...
Conservation programs have increased significantly, as has the evaluation of their impacts. Howev... more Conservation programs have increased significantly, as has the evaluation of their impacts. However, the evaluation of their potential impacts beyond program borders has been scarce. Such spillovers can significantly reduce or increase net impacts. In this review, we discuss how conservation programs might affect outcomes beyond their borders and present some evidence of when they have or have not. We focus on five major channels by which spillovers can arise: (1) input reallocation; (2) market prices; (3) learning; (4) nonpecuniary motivations; and (5) ecological-physical links. We highlight evidence for each channel and emphasize that estimates often may reflect multiple channels. Future research could test for spillovers within different contexts and could separate the effects of different channels.
We estimate the effects on deforestation that have resulted from policy interactions between park... more We estimate the effects on deforestation that have resulted from policy interactions between parks and payments and between park buffers and payments in Costa Rica between 2000 and 2005. We show that the characteristics of the areas where protected and unprotected lands are located differ significantly. Additionally, we find that land characteristics of each of the policies and of the places where they interact also differ significantly. To adequately estimate the effects of the policies and their interactions, we use matching methods. Matching is implemented not only to define adequate control groups, as in previous research, but also to define those groups of locations under the influence of policies that are comparable to each other. We find that it is more effective to locate parks and payments away from each other, rather than in the same location or near each other. The high levels of enforcement inside both parks and lands with payments, and the presence of conservation spill...
IOP Conference Series: Earth and Environmental Science, 2009
Page 1. Location affects protection & the generation of REDD: Observable char... more Page 1. Location affects protection & the generation of REDD: Observable characteristics drive park impacts in Costa Rica This article has been downloaded from IOPscience. Please scroll down to see the full text article. 2009 IOP Conf. Ser.: Earth Environ. Sci. 6 252023 (http://iopscience.iop.org/1755-1315/6/25/252023) Download details: IP Address: 66.249.66.173 The article was downloaded on 08/07/2012 at 14:24 Please note that terms and conditions apply. View the table of contents for this issue, or go to the journal homepage for more ...
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Papers by Juan Robalino