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Can financial incentives encourage a more pro-environmental behavior? - A case study of Payments for Environmental Services in Costa Rica

Sidemo Holm, William LU (2014) NEKH01 20132
Department of Economics
Abstract
Financial incentives are increasingly being used to promote provision of environmental services (ES). Costa Rica was early with launching their Payments for Environmental Services (PES) scheme that rewards provision of ES and prevents further losses of the same. This study examines the links between Costa Rican PES scheme, pro-environmental behavior and forest conservation. PES-beneficiaries and farmers that do not benefit from the PES scheme (non-beneficiaries) were interviewed and their answers were compared in the process of analyzing the connections between PES, pro-environmental behavior and forest conservation. The purpose of the interview questions was to frame features that induce pro-environmental behavior and investigate the... (More)
Financial incentives are increasingly being used to promote provision of environmental services (ES). Costa Rica was early with launching their Payments for Environmental Services (PES) scheme that rewards provision of ES and prevents further losses of the same. This study examines the links between Costa Rican PES scheme, pro-environmental behavior and forest conservation. PES-beneficiaries and farmers that do not benefit from the PES scheme (non-beneficiaries) were interviewed and their answers were compared in the process of analyzing the connections between PES, pro-environmental behavior and forest conservation. The purpose of the interview questions was to frame features that induce pro-environmental behavior and investigate the interviewees’ forest ownership. The result from the statistical analysis showed correlation between the pro-environmental behavior and forest conservation among non-beneficiaries, i.e. where the forest owners were not financially compensated. There was not a convincing link between participating in the PES program and demonstrating pro-environmental behavior, but the beneficiaries had somewhat stronger tendency to demonstrate pro-environmental behavior. This tendency correlated with years of education, which has a recognized positive effect on pro-environmental behavior and was significantly higher for the beneficiaries, indicating that the level of education, and not the participation in the program, caused the altered tendency for pro-environmental behavior. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
Sidemo Holm, William LU
supervisor
organization
course
NEKH01 20132
year
type
M2 - Bachelor Degree
subject
keywords
payments for environmental services, pro-environmental behavior, forest conservation, Costa Rica
language
English
id
4253647
date added to LUP
2014-02-11 13:05:13
date last changed
2014-02-11 13:05:13
@misc{4253647,
  abstract     = {{Financial incentives are increasingly being used to promote provision of environmental services (ES). Costa Rica was early with launching their Payments for Environmental Services (PES) scheme that rewards provision of ES and prevents further losses of the same. This study examines the links between Costa Rican PES scheme, pro-environmental behavior and forest conservation. PES-beneficiaries and farmers that do not benefit from the PES scheme (non-beneficiaries) were interviewed and their answers were compared in the process of analyzing the connections between PES, pro-environmental behavior and forest conservation. The purpose of the interview questions was to frame features that induce pro-environmental behavior and investigate the interviewees’ forest ownership. The result from the statistical analysis showed correlation between the pro-environmental behavior and forest conservation among non-beneficiaries, i.e. where the forest owners were not financially compensated. There was not a convincing link between participating in the PES program and demonstrating pro-environmental behavior, but the beneficiaries had somewhat stronger tendency to demonstrate pro-environmental behavior. This tendency correlated with years of education, which has a recognized positive effect on pro-environmental behavior and was significantly higher for the beneficiaries, indicating that the level of education, and not the participation in the program, caused the altered tendency for pro-environmental behavior.}},
  author       = {{Sidemo Holm, William}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  title        = {{Can financial incentives encourage a more pro-environmental behavior? - A case study of Payments for Environmental Services in Costa Rica}},
  year         = {{2014}},
}