Quantifying causal mechanisms to determine how protected areas affect poverty through changes in ecosystem services and infrastructure.

ABSTRACT: To develop effective environmental policies, we must understand the mechanisms through which the policies affect social and environmental outcomes. Unfortunately, empirical evidence about these mechanisms is limited, and little guidance for quantifying them exists. We develop an approach to quantifying the mechanisms through which protected areas affect poverty. We focus on three mechanisms: changes in tourism and recreational services; changes in infrastructure in the form of road networks, health clinics, and schools; and changes in regulating and provisioning ecosystem services and foregone production activities that arise from land-use restrictions. The contributions of ecotourism and other ecosystem services to poverty alleviation in the context of a real environmental program have no

SUBMITTER: Ferraro PJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3964111 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature