Institutional and fiscal policies for forest conservation

Tropical deforestation contributes to climate change and entails further environmental externalities such as biodiversity loss and soil erosion. Consequently, the preservation of the world’s remaining tropical forests is the objective of international and national policies. Preventing deforestation requires identifying the structural causes of deforestation. Reforms of political institutions and fiscal policies bear the potential to reduce deforestation more structurally than localized protected areas. Such efforts are particularly relevant in countries with weak political institutions, low levels of economic development, and an economic specialization in the agricultural sector. The first part of this dissertation contributes to the understanding of the role of political institutions in deforestation processes with chapter 2 and 3. Chapter 2 presents the results of a meta-analysis of the empirical cross-country literature on the effect of governance improvements on deforestation. The analysis finds that the choice of the governance measure is the main source of variation that explains diverging study outcomes. In particular, it can be shown that variables that measure the specific effects of environmental governance increase the likelihood of a study to find a deforestation reducing outcome, whereas the general governance variables democracy and civic rights decrease the likelihood. Furthermore, it can be shown that additional elements of study design, notably the choice of the control variable and the estimation technique, significantly influence the study outcome. Chapter 3 uses a forest model in order to analyze whether the model’s ability to correctly predict past deforestation trends can be improved by taking differences in the quality of political institutions across countries into account. An index measuring the ability of a country to guarantee the sustainable management of natural resources is constructed. Subsequently, it is tested empirically whether the index can explain the gap between modelled and observed deforestation trends. The results show that building the indicator into the model can reduce this gap and thus improve the model. The second part of this dissertation analyzes forest conservation policy options for countries with weak political institutions with chapter 4 and 5. Chapter 4 uses content analysis to analyze how African policy makers perceive deforestation drivers. It can be shown that policy makers emphasize the role of institutional and policy drivers of deforestation. Furthermore, it can be shown that these problems correspond to concrete opportunities for interventions, such as increased funding for forest sector administrations, improved alignment of different policies, or land tenure right reforms. Chapter 5 uses a theoretical model to analyze the effects of a policy mix that combines export tariffs on agricultural commodities with public investments. Public investments are defined as investments that increase agricultural productivity. The model shows that export tariffs and public investments can be combined, such that the output level in the agricultural sector remains constant, while deforestation and domestic food prices are reduced. Common insights and the broader significance of the research conducted in the context of this dissertation are discussed in the last chapter. In particular, it is discussed how international forest conservation programs can support institutional and fiscal reforms for forest conservation.

Author dc:creator

• Wehkamp, Johanna

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Edenhofer, Ottmar

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

Language dc:language.iso

en

Identifier URI

http://dx.doi.org/10.14279/depositonce-6499

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:depositonce.tu-berlin.de:11303/7224