RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Potential Cost-Effectiveness of Incentive Payment Programs for the Protection of Non-Industrial Private Forests
JF Land Economics
JO Land Econ
FD University of Wisconsin Press
SP 539
OP 560
DO 10.3368/le.83.4.539
VO 83
IS 4
A1 Siikamäki, Juha
A1 Layton, David F.
YR 2007
UL http://le.uwpress.org/content/83/4/539.abstract
AB This study assesses the potential cost-effectiveness of incentive payment programs relative to traditional, top-down regulatory programs for biological conservation. We develop site-level estimates of the opportunity cost and non-monetized biological benefits of protecting biodiversity hotspots in Finnish non-industrial private forests. We then use these estimates to contrast and compare the cost-effectiveness of alternative conservation programs. Our results suggest that incentive payment programs, which tacitly capitalize on landowners’ private knowledge about the opportunity costs of conservation, may be considerably more cost-effective than traditional, top-down regulatory programs. (JEL Q23)