Land, Water, and Natural Resources
Paper Session
Sunday, Jan. 7, 2024 1:00 PM - 3:00 PM (CST)
- Chair: Sheila Olmstead, University of Texas-Austin
Private Management's Impact on African Wildlife and Communities
Abstract
Protected areas are the core of efforts to conserve wildlife (Watson et al., 2014; Pringle, 2017). In Africa, they cover 16% of land area and protect 38% of Key Biodiversity Areas (Africa Geographic, 2020; WDPA, 2020). However, wildlife abundance declines persist (Dasgupta, 2021). A new approach is becoming more common: African governments ceding management of protected areas to private NGOs (Baghai et al., 2018; Lindsey et al., 2020; OFAC, 2020). NGOs may be more able to access Western aid and bypass corrupt networks, but they could lack local knowledge or support. We present the first causal evidence on private sector management performance by evaluating African Parks (AP), the largest NGO of its kind. AP currently manages 22 protected areas across 12 African countries. AP emphasizes law enforcement, local economic development, species and habitat restoration, tourism, and park infrastructure. We implement the dynamic difference-in-differences estimator of Sun and Abraham (2021). The control group comprises 92 government-managed parks meeting AP's criteria for potential future management. We believe these parks represent a credible counterfactual because AP has determined that these parks are similar to the parks they currently manage (AP, 2020). Initial findings suggest that AP reduces elephant poaching by 42% and increases bird abundance by 37%. AP’s enhanced law enforcement appears to reduce total conflict events within 25 km of parks. Finally, citizen science databases imply increased tourism visits due to AP. In the next several months, we will use Atlas AI data to estimate AP's impact on consumption expenditures, asset wealth, and crop production in nearby communities. Additionally, we will examine mechanisms, such as changes in park budgets and management practices, using METT data (Geldmann et al., 2019). These analyses will improve our understanding of how private sector park management affects wildlife, habitat, and the people who live near parks.Federal Public Land and Quality of Life in Urban Areas
Abstract
Federal public lands occupy a significant proportion of many U.S. urban regions and contribute to viewscapes and outdoor recreational opportunities, both highly-valued, nontradable goods. Yet, this key amenity attribute has not been adequately addressed in the urban quality-of-life (QOL) literature. We argue, and empirically demonstrate, that public lands are an important omitted variable and endogenous due to restrictions they may impose on the functioning of wage and housing markets. Using GIS and Census data for urban areas of the United States, along with instruments rooted in the 19th century land disposal policies, we estimate how accessible, publicly owned lands contribute to urban QOL. We find that, regardless of geographic aggregation, model specification, or estimation method, federally-owned public lands are important contributors to urban QOL. Further, US Forest Service land is the most highly valued federal land, followed by Bureau of Land Management land. Welfare calculations indicate that annual urban household willingness-to-pay estimate for a one percent increase in federal public land ranges between $90.50 (“generic” federal land) and $265.48 (USFS land).The Social Cost of Nutrient Pollution in Surface Waters of the U.S.
Abstract
The Clean Water Act (CWA) was passed half a century ago with a goal of rapidly improving the beleaguered state of the nation’s waters. Impressive gains have occurred since then. Many industrial and municipal sources of pollution have vastly declined and water quality in relevant locations has rebounded. However, a notable exception remains: EPA data documents significant declines in the health of rivers, streams, and lakes due to worsening nutrient pollution. While unsurprising given the regulatory exemption of most agricultural sources under the CWA, policymakers and regulatory bodies are turning to this growing problem with discussions of new policy and the creation of National Environmental Accounts. In this work, we develop a national scale Integrated Assessment Model (IAM) for nutrient pollution into the nation’s surface waters that reflects the physical and social heterogeneity of damages. We connect sources of effluent across the landscape with their local and downstream impacts on water quality and social damages. We adopt a bottom-up strategy informed by micro-theoretic foundations and draw on multiple empirical methods from the nonmarket valuation literature to estimate individual social cost components. Theory informs our aggregation of the components to generate estimates of the Social Cost of Nutrient Pollution that reflect optimizing household behavior, avoids double counting, and allow us to assess the directional bias associated with model simplifications. We present estimates of marginal external damage from point and nonpoint sectors at different locations in space. We compare estimates that do and do not include downstream quality impacts from local pollution reductions to demonstrate the importance fate and transport. Our model to date includes costs related to drinking water processing, lost recreational opportunities from damaged waterbodies, diminished aesthetic enjoyment reflected in housing values, and damages from greenhouse gas emissions.Discussant(s)
Ryan Abman
,
San Diego State University
Amy Ando
,
Ohio State University
Margaret Walls
,
Resources for the Future
Sheila Olmstead
,
University of Texas-Austin
JEL Classifications
- Q5 - Environmental Economics
- Q2 - Renewable Resources and Conservation