Incentivizing cooperative agreements for sustainable forest management

Published Date
July 2014, Vol.44:34–41, doi:10.1016/j.forpol.2014.03.006

Experimental tests of alternative structures and institutional rules

Author 

David McEvoy ^a

Michael Jones ^b

Michael McKee ^a,,

John Talberth ^c

aAppalachian State University, USA

• bBridgewater State University, USA
• cWorld Resources Institute, USA

Received 5 September 2013. Revised 3 February 2014. Accepted 17 March 2014. Available online 24 April 2014.

Abstract

Non-industrial private forestland owners (NIPFs) manage the majority of US forestland. But land use conversion is the highest among this group, in part due to the relative paucity of income earned, these agreements can provide opportunities for long term payments from sales of timber and ecosystem services at levels sufficient to reduce the temptation to convert. In this structured well, these agreements can provide opportunities for long term payments from sales of timber and ecosystem services at levels sufficient to reduce the temptation to convert. In this paper we investigate various means of encouraging meaningful participation in cooperative agreements for forests that emphasize conservation. We report on the results obtained through a series of laboratory market experiments in which the participants play the role of NIPFs and make resource allocation decisions facing real financial incentives. Our results shed light on the relative factors that affect the success of these agreements. In particular, we find that when agreements include contribution thresholds (with money back guarantees) coupled with relatively long contract lengths, the groups are able to preserve a significant fraction of forested lands through conservation agreements.

Keywords

Conservation agreement

Participation

Economic laboratory experiment

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 Table A-1. Overview of Experiment Treatments.

Table A-1. Overview of Experiment Treatments..

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• ☆
  Funding is provided by the World Resources Institute under the Southern Forests for the Future Project. All opinions are those of the authors. We thank Trevor McKenzie for his help in our understanding of the historical development of the timber resources in Southern Appalachia.

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  Corresponding author at: Department of Economics, Appalachian State University, Boone, NC 28608, USA. Tel.: + 1 828 262 6080.

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