Greening the Common Agricultural Policy: a behavioral perspective and lab-in-the-field experiment in Germany

This study investigates the behavioral economic underpinnings of current policy approaches to integrate environmental objectives into the Common Agricultural Policy. We conduct an economic lab-in-the-field experiment with farmers in Germany. We analyze the impact of the following policy design features on farmers’ decisions to adopt sustainable agricultural practices: (i) framing of the policy: whether farmers perceive themselves as being part of the problem or the solution, (ii) degree of control: mandatory vs. voluntary policy (iii) framing of incentives as either losses or gains. All policy designs tested result in a significant increase in hectares conserved compared to a baseline scenario without policy. Also behavioral factors do significantly affect farmers’ behavior at the individual level. Only framing is found to significantly affect policy effectiveness

Modeling trade-offs across carbon sequestration, biodiversity conservation, and equity in the distribution of global REDD+ funds

The program on Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) is one of the major attempts to tackle climate change mitigation in developing countries. REDD+ seeks to provide result-based incentives to promote emission reductions and increase carbon sinks in forest land while promoting other cobenefits, such as the conservation of biodiversity. We model different scenarios of international REDD+ funds distribution toward potential recipient countries using 2 carbon emission reduction targets (20% and 50% compared to the baseline scenario, i.e., deforestation and forest degradation without REDD+) by 2030. The model combines the prioritization of environmental outcomes in terms of carbon sequestration and biodiversity conservation and social equity, accounting for the equitable distribution of international REDD+ funds. Results highlight the synergy between carbon sequestration and biodiversity conservation under alternative fund allocation criteria, especially for scenarios of low carbon emission reduction. Trade-offs increase when distributional equity is considered as an additional criterion, especially under higher equity requirements. The analysis helps to better understand the inherent trade-offs between enhancing distributional equity and meeting environmental targets under alternative REDD+ fund allocation options. (c) 2019 National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.I.P. is supported by a grant by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (IJCI-2016–28475). I.P., U.P., and M.J.S. are supported under the Basque Centre for Climate Change “Unit of Excellence” (Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness; MDM-2017-0714)

Domestication of payments for ecosystem services: new evidence from the Andes.

The current project has sought to assess i) the potential of agricultural biodiversity-focused PES to serve as a cost-effective and socially equitable domesticated diversity conservation incentive scheme, as well as ii) how economic incentive mechanisms such as PES can be designed to build on and complement local institutions of collective action. Results are presented from pilot Payment for Agrobiodiversity Conservation (PACS) schemes and framed field experiments implemented in the Bolivian and Peruvian Andes aimed at sustaining diversity within quinoa, a traditional Andean grain. Findings indicate that opportunity costs of conservation vary widely not only between the two study sites, but also between community-based groups within each site. This creates opportunities to minimize intervention costs by selecting least-cost conserving farmers. However, as shown with respect to the role of wealth and cooperation in determining opportunity costs, this also has implications for the type of farmer to be included in the conservation programme. Promisingly, depending on the fairness principle deemed most important in the local context, there does not necessarily have to be a significant trade-off between the schemes’ potential cost-effectiveness and equity outcomes. The observed behavior in the farmer experimental games further supports such findings and suggests that understanding farmer perceptions of fairness can have important implications for the design of conservation incentive mechanisms, particularly given the important influence of such perceptions on the pro-social behavior that underlies much de facto conservation. Incentive mechanisms, such as PACS, that can support socially valued ends not only by harnessing selfish preferences to public ends but also by evoking public-spirited motives are also more likely to be sustainable over the long-term. The use of PACS incentives for the maintenance of traditional crop varieties and the improvement of smallholder farmer livelihoods thus appears promising for further development and up-scaling

Рейтинги устойчивого развития как инструмент оценки социально-экономических трансформаций в регионах РФ

Purpose: of this article is to develop a methodology for assessing the degree of achievement of sustainable development by Russian regions based on a combination of basic universal indicators in a given time interval.Methods: the article is based on the use of statistical methods to build a sustainable development rating of the regions of the Russian Federation in the context of the sustainable development goals (SDGs) for the period 2018–2020, based on three blocks – economic, social and environmental.Results: the authors of the article proposed and applied the universal methodology for compiling a rating of sustainable development of Russian regions within the economic, social and environmental blocks. For each subject of the Federation, the dynamics of the rating for the period under review was calculated and analyzed.Conclusions and Relevance: the approach proposed in the article makes it possible to identify regions-leaders and regions that systematically lag behind in terms of achieving the SDGs, as well as to identify regions that show a steady increase (decrease) in ratings for SDG indicators. The proposed algorithm for assessing the degree of achievement of sustainable development parameters can be used to identify trends in the development of Russian regions, identify factors and mechanisms that determine the opportunities and conditions for achieving the SDGs by Russian regions, and is an effective tool for regional policy in the field of achieving sustainable development. The results of the study make it possible to develop and improve the system for managing the socio-economic development of Russian regions, develop strategies and guidelines for their development in various time frames, and therefore may be of interest to managers at the federal, regional and municipal levels.Цель данной статьи состоит в разработке методики оценки степени достижения регионами России устойчивого развития на основе комбинации базовых универсальных показателей в заданном временном интервале.Методы. Представленная работа основана на использовании статистических методов для построения рейтинга устойчивого развития регионов Российской Федерации в контексте целей устойчивого развития (ЦУР) за период 2018–2020 гг., опирающихся на три блока – экономический, социальный и экологический.Результаты работы. Авторами статьи предложена и применена универсальная методика по составлению рейтинга устойчивого развития регионов России в рамках экономического, социального и экологического блоков. Для каждого субъекта Федерации рассчитана и проанализирована динамика рейтинга за рассматриваемый период.Выводы. Предложенный в статье авторский подход позволяет выявлять регионы-лидеры и регионы, имеющие систематическое отставание по показателям достижения целей устойчивого развития, а также определять регионы, демонстрирующие устойчивый рост (снижение) рейтингов по показателям ЦУР. Представленный алгоритм оценки степени достижения параметров устойчивого развития может быть использован для выявления тенденций в развитии российских регионов, идентификации факторов и механизмов, определяющих возможности и условия достижения ЦУР российскими регионами, и является эффективным инструментом региональной политики в сфере достижения устойчивого развития. Результаты исследования содействуют совершенствованию системы управления социально-экономическим развитием регионов Российской Федерации, позволяют разрабатывать стратегии и ориентиры их развития в различных временных рамках, поэтому могут представлять интерес для управленцев федерального, регионального и муниципального уровней

Farmers' decisions to cultivate either a traditional or a commercial variety of quinoa. (CAPRi Project)

The dataset includes data about a field experiment conducted in Peru in september 2012 (project CAPRi). The game was framed around farmers ‘decisions to cultivate either a traditional or a commercial variety of quinoa. The objective of the experiment was to analyze the effectiveness of two types of payments for agrobiodiversity conservation services (PACS) as well as of the effect of allowing farmers to communicate. In the game, the rewards were introduced to conserve a safe minimal population of traditional variety. Nine sessions were organized in different communities of the Province of Puno (close to lake Titicaca). The data were collected during a framed field experiment. Subjects participated in a game (experimental economics) where they were assigned 4 units of land and they had to decide whether to grow a traditional or a commercial variety of quinoa on each of these plots. Each participant was randomly assigned to a group of 4 players. At the end, they received money according to their decisions and the ones of their group peers. This was done to encourage them to act as in real-life situations where their decisions impact their income. They also received money for their participation. Each session was organized with 16 or 20 farm household participants (most of them producing quinoa) originating from the same community. In total, 176 farmers took part to the experiment. Finally a brief survey was completed, including questions about household demographics, farming, as well as organizational affiliation and social distance between participants. There are therefore three types of data in this dataset: 1) identification number (player's number, group's number, session's number, etc...) 2) the decisions of the players during the game (contrib, contrib_group, threshold, etc...) and 3) socio-demographic data from the survey (age, sex, ...)

Unraveling the effects of payments for ecosystem services on motivations for collective action

Pre-print of author's paper will be available after embargo period of 12 months (Dec 2016)