Protected areas reduced poverty in Costa Rica and Thailand

AbstractThe number of protected areas around the world has significantly increased. However, the effects of this policy on the wellbeing of local households are still under debate. Using pre-treatment characteristics and household surveys with highly disaggregated geographic reference, we explore how national parks affect the wages of local workers in Costa Rica. We use matching techniques to control for the endogenous location of parks. We find that parks' effects on wages are, on average, positive and significant, but the magnitudes vary. Wages close to parks are higher for local workers living near tourist entrances. However, there is no robust evidence of positive effects for those close to parks but far away from tourist entrances. With our individual-level data, we also show that the positive effects on local households might not be as large as suggested by previous studies that use aggregated level data containing both local and immigrant households.

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Optimizing enforcement and compliance in offshore marine protected areas: a case study from Cocos Island, Costa Rica

Oryx ◽

10.1017/s0030605314000337 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 50 (1) ◽

pp. 18-26 ◽

Cited By ~ 34

Author(s):

Adrian Arias ◽

Robert L. Pressey ◽

Rhondda E. Jones ◽

Jorge G. Álvarez-Romero ◽

Joshua E. Cinner

Keyword(s):

Costa Rica ◽

Protected Areas ◽

Marine Protected Areas ◽

Temporal Distribution ◽

Peer Pressure ◽

World Heritage Site ◽

Illegal Fishing ◽

Space And Time ◽

Cocos Island

AbstractIllegal exploitation of resources is a cause of environmental degradation worldwide. The effectiveness of conservation initiatives such as marine protected areas relies on users' compliance with regulations. Although compliance can be motivated by social norms (e.g. peer pressure and legitimacy), some enforcement is commonly necessary. Enforcement is expensive, particularly in areas far from land, but costs can be reduced by optimizing enforcement. We present a case study of how enforcement could be optimized at Cocos Island National Park, Costa Rica, an offshore protected area and World Heritage Site. By analysing patrol records we determined the spatial and temporal distribution of illegal fishing and its relationship to patrol effort. Illegal fishing was concentrated on a seamount within the Park and peaked during the third year-quarter, probably as a result of oceanographic conditions. The lunar cycle in conjunction with the time of year significantly influenced the occurrence of incursions. The predictability of illegal fishing in space and time facilitates the optimization of patrol effort. Repeat offenders are common in the Park and we suggest that unenforced regulations and weak governance are partly to blame. We provide recommendations for efficient distribution of patrol effort in space and time, establishing adequate governance and policy, and designing marine protected areas to improve compliance. Our methods and recommendations are applicable to other protected areas and managed natural resources.

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Bureaucratic Barriers Limit Local Participatory Governance in Protected Areas in Costa Rica

Conservation and Society ◽

10.4103/0972-4923.110942 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 11 (1) ◽

pp. 16 ◽

Cited By ~ 7

Author(s):

Xavier Basurto

Keyword(s):

Costa Rica ◽

Protected Areas ◽

Participatory Governance

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Vulnerability of Elevation-Restricted Endemic Birds of the Cordillera de Talamanca (Costa Rica and Panama) to Climate Change

10.1101/2020.09.11.293134 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Zhen Liu ◽

Luis Sandoval ◽

Lauren Sherman ◽

Andrew Wilson

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Costa Rica ◽

Protected Areas ◽

Bird Species ◽

Population Monitoring ◽

Climate Change Scenarios ◽

Tropical Mountains ◽

Endemic Birds ◽

Community Science ◽

Cordillera De Talamanca

ABSTRACTAnimals endemic to tropical mountains are known to be especially vulnerable to climate change. The Cordillera de Talamanca (Costa Rica and Panama) is a geographically isolated mountain chain and global biodiversity hotspot, home to more than 50 endemic bird species. We used eBird community science observations to predict the distributions of a suite of 48 of these endemic birds in 2006-2015, and in 2070, under four climate change scenarios. Species distributions were predicted using program Maxent, incorporating elevation, satellite derived habitat data, and WorldClim climate variables. Model fit, as assessed by Area under the Receiver Operator Curve (AUC) was very high for most species, ranging from 0.877 to 0.992 (mean of 0.94). We found that most species are predicted to undergo range contractions by 2070, with a mean of 15% under modest climate change (RCP 2.6) up to a mean of 40% under more severe climate change (RCP 8.5). Most of the current ranges of these species are within existing protected areas (average of 59% in 2006-2015), and with prospective range contractions, the importance of these protected areas is forecast to increase. We suggest that these predicted range declines should elevate conservation concerns for this suite of species, and vigilance, in the form of better population monitoring, is urgently needed.

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Conservation Strategies, Protected Areas, and Ecotourism in Costa Rica

Journal of Park and Recreation Administration ◽

10.18666/jpra-2018-v36-i3-8355 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 36 (3) ◽

pp. 115-128 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Ricardo Valverde Sanchez

Keyword(s):

Costa Rica ◽

Protected Areas ◽

Conservation Strategies

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Benefits of local residents visiting La Selva Biological Station, Costa Rica

Environmental Conservation ◽

10.1017/s0376892906002955 ◽

2006 ◽

Vol 33 (2) ◽

pp. 89-99 ◽

Cited By ~ 14

Author(s):

RANDALL S. MOORMAN

Keyword(s):

Costa Rica ◽

Protected Areas ◽

Lifestyle Changes ◽

Ecological Knowledge ◽

La Selva ◽

Illegal Hunting ◽

Biological Station ◽

La Selva Biological Station ◽

Perceived Benefit ◽

Local Residents

Many conservation organizations have attempted to reduce local threats to protected areas (PAs) by providing environmental education programmes in neighbouring communities. There is a great need to understand the effectiveness of these programmes in promoting support for PAs and ultimately reducing threats to biodiversity. La Selva Biological Station, a private PA in Costa Rica, has become increasingly threatened by illegal hunting in the PA and deforestation and land degradation in surrounding areas. The Station has responded with several outreach projects including an annual free visiting day. This study used a survey instrument to evaluate the benefits of local residents visiting La Selva. Specifically, three questions were asked: (1) is there a difference in ecological knowledge of local residents among residents who have visited the Station and those that have not; (2) does an increase in knowledge relate to a perceived benefit from the PA; and (3) does recognition of a perceived benefit among local people result in fewer residents admitting to hunting or desiring to hunt in the PA? This study showed that those residents who had visited the station had a greater understanding of ecological concepts than those residents that had never been to the station, suggesting that such visits provided educational opportunities. Men also had greater ecological knowledge than women. Additionally, residents were more likely to value the PA if they had a greater knowledge of local ecology and conservation. Increased knowledge and recognition of perceived benefit however, do not necessarily translate into lifestyle changes that benefit conservation; no relationship was detected between residents who stated they benefited from the PA and those who said they did not have a desire to hunt, but younger respondents were more likely to express an interest in hunting than older respondents. The results presented here suggest that protected areas generally may benefit from visitation by local residents. However, further study is needed to determine if such outreach activities actually decrease local threats to conservation efforts, such as hunting.

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Environmental governance and conservation. Experiences in two natural protected areas of Mexico and Costa Rica

Journal of Land Use Science ◽

10.1080/1747423x.2020.1817167 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 15 (6) ◽

pp. 707-720

Author(s):

Blanca M. Vázquez-Villa ◽

Humberto Reyes-Hernández ◽

Edgar Gregorio Leija-Loredo ◽

José G. Rivera-González ◽

Carlos Morera-Beita

Keyword(s):

Costa Rica ◽

Protected Areas ◽

Environmental Governance ◽

Natural Protected Areas

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Implications of heterogeneous impacts of protected areas on deforestation and poverty

Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences ◽

10.1098/rstb.2014.0272 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 370 (1681) ◽

pp. 20140272 ◽

Cited By ~ 24

Author(s):

Merlin M. Hanauer ◽

Gustavo Canavire-Bacarreza

Keyword(s):

Ecosystem Services ◽

Costa Rica ◽

Protected Areas ◽

Protected Area ◽

Policy Instrument ◽

Indigenous Populations ◽

Poverty Traps ◽

Differential Impact ◽

Practical Information ◽

Non Parametric

Protected areas are a popular policy instrument in the global fight against loss of biodiversity and ecosystem services. However, the effectiveness of protected areas in preventing deforestation, and their impacts on poverty, are not well understood. Recent studies have found that Bolivia's protected-area system, on average, reduced deforestation and poverty. We implement several non-parametric and semi-parametric econometric estimators to characterize the heterogeneity in Bolivia's protected-area impacts on joint deforestation and poverty outcomes across a number of socioeconomic and biophysical moderators. Like previous studies from Costa Rica and Thailand, we find that Bolivia's protected areas are not associated with poverty traps. Our results also indicate that protection did not have a differential impact on indigenous populations. However, results from new multidimensional non-parametric estimators provide evidence that the biophysical characteristics associated with the greatest avoided deforestation are the characteristics associated with the potential for poverty exacerbation from protection. We demonstrate that these results would not be identified using the methods implemented in previous studies. Thus, this study provides valuable practical information on the impacts of Bolivia's protected areas for conservation practitioners and demonstrates methods that are likely to be valuable to researchers interested in better understanding the heterogeneity in conservation impacts.

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