Abstract
The European Union designates 26% of its landmass as a protected area, limiting economic development to favor biodiversity. We use the staggered introduction of protected areas between 1985 and 2020 to study the selection of land for protection and the causal effect of protection on vegetation cover and nightlights. Protection did not affect these outcomes in any meaningful way across four decades, countries, protection cohorts, population density, or land, soil, and climate characteristics. We conclude that European conservation efforts lack ambition because policymakers protect land not threatened by development or choose weak protection levels on lands that face development pressure.
Keywords
land protection; conservation; biodiversity; deforestation; vegetation cover; night-lights; staggered difference-in-differences;
JEL codes
- Q23: Forestry
- Q24: Land
- Q57: Ecological Economics: Ecosystem Services • Biodiversity Conservation • Bioeconomics • Industrial Ecology
- R14: Land Use Patterns
Reference
Tristan Earle Grupp, Prakash Mishra, Mathias Reynaert, and Arthur Van Benthem, “An Evaluation of Protected Area Policies in the European Union”, TSE Working Paper, n. 23-1490, November 2023, revised June 2024.
See also
Published in
TSE Working Paper, n. 23-1490, November 2023, revised June 2024