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Unintended consequences of conservation: Estimating the impact of protected areas on violence in Colombia

Gustavo Canavire-Bacarreza, Julian Diaz-Gutierrez and Merlin M. Hanauer

Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, 2018, vol. 89, issue C, 46-70

Abstract: Protected areas are designed to conserve ecosystems and their services, but the restrictions they impose create the potential for unintended consequences. For instance, poverty advocates have long voiced concerns that protected areas might exacerbate poverty in surrounding communities. Here we examine another potential unintended consequence of protected areas: illegal activities. We use data from Colombia to estimate the impact that protected areas had on violence perpetrated by guerrilla groups. We find protected areas that were established prior to 2002 significantly increased the number of guerrilla attacks in affected municipalities during the surge of violence in the mid-2000s. Our results are robust to the choice of estimator and numerous additional tests. We find evidence that guerrillas were using protected areas as havens to conduct their operations and that our impact estimates are largely driven by protection in the most rural areas.

Keywords: Causal inference; Matching; Guerrilla; Heterogeneity; Conflict; Difference-in-difference; FARC; Latin America; Terrorism (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C14 K42 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (10)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jeeman:v:89:y:2018:i:c:p:46-70

DOI: 10.1016/j.jeem.2018.02.004

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Journal of Environmental Economics and Management is currently edited by M.A. Cole, A. Lange, D.J. Phaneuf, D. Popp, M.J. Roberts, M.D. Smith, C. Timmins, Q. Weninger and A.J. Yates

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