Reducing the finance gap for nature-based solutions with time contributions

Liselotte C. Hagedoorn, Mark J. Koetse, Pieter J.H. van Beukering and Luke M. Brander

Ecosystem Services, 2021, vol. 52, issue C

Abstract: Nature-based solutions (NBS) to climate change and other environmental challenges face a well-documented shortfall in financing and resource allocation. Economic evaluations of NBS that apply stated preference methods increasingly use time contributions instead of the traditionally used monetary contributions, especially in developing countries. These studies have focused on measuring the benefits of NBS and have not investigated the potential of freely provided community time contributions to reduce the financial needs of NBS. In this paper we investigate this potential through a systematic literature review and an analysis of four datasets from case studies in Ghana and Vietnam that apply similar questionnaires and discrete choice experiments with time contributions. We study a range of (de)motivating factors to contributing time to NBS and provide examples on the extent to which time contributions could reduce financial needs of NBS in developing countries. The results indicate that time contributions from households for the implementation and maintenance of NBS are motivated by social capital and coping appraisal. Time contribution schemes are therefore more likely to succeed in communities where social capital and coping appraisal are high and could be increased or maintained over time through the preservation and fostering of both these factors. The analysis also reveals that implementing time contributions would in general not lead to the exclusion of specific socio-demographic groups in society, such as lower income households. Finally, using two specific projects in Vietnam as examples, we calculate that time contributions can reduce 29% and 44% of the financial needs of NBS by covering the projects’ labour requirements. These results are of high importance to those working on NBS financing, awareness and behavior change campaigns, and practitioners that apply stated preference methods in developing countries.

Keywords: Finance gap; Nature-based solutions; Stated preferences; Willingness to contribute time; Systematic literature review (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2212041621001297
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:ecoser:v:52:y:2021:i:c:s2212041621001297

DOI: 10.1016/j.ecoser.2021.101371

Access Statistics for this article

Ecosystem Services is currently edited by Leon C Braat

More articles in Ecosystem Services from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().