Relaxing constraints as a conservation policy

Ben Groom and Charles Palmer

LSE Research Online Documents on Economics from London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library

Abstract: Eco-entrepreneurs in developing countries are often subject to market or institutional constraints such as missing markets. Conservation interventions which relax constraints may be both cost effective and poverty reducing. A simulation using data from an intervention in Madagascar to relax the technological constraints of forest honey production investigates this possibility. Cost-effectively achieving dual environment-development goals is shown to depend on the severity of constraints, relative prices, along with the nature and efficiency in use of technology. Success is more likely for technologies exhibiting close to constant returns to scale or high-input complementarity. Forest honey does not meet these requirements. Ultimately, where market or institutional constraints are present, knowledge of the recipient technology is required for more informed, efficient and perhaps more politically acceptable conservation policy.

JEL-codes: J1 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014-08-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-agr and nep-env
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

Published in Environment and Development Economics, 1, August, 2014, 19(4), pp. 502-528. ISSN: 1355-770X

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Related works:
Journal Article: Relaxing constraints as a conservation policy (2014)
Working Paper: Relaxing Constraints as a Conservation Policy (2012)
Working Paper: Relaxing Constraints as a Conservation Policy (2012)
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