Cost-effectiveness of Natura 2000 forest contracts for biodiversity conservation

Seyed Mahdi Heshmatol Vaezin, Damien Marage () and Serge Garcia
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Seyed Mahdi Heshmatol Vaezin: University of Tehran
Damien Marage: LERFoB - Laboratoire d'Etudes des Ressources Forêt-Bois - INRA - Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique - AgroParisTech, LADYSS - Laboratoire Dynamiques Sociales et Recomposition des Espaces - UP1 - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne - UP8 - Université Paris 8 Vincennes-Saint-Denis - UPN - Université Paris Nanterre - UPD7 - Université Paris Diderot - Paris 7 - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique

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Abstract: Natura 2000 contracts in the European Union aim to maintain or restore natural habitats to a favorable conservation status. This article aims to analyze the cost-effectiveness of Natura 2000 forest contracts at the individual level of intervention areas in France. The level of long-term biodiversity was assessed using ex ante and ex post levels of conservation status, evaluated on a 100-point scale. Data collection was conducted on the contract areas using a combination of plotless and line intersection sampling methods. Cost-effectiveness was analyzed by modeling a cost function of conservation measures that is estimated simultaneously with the ex ante and ex post biodiversity equations. We performed an empirical illustration based on a small number of observations, and, therefore, the results deserve to be confirmed using larger databases. The conservation measures implemented in the contracts studied had a significant effect on maintaining and restoring biodiversity. Nevertheless, we found pronounced diseconomies of scale and low cost-effectiveness. This suggests the possibility of less ecologically ambitious contracts with lower average costs. Our results also recommend new targeting and prioritizing rules to implement more cost-effective conservation measures (e.g., veteran trees) in a less costly context (e.g., targeting main tree species in larger intervention areas). These recommendations could make Natura 2000 contracts significantly more cost-effective.

Keywords: Cost function; Deadwood; Natura 2000 islands; Undesirable species; Veteran trees (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022-12-01
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Published in Canadian Journal of Forest Research, 2022, 52 (12), pp.1527-1542. ⟨10.1139/cjfr-2021-0204⟩

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:journl:hal-04180508

DOI: 10.1139/cjfr-2021-0204

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