An article written within the framework of PLoS ONE Special Issue: "Measuring Forest Conservation Effectiveness".
The authors assess the effectiveness of measures and policies aiming at tropical forests conservation in relation to the mitigation and adaptation commitments made in the Paris Agreement on climate at COP21 in 2015.
References:
Börner J, Baylis K, Corbera E, Ezzine-de-Blas D, Ferraro PJ, Honey-Rosés J, et al. (2016) Emerging Evidence on the Effectiveness of Tropical Forest Conservation. PLoS ONE 11(11): e0159152. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0159152
Introduction:
Multiple policies and programs are being deployed to reduce tropical deforestation, mitigating climate change, and curbing biodiversity loss. Besides actions on forests already included in a number of intended nationally determined contributions to climate change mitigation (INDC), the Paris Agreement, in its Article 5, encourages Parties to the United Framework Convention on Climate Change to implement policy approaches and positive incentives to reduce emissions from deforestation and forest degradation. And yet, our knowledge about how to achieve forest conservation and related development goals is fragmented at best. This PLOS ONE Collection contributes to building such a knowledge base and adds to the emerging literature on the effectiveness of conservation policies and measures with a focus on tropical and subtropical biomes.
Abstract:
The PLOS ONE Collection “Measuring forest conservation effectiveness” brings together a series of studies that evaluate the effectiveness of tropical forest conservation policies and programs with the goal of measuring conservation success and associated co-benefits. This overview piece describes the geographic and methodological scope of these studies, as well as the policy instruments covered in the Collection as of June 2016. Focusing on forest cover change, we systematically compare the conservation effects estimated by the studies and discuss them in the light of previous findings in the literature. Nine studies estimated that annual conservation impacts on forest cover were below one percent, with two exceptions in Mexico and Indonesia. Differences in effect sizes are not only driven by the choice of conservation measures. One key lesson from the studies is the need to move beyond the current scientific focus of estimating average effects of undifferentiated conservation programs. The specific elements of the program design and the implementation context are equally important factors for understanding the effectiveness of conservation programs. Particularly critical will be a better understanding of the causal mechanisms through which conservation programs have impacts. To achieve this understanding we need advances in both theory and methods.