Targeting Incentives to Reduce Habitat Fragmentation
Resource information
Date of publication
December 2009
Resource Language
ISBN / Resource ID
AGRIS:US201301674948
Pages
1080-1096
This article develops a theoretical model to analyze the spatial targeting of incentives for the restoration of forested landscapes when wildlife habitat can be enhanced by reducing fragmentation. The key theoretical result is that the marginal net benefits of increasing forest can be convex, in which case corner solutions--converting either none or all of the agricultural land in a section to forest--may be optimal. Corner solutions are directly linked to the spatial process determining habitat benefits and the regulator's incomplete information regarding landowner opportunity costs. We present findings from large-scale empirical landscape simulations that support our key theoretical results.