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Can Financial Incentives Change Farmers’ Motivations? An Agrarian System Approach to Development Pathways at the Nicaraguan Agricultural Frontier

Written by: Pierre Merlet, Gert Van Hecken, Mara Lindtner, Johan Bastiaensen

Writing date:

Organizations: Universidad Centroamericana UCA de Nicaragua (UCA), Association pour contribuer à l’Amélioration de la Gouvernance de la Terre, de l’Eau et des Ressources naturelles (AGTER), University of Antwerp

Type of document: Scientific article

Documents of reference

In Journal : Ecological Economics (2017)

Van Hecken, G., et al., Can Financial Incentives Change Farmers’ Motivations? An Agrarian System Approach to Development Pathways at the Nicaraguan Agricu…, Ecol. Econ. (2017),

dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2016.12.030

Summary

This article offers a conceptual-methodological approach to assess how new institutional frameworks, such as PES (Payments for Ecosystem Services), interact with motivations for land use change at the individual and collective level. Increasing empirical evidence suggests that the effects of payments on inducing long-term behavioural change can vary substantially, depending on how they are integrated in territorial dynamics. We show how individual motivation is the result of collective societal pathways that generate particular opportunities and constraints, as well as guiding ideas and habits that ‘work’ within these pathways.

Through an illustrative case study at the agricultural frontier in Nicaragua,we show how an ‘agrarian system’ approach offers a more nuanced understanding of the dynamic interactions on the ground, and allows us to better connect farmers’ individual motivations to collective development pathways in that territory. Our case study also demonstrates how a local PES intervention is unlikely to lastingly alter the production system logic of farmers, or stimulate longterm ‘pro-environmental’ behaviour, unless accompanied by other types of policies.

Final version in open access until the end of January 2019

authors.elsevier.com/c/1Y8QK3Hb 074Xr

 

dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2016.12.030

For more information, you can contact the authors.

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© 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

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