Material compensation reduces pro-environmental motivations, actions, and outcomes – Learning from a watershed management program in the Indian Himalaya
Speaker: Dr. Arun Agrawal
Professor, School of Natural Resources & Environment, University of Michigan
Tuesday, 12 March 2019
2:00-3:30 PM
Reitz Union Chamber
University of Florida
This public lecture will examine how material compensation leads to reduced levels of pro-environmental motivations, behaviors, and outcomes. Focusing on a watershed management program in the Indian Himalaya, and drawing upon panel data on 1,500 households, the study uses a quasi-experimental research design and matching based approaches to identify how the program as a whole and also its different components affected the motivations and behaviors of program participants compared to non-participants, and the effects of the program on local community forests. Study findings gain relevance in recent advocacy of payments and compensation to enhance positive environmental outcomes.
Arun Agrawal, PhD, emphasizes the politics of international development, institutional change, and environmental conservation in his research and teaching. He has written critically on indigenous knowledge, community-based conservation, common property, population resources, and environmental identities. Agrawal is the coordinator for the International Forestry Resources and Institutions network and is currently carrying out research in central and east Africa as well as South Asia. Since 2013, Agrawal has served as the editor-in-chief of World Development and his recent work has appeared in Science, PNAS, Conservation Biology, Development and Change, among other journals. Agrawal was educated at Duke University, the Indian Institute of Management, and Delhi University and has held academic positions at Yale, Florida, McGill, Berkeley, and Harvard.
All are welcome to attend. REFRESHMENTS SERVED.