PNAS – Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
http://www.pnas.org/content/early/
(Accessed 5 March 2016)

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Social Sciences – Sustainability Science:
Impacts of nonstate, market-driven governance on Chilean forests
Robert Heilmayra,1 and Eric F. Lambinb,c,d,1
Author Affiliations
Significance
Global trade in commodities has become an important driver of environmental degradation. In response, there has been a proliferation of nonstate, market-driven governance seeking to reduce environmental degradation through interventions in the supply chain. We provide some of the first quasiexperimental evidence to show that private, market-driven policies can slow deforestation. We compare the impacts of two certification schemes and a deforestation moratorium in Chile using a factorial quasiexperimental design. Our results indicate that governance regimes with greater collaboration between environmental and industry stakeholders achieved better environmental outcomes. In contrast to many public conservation policies, we find that private governance systems can effectively target high-deforestation properties.

Abstract
Global markets for agricultural products, timber, and minerals are critically important drivers of deforestation. The supply chains driving land use change may also provide opportunities to halt deforestation. Market campaigns, moratoria, and certification schemes have been promoted as powerful tools to achieve conservation goals. Despite their promise, there have been few opportunities to rigorously quantify the ability of these nonstate, market-driven (NSMD) governance regimes to deliver conservation outcomes. This study analyzes the impacts of three NSMD governance systems that sought to end the conversion of natural forests to plantations in Chile at the start of the 21st century. Using a multilevel, panel dataset of land use changes in Chile, we identify the impact of participation within each of the governance regimes by implementing a series of matched difference-in-differences analyses. Taking advantage of the mosaic of different NSMD regimes adopted in Chile, we explore the relative effectiveness of different policies. NSMD governance regimes reduced deforestation on participating properties by 2–23%. The NSMD governance regimes we studied included collaborative and confrontational strategies between environmental and industry stakeholders. We find that the more collaborative governance systems studied achieved better environmental performance than more confrontational approaches. Whereas many government conservation programs have targeted regions with little likelihood of conversion, we demonstrate that NSMD governance has the potential to alter behavior on high-deforestation properties.