Agroforestry Price Supports as a Conservation Tool: Mexican Shade Coffee

30 Pages Posted: 24 Dec 2008 Last revised: 21 Sep 2009

See all articles by Beatriz Ávalos-Sartorio

Beatriz Ávalos-Sartorio

affiliation not provided to SSRN

Allen Blackman

Inter-American Development Bank (IDB)

Date Written: December 22, 2008

Abstract

Economic policies that boost the return to mixed agroforesty, thereby creating financial incentives for land managers to favor these systems over less environmentally friendly land uses, could, in theory, have ancillary environmental benefits. This paper analyses primary and secondary data to determine whether a voluntary price support program for Mexican coffee - mostly grown in shaded systems that supply important ecosystem services - has had such "win-win" benefits by stemming rampant land-use change in the coffee sector. We find that although the program attracted the types of growers associated with land-use change, it attracted only a relatively small number of them, did not target growing areas hardest hit by conversion to other land uses, and provided subsidies that were probably too small to affect land-use decisions. These results raise serious questions about the ability of a mixed agroforestry price support program with a modest price floor to have a significant conservation impact.

Keywords: mixed agroforestry, shade-grown coffee, Mexico, price supports

JEL Classification: Q23, Q56, Q57, O13

Suggested Citation

Ávalos-Sartorio, Beatriz and Blackman, Allen, Agroforestry Price Supports as a Conservation Tool: Mexican Shade Coffee (December 22, 2008). RFF Discussion Paper No. 08-48-REV, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1319463 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1319463

Beatriz Ávalos-Sartorio

affiliation not provided to SSRN

Allen Blackman (Contact Author)

Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) ( email )

1300 New York Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20577
United States

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