Motivational crowding effects in payments for ecosystem services under alternative value frames: Instrumental versus relational values

47 Pages Posted: 8 Jul 2021

See all articles by Bosco Lliso

Bosco Lliso

Basque Centre for Climate Change (BC3)

Paola Arias-Arévalo

Universidad del Valle

Stefany Maca-Millán

Universidad del Valle

Stefanie Engel

School of Economics and Business Administration

Unai Pascual

Basque Centre for Climate Change (BC3)

Date Written: July 1, 2021

Abstract

Nature is perceived and valued in many different ways. Often, the types of values that are the most important to people depend on how they cognitively frame desirable human-nature relations. For instance, the value of nature can be seen through a utilitarian lens, e.g., as providing ecosystem services for humans. Alternatively, it can also be considered valuable for non-instrumental reasons, e.g., for its sacred or spiritual significance. In this paper we use a framed field experiment to test how people belonging to three distinct communities in Colombia (Indigenous, Afro-Colombian, and Campesino) respond to different ways of framing payments for ecosystem services (PES) schemes, so as to assess potential motivational crowding effects of pro-social/intrinsic motivations for forest conservation. The experimental results indicate that crowding-in of intrinsic motivations for forest conservation occurred in participants from the Indigenous community when the PES scheme was framed in a way that highlighted relational values of the forest. By contrast, motivational crowding-in took place for participants in the framed field experiment from the Campesino community when the PES scheme was introduced in a way that highlighted instrumental values instead. Participants from the Afro-Colombian community did not show evidence of motivational crowding under either framing. Together, these results suggest that PES schemes that are framed in a way that harmonizes with locally salient human-nature relational models and associated values are more likely to cause motivational crowding-in, and thus encourage higher rates of environmental conservation, even after payments are discontinued.

Keywords: Payments for ecosystem services, relational values, instrumental values, motivational crowding, Indigenous peoples and local communities, Afro-Colombian, Lab-in-the-field experiment

JEL Classification: Q57

Suggested Citation

Lliso, Bosco and Arias-Arévalo, Paola and Maca-Millán, Stefany and Engel, Stefanie and Pascual, Unai, Motivational crowding effects in payments for ecosystem services under alternative value frames: Instrumental versus relational values (July 1, 2021). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3878138 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3878138

Bosco Lliso (Contact Author)

Basque Centre for Climate Change (BC3) ( email )

Gran Vía 35-2
Bilbao, Vizcaya 48009
Spain

Paola Arias-Arévalo

Universidad del Valle ( email )

Calle 13 No
Cali, 100-00
Colombia

Stefany Maca-Millán

Universidad del Valle ( email )

Calle 13 No
Cali, 100-00
Colombia

Stefanie Engel

School of Economics and Business Administration ( email )

Barbarastr. 12
Osnabrueck, 49076
Germany

Unai Pascual

Basque Centre for Climate Change (BC3) ( email )

Gran Vía 35-2
Bilbao, Vizcaya 48009
Spain

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