Targeting Forest Restoration in Densely Populated Landscapes : Farmers’ Interactions Affect Optimal Facilitation of Tree Planting in India

Prioritizing sites for conservation has been a central question for over a century. Much work studies large sparsely-populated landscapes to optimize habitat for the highest number (or value) of species for a set cost, given possible ecological interactions between the patches of conserved land. Yet such conservation often requires voluntary actions, such as private restoration, or the acceptance of easements on private lands. Thus, spillovers that affect private land uses are relevant for targeting conservation interventions to maximize net benefits. We study two densely populated landscapes in India that we show feature interactions between farmers, i.e., neighbors’ behaviors affect willingness to plant trees. Our empirical study of 1299 farmers, 600 in Central India and 699 in South India, reveals this social interaction between land users: farmers closer to forest are more willing to plant trees as measured by their responses to a choice experiment − which we note is consistent with a mechanism of human-wildlife conflict. We then apply those empirical results on interactions to simulate how best to target forest incentives in this landscape, showing efficiency gains from prioritizations based upon farmers’ preferences and these spillovers