Technological innovations for biodiversity monitoring and the design of agri-environmental schemes

Abstract

Policymakers and scholars are increasingly interested in result-based schemes to improve the performance of biodiversity conservation policies. However, the availability and accuracy of monitoring technologies challenge a shift from traditional input-based incentives to result-based schemes. Inspired by recent technological developments, we develop a model based on a Bayesian framework to analyze the policy implications of potential improvements in biodiversity monitoring quality. Our numerical results suggest that improving monitoring quality increases the number of farmers enrolling in the scheme and their efforts. The availability of monitoring technologies with sufficiently high quality could make result-based schemes more performative than input-based ones. Monitoring developments might unlock the potential of result-based schemes and lead to their wider adoption.