Institutions, ecosystems and motivations for conservation: testing alternative designs to current Payments for Ecosystem Services

During my post-doc I aim at (1) measuring and evaluating how specific institutional designs affect intrinsic conservation motivations and social norms; and (2) investigating how local adaptations to existing institutions and social dynamics may influence motivations for conservation. This will allow me to come up with PES designs which limit crowding-out of non-pecuniary motivations and are more easily adapted to local institutional contexts.With this one-year fellowship I plan to (a) go on with the projects, collaborations and fieldworks which I am currently setting up in the expectation of receiving an FWO grant; (b) focus on shorter-term outcomes in order to continue increasing my chances of acquiring funding in the future. This includes publishing scientific papers, present ongoing projects at conferences and setting up additional collaborations with researchers in universities in Belgium and abroad; (c) Submit additional applications for research grants, in particular for a Marie-Curie fellowship.

Keywords:Ecosystem services, ecological economics, collective action, critical institutionalism and institutio, Behavioural motivations for conservation

Disciplines:Biotechnology for agricultural, forestry, fisheries and allied sciences not elsewhere classified