Exploring the role of economic incentives and spillover effects in biodiversity conservation policies in sub-Saharan Africa

A vast array of empirical work investigates the issue of biodiversity conservation, but the focus is often limited on the search for possible causes of biodiversity erosion. Biodiversity conservation policymaking is still understudied. In this study, this gap is empirically addressed on a sample of 48 sub-Saharan countries over the 1990-2009 period taking the “Ecoregion protection” score provided by the Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN) as a measure of biodiversity conservation policies. It is sought whether economic incentives such as biodiversity targeted international transfers as well as tourism revenues have an impact on biodiversity conservation policies. Moreover, spillover effects are also hypothesized owing to the public good character of biodiversity conservation policies. International financial assistance as well as tourism are found to have an effect on biodiversity conservation policymaking. Our results also evidence complementary spatial spillover effects between biodiversity conservation policies.