For many years, the world has been worried about the effects of agriculture and livestock on deforestation. During the last two decades, budgets to protect forests have grown substantially. At the same time, many countries are engaged in extensive and complicated agricultural subsidies. While in developed countries the effects of ag subsidies are often taken into consideration, in developing countries this is not the case. Therefore, you end up with subsidies intended to increase food production, which may also induce deforestation.
AAE grad student Fanny Moffette is working to analyze the impacts of several policies in Mexico, trying to understand how subsidies effect enrollment in conservation programs, as well as whether the net deforestation effects of conservation payments are undermined by agricultural subsidies. While previous research analyzed the spill-over effects of conservation policies on deforestation, this paper studies the spill-over effects of agricultural policies within conservation areas and look at overall participation in the conservation programs.
Fluent in 5 languages, Fanny worked in Honduras with the poorest communities of the country, as well as at FAO in Rome. Before coming to Wisconsin, she was a lecturer in Economics for two years.