Lave wins NSF grant to study market-based conservation in Europe
A research team lead by Indiana University faculty member Rebecca Lave has been awarded a National Science Foundation grant to study the introduction of market-based environmental conservation policies in the European Union.
The two-year, $314,750 grant will fund research focusing on habitat banking, in which the environmental costs of development projects are offset by purchasing credits generated by restoration projects elsewhere.
The European Union, with nations implementing new policies on different schedules and with different approaches, allows for a sort of natural experiment to test the global feasibility of market-based conservation, said Lave, associate professor of geography in the College of Arts and Sciences.
“This kind of market-based approach is now the dominant international policy framework for environmental protection,” Lave said. “Having conditions for a natural experiment like this will allow us to evaluate its effectiveness.”