%0 Journal Article
%T How socioeconomic and institutional conditions at the household level shape the environmental effectiveness of governmental payments for ecosystem services program
%A Bettina Matzdorf
%A Cheng Chen
%A Claas Meyer
%A Hannes J. K£¿nig
%A Lin Zhen
%J Ecosystems and People
%D 2019
%R https://doi.org/10.1080/26395916.2019.1676311
%X ABSTRACT As the world¡¯s largest payments for ecosystem services (PES) program, China¡¯s Sloping Land Conversion Program (SLCP) is designed to combat soil erosion and land degradation by converting cropland on steep slopes into forests. Operating through an incentive-based approach, the SLCP involved 32 million rural households as core agents. This paper aims to fill a research gap regarding how socioeconomic and institutional conditions influence rural households to reach the primary environmental goals. Using fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA), we conclude that at the household level, the different pathways to environmental success or failure have been shaped by socioeconomic and institutional conditions in a combinatory manner rather than single conditions alone. Specifically, the combination of household involvement and effective monitoring plays a fundamental role in capacity-building between government and households. We found that financial incentives have a trade-off effect, as they could not only create a positive interaction but also trigger failure in situations with different conditions. Finally, the potential and limits of QCA were discussed, and we call for a more serious reflection on the added value of QCA as an alternative or complementary method to conventional approaches in environmental governance research
%U https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/26395916.2019.1676311