Economic incentives to promote wildfire risk prevention - A systematic literature review

Solveigh Koekkoek 2023. "Economic incentives to promote wildfire risk prevention - A systematic literature review". Master Thesis. University of Lisbon.

Supervisors: Prof. Maria João Canadas and Prof. José Manuel Lima e Santos

Summary:

Prevention is recognized as essential to deal with the increasing importance of wildfires. The promotion of wildfires prevention is however scantly studied. This study provides a literature review on wildfire prevention in an effort to examine policy dimensions, -types, and measures to prevent wildfires.
Multiple correspondence analysis and cluster analysis have been used to get policy dimensions and types. These analyses reveal that three factorial dimensions are sufficient to capture essential relationships, which account for approximately 85% of the inertia. The first dimension pertains to the presence or absence of economic incentives in policies. The second dimension distinguishes between grazing and forest management, with landowners receiving funding for land use conversion and farmers primarily focusing on grazing. The third dimension highlights the choice between market and public solutions, with private sector-funded market mechanisms opposing public mechanisms.
The dimensions of individuals and the association with active and supplementary variables are explored. When no economic incentives are in play, laws and regulation and information and training are the most commonly used policy mechanisms. When certification and market mechanisms are used, payments are often result-based, and implemented by the private sector. The second dimension shows articles that have a strong link to policies and use a positive study approach, which implies that grazing and forest management are well-studied subjects.
The study faces limitations due to the small number of relevant articles, potential outliers, and challenges in interpretation. It emphasizes the need for a larger sample size to increase reliability, diverse search strategies to capture more relevant articles, and standardized terminology to facilitate categorization.
In conclusion, the study contributes valuable insights into the complexity and diversity of wildfire prevention policies. It emphasizes the significance of economic incentives, the choice between grazing and forest management, and the role of market solutions versus public mechanisms. Despite limitations, this research lays a foundation for further exploration.