Ecological Fiscal Transfers for Biodiversity Conservation Policy: A Transaction Costs Analysis of Minas Gerais, Brazil

Dataset on ecological fiscal transfers and municipal protected areas in the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil

“…To perform the analysis to understand the influence of EFT in the policy-making process of adopting PAs by municipal governments [1], a comprehensive descriptive analysis of the data was performed. First, was analyzed the years until the adoption of protected areas, and must of the protected areas were created by municipal governments between the 32nd and 37th years (Table 2).…”

An analysis of delay in implementing ecological fiscal transfers in Brazil

“…As Ring and Barton (2015, p. 442) have noted, "qualitative indicators is an important requirement for generating better synergies between fiscal transfers and protected area regulation (…)". In this sense, the adoption of qualitative measurements imposes additional costs to local governments, mostly related with monitoring the protected areas (Ring and Barton, 2015;Paulo and Camões, 2019a).…”

“…Proposing environmental criteria involves actions on the part of both the legislative and executive branches, as well as state environmental agencies. The draft of the EFT law is proposed either by the governor or a state congressman (Paulo and Camões, 2019b). Later, when the governor receives the project, he/she chooses to approve or veto it.…”

“…It was first established in the early 1990s in the Brazilian state of Paraná to allocate ICMS (Imposto Sobre Circulação de Mercadorias e Serviços) 1 (Loureiro, 2002). Other states followed Paraná and also adopted ecological indicators to redistribute ICMS, mainly to extend protected areas (PA) and to compensate local governments for the positive externalities derived from biodiversity conservation (Grieg-Gran, 2001;Ring, 2008;Droste et al, 2017d;Paulo and Camões, 2019b). Over time, other ecological criteria were introduced in these schemes, such as water conservation policies (Paulo and Camões, 2020), solid waste management (Silva et al, 2012), reforestation, and fire control.…”

“…EFT impacts on municipal budgets (Ring, 2008). This explains the avoidance of conflicts among politicians during the process of adopting this policy tool (Paulo and Camões, 2019b). Empirical studies stress the effectiveness of EFT in incentivizing local governments to create protected areas (Droste et al, 2017d) and how it affects spatial interactions among government units (Sauquet et al, 2014).…”