Disentangling farmers' preferences for conditional incentives to upscale biodiversity-friendly agroforestry in the Amazon

Publikation: Beitrag in FachzeitschriftArtikelForschungPeer-Review

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Externe Organisationen

  • University of Bern
  • Universitat de Barcelona (UB)
  • Tropical Agricultural Research and Higher Education Center (CATIE)
  • Universidad Cientifica del Sur
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OriginalspracheEnglisch
Aufsatznummer1645422
FachzeitschriftFrontiers in Sustainable Food Systems
Jahrgang9
PublikationsstatusVeröffentlicht - 21 Jan. 2026

Abstract

Although agroforestry is a promising approach to reconcile biodiversity conservation and local development, uptake has proven challenging, justifying the introduction of incentives to promote adoption. We firstly conducted a discrete choice experiment (DCE) over a sample comprised by 223 cacao farmers from the province Padre Abad in the Peruvian Amazon to gain insights into their preferences for four attributes of a proposed biodiversity-oriented agroforestry- Payment for Ecosystem Services (PES) scheme: (1) requirement for tree canopy cover in enrolled plots, (2) modalities for a biodiversity connectivity bonus, (3) farmers' participation in monitoring, and (4) the compensatory cash amount. Although we found that a PES scheme would have a wide acceptance among eligible farmers, their preferences are highly heterogeneous regarding assessed attributes. For disentangling such differences, we perform a latent class (LC) model and identify three farmer classes: first, the larger one (56% of the sample) comprised by farmers that are more likely to enroll in the proposed PES as the cash compensation for accepting both high required canopy level and collective bonus rises, and they are allowed to participate in monitoring tasks. Meanwhile, preferences of the second group (34% of the sample) seemed to be less sensitive to changes in levels of the assessed PES attributes. Finally, the third farmers group (10% of the sample) features, in average, a willingness to accept (WTA) lower than the first farmers group for required high canopy level and a larger preference for individual rather than collective connectivity bonus. These findings highlight the necessity of tailoring incentives to address differentiated farmer preferences for increasing scheme effectiveness and equity.

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Disentangling farmers' preferences for conditional incentives to upscale biodiversity-friendly agroforestry in the Amazon. / Montoya-Zumaeta, Javier G.; Fiestas Flores, José Jerico; Gutierrez, Lech et al.
in: Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems, Jahrgang 9, 1645422, 21.01.2026.

Publikation: Beitrag in FachzeitschriftArtikelForschungPeer-Review

Montoya-Zumaeta, JG, Fiestas Flores, JJ, Gutierrez, L, Rojas, E, Orozco-Aguilar, L & Ladd, B 2026, 'Disentangling farmers' preferences for conditional incentives to upscale biodiversity-friendly agroforestry in the Amazon', Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems, Jg. 9, 1645422. https://doi.org/10.3389/fsufs.2025.1645422
Montoya-Zumaeta, J. G., Fiestas Flores, J. J., Gutierrez, L., Rojas, E., Orozco-Aguilar, L., & Ladd, B. (2026). Disentangling farmers' preferences for conditional incentives to upscale biodiversity-friendly agroforestry in the Amazon. Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems, 9, Artikel 1645422. https://doi.org/10.3389/fsufs.2025.1645422
Montoya-Zumaeta JG, Fiestas Flores JJ, Gutierrez L, Rojas E, Orozco-Aguilar L, Ladd B. Disentangling farmers' preferences for conditional incentives to upscale biodiversity-friendly agroforestry in the Amazon. Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems. 2026 Jan 21;9:1645422. doi: 10.3389/fsufs.2025.1645422
Montoya-Zumaeta, Javier G. ; Fiestas Flores, José Jerico ; Gutierrez, Lech et al. / Disentangling farmers' preferences for conditional incentives to upscale biodiversity-friendly agroforestry in the Amazon. in: Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems. 2026 ; Jahrgang 9.
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AU - Montoya-Zumaeta, Javier G.

AU - Fiestas Flores, José Jerico

AU - Gutierrez, Lech

AU - Rojas, Eduardo

AU - Orozco-Aguilar, Luis

AU - Ladd, Brenton

N1 - Publisher Copyright: Copyright © 2026 Montoya-Zumaeta, Fiestas-Flores, Gutiérrez, Rojas, Orozco-Aguilar and Ladd.

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N2 - Although agroforestry is a promising approach to reconcile biodiversity conservation and local development, uptake has proven challenging, justifying the introduction of incentives to promote adoption. We firstly conducted a discrete choice experiment (DCE) over a sample comprised by 223 cacao farmers from the province Padre Abad in the Peruvian Amazon to gain insights into their preferences for four attributes of a proposed biodiversity-oriented agroforestry- Payment for Ecosystem Services (PES) scheme: (1) requirement for tree canopy cover in enrolled plots, (2) modalities for a biodiversity connectivity bonus, (3) farmers' participation in monitoring, and (4) the compensatory cash amount. Although we found that a PES scheme would have a wide acceptance among eligible farmers, their preferences are highly heterogeneous regarding assessed attributes. For disentangling such differences, we perform a latent class (LC) model and identify three farmer classes: first, the larger one (56% of the sample) comprised by farmers that are more likely to enroll in the proposed PES as the cash compensation for accepting both high required canopy level and collective bonus rises, and they are allowed to participate in monitoring tasks. Meanwhile, preferences of the second group (34% of the sample) seemed to be less sensitive to changes in levels of the assessed PES attributes. Finally, the third farmers group (10% of the sample) features, in average, a willingness to accept (WTA) lower than the first farmers group for required high canopy level and a larger preference for individual rather than collective connectivity bonus. These findings highlight the necessity of tailoring incentives to address differentiated farmer preferences for increasing scheme effectiveness and equity.

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KW - biodiversity offsets

KW - cacao

KW - canopy level

KW - choice experiment

KW - latent class model

KW - stated preferences methods

KW - trade-off

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DO - 10.3389/fsufs.2025.1645422

M3 - Article

VL - 9

JO - Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems

JF - Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems

M1 - 1645422

ER -

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