Peer-reviewed publications:
7. Qin, S., Buchadas, A., Meyfroidt, P., He, Y., Ghoddousi, A., Pötzschnera, F., Baumann, M., Kuemmerle, T. (2024). Links between deforestation, conservation areas, and conservation funding in major deforestation regions of South America. People and Nature, 6(5), 1789-1803. (Full Text)
6. Qin, S., He, Y.*, Golden Kroner, R. E., Shrestha, S., Coutinho, B. H., Karmann, M., Ledezma, J.C., Martinez, C., Morón-Zambrano, V., Ulloa, R., Yerena, E., Bernard, C., Bull, J.W., Mendoza, E., de Pracontal, N., Reytar, K., Veit, P., Matallana‐Tobón, C.L., Wiley, L.A., Mascia, M. (2024). Recognize diverse governance systems for area-based conservation of nature. One Earth. (*lead corresponding author and co-first author) (Full Text; Data; Code; Press Release; Media coverage)
5. Jagadish, A., Freni-Sterrantino, A., He, Y., O’ Garra, T., Gecchele, L., Mangubhai, S., Govan, H., Tawake, A., Tabunakawai Vakalalabure, M., Mascia, M. B., & Mills, M. (2024). Scaling Indigenous-led natural resource management. Global Environmental Change, 84, 102799. (Full Text)
4. Mack, E. A., Sauls, L. A., Jokisch, B. D., Nolte, K., Schmook, B., He, Y., Radel, C., Allington, G. R. H., Kelley, L. C., Scott, C. K., Leisz, S., Chi, G., Sagynbekova, L., Cuba, N., & Henebry, G. M. (2023). Remittances and land change: A systematic review. World Development, 168, 106251. (Full Text)
3. He, Y., Baldiviezo, J-P., Agrawal, A., Candaguira, V., & Perfecto. I. (2019). How should an indigenous community in eastern Bolivia defend their land and forests? – A sustainability case study. Case Studies in the Environment. (Full Text)
2. Golden Kroner, R.E., Qin, S., Cook, C.N., Krithivasan, R., Pack, S.M., Bonilla, O.D., Cort-Kansinally, K.A., Continho, B., Feng, M., Martínez Garcia, M.I., He, Y., Kennedy, C., Lebreton, C., Ledezma, J.C., Lovejoy, T.E., Luther, D.A., Parmanand, Y., Ruíz-Agudelo, E.Y., Zambran, V.M., & Mascia, M.B. (2019). The uncertain future of protected lands and waters. Science, 364(6443), 881-886. (Full Text)
1. Li, K.*, He, Y.*, Campbell, S. K., Colborn, A. S., Jackson, E. L., Martin, A., Monagan, I.V., Ong, T.W.Y., & Perfecto, I. (2017). From endogenous to exogenous pattern formation: Invasive plant species changes the spatial distribution of a native ant. Global Change Biology, 23(6), 2250-2261. (*co-first author) (Full Text)
Manuscripts under review:
He, Y., Czaplicki Cabezas, S., Maillard, O., Müller, R., Romero-Muñoz, A., Romero Pimentel, L. F., Vadillo, A., & Vos, V. A. Bolivia’s Forests in Flames Yet Again: Time for Policy Reform. In review: Science
O’Neill, H.M.K, Beeken, J., Bingham, H.C., Golden Kroner, R., He, Y… Davies, Z.G., & Smith, R.J. Global conserved area coverage substantially exceeds current estimates. In review: Nature
Shrestha, S., Nowakowski, J., Olsson, E., Noon, M., Hunt, D., Costedoat, S., Degawan, M., Berger, Cerda, J., Corrigan, C., Golden Kroner, R., He, Y., M., Muñoz Brenes, C., Mascia, M.B. For a Sustainable Future, Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities Need More Than Legal Rights. In review: Nature
Working papers
Deforestation as Patronage: Political Alignment and Deforestation Law Enforcement in Bolivia (Job Market Paper)
(Draft)
Insufficient enforcement of environmental regulations has been attributed to factors such as a lack of bureaucratic capacity, corruption, and flawed policy design. Forest protection policies are insufficiently enforced despite their wide adoption, resulting in continued deforestation that increases global carbon emissions, accelerates biodiversity loss, and threatens the livelihood of forest-dependent communities. In this paper, I show patronage as an additional mechanism of forest law non-enforcement: politicians strategically reduce sanctions of illegal deforestation to reward political supporters. Using a close-election discontinuity design, combined with in-depth interviews, rich enforcement data, and high-resolution satellite data, I find that Bolivian municipalities that closely elected aligned mayors received fewer sanctions for illegal deforestation. This effect is more prominent among municipalities that switched from opposition to aligned, and in years immediately after the election. Aligned municipalities have fewer authorizations for deforestation and a higher proportion of illegal deforestation, indicating that land users strategically respond to differential sanctions. This work contributes to the literature on distributive politics and the political economy of deforestation by presenting rigorous empirical evidence on how deforestation is used as a patronage tool, and how it is targeted.
Unequal Health Impact of Gold Mining in the Brazilian Amazon (with Anna Pede, Jacqueline de Aguiar Barros, and Robert Heilmayr)
Small-scale and artisanal gold mining (ASGM) can degrade the environment and lead to a variety of negative health outcomes associated with mercury use and mosquito-borne diseases. Gold mining has been accelerating in the Brazilian Amazon in the past decade, raising concerns over its impact on population health, especially health of Indigenous peoples. Yet, no study has systematically documented the health impact of gold mining across the Brazilian Amazon, and causal evidence is lacking. In this study, we use an instrumental variable design with cluster LASSO variable selection to isolate the effect of gold mining on health. We find that gold mining increases malaria, dengue, and Zika prevalence among the general population. Gold mining negatively affect Indigenous populations in several indicators of newborn health, and the magnitude of impact increases with time. Mining has mixed impact on newborn health among the general population. Our results highlight the broad, long-lasting, and unequal health effects of gold mining in the Brazilian Amazon. We provide key evidence to guide policy interventions in regulating gold mining and addressing its health impacts.
(Draft available upon request)
Playing with Fire: The Environmental Consequences of an Electorally Motivated License to Burn (With Kathryn Baragwanath, Cesar B. Martinez-Alvarez, and Fatiq Nadeem)
Why do democratic governments enact policies that actively hurt the environment, despite the growing public concern about ecological issues? Political science research has analyzed the distributive impacts of policies that promote the energy transition. We know much less about the reverse—actions that actively degrade the environment. We argue that these impose both broad negative externalities and concentrated benefits, which explains their electoral strengths. To test our argument, we study the impacts of the Supreme Decree 3973 of July 2019 in Bolivia, which incentivized the expansion of the agricultural frontier in two departments (Beni and Santa Cruz) through agricultural fires. Using a quasi-experimental, difference-in-discontinuity design, novel micro-level land tenure records, and highly granular remote sensing data, we find that this policy led a large increase in the number and intensity of wildfires, the rate of deforestation, and the concentration of atmospheric carbon monoxide (CO) in the affected regions. Our findings suggest a small increase in Morales’ popularity in affected regions during the 2019 national election, although the President’s party (Movimiento al Socialismo) was already becoming electorally successful even before the decree’s implementation.
(Draft available upon request)