Jeanne de Montalembert

The Health Cost of Conservation: Impact of Protected Areas on Child Health

Are conservation policies detrimental to child health? Using rich household surveys from 2008 to 2021 and a unique database on Protected Areas (PAs) in Madagascar, this study examines the impact of PAs on childhood anemia through a difference-in-differences estimation strategy. Results show that PAs reduce hemoglobin levels by 1.8 g/L—a 2% decrease relative to pre-PA averages. Although this reduction appears modest, it leads to a 6 pp increase in the occurrence of infant anemia. This negative health impact is driven by a rise in diarrhea and malaria, and partly by a reduction in the intake of iron-rich foods such as animal protein, despite improvements in access to drinking water and poverty reduction—but these benefits are limited to multi-use PAs. These findings underscore the complex relationship between conservation policies and public health, highlighting the unintended trade-offs that can emerge.

Presented at: FAERE PhD Workshop (2024); Environmental Economics : A Focus On Natural Resources (2024); AFEPOP (2024); Canadian Economic Conference, online (2024); Novafrica PhD Workshop (2024); International Conference of Development Economics (2024); International Conference of Agricultural Economics (2024); French Association of Environmental and Resources Economists (2024); North East Universities Development Consortium (2024); DIAL seminar (2024); ADRES Job Market Conference (2025); CEE-M seminar (2025); DeFIP Workshop (2025).

Received the Nils Westermarck Prize for Best Poster at ICAE (2024)