Sacred Ecology: The Environmental Impact of African Traditional Religions
Abstract
Do religions codify ecological principles? This paper explores theoretically and empirically the role religious beliefs play in shaping environmental interactions. We study African Traditional Religions (ATR) which place forests within a sacred sphere. We build a model of non-market interactions of the mean-field type where the actions of agents with heterogeneous religious beliefs continuously affect the spatial density of forest cover. The equilibrium extraction policy shows how individual beliefs and their distribution among the population can be a key driver of forest conservation. The model also characterizes the role of resource scarcity in both individual and population extraction decisions. We test the model predictions empirically relying on the unique case of Benin, where ATR adherence is freely reported. Using an instrumental variable strategy that exploits the geographic and linguistic distance from the diffusion of Pentecostalism, we find that a 1 standard deviation increase in ATR adherence has a 0.4 standard deviation positive impact on forest cover change. Lastly, we estimate the model parameters and compare observed forest cover to counterfactual outcomes by simulating the absence of ATR beliefs across the population.
Daniele Rinaldo
Economist, Pianist
My research interests are development and environmental economics, currently focusing on the economic impact of endemic diseases in sub-Saharan Africa and natural resource management under regime shifts. Additionally, I work on stochastic processes and probability theory. Also a pianist.