Module 5: Regional economics and policy analysis

This chapter describes the module Regional Economics and Policy Analysis of the FRAP framework.This analysis aims to derive an understanding of the regional socio-economic context underlying a particular conflict between biodiversity conservation and economic activities and to study the role of policy instruments, which are in place (or were used before) to deal with the conflict.This information is critical to understand the conflict in the study area, as well as the reasons for the success or failure of the adopted policies.Lessons derived at this stage are fundamental for the development of new policy instruments, or for the improvement of existing instruments.The chapter identifies the main issues that should be addressed in the regional economics and policy analysis, presenting guidelines and methods that may be used for the different tasks.The approaches to be used at three different levels of analysis—minimum, standard and advance—are summarized in the end of the chapter.