The effectiveness of marked-based instruments to foster the conservation of extensive land use: The case of Geographical Indications in the French Alps

tConsumers express a growing interest for local and quality foods certified by their origin and theirenvironmental production standards. This has led to the emergence of certified products meeting sus-tainability criteria. Because consumers are willing to pay a price premium for sustainably producedcommodities, these certifications act as market-based instruments to promote sustainable land use.Among Geographical Indications (GIs) labels, the two European Union GIs – called Protection of Designa-tion of Origin (PDO) and Protection of Geographical Indication (PGI) – can be considered as agriculturalproduct certification. These GIs identify a good as originating from a region where a given quality, repu-tation or other characteristic of the good is attributable to its geographical origin. Land use is potentiallyaffected by GIs because product characteristics are associated with the biophysical attributes of the terroirand some product specifications relate to land management practices. Little empirical evidence substan-tiates the claim that GIs have an impact on land use. The objective of this study was to understand whetherGeographical Indications are an effective market-based instrument to promote conservation of extensiveland use practices in marginal mountain areas. We conducted farm surveys along a gradient of GI require-ments for the following similar cheese products: Tomme de Savoie PGI, Tomme de Savoie EQC, and Tomedes Bauges PDO. We tested the hypothesis that the more stringent PDO requirements were associatedwith more extensive agricultural practices and provided more benefits to farmers. Results showed thatthe strict standards of PGI and PDO are associated with greater benefits for farmers and more extensiveagricultural practices. In comparison to PGI farmers, PDO farmers obtain higher price premiums and gainmore knowledge. More extensive practices are observed on PDO farms but the differences between labelsare minor. Our results also reveal a great variability in agricultural practices among farms of a same label.Farmers have various motivations for labelling their product