Protected areas (PAs) are key for biodiversity conservation, but there are concerns that they can exacerbate poverty or unequal access to potential benefits, such as those arising from tourism. We assess how Nepalese PAs influence poverty, extreme poverty, and inequality using a multidimensional poverty index, and a quasi‐experimental design that controls for potential confounding factors in non‐random treatment allocation. We specifically investigate the role of tourism in contributing to PA impacts. Nepali PAs reduced overall poverty and extreme poverty, and crucially, did not exacerbate inequality. Benefits occurred in lowland and highland regions, and were often greater when a larger proportion of the area was protected. Spread of benefits to nearby areas outside PAs was negligible. Furthermore, older PAs performed better than more recently established ones, suggesting the existence of time lags. Although tourism was a key driver of poverty alleviation, PAs also reduced extreme poverty in areas with fewer tourists.

中文翻译：

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保护区对尼泊尔贫困，赤贫和不平等的影响

保护区是保护生物多样性的关键，但人们担心保护区会加剧贫困或无法平等获得潜在利益，例如旅游业带来的利益。我们使用多维贫困指数和控制非随机治疗分配中潜在混杂因素的准实验设计，评估尼泊尔PAs对贫困，赤贫和不平等的影响。我们专门调查了旅游业对巴勒斯坦权力机构影响的作用。尼泊尔的巴勒斯坦权力机构减少了总体贫困和赤贫，并且至关重要的是，并未加剧不平等现象。收益发生在低地和高地地区，当保护更大比例的地区时，收益通常会更大。利益向巴勒斯坦权力机构以外的附近地区的传播微不足道。此外，较早的PA的性能比最近建立的PA更好，表明存在时间滞后。尽管旅游业是扶贫的主要推动力，但保护区还减少了游客较少的地区的极端贫困。