Replication Data for: “Leave It As It Is”: International Network Effects on Protected Lands

The protection of a portion of a country’s land is vital for sustainable economic growth and biodiversity, though land protection also imposes important costs. States have set aside a growing proportion of their land for protection over time, with wide variation among states. What explains this variation? Theoretically, we argue that states exist internationally in dependence networks with each other and that those networks provide pathways for influence on a state’s environmental choices. A state’s dependence network is the other states with which it regularly exchanges valued goods. We find strong evidence that increases in protected lands among trade partners and international organization partners (both weighted by importance) increase a given state’s protected lands, with substantive effects larger than domesticlevel variables like democracy. This paper expands our understandings of the ways that states may influence each other on environmental policy.