Over the past century, several protection schemes have been introduced in Finland, among which more recently the Natura 2000 programme. As of date, no large scale analysis of the economic effects of protection programmes exist in Finland, even though protection schemes can have large distorting effects. This thesis utilised over 1 million property transactions in Finland from the period 1990-2020 in a hedonic pricing model to analyse the net economic effects of environmental protection. Difference-in-Differences analyses were applied to assess the effects on productive and environmental value of property transactions. This thesis has provided quantified estimates of the economic effects on different stakeholder groups. Average productive value was found to decrease by 15.46% inside protected areas, whereas environmental value increased by 6.76% inside and bordering a protected area. Forest land and land acquired for protection were most reduced in value, whereas residential houses and cottages were found to profit from protection. A net realised welfare gain of €1,127,000,000 was estimated over the period 1990-2020 for the Natura 2000 programme. Besides the net societal welfare gain, distributional disparities were found across stakeholder groups and spatial locations. This research calls for the accurate inclusion of all interests to guarantee net gains for all stakeholders in future protection programmes.
