Cash for Carbon: A Randomized Controlled Trial of Payments for Ecosystem Services to Reduce Deforestation

Seema Jayachandran, Joost de Laat, Eric F. Lambin and Charlotte Stanton ()

No 11349, CEPR Discussion Papers from Centre for Economic Policy Research

Abstract: This paper evaluates a Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES) program in western Uganda that offered forest-owning households cash payments if they conserved their forest. The program was implemented as a randomized trial in 121 villages, 60 of which received the program for two years. The PES program reduced deforestation and forest degradation: Tree cover, measured using high-resolution satellite imagery, declined by 2% to 5% in treatment villages compared to 7% to 10% in control villages during the study period. We find no evidence of shifting of tree-cutting to nearby land. We then use the estimated effect size and the social cost of carbon to value the delayed CO2 emissions, and compare this benefit to the program's cost.

Keywords: Climate change; Conditional cash transfers; Deforestation; Redd+ (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q23 Q54 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016-06
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-agr, nep-dev, nep-env and nep-exp
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (17)

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Working Paper: Cash for Carbon: A Randomized Controlled Trial of Payments for Ecosystem Services to Reduce Deforestation (2016)
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