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 22378, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

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 carbon dioxide emissions, and compare this benefit to the program's cost.

JEL-codes: O10 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, nep-exp and nep-ger
Note: DEV EEE
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (64)

Published as Seema Jayachandran & Joost de Laat & Eric F. Lambin & Charlotte Y. Stanton & Robin Audy & Nancy E. Thomas, 2017. "Cash for carbon: A randomized trial of payments for ecosystem services to reduce deforestation," Science, vol 357(6348), pages 267-273.

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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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