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Unconditional Transfers and Tropical Forest Conservation: Evidence from a Randomized Control Trial in Sierra Leone

Author

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  • Beccy Wilebore
  • Maarten Voors
  • Erwin H Bulte
  • David Coomes
  • Andreas Kontoleon

Abstract

Unconditional conservation payments are increasingly used by non-governmental conservation organizations to further their environmental objectives. One key objective in many conservation projects that use such unconditional payments schemes is the protection of tropical forest ecosystems in buffer zone areas around protected parks where the scope of instating mandatory restrictions is more limited. We use a randomized controlled trial to evaluate the impact of unconditional livelihood payments to local communities on land use outside a protected area—the Gola Rainforest National Park—which is a biodiversity hotspot on the border of Sierra Leone and Liberia. High resolution RapidEye satellite imagery from before and after the intervention was used to determine land use changes in treated and control villages. We find support for the hypothesis that unconditional payments, in this setting, increase land clearance in the short run. The study constitutes one of the first attempts to use evidence from a randomized control trial to evaluate the efficacy of conservation payments and provides insights for further research.

Suggested Citation

  • Beccy Wilebore & Maarten Voors & Erwin H Bulte & David Coomes & Andreas Kontoleon, 2019. "Unconditional Transfers and Tropical Forest Conservation: Evidence from a Randomized Control Trial in Sierra Leone," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 101(3), pages 894-918.
    • Handle: RePEc:oup:ajagec:v:101:y:2019:i:3:p:894-918.
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    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/ajae/aay105
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Mandy Malan & Rachel Carmenta & Elisabeth Gsottbauer & Paul Hofman & Andreas Kontoleon & Tom Swinfield & Maarten Voors, 2024. "Evaluating the impacts of a large-scale voluntary REDD+ project in Sierra Leone," Nature Sustainability, Nature, vol. 7(2), pages 120-129, February.
    2. Teevrat Garg & Ajay Shenoy, 2021. "The Ecological Impact of Place‐Based Economic Policies," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 103(4), pages 1239-1250, August.
    3. Heß, Simon & Jaimovich, Dany & Schündeln, Matthias, 2021. "Environmental effects of development programs: Experimental evidence from West African dryland forests," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 153(C).
    4. Izquierdo-Tort, Santiago & Jayachandran, Seema & Saavedra, Santiago, 2024. "Redesigning payments for ecosystem services to increase cost-effectiveness," Documentos de Trabajo 21022, Universidad del Rosario.
    5. Alpízar, Francisco & Ferraro, Paul J., 2020. "The environmental effects of poverty programs and the poverty effects of environmental programs: The missing RCTs," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 127(C).
    6. Yehouenou, Lauriane & Morgan, Stephen N. & Grogan, Kelly A., 2020. "Management of timber and non-timber forest products: Evidence from a framed field experiment in Benin, West Africa," 2020 Annual Meeting, July 26-28, Kansas City, Missouri 304627, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    7. Chambers, Josephine M. & Massarella, Kate & Fletcher, Robert, 2022. "The right to fail? Problematizing failure discourse in international conservation," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 150(C).
    8. van Soest,Daan & Adjognon,Guigonan Serge & van der Heijden,Eline, 2021. "Incentivizing Conservation of de facto Community-Owned Forests," Policy Research Working Paper Series 9693, The World Bank.
    9. Mumbunan, Sonny & Maitri, Ni Made Rahayu, 2022. "A Review of Basic Income for Nature and Climate," OSF Preprints bre43, Center for Open Science.
    10. Kahsay, Goytom Abraha & Bulte, Erwin, 2021. "Internal versus top-down monitoring in community resource management: Experimental evidence from Ethiopia," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 189(C), pages 111-131.
    11. Emiel Lange & Jocelyne S. Sze & James Allan & Scott Atkinson & Hollie Booth & Robert Fletcher & Munib Khanyari & Omar Saif, 2023. "A global conservation basic income to safeguard biodiversity," Nature Sustainability, Nature, vol. 6(8), pages 1016-1023, August.
    12. Shang Xu & H. Allen Klaiber & Daniela A. Miteva, 2023. "Impacts of forest conservation on local agricultural labor supply: Evidence from the Indonesian forest moratorium," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 105(3), pages 940-965, May.
    13. Asquith, Nigel, 2020. "Large-scale randomized control trials of incentive-based conservation: What have we learned?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 127(C).

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