Seminar
Joost de Laat (U Utrecht): Cash for carbon
A cluster randomized controlled trial evaluating a Payments for Environmental Services (PES) conservation program in Uganda that ran from 2011 to 2013 found that the program reduced deforestation from 9.1 percent tree loss in the control villages to 4.2 percent tree loss in the treatment villages.
The permanence of forest conservation following the end of payments for environmental services in Uganda
This study looks at the longer term impacts using satellite images collected nearly four years later. It finds that deforestation resumed among former PES recipients once payments ended. The rate of deforestation among former PES recipients was slightly lower than among control group member, so that the gap in forest cover (and, hence, in carbon emissions) between former PES recipients and control group members persisted.