Numerous studies have shown the merits of targeting the costs of conservation besides environmental benefits and aligning payments for ecosystem services with incurred costs. However, cost-effective and precise estimation of site specific opportunity costs is a major challenge. In this paper we...

Landholders are generally assumed to be willing to participate in payments for ecosystem service (PES) schemes if the offered payment exceeds the opportunity cost of participation. The calculation of opportunity costs is often based on historic financial data such as net returns of the formerly...

This study analyses the structure and development trends for plant extraction in Brazil. It is a sub-sector of agriculture that has received considerable international attention, due to its alleged potentials for promoting the sustainable use of tropical forests and other natural ecosystems,...

This paper examines the factors that influence rural household decisions to clear forestland. We use a large dataset comprising 7172 households from 24 developing countries. Twenty-seven percent of sampled households had converted forest to agriculture during the previous 12 months, clearing on...

This article focuses mainly on the five primary case study countries. For forest impacts, the concentration is on forest conversion to other land uses and deforestation, defined as a (temporary or permanent) removal of trees to less than 10 percent crown cover, which is similar to the Food and...

FAO along with CIFOR, IFRI (International Forestry Resources and Institutions), and the World Bank LSMS (Living Standards Measurement Study) and PROFOR programs came together with the objective of developing specialized modules on forest and wild products (herein referred to as forestry modules)...

How much do poor rural households rely on environmental extraction from natural ecosystems? And how does climate variability impact their livelihoods? This paper sheds light on these two questions with household income data from the Poverty and Environment Network pantropical data set, combined...

This report is based on seven background papers comprising household studies, national level analyses, and technical assessments. Household studies were undertaken in Mozambique and Zambia to develop a clearer picture of the role of Miombo woodlands in household consumption. These studies were...

Incentive-based conservation is a promising approach to tropical forest conservation, including within multiple-use protected areas. Here we analyze the environmental impacts of Bolsa Floresta, a longstanding forest conservation program combining conditional household payments with...