A newly published paper in Ecological Economics titled "Participation, anticipation effects and impact perceptions of two collective incentive-based conservation interventions in Ucayali, Peru" looked at household-level outcomes of two different incentive-based conservation initiatives in Ucayali, Peru.
The first two authors are closely associated with the Tropical Forest Arena: Julia Naime (previously at NMBU, now at Rainforest Foundation Norway) and Arild Angelsen (NMBU).
The study contributes to the relatively scarce literature evaluating household-level outcomes of collective agreements. The authors examined participation in and anticipation effects of two collective, incentive-based initiatives in Ucayali, Peru: a local REDD+ project and Peru's National Forest Conservation Program (NFCP).
Naime et al. examined the determinants of participation in the initiatives and found that household participation was negatively associated with agricultural income and positively associated with market access and previous experiences with external initiatives.
Next, they used quasi-experimental methods and self-reflexive evaluations to examine impacts on land use and livelihoods. The results showed no evidence of anticipation effects on income or land use. Self-reflexive evaluations indicated, however, that a total of 82% of the NFCP participating households perceived a positive effect on wellbeing, while only 39% of participants in REDD+ perceived a positive effect. The differences in perceptions of the two initiatives were attributed to design and implementation factors, including delayed payments, lack of transparency, and limited local input. The study demonstrated the value of self-reflexive evaluations for identifying intangible effects on wellbeing of conservation initiatives.
Naime, J., Angelsen, A., Rodriguez-Ward, D. & Sills, E. O. (2024) Participation, anticipation effects and impact perceptions of two collective incentive-based conservation interventions in Ucayali, Peru. Ecological Economics, 217, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2023.108052