https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1SQoG2OgVNXkplRqVsbgkQ8sKwtlbmuFCqNwWeeVj2GE/edit?usp=sharing

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 forestland. The program was implemented as a randomized controlled trial in 121 villages, 60 of which received the program for two years.  Forest 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. Self-reports corroborate that the PES program reduced tree-clearing. The estimated effect size and $28 per hectare per year payment level (in 2012 USD) imply that $0.38 was paid per ton of averted CO2 emissions. Total program costs (about $0.87 per ton of averted CO2) were less than the social benefit of delaying a ton of CO2 emissions by one to two years, which is $0.93 to $1.84, using the US EPA's $39 social cost of carbon. The program also had other benefits (e.g., income redistribution, biodiversity, possible persistence of the increased forest cover) and costs (e.g., reduced forest access for non-forest-owners).