Additionality When REDD Contracts Must be Self-Enforcing

Salas, Paula Cordero; Roe, Brian E.; Sohngen, Brent

doi:10.1007/s10640-016-0072-9

Cited by 11 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 32 publications

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“…This could imply, for instance, that transfers should be conditional upon desired results, as within well-implemented payments for ecosystem services (PES) approaches [28]. Such conditions could also require environmental additionality-that is, providing more ecosystem services than they would provide in the non-existence of such payments [41,42]. In addition, REDD+ should be 'financially additional', beyond already planned funding [43].…”

Section: Aid Effectiveness and The Complex Relations Between Service mentioning

confidence: 99%

Amazon Fund 10 Years Later: Lessons from the World’s Largest REDD+ Program

Correa

Hoff

Rajão

2019

Forests

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Results-Based Funding (RBF) for Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) has become an important instrument for channeling financial resources to forest conservation activities. At the same time, much literature on conservation funding is ambiguous about the effectiveness of existing RBF schemes. Many effectiveness evaluations follow a simplified version of the principal-agent model, but in practice, the relation between aid providers and funding recipients is much more complex. As a consequence, intermediary steps of conservation funding are often not accounted for in effectiveness studies. This research paper aims to provide a nuanced understanding of conservation funding by analyzing the allocation of financial resources for one of the largest RBF schemes for REDD+ in the world: the Brazilian Amazon Fund. As part of this analysis, this study has built a dataset of information, with unprecedented detail, on Amazon Fund projects, in order to accurately reconstruct the allocation of financial resources across different stakeholders (i.e., governments, NGOs, research institutions), geographies, and activities. The results show that that the distribution of resources of the Amazon Fund lack a clear strategy that could maximize the results of the fund in terms of deforestation reduction. First, there are evidences that in some cases governmental organizations lack financial additionality for their projects, which renders the growing share of funding to this type of stakeholder particularly worrisome. Second, the Amazon Fund allocations did also not systematically have privileged the municipalities that showed the recent highest deforestation rates. rom the 10 municipalities with the higher deforestation rates in 2017, only 2 are amongst the top 100 receiving per/Ha considering the 775 municipalities from Legal Amazon. Third, the allocation of the financial resources from the Amazon Fund reflects the support of different projects that adopt significantly diverging theories of change, many of which are not primarily concerned with attaining further deforestation reductions. These results reflect the current approach adopted by the Amazon Fund, that do not actively seek areas for intervention, but instead wait for project submissions from proponents. As a consequence, project owners exert much influence on to the type of activities that they support how deforestation reduction is expected to be attained. The article concludes that the Amazon Fund as well as other RBF programs, should evolve over time in order to develop a more targeted funding strategy to maximize the long-term impact in reducing emissions from deforestation.

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Section: Aid Effectiveness and The Complex Relations Between Service mentioning

confidence: 99%

Amazon Fund 10 Years Later: Lessons from the World’s Largest REDD+ Program

Correa

Hoff

Rajão

2019

Forests

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…A possible response is to make transfers conditional upon desired results, as within well-implemented payments for ecosystem services (PES) approaches [28]. Scholars have noted that such conditions could also require environmental additionality, that is, provide more ecosystem services than without the activities [39,40]. In addition, REDD+ should be 'financially additional', beyond already planned funding [41].…”

Section: Aid Effectiveness and The Complex Relations Between Service mentioning

confidence: 99%

Results-Based Forest Conservation Funding: Amazon Fund 10 Years Later, Lessons from the World's Largest REDD+ Program

Correa¹,

R²,

Rajão³

2019

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Results-Based Funding (RBF) for Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) has become an important instrument for channeling financial resources to forest conservation activities. At the same time, much literature on conservation funding is ambiguous about the effectiveness of existing RBF schemes. Many effectiveness evaluations follow a simplified version of the principal-agent model, although in practice the relation between aid providers and funding recipients is much more complex. As a consequence, intermediary steps of conservation funding are often not accounted for effectiveness studies. This research paper aims to provide a nuanced understanding of conservation funding by analyzing the allocation of financial resources for one of the largest RBF schemes for REDD+ in the world: the Brazilian Amazon Fund. As part of this analysis, this study has built a dataset of information on Amazon Fund projects at unprecedented detail in order to accurately reconstruct the allocation of financial resources across different stakeholders (i.e. governments, NGOs, research institutions), geographies and activities. The results show that stakeholders seem to hold preferences with respect to the type of activities that they support, thereby suggesting that project owners exert much influence on how deforestation reduction is to be attained. There are evidences that governmental organizations lack financial additionality of their projects, which renders the growing share of funding to this type of stakeholder particularly worrisome. By contrast, the geographical distribution of financial resources seemed to follow a more focused rationale as financial support tends to concentrate in areas where deforestation threats are highest. Overall, the allocation of the financial resources from the Amazon Fund reflects an arbitrary support of different projects that adopt very diverging theories of change that are not primarily concerned with attaining further deforestation reductions. As projects owners exert influence on funding effectiveness to some extent, the Amazon Fund may either seek to regulate the allocation of financial resources more actively or adopt funding effectiveness evaluations that account for this influence more comprehensively.

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“…For instance, donations of financial resources to the Brazilian Amazon Fund are in principle based on demonstrated deforestation reduction, while this compensation is conditional on reinvestment in policies and practices to further reduce deforestation [16]. Scholars have noted that such conditions could also require environmental additionality, that is, provide more ecosystem services than without the activities [36,37]. This may lead to the response that REDD+ funds should be 'financially additional', beyond already planned funding [38].…”

Section: Aid Effectiveness and The Complex Relations Between Service mentioning

confidence: 99%

Results-Based Conservation Aid: Amazon Fund 10 Years Later, Lessons from the World's Largest REDD+ Program

Correa¹,

van²,

Rajão³

2018

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Results-Based Aid (RBA) for Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) has become an important instrument for channeling financial resources to forest conservation activities. At the same time, much literature on conservation aid is ambiguous about the effectiveness of existing RBA schemes. Many effectiveness evaluations follow a principal-agent model, although in practice the relation between aid providers and aid recipients is much more complex. As a consequence, intermediary steps of conservation aid are often not accounted for in aid effectiveness studies. This research paper aims to provide a nuanced understanding of conservation aid by analyzing the allocation of financial resources for one of the largest RBA schemes for REDD+ in the world: the Brazilian Amazon Fund. As part of this analysis, this study has built a dataset of information on Amazon Fund projects at unprecedented detail in order to accurately reconstruct the allocation of financial resources across different stakeholders, geographies and activities. The results show that stakeholders seem to hold preferences with respect to the type of activities that they support, thereby suggesting that project owners exert much influence on how deforestation reduction is to be attained. There are evidences that governmental organizations lack financial additionality of their projects, which renders stakeholder influence on conservation aid effectiveness particularly worrisome. By contrast, the geographical distribution of financial resources seemed to follow a more focused rationale as financial support tends to concentrate in areas where deforestation threats are highest. Overall, the allocation of the financial resources from the Amazon Fund reflects an arbitrary support of different projects that adopt very diverging theories of change that are not primarily concerned with attaining further deforestation reductions. As projects owners exert influence on aid effectiveness to some extent, the Amazon Fund may either seek to regulate the allocation of financial resources more actively or adopt aid effectiveness evaluations that account for this influence more comprehensively.

show abstract

Additionality When REDD Contracts Must be Self-Enforcing

Cited by 11 publications

References 32 publications

Amazon Fund 10 Years Later: Lessons from the World’s Largest REDD+ Program

Amazon Fund 10 Years Later: Lessons from the World’s Largest REDD+ Program

Results-Based Forest Conservation Funding: Amazon Fund 10 Years Later, Lessons from the World's Largest REDD+ Program

Results-Based Conservation Aid: Amazon Fund 10 Years Later, Lessons from the World's Largest REDD+ Program

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