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Testing the Effectiveness of Payments for Ecosystem Services to Reduce Deforestation in Uganda

Last registered on September 18, 2013
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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Testing the Effectiveness of Payments for Ecosystem Services to Reduce Deforestation in Uganda
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0000047
First published
August 30, 2013, 12:55 AM EDT

First published corresponds to when the trial was first made public on the Registry after being reviewed.

Last updated
September 18, 2013, 3:13 PM EDT

Last updated is the most recent time when changes to the trial's registration were published.

Locations

Country
Uganda
Region
Africa

Primary Investigator

Name
Seema Jayachandran
Affiliation
Northwestern University
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Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name
Eric Lambin
PI Affiliation
Stanford University
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PI Name
Charlotte Stanton
PI Affiliation
Stanford University
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PI Name
Joost Laat
PI Affiliation
World Bank
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Additional Trial Information

Status
On going
Start date
2011-03-01
End date
2014-08-31
Keywords
Environment & Energy
Additional Keywords
conservation, deforestation, conditional cash transfer
JEL code(s)
Secondary IDs
Abstract
One popular policy approach to curbing deforestation is payments for ecosystem services (PES), where participants receive payments if they comply with a set of conditions that are protective of the environment, such as refraining from cutting down trees on their land. It is important to evaluate this and other types of emissions reduction interventions in order to determine the most cost-effective way of reducing carbon emissions. This project is based in the districts of Hoima and Kibaale, which are in the equatorial zone of western Uganda and have some of the highest deforestation rates in the country. The goal of this study is to estimate the effect of payments to landowners for forest conservation on landowners’ social and economic welfare and the ecological integrity of the forest by randomly assigning 136 villages to either receive the PES program or act as the comparison group.
External Link(s)
J-PAL Policy Brief

Registration Citation

Citation
Jayachandran, Seema et al. 2013. "Testing the Effectiveness of Payments for Ecosystem Services to Reduce Deforestation in Uganda." AEA RCT Registry. September 18. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.47-3.0
Former Citation
Jayachandran, Seema et al. 2013. "Testing the Effectiveness of Payments for Ecosystem Services to Reduce Deforestation in Uganda." AEA RCT Registry. September 18. https://www.socialscienceregistry.org/trials/47/history/392
Sponsors & Partners

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Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
In the treatment villages, Chimpanzee Sanctuary and Wildlife Conservation Trust (CSWCT) staff members offered an incentive contract to each household that owned forest land, under which they will receive annual payments if they meet certain terms. Landowners are required to refrain from cutting trees on their land (with some exceptions built into the contract) and also to re-forest a portion of their land. CSWCT employees monitor compliance with the contract by conducting random spot checks in the forest to look for newly cleared patches of forest or fresh tree stumps and to assess if new trees have been planted.
Intervention Start Date
2011-06-01
Intervention End Date
2014-01-31

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
amount of intact forest, forest density, tree-cutting and tree-planting behavior, economic and social well-being
Primary Outcomes (explanation)
Forest density and the area of intact forest will be constructed from satellite images. Other outcomes will be collected via household surveys.

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
One hundred and thirty-six villages in the Hoima and Kibaale districts of Uganda were randomly assigned to either the treatment or the comparison group. Households in both treatment and control groups received a baseline questionnaire prior to the PES program being implemented. Additionally, pre-intervention high-resolution QuickBird satellite images were taken of the study area. Boundaries of land parcels were demarcated with handheld GPS units and netbook computers and linked to the remote-sensing images to create images of and measures of the forest cover on each household’s land. Endline data collection, including both a household survey and Quickbird satellite images, will be conducted after the intervention has been implemented for two years.
Experimental Design Details
Randomization Method
In each subcounty, public lotteries were conducted to select which of two stratified groups of villages received the PES program.
Randomization Unit
village
Was the treatment clustered?
Yes

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
136 villages
Sample size: planned number of observations
1,333 landowners
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
65 treatment and 71 control
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
Supporting Documents and Materials
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
Northwestern University Institutional Review Board
IRB Approval Date
2011-12-16
IRB Approval Number
STU00055401
IRB Name
Stanford University Research Compliance Office
IRB Approval Date
2010-07-23
IRB Approval Number
19468
Analysis Plan

Post-Trial

Post Trial Information

Study Withdrawal

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Intervention

Is the intervention completed?
No
Data Collection Complete
Data Publication

Data Publication

Is public data available?
No

Program Files

Program Files
Reports, Papers & Other Materials

Relevant Paper(s)

Reports & Other Materials