Market and non-market costs of REDD+ perceived by local communities

Forest dependent communities’ perceptions of non-market costs should be included when assessing the costs associated with REDD+, as they are the actors who will largely bear these costs. This case study uses opportunity cost analysis to measure the market costs of avoiding deforestation as well as contingent valuation to estimate the non-market costs of REDD+ through direct interviews with forest dependent communities.

• Opportunity  cost  analysis  is  a  useful  tool for  measuring  the  market  costs  of  avoiding deforestation.  However,  it  does  not  capture  all the locally relevant costs of REDD+ since it fails to  quantify  non-market  costs.  In  order  to  fill this gap the study uses a Contingent Valuation (CV)  technique  by  directly  interviewing  forest dependent communities.
• This study finds that in the Mondulkiri province,  Cambodia, 17% of the overall costs perceived by local communities of a proposed REDD+ project relate to non-market costs. These are additional to  the  costs  found  by  applying  an  opportunity costs analysis (market costs).
• This  paper  suggests  that  these  non-market costs could be offset by different types of in-kind compensation such as: clarifying land tenure for local communities; expanding local opportunities in the resin market and enhancing the provision of education in the area.

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