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