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• We analyse peer punishment patterns in a cross-country framed field experiment. • First-order cooperation is associated to prosocial punishment. • Excessive forest use (free riding) is associated to antisocial punishment. • Prosocial punishment reduces free riding; antisocial punishment increases it. • Indonesian participants punish twice as often as those from Brazil and Peru. The conservation of common-pool resources (CPRs), such as tropical forests, is a key challenge of development and environmental policies. Peer sanctioning of excessive resource use increases the cost of free riding and may be an effective way to ensure sustainable management of CPRs, but it entails individual costs to punishers. This paper examines peer punishment patterns and impacts in a cross-country framed field experiment (FFE) with homogeneous and heterogenous agents. The FFE is conducted with 720 forest users in Brazil, Indonesia, and Peru. We first examine the relationship between the appropriation of the common-pool resource (first order cooperation) and peer punishment choices (second order cooperation), distinguishing between prosocial and antisocial punishment. A small share (18.2%) of the participants behaves as self-interested payoff maximisers (homo economicus) , while the largest group (26.1%) cooperates in both the appropriation and punishment decisions (homo reciprocans). Across countries, receiving prosocial punishment, defined as punishment of free riders, increases cooperation, while receiving antisocial punishment reduces cooperation. There are, however, important inter-country variations. In Indonesia, the marginal costs of non-cooperation are higher than in the Brazilian and Peruvian sites, and agent heterogeneity significantly increases peer punishment frequency. We conjecture that the higher punishment frequency in Indonesia is linked to stronger equality norms and a willingness to enforce them. Although peer punishment boosts cooperation across all our study sites, the research highlights how peer punishment patterns and impacts are linked to the institutional and cultural contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Environmental degradation and economic development are two of the most pressing issues facing the world today, and public policy that aims to address one of these may unintentionally affect the other. I study the effect of an increase in environmental law enforcement on local economic conditions in rural Brazil. In the first part of this paper, I use data on more targeted anti-deforestation law enforcement activities, guided by satellite alerts, and link that to local forest conversion. I then exploit the staggered introduction of a policy that increases monitoring and enforcement in municipalities with a history of high deforestation, and link this to a range of economic development outcomes. I find that more targeted law enforcement reduces conversion rates of forest to farm land. Furthermore, economic conditions in municipalities with stricter monitoring improve, indicating that environmental enforcement and economic development need not be at odds. • Targeted law enforcement in Amazon Biome of Brazil reduces deforestation. • Economic conditions in municipalities with stricter deforestation-monitoring improve. • GDP per capita is higher, and number of recipients of income support lower in targeted municipalities. • Environmental enforcement and economic development need not be at odds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Access to affordable mobile phones continues to be a policy focus, yet understanding of its impacts on the environment is limited. • We focus on rural households in Uganda (2009–2013) and find that mobile phone ownership is linked to increased deforestation. • A 1% increase in the share of households owning a mobile phone was associated with a 1.2% increase in deforestation within a 5-kilometer radius. • Households whose main source of income is not agricultural production may be driving the increased deforestation with more crop cultivation area (45%). • Our deforestation results are equivalent to 16,000 tons of lost carbon storage over two years, valued between $3 and $11 million. Increased access to information technology changes economic opportunities and may indirectly lead to changes in rural households' land use and the local natural environment. With the expansion of service coverage and decreasing cost of mobile phone service plans, particularly in Africa, it is critical to understand the implications of the rapid uptake of mobile phones on the environment. In this paper, we estimate the relationship between mobile phone adoption and deforestation in rural areas of Uganda over the 2009 to 2013 period. We exploit heterogeneity in household adoption of mobile phones using four rounds of the Uganda National Panel Survey (2009, 2010, 2011, and 2013). We find that a 1% increase in the share of households owning a mobile phone is associated with a 1.2% increase in deforestation within a 5-kilometer radius of these households. At the household level, those acquiring a mobile phone see an average of 8% increase in crop cultivation area, driven by households whose main source of income is not agricultural production. These results suggest that mobile phone adoption may lead to sizeable adverse impacts on the environment via an expansion of crop cultivation areas. The estimated increase in deforestation translates to approximately 16,000 tons of lost carbon storage over two years, valued between $3 and $11 million. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• This paper performs the first meta -regression analysis of Chinese aid effectiveness using 1,149 estimates from 29 studies. • Chinese aid is positively associated with economic outcomes in recipient countries. • Chinese aid correlates with deforestation and negative perceptions of China among citizens, albeit negligible in size. • Sub-sample MRAs detect publication selection bias in the Chinese aid effectiveness literature. • Heterogeneity is driven by differences in the choice of data, estimation method, and authors' institutional affiliation. This paper employs a meta -regression analysis of 1,149 estimates from 29 studies to take stock of the empirical literature on Chinese aid effectiveness. After accommodating publication selection bias, we find that, on average, Beijing's foreign assistance is positively associated with economic outcomes in recipient countries, but correlates with deforestation and negative perceptions of China among citizens, albeit negligible in size. We also show that studies that fail to uncover empirical effects that conform to researchers' expectations are less likely to be submitted or accepted for publication. Differences in the choice of data, estimation method, and authors' institutional affiliation explain the heterogeneity among Chinese aid effectiveness estimates reported in the literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Results using entropy balancing show that EITI implementation reduces deforestation. • The treatment effect is more significant according to the stage of EITI adoption. • The treatment effect is more significant if we include governance indicators. • The role of EITI in financing sustainable development and combating deforestation. • Further studies could focus on property rights, forest communities and green spending. The exploitation of extractive industries poses a serious threat to the environment. However, the exploitation of extractive industries through an equitable and transparent resource tax regime can also finance alternative livelihoods that can prevent forest loss in the short, medium, or long term. Through two main channels, this paper assesses the "treatment effect" of implementing the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) standard on deforestation in resource-rich developing countries. The first concerns a fair and transparent resource tax regime and environmental payments that can prevent forest loss. The second consists of improving citizens' institutions and living standards through increased government revenue. This study is the first to provide an empirical impact assessment of EITI standards on deforestation. Using a sample of 83 resource-rich developing countries from 2001 to 2017, we use entropy balancing methods to address the self-selection bias associated with EITI membership. Compared with the non-EITI country, the results show that implementing the EITI standard significantly reduces the loss of forest cover by approximately 300–760 ha. Additionally, the magnitudes of the effects are larger and more significant if we include institutional indicators that are more important for EITI-compliant countries. This result supports the conclusion that EITI, but not a panacea, is an effective policy program for limiting the negative impacts on forests partly caused by extractive industries. This study provides clear guidance to both the EITI Board and the EITI National Committees, and more generally, to the governments of extractive resource-rich developing countries on the vital role of the EITI in combating forest cover loss and sustainable development finance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• We employ nearest neighbor matching to obtain a balanced sample of pixels from certified and non-certified forests. • We estimate Generalized Linear Mixed Models (GLMM) and Two-Way Fixed Effect Models (TWFE) with the matched pixel-level data. • Inviting oversight by FSC reduces the probability of deforestation in private properties designated for sustainable forest management. • The greatest potential of forest certification lies in regions with low governance capacity and high deforestation pressure. • Scaling up of certification in new areas can make real contributions to protecting forests and mitigating and adapting to climate change. In the American tropics, logging is almost always highly selective, leaving most of the forest standing and available for future harvest under sustainable forest management. However, forest that has been logged is often more accessible to deforestation agents such as farmers. Thus, areas legally designated for sustainable forest management in reality may be more susceptible to illegal deforestation. Third-party certification of sustainable forest management is one strategy for protecting such forest. In this paper, we estimate the effect of certification by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) on deforestation, drawing on data from the years 2001 to 2019. We observe strong selection effects resulting in systematic differences between certified forest areas and other forest areas designated for sustainable forest management, and we find that after controlling for those selection effects, inviting oversight by FSC reduces the probability of deforestation. Our study design compares forests "treated" with FSC certification to "control" forests designated for sustainable forest management but not (yet) certified in the two Brazilian states of Pará and Rondônia. Adopting pixel-based analyses, we first create a matched sample of treated and control pixels and then estimate GLMM models, with two-way fixed effects (TWFE) models as a robustness check. We find that where forest managers have obtained certification and thus invited oversight by FSC auditors, rates of forest loss are lower (although the results are not fully robust across regions). The estimated effects vary across regions, likely due to varying socioeconomic and policy contexts and competing land uses. We conclude that especially in settings of low governance capacity and high deforestation pressure, certification can contribute to long-term forest conservation by reducing deforestation rates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• We use difference-in-differences estimators suitable for heterogeneous effects. • The study finds no evidence that DRC's logging concessions increase or decrease deforestation and forest degradation. • The study finds no evidence that logging concessions reduce deforestation in high deforestation pressure areas. The Congo Basin is home to the second largest tropical humid forest in the world and an important participant in climate change mitigation. While the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) boasts the largest proportion of Congo basin forests, it is also the main contributor to forest loss. Industrial logging concession is a forest management model that is likely to expand in the DRC in the coming years as the Government recently announced the probable end of the 2002 moratorium on logging concessions. It is thus crucial to understand whether this model can further the DRC's deforestation reduction efforts. The literature suggests that the effect of titling forestland on avoided deforestation and forest degradation is generally limited, unless environmental restrictions are enforced. The DRC's 2002 forest code introduced a new logging concession model that includes requirements to submit and implement Forest Management Plans (FMP) and increase benefit-sharing with communities. Our paper evaluates the impact of this new model of concession contracts signed in 2011 and 2014 on deforestation and forest degradation. We use remotely sensed data series to estimate difference-in-difference models. We ensured baseline parallel trends in deforestation and similarity in baseline characteristics between control and treated units. We find no evidence that deforestation and forest degradation is significantly different between logging concessions and control areas, even for concessions that had their FMP accepted. Our study highlights the need for evaluating the impact of FMPs once they are fully implemented, the importance to improve degradation outcome variables and to conduct complementary studies analyzing impact pathways. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• We develop a deforestation theoretical framework, with socio-economic determinants and politically motivated armed actors • The case study, Colombia, is a global biodiversity hotspot, currently threatened by its long-term internal armed conflict • The theoretical structure is tested using a wide set of spatiotemporal panel regression specifications • In Colombia, different armed actors have had different and contrasting spatiotemporal effects on deforestation This paper assesses the impact of the Colombian internal armed conflict on local development processes and deforestation during 2000–2018. The paper develops a theoretical framework of the deforestation process, as determined by the spatiotemporal patterns of socio-economic and conflict related variables. These determinants are examined using a system of spatial dynamic panels by land-use activity, and emphasizing interactions and spatiotemporal lags. The theoretical approach is innovative and applicable to other cases where political, economic and ideological interests interact in deforestation processes. In addition, the methodological structure of our spatial panels allows us to determine the effect of armed conflict agents' and socio-economic structures, combined and in isolation. Our results formally verify that different armed actors' strategies and ideologies, determine different and contrasting spatiotemporal patterns of deforestation/conservation, in the context of structural socio-economic determinants in Colombia. We argue about the need of context-specific modelling in any microeconomic or agent-based analysis of deforestation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• We provide new evidence on the effectiveness of PAs and the role of institutions. • We use high-resolution satellite imagery and regression discontinuity methods. • PAs significantly reduce deforestation in both national PAs and collective lands. • National PAs are only effective near human settlements, in more developed regions. • In contrast, Collective lands avoid deforestation in remote, less developed regions. Protected areas (PAs) are a cornerstone of conservation policy. While evidence shows that, overall, PAs have contributed to preserving forests, their impact varies greatly depending on the institutional context. This paper provides new evidence on the mechanisms through which local institutions shape the effectiveness of PAs. We use high-resolution satellite imagery of deforestation and illicit activities in Colombia and spatial regression discontinuity methods to estimate the causal effect of PAs in different institutional contexts. Our main results indicate that PAs significantly reduce deforestation, with larger effects for collective lands than national (strict-use) PAs, and no impact for regional (multiple-use) PAs. However, national PAs are only effective near human settlements, in municipalities that provide more public goods and are less violent. In remote areas, national PAs are particularly vulnerable to the expansion of coca crops and gold mining. In contrast, collective lands reduce coca crops and avoid deforestation in remote, less developed regions. These results highlight the extent to which natural PAs rely on the institutional capacity of the national and local governments, while collective lands protect forests even when state presence is weak. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Community managed forest concessions combined with certification performed as well as, and in some cases better than private industrial concessions in reducing forest loss in the Maya Biosphere Reserve. • Community forest management combined with forest certification can be an effective policy tool for reducing deforestation. • The extent to which deforestation is reduced varies based on group characteristics. This paper examines the role of community forest management coupled with mandatory forest certification in Guatemala's Maya Biosphere Reserve (MBR). Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification aims to promote sustainable forest practices and increase economic returns for harvesting certified timber through price premiums gained through eco-labeling and specialized access to international markets. Guatemala established community and industrial forest concessions in the reserve as a way to stem rampant deforestation in the region in the 1990s. Concessions are required to obtain FSC certification to maintain their harvesting rights to the forest. The communities that manage the concessions vary across a number of cultural and socio-demographic characteristics, such as income, educational attainment, and previous forest experience. Some community concession members have lived in the region for multiple generations and have historically depended on the forest for their livelihoods, while other groups are comprised of more recent migrants that come primarily from agricultural backgrounds. The differences among the community forest groups, along with the private industrial concessions, allow for a robust examination of the impact of forest certification across different institutional approaches to forest management. Using Hansen's forest loss data from 2000 to 2017 for Guatemala, we employ a random effects model to compare the effectiveness of the community and industrial concessions in reducing deforestation compared to a matched control group. Additionally, we test whether the benefit of increased market access that comes with FSC certification further decreases deforestation. Our findings suggest that sustainable forest management practices have continued to reduce forest loss in the MBR, just as well, if not more so than the industrial concessions, but the impact varies based on community characteristics. The market access component of FSC certification also impacts deforestation, although the effect is small. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: This essay introduces five papers investigating land tenure issues related to conserving tropical forests via incentive-based strategies (e.g., PES, REDD+). After briefly reviewing key terms and concepts, we point to important contributions from the papers regarding (a) a deeper theoretical and empirical understanding of the relationship between land tenure and forest outcomes, and (b) policy lessons from early efforts to address tenure in sites targeted for forest carbon projects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When agricultural commodities are traded globally, consumer demand in one region influences the crops planted in another, often leading to widespread environmental and social transformation at the production sites. As a commodity crop that prospers in tropical environments, oil palm has become controversial for its role as a driver of deforestation and social conflict, especially in main producer countries in Southeast Asia. As suitable land for oil palm production in Southeast Asia is depleting, companies have begun to look to new production frontiers, such as Latin America. Colombia and Peru have the highest percentage growth in the sector in recent years, and the crop has become a dominant strategy for development in the Peruvian Amazon. Between 2000 and 2015, 40,000 hectares of old growth forest have been cleared for large oil palm plantations in Peru. Company-Community partnerships (CCPs) have been advanced as a potentially more socially and environmentally sustainable strategy, through their alleged capacity to provide greater productivity and more efficient land use on smallholder farms. This paper describes the social, political and deforestation impact of an oil palm CCP at the forest frontier in the Peruvian Amazon. An interdisciplinary and mixed methods research approach was employed, including long-term ethnographic work and visual measurement remote sensing of land use change on 2447 hectares of smallholder land in four villages/communities. The results show that the recent arrival of powerful private companies has caused a major socio-ecological shift on the ground, particularly through the CCP. On comparing participating farms to non-participating farms, we find significant deforestation 'spillage' out of the plantation into participating farms. A major underlying driver of the negative outcomes of the CCP is the neoliberal policy approach employed by the Peruvian government, which has outsourced basic rural public works to private companies. We conclude by discussing how a more socially and environmentally just oil palm production strategy in Peru and elsewhere might look. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary Overpopulation and economic industrialization are two common explanations for deforestation. Political ecology, however, highlights that good governance and effective land management at the local level can offset the impact of population growth and development on environmental degradation. In this paper, we provide an innovative argument derived from political ecology to explain deforestation, but rather than pursing a “bottom up” approach to governance, we take a “top down” approach. We argue that the state can ease deforestation rates by weaning rural populations off of the consumption of biomass for their energy needs by expanding rural electrification access. Using a panel analysis of 158 countries for the years 1990, 2000, and 2010, we find that not only does rural electrification cause deforestation rates to decrease, but also that it is more robust in explaining deforestation than population growth or development. Our study provides two innovations to political ecology: it highlights that the state can help, rather than hinder, local populations with managing their local environments in a more sustainable way by providing them with (public goods-based) energy alternatives, and; it supplements political ecology’s qualitative focus on environmental degradation with a generalized quantitative analysis of state-based initiatives on deforestation. Our results suggest that current global initiatives addressing deforestation—specifically the Reduction of Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) agenda of the United Nations’ Framework Convention on Climate Change—should not only assist local land managers, but also work with the state to ensure universal access to electricity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary Protected areas are a cornerstone of forest conservation in developing countries. Yet little is known about their effects on forest cover change or the socioeconomic status of local communities. This paper assesses whether “win–win” scenarios are possible—that is, whether protected areas can both stem forest cover change and alleviate poverty. We examine protected areas in the Peruvian Amazon during the early 2000s. We find that protected areas reduce deforestation. We do not find a robust effect on poverty. Protected areas that allow sustainable extractive activities are more effective in reducing deforestation but less effective in reducing poverty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary International conservation groups pour millions of dollars into developing countries to help preserve resources and set conservation priorities, but critics argue that affected populations are often excluded from the decision-making process. In 2003 many in the international community praised the president of Madagascar for his pledge to more than triple the area under protection. This paper examines how voting patterns in the president’s re-election bid differed in communities affected by these policies. The results suggest less support for the president in regions with new protected areas but that these policies would be unlikely to change the outcome of an election. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: This paper assesses proponent activities to address tenure insecurity in light of actions required for effective and equitable implementation of REDD+. Field research was carried out at 19 REDD+ project sites and 71 villages in Brazil, Cameroon, Tanzania, Indonesia, and Vietnam. Results show proponents addressed tenure insecurity by demarcating village and forest boundaries and identifying legal right holders, but were limited in their ability to resolve local tenure challenges that were national in origin and scope. Still needed are national tenure actions, integration of national and local tenure efforts, clarification of international and national REDD+ policies, and conflict resolution mechanisms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: This paper analyzes deforestation in areas of overlapping land tenure in the northern Ecuadorian Amazon. We use a random coefficients model to test for differences in forest cover across tenure forms over time. Tenure categories are significantly associated with changes in deforestation, even after controlling for multiple factors. Deforestation slows dramatically in the latter time period; and model results link parks with reduced deforestation. The same is true for lands where indigenous territories overlap with forest protection. Our results suggest that Ecuador’s conservation incentive program could refine its targeting by focusing on indigenous areas and communal lands outside of parks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: This paper examines the interactions between state-led land reform, agrarian structures, and deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon. Land reform tends to promote land redistribution through regularization of smallholder land invasions of large-scale landholdings, and by redistribution of public lands to smallholders in existing colonization frontiers. The implications of state-led land reform on deforestation are heterogeneous. I argue that impacts of agrarian reform are strongly related to the pre-existing social and economic configuration of the frontiers where it takes place. While it leads to lower rates of deforestation in landscapes dominated by smallholders with diversified land use, its impact on forest conversion is higher in landscapes where extensive land use, mainly prompted by large-scale cattle ranching, tends to dominate. I provide an assessment for the whole Brazilian Amazon, and examine two research sites in the state of Pará, namely Uruará and Redenção. The study is based on informant interviews, secondary information, agricultural census data, and remote sensing data. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Summary: This paper examines the linkages between agricultural policies and deforestation in a development frontier of Southern Mexico, focusing on support programs targeted at buffering farmers from structural reforms. We argue that local barriers to market participation condition the responsiveness of farmers to program incentives, thereby constituting a key channel through which agricultural policies impact the environment. An econometric model parameterizes the influence of two programs, PROCAMPO and Alianza para el Campo, on cultivation. Consistent with an economic environment characterized by market barriers, results suggest that program support, even when decoupled from production decisions, significantly determines land use and deforestation. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This paper investigates the poverty-environment nexus at the provincial and district levels in Cambodia, Lao PDR, and Vietnam. The analysis focuses on spatial associations between poverty populations and five environmental problems: deforestation, fragile soils, indoor air pollution, contaminated water, and outdoor air pollution. The results suggest that the nexus is quite different in each country. We conclude that the nexus concept can provide a useful catalyst for country-specific work, but not a general formula for program design. Joint implementation of poverty and environment strategies may be cost effective for some environmental problems, but independent implementation may be preferable in many cases as well. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes the impact of national development policy on land cover change and associated carbon fluxes at a Peruvian Amazon frontier. Remote sensing and field transects reveal changes in forest carbon stocks and accumulation rates. Deforestation was most rapid along the Interoceanic Highway during 1986–91 when credit and guaranteed markets were available, resulting in emissions of 708,000 Mg C yr−1, of which 14% was offset by secondary regrowth. Despite continued population growth, deforestation slowed during 1991–97 when fiscal austerity measures were imposed, resulting in emissions of 389,000 Mg C yr−1, of which 41% was offset by regrowth. Strategies to conserve frontier forests are compared in terms of carbon, biodiversity and economic costs and benefits. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

What social arrangements stop deforestation? This paper chronicles the sociological factors underlying the rapid establishment, in 14 months, of a community-owned protected forest in Ecuador. Methods developed by the International Forestry Resources and Institutions (IFRI) research program provide a stakeholder analysis related to trends in deforestation. Interviews, community meetings, and informal discussions provide data on attitudes of local people during and after establishment of the forest preserve. Knowledge and resources external to the community motivated local people to preserve a cloud forest, but local institutions and communal land tenure were critical for the rapid establishment of the protected area. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

• UNESCO's Man and the Biosphere (MAB) zoning generates frontier regions that are fertile ground for Organized Crime. • Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve Program of Ecosystem Services incentivizes local patrols to fight Organized Crime. • Crime is associated with NAFTA's avocado market in the MAB area. • Acknowledging Traditional Ecological practices inside this reserve is necessary. The conservation of the monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus) is rearranging the rural landscapes of Michoacán and Estado de México, Mexico. Based on ethnographic and historical data, and combining insights from the green security and neoliberal conservation literatures, this paper examines how monarch butterfly conservation unfolds in an area shaped by a recent designation as a UNESCO Man and the Biosphere Reserve as well as increasing violence associated with the Mexican Drug War. I argue that these processes are deeply interconnected. I show how the conservation program, and the broader neoliberal project of which it is part, have undermined social control of land by converting communally managed forests into a supposedly human-free reserve. This has transformed the region into a frontier zone that facilitates the increased presence of organized crime groups and devolves responsibility for forest security to local residents. I show how the monarch reserve's core and buffer land boundary, and the human and nonhuman divide underpinning it, reconfigures authority in ways that deepen the control of organized crime, facilitate the expansion of il/licit economies, and undermine sustainable community forest management. While international conservation actors view the reserve as the best strategy for preventing the disappearance of the monarch's migratory phenomenon, my analysis concludes that the MAB has increased the risk of disappearance of both its butterfly and human inhabitants. As an alternative to conventional conservation strategies designed to separate human and nonhuman nature, principles from nondualist traditional ecological ethics can inform better pathways for protecting both the region's humans and nonhumans. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• This manuscript presents a modified capitals framework for analyzing community forest enterprises. • Community forest enterprises operating in the Maya Biosphere Reserve face unique challenges related to their capitals. • All enterprises in the Maya Biosphere Reserve have leveraged their resources to improve their capitals over time. This paper introduces a modified community capitals framework for understanding the context in which community forest enterprises (CFEs) operate. The framework is applied to enterprises in the Maya Biosphere Reserve of Northern Guatemala through a comparative cross-case analysis. Data for the cross-case analysis were collected and triangulated via a variety of qualitative methods including document review supplemented by direct observation, and key informant interviews. The analysis details several differences in capitals between different enterprises in the reserve and details how enterprises have leveraged their resources to improve their capitals over time. This framework is of particular interest to sustainable development scholars and practitioners as it provides a means of analyzing local community-contexts focusing upon the resources that a community has at its disposal and how those resources can be used to develop their capital over time. These insights can be particularly helpful to development practitioners working to design interventions adapted to the unique challenges and opportunities faced by CFEs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Conflict may damage forests or help preserving them by dissuading economic activity. • We use satellite data to study the effect of Colombia's peace deal on forest cover. • Former conflict areas differentially lose forest cover after the FARC's ceasefire. • Loss in forest cover is offset by state capacity, but exacerbated by cattle ranching. • Findings highlight the importance of complementing peacemaking with state building. Armed conflict can endanger natural resources through several channels such as direct predation from fighting groups, but it may also help preserve ecosystems by dissuading extractive economic activities through the fear of extortion. The effect of conflict on deforestation is thus an empirical question. This paper studies the effect on forest cover of Colombia's recent peace negotiation between the government and the FARC insurgency. Using yearly deforestation data from satellite images and a difference-in-differences identification strategy, we show that areas controlled by FARC prior to the declaration of a permanent ceasefire experienced a differential increase in deforestation after the start of the ceasefire. The deforestation effect of peace is attenuated in municipalities with higher state presence and judicial capacity, and is exacerbated by land intensive economic activities. Our results highlight the importance of complementing peacemaking milestones with state building efforts to avoid environmental damage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Terra Legal had no overall impact on deforestation as of 2012. • Deforestation levels increased following Terra Legal in highly registered counties. • Spatial spillovers from Terra Legal were minimal in the short term. • Temporary crop cultivation decreased with greater registered area. • Investment loans increased in counties with more area registered by small and medium farms. This paper estimates the early impacts of Terra Legal , a large property rights reform, on deforestation and farming in the Brazilian Amazon. Twelve and a half million hectares, more than 2.5% of the Brazilian Amazon, have been registered under this program. The establishment of property rights may increase a farmer's incentive to invest in his land and expand his farm due to a lower risk of expropriation. On the other hand, the enforcement of conservation requirements may be easier when farmers have legal titles to their land. We use county level data from 2007 to 2012 on farm registrations, deforestation, crop choice and bovine management to test the impact of the Terra Legal land reform. While we find no overall impact of the program on deforestation during the period in our sample, we do show that there is substantial heterogeneity in impacts across counties. Counties with the largest area registered do have an increase in the level of area deforested, but they also have a decrease in the rate of deforestation. We investigate the extent to which changes in deforestation are related to the amount of registration that occurs among small, medium and large farms, and find limited support for less deforestation among counties with more area registered by small farms; more area registered by large farms is associated with a higher level of deforestation, but a decreased deforestation rate. Our results suggest that land tenure reform can create incentives to decelerate deforestation. Farm size has a strong impact on the farm management changes generated by improved property rights; coupling land tenure reforms with incentives to intensify production rather than expand could lead to reduced deforestation, particularly among small farms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary This paper examines the factors that influence rural household decisions to clear forestland. We use a large dataset comprising 7172 households from 24 developing countries. Twenty-seven percent of sampled households had converted forest to agriculture during the previous 12 months, clearing on average 1.21 ha. Male-headed households with abundance of male labor, living in recently settled places with high forest cover, unsurprisingly tended to clear more, but regional peculiarities abounded. Households with medium to high asset holdings and higher market orientation were more likely to clear forest than the poorest and market-isolated households, questioning popular policy narratives about poverty-driven forest clearing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]