SANDEE Call for Research Concept Notes

SANDEE call for research concept notes
Economics of forest restoration and other environmental and natural resource issues
Deadline: 30 November 2019

SANDEE invites concept notes for research projects in the general area of environmental and resource economics relating to the development of South Asia and the HKH. Although SANDEE will consider concept notes on any topic within that general area, of particular interest for the current call are concept notes on the economics of forest restoration: the reestablishment of forest cover in degraded or recently
harvested forests (reforestation) or marginal or abandoned croplands and pastures (afforestation). The 2018 IPCC report Global Warming of 1.5 °C identified forest restoration as one of the most cost-effective options for reducing atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide. The economics of forest restoration remain poorly understood, particularly in developing countries. Important knowledge gaps include the effectiveness and costs/benefits of existing or past tree-planting programmes (including benefits other than carbon sequestration); incentives for encouraging households and communities to plant trees; and the impacts of tree-planting programmes on livelihoods, poverty, and equity within and between households and communities. Viable methodological approaches for filling these gaps include, but are not limited to, impact evaluation methods, cost-benefit analysis, choice experiments, and field experiments.