Governance and economic incentives for reducing the contribution of tropical deforestation to climate change

This research is needed to inform the design of the planned incentive mechanism for ‘avoided deforestation’, under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, which could be adopted by the international protocol that will follow the Kyoto Protocol in 2012. This research investigates whether and how deforestation can be reduced through better governance and by providing economic incentives to forest-rich tropical countries. The project will answer the following research questions: a)Can policies addressing decentralization, illegal logging and corruption bring about a reduction of deforestation? b)What role could financial incentives to reduce deforestation play? c)How should such governance policies and incentive mechanisms be designed?