Who Benefits and Who Pays for Forest Conservation and Restoration? (and How?)

Dr. Sarobidy Rakotonarivo, Research Fellow at the Department of Forestry and Environment at the University of Antananarivo, will speak at this session of the Environmental Institutions Seminar Series presented by the Nicholas Institute, the University Program in Environmental Policy, and Duke Restore. Students, faculty, and staff at Duke and other Triangle-area universities are invited to attend this in-person event (virtual viewing option also available). While the importance of conserving ecosystems for sustainable development is widely recognized, it is increasingly evident that despite delivering global benefits, conservation often comes at local cost. Despite well-intentioned policies, some of the poorest people on the planet are still bearing the cost of forest conservation. Global restoration priority setting risks repeating mistakes of conservation by favoring high biodiversity and high poverty areas with low opportunity costs. Areas with the highest restoration potential also significantly overlap with areas of weak rule of law, and unrecognized and contested land tenure. There is a risk that this might lead to project failure, as well as significant welfare and human rights concerns. This is likely to be a bigger problem than currently recognized and without important efforts to resolve local tenure issues and meet social safeguards, forest conservation and restoration in developing countries might jeopardize, rather than contribute to, sustainable development goals. There will be a reception in the Energy Hub of Gross Hall following the event. This session of The Environmental Institutions Seminar Series is co-sponsored by Duke Restore. The Environmental Institutions Seminar Series is presented by the Nicholas Institute for Energy, Environment & Sustainability (NI) and the University Program in Environmental Policy (UPEP), a doctoral degree program jointly offered by the Nicholas School of the Environment and Sanford School of Public Policy at Duke University.