Conservation and Livelihoods Benefits of Treeplanting

Logging and forest fires to clear land for agriculture are among the main drivers of tree loss in Sub-Saharan Africa. Deforestation rates are increasing at an alarming rate, with large local and global consequences. Programs for large-scale tree planting are needed to reverse environmental damage. This pilot focuses on Loma Mountain National Park (LMNP) in Sierra Leone, a biodiversity hotspot and Chimpanzee habitat. The park is managed by the Government of Sierra Leone and supported by the Tacugama Chimpanzee Sanctuary (TCS). TCS aims to plant 30 million trees by 2030 using species that have both conservation and livelihood benefits to communities around the park. The researchers aim to design a Payment for Environmental Services (PES) scheme to plant and maintain trees in villages surrounding LMNP. To design the program, the current dynamics driving deforestation need to be understood, in particular the opportunity costs of labour and land. These factors will affect the level of effort villages are motivated to exert in protecting and maintaining new trees, and thus severely influences the (cost) effectiveness and sustainability of the program. For this pilot, the researchers are conducting remote sensing analysis of deforestation trends, implementing a village and household survey in 71 villages adjacent to the LMNP, and co-developing the core strategy of the RCT with local stakeholders. As part of the baseline, the researchers aim to (i) identify the most appropriate sites for tree- planting from an ecological and economic perspective and (ii) assess the optimal compensation amount for the PES scheme.