Understanding risk and coping strategies in forest-agriculture landscapes: Can the structure of environmental incentives (as credit, insurance or payments) influence land use behavior?

The research aims to link the various strands of work relating to PES, risks and insurance by: 1) Examining how farmers with different levels of farming intensity and forest dependence are exposed to risks related to climatic, market-based and resource tenure/access and resulting income fluctuations, and the livelihood strategies that they use to reduce exposure to, and cope with, risks. 2) Examining how environmental incentives can be better structured for effective and sustained behavior change to achieve the desired environmental outcomes. We will use experimental economic methods to assess preferences for the delivery of incentives as direct payments, formal credit and insurance against risk. Results of this research will be of particular interest to institutions in the rural development sector, and institutions developing or implementing environmental incentive systems such as PES or REDD+.