The economic costs of avoided deforestation in the developing world: a meta-analysis

This meta-analysis aims to identify the key factors governing the economic costs of avoided deforestation in developing countries. To this end, data were collected from 32 primary studies published between 1995 and 2012, yielding 277 observations. Results show that unit costs depend significantly on cost features like estimation methodology, inclusion or exclusion of cost components, carbon accounting method, area size, alternative land uses and beneficiaries, time horizon, and the continent in which the forest protection scheme is implemented, but also factors like the share of agriculture in a nation's economy play a significant role in explaining unit costs. In future studies, greater attention needs to be paid to additional cost components like transaction costs and the presence of the co-benefits of avoided deforestation. © 2013 Department of Forest Economics, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Umeå.