The Economics of Village-Level Forestry: A Methodological Framework

摘要

Many of the small-scale, decentralized energy projects intended to meet the developing world's deepening deforestation crisis lack a thorough economic analysis at the design stage and consequently are economically unsound. This report enunciates an economic methodological framework for energy project formulation and development, broadening the traditional tools of cost/benefit analysis to fit the complexities of village-level forestry programs. The author accordingly considers the project's investment and benefit levels, distribution of incentives and decision-making, allocation of burdens and outputs, especially as pertaining to individual evaluations of the risk of project participation.