Doctoral Dissertation Research: Conservation as an Open-Air Experiment: Pricing the Environment in the Mato Grasso Region of the Brazilian Amazon

Cornell University, Ithaca NY

Investigators

Abstract

Conservation as an Open Air Experiment: Pricing the Environment in the Mato Grosso Region of the Brazilian Amazon. David Rojas Summary The proposed project will investigate a strategy known as REDD+ (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation, forest Degradation and improving carbon stocks) that is aimed at limiting deforestation in the Amazon following a simple line of reasoning: Forests will be preserved when they are shown to have greater monetary value standing than destroyed. Technical description REDD+ projects are advanced under the following hypothesis: Pricing the forest will align environmental and economic objectives thereby creating a context in which environmental scientists and Amazonian landholders will agree on (a) the negative consequences of Amazonian deforestation; (b) the convergence of economic and environmental initiatives; and (c) the need for articulating policy partnerships in support of REDD+. The research will determine whether this hypothesis holds true for REDD+ projects directed at Amazonian peasants. The study draws on Science and Technology Studies (STS) insights into scientific experimentation and on anthropological theories of value and the environment. The project?s conclusions will be based on a twenty-two-month ethnographic research that will gather data on how peasants and scientists (1) assess the consequences of deforestation; (2) evaluate the likelihood of aligning development and conservation; and (3) articulate REDD+ policy networks. Data will be gathered in three spaces: Two REDD+ test sites in the Mato Grosso region of the Brazilian Amazon; REDD+ conferences in which scientists and peasants will participate; and two US scientific research institutions that study the relations between Amazonian ecology and global climate change. Broader impacts REDD+ constitutes a major and ambitious new effort to stop environmental degradation in the Amazon and limit global climate change while at the same time promoting economic development. The proposed project will be advanced in collaboration with Brazilian and US academic institutions in order to provide an in-depth understanding of how REDD+ projects are being implemented and at least one test of the guiding hypothesis.