Extreme wildfires are a major environmental and socioeconomic threat across many regions worldwide. The limits of fire suppression-centred strategies have become evident even in technologically well-equipped countries, due to high-cost and a legacy of landscape transformations, yet with ultimately...

Rural households in developing countries depend on crops, forest extraction and other income sources for their livelihoods, but these livelihood contributions are sensitive to climate change. Combining socioeconomic data from about 8,000 smallholder households across the tropics with gridded...

This paper examines the factors that influence rural household decisions to clear forestland. We use a large dataset comprising 7172 households from 24 developing countries. Twenty-seven percent of sampled households had converted forest to agriculture during the previous 12 months, clearing on...

This special issue contains 12 papers provided information on the relationship between forests, livelihoods, and conservation within the scope of the Poverty and Environment Network (PEN), a collaborative effort led by the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR), focused on socioeconomic ...

This paper presents results from a comparative analysis of environmental income from approximately 8000 households in 24 developing countries collected by research partners in CIFOR's Poverty Environment Network (PEN). Environmental income accounts for 28% of total household income, 77% of which...

Tropical forest conservation is considered a low-cost option for climate change mitigation. But mitigation cost assessments have featured opportunity costs, neglecting policy implementation costs. Here we use official data to identify the Brazilian federal government's operational and institutional ...

Conditional incentives are a promising complementary approach to conserve tropical forests, for example, in multiple-use protected areas. In this paper we analyze the environmental impacts of Bolsa Floresta, a forest conservation program that combines direct conditional payments with...

Systematic comparisons of human dependence on forests and environmental resources have been challenging, as a result of heterogeneous methodologies. Specialized Forestry Modules have been developed, with the goal of filling current information gaps concerning the economic importance of forest and...

Rigorous impact evaluations of local REDD+ (reduced emissions from deforestation and forest degradation) initiatives have shown some positive outcomes for forests, while well-being impacts have been mixed. However, will REDD+ outcomes persist over time after interventions have ended? Using...

The Paris Climate Agreement recognizes the importance of the mechanism to Reduce Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation, and enhance carbon stocks (REDD+). We reviewed 45 articles from the recent scientific literature to understand the outcomes of REDD+ interventions on the ground, in...