Arild Angelsen
Biographic Data
| ID | 177314 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Arild Angelsen |
| GIVEN NAMES | Arild |
| FAMILY NAME | Angelsen |
| SIGNATURE | ANGELSEN A |
| AFFILIATIONS | Norwegian University of Life Sciences |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-6037-6849 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 46 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 1194 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 46 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1995 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 12 |
The dynamics of crop diversity and seed use in the context of recurrent climate shocks and poverty: Seasonal panel data evidence from rural Uganda
Participation, anticipation effects and impact perceptions of two collective incentive-based conservation interventions in Ucayali, Peru
Deforestation triggered by artisanal mining in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo
Data and information in a political forest: The case of Redd
The mixed impacts of peer punishments on common-pool resources: Multi-country experimental evidence
The conservation of common-pool resources (CPRs), such as tropical forests, is a key challenge of development and environmental policies. Peer sanctioning of excessive resource use increases the cost of free riding and may be an effective way to ensure sustainable management of CPRs, but it entails individual costs to punishers. This paper examines peer punishment patterns and impacts in a cross-country framed field experiment (FFE) with homogene…
Payment for environmental services to reduce deforestation: Do the positive effects last
Evolution of farm-level crop diversification and response to rainfall shocks in smallholder farming: Evidence from Malawi and Tanzania
This study investigates how exposure to short and long-term measures of rainfall shocks and past crop diversification decisions influence subsequent diversification in Malawi and Tanzania. We use balanced household panel data combined with corresponding historical monthly weather data to achieve our aim. Crop diversification is studied as a state-contingent risky investment decision that households make before the state of nature is revealed. We …
How do Redd+ projects contribute to the goals of the Paris Agreement
Hundreds of projects to reduce emissions from deforestation and forest degradation and enhance carbon stocks (REDD+) are implemented globally, many by non-governmental organizations (NGOs) or for-profit companies. Yet, at the global level, the Paris Agreement focuses on jurisdictional (national and subnational) REDD+. We ask: (1) How much can REDD+ projects contribute to achieving national and international climate objectives? (2) What are the is…
Enforcement and inequality in collective PES to reduce tropical deforestation: Effectiveness, efficiency and equity implications
Collective Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES), where forest users receive compensation conditional on group rather than individual performance, are an increasingly used policy instrument to reduce tropical deforestation. However, implementing effective, (cost) efficient and equitable (3E) collective PES is challenging because individuals have an incentive to free ride on others’ conservation actions. Few comparative studies exist on how differ…
Crops in crises: Shocks shape smallholders' diversification in rural Ethiopia
Crop diversity plays a central role in smallholder farmers' ability to cope with and adapt to shocks. Shifting crop varieties and diversifying the crop portfolio are common risk reduction strategies. This paper addresses the influence of covariate climate shocks and idiosyncratic socioeconomic shocks on crop variety use and crop species diversification by smallholder farmers using nationwide balanced panel data (2011/12, 2013/14, & 2015/16) from …
Survival- versus opportunity-driven environmental reliance: Evidence from Uganda
Pay, talk or ‘whip’ to conserve forests: Framed field experiments in Zambia
Amazonian farmers' response to fire policies and climate change
Pay little, get little; pay more, get a little more: A framed forest experiment in Tanzania
Can conservation agriculture save tropical forests? The case of minimum tillage in Zambia
Redd+ as Result‐based Aid: General Lessons and Bilateral Agreements of Norway
The initiative known as Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) officially became part of the international climate agenda in 2007. At that time, REDD+ was an idea regarding payment to countries (and possibly also projects) for reducing emission from forests, with funding primarily from carbon markets. The initiative has since become multi‐objective in nature; the policy focus has changed from a payments for environme…
Comparing methods for assessing the effectiveness of subnational Redd+ initiatives
The central role of forests in climate change mitigation, as recognized in the Paris agreement, makes it increasingly important to develop and test methods for monitoring and evaluating the carbon effectiveness of REDD+. Over the last decade, hundreds of subnational REDD+ initiatives have emerged, presenting an opportunity to pilot and compare different approaches to quantifying impacts on carbon emissions. This study (1) develops a Before-After-…
A causal analysis framework for land-use change and the potential role of bioenergy policy
We propose a causal analysis framework to increase understanding of land-use change (LUC) and the reliability of LUC models. This health-sciences-inspired framework can be applied to determine probable causes of LUC in the context of bioenergy. Calculations of net greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions for LUC associated with biofuel production are critical in determining whether a fuel qualifies as a biofuel or advanced biofuel category under regional (…
Forest reliance across poverty groups in Tanzania
Do commercial forest plantations reduce pressure on natural forests? Evidence from forest policy reforms in Uganda
Environmental Income and Rural Livelihoods: A Global-Comparative Analysis
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 comes from natural forests. Environmental income shares are higher for low-income households, but differences across income quintiles are less pronounced…
Forest Clearing in Rural Livelihoods: Household-Level Global-Comparative Evidence
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 average 1.21 ha. Male-headed households with abundance of male labor, living in recently settled places with high forest cover, unsurprisingly tended to c…
Challenging Perceptions about Men, Women, and Forest Product Use: A Global Comparative Study
This study uses a multi-case dataset to question current assumptions about the gender differentiation of forest product use. We test some of the commonly held ideas on how men and women access, manage, and use different forest products. Overall, we found significant gender differentiation in the collection of forest products, which seems to support the claim that there are distinctive "male" and "female" roles associated with the collection of fo…
Forests, Livelihoods, and Conservation: Broadening the Empirical Base
More than 10,000 years after the Agricultural Revolution started, millions of rural smallholders across the developing world may still derive as much income from foraging forests and wildlands as from cultivating crops. These steady environmental income flows come often from public forests, and are extracted by men and women alike. However, inflexible supplies from nature, the physical hardship of harvesting, and commonly low returns limit their …
Is Agroforestry Likely to Reduce Deforestation?
Is agroforestry likely to reduce deforestation? Most agroforesters for the past 15 years have said "yes", some adding "by about 5 ha of reduced deforestation per ha of agroforestry adopted". The authors argue, nevertheless, that in many cases the answer is likely to be either "it depends" or even "no". The aim with this chapter is to discuss key factors which condition the agroforestry - deforestation link. That is, what makes a "yes" more likely…
The causes of land-use and land-cover change: Moving beyond the myths
Forest transitions: Towards a global understanding of land use change
Environmental Income and Rural Livelihoods: A Global-Comparative Analysis
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 comes from natural forests. Environmental income shares are higher for low-income households, but differences across income quintiles are less pronounced…
Livelihoods, forests, and conservation in developing countries: An Overview
Agricultural expansion and deforestation: Modelling the impact of population, market forces and property rights
Forests, Livelihoods, and Conservation: Broadening the Empirical Base
More than 10,000 years after the Agricultural Revolution started, millions of rural smallholders across the developing world may still derive as much income from foraging forests and wildlands as from cultivating crops. These steady environmental income flows come often from public forests, and are extracted by men and women alike. However, inflexible supplies from nature, the physical hardship of harvesting, and commonly low returns limit their …
Challenging Perceptions about Men, Women, and Forest Product Use: A Global Comparative Study
This study uses a multi-case dataset to question current assumptions about the gender differentiation of forest product use. We test some of the commonly held ideas on how men and women access, manage, and use different forest products. Overall, we found significant gender differentiation in the collection of forest products, which seems to support the claim that there are distinctive "male" and "female" roles associated with the collection of fo…
Forest environmental incomes and the rural poor
Forest Clearing in Rural Livelihoods: Household-Level Global-Comparative Evidence
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 average 1.21 ha. Male-headed households with abundance of male labor, living in recently settled places with high forest cover, unsurprisingly tended to c…
Shifting cultivation and “deforestation”: A study from Indonesia
The Socioeconomic Conditions Determining the Development, Persistence, and Decline of Forest Garden Systems
Exploring different forest definitions and their impact on developing Redd+ reference emission levels: A case study for Indonesia
Economic Crisis, Small Farmer Well-Being, and Forest Cover Change in Indonesia
Evolution of farm-level crop diversification and response to rainfall shocks in smallholder farming: Evidence from Malawi and Tanzania
This study investigates how exposure to short and long-term measures of rainfall shocks and past crop diversification decisions influence subsequent diversification in Malawi and Tanzania. We use balanced household panel data combined with corresponding historical monthly weather data to achieve our aim. Crop diversification is studied as a state-contingent risky investment decision that households make before the state of nature is revealed. We …
Crops in crises: Shocks shape smallholders' diversification in rural Ethiopia
Crop diversity plays a central role in smallholder farmers' ability to cope with and adapt to shocks. Shifting crop varieties and diversifying the crop portfolio are common risk reduction strategies. This paper addresses the influence of covariate climate shocks and idiosyncratic socioeconomic shocks on crop variety use and crop species diversification by smallholder farmers using nationwide balanced panel data (2011/12, 2013/14, & 2015/16) from …
Who Should Benefit from Redd+? Rationales and Realities
Luttrell, C., L. Loft, M. F. Gebara, D. Kweka, M. Brockhaus, A. Angelsen, and W. D. Sunderlin. 2013. Who should benefit from REDD+? Rationales and realities. Ecology and Society 18(4): 52. https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-05834-180452
Do commercial forest plantations reduce pressure on natural forests? Evidence from forest policy reforms in Uganda
Why Forests Are Important for Global Poverty Alleviation: A Spatial Explanation
Sunderlin, W. D., S. Dewi, A. Puntodewo, D. Müller, A. Angelsen, and M. Epprecht. 2008. Why forests are important for global poverty alleviation: a spatial explanation. Ecology and Society 13(2): 24. https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-02590-130224
Pay, talk or ‘whip’ to conserve forests: Framed field experiments in Zambia
A causal analysis framework for land-use change and the potential role of bioenergy policy
We propose a causal analysis framework to increase understanding of land-use change (LUC) and the reliability of LUC models. This health-sciences-inspired framework can be applied to determine probable causes of LUC in the context of bioenergy. Calculations of net greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions for LUC associated with biofuel production are critical in determining whether a fuel qualifies as a biofuel or advanced biofuel category under regional (…
Enforcement and inequality in collective PES to reduce tropical deforestation: Effectiveness, efficiency and equity implications
Collective Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES), where forest users receive compensation conditional on group rather than individual performance, are an increasingly used policy instrument to reduce tropical deforestation. However, implementing effective, (cost) efficient and equitable (3E) collective PES is challenging because individuals have an incentive to free ride on others’ conservation actions. Few comparative studies exist on how differ…
Can conservation agriculture save tropical forests? The case of minimum tillage in Zambia
The Emergence, Persistence, and Current Challenges of Coffee Forest Gardens: A Case Study From Candelaria Loxicha, Oaxaca, Mexico
In many parts of Latin America coffee is produced in forest garden systems, which fulfill a variety of household needs, enhance food security, and conserve biodiversity. We investigate drivers in the emergence, persistence, and decline of coffee forest gardens, using a case study in southern Mexico and combining historical, socioeconomic, and institutional analysis. Social, cultural, and political benefits linked to forest gardens are important d…
The Poverty—Environment Thesis: Was Brundtland Wrong
The poverty-environment thesis suggests that the poor are both the agents and victims of environmental degradation. Even though the thesis may have been necessary to avoid a North-South confrontation on environmental issues, its validity can be questioned. It is argued that the coexistence of poverty and environmental disruption could more appropriately be seen as the joint consequence of limited opportunities for some groups, uneven processes of…
Shifting cultivation and “deforestation”: A study from Indonesia
Hard Methods for Soft Policies: Environmental and Social Cost-Benefit Analysis
The quest for sustainability has put the conventional Cost-Benefit Analysis (CBA) technique under fierce attack. Much of the critique is, however, misplaced or based on misunderstandings. Alternative methodologies for project appraisal are often insufficient for making the unavoidable hard choices on resource use and distribution. The paper further argues that it is impossible to formulate any unified and operational definition of sustainability …
The Poverty—Environment Thesis: Was Brundtland Wrong
The poverty-environment thesis suggests that the poor are both the agents and victims of environmental degradation. Even though the thesis may have been necessary to avoid a North-South confrontation on environmental issues, its validity can be questioned. It is argued that the coexistence of poverty and environmental disruption could more appropriately be seen as the joint consequence of limited opportunities for some groups, uneven processes of…
Rethinking the Causes of Deforestation: Lessons from Economic Models
This article, which synthesizes the results of more than 140 economic models analyzing the causes of tropical deforestation, raises significant doubts about many conventional hypotheses in the debate about deforestation. More roads, higher agricultural prices, lower wages, and a shortage of off-farm employment generally lead to more deforestation. How technical change, agricultural input prices, household income levels, and tenure security affect…
Agricultural expansion and deforestation: Modelling the impact of population, market forces and property rights
The causes of land-use and land-cover change: Moving beyond the myths
Economic Crisis, Small Farmer Well-Being, and Forest Cover Change in Indonesia
What is environmental income
Forest transitions: Towards a global understanding of land use change
Livelihoods, forests, and conservation in developing countries: An Overview
The Socioeconomic Conditions Determining the Development, Persistence, and Decline of Forest Garden Systems
Forest environmental incomes and the rural poor
Forest dependence and participation in CPR management: Empirical evidence from forest co-management in Malawi
Why Forests Are Important for Global Poverty Alleviation: A Spatial Explanation
Sunderlin, W. D., S. Dewi, A. Puntodewo, D. Müller, A. Angelsen, and M. Epprecht. 2008. Why forests are important for global poverty alleviation: a spatial explanation. Ecology and Society 13(2): 24. https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-02590-130224
Policies for reduced deforestation and their impact on agricultural production
Policies to effectively reduce deforestation are discussed within a land rent (von Thünen) framework. The first set of policies attempts to reduce the rent of extensive agriculture, either by neglecting extension, marketing, and infrastructure, generating alternative income opportunities, stimulating intensive agricultural production or by reforming land tenure. The second set aims to increase either extractive or protective forest rent and—more …
Back to the Forest: Exploring Forest Transitions in Candelaria Loxicha, Mexico
Declining profitability of agriculture and/or higher prices of forest products and services typically drive an increase in forest cover. This article examines changes in forest cover in Candelaria Loxicha, Mexico. Forest cover increased in the area as a result of coffee cultivation in coffee forest-garden systems. Dependence on forest products and services, and not prices of forest products, drive the process in our study site. Low international …
The Emergence, Persistence, and Current Challenges of Coffee Forest Gardens: A Case Study From Candelaria Loxicha, Oaxaca, Mexico
In many parts of Latin America coffee is produced in forest garden systems, which fulfill a variety of household needs, enhance food security, and conserve biodiversity. We investigate drivers in the emergence, persistence, and decline of coffee forest gardens, using a case study in southern Mexico and combining historical, socioeconomic, and institutional analysis. Social, cultural, and political benefits linked to forest gardens are important d…
An assessment of deforestation and forest degradation drivers in developing countries
Countries are encouraged to identify drivers of deforestation and forest degradation in the development of national strategies and action plans for REDDC. In this letter we provide an assessment of proximate drivers of deforestation and forest degradation by synthesizing empirical data reported by countries as part of their REDDC readiness activities, CIFOR country profiles, UNFCCC national communications and scientific literature. Based on defor…
Poverty, sustainability, and household livelihood strategies in Zagros, Iran
Is Agroforestry Likely to Reduce Deforestation?
Is agroforestry likely to reduce deforestation? Most agroforesters for the past 15 years have said "yes", some adding "by about 5 ha of reduced deforestation per ha of agroforestry adopted". The authors argue, nevertheless, that in many cases the answer is likely to be either "it depends" or even "no". The aim with this chapter is to discuss key factors which condition the agroforestry - deforestation link. That is, what makes a "yes" more likely…
Exploring different forest definitions and their impact on developing Redd+ reference emission levels: A case study for Indonesia
Who Should Benefit from Redd+? Rationales and Realities
Luttrell, C., L. Loft, M. F. Gebara, D. Kweka, M. Brockhaus, A. Angelsen, and W. D. Sunderlin. 2013. Who should benefit from REDD+? Rationales and realities. Ecology and Society 18(4): 52. https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-05834-180452
Do commercial forest plantations reduce pressure on natural forests? Evidence from forest policy reforms in Uganda
Environmental Income and Rural Livelihoods: A Global-Comparative Analysis
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 comes from natural forests. Environmental income shares are higher for low-income households, but differences across income quintiles are less pronounced…
Forest Clearing in Rural Livelihoods: Household-Level Global-Comparative Evidence
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 average 1.21 ha. Male-headed households with abundance of male labor, living in recently settled places with high forest cover, unsurprisingly tended to c…
Economics (38 works) · Geography (35 works) · Conservation, Biodiversity, and Resource Management (34 works) · Natural resource economics (28 works) · Business (27 works) · Ecology (26 works) · Agriculture (19 works) · Agroforestry (15 works) · Environmental Science (15 works) · Economic and Environmental Valuation (14 works)