SELECTED POLICY PUBLICATIONS
Busch, J., Kapur, A., Mukherjee, A. (2019) “Are Indian States Increasing Their Forestry Budgets as an Investment in Future Revenue from Ecological Fiscal Transfers?” Earth Innovation Institute, San Francisco, CA.
Indian states are not yet certain that ecological fiscal transfers will continue in such a way that increases in forest cover will be rewarded with increases in revenue. We recommend that the 15th Finance Commission resolve this uncertainty for states by i) keeping forests in the revenue devolution formula for another five years; and ii) updating the year for which forest cover is measured from 2013 to a later year (e.g. 2019).
Birdsall, N., Kuczynski, P.P., et al. (2015) “Look to the Forests: How Performance Payments Can Slow Climate Change.” Working group report. 74 pp. Center for Global Development, Washington, DC.
From the abstract: Protecting tropical forests is good for the global climate and good for development in forested countries. In the absence of robust carbon markets, performance-based funding to reduce emissions from deforestation is a key way donors can provide the incentives and commitment tropical countries need to curtail forest loss...
Murray, B., Busch, J., Woodward, R. T., and Jenkins, W. A. (2013), “Designing cap and trade to correct for non-additional offsets.” Duke Environmental Economics Working Paper EE 13-05.
From the working paper: Compared to a market policy that makes no adjustment for imperfect additionality, a trading ratio could either decrease or increase the uncapped sectors’ producer surplus, depending on the relative responsiveness of the marginal abatement curves in the uncapped and capped sectors to changes in price...
Morris, D., Busch, J. and Boltz, F. (2011). “Geographically prioritizing appropriations for the sustainable landscapes program.” Issue Brief 11-01. Resources for the Future, Washington, DC.
From the working paper: Our analysis synthesizes the results of two leading economic models of international REDD+ supply (the Forest Carbon Index [FCI], Deveny et al. 2009; and OSIRIS, Busch et al. 2009). We identify countries that rank highly within both models based on their potential to protect forest resources from destruction immediately, their potential to avoid deforestation threats in the future, and their ability to present cost‐effective alternatives to forest conversion....
Busch, J., Helmy, F., Lubowski, R., Farid, M., Boltz, F. (2011). Indonesia’s climate change commitment and the critical role of REDD+: Findings of the OSIRIS-Indonesia model. In: DNPI Green Review on REDD+. Indonesia National Council on Climate Change (DNPI), Jakarta, Indonesia, 199pp.
From the report: Reducing emissions from deforestation could cost-effectively achieve 21-60% of Indonesia’s goal of a 26-41% reduction of GHG emissions, based on projected 2020 emission levels. Indonesia could reduce annual emissions from deforestation by 221 million tons of CO2 at a marginal abatement cost under $10 per ton of CO2, and by 396 million tons at a cost under $25 per ton of CO2...
Busch, J. (2010). “Supplementary biodiversity payments for REDD+.” In: The Little Biodiversity Finance Book. Global Canopy Programme, Oxford, UK. (box text)
From the box text: By leveraging the vast infrastructure being put in place for REDD+ - systems for forest conservation, monitoring, accounting and governance - transaction and startup costs could be far lower than under a project-by-project approach to biodiversity conservation...
“Options for setting reference levels.” In: Angelsen, et al. (2009). Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD): An Options Assessment Report. Prepared for the Government of Norway. Meridian Institute, Washington, DC. 100 pp. (analytical contributor)
From the report: Two conclusions emerge: (i) larger global emissions reductions might be achieved with the use of a global additionality factor, although they are relatively modest; and (ii) the gain is higher when the overall amount of REDD funding is higher, because increased funding results in a higher REDD carbon price, making participation attractive— even with lower RLs...
Suich, H., Busch, J., and Barbancho, N. (2006). “Economic impacts of transfrontier conservation areas: Baseline of tourism in the Kavango-Zambezi TFCA.” Conservation International South Africa, Cape Town, South Africa, 69pp.
From the report: Total revenue generated by accommodation establishments and tour operations exceeded $US100 million in 2004. Although black-owned establishments [in northern Botswana] comprise nearly one third of all enterprises, they receive only five per cent of regional turnover. Although black-owned establishments [in Livingstone, Zambia] comprise over two thirds of all accommodations, they generate less than ten per cent of regional turnover. The Upper Zambezi [Zambia] appears to be the only region where share of revenue is roughly proportionate to share of ownership...