By Adam Vaughan
Mahastra Wibisono
A poverty alleviation programme has been linked with reducing forest loss in Indonesian villages by nearly a third, in a country with the world’s highest deforestation rate.
The Program Keluarga Harapan (PKH), which started dispersing money directly to poor households in 2008, wasn’t designed for conservation. However, researchers found evidence linking it to lower rates of deforestation in the villages where people received the payments.
“We find that both environmental and poverty alleviation goals can be achieved under certain conditions,” says Rhita Simorangkir at the National University of Singapore. …
