Conference Agenda

Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) initiatives are designed to play a role in mitigating climate change. Yet, the global assessment of their effectiveness has not been disaggregated to identify where and when REDD+ has been effective. Most analyses of the impact of REDD+ initiatives focus on its efficiency in reducing deforestation, but they don’t consider the impact on illegal land use practices. This study examines the effectiveness of REDD+ projects in collective lands of Afro-Colombian communities to avoid deforestation and to control the spread of illegal coca crops. Although illicit coca crops are not the primary direct driver of deforestation in Colombia, by 2021, 20\% of these crops were located in the collective territories of Afro-Colombian communities in the Pacific. Their expansion into key environmental regions underscores their role in land use change.

This study seeks to understand whether the signing of collective REDD+ agreements by Afro-Colombian communities strengthens local monitoring systems, social cohesion, and improves economic conditions to curb deforestation and prevent illicit practices. Using satellite data and a difference-in-differences approach, we find that REDD+ projects significantly reduced deforestation by an average of 33 m² per pixel and coca cultivation by 0.33 ha/km², which translates into approximately 9,695 hectares of avoided deforestation and 7,098 hectares of contained coca crop expansion annually. These results underscore the potential of REDD+ to strengthen local monitoring systems and integrate conservation with anti-drug policies in vulnerable regions.