Between economic loss and social identity: Themulti-dimensional cost of avoiding deforestation in Eastern Madagascar

Sébastien Desbureaux (1) , Laura Brimon (2)

1 CERDI - Centre d'Études et de Recherches sur le Développement International
2 IDDRI - Institut du Développement Durable et des Relations Internationales

This paper exhibits the multiple dimensions of the cost of stopping the main driver of deforestation inMadagascar, slash-and-burn agriculture (tavy). As well as being amajor component of the economic livelihoodsof most local households living at the edge of forests, tavy has been described by anthropologists as an importantcultural practice. In this paper,we showthat stopping tavy does not only entail an economic cost for local households.The loss of the cultural dimension of tavywould come at an additional “cultural cost” for some. Our resultssuggest that a viable cessation of deforestation inMadagascar would require going beyond simple compensationof the opportunity costs of avoiding deforestation.

Mots clés: Non-market valuation Contingent valuation Madagascar Deforestation Slash and burn Payments for envir

Domaines: Economies et finances

Sébastien Desbureaux, Laura Brimon. Between economic loss and social identity: Themulti-dimensional cost of avoiding deforestation in Eastern Madagascar. Ecological Economics, 2015, 118, pp.10-20. ⟨10.1016/j.ecolecon.2015.07.002⟩. ⟨halshs-01189016⟩