Project: Cost-Benefit Analysis of Conservation Policies

In March 2019, West Papua became Indonesia’s first and only Conservation Province. 

Working with Conservation International, Limestone helped develop a cost-benefit analysis (CBA) model that can help decision-makers understand the impacts of this choice. The CBA model is designed to help decision-makers understand how the conservation province affects stakeholders like the tourism industry, farmers, the government, and the local and global environment. A better understanding of these impacts can ensure this special status delivers its intended social and environmental goals.

This work contributes new quantitative analysis related to land use and sector-level decisions, including those about peat, mangroves, palm oil, logging, agroforestry, and REDD+. It explicitly considers the distribution of benefits and costs. It also provides a comparison of what development might look like as a “non-conservation province” to shed light on the consequences of different choices.