Healing the Wounded Land: The Role of Public Economic Incentives in Scaling Up Restoration Efforts in Six Latin American Countries

The document argues that public economic incentives are essential to scale up land restoration in Latin America, as the up-front costs are otherwise prohibitive for smallholder farmers and the rural poor. It highlights that land degradation costs the region approximately US $52 billion annually, while restoring a single hectare can add $1,140 in economic value. The brief analyzes programs in Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Mexico, and Peru, calculating payments per tree or hectare to help policymakers optimize these incentives for carbon sequestration, biodiversity, and food security.

• Land degradation results in an estimated annual economic loss of US $52 billion for Latin American economies, whereas restoring one hectare of land can generate $1,140 in economic value for landholders through carbon storage, ecotourism, crops, and forest products.
• To maintain ecological integrity and economic productivity, Latin America needs to protect and restore 50 million hectares of land by 2030, a goal that requires well-designed public incentives for farmers and forest managers.
• Public incentives are necessary because the initial costs of restoration are too high for the rural poor and smallholder farmers; these programs can also mitigate investment risks for the private sector by demonstrating the value of ecosystem services like carbon sequestration.
• Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Mexico, and Peru have implemented programs that pay landholders for forest conservation and tree planting, but these policies require improvement to maximize ecological and economic benefits.

APA

World Resources Institute (n.d.). Healing the Wounded Land: The Role of Public Economic Incentives in Scaling Up Restoration Efforts in Six Latin American Countries. https://www.wri.org/research/healing-wounded-land-public-economic-incentives-scaling-restoration-latin-america

Chicago

World Resources Institute. Healing the Wounded Land: The Role of Public Economic Incentives in Scaling Up Restoration Efforts in Six Latin American Countries. n.d. https://www.wri.org/research/healing-wounded-land-public-economic-incentives-scaling-restoration-latin-america.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=World Resources Institute |title=Healing the Wounded Land: The Role of Public Economic Incentives in Scaling Up Restoration Efforts in Six Latin American Countries |url=https://www.wri.org/research/healing-wounded-land-public-economic-incentives-scaling-restoration-latin-america |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{worldresourcesinstitutendhealing, author = {{World Resources Institute}}, title = {{Healing the Wounded Land: The Role of Public Economic Incentives in Scaling Up Restoration Efforts in Six Latin American Countries}}, institution = {World Resources Institute}, url = {https://www.wri.org/research/healing-wounded-land-public-economic-incentives-scaling-restoration-latin-america}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }