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

This briefing by the World Resources Institute examines public economic incentives for land restoration in six Latin American countries, highlighting the economic costs of land degradation and the necessity of financial rewards for landholders to achieve regional ecological and climate goals.

• Land degradation results in an estimated annual economic loss of US $52 billion for Latin American economies, while restoring a single hectare of land can generate $1,140 in economic value for landholders through carbon storage, ecotourism, crops, food security, and wood and non-wood forest products.
• To maintain ecological integrity and economic productivity in Latin America, 50 million hectares of land must be protected and restored by 2030, a goal that requires well-designed public incentives for forest managers and farmers.
• Public incentives are necessary because the initial costs of restoration are prohibitively high for the rural poor and smallholder farmers; such incentives can also lower 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 provide direct payments to landholders for conserving natural forests and growing new trees, though the brief suggests these policies need 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} }