Helping planted trees—and communities—thrive
Dev Patel will investigate a deceptively simple challenge facing nature-based climate solutions: once trees are planted, what will help communities keep them alive?
Helping planted trees—and communities—thrive
Dev Patel will investigate a deceptively simple challenge facing nature-based climate solutions: once trees are planted, what will help communities keep them alive?
Peggy and Henry D. Sharpe Jr. Assistant Professor of Economics and Environmental Science Dev Patel will investigate a deceptively simple challenge facing nature-based climate solutions: once trees are planted, what will help communities keep them alive?
About the IBES Catalyst Research Awards
These annual awards provide funding for faculty-led, solutions-driven environmental research that crosses disciplines and has the potential for meaningful societal impact.
Working with the Mayor’s Office in Freetown, Sierra Leone, Patel will study the city’s ambitious tree-planting program, which has already put more than one million trees in the ground. Through household surveys, community focus groups, tree-survival data and field research, the project will examine how different incentives and benefits can encourage long-term stewardship while ensuring that women, youth, lower-income households and other residents have equitable opportunities to participate. The research will provide Freetown with practical recommendations for future tree-planting and restoration efforts while developing a framework that could help communities design more effective and equitable nature-based climate programs elsewhere.
Planting a tree is only the first step—the climate benefits depend on whether that tree survives. We want to understand how climate programs can work with communities to create incentives that are fair, locally meaningful, and ultimately make these investments more successful over the long term.
