Synthesis – The Model Results and the Issue of Participation

In chapter 2, when discussing the issue of LULUCF projects as an option to mitigate carbon emissions, several potential prospects as well as pitfalls became already apparent with regard to the developmental benefits of such projects. The particular interest of the chapter was in factors determining the participation decisions of subsistence farmers in PES and more particularly land-use related CDM projects. Furthermore, chapter 2 raised concerns about impending obstacles for the participation of farmers in such projects. The aforementioned factors were the main focus of the modeling approach in chapter 5 given the fact that solely little knowledge exists with regard to the participation decisions of farmers in such programs up to this date (see PAGIOLA et al. (2005)). Most PES as well as carbon finance projects were identified as too recent for an assessment of actual participation decisions. Therefore, it was the aim of a broader literature survey to firstly find out factors determining participation in other rural programs. Subsequently, a theoretical economic model of adoption was developed for the specific circumstances of the tree-planting project studied during field research. Ultimately, the goal was to apply the findings of the reviewed literature as well as the theoretical model to the concrete case study in Tanzania by means of structural equation modeling. Looking back to the analysis of chapter 4, the most important determinants of adoption decisions described in the literature are compared to the model results of chapter 5.6 in the following.