$2.30-a-day basic income trial aims to save Amazon rainforest

• A groundbreaking project in Peru provides $2.30 a day to people in indigenous communities.
• By reducing poverty, many of the incentives for deforestation disappear, the organizers told BI.
• People who are not worried about money are less likely to sell their land or work for logging companies, they said.

Groups that have a universal basic income lawsuit in Peru hopes that unconditional payments to indigenous communities will help preserve the Amazon rainforest.

Since November, 188 people living in three Amazon reserves in central Peru have received cash equivalent to 8.6 Peruvian soles, or about $2.30, per day.

The project, developed by climate organization Cool Earth in partnership with women-led indigenous groups, will run for two years and payments will total approximately $310,000.

The idea is that by providing a guaranteed income, the incentives to get involved in activities that destroy the rainforest are removed.

Poverty in these communities is one of the leading drivers of deforestation in the region, Isabel Felandro, head of programs at Cool Earth, told Business Insider.

“These communities face many challenges in terms of threats such as illegal deforestation taking place in the areas, drug cartels and illegal mining,” Felandro said.

It can lead them to “sell the forest or go into other activities that are not very sustainable because they are worried about their finances,” she said.

Communities are often faced with painful decisions, Felandro added.

“What do you do when you don’t have money to send your child to the hospital?

Universal Basic Income – For the Rainforest

$2.30 a day won’t get you far in the US or Europe.

But in these communities, it can have a huge impact, Felandro said. With UBI, “an entire family can eat for a day,” she said.

She added that people use the money to supplement their diet or collectively rent a van to take their children to school.

There have been numerous experiments with universal basic income around the world, but most have focused on social and economic outcomes.

In the US, cities like Los Angeles, ChicagoDenver and Atlanta offered participants instant cash payments, with no strings attached.

Cool Earth believes that they are among the first companies to strive for a positive impact on the environment.

The NGO has carried out numerous cash transfer projects over the past 17 years, sending money to communities in the Amazon, New Guinea and the rainforests of Congo, where the communities decided together how the money would be spent.

But the UBI pilot project, in which every individual over the age of 18 receives money independently, is seen as an even more direct way to put money to work for the rainforest.

Research into the impact and effectiveness of UBI programs is still ongoing. Johan Oldekop, an academic specializing in environment and development at Britain’s University of Manchester, warned against this in his commentary on the project in The Guardian.

Oldekop praised the goal of supporting indigenous communities, who are leaders in rainforest conservation. But, he added, there is “little and mixed evidence on the environmental impacts of cash transfers around the world.”

Some evidence shows that UBI programs can even lead to deforestation, as families can use the money to expand their farms and cut down trees to do so, he said.

Felandro told BI that this is a legitimate concern, but added that “the magnitude here is very small.”

Families often have small plots of land that they use primarily to feed themselves. “We are not talking about large-scale production of cocoa or coffee,” she said.

Communities that previously participated in Cool Earth’s cash transfer projects saw up to 46% less deforestation compared to similar neighboring communities, Felandro added.