Amazon Basin 

Dams and Roads in the Madeira Basin (Amazon Basin : 2006-2006)

In this analysis, we assess the effect of Madeira River energy and transportation infrastructure projects on soybean expansion.  Precarious transportation networks and natural barriers have kept the region of the Upper Madeira River geographically and economically isolated and have contributed to the low population densities, particularly in the Bolivian States of Beni and Pando. The development potential of this area, where Brazil, Peru and Bolivia meet, lies in the possibilities of accessing the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans by river or through the construction and pavement of roads.

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Bolivia 

Rural roads are frequently associated with economic development, but they are often implemented without consideration for their economic feasibility or efficiency. The terms feasibility and efficiency describe investments whose benefits are, at a minimum, greater than their costs. When such criteria are ignored, road projects are funded by governments with no clear expectations of increasing the overall wealth of the country. In fact, they often bring considerable economic losses when accrued benefits do not offset large costs involved with road improvement or construction.

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Economic Benefits of Madidi National Park (Bolivia : 2005-2006)

There is much debate over whether natural protected areas restrict economic development or enable it. In this study we assessed the local economic benefits provided by Madidi National Park & Natural Area of Integrated Management, one of Bolivia’s largest protected areas, and also one of the most important globally for biodiversity conservation.  We applied this analysis approach previously for Amazonian protected areas near Manaus, Brazil.

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Beni River Watershed (Bolivia : 1999)

The region of Northwest Bolivia where the Andes meet the Amazon plain is alternately considered a rich natural treasure and an under-developed green void. In 1995, the Bolivian government officially protected 1.8 million hectares of rain forest, cloud forest, rare deciduous forest and an array of plant and animal species nearly unsurpassed in the world's nature reserves.

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Brazil 

Considering the potential extension of the Paraguay-Paraná waterway and its social, environmental and economic implications, this study presents an analysis of the influence of the waterway on the logistic structure of Mato Grosso State soybean transportation. Social cost-benefit analyses were carried out for 4 distinct scenarios, and the results indicated feasibility problems, most of them related to environmental externalities and to limitations on load transferring to the waterway route.

In this study, we analyze the costs and benefits of the Belo Monte project on the Xingu River in the Southern Amazon. For our analysis, we create three scenarios. The first examines only the “internal” costs and benefits of Belo Monte as an energy project, excluding the costs of its impacts on competing economic activities and the environment. In the second scenario we included some external costs: tourism losses, impacts on water supply and fisheries and declines in water quality during construction. The third scenario also includes these external costs, and estimated energy benefits based on an alternative model, called HydroSim, developed at the Campinas State University (UNICAMP) in São Paulo.

What is the local economic impact of protected areas creation and management?  Most of the time, protected areas are considered barriers to economic development, once they impose limits or even completely block traditional use of natural resources. However, this study demonstrated that 10 protected areas located up to 200 km from Manaus city in the Brazilian Amazon promote important income for local economy. In some situations, these incomes can even surpass earnings generated by traditional land use, demonstrating that conservation activities can have an important role in economic development of certain regions.

Financial sustainability of protected areas is always a challenge in developing countries. In this project, CSF developed a methodology to implement a Payment for Environmental Services (PES) system focused on water conservation for human consumption in the Atlantic Forest of Brazil.  This payment system approach is supported by the 47th and 48th articles of the Brazilian National System of Conservation Units Law (which goes by the Portuguese acronym SNUC), which aim to generate income for protected areas management.  The project study area was the Guapiaçu and Macacu rivers basin in Três Picos State Park, close to Rio de Janeiro city.  This basin provides water for about 1.7 million people. 

CSF worked with Brazil 2000 course participant, Ricardo de Assis Mello, a researcher with IPAM (Amazon Environmental Research Institute), to conduct a cost-benefit analysis of alternative agricultural methods aimed at preventing destructive forest fires.

The Pantanal in southwest Brazil is the world's largest continuous wetland, extending for at least 140,000 km2 and host to a spectacular array of flora and fauna with over 650 species of birds and 80 species of mammals including parrots, toucans, jaguar, maned wolf, giant otter, and capybara. CSF is helping former course participants Leonardo Hasenclever, now with the United Nations Development Program's unit on Pantanal fisheries, and Eduardo Garcia, of the Wildlife and Environmental Education Research Society (Paraná), conduct a contingent valuation study of tourism on the Pantanal Scenic Parkway to determine its potential for generating revenue for conservation. Ninety-nine percent of the Pantanal is privately owned, mostly by large cattle ranches, and in recent years the Pantanal has come under increased threat from deforestation, upland contamination, poaching, overfishing, and uncontrolled tourism.

Three Brazil 2000 course participants not previously acquainted are now working together to analyze potential impacts of water diversion from the Tocantins River in central Brazil. The project would divert water from the Tocantins in the Jalapáo region, a unique transition zone between Cerrado woodland and caatinga. The water would be pumped into Brazil's arid Northeast for irrigation and hydroelectric power. Fani Mamede, formerly of IBAMA, Brazil's environmental agency, Paulo Garcia, a conservationist working with the municipality of Mateiros and Wilson Cabral, an engineer at the Sáo Paulo-based Technology and Aeronautics Institute, are performing an analysis of the projects potentially extensive environmental and economic impacts.

Abrolhos literally means "eye opener". The Abrolhos reef in Brazil won its name because of its unique coral formations and because its shallow waters are frequented by large numbers of reproducing humpback whales. The peculiar mushroom-shaped coral heads there are composed mostly of species completely unique to Abrolhos. The high degree of species endemism is a result of Abrolhos' total isolation from other coral reefs.

Peru 

Working with another graduate of our training program, Peruvian biologist Carmela Landeo, CSF is helping examine the real economic impact of roads and logging on Amazonian indigenous communities. Landeo, who works with the Peru office of World Wildlife Fund, is studying changes wrought in the forest and in household incomes as industrial timber extraction draws indigenous villages toward the cash economy. Landeo is studying the communities of Shintuya and Shipeteari, both on the fringes of the Manu National Park.

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Paracas Reserve (Peru : 2000-2001)

Paracas National Reserve in Peru is home to several species of sea lions, otters, vast anchovetta schools, blue-footed boobies, Inca terns, pink flamingos, pelicans, dolphins and large stocks of scallops. The large reserve has been bolstered in recent years by a volunteer park ranger program, which brings in students to maintain the protected area, clean the beaches and provide outreach to nearby communities. Despite its many contributions, funding for this program is constantly in doubt. Course graduate Cecilia Rivas, of the Peruvian Grupo de Estudios Ambientales (GEA), used skills she learned from CSF to perform a cost-benefit analysis and quantitatively show that the $8000 annual investment in the volunteers produces more than $32,000 in benefits. The benefits are a combination of services to the protected area and education for the volunteers.