Management of Timber and Nontimber Forest Products: Evidence from a Framed Field Experiment in Benin, West Africa

Across sub-Saharan Africa, rapid deforestation threatens the economic and environmental benefits forests provide to communities and individuals. These losses are especially salient when forest users benefit from multiple forest products and not just timber resources. Using a common-pool resource (CPR) game in rural Benin framed around a threatened species, Afzelia africana, this paper tests how different payments for ecosystem services (PES) programs may induce conservation behavior among individuals who harvest multiple forest products (e.g., timber and leaves). PES treatments vary along two dimensions: the level of the payment and how the payment is divided among group members. We find evidence that all implemented PES treatments reduce the harvest of timber; however, a high PES payment evenly divided among group members also significantly reduced the harvest of leaves. Our findings suggest that a single-product PES focused only on whole trees might not be effective for multipurpose species.