Colombia – Land for Prosperity(LfP)/Amazon Evaluation

This research project will implement the baseline design, instruments, data collection, and analysis for a performance and impact evaluation of Colombia’s Land for Prosperity(LfP)/Amazon project. The Government of Colombia requested support from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) for the implementation of massive cadaster and land property rights pilots in
deforestation hotspots, through the LfP/Amazon project. The LfP/Amazon project comprises three main intervention components involving (1) massive land titling, (2) strengthening local government capacity, and (3) promoting public private partnerships (PPPs). The LfP/Amazon project takes place in selected areas that are defined by high levels of deforestation, illicit crop production, and unclear land rights linked to environmentally sustainable economic development opportunities. The goal of the project is to explore methods that focus on the integration of three thematic areas—licit, sustainable livelihood promotion, land formalization, and environmental conservation, with a particular focus on changing behaviors associated with deforestation and biodiversity conservation.

From the purpose of the research and evaluation, USAID’s learning interests center on the linkages between the LfP interventions in/near the Amazon and (1) the promotion of licit, sustainable livelihoods; (2) reduced deforestation; (3) reduced corruption; (3) wildlife and biodiversity conservation; and (4) climate change mitigation. Among LfP’s core contributions to these outcomes
will be evidence-based policy inputs for the Government of Colombia to implement large-scale land formalization efforts that could impact deforestation at a landscape scale. This project is supported by a number of PDRI-DevLab Research Fellows.