Refugee camps and deforestation in Sub-Saharan Africa

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Salemi, Colette
• 署名单位: University of Minnesota System; University of Minnesota Twin Cities
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF DEVELOPMENT ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0304-3878
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jdeveco.2021.102682
• 发表日期: 2021
• 关键词: africa; Refugee camps; Forced displacement; deforestation

摘要

To date, there have been few quasi-experimental efforts to evaluate the impact of refugee camps on host landscapes. Yet many stakeholders believe refugee camps lead to deforestation in nearby areas. I use data on camp locations and years of operation as well as secondary geospatial data to produce a high-resolution panel dataset of 0.01 degrees tiles. My difference-in-difference specification with tile fixed effects exploits variation in camp openings and tile proximity to camps. F-tests on event study pre-trends provide support for the satisfaction of parallel trends prior to camp exposure. I find that within the rainforest biome, camps are associated with a small reduction in extensive margin forest loss (i.e., land clearing) and a small increase in intensive margin forest loss (i.e., gradual reductions in canopy cover). In the grasslands biome, camps lead to small increases in forest loss at the intensive margin but have no impact on the extensive margin.