Causes of Indonesia’s forest fires & findings from an experiment to stop them

In this talk, Ryan will share findings from two new studies on Indonesia’s forest fires. The first combines detailed geospatial data on fire and local climatic conditions with rich administrative data to assess the underlying causes of fires at the district and village levels. The findings include that El Nino explains much of the year-on-year variation in fires, the creation of new districts leads to more fires, and regional economic growth goes hand-in-hand with the use of fire in rural districts. The second study reports the results from a randomised evaluation of a pay-for-performance program to curtail the use of harmful land-clearing fires in West Kalimantan.

A group will go to Fellows Bar, University House after the event.

Dr Ryan Edwards is an economist, a Senior Policy Fellow at the Development Policy Centre and a Fellow in the Arndt-Corden Department of Economics at the Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University. His research interests lie at the intersection of development economics, international trade, and the environment. Ryan recently returned to the ANU from academic appointments at Dartmouth College and Stanford University.