Project alternative

The project consists of restoring or creating flooded forest areas. This requires the acquisition of land and in some cases, structural measures related to the water system to create or recreate a connection between the main river and the flooded forests and non-structural measures related to improving and restoring ecology and habitats. It also requires activities, such as outreach and training, to support households and communities to change their livelihoods to more sustainable sources of income. Finally, it involves engaging other stakeholders, such as the private sector to set up eco-tourism in the area. This will ultimately lead to a situation in which the flooded forest sustainably provides its ecosystem services and works together with other livelihoods supporting a sustainable and complimentary income such as agriculture, aquaculture and tourism.

At the basin scale, it is assumed that the case study project would be replicated up to the point where it would be implemented in 25% of the highly suitable land area, which amounts to 49,300 ha. Doing the projects at the basin scale would likely lead to scale advantages in costs and benefits. An ecosystem of significant scale is required to provide ecosystem benefits.

In economic and financial analysis, the project period or project horizon is relevant as cash flows are discounted to a present value and different stakeholders have different time horizons. The project has an infinite lifetime as the restoration of flooded forests should be permanent. However, households and private sector stakeholders may have a horizon of one to a few years, as they would like to see relatively short-term returns on their efforts and investments. Public sector investments and societal benefits have much longer horizons as infrastructure generally has a lifespan of several decades and some effects may only materialise in the long run. Costs and benefits also need to be placed in a timeline, and for this, it is assumed that for the local scale project implementation takes 2 years and that at the basin scale, it takes 10 years to achieve the 25% restoration of flooded forests. A project horizon of 50 years, from 2024 to 2073, is assumed.