A two-year basic-income pilot among Indigenous communities in Peru’s Amazon has sharply reduced hunger and logging pressure, according to results published by the University of Bath, in what researchers describe as the first such trial run with Amazonian Indigenous people.
The pilot, managed by the climate charity Cool Earth, delivered regular cash transfers worth about £2 a day (roughly $2.68 at October 2026 rates) to 211 participants across three communities in Peru’s Asháninka region. Payments came as periodic transfers of 1,032 soles, worth about $300 at current exchange rates, under what researchers call a “Cash Plus” model that paired money with training in financial education, Indigenous rights, governance and environmental conservation.
The share of households unable to afford nutritious food fell from 73 per cent to 26 per cent over the two years, while households that had to skip meals fell from 49 per cent to 22 per cent. The proportion of households able to save money rose from 49 per cent to 70 per cent, and the share of participants forced to migrate for outside labour fell from 43 per cent to 18 per cent, a figure researchers linked directly to reduced pressure on remaining forest land as families relied less on clearing new ground to make ends meet.
Self-reported wellbeing scores more than doubled over the course of the pilot, and more than three-quarters of participants said they had helped fund a family member’s education with the additional income, according to the University of Bath’s Universal Basic Income Research Group, which analysed the results.
Forests protected through autonomy, not restriction
About 90 per cent of participants adopted environmentally beneficial practices during the pilot, and 87 per cent joined collective conservation work such as native tree replanting, reducing forest burning and restoring water springs. Dr Neil Howard, who leads the Bath research group, said the findings show that “cash makes a massive and immediate difference to people’s lives” and supports a form of conservation built on community autonomy rather than restrictions imposed from outside. His colleague Dr Nick Langridge, a co-author of the report, said communities with “greater security and autonomy” are better placed to protect the ecosystems they depend on.
Sofia Vargas, Cool Earth’s Peru country manager, said regular income allowed rainforest communities “to invest in long-term planning and productive assets” rather than reacting to short-term shortages. Elida de la Cruz, vice-president of the National Organisation of Indigenous Andean and Amazonian Women of Peru, one of the local partner organisations, said the pilot proved that “our sisters have the capacity to carry out these projects on the ground” when given direct control over resources.
Caution alongside the results
The researchers note the trial ran for a relatively short period and had no control group, meaning the reported changes cannot be fully separated from other factors affecting the communities over the same two years. Cool Earth says it plans to design a follow-up project later in 2026 in Peru’s central Amazon and hopes to extend the model to further communities in Peru and in Colombia, where members of Congress have shown interest in the approach.
Ketty Marcelo, who chairs the Indigenous women’s organisation Omiaasec, another local partner, said the pilot’s lesson went beyond income figures. “We must look beyond monetary considerations to the collective good,” she said, framing the cash transfers as a tool for communities to set their own priorities rather than an end in itself. The result adds a case study to a broader debate now playing out at COP17 in Yerevan over how forest-protection money should be spent: a global assessment released the same week found that the world cut deforestation 15 per cent in 2025 but remains well off track for its 2030 goal, with forestry still receiving a fraction of the climate finance flowing to other sectors.
