Cost and performance of CO 2 storage in forestry projects

Abstract

In order to include forestry projects in a possible CO 2 emission reduction regime, and to compare the costs of individual projects or national programs, it is necessary to determine the rate of equivalency between carbon in fossil fuel emissions and carbon stored in different types of forestry projects. This paper presents a comprehensive and consistent methodology to account for the costs and carbon flows of different categories of forestry projects and describes the application of the methodology to a set of projects in Central America. Several estimates have been made to date of the overall potential for carbon storage through global reforestation and the costs of such efforts, based on global macroeconomic estimates and extrapolations from current forest-sector experience. However, there has yet to be a consistent analysis of the magnitude and cost of carbon savings by a “bottom-up” approach to sustainable forestry development This methodology is applied to a set of projects proposed in Costa Rica and other Central American countries under the Tropical Forest Action Plan, to estimate a sample set of national CO 2 reduction cost curves. The costs of carbon savings in the forestry projects studied in Central America mostly fall between $5 and $13 ton-C 1, depending on the type of project, the climate, and the opportunity cost of land. These projects also promise socio-economic benefits at the local level, provided they are adequately endowed with funding, training and institutional support. The total amount of CO 2 storage potential is significant, about 100 million tons per country, but not enough to suggest that forestry can offset more than a few percent of global CO 2 emissions from fossil fuel use.