Impacts of the forest definitions adopted by African countries on carbon conservation

Stéphane Mermoz,Martin Herold,Thuy Le Toan,Alexandre Bouvet

doi:10.1088/1748-9326/aae3b1

Abstract

In this paper, we aim to assess the impacts of the forest definitions adopted by each African country involved in the global climate change programmes of the United Nations on national carbon emission estimations. To do so, we estimate the proportion of national carbon stocks and tree cover loss that are found in areas considered to be non-forest areas. These non-forest areas are defined with respect to a threshold on the percentage of tree cover adopted by each country. Using percent tree cover and aboveground biomass maps derived from remote sensing data, we quantitatively show that in many countries, a large proportion of carbon stocks are found in non-forest areas, where a large amount of tree cover loss can also occur. We further found that under the REDD+ framework (reduced deforestation, reduced degradation, enhancement and conservation of forest carbon stocks, sustainable management of forests), some partner countries have proposed activities related to only reducing deforestation, even when a large proportion of their carbon stocks are stored outside forests. This situation may represent a limitation of the efficiency of the REDD+ mechanism, and could be avoided if these countries choose a lower tree cover threshold for their definition of forests and/or if they are engaged in other activities.

Highlights

Countries that have ratified and/or are signatories to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) have been involved in developing relevant policy processes that aim at mitigating the effects of climate change by protecting forests, including agreements such as the reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD+) agreement
A lower tree cover (TC) selected as the national forest definition (NFD) may lead to aboveground biomass (AGB) stocks 20%
A lower TC selected as the NFD may not lead to AGB stocks three have proposed activities related to forest degradation and four have proposed activities related to the conservation of forest carbon stocks, sustainable management of forests and/or enhancement of forest carbon stocks

Summary

Introduction

Countries that have ratified and/or are signatories to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) have been involved in developing relevant policy processes that aim at mitigating the effects of climate change by protecting forests, including agreements such as the reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD+) agreement. Within the framework of REDD+, developing countries obtain and receive results-based finance only if emissions reductions are measured, reported and verified (MRV) relative to forest reference emission levels (FREL) For this purpose, multi-temporal maps of aboveground and belowground biomass (AGB and BGB, respectively) generated from Earth observation and in situ data (Mitchard et al 2013, Goetz et al 2015) are recommended. Countries tend to report only deforestation when using these approaches and not forest degradation, which is defined as a disturbance event leading to substantial reductions in carbon stocks, biodiversity and ecosystem services, within a forest that is not converted to other land uses and remains forest (Mertz et al 2012) These estimates of forest cover and forest cover change, and the carbon emissions that are effectively taken into account, are highly dependent on the definition of a forest

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