Forest Carbon Sequestration Projects Research Articles

Effects of a Forest Carbon Sequestration Project on Grassroots Democracy in China

Effects of a Forest Carbon Sequestration Project on Grassroots Democracy in China

The impact of carbon market on city greening: Quasi-experimental evidence from China

This paper investigates the regional spillover effects of the project-based voluntary market under the carbon emissions trading scheme (ETS). By exploiting one local offset mechanism (China's PHCER) as a quasi-experiment, we detect the unintended causal effect of the carbon market on greening the city. Using the difference-in-differences (DiD) estimator, we find that the voluntary carbon market resulted in a 14.45% (14.34%) increase in city-year-level NDVI summary value (per capita). The primary mechanism is the expansion of forest carbon sequestration projects. Cities with lower carbon emissions and fewer carbon market participants experience a greater causal effect. More importantly, we find no evidence to support the crowding out of arable land by forest carbon sequestration projects. Finally, several policy implications for a more functional carbon market are discussed.

Certificated exclusion: forest carbon sequestration project in Southwest China

ABSTRACT This research presents a case study of a high-profile carbon forest sequestration project in Southwest China, which claims to achieve ‘triple-win’ outcomes for livelihoods, biodiversity and climate change. However, over the last 15 years, each household that participated in the project has only received 10–20 USD (about 0.67–1.33 USD annually), despite the requirement for farmers to convert their agricultural land into tree plantations. We argue that contemporary capitalism engaged in climate change mitigation efforts has effectively recast the rural governance of land from a territorial arrangement to multiple actors exerting control over carbon credit certification, which creates a new form of climate injustice and social exclusion in agrarian change.

Effects of a Forest Carbon Sequestration Project on Grassroots Democracy in China

Effects of a Forest Carbon Sequestration Project on Grassroots Democracy in China

The Role of Social Capital in Rural Households’ Perceptions toward the Benefits of Forest Carbon Sequestration Projects: Evidence from a Rural Household Survey in Sichuan and Yunnan Provinces, China

We examined the associations between social capital and rural households’ perceptions toward social, economic, and environmental benefits of forest carbon sequestration projects by employing the proportional odds model based on data collected from a rural household survey in Sichuan and Yunnan Provinces, China. Results revealed that: (i) households’ perceptions toward environmental benefits are more positive than their perceptions toward economic benefits and social benefits, and their perceptions toward economic benefits are more positive than their perceptions toward social benefits; (ii) households having a good relationship with village officials have higher odds of holding more positive perceptions toward social, economic, and environmental benefits of the projects; (iii) households which are members of local associations are more likely to have positive perceptions toward benefits of the projects; (iv) households whose members are more frequently involved in village-level public events are more likely to have more positive perceptions toward benefits of the projects; (v) households having more educated household heads have higher odds of holding better perceptions toward the benefits of FCS projects; and (vi) households of Yunnan Province are less likely to express positive perceptions toward benefits of the projects. Based on the research results, we concluded that social capital is significantly and positively associated with rural households’ perceptions toward benefits of forest carbon sequestration projects. Some policy implications are provided regarding how to make use of social capital elements to shape farmers’ perceptions toward benefits of the projects for the purpose of achieving a higher level of local acceptability for and sustainability of the projects.

Direct measurement forest carbon protocol: a commercial system-of-systems to incentivize forest restoration and management

Forest carbon sequestration offsets are methodologically uncertain, comprise a minor component of carbon markets and do not effectively slow deforestation. The objective of this study is to describe a commercial scale in situ measurement approach for determination of net forest carbon sequestration projects, the Direct Measurement Forest Carbon Protocol™, to address forest carbon market uncertainties. In contrast to protocols that rely on limited forest mensuration, growth simulation and exclusion of CO2 data, the Direct Measurement Forest Carbon Protocol™ is based on standardized methods for direct determination of net ecosystem exchange (NEE) of CO2 employing eddy covariance, a meteorological approach integrating forest carbon fluxes. NEE is used here as the basis for quantifying the first of its kind carbon financial products. The DMFCP differentiates physical, project and financial carbon within a System-of-Systems™ (SoS) network architecture. SoS sensor nodes, the Global Monitoring Platform™ (GMP), housing analyzers for CO2 isotopologues (e.g., 12CO2,13CO2, 14CO2) and greenhouse gases are deployed across the project landscape. The SoS standardizes and automates GMP measurement, uncertainty and reporting functions creating diverse forest carbon portfolios while reducing cost and investment risk in alignment with modern portfolio theory. To illustrate SoS field deployment and operation, published annual NEE data for a tropical (Ankasa Park, Ghana, Africa) and a deciduous forest (Harvard Forest, Petersham, MA, USA) are used to forecast carbon revenue. Carbon pricing scenarios are combined with historical in situ NEE annual time-series to extrapolate pre-tax revenue for each project applied to 100,000 acres (40,469 hectares) of surrounding land. Based on carbon pricing of $5 to $36 per ton CO2 equivalent (tCO2eq) and observed NEE sequestration rates of 0.48 to 15.60 tCO2eq acre−1 yr−1, pre-tax cash flows ranging from $230,000 to $16,380,000 across project time-series are calculated, up to 5×  revenue for contemporary voluntary offsets, demonstrating new economic incentives to reverse deforestation. The SoS concept of operation and architecture, with engineering development, can be extended to diverse gas species across terrestrial, aquatic and oceanic ecosystems, harmonizing voluntary and compliance market products worldwide to assist in the management of global warming. The Direct Measurement Forest Carbon Protocol reduces risk of invalidation intrinsic to estimation-based protocols such as the Climate Action Reserve and the Clean Development Mechanism that do not observe molecular CO2 to calibrate financial products. Multinational policy applications such as the Paris Agreement and the United Nations Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation, constrained by Kyoto Protocol era processes, will benefit from NEE measurement avoiding unsupported claims of emission reduction, fraud, and forest conservation policy failure.

CDM forest carbon sequestration projects in western China: An analysis using actor-centered power theory

Forest carbon sequestration projects (FCSPs) were implemented as flexible emission trading mechanisms via the clean development mechanism (CDM). The CDM has successfully produced certified emission reductions (CERs); however, the sustainable development outcomes of CDM projects especially their socio-economic impacts on communities have been widely debated. This study introduces the implementation process for CDM FCSPs in China. We employ actor-centered power (ACP) theory as our main analytical framework to analyze the power process between actors and how this alters project outcomes. The results of our analysis demonstrate that the Provincial Forestry and Grassland Bureau, the County Forestry and Grassland Bureau, village cadres, and rural households were all powerful actors during the implementation process. Each actor had different power sources and influenced the behavior of other actors, which altered project outcomes at different stages. The village cadre was the most powerful actor, had the most complicated power sources, and altered project implementation the most. This study suggests that stakeholder consultation and community participation should be a requirement during the entire project cycle, but particularly in the project-design phase, in order to improve CDM forest carbon sequestration projects and better achieve their sustainable development targets.

Optimizing sequestered carbon in forest offset programs: balancing accounting stringency and participation

BackgroundAlthough there is broad agreement that negative carbon emissions may be required in order to meet the global climate change targets specified in the Paris Agreement and that carbon sequestration in the terrestrial biosphere can be an important contributor, there are important accounting issues that often discourage forest carbon sequestration projects. The legislation establishing the California forest offset program, for example, requires that offsets be “real, additional, quantifiable, permanent, verifiable, and enforceable”. While these are all clearly desirable attributes, their implementation has been a great challenge in balancing complexity, expense, and risk. Most forest offset protocols carry similar accounting objectives, but often with different details, (e.g. Richards and Huebner in Carbon Manag 3(4):393–410, 2012 and Galik et al. in Mitig Adapt Strateg Glob Change 14:677–690, 2009). The result is that the complexity, expense, and risk of participation discourage participation and make it more difficult to achieve climate mitigation goals. We focus on the requirements for accounting and permanence to illustrate that current requirements disproportionately disadvantage small landowners.ResultsThe simplified 1040EZ filing system for U.S. income taxes may provide insight for a protocol model that balances reward, effort, and risk, while still achieving the overall objectives of standardized offset protocols. In this paper, we present initial ideas and lay the groundwork behind a “2050EZ” protocol for forest carbon sequestration as a complement to existing protocols.ConclusionThe Paris Agreement states that “Parties should take action to conserve and enhance, as appropriate, sinks and reservoirs of greenhouse gases.” The Paris Agreement also refers to issues such as equity, sustainable development, and other non-carbon benefits. The challenge is to provide incentives for maintaining and increasing the amount of carbon sequestered in the biosphere. Monitoring and verification of carbon storage need to be sufficient to demonstrate sequestration from the atmosphere while providing clear incentives and simple accounting approaches that encourage participation by diverse participants, including small land holders.

Influence of rural households' livelihood capital on income derived from participation in the Forest Carbon Sequestration Project: a case from the Sichuan and Yunnan Provinces of China

We analyze survey data collected from interview of 367 randomly selected rural households from the Sichuan and Yunnan provinces of China to assess the influence of rural households' livelihood capital (physical, financial, human, natural, and social capital) on their income from participation in the forest carbon sequestration project. The project is implemented under the Climate, Community, and Biodiversity standards. Results show that, with regional differences controlled, natural capital and physical capital have a positive and statistically significant influence, whereas the human capital, financial capital, and social capital of rural households have a negative and statistically significant influence on their income from participation in the project.

Analysis of factors influencing forest carbon sequestration project in Guangdong Province and recommendations.

Analysis of factors influencing forest carbon sequestration project in Guangdong Province and recommendations.

Acculturation of rural households participating in a clean development mechanism forest carbon sequestration program: A survey of Yi ethnic areas in Liangshan, China

We present results from a survey of rural households of the Yi people that participated in the clean development mechanism forest carbon sequestration project in Liangshan, Sichuan, China. We analyze rural households’ acculturation strategies and the corresponding influencing factors of local traditional culture and modern commercial culture with forestation and a reforestation carbon sequestration project based on two dimensions and four strategies, viz., integration, assimilation, separation, and marginalization. Results indicate that rural households that took part in the forest carbon sequestration project had a higher identification with local traditional culture than with modern commercial culture. Integration and separation were two primary adaptation strategies toward traditional culture and modern commercial culture. Gender, age, education level, and land area involved in the project were significant determinants for rural households’ cultural adaptation strategies.

Spatial patterns of carbon, biodiversity, deforestation threat, and REDD+ projects in Indonesia.

There are concerns that Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation (REDD+) may fail to deliver potential biodiversity cobenefits if it is focused on high carbon areas. We explored the spatial overlaps between carbon stocks, biodiversity, projected deforestation threats, and the location of REDD+ projects in Indonesia, a tropical country at the forefront of REDD+ development. For biodiversity, we assembled data on the distribution of terrestrial vertebrates (ranges of amphibians, mammals, birds, reptiles) and plants (species distribution models for 8 families). We then investigated congruence between different measures of biodiversity richness and carbon stocks at the national and subnational scales. Finally, we mapped active REDD+ projects and investigated the carbon density and potential biodiversity richness and modeled deforestation pressures within these forests relative to protected areas and unprotected forests. There was little internal overlap among the different hotspots (richest 10% of cells) of species richness. There was also no consistent spatial congruence between carbon stocks and the biodiversity measures: a weak negative correlation at the national scale masked highly variable and nonlinear relationships island by island. Current REDD+ projects were preferentially located in areas with higher total species richness and threatened species richness but lower carbon densities than protected areas and unprotected forests. Although a quarter of the total area of these REDD+ projects is under relatively high deforestation pressure, the majority of the REDD+ area is not. In Indonesia at least, first-generation REDD+ projects are located where they are likely to deliver biodiversity benefits. However, if REDD+ is to deliver additional gains for climate and biodiversity, projects will need to focus on forests with the highest threat to deforestation, which will have cost implications for future REDD+ implementation.Los Patrones Espaciales del Carbono, la Biodiversidad, la Amenaza de Deforestación y los Proyectos REDD+ en IndonesiaResumenActualmente hay preocupación por que las Emisiones Reducidas de la Deforestación y Degradación del Bosque (REDD+, en inglés) puedan fallar en la entrega de co–beneficios potenciales de la biodiversidad si se enfocan en áreas de alto carbono. Exploramos los traslapes espaciales entre los stocks de carbono, la biodiversidad, las amenazas proyectadas de deforestación y la ubicación de proyectos REDD+ en Indonesia, un país tropical a la vanguardia del desarrollo REDD+. Para la biodiversidad, reunimos datos sobre la distribución de vertebrados terrestres (hábitats de anfibios, mamíferos, aves y reptiles) y plantas (modelos de distribución de especies para ocho familia). Después investigamos la congruencia entre las diferentes medidas de la riqueza de la biodiversidad y los stocks de carbono en la escala nacional y sub–nacional. Finalmente mapeamos proyectos REDD+ activos e investigamos la densidad de carbono y la riqueza potencial de la biodiversidad y modelamos presiones de deforestación dentro de estos bosques en relación con áreas protegidas y no protegidas. Hubo poco traslape interno entre los diferentes hotspots (el 10% más rico de las celdas) de riqueza de especies. Tampoco hubo congruencia espacial consecuente entre los stocks de carbono y las medidas de la biodiversidad: una correlación negativa débil en la escala nacional enmascaró las relaciones altamente variables y no-lineales isla por isla. Los proyectos REDD+ actuales estuvieron ubicados preferencialmente en áreas con una riqueza total de especies y con una riqueza de especies amenazadas más altas pero con densidades de carbono más bajas que en las áreas protegidas y los bosques sin protección. Aunque un cuarto del área total de estos proyectos REDD+ está bajo una presión de deforestación relativamente alta, la mayoría del área REDD+ no lo está. Por lo menos en Indonesia, los proyectos REDD+ de primera generación están ubicados en donde tengan probabilidad de entregar beneficios para la biodiversidad. Sin embargo, si se espera que REDD+ entregue beneficios adicionales para el clima y la biodiversidad, los proyectos necesitarán enfocarse en los bosques con la mayor amenaza de deforestación, lo que tendrá implicaciones de costo para la implementación futura de REDD+.

Measuring transnational leakage of forest conservation

Forest conservation in one country can influence the degree of conservation or deforestation in other countries because of international linkages of the forest products industry and markets and a lack of global coordination. Thus leakage and offsetting losses of environmental quality may be present. This paper develops an analytical framework for measuring this leakage and estimates its magnitude via general equilibrium modeling. We find that the magnitude of leakage depends upon the price elasticities of supply of and demand for forestry products across the countries and degree of cooperation in forest conservation. We estimate that a significant portion (42%–95%) of the reduced forestry production implemented in a country/region can be transferred to elsewhere, offsetting environmental gains. Leakage generally diminishes as more countries cooperate, but cooperation among only a few countries does not always dramatically reduce leakage. Thus forest conservation efforts and associated environmental quantity gains in a country or group of countries can be seriously undermined in terms of global net conservation gain in the absence of effective global cooperation. Our results also point to the importance of taking leakage into account in evaluating local or regional forest carbon sequestration projects.

Monitoring and economic factors affecting the economic viability of afforestation for carbon sequestration projects

Abstract The Kyoto Protocol is the first step towards achieving the objectives of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and aims among others to promote ‘the protection and enhancement of carbon sinks and reservoirs’. To encourage afforestation for carbon sequestration a project must be economically viable. This study uses a model to analyse the impact on project viability of a range of carbon monitoring options, international carbon credit value and discount rate, applied to a Pinus radiata afforestation project in New Zealand. Monitoring carbon in conjunction with conventional forest inventory shows the highest return. Long-term average carbon accounting has lower accounting costs, compared to annual and 5 yearly accounting, as monitoring is only required every 5–10 years until the long-term average is attained. In this study we conclude that monitoring soil carbon stocks is not economically feasible using any of the accounting methods, when carbon is valued at US$ 10/t. This conclusion may be relevant to forest carbon sequestration projects elsewhere in the world and suggests care is needed in selecting the appropriate carbon monitoring options to avoid the risk that costs could be higher than any monetary benefits from terrestrial carbon sequestration. This would remove any commercial incentive to afforest for carbon sequestration reasons and severely limit the use of forest sinks as part of any package of measures addressing the ultimate objective of the UNFCCC.

Saskatchewan forest carbon sequestration project

In 2002 a project in Saskatchewan became the first forest carbon (C) sequestration project to be formally reviewed and approved in Canada under the Greenhouse Gas Emission Trading (GERT) Pilot. GERT concluded that the project will result in real, measurable, verifiable and surplus net sequestration, calculated as C stock changes in the with-project case less C stock changes in the reference (without project) case. The project is a 50-year agreement (2000–2050) in which Saskatchewan Environment sells net C sequestration to the provincial electrical utility Saskatchewan Power Corporation. Net sequestration of 1.6 Mt C is expected to result from the establishment of white spruce plantations on 3300 ha and from forest protection through creation of 206 000 ha of Forest Carbon Reserves. Issues that arose in the review included leakage, the permanence of the sequestered carbon and risk of losses, establishment of the reference case, methodologies for projections of impacts, approaches for sampling and measurements, and accounting methods. GERT established a number of reporting and other conditions to be fulfilled when estimates of actual net sequestration are registered. Future forest C sequestration projects, project reviews and policy development will be able to draw upon the lessons learned from the Saskatchewan project. Key words: carbon sequestration, carbon sequestration projects, Saskatchewan, Greenhouse Gas Emission Reduction Trading Pilot, plantations, forest protection, leakage, permanence, carbon accounting, carbon measurement

Carbon-Based Conservation Strategies in Latin America: An Innovative Tool for Financing Environmental Conservation

Climate change is now underway and is likely to have far-reaching impacts on the global environment and human welfare. While addressing this problem will require a fundamental transformation in energy use, carbon sequestration (i.e., storage) strategies can also play an important role. These strategies include preserving threatened forests and promoting ecosystem restoration of degraded lands. Such strategies not only help to address climate change but also contribute significantly to conserving the earth's highly threatened forest ecosystems and biological diversity (“biodiversity”) – resources which are critical to human prosperity and survival. The Nature Conservancy has pioneered forest carbon sequestration projects in Latin America. The largest such project, Noel Kempff Climate Action Project in Bolivia, is described in detail, including some of the major design issues and challenges. The article concludes with a brief discussion of why the insurance industry might be motivated to participate in carbon sequestration strategies.