Forest Conservation Projects Research Articles

Comparison of mitigation potential estimates of three models using the IPCC 3-tier approach

Purpose – The purpose of this study is to estimate carbon mitigation impacts of project activities in a community forestry project in Andhra Pradesh, India. Measurement and quantification of carbon stocks, monitoring of these stocks over time and projections using models is necessary for assessing the climate change mitigation potential or impacts of all forest development and conservation projects. Design/methodology/approach – In this study, multiple mitigation assessment methods and models were used to estimate the carbon mitigation impacts – PROCOMAP, TARAM and CATIE, by adopting a three-tier approach similar to Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Guidelines. Findings – There are differences in mitigation potential estimates across models as well as across tiers. The study highlights the strength and weaknesses and/or limitations and advantages of adopting the different approaches and their applicability for estimating mitigation potential of a forestry project. The same could be adopted for a future Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD) regime also, given countries may not have the necessary technical capacity and data needed during the post-2012 REDD scheme. While countries with advanced data, technical and research capabilities could use models or, in other words, adopt the Tier-3 approach, countries with data and technical limitations, as in India, could adopt a Tier-2 or Tier-1 approach to begin with. Research limitations/implications – The limitations and advantages of use of the multiple mitigation models is addressed. Originality/value – This work would help understand use of three mitigation models by prospective students and researchers and also the data needs and limitations for use of these models.

Long-term trends of runoff characteristics due to forest conservation projects in small mountainous basin

Long-term trends of runoff characteristics due to forest conservation projects in small mountainous basin

Tropical rainforest biodiversity and aboveground carbon changes and uncertainties in the Selva Central, Peru

Tropical deforestation has reduced the extent of natural forests, which conserve biodiversity, provide essential resources to people, and reduce climate change by storing carbon. Forest conservation projects need tree species data to effectively manage biodiversity while greenhouse gas reduction programs require robust methods to estimate forest carbon. Here, we use field measurements, remote sensing, and Monte Carlo analyses to quantify tree biodiversity and aboveground carbon changes and uncertainties in 5200km2 of Amazonian and Yungas rainforest and other land around the Parque Nacional Yanachaga-Chemillén and two other protected areas in the Selva Central, Peru. Field inventories of 17ha found 438 tree species in 156 families. Field measurements of 10,838 trees and Monte Carlo analyses of uncertainties in measurements, allometric equations, wood density, and the carbon fraction of biomass showed that aboveground live carbon densities were 93±39Mgha−1 (mean ±95% confidence interval [CI]) in old-growth forest and 40±10Mgha−1 in secondary forest. Carbon density was significantly correlated to tree species richness (P<0.0001). Supervised classification of Landsat images showed a 1989–2005 net deforestation rate of 0.3%y−1, reduction of forest cover from three-quarters of the area to two-thirds, and net degradation of additional forest equivalent to half the deforested area. A Monte Carlo analysis that combined carbon density and remote sensing uncertainties showed that forest changes caused statistically significant net emissions of 1.6±0.4millionMg carbon. Allometric equations and remote sensing accounted for most of the uncertainty. Multivariate statistical analyses showed that, of six factors examined, distance to roads most explained historical deforestation patterns. The protected areas experienced no net deforestation, very low degradation, and very low change close to roads. Projection of potential forest cover to 2021 indicates that a Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD+) project could avoid gross emissions of 2.8±0.8millionMg carbon. One-eighth of the area would be eligible for afforestation or reforestation under the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), with credit for carbon storage occurring above a projected baseline gross reforestation rate of 1.8%y−1. These activities could conserve tropical forest carbon and biodiversity.

Conservation efforts may increase malaria burden in the Brazilian Amazon.

BackgroundLarge-scale forest conservation projects are underway in the Brazilian Amazon but little is known regarding their public health impact. Current literature emphasizes how land clearing increases malaria incidence, leading to the conclusion that forest conservation decreases malaria burden. Yet, there is also evidence that proximity to forest fringes increases malaria incidence, which implies the opposite relationship between forest conservation and malaria. We compare the effect of these environmental factors on malaria and explore its implications.Methods and FindingsUsing a large malaria dataset (∼1,300,000 positive malaria tests collected over ∼4.5 million km2), satellite imagery, permutation tests, and hierarchical Bayesian regressions, we show that greater forest cover (as a proxy for proximity to forest fringes) tends to be associated with higher malaria incidence, and that forest cover effect was 25 times greater than the land clearing effect, the often cited culprit of malaria in the region. These findings have important implications for land use/land cover (LULC) policies in the region. We find that cities close to protected areas (PA’s) tend to have higher malaria incidence than cities far from PA’s. Using future LULC scenarios, we show that avoiding 10% of deforestation through better governance might result in an average 2-fold increase in malaria incidence by 2050 in urban health posts.ConclusionsOur results suggest that cost analysis of reduced carbon emissions from conservation efforts in the region should account for increased malaria morbidity, and that conservation initiatives should consider adopting malaria mitigation strategies. Coordinated actions from disparate science fields, government ministries, and global initiatives (e.g., Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation; Millenium Development Goals; Roll Back Malaria; and Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria), will be required to decrease malaria toll in the region while preserving these important ecosystems.

English

Community participation is seen to be the building block for the&nbsp;efficiency&nbsp;of the&nbsp;Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD) project.&nbsp;In order for local residents to cooperate with a reduction of deforestation and forest degradation, they must have a positive perception toward the forest conservation system and positive attitude toward the forest conservation project.&nbsp;This study examined the attitude and perception of the local community toward conservation of the Makira forest, from where carbon credits are intended to be sequestered under the REDD schema. The perception and attitude of the local people were studied in three dimensions: the perception toward the conservation of Makira, the perception of the forest and forest resources, and the perception of the community forestry including cost and benefit.&nbsp;It was assumed&nbsp;that regardless of the dependency of local residents on the forest, the reception of an incentive and participation in the local meetings or&nbsp;participation within the forest conservation&nbsp;and development&nbsp;activities would provide a positive perception toward the forest conservation project.&nbsp;Data were obtained from a random sample of 188 households living within the vicinity of the protected forest. Sixty percent of respondents were found to agree with the idea of Makira forest conservation; however, statistically significant differences were found between the villages in terms of supportive attitudes toward the forest conservation system (p = 0.03) and toward the conservation project (p = 0.04). Nearly half of the respondents held a positive attitude toward the conservation project. However, those highly dependent on the forest to generate income remained reluctant and unsupportive, suggesting that high levels of support toward a conservation project by sections of the community may not translate into conservation success, because the drivers of the deforestation and forest degradation are not supportive. A perception of direct benefits from the project was found to be the main factor of the respondents&rsquo; attitudes and perceptions. This study then suggests that to change the perception and attitudes of indigenous people around protected areas, environmental education through sensitization should be encouraged, and then addressing local development needs, encourage broader participation in community forestry if the conservation project wants to win the support of local communities for long-term emission reduction through forest conservation goals. &nbsp; Key words:&nbsp;Protected area, forest management, community attitude, Makira,&nbsp;Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation&nbsp;(REDD).

Payments for environmental services as neoliberal market-based forest conservation in Vietnam: Panacea or problem?

Recently in Vietnam, a coalition of international NGOs, donors and government officials have been promoting market-based forest conservation projects in the form of payments for environmental services (PES) as a win–win for both conservation and development objectives; Vietnam is now the first country in Southeast Asia with a national law on PES. This article provides a macro survey of how market-based instruments for forest conservation have expanded in Vietnam, particularly in relation to a long dominant state sector. Yet an assessment of Vietnam’s PES pilot projects indicates that they do not follow predicted orthodox “neoliberalization of nature” approaches in their use of market instruments, particularly in regards to privatization, retreat of the state, and capitalization of commodities. The article explores how it is that a strong state role in forest management can continue to dominate even in more market-oriented approaches. Finally, the article analyzes PES’s potential for success or failure in tackling the underlying causes for forest degradation. Ultimately, the article argues that PES is likely to be unable to tackle several of the key underlying causes for deforestation, namely, uneven land tenure and a lack of participation by local communities in conservation, given that PES is unlikely to be considerably different than past attempts at forest management.

Forest destruction and forest conservation project around Ashio Copper Mine

Forest destruction and forest conservation project around Ashio Copper Mine

The Nishorgo Support Project, the Lawachara National Park, and the Chevron seismic survey: forest conservation or energy procurement in Bangladesh?

The paper focuses on the operation of a forest conservation project, the USAID-funded Nishorgo Support Project, and its operations in the Lawachhara National Park, Srimangal, Moulvibazar District, Bangladesh. The project has instituted a collaborative management approach. The participants include both state and non-state actors including the Bangladesh Government, the USAID, IUCN, NGOs, and local communities. In 2008 Chevron conducted a seismic survey for natural gas in the National Park, which violated municipal law. This placed the Nishorgo Project in a dilemma over its declared goal of forest conservation versus the interest of the state and Chevron in harnessing gas. This article analyses the interplay of the actors surrounding this critical moment, and argues the officially declared values, norms, and ideational elements guiding the project should be questioned. In establishing this argument, this paper uses the concept of "accountability communities" coined by Kanishka Jayasurya.Key words: Accountability communities, co-management approach, Nishorgo Project, Chevron, USAID, conservation, participation, governance.

Economic Analysis of Conservation Forestry Practices: a South Carolina Lowcountry Example

Abstract The Lowcountry Forest Conservation Project was designed to encourage conservation forestry practices on South Carolina's lower coastal plain. The area has great ecological diversity and need for the type of protections afforded by conservation forestry. The project provided demonstrations of these practices and offered forest owners an estimate of the cost-effectiveness of the techniques. This article reports on a financial analysis of the three main practices: (1) the reintroduction of longleaf pine (Pinus palustris P. Miller) into areas that are now loblolly pine plantations (Pinus taeda L.), (2) more and better use of prescribed fire, and (3) bottomland hardwood management. Longleaf pine reintroduction was accomplished using partial clearcuts of existing pine plantations over several decades. Financial return was shown to be competitive with intensively-managed loblolly pine plantations. Pine straw production played a large role in increasing cash flows. Prescribed burning was shown to “pay fo...

Carbon emissions from land-use change: an analysis of causal factors in Chiapas, Mexico

This study examines the correlation between deforestation, carbon dioxide emissions and potential causal factors of land-use change within an area of 2.7 million ha in Chiapas, southern Mexico between 1975 and 1996. Digitized land-use maps and interpreted satellite images were used to quantify land-use changes. Geo-referenced databases of population and digitized maps of roads and topography were used to determine which factors could be used to explain observed changes in land-use. The study analyzed the relationship between carbon emissions during this period and two types of possible causal factors: “predisposing” factors that determine the susceptibility of a particular area of forest to change (slope, distance to agriculture and roads, land tenure) and “driving” factors representing the pressures for change (population density, poverty). The correlated factors were combined in risk matrices, which show the proportion of vulnerable carbon stocks lost in areas with defined social, economic and environmental characteristics. Such matrices could be used to predict future deforestation rates and provide a verifiable evidence-base for defining baseline carbon emissions for forest conservation projects. Based on the results of the analysis, two matrices were constructed, using population density as the single most important driving factor and distance from roads and distance from agriculture as the two alternatives for the predisposing factors of deforestation.

Climate change mitigation and sustainable development through carbon sequestration: experiences in Latin America

This article discusses the links between sustainable development and carbon sequestration as a climate change mitigation (CCM) strategy with a focus on Latin America, which has hosted the majority of sequestration activities to date. The global potential for CCM through a combination of sequestration and reduced deforestation is projected to be roughly 60-80 billion tonnes of carbon (GtC) by mid-century, with a large fraction of that potential lying in Latin America. Such activities can, in theory, contribute to sustainable development by contributing to rural livelihoods, providing fuel and timber, and enhancing biodiversity and other environmental services. However, due to political-economic constraints and the nature of the carbon market itself only a small fraction of this technical potential is likely to be reached. Moreover, the degree to which carbon sequestration and forest conservation activities contribute to positive social and environmental outcomes is not clear. To date, carbon sequestration and forest conservation projects in Latin America have had mixed results. Some of these experiences are reviewed and alternative policy options are discussed.

Organizing a public ecosystem service economy for sustaining biodiversity

The core question this paper attempts to address is how social organization needs to respond to biodiversity features and functions in order to achieve its sustainable use. Scholars have suggested that the governance of complex systems should be dispersed across multiple centers of authority and that any regulative system needs as much variety in the actions that it can take as exists in the system it is regulating. Further, it has been argued that complex ecosystems and biodiversity can successfully be maintained by complex, polycentric, multi-layered governance systems which have a variety of response mechanisms. But how should polycentric governance of biodiversity be organized? Borrowing from the organization of public economies in metropolitan areas we distinguish between production and provision of public ecosystem services and suggest the direction of institutional change for the organization of a public ecosystem service economy. If the market alone cannot solve the allocation of public ecosystem services, economic efficiency criteria based on hypothetical markets are not sufficient. Therefore, we suggest design principles which go beyond economic efficiency and provide examples of the emergence of polycentric governance from an Ethiopian coffee forest conservation project.

Application of the ‘Climafor’ Approach to Estimate Baseline Carbon Emissions of a Forest Conservation Project in the Selva Lacandona, Chiapas, Mexico

We present a methodology for testing and applying a regional baseline for carbon (C) emissions from land-use change, using a spatial modelling approach (hereafter called the Climafor approach). The methodology is based on an analysis of causal factors of previous land-use change (Castillo et al. 2005). Carbon risk matrices constructed from the spatial correlation analysis between observed deforestation and driving factors (Castillo et al. 2005), are used to estimate future carbonemissions within acceptable limits for a forest conservation project. The performance of two risk matrices were tested by estimating carbon emissions between 1975 and 1996 from randomly selected sample plots of sizes varying from 1,600 to 10,000 ha and comparing the results of the observed emissions from these sample plots with the model estimations. Expected emissions from continued land-use change was estimated for the community applying the risk matrices to the current land cover. The methodology provides an objective means of constructing baseline scenarios including confidence intervals, using the sum of variances of the various data sources, such as measured carbon densities, classification errors, errors in the risk matrices, and differences between the model prediction and observed emissions of sample plots due to sample size. The procedures applied in this study also give an indication of the impact of the variance in the various data sources on the size of the confidence intervals, which allows project developers to decide what data sources are essential to improve his baseline. The modelling approach to estimate the deforestation pattern is based on readily available cartographic and census data, whereas data on carbon densities are required to assess the potential for forest conservation projects to offset carbon emissions.

Forest conservation and the clean development mechanism: Lessons from the Costa Rican protected areas project

Deforestation is currentlythe source of about 20% of anthropogenicCO2 emissions. Avoided deforestationhas, nonetheless, been ruled out as a CleanDevelopment Mechanism (CDM) category in theKyoto Protocol's first commitment period,because several methodological issues wereconsidered too difficult to resolve. Thispaper explores whether CDM issues such as(1) carbon quantification, (2)additionality and baseline setting, (3)leakage risks, (4) non-permanence risks,and (5) sustainable development can beadequately dealt with in large, diversifiedforest conservation projects. To this aim,it studies the case of the Costa RicanProtected Areas Project (PAP), anActivities Implemented Jointly (AIJ)project which was meant to consolidate thenational park system to avoiddeforestation, promote the growth ofsecondary forests and regenerate pastureson an area that, in total, covers 10% ofthe national territory. The case studyexamines how the issues mentioned abovehave been addressed in the project designand in the certification process. It isfound that baseline uncertainties are themajor problem in this case. Nonetheless,the case suggests the possibility toaddress CDM issues by specific requirementsfor project design and very conservativeand temporary crediting. Provided thatother case studies support this conclusion,eligibility of well-designed forestconservation projects under the CDM in thesecond commitment period may be worthconsidering, given the secondary benefitsof avoided deforestation.

Lessons Learned from On-the-Ground Conservation in Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo

Summary The war and genocide that swept through Rwanda and the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo has severely disrupted conservation activities there. However, those conservation organizations that have stayed in the region have been able to achieve a considerable amount. During 1998, I carried out a survey of staff from two conservation projects in Rwanda to determine what had motivated them to carry on working despite the loss of all senior staff, the suspension of regular salaries, and threats to their lives. The two projects were the Nyungwe Forest Conservation Project supported by the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) and the Karisoke Research Center supported by the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International. Staff at both sites felt that continuing to work had increased the risk to their lives. The factors that motivated staff to continue working included their expectation of future payment of salaries, the dedication of conservation organizations to supporting the sites, and the dedication of senior field staff who were forced to flee. Notably, field staff continued working because they felt that they were protecting an important part of their natural heritage, and they believed their work was important for their coun try. The survey also asked staff what the conservation organizations could do better in future war situations. One of the major lessons learned from the study was the important role that junior staff members play in holding such projects together during armed crisis. Most conservation organizations fo cus on training the senior staff but do not create a career structure for the ju nior staff. This finding has led WCS to plan more training and give more responsibilities to junior staff members.

Forest Conservation Project in Nepal Implemented by JICA-its Present Situation and Future

Forest Conservation Project in Nepal Implemented by JICA-its Present Situation and Future

On the evaluation of effectiveness for forest conservation works (III) : A case study of forest conservation projects for non-national forests under direct control of national government at Tedorigawa-district

On the evaluation of effectiveness for forest conservation works (III) : A case study of forest conservation projects for non-national forests under direct control of national government at Tedorigawa-district

On the Evaluation of Effectiveness for Forest Conservation Works : A Case Study of Forest Conservation Projects for Non-national Forests under Direct Control of National Government at Sojyagawa-district

On the Evaluation of Effectiveness for Forest Conservation Works : A Case Study of Forest Conservation Projects for Non-national Forests under Direct Control of National Government at Sojyagawa-district

On the Evaluation of Effectiveness for Forest Conservation Works : A Case Study of Forest Conservation Projects for Non-national Forests under Direct Control of National Government at Syozu-district

On the Evaluation of Effectiveness for Forest Conservation Works : A Case Study of Forest Conservation Projects for Non-national Forests under Direct Control of National Government at Syozu-district

4. Contributions of a Forest Conservation Project to a Forest Owners&apos; Cooperative (Field Reports on the Local Forest and Forestry Policy (I))

4. Contributions of a Forest Conservation Project to a Forest Owners&apos; Cooperative (Field Reports on the Local Forest and Forestry Policy (I))