REDD Research Articles

The Indonesia–Norway REDD+ Partnership

The Indonesia–Norway REDD+ Partnership

Méthodologie De Production Des Données Cartographiques Sur Le Couvert Forestier En République Du Congo, De 2000 À 2012

A forest-based mapping data production study was conducted in the Republic of Congo as part of the Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD) process including sustainable forest management, forest conservation, and forest degradation. biodiversity and increasing carbon stocks (REDD +). The purpose of this study was to produce a forest cover map and cover changes for the period 2000 to 2012, which meets the criteria of the national definition of forest adopted by the Republic of Congo and the evaluation of forest areas. and losses. The map produced was based on the combination of forest map parameters developed prior to the adoption of the forest definition criteria. The 2000 and 2010 Landsat image segmentation was used to create polygons that respect the definition and in which the values of the underlying maps were injected, through a decision tree transcribed in the R language and implemented in conjunction with the tools Open Foris Tools Kit. The results indicate an overall accuracy of 90% of the map without stratification, with greater accuracy for the forest (86%) than for the losses (73%). The forest occupies 23,517,000 hectares, representing 69% of the national territory. The forest area lost during this period was estimated at about 145,356 hectares, which represents an annual average of 12,113 hectares (0.052%). These results lead to the conclusion that the Republic of Congo is one of the countries with high forest cover and low deforestation.

Mapping topsoil organic carbon concentrations and stocks for Tanzania

Tanzania is one of the countries that has embarked on a national programme under the United Nations collaborative initiative on Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation (REDD). Tanzania is currently developing the capacity to enter into a carbon monitoring REDD+ regime. In this context spatially representative soil carbon datasets and accurate predictive maps are important for determining the soil organic carbon pool. The main objective of this study was to model and map the SOC stock for the 0–30-cm soil layer to provide baseline information for REDD+ purposes. Topsoil data of over 1400 locations spread throughout Tanzania from the National Forest Monitoring and Assessment (NAFORMA), were used, supplemented by two legacy datasets, to calibrate simple kriging with varying local means models. Maps of SOC concentrations (g kg−1) were generated for the 0–10-cm, 10–20-cm, 20–30-cm, 0–30-cm layers, and maps of bulk density and SOC stock (kg m−2) for the 0–30-cm layer. Two approaches for modelling SOC stocks were considered here: the calculate-then-model (CTM) approach and the model-then-calculate approach (MTC). The spatial predictions were validated by means of 10-fold cross-validation. Uncertainty associated to the estimated SOC stocks was quantified through conditional Gaussian simulation. Estimates of SOC stocks for the main land cover classes are provided. Environmental covariates related to soil and terrain proved to be the strongest predictors for all properties modelled. The mean predicted SOC stock for the 0–30-cm layer was 4.1 kg m−2 (CTM approach) translating to a total national stock of 3.6 Pg. The MTC approach gave similar results. The largest stocks are found in forest and grassland ecosystems, while woodlands and bushlands contain two thirds of the total SOC stock. The root mean squared error for the 0–30-cm layer was 1.8 kg m−2, and the R2-value was 0.51. The R2-value of SOC concentration for the 0–30-cm layer was 0.60 and that of bulk density 0.56. The R2-values of the predicted SOC concentrations for the 10-cm layers vary between 0.46 and 0.54. The 95% confidence interval of the predicted average SOC stock is 4.01–4.15 kg m−2, and that of the national total SOC stock 3.54–3.65 Pg. Uncertainty associated with SOC concentration had the largest contribution to SOC stock uncertainty. These findings have relevance for the ongoing REDD+ readiness process in Tanzania by supplementing the previous knowledge of significant carbon pools. The soil organic carbon pool makes up a relatively large proportion of carbon in Tanzania and is therefore an important carbon pool to consider alongside the ones related to the woody biomass. Going forward, the soil organic carbon data can potentially be used in the determination of reference emission levels and the future monitoring, reporting and verification of organic carbon pools.

Criteria to Confirm Models that Simulate Deforestation and Carbon Disturbance

The Verified Carbon Standard (VCS) recommends the Figure of Merit (FOM) as a possible metric to confirm models that simulate deforestation baselines for Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation (REDD). The FOM ranges from 0% to 100%, where larger FOMs indicate more-accurate simulations. VCS requires that simulation models achieve a FOM greater than or equal to the percentage deforestation during the calibration period. This article analyses FOM’s mathematical properties and illustrates FOM’s empirical behavior by comparing various models that simulate deforestation and the resulting carbon disturbance in Bolivia during 2010–2014. The Total Operating Characteristic frames FOM’s mathematical properties as a function of the quantity and allocation of simulated deforestation. A leaf graph shows how deforestation’s quantity can be more influential than its allocation when simulating carbon disturbance. Results expose how current versions of the VCS methodologies could conceivably permit models that are less accurate than a random allocation of deforestation, while simultaneously prohibit models that are accurate concerning carbon disturbance. Conclusions give specific recommendations to improve the next version of the VCS methodology concerning three concepts: the simulated deforestation quantity, the required minimum FOM, and the simulated carbon disturbance.

Detecting and mapping annual newly-burned plots (NBP) of swiddening using historical Landsat data in Montane Mainland Southeast Asia (MMSEA) during 1988–2016

Swidden agriculture is by far the dominant land use system in the uplands of Southeast Asia (SEA), as well as other tropical regions, which plays an important role in the implementation of Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD) of United Nations. To our knowledge, the long-term inter-annual area of newly burned plots (NBP) of swidden agriculture in mainland Southeast Asia is still not available, let alone in the whole tropics. With the strengthening regional geo-economic cooperation in SEA, swidden agriculture has experienced and/or is still experiencing extensive and drastic transformations into other diverse market-oriented land use types since the 1990s. In this study, high-level surface reflectance products of Landsat 4/5/7/8 family sensors including Thematic Mapper (TM), Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus (ETM+) and Operational Land Imager (OLI) acquired in March, April and May of each year between 1988 and 2016 were firstly utilized to detect and monitor the extent and area of NBP of swidden agriculture with multiple thresholds of four commonly-used vegetation indices, namely the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), Normalized Difference Moisture Index (NDMI), Normalized Burn Ratio (NBR) and Soil Adjusted Vegetation Index (SAVI), in combination with local phenological features of swiddening and topographical data. The results showed that: (1) an annual average of 6.08×104 km2 of NBP of swidden agriculture, or 3.15% of the total land area of MSEA, were estimated in the past nearly three decades. (2) Annual NBP were primarily distributed in four major geomorphic units including the Central Range of Hills, Northern Mountainous Region, Western Myanmar Hills, and Annamite Chain. (3) A decadal average analysis indicated that the NBP of swidden agriculture opened year by year declined as a whole, especially after 2010, merely with an average of 5.23×104 km2. (4) The top ten provincial administrative units in Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam, which consistently accounted for over 90% of the newly opened swiddens of each country, showed distinct fluctuations in using slash-and-burn practices in the last decades. The Landsat-based (30 m) reconstructed 29-year longitudinal updated maps (including extent and area) of the NBP of swidden agriculture may contribute to REDD and local livelihood related studies in Continental Southeast Asia. Our study further demonstrated that the multiple vegetative indices thresholds approach holds great potential in detecting swidden agriculture in tropical mountainous regions.

FAO -voluntary guidelines on national forest monitoring and its possible effect on measuring, reporting and verification for REDD+

Durante a 23ª Sessão do Comitê Florestal da FAO (COFO 23) ocorrida em julho de 2016, foram aprovadas as diretrizes voluntárias para monitoramento florestal nacional. Essas diretrizes foram desenvolvidas para dar suporte aos países membros da FAO no andamento e implementação de seu sistema nacional de monitoramento florestal (SNMF). No contexto da Convenção do Clima da ONU (UNFCCC), a decisão 1/CP.16 encorajou os países em desenvolvimento a implementarem ações visando REDD+, e requereu, inter alia: i) o desenvolvimento de um nível de referência para emissões florestais e/ou um nível de referência florestal (FREL/REL), como linha de base para os relatórios de redução de emissões, e ii) um SNMF transparente e robusto. Esse trabalho examina a análise técnica da Convenção do Clima dos FREL/REL submetidos por seis países em relação às necessidades técnicas para a implementação do SNMF. A análise sugere a conveniência do aprimoramento da obtenção dos dados básicos de campo para estabelecer a qualidade das estimativas das mudanças das emissões florestais, visando complementar as estimativas de estoque de carbono e para estimar as incertezas associadas. O planejamento estratégico e técnico do SNMF também é fundamental para se atingir os níveis de preparação aceitáveis para a mensuração, relato e verificação do sistema de REDD+ e as diretrizes voluntárias da FAO

REDD+ readiness phase in Uganda: learning from a carbon offset project implemented in Ongo community forest in mid-western Uganda

SUMMARY Different countries embarked on the journey of Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation (REDD), with great expectations. Some countries have enjoyed the benefit of implementing several pilots, and thus, an assessment of projects' processes and outcomes is critical for learning how REDD+ can be achieved. Unfortunately, for Uganda the process has proved to be much slower, with only a few cases to learn from. The implementation process, achievements and challenges for a carbon offset project in Ongo community forest are presented in order to share experiences. The key achievements include formalization of the governance institutions, securing land rights and forest restoration. The bureaucratic process of gazetting community forests and the ambiguity of the payment scheme were key challenges. The success of REDD+ in Uganda rests crucially on documenting and sharing of experiences across pilot projects and similar initiatives so that we learn more rapidly and effectively.

Nothing succeeds like success narratives: a case of conservation and development in the time of REDD

ABSTRACTThis article provides a case study of a project in Kondoa, Tanzania under the programme Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD). It demonstrates how a success narrative came to dominate presentations about the project as a multi-win involving not only climate change mitigation and biodiversity conservation, but also benefits for local people and poverty reduction. Based on repeated fieldwork using qualitative methods, we find that there is lack of evidence to substantiate the success claims. These claims are in particular based on the assertion that a component of ‘conservation agriculture’ was successfully implemented as compensation for forest enclosure. Gaps between claims and evidence are often exhibited in the scholarship on political ecologies of conservation in Africa, as well as by observers of development aid projects. But how can such gaps be explained? We suggest taking the interests of the actors behind the project as a point of departure, including how individuals as well as organisations have stakes in marketing a success narrative. Furthermore, we argue that an unsubstantiated success narrative of an aid project can be maintained only when there is a lack of structures to ensure independent and adequate examinations of the project by evaluators and researchers. In this case, Norway was the funder of the project, and as the dominant funder of REDD, the Norwegian government has a particular interest in reproducing REDD success narratives, since the credibility of the country’s climate mitigation policy depends on REDD being a success. In addition, the case study demonstrates how ‘success projects’ emerge in the wake of new development fads.

Why REDD will Fail

Why REDD will Fail

Stakeholder Participation in REDD+ Readiness Activities for Three Collaborative Projects in Lao PDR

A key challenge for reducing emission from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD) in developing countries is to balance the power of various stakeholders in decision making. This study explores the forms of stakeholder participation in the implementation of three pilot projects in Laos, with a focus on who actually makes decisions on project activities. We found that stakeholder roles in making decisions were imbalanced. The central government and development partner organizations were the ones who actually fulfill the roles of decision-makers in most project activities. Although local communities were not the key stakeholders in decision making in most activities, their roles seem to have increased in the activities where participatory approaches were applied. Participation of the private sector, non-governmental organizations, academic and research institutes and mass organizations was limited. Opportunities to reach decision-makers regarding project activities came through service contract agreements. Our findings suggest that an understanding of who fulfills the key roles will support a decentralization of decision making by balancing power and redistributing the roles from dominant to weaker stakeholders. In addition, the private sector’s participation may enhance opportunities to harmonize their investments for supporting REDD+ development and reduce the negative impacts on the forests and the environment.

Debating REDD+ and its implications: reply to Angelsen et al.

Debating REDD+ and its implications: reply to Angelsen et al.

Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD) and Access and Exclusion: Obstacles and Opportunities in Cambodia and Laos

IntroductionThe Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD) framework is being developed to reduce carbon emissions into the atmosphere due to deforestation and forest degradation. Phelps et al. (2010) have, however, raised concerns that REDD could cause the recentralization of forest lands in so-called developing through providing central governments and international players with increased control over forests, thus potentially seriously setting back efforts to institute more locally sensitive decentralized models of forest management. They argue that over the last quarter century many non-industrialized countries have adopted more decentralized forms of resource management, hard fought reforms that have given many local forest users increased rights and responsibilities, at least over forests of lower economic value.While the extent to which locals have been allocated rights and responsibilities in association with forest management varies considerably (see Hall et al. 2011; Ribot 1999; 2004; McCarthy 2001; Badola 1998; Fisher 1998; Vandergeest 1996), at least the rhetoric of the desirability to substantially increase the participation of local users in forest management has advanced considerably in recent decades. This has frequently translated into more agency for local people, although there are often important trade-offs between sustainability and local benefits when decentralization occurs (Jagger et al. 2005). In addition, devolving control in cases when local elites are able to capture benefits at the expense of other local resource users can be counter-productive (Barr et al. 2006; McCarthy 2001; 2004; Hutchcroft 2001), thus necessitating careful consideration of the circumstances surrounding particular cases. Still, overall efforts to devolve power to local resource users have resulted in better forest protection and increased benefits for local people (Persha et al. 2011; Agrawal and Ostrom 2008; Agrawal and Gibson 1999; Ribot 1999).Crucially, the shift to increasing local forest management rights and responsibilities has largely been driven by two main arguments. The first is ethical, or rights-based, and is founded on the recognition that local people have often been severely and unfairly disenfranchised by governments, and that locals therefore deserve to gain significant rights and responsibilities over the lands and forests that they have long depended on for their livelihoods. This position asserts that governments and others have a moral obligation to rectify the serious wrongs that have been imposed on local and especially indigenous forest users, and that empowering people is the only ethically appropriate thing to do, regardless of whether such changes lead to improved forest management or not.1)The second argument is fundamentally pragmatic, and is grounded on the fact that past efforts by distant actors, both governmental and private, to effectively manage forest resources have often failed to ensure sustainable management and protection (Ribot 1999; Agrawal and Ostrom 2008). Many have argued that decentralizing management and empowering local users to significantly benefit from forest resources is often the most efficient and cost-effective way to manage forests. Being participatory and transparent is particularly crucial (Cortula and Mayers 2009; Somanathan et al. 2009). Those taking this position frequently point out that central governments, especially in poorer countries, rarely have the resources or convictions to effectively protect forests from various threats (Ribot 1999; 2004; Ostrom 1990), although government recognition and support for local people in gaining rights to use and manage natural resources frequently remains critical, as without it limiting or excluding users may not be feasible (Ostrom 1990; Baird and Flaherty 2005).At present the increased global focus on utilizing REDD (including REDD+) to fund forest protection represents a potential threat to the trend in forest management decentralization, as argued by Phelps et al. …

Better Safe than Sorry? Indigenous Peoples, Carbon Cowboys and the Governance of REDD in the Amazon

Indigenous peoples around the world and particularly in Latin America are struggling to strengthen their control over land and the territories they inhabit. The strengthening of rights has come as a result of multiple processes both at national and global levels, in which the role and responsibilities of states have been transformed. Transnational processes challenge the presumed association between nation-states, sovereignty and territoriality. One of these challenges comes from international initiatives such as Reducing emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation (REDD). Global REDD in its broadness and national REDD in its uncertain early phases represent opportunities for private actors to negotiate with holders of land rights. In the Amazon, indigenous peoples’ territories, given their wide extension and that they are mainly forested areas, become interesting for all sorts of REDD actors. However, despite legal and rhetoric recognition of indigenous land rights, effective recognition is still lacking. In this paper, I will focus on one particular type of actor, so-called carbon cowboys – a term coined by journalists to signify actors who are willing to push the limits of established negotiation mechanisms to gain control over forest areas. I will focus on carbon cowboys’ practices and the responses from indigenous peoples in Colombia to highlight a common claim across the region, namely better state presence and regulation. The response from indigenous peoples’ organizations indicates that although territorial control is an important achievement, some form of state intervention is required to protect their rights in an uncertain REDD terrain.

Export Tariffs Combined with Public Investments As a Forest Conservation Policy Instrument

The forest conservation policy instrument REDD (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation) is designed to compensate governments of tropical countries for their efforts to conserve forests. Food insecure countries that are specialized in agriculture and have weak institutions, are likely to face difficulties to enforce forest conservation. This article explores how far export tariffs on agricultural goods combined with public investments, could be used as a forest conservation policy mix in such contexts. We first show empirically that structural constraints to forest conservation policies are particularly pronounced in one third of countries where REDD programs are planned to be rolled out. We then develop a two sector competing land use model with a domestic food producing and an exporting agricultural sector. We show that it is possible to combine export tariffs with public investments such that deforestation decreases, while agricultural production levels and food prices remain constant.

The role of remote sensing in REDD+ MRV

The role of remote sensing in REDD+ MRV

Framework of REDD+

Framework of REDD+

DeShazo, Jessica L., Chandra Lal Pandey, and Zachary A. Smith. 2016. Why REDD will fail. New York: Routledge. Reviewed by Karen E. Allen.

DeShazo, Jessica L., Chandra Lal Pandey, and Zachary A. Smith. 2016. Why REDD will fail. New York: Routledge. Reviewed by Karen E. Allen.

Strengthening inter-disciplinary and inter-ideological collaboration on REDD: A cultural theory approach

Abstract The United Nations’ REDD (reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation) mechanism has provoked sharply divergent assessments in the academic community. This paper employs Cultural Theory to investigate how a sample of scholars from different disciplinary backgrounds and ideological stances evaluate REDD, and the extent to which these sampled scholars reach out to other disciplines and ideologies to formulate REDD policy solutions. A sample of academic assessments of REDD from three groups of disciplines (ecological/political economics, environmental sciences, and anthropology) was analysed in terms of the implied ideological stance of the author (‘hierarchist,’ ‘individualist,’ and ‘egalitarian’) and the extent to which the author’s policy prescriptions offered concessions to ideological stances other than the authors own. Sampled authors from ecological/political economics and environmental sciences shared a hierarchist orientation, and were willing to make concessions to individualists but not to egalitarians. Sampled authors from anthropology shared an egalitarian orientation, and were unwilling to make significant concessions to any other ideological style. Disagreements on the issues of hegemony and eco-colonialism impeded the theoretically possible collaboration between disciplines in formulating suitably “clumsy” REDD policies that satisfy multiple value systems. This paper shows how Cultural Theory could be used as an effective heuristic device in policy-making processes for identifying some of the ideological divergences which underlie disagreements on REDD, and finding spaces for concession and collaboration on this and other hotly contested areas of environmental policy.

Commodification of natural resources and forest ecosystem services: examining implications for forest protection

SUMMARYThrough the commodification of nature, the framing of the environment as a ‘natural resource’ or ‘ecosystem service’ has become increasingly prominent in international environmental governance. The economic capture approach is promoted by international organizations such as the United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP) through Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD), Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES) and The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB). This paper will inquire as to how forest protection is related to issues of social and ecological justice, exploring whether forest exploitation based on the top-down managerial model fosters an unequitable distribution of resources. Both top-down and community-based approaches to forest protection will be critically examined and a more inclusive ethical framework to forest protection will be offered. The findings of this examination indicate the need for a renewed focus on existing examples of good practice in addressing both social and ecological need, as well as the necessity to address the less comfortable problem of where compromise appears less possible. The conclusion argues for the need to consider ecological justice as an important aspect of more socially orientated environmental justice for forest protection.

Indigenous peoples and REDD+ safeguards: rights as resistance or as disciplinary inclusion in the green economy?

This article critically evaluates the discourses concerning the social impacts of Reducing Emission from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD ) carbon offset schemes on people living in and around forest areas. In particular, the article critically evaluates two of the strategies proposed to mitigate potential social risks from REDD and to promote benefits to forest peoples and indigenous peoples: tenure reform and processes of free, prior and informed consent (FPIC). The article suggests that these strategies may not lead to the outcomes forest peoples and their advocates are seeking and provide only constrained tools for contesting REDD projects. This article suggests these strategies may instead operate to facilitate the greater disciplinary inclusion of forest peoples in the so-called ‘green economy.’