Reducing Emissions From Deforestation And Degradation Research Articles

Dynamics of land use land cover and its impact on carbon stocks in Sub-Saharan Africa: an overview

Land use land cover change (LULCC) is a global environmental trend that plays a key role in worldwide environmental change and sustainable development. Substantial disturbance resulting from natural and anthropogenic activities has been witnessed in sub-Sahara Africa (SSA) over the last four decades, which is mostly due to the increasing population being experienced in Africa. One-third of emitted greenhouse gases (GHG) are attributable to LULCC and agricultural activities most especially deforestation. Soil carbon sequestration has been considered as a possible strategy to counterbalance carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions and mitigate global climate change, driven by rising concentrations of GHG in the atmosphere and global increase in temperature. The role of tropical Africa's forests in mitigating climate change has been widely acknowledged under the global treaties' Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD) initiatives. More than two-thirds of the SSA population rely on forests and woodlands for their livelihoods. Despite the importance of forests, Sub-Saharan Africa, and even the entire African continent, is experiencing an acceleration in deforestation, leading to diminished ecosystem resilience. Subsistence and commercial agriculture accounted for 10% of total forest land loss in Africa (approximately 75 million ha) between 1990 and 2010. As a result, agricultural expansion alone accounts for 70–80% of Africa's total forest loss. The challenges of implementing a policy to reduce emissions from deforestation and forest degradation, and foster conservation, sustainable management of forests, and enhancement of forest carbon stocks (REDD +) in the SSA includes interactions between a number of anthropogenic-induced factors and challenges. These factors, which are of various types (economic, institutional, etc.), cause loss of forest and forest degradation; and the challenges arising from finance, institutional and technical expertise hinder the appropriate design and implementation of national forest monitoring schemes. These challenges must be adequately addressed in order to accurately quantify the carbon budgets and implement an appropriate forest and carbon monitoring system for REDD + in SSA. Therefore, in meeting the REDD + initiatives in SSA, integrated land use management approach that enhances soil carbon sequestration potential should be given considerable systematic and scientific attention. In addition, political, socioeconomic and institutional factors that hinder sustainable forest management and land use system management must be addressed collectively.

Community Forest Carbon Assessment in Eastern Thailand from Forest Conservation Management by Local People

One measure of increasing carbon sequestration areas is community forest conservation, which is the way to maintain common forest areas linking with human livelihoods. The first step towards implementing incentive mechanism of Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD) at the national level is to assess the amount of forest carbon. This is important for REDD inspections and subsequent funding from public funds or carbon markets. The objective is to find the carbon stock in soil, aboveground and belowground biomass for estimated carbon price in the community forest. The study site was carried out at Ban Phrao community forest, Sa Kaeo Province, East of Thailand. Field data were collected from temporary 16 plots the diversity of plant species, to assess forest biomass carbon storage based on the allometric equation, and to estimate the proportion of carbon contents in plant and soil by using CHN analyzer.

Combining Deforestation and Species Distribution Models to Improve Measures of Chimpanzee Conservation Impacts of REDD: A Case Study from Ntakata Mountains, Western Tanzania

Projects to reduce emissions from deforestation and degradation (REDD) are designed to reduce carbon emissions through avoided deforestation and degradation, and in many cases, to produce additional community and biodiversity conservation co-benefits. While these co-benefits can be significant, quantifying conservation impacts has been challenging, and most projects use simple species presence to demonstrate positive biodiversity impact. Some of the same tools applied in the quantification of climate mitigation benefits have relevance and potential application to estimating co-benefits for biodiversity conservation. In western Tanzania, most chimpanzees live outside of national park boundaries, and thus face threats from human activity, including competition for suitable habitat. Through a case study of the Ntakata Mountains REDD project in western Tanzania, we demonstrate a combined application of deforestation modelling with species distribution models to assess forest conservation benefits in terms of avoided carbon emissions and improved chimpanzee habitat. The application of such tools is a novel approach that we argue permits the better design of future REDD projects for biodiversity co-benefits. This approach also enables project developers to produce the more manageable, accurate and cost-effective monitoring, reporting and verification of project impacts that are critical to verification under carbon standards.

Grand Challenges Cannot Be Treated in Isolation

If not well understood, linkages among the grand challenges of poverty alleviation, environment protection, and climate mitigation could lead to paralyzed policies and even conflicting consequences. Quick changes need to happen at the institutional, societal, and scientific levels to maximize the synergy of addressing these challenges instead of treating them in isolation.

Sustainable Intensification in a Forest-agriculture Frontier Landscape: Analysis of C Capture and Sequestration Potential Under Two Different Scenarios in Binga District, Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe has been experiencing widespread land degradation, soil erosion, increasing aridity and temperatures that, coupled with population growth, pose a menace to agricultural production and prospective food security. As a win-win strategy, conservation agriculture (CA) is being promoted across the country with the objective to restore damaged ecosystems, curb and revert environmental depletion and guarantee food security. Binga district, where smallholders’ cropland expansion has been identified as the main driver of deforestation, has been one of the first recipient of CA-supporting projects and is the current beneficiary of a newly implemented Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD)+ project. In light of the controversial forest-sparing/forest-clearing effect of sustainable intensification, the present study tried to assess how the adoption of CA may influence deforestation rates in the area and related C stocks under two hypothetical future scenarios. A pool of experts was consulted with the objective to quantify land cover changes in 2040 and the model InVEST was used to compute the district C stocks under the two considered scenarios. Findings show that the rate of CA adoption in Binga is very limited, partly failing to address the problem of agriculture-driven deforestation and widespread farmland degradation. Consequently, both scenarios portray a district doomed to a poverty-environmental degradation vicious cycle that, according to experts, requires a holistic approach to be eased.

Local Perceptions of the Livelihood and Conservation Benefits of Small-Scale Livelihood Projects in Rural Madagascar

Small-scale livelihood projects are widely used in forest conservation and Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD)+ initiatives; however, there is limited information on how effective these projects are at delivering livelihood and conservation benefits. We explored local perceptions of the effectiveness of small-scale livelihood projects in delivering livelihood and conservation benefits in eastern Madagascar. Our results suggest that small-scale livelihood projects vary greatly in their ability to deliver livelihood benefits, and that the type of livelihood project (e.g., agriculture, beekeeping, fish farming, or livestock production) has a significant impact on which livelihood benefits are delivered. Many small-scale livelihood projects, regardless of project type, are perceived to contribute to forest conservation efforts. Our study highlights that small-scale livelihood projects have the potential to contribute to both improved livelihoods and enhanced forest conservation, but also illustrates the need for more information on the factors that lead to project success.

The sensitivity of the costs of reducing emissions from deforestation and degradation (REDD) to future socioeconomic drivers and its implications for mitigation policy design

Climate change mitigation policies for the land use, land use change, and forestry (LULUCF) sector are commonly assessed based on marginal abatement cost curves (MACC) derived from optimization models or engineering approaches. Yet, little is known about the space of validity of MACCs and how they are influenced by changes in main underlying drivers. In this study, we apply the Global Forest Model (G4M) to explore the sensitivity of MACCs to variation of socioeconomic drivers of deforestation, afforestation, and forest management activities. Particularly, three key factors are considered: (I) wood price, as an indicator of timber market developments; (II) agricultural land price, as a proxy representing the developments on agricultural markets; and (III) corruption coefficient, representing the progress in institutional development and measuring abatement costs use efficiency. The results indicate that the MACCs are more sensitive to the corruption coefficient than to agricultural land price and wood price. Furthermore, we find that the MACCs are more robust with high carbon dioxide (CO2) price and that the sensitivity of the MACCs is higher at low CO2 prices. In general, it can be concluded that when assessing medium-term mitigation policies characterized by low CO2 prices, MACCs need to be developed in-line with institutions currently in place. When designing long-term mitigation policy characterized by high CO2 prices, the role of the analyzed drivers in MACCs estimation is less important.

Assessing Global Forest Land-Use Change by Object-Based Image Analysis

Consistent estimates of forest land-use and change over time are important for understanding and managing human activities on the Earth’s surface, parameterizing models used for global and regional climate change analyses and a critical component of reporting requirements faced by countries as part of the international effort to Reduce Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD). In this study, object-based image analysis methods were applied to a global sample of Landsat imagery from years 1990, 2000 and 2005 to produce a land cover classification suitable for expert human review, revision and translation into forest and non-forest land use classes. We describe and analyse here the derivation and application of an automated, multi-date image segmentation, neural network classification method and independent, automated change detection procedure to all sample sites. The automated results were compared against expert human interpretation and found to have an overall agreement of ~76% for a 5-class land cover classification and ~88% agreement for change/no-change assessment. The establishment of a 5 ha minimum mapping unit affected the ability of the segmentation methods to detect small or irregularly-shaped land cover change and, combined with aggregation rules that favour forest, added bias to the automated results. However, the OBIA methods provided an efficient means of processing over 11,000 sample sites, 33,000 Landsat 20 × 20 km sample tiles and more than 6.5 million individual polygons over three epochs and adequately facilitated human expert review, revision and conversion to a global forest land-use product.

Fair pricing of REDD-based emission offsets under risk preferences and benefit-sharing

We consider a risk-aware forest owner and electricity producer evaluating the Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD)-based offsets with a benefit-sharing mechanism under uncertain CO2 prices. For a range of CO2 prices and respective risks perceived by the forest owner (seller) and electricity producer (buyer), we apply a model of fair (indifference) pricing. Parties’ risk preferences are reflected by exponential utility functions. The potentially contracted amounts of REDD offsets are analyzed under various risk preferences and for different benefit-sharing opportunities. Our results show that a risk-averse attitude considerably increases the contracted offset amounts (compared to risk-neutral case) and, therefore, creates a higher potential for REDD implementation. We demonstrate possible situations, when parties could agree on a certain range of REDD contracts, e.g. smaller amounts of REDD offsets are traded for higher prices, and larger amounts – for lower prices, although contracting a moderate amount at a moderate price is impossible. The suggested benefit-sharing mechanism can help increase contracted offset amounts. Our modeling results highlight two ways to promote higher REDD participation: (i) strengthening the carbon price signal to reveal risk-averse behavior of energy producers, and (ii) implementing the mechanism of benefit/risk sharing between the REDD consumer and supplier.

Economy-wide impacts of REDD when there is political influence

National-level strategies for reducing emissions from deforestation and degradation (REDD), financed by international transfers, have begun to emerge. A three-sector model is developed to explore the economy-wide effects of two policies implemented by a government participating in REDD that differ in how they bring together incentives and benefit sharing: an incentive payment scheme where these are intrinsically linked and taxes where they are separated. Two sectors utilise forest as an input to production, one in which forest is substitutable for labour, producing a carbon externality, and one in which forest and labour are complements and where forest is used sustainably. Two important effects determine model outcomes. First, the government factors in general equilibrium effects when determining the efficient payment level. This implies that the level of international transfers is not fully passed through to the forest-using sectors. Second, even though the sustainable sector receives no incentive payment it can increase in size through the effect of REDD payments on markets. With political influence, where incentives and benefit sharing are linked the forest-using sectors may lobby for lower payment rates for themselves in order to create a larger international transfer. Where there is a separation between incentives and benefit-sharing this effect disappears. The findings indicate that REDD may be less cost-effective than envisioned at the international level.

Cost-Effective Payments for Reducing Emissions from Deforestation Under Uncertainty

The decision of whether to retain forest or convert to another land use is affected by uncertainty over future land-use returns. This paper examines the design of conservation payments to landowners under uncertainty. Payments are indexed to the returns from forest conversion (agriculture), or to a market value associated with forest non-use benefits. Payment size depends on the dependency structure between the two competing returns and their relative volatility. In simulating payments for reducing emissions from deforestation and degradation (REDD) in Brazil, low correlation and greater volatility are shown to have opposing effects on landowners’ returns from market-based carbon payments.

Conservation Payments under Uncertainty

The decision of whether to retain forest or convert to another land use is affected by uncertainty over future land use returns. This paper examines the design of conservation payments to landowners under uncertainty. Payments are either indexed to the returns from deforestation (agriculture), or to a market value associated with forest nonuse benefits. Payment size depends on the degree of correlation between payments and agricultural returns, and their relative volatility. Market-based payments for reducing emissions from deforestation and degradation (REDD) are simulated for Brazilian soybean growers. Payments indexed to carbon prices are larger than those indexed to international soybean prices. <i>(JEL Q23, Q24)</i>

Monetary incentives to avoid deforestation under the Reducing emissions from deforestation and degradation (REDD)+ climate change mitigation scheme in Tanzania.

The paper estimates and compares the level of Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD+) payments required to compensate for the opportunity costs (OCs) of stopping the conversion of montane forest and miombo woodlands into cropland in two agro-ecological zones in Morogoro Region in Tanzania. Data collected from 250 households were used for OC estimation. REDD+ payment was estimated as the net present value (NPV) of agricultural rent and forest rent during land clearing, minus net returns from sustainable wood harvest, divided by the corresponding reduction in carbon stock. The median compensation required to protect the current carbon stock in the two vegetation types ranged from USD 1 tCO2e−1 for the montane forest to USD 39 tCO2e−1 for the degraded miombo woodlands, of which up to 70 % and 16 %, respectively, were for compensating OCs from forest rent during land clearing. The figures were significantly higher when the cost of farmers’ own labor was not taken into account in NPV calculations. The results also highlighted that incentives in the form of sustainable harvests could offset up to 55 % of the total median OC to protect the montane forest and up to 45 % to protect the miombo woodlands, depending on the wage rates. The findings suggest that given the possible factors that can potentially affect estimates of REDD+ payments, avoiding deforestation of the montane forest would be feasible under the REDD+ scheme. However, implementation of the policy in villages around the miombo area would require very high compensation levels.

Does Forest Certification in Developing Countries Have Environmental Benefits? Insights from Mexican Corrective Action Requests

Certification is intended to improve management of and environmental outcomes in developing country forests. Yet we know little about whether and how it actually generates such benefits. To address that question, we analyze 1,162 corrective action requests (CARs) issued after third-party inspections of a diverse set of 35 forests in Mexico certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC). CARs detail the changes in procedures and on-the-ground conditions that forest managers must make to either obtain or retain certification. Our analysis indicates that a relatively small proportion of CARs required major changes in on-the-ground environmental conditions. The majority focused on social and legal issues, and the vast majority called for only minor procedural changes. In general, forest managers complied with CARs expeditiously, and the number of CARs they received declined over time. We hypothesize that these findings were at least partly driven by the tendency of FSC certification to attract already-sustainably managed forests and by the governance challenges of community forestry in developing countries. One implication is that policymakers using FSC certification to generate environmental benefits may want to target forests with less-than-stellar management — particularly in the case of reduced emissions from deforestation and degradation (REDD) initiatives that emphasize improvement beyond business-as-usual — and to build the community and legal institutions needed for sustainable forestry.

Delivering community benefits through REDD +: Lessons from Joint Forest Management in Zambia

In implementing reducing emissions from deforestation and degradation (REDD), significant attention is being paid to ensuring that communities stand to benefit. Safeguards to protect local people's rights and interests have been formulated in response concerns over the potential negative impact on communities of forest preservation. To fulfil safeguards, many sub-Saharan African countries are looking to community-based natural resource management (CBNRM). Current critiques of CBNRM projects outline the importance of project design and policy context in shaping whether or not communities actually stand to benefit. This paper explores these aspects in a case study of Joint Forest Management (JFM) in Zambia, and examines the role of Zambia's REDD preparedness programme in shaping them. The case study was evaluated using stakeholder and policy document analyses, informed by interviews, and tied into the broader forest governance network. The findings highlight the way in which the politics and policies of forest governance in Zambia shape the on-the-ground JFM project and influence community benefits. In the case studied, even with careful local-level project design, JFM would be hindered in its delivery of REDD safeguards. Therefore, for REDD to deliver community safeguards, it must be considered as a broader process of political and governance change.

Land-use Change Modeling in a Brazilian Indigenous Reserve: Construction of a Reference Scenario for the Suruí REDD Project

Interactions of indigenous peoples with the sur- rounding non-indigenous society are often the main sources of social and environmental changes in indigenous lands. In the case of the Surui in Brazilian Amazonia's arc of defores- tation, these influences are leading to deforestation and log- ging that threaten both the forest and the sustainability of the group's productive systems. The Surui tribal leadership has initiated a proposal for an economic alternative based on Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD). This has become a key case in global discussions on indigenous participation in REDD. The realism of the baseline scenario that serves as a reference for determining the amount of deforestation and emissions avoided by the proposed project is critical to assuring the reality of the carbon benefits claimed. Here we examine the SIMSURUI model, its input parameters and the implications of the Surui Forest Carbon Project for indigenous participation in climate mitiga- tion efforts.

Relationships between tree species diversity and above-ground biomass in Central African rainforests: implications for REDD

SUMMARYTropical forests are both important stores of carbon and among the most biodiverse ecosystems on the planet. Reducing emissions from deforestation and degradation (REDD) schemes are designed to mitigate the impacts of climate change, by conserving tropical forests threatened by deforestation or degradation. REDD schemes also have the potential to contribute significantly to biodiversity conservation efforts within tropical forests, however biodiversity conservation and carbon sequestration need to be aligned more closely for this potential to be realized. This paper analyses the relationship between tree species diversity and above-ground biomass (AGB) derived from 1-ha tree plots in Central African rainforests. There was a weakly significant correlation between tree biomass and tree species diversity (r = 0.21, p = 0.03), and a significantly higher mean species diversity in plots with larger AGB estimates (M = 44.38 species in the top eight plots, compared to M = 35.22 in the lower eight plots). In these Central African plots, the relationship between tree species diversity and AGB appeared to be highly variable; nonetheless, high species diversity may often be related to higher biomass and, in such cases, REDD schemes may enhance biodiversity by targeting species diverse forests.

Deforestation in private lands in Brazil and policy implications for REDD programs: an empirical assessment of land use changes within farms using an econometric model

SUMMARY Within the perspective of evolving negotiations for Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD), the opportunity costs of deforestation are regarded as the basis for constructing a REDD mitigation cost curve. This paper presents a land-use model that measures the impact of economic and physical variables on farmers' decisions about the allocation of their land among competing uses in Brazil. It is based on a multi-output land allocation model with agricultural land as a fixed input that is to be allocated. For the first time such a land allocation model has been estimated that explicitly separates all main competing uses for forest in Brazil — soybeans, sugarcane and pasture. Our results suggest a clear substitution effect between land allocation for forest and soybeans, and for forest and pasture. The results presented here contribute to the understanding of farmers' land use decisions while providing an estimate of the opportunity costs of deforestation at the county level in Brazil.

The impact of reducing emissions from deforestation and degradation (REDD) on forest-dependent livelihoods by gender in Tanzania and the role of the institutional framework for equitable benefits.

Tanzania has been receiving significant funding from donor countries for the implementation of programmes to reduce emissions from deforestation and degradation (REDD). REDD is seen as an opportunity to enhance conservation and livelihoods. But what is the impact of REDD on gender? This is an area of inquiry that has not been critically looked into. This study was an attempt towards filling this information gap. It was conducted in Kilosa District. A total of 294 households were selected randomly for interviews. There was also consultation with focus groups and key informants. Structured and semi-structured questionnaires were used to gather information. The data was analysed using statistical and livelihoods models. The findings reveal a high level of dependence on the forest for livelihoods by the communities but nevertheless they were in favour of the REDD programmes if the programmes will enhance their livelihoods and they will be fully involved in managing the programmes. Male respondents were more interested in knowing a period to wait before they could start benefiting from the programmes while women were more concerned about the sustainability of the benefits they would receive. We conclude that for the REDD programmes to be successful, gender issues must be identified and mainstreamed.

Simulated resilience of tropical rainforests to CO2-induced climate change

Assessing potential future carbon loss from tropical forests is important for evaluating the efficacy of programmes for reducing emissions from deforestation and degradation (REDD). An exploration of results from 22 climate models in conjunction with a land surface scheme suggests that in the Americas, Africa and Asia, the resilience of tropical forests to climate change is higher than expected, although uncertainties are large.