132,107 research outputs found
Assessment of existing global financial initiatives and monitoring aspects of carbon sinks in forest ecosystems – The issue of REDD
Full text linkThe objective of this report is to explore the topic of carbon sinks in forest ecosystems, focusing on the issue of REDD. The report covers different angles: i) an overview of existing financial and methodological initiatives that currently invest in preparation and capacity building of potential REDD host countries, but also in REDD pilot projects, ii) the preparedness of potential host countries (Bolivia, Cameroon, Costa Rica and Sri Lanka) to establish baselines and implement a REDD system that contributes to sustainable development, and iii) the funding structure and channels of a major investor country (Norway). The focus of our analysis lies on two REDD-related issues; baseline establishment and sustainable development.http://www.focali.s
REDD in Design: Assessment of Planned First-Generation Activities in Indonesia
Full text linkMuch of the guidance about potential impacts of reduce emissions from deforestation and degradation (REDD) speculates how efforts would be implemented and draws lessons from other mechanisms, such as payments for ecosystem services (PES). However, with few REDD activities underway, little evidence indicates whether REDD projects are meeting these expectations. This article examines 17 REDD interventions under development in Indonesia, reports trends in project design, and assesses the extent to which interventions follow the model of pro-poor PES schemes. I find that a dominant type of REDD intervention follows a concession model and seeks to prevent large-scale conversion to plantations by outside actors. Although these projects fit the definition of PES at the scale at which the environmental service is transacted, PES characteristics are not a primary component of on-the-ground implementation. Small-holder actors are recognized as essential to the long-term success of the intervention, but are not the main focus.climate, climate change, REDD, carbon, forests, deforestation, degradation, emissions, mitigation, forest carbon, Indonesia, Kalimantan, Borneo, avoided deforestation, UNFCCC, Kyoto Protocol, PES, concession
Biodiversity monitoring protocols for REDD+: can a one-size-fits-all approach really work?
Full text linkDevelopment of a standard monitoring protocol for assessing the impacts of REDD+ (Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation) projects on biodiversity is desirable. Drawing on the conservation literature and our personal experience, we review whether such a one-size-fits-all approach is justifiable on scientific and practical grounds. We conclude that achieving a model biodiversity monitoring protocol suitable for use in all potential REDD+ sites is probably an unrealistic objective, owing to the huge differences among the world's forests in terms of structure, species composition, ecological interactions and ecosystem services provided. Moreover, to provide useful feedback for conservation managers, ecological monitoring programmes must be designed around a project's conservation goals, which will vary from project to project, owing to these differences in forest ecology and human threats faced. Thus, site-specific biodiversity monitoring programmes are needed. No single monitoring method is likely to be optimal, or even suitable for use, in all REDD+ forests. Instead, we suggest that a standard approach be adopted, in which ecological monitoring research is (i) designed to reflect a project's biodiversity conservation goals; (ii) based upon scientifically-tractable, policy-relevant questions regarding the impacts of management interventions on the ecosystem; (iii) founded on detailed knowledge of the habitat type in question; (iv) includes monitoring of a number of indicators, as appropriate to the project; and (v) defines appropriate reference/baseline conditions against which progress can be assessed
Effects of Low-cost Offsets on Energy Investment -New Perspectives on REDD-
Full text linkTropical deforestation is one of the major sources of carbon emissions, but the Kyoto Protocol presently excludes avoiding these specific emissions to fulfill stabilization targets. Since the 13th Conference of the Parties (COP) to the UNFCCC in 2007, where the need for policy incentives for the reduction of emissions from deforestation and degradation (REDD) was first officially recognized, the focus of this debate has shifted to issues of implementation and methodology. One question is how REDD would be financed, which could be solved by integrating REDD credits into existing carbon markets. However, concern has been voiced regarding the effects that the availability of cheap REDD credits might have on energy investments and the development of clean technology. On the other hand, investors and producers are also worried that emissions trading schemes like the one installed in Europe might deter investment into new technologies and harm profits of existing plants due to fluctuations in the price of emissions permits. This paper seeks to contribute to this discussion by developing a real options model, where there is an option to invest in less carbon-intensive energy technology and an option to purchase credits on REDD, which you will exercise or not depending on the future evolution of CO2 prices. In this way, unresolved questions can still be addressed at a later stage, while producers and investors hold REDD options to maintain flexibility for later decisions. We find that investment in cleaner technology is not significantly affected if REDD options are priced as a derivative of CO2 permits. Indeed, the availability of REDD options helps to smooth out price fluctuations that might arise from permit trading and thus decreases risk for the producer - thereby being a complement to permit trading rather than an obstacle undermining cap-and-trade.Real Options, Energy Investment, Cap-And-Trade, REDD
Dealing with locally-driven degradation: A quick start option under REDD+
No full textThe paper reviews a number of challenges associated with reducing degradation and its related emissions through national approaches to REDD+ under UNFCCC policy. It proposes that in many countries, it may in the short run be easier to deal with the kinds of degradation that result from locally driven community over-exploitation of forest for livelihoods, than from selective logging or fire control. Such degradation is low-level, but chronic, and is experienced over very large forest areas. Community forest management programmes tend to result not only in reduced degradation, but also in forest enhancement; moreover they are often popular, and do not require major political shifts. In principle these approaches therefore offer a quick start option for REDD+. Developing reference emissions levels for low-level locally driven degradation is difficult however given that stock losses and gains are too small to be identified and measured using remote sensing, and that in most countries there is little or no forest inventory data available. We therefore propose that forest management initiatives at the local level, such as those promoted by community forest management programmes, should monitor, and be credited for, only the net increase in carbon stock over the implementation period, as assessed by ground level surveys at the start and end of the period. This would also resolve the problem of nesting (ensuring that all credits are accounted for against the national reference emission level), since communities and others at the local level would be rewarded only for increased sequestration, while the national reference emission level would deal only with reductions in emissions from deforestation and degradatio
Options for monitoring and estimating historical carbon emissions from forest degradation in the context of REDD+
No full textAbstract Measuring forest degradation and related forest carbon stock changes is more challenging than measuring deforestation since degradation implies changes in the structure of the forest and does not entail a change in land use, making it less easily detectable through remote sensing. Although we anticipate the use of the IPCC guidance under the United Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), there is no one single method for monitoring forest degradation for the case of REDD+ policy. In this review paper we highlight that the choice depends upon a number of factors including the type of degradation, available historical data, capacities and resources, and the potentials and limitations of various measurement and monitoring approaches. Current degradation rates can be measured through field data (i.e. multi-date national forest inventories and permanent sample plot data, commercial forestry data sets, proxy data from domestic markets) and/or remote sensing data (i.e. direct mapping of canopy and forest structural changes or indirect mapping through modelling approaches), with the combination of techniques providing the best options. Developing countries frequently lack consistent historical field data for assessing past forest degradation, and so must rely more on remote sensing approaches mixed with current field assessments of carbon stock changes. Historical degradation estimates will have larger uncertainties as it will be difficult to determine their accuracy. However improving monitoring capacities for systematic forest degradation estimates today will help reduce uncertainties even for historical estimates.</p
Letter, J. C. Redd to Dean Wallace (D. W.) Colvard, March 18, 1963
Full text linkLetter from J. C. Redd to the Mississippi Institutions of Higher Learning Board of Trustees, applauding Dean Colvard\u27s leadership.https://scholarsjunction.msstate.edu/ua-msu-loyola-1963/1014/thumbnail.jp
Linking Reduced Deforestation and a Global Carbon Market: Impacts on Costs, Financial Flows, and Technological Innovation
Full text linkDiscussions of tropical deforestation are currently at the forefront of climate change policy negotiations at national, regional, and international levels. This paper analyzes the effects of linking Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD) to a global market for greenhouse gas emission reductions. We supplement a global climate-energy-economy model with alternative cost estimates for reducing deforestation emissions in order to examine a global program for stabilizing greenhouse gas concentrations at 550 ppmv of CO2 equivalent. Introducing REDD reduces global forestry emissions through 2050 by 20-22% in the Brazil-only case and by 64-88% in the global REDD scenario. At the same time, REDD lowers the total costs of the climate policy by an estimated 10-25% depending on which tropical countries participate and whether the “banking†of excess credits for use in future periods is allowed. As a result, REDD could enable additional reductions of at least 20 ppmv of CO2-equivalent concentrations with no added costs compared to an energy-sector only policy. The cost savings from REDD are magnified if banking is allowed and there is a need to increase the stringency of global climate policy in the future in response, for example, to new scientific information. Results also indicate that REDD will decrease carbon prices in 2050 by 8-23% with banking and 11-26% without banking. While developing regions, particularly Latin America, gain the value of REDD opportunities, the decrease in the carbon price keeps the value of international carbon market flows relatively stable despite an increase in volumes transacted. We also estimate that REDD generally reduces the total portfolio of investments and research and development of new energy technologies by 1-10%. However, due to impacts on the relative prices of different fossil fuels, REDD has a slight positive estimated effect on investments in coal-related technologies (IGCC and CCS) as well as, in some cases, non-electric energy R&D. This research confirms that integrating REDD into global carbon markets can provide powerful incentives for the preservation of tropical forests while lowering the costs of global climate change protection and providing valuable policy flexibility.Climate change, deforestation, carbon sinks
Linking Reduced Deforestation and a Global Carbon Market: Impacts on Costs, Financial Flows, and Technological Innovation
Full text linkDiscussions over tropical deforestation are currently at the forefront of climate change policy negotiations at national, regional, and international levels. This paper analyzes the effects of linking Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD) to a global market for greenhouse gas emission reductions. We supplement a global climate-energy-economy model with alternative cost estimates for reducing deforestation emissions in order to examine a global program for stabilizing greenhouse gas concentrations at 550 ppmv of CO2 equivalent. Introducing REDD reduces global forestry emissions through 2050 by 20-22% in the Brazil-only case and by 64-88% in the global REDD scenarios. At the same time, REDD lowers the total costs of the climate policy by an estimated 10-25% depending on which tropical countries participate and whether the “banking” of excess credits for use in future periods is allowed. As a result, REDD could enable additional reductions of at least 20 ppmv of CO2-equivalent concentrations with no added costs compared to an energy-sector only policy. The cost savings from REDD are magnified if banking is allowed and there is a need to increase the stringency of global climate policy in the future in response, for example, to new scientific information. Results also indicate that REDD decreases carbon prices in 2050 by 8-23% with banking and 11-26% without banking. While developing regions, particularly Latin America, gain the value of REDD opportunities, the decrease in the carbon price keeps the value of international carbon market flows relatively stable despite an increase in volumes transacted. We also estimate that REDD generally reduces the total portfolio of investments and research and development of new energy technologies by 1-10%. However, due to impacts on the relative prices of different fossil fuels, REDD has a slight positive estimated effect on investments in coal-related technologies (IGCC and CCS) as well as, in some cases, non-electric energy R&D. This research confirms that integrating REDD into global carbon markets can provide powerful incentives for the preservation of tropical forests while lowering the costs of global climate change protection and providing valuable policy flexibility.Carbon market, Climate change, Innovation, Mitigation, Policy costs, Offsets, Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD), Technological change, Tropical deforestation
Evaluation of AWF pilot project for REDD redness in Kondoa district, Tanzania : case of Kolo Hills forest
Full text linkThe continuing loss of forest cover in developing countries, especially in the tropics has become an increasing concern to researchers and policy makers. This concern is a reasonable reflection of the multiple benefits of tropical forests, such as their support of human livelihoods, carbon sequestration, and biodiversity conservation. In addition to its immediate bearing on livelihoods, forests’ role in ecological services as through carbon sequestration has been of great interest. However, human activities like land conversion for agriculture, charcoal production, firewood collection, settlement expansions, excessive logging and wild fires posed a grim threat on forests’ abilities to sequestrate carbon. In responding to this, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) prepared an action plan and road map which includes reduction of Green House Gases (GHGs) through an approach known as Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD). Tanzania is one of nine pilot countries where UN assistance is channeled to test REDD interventions in nine (9) pilot sites as a recent policy response to halting global forest deforestation and degradation, and any resulting greenhouse gas emission which also includes the role of conservation, sustainable management and enhancement of forest carbon stocks. However, still at its infancy a number of challenges are associated with its implementation. Therefore, this study was conducted to assessment/Evaluation of the AWF Pilot Project for REDD Readiness in Kondoa District, Tanzania by taking a case of Kolo Hills forests. Specifically, the study had assessed local peoples’ awareness and perceptions about the intervention, as well as identified alternative sources of livelihoods for forest dependent communities and challenges in implementing the REDD+ initiative. A cross-sectional research design was adopted and a total of 150 respondents were involved from the opted-in and out implementing villages. Results have indicated that the majority of Kondoa residents were aware of the intervention while, majority had reported REDD+ implementing organization, African Wildlife Foundation (AWF) to be the source of their awareness of the project. A large share of the respondents expressed positive perceptions about REDD+ initiative, however, there were statistically significant differences (p<0.01) in perceptions between respondents from the two different villages. Agriculture, tree seedling production, mud bricks and stove making among others were identified as new livelihoods sources for the forest reliant communities in Kondoa, and among others, illegal forest harvests, low awareness among people as well as leakages was identified as potential threats for the REDD implementation. The study conclude that, REDD+ has a potential to become an appropriate mechanism to help reduce global Green House Gasses (GHGs) emissions and enhancing the livelihoods of forest dependent people if the mentioned challenges can be addressed. With such a large population depending on forest for subsistence livelihood in Kondoa, the study acclaimed that, strategies for controlling forest degradation need to be focused on reducing the dependence by creating alternative livelihood opportunities that will compete against the desires for forest use and degradation to the forest dependent communities, providing alternative technologies to reduce the gap in demand and supply of forest products and making the community adopt sustainable harvesting practices.REDD+M-D
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