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Binuang bini (Octomeles sumatrana Miq) is a fast-growing tree with numerous economic benefits, such as the provision of wood for carpentry purposes, building boards, water management, and absorption of carbon dioxide (CO2). Therefore, this tree species has great potential and needs to be included in Reducing Emission from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD)+'s mitigation program to tackle climate change. In its development, REDD+ has made it possible to carry out carbon trading in the world. Therefore, countries capable of performing protective functions and carry out reforestation, afforestation, and restoration, have the opportunity to be involved in world carbon trading. This study aims to determine the moisture content and carbon absorption rate of Binuang bini trees as a first step to regulate the allometric equation using destructive and laboratory analysis. The results show that the water content in the roots, leaves, as well as the base, middle, and tip of the stem were: 73.69%, 68.39%, 65.59%, 61.22%, and 66.26%, respectively. Furthermore, the sample test results indicate a very close relationship between carbon concentration and absorbance in the O. sumatrana tree with a simple linear regression equation: Y = 0.002X + 0.0593 with R2 = 0.9896. Therefore, this regression equation can be used to calculate the carbon concentration sample for the O. sumatrana tree fraction. The carbon content in 3 tree samples with a breast height diameter of 9.24 cm, 10.08 cm, and 11.68 cm was 2,585 kg. 2,913 kg, and 4,654 kg, respectively. In addition, the carbon sequestration for each tree diameter per year is 1.581 kg year-1, 1,782 kg year-1and 2,847 kg year-1, respectively.

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

Special attention is needed to quantify emissions from human‐induced degradation in forest lands because these data are more uncertain and less comprehensive than deforestation data in target countries in the United Nations Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD) programme. This study illustrates a Residual Trends (RESTREND) technique with a new baseline that isolates the human influence from natural climatic fluctuations to estimate emissions from forest degradation in countries across the tropics. Based on the recommended Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change methodology and framework, we found a pattern of high carbon density of 183 t C/ha in degraded areas, which was on average 1.5 times that of deforestation areas. Further analysis revealed that the initial value of carbon stock in degraded areas was about 5.45 Pg C during 2002–2012. We found that 17% of countries displayed values more than 100% of those from deforestation under the low degradation emission scenario, whereas 23% of countries displayed values less than 10% under the high degradation emission scenario. Thus, at a national level, with such an approach REDD could be further optimized and REDD targets could be achieved in an effective way. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Identifying forest ecosystems with significant ecological, social, and/or economic values is an important first-step in conserving landscape function. Here, we identify priority conservation areas in the municipalities of Chignahuapan and Zacatlan, Puebla (Mexico), based on: (i) their capacity to sequester atmospheric CO2; and (ii) risk of future deforestation. We also explore management strategies for priority-lands conservation in the Mexican context. Above-ground C sequestration was estimated using wood density and biomass expansion-factor data available from local forestry sources. Deforestation risk was estimated by a probabilistic model of land use change using socioeconomic and biophysical variables. Carbon sequestration estimates ranged from 14 to 531 Mg ha-1 for Chignahuapan and Zacatlan, respectively. An estimated 11 746 and 4 406 ha of forest was determined to be at risk of deforestation in each municipality. Of these at-risk lands, 2 421 and 1 798 ha were determined to be at high risk. In combination, we determined that 10 687 and 4 319 ha, respectively, are priority lands for carbon sequestration in Chignahuapan and Zacatlan, of which 628 and 310 ha were determined to have high conservation priority. Identifying priority conservation areas through the integrated assessment of carbon sequestration and deforestation risk can enhance efforts to target land management strategies to mitigate climate change impacts. This approach can serve as a model for other forested regions in Mexico and other countries.

Climate change is a complex and uncertain global problem because it is driven by human behavior, with long-term climate-related risks for natural and human systems. Changes in human behavior, financing flow, policy instruments, and multilevel governance are needed for mitigating and managing major climate risks. Understanding the social dimensions of climate change is, quite literally, a hot topic to be studied. Most of the scientific literature in the field is focused on the 'hard science'. Different methods of theory building are used in applied social sciences. However, the use of the grounded theory approach in sustainability research, specially on 'soft science' in the fi eld of climate change, is scarce. The intent of this paper is to discussion the use of the grounded theory method in an emergent research fi eld that combines governance and climate change. The article presents substantive results of an emerging theoretical framework that explain the governance process of REDD+ in Brazil, an United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) climate fi nance mechanism focused on mitigating forest-related emissions in developing countries. Instead of discussing best procedures and techniques to build grounded theory, which are largely accessed through several peer-reviewed publications, our focus is to provide a practical guide and discuss lessons learned from the fi eld to integrate the 'REDD+ Governance Theoretical Framework'. Thus, scholars and graduate students are encourage to test and validate (or not) the emerging theoretical framework. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation (REDD+) has emerged as a promising climate change mitigation mechanism in developing countries. In order to identify the enabling conditions for achieving progress in the implementation of an effective, efficient and equitable REDD+, this paper examines national policy settings in a comparative analysis across 13 countries with a focus on both institutional context and the actual setting of the policy arena. The evaluation of REDD+ revealed that countries across Africa, Asia and Latin America are showing some progress, but some face backlashes in realizing the necessary transformational change to tackle deforestation and forest degradation. A Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) undertaken as part of the research project showed two enabling institutional configurations facilitating progress: (1) the presence of already initiated policy change; and (2) scarcity of forest resources combined with an absence of any effective forestry framework and policies. When these were analysed alongside policy arena conditions, the paper finds that the presence of powerful transformational coalitions combined with strong ownership and leadership, and performance-based funding, can both work as a strong incentive for achieving REDD+ goals. Key policy insights The positive push of already existing policy change, or the negative stress of resource scarcity together with lack of effective policies, represents institutional conditions that can support REDD+ progress. Progress also requires the presence of powerful transformational coalitions and strong ownership and leadership. In the absence of these internal drivers, performance-based funding can work as a strong incentive. When comparing three assessments (2012, 2014, 2016) of REDD+ enabling conditions, some progress in establishing processes of change can be observed over time; however, the overall fluctuation in progress of most countries reveals the difficulty in changing the deforestation trajectory away from business as usual. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

From its arousal, the issue of climate change or global warming has become a distinct global trend setter in multidisciplinary discussion, including in the law perspective. Within legal discourse, the issue of climate change developed rapidly into several aspect, not only about adaptation nor mitigation, especially since the plurality of moral conviction relevant to the climate change facts. As a global matter, each country has the responsibility to adapt and mitigate with its own character and policy. This normative research aims to explore and describe in brief the Indonesian national policy in climate change adaptation and mitigation. Gradually, the contribution of Indonesia is getting firm and solid to the climate change regime, especially after the Bali Action Plan 2007.

Reducing carbon emissions from deforestation and degradation (REDD) requires detailed insight into how the forest biomass is measured and distributed. Studies so far have estimated forest biomass stocks using rough assumptions and unreliable data. High-resolution data and robust methods are required to capture the spatial variability of forest biomass with sufficient precision. Here we aim to improve on previous approaches by using radar satellite ALOS PALSAR (25-m resolution) and optical Landsat-derived tree cover (30-m resolution) observations to estimate forest biomass stocks in Madagascar, for the years 2007–2010. The radar signal and in situ biomass were highly correlated ( R 2  = 0.71) and the root mean square error was 30% (for biomass ranging from 0 to 500 t/ha). Using our map at 25-m resolution for the entire island of Madagascar, we estimated the total above-ground forest carbon for the four years 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010 to be 1.1173 ± 0.0304, 1.1029 ± 0.0303, 1.0916 ± 0.0301 and 1.0773 ± 0.0298 PgC, respectively. Carbon stocks were found to have decreased constantly over this period due to anthropogenic deforestation and likely also to climate change. The results are expected to serve as a more accurate benchmark for monitoring progress on REDD and to provide strong supports for current and future spaceborne missions such as ALOS-2, SAOCOM and BIOMASS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Carbon emission increases at an early stage of industrial expansion as a transition from overdependence on agriculture. Such industrial transformation is heavily dependent on energy-intensive technologies. Moreover, the degree of environmental awareness is very low in developing countries. According to the Environmental Performance Index 2012, Nepal is among the strongest performer. A new international carbon trade mechanism, called ‘Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation’ (REDD), has been proposed to curb global Greenhouse Gases (GHGs) emissions. Carbon trade entails the idea that industrialized countries pay developing countries to reduce deforestation and forest degradation. Nepal’s community forestry can reap benefits by participating in REDD, but it requires addressing a range of issues and challenges to mitigate underlying causes of deforestation and forest degradation. Ultimately this type of program would encourage local people for conservation and sustainable use of forest resources.DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3126/ije.v4i1.12181International Journal of Environment Volume-4, Issue-1, Dec-Feb 2014/15, page: 101-111

Projected increases in population, income and consumption rates are expected to lead to rising pressure on the land system. Ambitions to limit global warming to 2 °C or even 1.5 °C could also lead to additional pressures from land-based mitigation measures such as bioenergy production and afforestation. To investigate these dynamics, this paper describes five elaborations of the Shared Socio-economic Pathways (SSP) using the IMAGE 3.0 integrated assessment model framework to produce regional and gridded scenarios up to the year 2100. Additionally, land-based climate change mitigation is modelled aiming for long-term mitigation targets including 1.5 °C. Results show diverging global trends in agricultural land in the baseline scenarios ranging from an expansion of nearly 826 Mha in SSP3 to a decrease of more than 305 Mha in SSP1 for the period 2010–2050. Key drivers are population growth, changes in food consumption, and agricultural efficiency. The largest changes take place in Sub-Saharan Africa in SSP3 and SSP4, predominantly due to high population growth. With low increases in agricultural efficiency this leads to expansion of agricultural land and reduced food security. Land use also plays a crucial role in ambitious mitigation scenarios. First, agricultural emissions could form a substantial component of emissions that cannot be fully mitigated. Second, bioenergy and reforestation are crucial to create net negative emissions reducing emissions in SSP2 in 2050 by 8.7 Gt CO 2 /yr and 1.9 Gt CO 2 /yr, respectively (1.5 °C scenario compared to baseline). This is achieved by expansion of bioenergy area (516 Mha in 2050) and reforestation. Expansion of agriculture for food production is reduced due to REDD policy (290 Mha in 2050) affecting food security especially in Sub-Saharan Africa indicating an important trade-off of land-based mitigation. This set of SSP land-use scenarios provides a comprehensive quantification of interacting trends in the land system, both socio-economic and biophysical. By providing high resolution data, the scenario output can improve interactions between climate research and impact studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines self-enforcing contracts as a financial mechanism for reducing carbon emissions from deforestation and forest degradation when the opportunity cost of the land (i.e., landholder type) is private information and is imperfectly correlated over time (i.e., partially persistent types). Because self-enforcement limits the feasible incentives, the conservation levels are constrained by the surplus created. Regardless of the degree of persistence of such opportunity costs across contracting periods, a first-best self-enforcing contract can deliver 'additional' carbon sequestration beyond the business as usual scenario only if the value of forest conservation is sufficiently high. Otherwise, self-enforcing contracts can induce some, suboptimal level of carbon sequestration. The degree of persistence of opportunity costs across periods does not affect the amount of total payments provided in the optimal menu of contracts, but greater persistence of opportunity cost types leads to contracts that feature more of the total payment as a bonus in contracts for landholders with a high opportunity cost for their land and more of the total payment as an upfront fixed payment for landholders with a low opportunity cost. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article provides a flexible model of resource extraction, such as deforestation, and derives the optimal conservation contract. When property rights are "strong" and districts are in charge of extracting their own resources to get revenues, conservation in one district benefits the others since the reduced supply raises the sales price. A central authority would internalize this positive externality and thus conserve more. When property rights are instead weak and extraction is illegal or costly control, conservation in one district increases the price and thus the profit from illegally depleting the resource in the other districts. The externality from conservation is then negative, and centralization would lead to less conservation. We also derive the optimal conservation contract, and we explain when the principal, who values conservation, benefits from contracting with the districts directly even when contracting with a central authority would have led to more conservation, and vice versa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD+) has emerged as a promising climate change mitigation mechanism in developing countries. This article examines the national political context in 13 REDD+ countries in order to identify the enabling conditions for achieving progress with the implementation of countries’ REDD+ policies and measures. The analysis builds on a qualitative comparative analysis of various countries’ progress with REDD+ conducted in 12 REDD+ countries in 2012, which highlighted the importance of factors such as already initiated policy change, and the presence of coalitions calling for broader policy change. A follow-up survey in 2014 was considered timely because the REDD+ policy arena, at the international and country levels, is highly dynamic and undergoes constant evolution, which affects progress with REDD+ policy-making and implementation. Furthermore, we will now examine whether the ‘promise’ of performance-based funds has played a role in enabling the establishment of REDD+. The results show a set of enabling conditions and characteristics of the policy process under which REDD+ policies can be established. The study finds that the existence of broader policy change, and availability of performance-based funding in combination with strong national ownership of the REDD+ policy process, may help guide other countries seeking to formulate REDD+ policies that are likely to deliver efficient, effective and equitable outcomes. Policy relevance Tropical forest countries struggle with the design and implementation of coherent policies and measures to reduce emissions from deforestation and forest degradation. Evidence on which factors and configurations are crucial to make progress towards these challenging policy objectives will be helpful for decision makers and practitioners at all levels involved in REDD+. Key findings highlight the importance of already initiated policy change, and the availability of performance-based funding in combination with strong national ownership of the REDD+ process. These findings provide guidance to REDD+ countries as to which enabling conditions need to be strengthened to facilitate effective, efficient and equitable REDD+ policy formulation and implementation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The central role played by deforestation in the increase in global CO2 emissions has recently justified the development of new schemes which offer compensation in exchange for reductions in emissions from deforestation (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation, REDD). The design of REDD projects can be based on market prices to set how deforesters are compensated for avoiding deforestation. With limited experiments involving a true market integration of REDD, it remains, however, difficult to assess that the potential impact market price uncertainties may have on the targets of the protective scheme. The goal of this article is to assess the optimal choices of a forest owner, in terms of his combined decision of choosing when to protect his forest, and the deforestation rate prior to it, given his option to enter an irreversible REDD scheme that provides him with uncertain cash flows under different risk aversion scenarios. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This 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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reducing carbon emissions in the forestry sector by means of market-based schemes is considered a cost-effective measure for tackling climate change impacts. However, the transaction costs (TCs) involved are typically unknown or unquantified and therefore often neglected. In this study three types of TCs (search, design and negotiation costs) were measured in person-days and monetary terms based on a global survey of forestry carbon projects implemented across Latin-America, Asia and Africa. Cost estimates vary between zero and 1.201/tCO 2 for person-days and from zero to US$ 1.738/tCO 2 for monetary costs. Key drivers of TCs are identified based on the characteristics of the project in general, the transaction, the transactors involved and institutional design. The latter type of characteristic is shown to have a particularly large impact on TCs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Este artigo discute a simplificação do debate relacionado à tomada de decisão de se priorizar a Amazônia na construção da estratégia brasileira de REDD - mecanismo que visa a apoiar financeiramente iniciativas de mitigação das mudanças climáticas. Com base em análises de diversos enfoques para uma estratégia de REDD, critica-se o enfoque da atual construção da estratégia brasileira de REDD que privilegia a Amazônia. Ressalta-se que essa construção não aproveita o potencial imediato dos biomas brasileiros para construir uma estratégia brasileira de REDD que concilie redução de emissões e o desenvolvimento sustentável do Brasil. Recomenda-se que os tomadores de decisão façam uma revisão sobre o potencial imediato de cada bioma brasileiro para colaborar com os objetivos da estratégia brasileira de REDD, antes de se definir o desenho dessa estratégia.Este artículo discute la simplificación del debate relacionado a la tomada de decisión de instituir la Amazonia como prioridad en la construcción de la estrategia brasileña de REDD - mecanismo que pretende apoyar financieramente iniciativas de mitigación del cambio climático. Fundamentado en análisis de diversas perspectivas para una estrategia de REDD, criticase la perspectiva actual de la construcción de la estrategia brasileña de REDD que privilegia la Amazonia. Destacase que esa construcción desperdicia la capacidad inmediata de los biomas brasileños para construir una estrategia brasileña de REDD que concilie reducción de emisiones y desarrollo sostenible de Brasil. Recomendase que los tomadores de decisión revisen la capacidad inmediata de cada bioma brasileño para colaborar con los objetivos de la estrategia brasileña de REDD, antes de definir su diseño.This article discusses the simplification of the debate related to the decision-making of prioritizing the Amazon on building the Brazilian REDD strategy - mechanism aiming to fund climate change mitigation initiatives. Based on different focus for a REDD strategy, the article criticizes the current building process of the Brazilian REDD strategy, privileging the Amazon. The article highlights that such strategy does not acknowledge the current potential of each Brazilian biome to build a national strategy that would conciliate emissions reductions and the sustainable development of Brazil. It is recommended that decision-makers revise the current potential of each Brazilian biome in collaborating to the goals of the Brazilian REDD strategy before defining its design.

Integrated mechanisms for approaching priority environmentalissues at global level. At global level, there are considered priorityenvironmental issues two interdependent processes that are essential for thesupport the processes that provide living conditions and wellbeing for the entirehumankind: climate change and loss of biodiversity. Payments of ecosystemservices became already well-known and applied economic instruments, althoughthere are still many uncertainties in the knowledge of eco-economic interdependencies.The paper discusses these aspects in the first part highlighting advantagesand disadvantages, while in the second part there is analyzed an integratedprogram of the United Nations, which was designed for making progress towardboth climate change, and loss of biodiversity. The REDD program – Reduction ofEmissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation – is addressed to developingcountries and it started in 2008. Based on assessment reports we will try toformulate a number of conclusions regarding the program’s effectiveness.

This paper explores the policy need and legal case for including social safeguards in a post-2012 agreement on reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD). One serious charge laid against so called 'market-based' approaches to REDD is the potential for forest dwelling communities to be dispossessed from their land and to lose other rights afforded to them in international human rights law. Rather than criticise current REDD proposals as being inherently negative for forest dwelling communities, this paper asks firstly, whether REDD can potentially work in their favour and secondly, how such an opportunity could be realised in a future REDD agreement. After reviewing current REDD proposals and related threats, this paper argues for the inclusion of social safeguards within the post-2012 agreement on REDD. The primary cause of forest dwelling communities vulnerability is not REDD itself but the potential for REDD to operate in the absence of social safeguards. This paper presents four mutually reinforcing safeguards to protect forest dwelling communities in the context of a future agreement on REDD. This paper finds that a REDD market which requires minimum international standards of social protection is likely to benefit forest dwelling communities.

Developing countries would be more likely to participate in any new international climate change agreement if they could earn and trade carbon credits from avoided deforestation, also known as 'REDD'. This paper argues that REDD should be included in any new agreement but, unlike the Clean Development Mechanism, its credits should be accounted for at a national-level, rather than on a project-basis. Experience with the Kyoto Protocol and development assistance over many decades shows that to have effective and sustainable environmental and development benefits, a national-based approach to REDD would be needed to transmit international financial incentives into national development planning. Indonesia is used as an example to show how a national-based approach to REDD could be effectively implemented in the country with the highest deforestation rate in the world. After a brief discussion of REDD and its status in the international climate change regime post-Copenhagen in Part I, Part II examines the different approaches to the scale of REDD being mooted in the negotiations for a new international agreement. Part III shows that many arguments against including REDD could be addressed with a national-approach. For remaining issues, particularly challenges in transferring profits from the sale of REDD-generated credits to local level incentives to protect forests, development lessons internationally and from Indonesia show that such transfers could be structured in an effective way not only to achieve environmental benefits, but also to achieve broader development and poverty reduction aims. These lessons, discussed in Part IV, further bolster the case for any post-2012 agreement to incorporate a national-based approach to REDD, integrated into national development plans.

As the dust settles after Copenhagen and the barriers to reaching global consensus on combating climate change are put into stark relief, REDD still has potential to become a UNFCCC success story. In relation to REDD, there is agreement on many core issues and significant momentum remains towards a REDD mechanism firmly engrained in the post-2012 climate change framework. Yet most debate occurs in the abstract with policy and methodological decisions made with minimal conception of how these issues will play out in REDD participant countries. This article aims to break this trend and takes a prominent REDD pilot activity as its reference point. The Ulu Masen Project in Aceh , Indonesia , while only in its infancy, provides valuable lessons on legal frameworks, benefit-sharing and financing. Through analysis of UNFCCC negotiations on REDD and an examination of how relevant issues have been addressed in the Ulu Masen Project, the article aims to contribute to a more grounded, practical debate on a future UNFCCC REDD mechanism.

This paper reviews the policy and legal framework for the implementation of CDM projects in Uganda and its implications for climate change mitigation. It gives a background to climate change in Uganda and notes that climate change in Uganda can largely be attributed to unsustainable utilisation of the natural resources which has led to over exploitation and total loss of some of the natural resources. The paper reviews the international legal regime for climate change and its significance for climate change mitigation in Uganda and observes that Uganda has implemented the UNFCCC and the Kyoto Protocol in accordance with the principles of common but differentiated responsibilities and the precautionary principle. This has for instance culminated in the carrying out of a National Inventory of Sources and Sinks of Greenhouse gases. The role of CDM in climate change mitigation is explored by examining the key CDM projects that have been implemented in Uganda. The key finding of the paper is that Uganda does not have an independent policy or law which deals with CDM and recommends that such policy and legal inadequacies should urgently be addressed.

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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There are seventeen countries that host 70% of the planet's biodiversity and 45% of its population: the megadiverse countries. Six of the world's megadiverse nations are in Latin America. Carbon stocks, biodiversity, and the life of millions of inhabitants are at risk due to high deforestation rates in the region. Furthermore, the economic and political stability of most Latin-American states depend on extractive practices. At a world-wide level, land use change, including deforestation, accounts for nearly 20% of total anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions. Since 2006, the UNFCCC financial mechanism to Reduce Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) has implemented close to 150 initiatives in Latin-American megadiverse countries. REDD+ has a high potential to become the climate change mechanism to transform deforestation trends and to make biodiversity an actual source of income for megadiverse countries. These six states are the priority target of REDD+ donations in the region. However, in contrast to mainstream theorists who have labeled transnational governance as the brand of climate change, REDD+ proves otherwise. Traditional hierarchical North-South inter-national relations mark the rhythm and governance of this mechanism. Furthermore, a shift from multilateral efforts to bilateralism is evident as they currently represent 89% of total REDD+ flows and 80% of climate finances in the region. The risk of bilateralism is that ODA depends on the political priorities of the donor and recipient countries alike, becoming a potential threat to REDD+ sustainability. This paper examines each of the programs and projects accounted as REDD+ between 2006 and 2020. The goal is to define the financial flows corresponding to each of the countries analyzed, and moreover, the governance model resulting from these interventions. This article starts with an overview of the regional deforestation evolution and the climate change responses registered in this period in Latin America followed by the influxes of REDD+ in the region and an analysis by each megadiverse country. The results have been contrasted with governance categories developed by different authors. The purpose is to state the governance model promoted by REDD+ in Latin-American megadiverse countries and its implications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After the chaotic final days of the Copenhagen climate conference, many saw only fog, i.e., an unclear outcome and much uncertainty on future steps to take. Were the forests lost in this fog or some tree is still visible, possibly suggesting a path to take? This commentary will briefly analyse the outcome of the Copenhagen conference with respect to the main forestry issues under debate: LULUCF (Land Use Land Use Change and Forestry, i.e., mainly forest CO2 removals in industrialized countries) and REDD (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation in developing countries).

Tropical forests host the highest levels of biodiversity and maintain some of the largest carbon stocks of all terrestrial ecosystems. Policies resulting from the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC) for forest-based climate change mitigation (e.g., Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation (REDD +)) have been considered win–win solutions for both C storage and biodiversity conservation. Win–win solutions are indeed apparent when there is geographical overlap of high carbon density forests with high biodiversity, as suggested by many global studies. However, strong congruence between high carbon storage and biodiversity at the national and subnational levels is less obvious. To improve national policies and expectations of REDD + outcomes, it is necessary to account for the potential risks of relocating deforestation activities from high-carbon areas to low-carbon areas, as such relocation may negatively affect high-biodiversity habitats. Using a combined dataset of global and national biodiversity and C storage, we examined whether the optimization of carbon and biodiversity is, as suggested, a win–win situation. We identified hotspots of C storage and of biodiversity within Colombia and the demographic and land use factors that affect the spatial distribution of the current patterns of biodiversity and C. We also identified and mapped two additional forest carbon and biodiversity relationships (areas with high carbon and low biodiversity and areas with low carbon and high biodiversity) that represented relevant conservation trade-offs at national and subnational levels. Our results suggest that, although C storage and biodiversity hotspots still overlap nationally and subnationally, the relationship between these two types of hotspots is weaker than that at the global level. Additionally, areas where high carbon and high biodiversity do not overlap are more extensive than potential win–win areas. Simultaneous carbon and biodiversity conservation is not as straightforward as it appears to be at the global level. Countries must swiftly identify areas where unintentional negative biodiversity consequences may result from national REDD + strategies, and future research should identify the factors that affect C storage and biodiversity both at the national and subnational levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Projects for reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD) have not been widely adopted by carbon credit schemes due to the inherent problems with forest carbon credits that often lead to high transaction costs given the complications of measuring, monitoring, and verifying credits. Incentive-based contracts, where it is in the best interest of the environmental service users and providers to comply with the contracts, may be one way to reduce these costs if providers have incentives to uphold their end of the contract. While the literature on REDD is extensive, there is little information available to guide policymakers or investors on what form such contracts should take. After providing an overview of the current status of REDD and its role as a tool for reducing carbon emissions on an international scale, this paper considers the key issues that need to be addressed when implementing REDD projects, and how contracts can be designed to alleviate some of the subsequent problems with carbon credits. We draw from the literature on agricultural contracts, payments for ecosystem services, and other environmental service-related contracts and discuss the various implications associated with their design and implementation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

REDD+ (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation) started as a global project aimed at reducing CO2 emissions by protecting tropical forests. At the same time, several so-called co-benefits were listed in the original documents, such as biodiversity and other environmental services, poverty reduction and sustainable livelihoods, and good governance. I argue that REDD+ quickly became a project in which these co-benefits have emerged to be of central concern and that the rights of affected forest populations today dominate much of the REDD+ discourse. One reason for the redirected focus of REDD+ can be attributed to the activities of international and national environmental and human rights organisations. While this has arguably contributed to a process of democratisation in Indonesia, it has also slowed down the implementation of readiness projects. Taking my example from the UN-REDD initiative in Central Sulawesi, I examine some reasons why it has been difficult to establish the proposed five REDD sites in the province. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reducing carbon emissions from deforestation and forest degradation now constitutes an important strategy for mitigating climate change, particularly in developing countries with large forests. Given growing concerns about global climate change, it is all the more important to identify cases in which economic growth has not sparked excessive forest clearance. We address the recent reduction of deforestation rates in the Brazilian Amazon by conducting a statistical analysis to ascertain if different levels of environmental enforcement between two groups of municipalities had any impact on this reduction. Our analysis shows that these targeted, heightened enforcement efforts avoided as much as 10,653 km2 of deforestation, which translates into 1.44 × 10–1 Pg C in avoided emissions for the 3 y period. Moreover, most of the carbon loss and land conversion would have occurred at the expense of closed moist forests. Although such results are encouraging, we caution that significant challenges remain for Brazil's continued success in this regard, given recent changes in the forestry code, ongoing massive investments in hydro power generation, reductions of established protected areas, and growing demand for agricultural products. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding spatial variation in carbon storage in natural habitats is critical for climate change mitigation efforts such as REDD. Terrestrial forests are being mapped with increasing accuracy, but the distribution of ``blue carbon'' in marine ecosystems remains poorly understood. We reviewed the literature to obtain field data on carbon storage and fluxes in mangroves world-wide. Using this material we developed a climate-based model for potential mangrove above-ground biomass (AGB) with almost four times the explanatory power of the only previous published model. From this model, we present the first ever global map of potential mangrove AGB and estimate a total global mangrove AGB of 2.83 Pg, with an average of 184.8 t ha−1. Data on other carbon stocks and fluxes confirm the importance of mangroves in carbon accounting. The map highlights the high variability in mangrove AGB and indicates areas that should be prioritised for mangrove conservation and restoration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ecosystems services have become a key concept in understanding the way humans benefit from ecosystems. In Costa Rica, a pioneer national scheme of payment provides compensation for forest conservation that is assumed to jointly produce services related to biodiversity conservation, carbon storage, water and scenic beauty, but little is known about the spatial correlations among these services. A spatial assessment, at national scale and with fine resolution, identified the spatial congruence between these services, by considering the biophysical potential of service provision and socioeconomic demand. Services have different spatial distributions but are positively correlated. Spatial synergies exist between current policies (national parks and the payment scheme) and the conservation of ecosystem services: national parks and areas receiving payments provide more services than other areas. Biodiversity hotspots have the highest co-benefits for other services, while carbon hotspots have the lowest. This finding calls for cautiousness in relation to expectations that forest-based mitigation initiatives such as REDD (reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation) can automatically maximize bundled co-benefits for biodiversity and local ecosystem services. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The literature on equity and justice in climate change mitigation has largely focused on North–South relations and equity between states. However, some initiatives (e.g. the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), the Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation programme (REDD), and voluntary carbon markets (VCMs)) are already establishing multi-level governance structures that involve communities from developing countries in global mitigation efforts. This poses new equity and justice dilemmas: how the burdens and benefits of mitigation are shared across various levels and how host communities are positioned in multi-level governance structures. A review of the existing literature is used to distill a framework for distinguishing between four axes of climate justice from the perspective of communities. Empirical evidence from African and Asian carbon market projects is used to assess the distributive and procedural justice implications for host communities. The evidence suggests that host communities often benefit little from carbon market projects and find it difficult to protect their interests. Capacity building, attention to local power relations, supervision of business practices, promotion of projects with primarily development aims and an active involvement of non-state actors as bridges between local communities and the national/international levels could potentially contribute towards addressing some of the key justice concerns.Policy relevanceInternational negotiations on the institutional frameworks that are envisaged to govern carbon markets are proceeding at a rather slow pace. As a consequence, host countries and private-sector actors are making their own arrangements to safeguard the interests of local communities. While several standards have emerged to guide carbon market activity on the ground, distributive as well as procedural justice concerns nevertheless remain salient. Four empirical case studies across Asia and Africa show that within the multi-scale and multi-actor carbon market governance, local-level actors often lack sufficient agency to advance their claims and protect their interests. This evidence suggests that ameliorating policy reforms are needed to enhance the positioning of local communities. Doing so is important to ensure future acceptability of carbon market activity in potential host communities as well as for ensuring their broader legitimacy. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Interactions of indigenous peoples with the surrounding non-indigenous society are often the main sources of social and environmental changes in indigenous lands. In the case of the Suruí in Brazilian Amazonia’s “arc of deforestation,” these influences are leading to deforestation and logging that threaten both the forest and the sustainability of the group’s productive systems. The Suruí 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 Suruí Forest Carbon Project for indigenous participation in climate mitigation efforts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change is leading to the development of land-based mitigation and adaptation strategies that are likely to have substantial impacts on global biodiversity. Of these, approaches to maintain carbon within existing natural ecosystems could have particularly large benefits for biodiversity. However, the geographical distributions of terrestrial carbon stocks and biodiversity differ. Using conservation planning analyses for the New World and Britain, we conclude that a carbon-only strategy would not be effective at conserving biodiversity, as have previous studies. Nonetheless, we find that a combined carbon-biodiversity strategy could simultaneously protect 90% of carbon stocks (relative to a carbon-only conservation strategy) and > 90% of the biodiversity (relative to a biodiversity-only strategy) in both regions. This combined approach encapsulates the principle of complementarity, whereby locations that contain different sets of species are prioritised, and hence disproportionately safeguard localised species that are not protected effectively by carbon-only strategies. It is efficient because localised species are concentrated into small parts of the terrestrial land surface, whereas carbon is somewhat more evenly distributed; and carbon stocks protected in one location are equivalent to those protected elsewhere. Efficient compromises can only be achieved when biodiversity and carbon are incorporated together within a spatial planning process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Forest cover monitoring plays an important role in the implementation of climate change mitigation policies such as Kyoto protocol and Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD). In this study, we have monitored land cover using the PALSAR (Phased Array type L-band Synthetic Aperture Radar) full polarimetric data based on incoherent target decomposition. Supervised classification technique has been applied on Cloude–Pottier decomposition, Freeman–Durden three component, and Yamaguchi four component decomposition for accurate mapping of different types of land cover classes. Based on confusion matrix derived from the predicted and defined pixels, the evergreen and sparsely deciduous forests have shown high producer's accuracy by Freeman–Durden three component and Yamaguchi four component classifications. The overall accuracy of Maximum Likelihood Classification by Yamaguchi four component is 94.1% with 0.93 kappa coefficient as compared to the 90.3% with 0.88 kappa coefficient by Freeman–Durden three component and 89.7% with 0.88 kappa coefficient by Cloude–Pottier decomposition. High accuracy of classification in a forested area using full polarimetric PALSAR data may have been because of high penetration of L-band SAR. The content of this study could be useful for the forest cover mapping during cloudy days needed for proper implementation of REDD policies in Cambodia. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Aim Concern about climate change, with the subsequent emergence of carbon markets and policy initiatives such as REDD (reducing carbon emissions by decreasing deforestation and forest degradation), have focused attention on assessing and monitoring terrestrial carbon reserves. Most effort has focused on above-ground forest biomass. Soil has received less attention despite containing more carbon than above-ground terrestrial biomass and the atmosphere combined. Our aim was to explore how well soil carbon concentration could be estimated on three continents from existing climate, topography and vegetation-cover data. Location Peru, Brazil, Argentina, Australia, China. Methods Soil carbon concentration and leaf area index ( LAI) as well as GIS-derived climate and topography variables for 65 temperate and 43 tropical, forest and woodland ecosystems, were either directly measured or estimated from freely available global datasets. We then used multiple regressions to determine how well soil carbon concentration could be predicted from LAI, climate and topography at a given site. We compared our measurements with top soil carbon estimates from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations ( FAO) harmonized world soil map. Results Our empirical model based on estimates of temperature, water availability and plant productivity provided a good estimate of soil carbon concentrations ( R2 = 0.79). In contrast, the values of topsoil carbon concentrations from the FAO harmonized world soil map correlated poorly with the measured values of soil carbon concentration ( R2 = 0.0011). Main conclusions The lack of correlation between the measured values of soil carbon and the values from the FAO harmonized world soil map indicate that substantial improvements in the production of soil carbon maps are needed and possible. Our results demonstrate that the inclusion of freely available GIS data offers improved estimates of soil carbon and will allow the creation of more accurate soil carbon maps. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the simplification of the debate related to a decision to prioritize Amazon in developing Brazilian Reduction of Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD) mechanism. The strategy takes into account that the chosen strategy must be compatible with the country's sustainable development strategy, the additional social and environmental benefits from REDD actions are important to produce a national REDD strategy and the REDD mechanism works as a national strategy.

The implementation of an international programme for reducing carbon emissions from deforestation and degradation (REDD) can help to mitigate climate change and bring numerous benefits to environmental conservation. Information on land change modelling and carbon mapping can contribute to quantify future carbon emissions from deforestation. However limitations in data availability and technical capabilities may constitute an obstacle for countries interested in participating in the REDD programme. This paper evaluates the influence of quantity and allocation of mapped carbon stocks and expected deforestation on the prediction of carbon emissions from deforestation. The paper introduces the conceptual space where quantity and allocation are involved in predicting carbon emissions, and then uses the concepts to predict carbon emissions in the Brazilian Amazon, using previously published information about carbon mapping and deforestation modelling. Results showed that variation in quantity of carbon among carbon maps was the most influential component of uncertainty, followed by quantity of predicted deforestation. Spatial allocation of carbon within carbon maps was less influential than quantity of carbon in the maps. For most of the carbon maps, spatial allocation of deforestation had a minor but variable effect on the prediction of carbon emissions relative to the other components. The influence of spatial carbon allocation reaches its maximum when 50% of the initial forest area is deforested. The method can be applied to other case studies to evaluate the interacting effects of quantity and allocation of carbon with future deforestation on the prediction of carbon emissions from deforestation. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]