Huberman Hanoi 2404

Reducing Emissions and Conserving Biodiversity by Avoiding Deforestation David Huberman IUCN – Economics & Environment APFW Hanoi, April 24th, 2008

Global Emissions (40 Gt CO 2 e yr -1 ) WRI 2005

Forests and Climate Change
A massive carbon reservoir - 4,500 Gigatonnes
More than CO2 in remaining oil stocks (2,400 Gt)
More than CO2 in atmosphere (3,000 Gt)
90% of the annual interchange of CO 2 between atmosphere and land
Losing 9.4 mill hectares per year

Basic concept behind REDD
Payments for reduced emissions from deforestation and degradation in forest ecosystems, providing:
A contribution to reduced GHG emissions
P ositive incentives for the protection of forests generally and to further support forest governance reform processes (such as those to combat illegal logging) specifically
A contribution to the economic development of tropical forest countries (and the rural communities that live there)

The rationale for REDD
Deforestation and land degradation account for up to 25% of GHG emissions
But REDD is currently ineligible for crediting under the Clean Development Mechanism (total US$ 5.3 Billion in 2006)
Reducing Emissions from Deforestation in Developing Countries (REDD) seems to be a cost-effective climate mitigation option
REDD could offer significant co-benefits (biodiversity, ecosystem services, rural livelihoods)

FAO 2005 A global snapshot: Countries with large net changes in forest area 2000 - 2005

Drivers of deforestation
Geist and Lambin, 2002
Direct :
Agriculture / plantations
Mining / energy
Logging
Infrastructure
Indirect :
Agricultural subsidies
Infrastructure investment
Unclear land tenure
Weak government surveillance
Demand for forest products

What are REDD activities?
Adapted from Chomitz et al., 2007:
paying communities directly for reduced deforestation, based on the model of existing Payments for Ecosystem Services
strengthening forest fire prevention programs
improving land tenure security for forest-dwelling peoples
increased efforts to reduce illegal logging
higher taxes on large-scale land clearance
promotion of industry and other off-farm employment
agricultural intensification in favorable areas to relieve pressure on remaining forest lands
strategic planning of road improvements to avoid unplanned logging or agricultural expansion
supporting community forestry

Financing REDD
Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES)
Voluntary
Conditional
Provider – beneficiary relationship
Integrating PES and REDD:
A bundled demand to meet a bundled supply?

Multiple benefits

Where does biodiversity ‘fit in’ ?
Provisioning
Regulating
Supporting
Cultural
Carbon
Biodiversity
Water
Landscape Beauty
Production of goods
Regeneration processes
Stabilizing processes
Life-fulfilling functions
MA Heal et al., 2002 Costa Rica PSA
Carbon
Biodiversity
Water
Ecosystem Marketplace

The Biodiversity Beneficiary
Direct vs. Indirect
Local vs. Global
Public vs. Private
For profit vs. not-for-profit
North vs. South
Third Party Verifier CI BC RE VERs $ $ $$ ? Peterson, 2007

Forest Carbon
Projects approved in:
China, Panama, and Indonesia
Projects currently being audited in:
Tanzania, India, UK, Nicaragua, and Brazil

Voluntary carbon market

The voluntary market Source: World Bank, 2007

Regulated carbon markets
Kyoto Protocol :
European Union Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS)
United Kingdom Emissions Trading Scheme (UK ETS)
The Clean Development Mechanism (CDM)
Non-Kyoto :
Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI)
New South Wales Greenhouse Gas Abatement Scheme (GGAS)

LULUCF
Afforestation, reforestation, avoided deforestation
LULUCF projects growing fast, but:
Ambiguous products
Ambiguous verification/certification procedures
no clear sense of direction
Budding standards
CDM Gold Standard (no forestry projects certified)
Voluntary Carbon Standard
CCBA Standard

Main outstanding issues
Leakage: risk of simply displacing deforestation pressure to other areas?
Additionality: how imminent is the threat? Would some forests be conserved anyway? Why reward inaction?
What is the appropriate baseline for assessing REDD?
Are REDD credits secure (e.g. from fire, disease)?
National, programmatic or project-level REDD?
Tradable credits or publicly-funded REDD?
Integrate into the existing carbon market or create a new and separate REDD market?
What potential impacts on the rural poor?

These include:
Excuse for "business as usual“ emissions from fossil fuels
Driven solely as a technological fix (baselines, monitoring, markets) to what is ostensibly a political problem (governance, rights and tenure, etc)
Which in turn:
Undermine the rights and livelihoods, or otherwise, disenfranchise poor rural communities
And thus:
Compromises the ability of REDD to deliver promised emissions reduction benefits (permanence, leakage)
REDD risks

Key Messages
REDD should be included as post 2012 mitigation option.
REDD has to be more than a simple offset option – rather it needs to be integrated as a companion mechanism to deep cuts in fossil fuel emissions.
Degradation is the precursor to deforestation and needs to be accounted for.
If REDD is to work it needs to be firmly rooted in sustainable forest management (don’t under-estimate this challenge!)
The real window of opportunity to deploy REDD is over the next few of years!

Elements for post-2012 negotiations (1)
A national (or for very large countries perhaps a provincial) framework is essential
Degradation has to be included!
Resources allocated ahead of time for in-country capacity building
Sufficient flexibility to address national circumstances
Support early pilot action that allows full participation on a voluntary basis

Elements for post 2012 negotiations (2)
Alignment with ongoing forest governance processes.
Build in-country capacity for basic governance & sustainable forest management
Complement forest sector reform processes such as those to combat illegal logging
Participation of forest dependent communities and benefit sharing for poverty reduction

Keep the eye on the prize Sustainable development Deforestation avoided Livelihood opportunites maintained or enhanced No one made worse off

Thank you!

Huberman Hanoi 2404

by cuongtdi

Accessibility

Categories

Upload Details

Usage Rights

1 Embed 1

Statistics

Huberman Hanoi 2404 Presentation Transcript