Learning from and Fixing LULUCF for a Better REDD Plus Florence Daviet November 2009 World Resources Institute
Mandatory or Not? What rules? At the heart of it - Scope LULUCF REDD Plus
Why Deforestation is Not Enough
What Does That Mean in Terms of Emissions? Concession Type Tree Cover Change (2000-2005) ha* Assumed Carbon Loss t C/ ha** Annual CO2 Emissions (t) Oil Palm Plantation 1,943,469 190 270,740,779.45 Timber Plantation 318,410 170 39,687,896.04 Selective Logging 141,528 100 10,376832.96 Total 320,805,508.45 This is approximately 65% of all emissions from tree cover change in Indonesia
And on the Ground *Draft maps created from tree cover change layer from SDSU (Matt Hansen) and WRI Indonesia Forest Atlas, please do not reproduce.
Need Degradation, but Fires, land slides, and other natural disturbances / Climate Impacts Clear Cut Harvesting Plantations (oil palm, timber) Selective Logging What is degradation?
And when does degradation stop. and the Sustainable Management of Forests start? This leads to different perspectives For some, more money for oil palm or timber plantations = less need for conversion to agriculture Or more money for selective logging = less need for oil palm plantations Or.
LULUCF Forest Management In the beginning, Parties asked SBSTA to look into degradation, but in the end no difference between degradation and FM is made and Count the emissions in forests remaining forests Count the sequestration in forests remaining forests Still Parties didn t sign up
Fair Rules? Or More Concessions? Some proposals seem to be for creating accounting rules to enshrine ideas of good forest management into something that looks good for climate Adjusting reference levels (BAU not historical) Proposals for factoring out age class (not counting all the emissions to the atmosphere) Proposals for factoring out non-anthropogenic emissions, but not removals Left with credit for doing what? Not for trying to control fires, not for slowing down harvest of old growth trees
Emissions Age Class Adjustment Adjust the reference level, so that instead of counting the emissions from cutting an old tree, you count the emissions as though it was a younger tree. Age Class Adjustment to Historical Emissions Historical Emissions
From Counting This *Draft maps created from tree cover change layer from SDSU (Matt Hansen/ Peter Potapov ) and Global Forest Watch Intact Forest Landscape Maps, please do not reproduce.
To Counting This *Draft maps created from tree cover change layer from SDSU (Matt Hansen/ Peter Potapov ) and Global Forest Watch Intact Forest Landscape Maps, please do not reproduce.
Danger for REDD Plus Emissions from Forest Degradation turns into Forest Management Drown Out Degradation with Sustainable Management of Forests and Enhancement of Carbon Stocks
Thinking Through the Cure Add new activities and definitions to LULUCF to capture significant conversion of ecosystems and related emissions, e.g., Add two area/ land category definitions: Intact areas Plantations Change Deforestation definition to a Conversion Emissions definition Change Afforestation/ Reforestation definitions to Conversion Removal Definition
Conversion Emissions Intact Forest Areas*: a minimum area of land of 300-500 hectares with tree crown cover (or equivalent stocking level) of more than 10-30 per cent with trees with the potential to reach a minimum height of 2-5 metres at maturity in situ Forest Areas: a minimum area of land of 0.05-1.0 hectares with tree crown cover (or equivalent stocking level) of more than 10-30 per cent with trees with the potential to reach a minimum height of 2-5 metres at maturity in situ Plantation Areas: Forest/Other wooded land of introduced species and in some cases native species, established through planting or seeding mainly for production of wood or non wood goods, with similar size categories defined for forests. Non-Forest Areas: All areas not meeting the intact forest, forest, or plantation area definitions Conversion Removals
Advantages Immediately Operational: For both Annex 1 and non-annex 1 Countries Have historical data for baselines, e.g., Plantation concession allocation data available (oil palm and timber) Have definitions of Intact Areas, one already mapped
What is an Intact Area? One Operational Definition An Intact Forest Landscape (IFL) is an unbroken expanse of natural ecosystems with no signs of significant human activity and large enough to maintain all native biodiversity, including viable populations of wide-ranging species. An IFL may contain significant portions of naturally treeless ecosystems. Minimum size: 50 000 hectares An IFL is a non-degraded landscape the full potential to produce goods and services is retained
Human Caused Alterations Settlements (including a buffer zone of 1 km); Transport infrastructure, including roads (except unpaved trails), railways, navigable waterways (including seashore), pipelines, and power transmission lines (including in all cases a buffer zone of 1 km on either side); Agriculture and forest plantations; Industrial activities during the last 30 70 years, such as logging, mining, oil and gas exploration and extraction, peat extraction, etc. Burned areas adjacent to infrastructure or developed areas Old or low intensity human influence is considered insignificant, e.g. diffuse grazing by domestic animals, low-intensity selective logging, and hunting.
Can be drawn on a map, rapidly diminishing areas
Overlap with Biodiversity/ Indigenous Peoples Lands
Differentiated Conversion Commitments One advantage of this approach is that it can more realistically capture both climate and biodiversity goals, by allowing for rules to ensure various objectives that countries would agree to. For example: Countries must maintain at least X % of intact areas during the commitment period to be eligible for credits from reduced emissions or enhanced sequestration from activities in Forest or Plantation Areas, Countries with no area of Intact forests using the 50,000 ha definition, could either define intact areas using as smaller definition e.g. 10,000 ha or not be eligible for credits from enhanced sequestration if more than [X %] of total forest area has been converted during the commitment period, Annex 1 countries could commit to protecting a certain percentage of their intact areas to be eligible for participating in a REDD market, The objective of REDD could be to providing financial resources to stop the conversion of intact forests, and reduce emissions from conversion of forests by X %.
Degradation/ Management, More Contained This allows for different accounting rules for plantations and forests: can deal with NZ problem without perverse impacts on other countries with few plantations. Baselines/ Reference Levels more clearly additional by forest type
Questions?