Lera Miles

Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation: Global Land-Use Implications

Recent climate talks in Bali have made progress toward action on deforestation and forest degradation in developing countries, within the anticipated post-Kyoto emissions reduction agreements. As a result of such action, many forests will be better protected, but some land-use change will be displaced to other locations. The demonstration phase launched at Bali offers an opportunity to examine potential outcomes for biodiversity and ecosystem services. Research will be needed into selection of priority areas for reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation to deliver multiple benefits, on-the-ground methods to best ensure these benefits, and minimization of displaced land-use change into nontarget countries and ecosystems, including through revised conservation investments.

Getting ready for REDD+ in Tanzania: a case study of progress and challenges

The proposed mechanism for Reducing Emis- sions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD+) offers significant potential for conserving forests to reduce negative impacts of climate change. Tanzania is one of nine pilot countries for the United Nations REDD Pro- gramme, receives significant funding from the Norwegian, Finnish and German governments and is a participant in the World Banks Forest Carbon Partnership Facility. In combination, these interventions aim to mitigate green- house gas emissions, provide an income to rural commu- nities and conserve biodiversity. The establishment of the UN-REDD Programme in Tanzania illustrates real-world challenges in a developing country. These include currently inadequate baseline forestry data sets (needed to calculate reference emission levels), inadequate government capacity and insufficient experience of implementing REDD+-type measures at operational levels. Additionally, for REDD+ to succeed, current users of forest resources must adopt new practices, including the equitable sharing of benefits that accrue from REDD+ implementation. These challenges are being addressed by combined donor support to im- plement a national forest inventory, remote sensing of forest cover, enhanced capacity for measuring, reporting and verification, and pilot projects to test REDD+ imple- mentation linked to the existing Participatory Forest Man- agement Programme. Our conclusion is that even in a country with considerable donor support, progressive forest policies, laws and regulations, an extensive network of managed forests and increasingly developed locally-based forest management approaches, implementing REDD+ pre- sents many challenges. These are being met by coordinated, genuine partnerships between government, non-government and community-based agencies.

Securing tropical forest carbon: the contribution of protected areas to REDD

Forest loss and degradation in the tropics contribute 6-17% of all greenhouse gas emissions. Protected areas cover 217.2 million ha (19.6%) of the worlds humid tropical forests and contain c. 70.3 petagrams of carbon (Pg C) in biomass and soil to 1 m depth. Between 2000 and 2005, we estimate that 1.75 million ha of forest were lost from protected areas in humid tropical forests, causing the emission of 0.25-0.33 Pg C. Protected areas lost about half as much carbon as the same area of unprotected forest. We estimate that the reduction of these carbon emissions from ongoing deforestation in protected sites in humid tropical forests could be valued at USD 6,200-7,400 million depending on the land use after clearance. This is >1.5 times the estimated spending on protected area management in these regions. Improving management of protected areas to retain forest cover better may be an important, although certainly not sufficient, component of an overall strategy for reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD)

Protecting the future: Carbon, forests, protected areas and local livelihoods

Abstract The current proposals on reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation in developing countries being discussed under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) could have significant implications for biodiversity conservation and for forest-dependent livelihoods. In the post-2012 period, developing countries could receive financial benefits in return for decreasing their greenhouse gas emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD). Protected areas can act as a case study for REDD: lessons can be learnt from their success or otherwise in reducing deforestation and supporting local livelihoods. Depending upon the exact mechanisms decided between and within countries, protected areas could have a role to play in reducing national-scale deforestation, through strengthening existing forest protected areas and/or declaring new areas. Overall, protected areas are effective at limiting deforestation, but there are exceptions. Their track record in supporting livelihoods is more variable. The early indications are that community-managed and indigenous reserves are often effective in achieving both goals, but that biodiversity conservation is not necessarily such a high priority within these areas. Further research into the most effective management and governance frameworks for achieving goals on carbon emissions, biodiversity and communities, and the extent to which protected areas reduce (or merely displace) deforestation within national boundaries would be useful in informing REDD implementation.

Biodiversity Conservation: Uncertainty in predictions of extinction risk/Effects of changes in climate and land use/Climate change and extinction risk (reply).

Thomas et al. reply — We reconsider our estimates of climate-related extinction in the light of three questions raised by Thuiller et al., Buckley and Roughgarden and Harte et al.. We are able to confirm our original conclusion that climate change represents a major threat to terrestrial species.

Towards a Global Tree Assessment

Although trees have high economic, cultural and ecological value, increasing numbers of species are potentially at risk of extinction because of forest loss and degradation as a result of human activities, including overharvesting, fire and grazing. Emerging threats include climate change and its interaction with the spread of pests and diseases. The impact of such threats on the conservation status of trees is poorly understood. Here we highlight the need to conduct a comprehensive conservation assessment of the worlds tree species, building on previous assessments undertaken for the IUCN Red List. We suggest that recent developments in plant systematics, online databases, remote sensing data and associated analytical tools offer an unprecedented opportunity to conduct such an assessment. We provide an overview of how a Global Tree Assessment could be achieved in practice, through participative, open-access approaches to data sharing and evaluation.