Mary L. Tyrrell

Synthesis and Conclusions

This chapter provides an overview of the role of tropical forests in the international efforts to negotiate a new global climate treaty. Under the existing treaty, the Kyoto Protocol and its “flexible mechanisms” – particularly the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) – have succeeded in building a billion dollar market for emission reduction projects in developing countries. Since the decision to include efforts to reduce emissions from tropical deforestation and forest degradation (REDD) in the 2007 Bali Action Plan, considerable attention has focused on designing a REDD and REDD+ program for inclusion in the next global climate agreement. The positions taken by different countries on REDD are driven by their circumstances – from those with large areas of standing forest to those with few remaining forests, from those facing rapid rates of deforestation to those engaged in reforestation. The overarching issues to be decided in developing the framework of a REDD mechanism include: the scope of the forestry activities to be covered; the scale of accounting for forestry activities and the baseline for measuring reference emissions levels; the type of financing to be provided for REDD activities; how to address fundamental issues of capacity and governance; and the consideration of co-benefits. There is some convergence around the scope of a REDD mechanism, the need to ultimately undertake activities at a national scale, the likelihood that financing will be both fund and market based, and the potential to implement REDD in phases. However, many contentious issues remain, including how to set baselines and accounting rules for REDD/REDD+ and how to incorporate governance concerns.

Carbon Dynamics in the Temperate Forest

Twenty-five percent of the world’s forests are in the temperate biome. They include a wide range of forest types, and the exact boundaries with boreal forests to the north and tropical forests to the south are not always clear. There is a great variety of species, soil types, and environmental conditions which lead to a diversity of factors affecting carbon storage and flux. Temperate forests have been severely impacted by human use – throughout history, all but about 1% have been logged-over, converted to agriculture, intensively managed, grazed, or fragmented by sprawling development. Nevertheless, they have proven to be resilient – mostly second growth forests now cover about 40–50% of the original extent of the biome. Although remaining intact temperate forests continue to be fragmented by development, particularly in North America, there is no large-scale deforestation at present, nor is there likely to be in the future. The status of the temperate biome as a carbon reservoir and atmospheric CO2 sink rests mainly on strong productivity and resilience in the face of disturbance. The small “sink” status of temperate forests could change to a “source” status if the balance between photosynthesis and respiration shifts.

Methods for Increasing Cooperation Rates for Surveys of Family Forest Owners

To maximize the representativeness of results from surveys, coverage, sampling, nonresponse, measurement, and analysis errors must be minimized. Although not a cure-all, one approach for mitigating nonresponse errors is to maximize cooperation rates. In this study, personalizing mailings, token financial incentives, and the use of real stamps were tested for their impacts on cooperation rates for family forest owners asked to participate in the U.S. Forest Service’s National Woodland Owner Survey in the state of Connecticut. Token financial incentives, a two-dollar bill included in the first questionnaire mailing, significantly increased cooperation rates by 13 percentage points. Neither personalization nor real stamps showed significant impacts on cooperation rates. While these results are for just one state in the USA, we hypothesize that similar patterns would be observed in other states and likely other countries.

Introduction to Fire Ecology of the Northeast: Restoring Native and Cultural Ecosystems

This special issue is composed of papers presented at a conference hosted jointly by the Yale University School of Forestry and Environmental Studies (New Haven, Connecticut) and Tall Timbers Research Station and Land Conservancy (Tallahassee, Florida) to address the history, ecology, and current need for prescribed fire in native and cultural ecosystems in the Northeast region of the United States and eastern Canada. The conference was held at the Yale University campus on February 20–22, 2014 and involved participants from universities, government agencies, nongovernment organizations, and private business. This special issue presents evidence that the fire history and ecology of the Northeast are strongly context-dependent and result from complex interactions of climate, human land use, and physiography, that certain species within the region are truly fire-adapted, and that synergies between fire management for ecological restoration and public welfare can and should be pursued on the modern landscape. A summary of all conference presentations and syntheses of panel discussions has been published as a Yale Forest Forum Review.

The Economic Drivers of Forest Land Use and the Role of Markets in the United States

While forests in the U.S. have been both a net source and sink for CO2 at different times throughout history, today they are a weak net carbon sink, largely as a result of changes in land use patterns over time. The capacity of forests to continue to serve as a carbon sink makes them potentially valuable as mitigation tools to offset the damaging effects of greenhouse gas emissions. However, policymakers must recognize that urbanization and development in the U.S. will continually pressure forests, leading to reduced forest cover and fragmented landscapes. From a purely economic standpoint, development is often the highest and best use of land, particularly if financial returns are the primary driver in land use decision-making. Finding the right balance between competing land uses has become an area of focus for economists and policymakers. As policymakers promote carbon strategies for U.S. forests, they should consider what is generally accepted in terms of the economic drivers of land use, and what is less well understood, as outlined below: