Nophea Sasaki

Carbon emissions due to land-use change and logging in Cambodia: a modeling approach

Land-use change and forestry in the tropics have caused huge carbon emissions to the atmosphere. The magnitude of these emissions, however, remains debatable. Therefore, there is a need to further develop appropriate methods that would reduce the estimation uncertainties. From a modeling perspective, this report is aimed at estimating carbon emissions from deforestation and logging activities in Cambodia just after it opened its door to the world. Recently available land-use and forest inventory data were used to develop simple models capable of estimating the change of carbon stocks in, and carbon emissions from, dryland and edaphic forests. This study estimated the annual deforestation rate to be 0.1 million ha between 1973 and 2003, or about 0.7%. Between 1993 and 2003, annual carbon emissions amounted to about 13.7 TgC, owing to deforestation and logging. The emissions calculated here are higher than those reported by the Cambodian government, which claimed that Cambodia was once a net sink of carbon. The models developed in this study will be a useful tool for further study of carbon emissions in tropical countries where selective logging is practiced.

Using Online Tools to Assess Public Responses to Climate Change Mitigation Policies in Japan

As a member of the Annex 1 countries to the Kyoto Protocol of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, Japan is committed to reducing 6% of the greenhouse gas emissions. In order to achieve this commitment, Japan has undertaken several major mitigation measures, one of which is the domestic measure that includes ecologically friendly lifestyle programs, utilizing natural energy, participating in local environmental activities, and amending environmental laws. Mitigation policies could be achieved if public responses were strong. As the internet has increasingly become an online platform for sharing environmental information, public responses to the need for reducing greenhouse gas emissions may be assessed using available online tools. We used Google Insights for Search, Google AdWords Keyword Tool, and Google Timeline View to assess public responses in Japan based on the interest shown for five search terms that define global climate change and its mitigation policies. Data on online search interests from January 04, 2004 to July 18, 2010 were analyzed according to locations and categories. Our study suggests that the search interests for the five chosen search terms dramatically increased, especially when new mitigation policies were introduced or when climate change related events were organized. Such a rapid increase indicates that the Japanese public strongly responds to climate change mitigation policies.

Sustainable Management of Tropical Forests Can Reduce Carbon Emissions and Stabilize Timber Production

The REDD+ scheme of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change has provided opportunities to manage tropical forests for timber production and carbon emission reductions. To determine the appropriate logging techniques, we analyzed potential timber production and carbon emission reductions under two logging techniques over a 40-year period of selective logging. We found that use of reduced-impact logging (RIL) techniques alone in tropical production forests could reduce carbon emissions equivalent to 29-50% of net emissions from tropical deforestation and land use change, while also supplying 45% of global round-wood demand. Adopting RIL plus (RIL+) other improvements in forest management (adopting forest certification and DNA timber tracking to prevent illegal logging) and wood conversion practices (adopting technology to increase recovery of sawn wood), would result in increasing long-term carbon storage in sawn-wood and reduce logging-induced fire-prone wood wastes by 14-184%. For this to happen, about US

Estimating Reference Emission Level and Project Emission Level for REDD Projects in Tropical Forests

2 billion or

Implications of Climate Change Agreements on Forest Management in the Greater Mekong Sub-Region

1.86 per Mg CO2 in financial incentives are needed annually for parties to adopt RIL+ and to prevent premature re-entry logging. Our findings suggest that future climate policies explicitly include RIL+ to satisfy the “sustainable management of forests” proviso in the REDD+ scheme, and also count carbon in wood products as eligible credits for trading.

Critical need for new definitions of "forest" and "forest degradation" in global climate change agreements

The REDD scheme of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change is a carbon-based compensation for projects that resulted in reducing carbon emissions or enhancing carbon sinks or both in tropical forests. However, estimating such emissions and sinks remains challenging, and thus making it impossible to estimate carbon revenues from managing tropical forests. Here, we estimated the reduced emissions and sinks by developing models for setting Reference Emission Level (REL) and Project Emission Level (PEL) for REDD projects in concession forests taking emissions under conventional logging (CVL) scenario as that of REL, and emissions under reduced impact logging (RIL) and RIL with liberation treatment (RIL) scenarios as that of PEL. By choosing Cambodia as a case study, REL under the current logging system of 25-year cutting cycle was estimated at 23.1 TgCO2 year-1. To determine an appropriate cutting cycle, we tested our models with four cutting cycles and found that a 50-year cutting cycle is more appropriate. Taking this 50-year cutting cycle for REDD project, PELs were estimated at 0.4 TgCO2 and -3.3 TgCO2 year-1 under RIL and RIL, respectively (- means sinks). After subtracting REL with PEL and leakages, annual carbon credits from managing 3.4 million ha of concession forests in Cambodia were estimated at 15.9-18.5 TgCO2 depending on chosen scenario. With a carbon price of

Approaches to classifying and restoring degraded tropical forests for the anticipated REDD+ climate change mitigation mechanism

5 MgCO2-1, total revenues from the sales of carbon credits alone are

Woody biomass and bioenergy potentials in Southeast Asia between 1990 and 2020

79.5-92.5 million annually. To ensure continued flow of wood supply from tropical forests while mitigating climate change, we suggest that new climate agreements adopt RIL or RIL for sustainable forest management in tropical countries.

Benefits of tropical forest management under the new climate change agreement - a case study in Cambodia.

Concerns over the rapid increase of anthropogenic greenhouse gases (GHGs) in the atmosphere led to the adoption of the Kyoto Protocol to the United Nations Convention on Climate Change, under which 5.2% reduction of the global GHGs emissions was committed. More reduction commitment is expected for the new climate change agreements as new pledges of 80% reductions were recently announced by the G8 countries. Climate change agreements are likely to benefit the Greater Mekong Sub-region (GMS) financially and technologically in various development fields, particularly forestry if GMS countries are well prepared. In this report, we discuss the current and future climate change agreements and propose prioritized multidisciplinary research in forest management and its roles in sustainable development in the GMS. Within the context of climate change agreements, our prioritized research includes 1) multidisciplinary research to analyze the implications of climate change agreements on forest management; 2) multidisciplinary research to analyze the baseline scenarios for the implementation of forestry related projects; 3) basic research to improve understanding of forest and non-forest ecosystem functions and services; 4) multidisciplinary research to create eco-business opportunities in forest sector; and 5) basic research to improve understanding of the roles and benefits of various stakeholders so as to ensure long-term sustainable development.