Swift action to restore forests is critical for mitigating climate change and preserving biodiversity. Canada has an ambitious program to plant two billion trees to help exceed the country’s emissions targets while restoring forest habitat and providing social and economic benefits. We conducted a systematic analysis of where new tree cover can maximally achieve these benefits while minimizing implementation costs. Accounting for critiques of global restoration mapping that include the overestimation of mitigation potential and inadequate biodiversity and social safeguards, we find that 19.1 Mha are available, which is much more than the approximately 1.2 Mha needed to plant two billion trees. Optimization scenarios for 1.2 Mha revealed synergies and trade-offs. Scenarios prioritizing low costs, accessibility, and high growth are concentrated in temperate and coastal areas, overlapping partly with biodiversity scenarios, but with trade-offs of higher costs. A diverse portfolio of regionally restored sites, each tailored for specific attributes, is most likely to deliver multiple benefits at the pace demanded by the current crises.
Tag: carbon
Effectiveness of forest conservation interventions: An evidence gap map
This paper presents an evidence gap map of forest conservation interventions in low- and middle income countries based on evidence published over the period 2016 to mid-2018. It serves as an update to a similar effort by 3ie, with refinements to the framework that distributes studies across three tiers based on quality and considers environmental and socioeconomic outcomes. Compared to the previous evidence gap map, the evaluation of forest conservation outcomes has clearly accelerated in recent years, but from a modest base: the body of evidence still remains insufficient across most intervention types. Community-based management (especially in South Asia) and protected areas are well represented, though the latter distinguishes few subcategories. In turn, both PES and REDD+ evaluations are less available, and the latter surprisingly features more welfare than forest conservation or carbon impacts. Capacity-building interventions are almost absent in the matrix. It is also notable that policy mixes, often dominant in real-world implementation, have so far received little scrutiny. Among forest types, conservation interventions in mangroves lag behind, despite their environmental importance. Geographically, Asia and Latin America generally publish much more evaluated evidence than Africa. In conclusion, despite the incipient progress we have undoubtedly seen, many important knowledge gaps still remain.
Cultivating (in) tropical forests? The evolution and sustainability of systems of management between extracitivism and plantations
Rural households throughout the tropics have developed a wide range of systems for the management of forest resources. An interesting and valuable class of systems is those that are intermediate on the continuum from pure extraction to plantation management. Such “intermediate systems” (IS) range from natural forests modified by managers for increased production of selected products through to anthropogenic forests with a high density of valuable species within a relatively diverse and complex structure. IS offer important subsistence and cash incomes, as well as attractive strategies for capital accumulation, risk spreading, and labour reduction. They can also help to secure tenure rights and yield significant biodiversity benefits at both local and global levels. Despite these important contributions of IS to maintaining functioning of both the human and ecological systems in the tropics, IS have been largely overlooked by the development community. This is party because IS fall outside of the dominant agriculture/forestry divide paradigm, but also because of the absence of a recognized conceptual framework. This paper contributes to the development of such a framework by identifying some common features of IS, summarizing their key social, economic and environmental advantages and constraints, and examining the trends and driving forces that lead to their development, persistence and, in some cases, decline. We identify the conditions under which such systems can be important and conclude with a discussion of policy implications.
Forest restoration: Overlooked constraints
Early stage litter decomposition across biomes
Allometric equations for predicting above-ground biomass of selected woody species to estimate carbon in East African rangelands
Carbon Isotopes of Riparian Forests Trees in the Savannas of the Volta Sub-Basin of Ghana Reveal Contrasting Responses to Climatic and Environmental Variations
Stable isotopes of tree rings are frequently used as proxies in climate change studies. However, species-specific relationships between climate and tree-ring stable isotopes have not yet been studied in riparian forests in the savannas of West Africa. Four cross-dated discs, each of Afzelia africana Sm. (evergreen) and Anogeissus leiocarpus (DC.) Guill. & Perr. (deciduous) in the humid (HSZ) and dry (DSZ) savanna zones of the Volta basin in Ghana were selected from a larger tree-ring dataset to assess the relationships between the tree-ring carbon isotope composition (δ13C values) and climatic parameters. The atmospherically corrected δ13C values of both studied species showed that A. africana was enriched in 13C compared to A. leiocarpus. Strong correlations were found between δ13C values of A. africana and A. leiocarpus with temperature, but weak correlations with precipitation. Spatial correlation analysis revealed significant relationships between δ13C values of both tree species and Sea Surface Temperatures in the Gulf of Guinea in the southern Atlantic Ocean. The results suggest that the carbon isotope composition of riparian trees in the Volta river basin has a potential to reconstruct climate variability and to assess tree ecological responses to climate change.
Wintertime characteristics of aerosols over middle Indo-Gangetic Plain: Vertical profile, transport and radiative forcing
Winter-specific characteristics of airborne particulates over middle Indo-Gangetic Plain (IGP) were evaluated in terms of aerosol chemical and micro-physical properties under three-dimensional domain. Emphases were made for the first time to identify intra-seasonal variations of aerosols sources, horizontal and vertical transport, effects of regional meteorology and estimating composite aerosol short-wave radiative forcing over an urban region (25°10–25°19N; 82°54–83°4E) at middle-IGP. Space-borne passive (Aqua and Terra MODIS, Aura OMI) and active sensor (CALIPSO-CALIOP) based observations were concurrently used with ground based aerosol mass measurement for entire winter and pre-summer months (December, 1, 2014 to March, 31, 2015). Exceptionally high aerosol mass loading was recorded for both PM10 (267.6 ± 107.0 g m 3) and PM2.5 (150.2 ± 89.4 g m 3) typically exceeding national standard. Aerosol type was mostly dominated by fine particulates (particulate ratio: 0.61) during pre to mid-winter episodes before being converted to mixed aerosol types (ratio: 0.41–0.53). Time series analysis of aerosols mass typically identified three dissimilar aerosol loading episodes with varying attributes, well resemble to that of previous year’s observation representing its persisting nature. Black carbon (9.4 ± 3.7 g m 3) was found to constitute significant proportion of fine particulates (2–27%) with a strong diurnal profile. Secondary inorganic ions also accounted a fraction of particulates (PM2.5: 22.5%; PM10: 26.9%) having SO4 2, NO3 and NH4+ constituting major proportion. Satellite retrieved MODIS-AOD (0.01–2.30) and fine mode fractions (FMF: 0.01–1.00) identified intra-seasonal variation with transport of aerosols from upper to middle-IGP through continental westerly. Varying statistical association of columnar and surface aerosol loading both in terms of fine (r; PM2.5: MODIS-AOD: 0.51) and coarse particulates (PM10: MODIS-AOD: 0.53) was found influenced by local meteorology (boundary layer and humidity) and aerosol vertical profile. A gradual increase in aerosol vertical profile (surface to 4.9 km) was evident with dominance of polluted continental, polluted dust and smoke at lower altitude. Presence of mineral dusts in higher altitude during later phase was linked with its transboundary transport, originating from western dry regions. Conclusively, winter-specific short-wave aerosol radiative forcing revealed an ATM warming effect (31–47 W m 2) while cooling both at TOA ( 20 to 32 W m 2) and SUF ( 51 to 80 W m 2) with significant level of intra-seasonal variations in heating rates (0.86–1.32 K day 1).
An Introduction to the Climate-Smart Agriculture Papers
Over the last decade, international concerns about climate change have stimulated broad investment in the pursuit of agriculture that is more climate-smart. These concerns are particularly pressing in Africa, where most farmers remain severely impoverished and dependent on rain-fed production systems. This volume collates some of the latest research from agricultural scientists working to speed up the development and adoption of more climate-smart farming systems in eastern and southern Africa. These 25 papers highlight ongoing efforts to better characterise climate risks, develop and disseminate climate-smart varieties and farm management practices, and integrate these technologies into well-functioning value chains. The papers emphasise the additional research efforts needed to improve the understanding and response to climate risk. The expert authors also make suggestions for strengthening the responsiveness of agricultural research and extension systems to future climate changes.
Assessment of sustainability criteria and carbon stocks for selected land use options for Philippine uplands
SEAMEO-SEARCA and ICRAF-SEA reached an agreement to implement a collaborative research project entitled, “Assessment of Sustainability Criteria and Carbon Stocks for Selected Land Use Options for Philippine Uplands”. The objectives of this research project are: (1)To assess the longer term implications for soil properties, nutrient, water and organic matter balance of a range of land use alternatives for upland agriculture and agroforestry, to estimate the possible trade-offs between profitability, sustainability and carbon sequestration; and (2)To test a generic method for deriving sustainability, profitability and carbon stock indicators form a comprehensive tree-soil-crop interaction model. (Refer to Appendix A and B for details ) The pre-implementation stage of the WaNuLCAS Project involved a series of project team meetings, analysis of the model, and project workplan finalization. Most of the project time was spent on model parameterization and/or calibration using existing as well as secondary data from differenr sources like past research project results in the study site. Parameterization included activities such as sensitivity analysis and curve-fitting. Two agroforestry-based farming systems or landuse options were considered, namely the Corn Monocropping System (CMS) and the Corn-Gliricidia Cropping System (CGCS). These two systems which are dominant in the sloping uplands of Northern Mindanao were modelled and their long -term sustainability performance was assessed using the selected sets of indicators and criteria. Simulation results show that CMS appears to be less unprofitable or more profitable compared to CGCS. But from sustainability standpoint, the latter is still better than the former. Analysis of the model performance indicated that, WaNuLCAS provides the best well-rounded simulation at the plot level. The very detailed simulation output it provides can easily be generalized or transformed and inputted to other simulation models focus at higher hierarchical level of agroecosystems. Moreover, during the course of model parameterizations, observations on the model input data requirements and simulation outputs were noted and documented. These are deemed important in assessing the model input data necessary considering the data availability, reliability, and importance at a particular level in the hierarchy of systems.