Deforestation remains one of the most significant sources of greenhouse gas emissions globally. Tropical regions are particularly critical to climate mitigation due to their high carbon density and ongoing conversion to agricultural uses. While earth observation (EO) has become fundamental for assessing land-use change over time and space, key gaps persist in understanding associated carbon emissions (CE) and their distribution across production systems, information required by diverse international and European policy frameworks targeting greenhouse gas reduction and deforestation. To address this, the study integrates satellite-derived aboveground biomass (AGB) with machine learning-based land-use modeling to quantify commodity-specific CE from deforestation in Colombia. Our key findings reveal that pasture expansion for livestock dominates emissions (>67% in the Amazonas and Orinoquía regions, approximately 25% nationally), while cocoa and coffee, despite smaller cultivation areas, exhibit high emission factors (>25% of subregional totals in the Andes, Pacífico, and Caribe). Smallholder croplands contribute up to 16.7% regionally, and oil palm plays a modest role nationally. These results underscore the importance of targeting both extensive pasture systems and high-emission perennial crops in deforestation-free supply chain policies, while considering the diverse regional land-use dynamics. In conclusion, our framework offers spatially explicit, crop-specific emission estimates that address essential gaps in EO-based CE quantification. It provides clear, actionable baselines for monitoring policies aimed at promoting deforestation-free supply chains, such as the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR), across tropical landscapes. Ultimately, this data supports the creation of a comprehensive database of country-specific emission factors, a resource critical for enhancing national carbon inventories, guiding policy decisions related to high-risk deforestation commodities, and ensuring more transparent and traceable zero-deforestation supply chains.
Tag: carbon
Global cost estimates of reducing carbon emissions through avoided deforestation
Tropical deforestation is estimated to cause about one-quarter of anthropogenic carbon emissions, loss of biodiversity, and other environmental services. United Nations Framework Convention for Climate Change talks are now considering mechanisms for avoiding deforestation (AD), but the economic potential of AD has yet to be addressed. We use three economic models of global land use and management to analyze the potential contribution of AD activities to reduced greenhouse gas emissions. AD activities are found to be a competitive, low-cost abatement option. A program providing a 10% reduction in deforestation from 2005 to 2030 could provide 0.3- 0.6 Gt (1 Gt = 1 X 10’5 g) CO2’yr-1 in emission reductions and would require $0.4 billion to $1.7 billion.yr-1 for 30 years. A 50% reduction in deforestation from 2005 to 2030 could provide 1.5-2.7 Gt CO2’yr-1 in emission reductions and would require $17.2 billion to $28.0 billion.yr-1. Finally, some caveats to the analysis that could increase costs of AD programs are described.
Carbon rights, REDD+ and payments for environmental services
Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) has become a central dimension of the contemporary international forest regime. The mechanism seeks to reward actors for keeping or restoring forests as a means to reduce carbon emissions. Carbon rights, here understood as title to carbon credits, have an odd status in the REDD+ debate. They are closely associated with the belief that REDD+ will generate (economic) “rents” – i.e. revenues exceeding the full cost of the corresponding effort – which means framing the discussion in terms of entitlement to revenues beyond mere financial compensations. We suggest that, in an “ideal” REDD+ scheme, the possibility of obtaining rents in REDD+ would be very limited. In the real world, rent could be created by strategic behaviours by setting a reference emission level (what would occur under a business-as-usual scenario) and by possible acceptance, for political reasons, of inappropriate rules such as being remunerated for the full stock of carbon. The carbon rights rhetoric leads to rent-seeking since remunerations could be disconnected from the active contribution to the production of emission reductions, which is a public good by nature. Another interpretation of carbon rights is the right to benefit from the sale of carbon credits, a framework within which what is at stake is sharing the benefits deriving from the human production and the sale of these benefits, a traditional social issue. In this case, we argue, the concept of carbon rights is useless and even misleading. Compensating for easements would be a more appropriate framework for designing incentive schemes such as payments for environmental services (PES). Reforming land tenure codes to allow individuals, families and communities to claim property or collective tenure rights on the land and the trees is the issue that matters in order to start tackling fairness in REDD+ and PES initiatives.
Rights to land, forests and carbon in REDD+: Insights from Mexico, Brazil and Costa Rica
Land tenure and carbon rights constitute critical issues to take into account in achieving emission reductions, ensuring transparent benefit sharing and determining non-permanence (or non-compliance) liabilities in the context of REDD+ strategies and projects. This is so because tenure systems influence who becomes involved in efforts to avoid deforestation and improve forest management, and that land tenure, carbon rights and liabilities may be linked or divorced with implications for rural development. This paper explores these issues by looking at tenure regimes and carbon rights issues in Mexico, Brazil and Costa Rica. It is effectively shown that complex bundles of rights over forest resources have distinct implications for REDD+ design and implementation, and that REDD+ strategies in selected countries have to date failed in procedurally addressing land-use conflicts and carbon rights entitlements and liabilities.
Carbon stocks of tropical land use systems as part of the global C balance: effects of forest conversion and options for clean development activities
Around 1890, Arrhenius, a Swedish chemist, was the first to predict a quantitative increase in global temperature (of 5 to 6 degrees Celsius) due to a doubling of the atmospheric concentration of CO2 resulting from the use of fossil fuel. But to him, living in Sweden, this could only have a positive effect on human livelihoods. In a 1908 paper he remarked: “By the influence of the increasing percentage of carbonic acid in the atmosphere, we may hope to enjoy ages with more equable and better climates, especially as regards the colder regions of the Earth, ages when the Earth will bring forth much more abundant crops than at present for the benefit of the rapidly propagating mankind” (Christianson, 1999). In the 100 years since then, have Arrhenius’ predictions come true And have attitudes changed Certainly, in the last two decades, global temperature has increased steadily, and this has corresponded with a sharp increase in atmospheric CO2 concentrations (Figure 1). During the last 10 years the possibility that human activities can, and do, change climates all over the earth, has moved from the realms of a scientific debate to the general recognition that this change needs to be controlled, and to an international convention that tries to do so (UNFCCC- the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change).
Rights to forests and carbon under REDD+ initiatives in Latin America
Rights to large areas of forest have been granted to communities and indigenous peoples in Latin America, offering these groups an opportunity to participate in REDD+ initiatives. However, tenure is not always secure, and security of tenure alone is insufficient to guarantee positive outcomes for both forests and livelihoods. The question of carbon tenure rights has only just begun to be addressed, and even less attention has been given to liabilities. REDD+ initiatives provide an opportunity to consolidate indigenous territories but present a risk to those without secure land rights. REDD+ initiatives should be informed by a clear understanding of the successes and failures of community forest management. REDD+ initiatives should recognise local diversity and not impose blueprints.
Nitrogen and phosphorus limitations of microbial respiration in a tropical phosphorus-fixing acrisol (ultisol) compared with organic compost
Proceedings of International Conference on Indicators for Sustainable Forest Management: fostering stakeholder input to advance development of scientifically-based indicators, 24-28 August 1998, Melbourne, Australia
Growth Performance of Tamanu (Calophyllum inophyllum L.) in Relation to Peatland Restoration in South Sumatra and Central Kalimantan, Indonesia
Peatlands store approximately 30% of global terrestrial carbon, and tropical peatlands contribute 10%–30% of the total peatland carbon storage. Indonesia holds approximately 15% of this resource. Given the rapid degradation of these ecosystems, the Indonesian government has promoted revegetation, identifying Calophyllum inophyllum L. (Tamanu) as a promising restoration species. However, long-term studies on Tamanu performance and optimal environmental conditions in actual peatland settings are lacking. This study aimed to identify the environmental characteristics conducive to Tamanu growth. We planted Tamanu at Perigi in South Sumatra and Buntoi in Central Kalimantan and monitored its growth over a five-year period. We assessed the soil properties and hydrological conditions at both sites. Results revealed that Tamanu trees at the Perigi site, with higher soil nutrient levels, initially exhibited greater root collar diameter, height, and stem volume compared to those at Buntoi. However, prolonged flooding in Perigi caused complete mortality at 60 months. In contrast, despite lower soil nutrient levels, the Buntoi site maintained a survival rate of 52% because of the more stable water levels. These findings suggest that hydrological management is more critical than soil nutrient conditions for the long-term survival of Tamanu in tropical peatlands, informing effective peatland restoration strategies.
Taking Stock of Carbon Rights in REDD+ Candidate Countries: Concept Meets Reality
In the discourses on who should benefit from national REDD+ implementation, rights-based approaches are prominent across various countries. Options on how to create viable property rights arrangements are currently being debated by scholars, policy makers and practitioners alike. Many REDD+ advocates argue that assigning carbon rights represents a solution to insecure individual and community property rights. But carbon rights, i.e., the bundle of legal rights to carbon sequestered in biomass, present their own set of theoretical and practical challenges. We assess the status and approaches chosen in emerging carbon-rights legislations in five REDD+ countries based on a literature review and country expert knowledge: Peru, Brazil, Cameroon, Vietnam and Indonesia. We find that most countries assessed have not yet made final decisions as to the type of benefit sharing mechanisms they intend to implement and that there is a lack of clarity about who owns rights to carbon as a property and who is entitled to receive benefits. However, there is a trend of linking carbon rights to land rights. As such, the technical and also political challenges that land tenure clarification has faced over the past decades will still need to be addressed in the context of carbon rights.