The largest tropical peatland complex in the Cuvette Centrale is marked by persistent knowledge gaps. We assessed recent peat forest disturbances and their direct drivers from 2019 to 2021 in Cuvette Centrale, spanning the Republic of Congo (ROC) and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Utilizing peatland maps and Radar for Detecting Deforestation alert data, we analyzed spatial and temporal patterns of disturbances. Further, we examined 2267 randomly sampled peat forest disturbance events through visual interpretation of monthly Planet and Sentinel 2A data to identify direct drivers. Our findings revealed that between 2019 and 2021, about 91% of disturbances occurred in DRC, with hotspots concentrated in the northwest Sud-Ubangi district. Disturbances predominantly followed a sharp seasonal pattern, recurring during the first half of each year with temporal hotspots emerging between February and May, closely associated with smallholder agriculture activities. Smallholder agriculture accounted for over 88% of disturbances in Cuvette Centrale, representing a leading role both in ROC (∼77%) and DRC (∼89%). While small-scale logging contributed 7% to the disturbances in the region, it constituted an important driver (18%) in the ROC. Other drivers included floods, roads, and settlements. Approximately 77% of disturbances occurred outside managed forest concessions in Cuvette Centrale, with 40% extending into protected areas. About 90% of disturbances were concentrated within 1 km of peat forest edges and ∼76% of the disturbances occurred within 5 km of road or river networks. The insights underscore the crucial need for effective peat forest conservation strategies in Cuvette Centrale and can inform national policies targeting peatland protection, aligning with commitments in the Brazzaville Declaration and the Paris Agreement. Further, our findings on direct driver assessment could serve as a reference dataset for machine learning models to automate the visual interpretation and upscale the assessment across the entire region.
Tag: deforestation
Deforestation triggered by artisanal mining in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo
The discovery of valuable minerals in the mineral-abundant eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo can stimulate extensive migration into remote areas of the Congo Basin rainforest. Despite the widespread practice of artisanal mining, its role in the ongoing deforestation has not received adequate attention. Using difference-in-differences estimation, we show that artisanal mining triggers deforestation at least 5 km from mining sites. Within this distance, the onset of mining causes an additional 4 percentage points of forest loss after 10 years. In total, the indirect deforestation caused by mining through the expansion of other land uses is 28 times larger than the forest area directly cleared for mining. Most of this loss is caused by increased farming around mines, followed by forest cleared for settlements. These indirect effects reveal a much larger role played by artisanal mining in deforestation dynamics than previously assumed and explain at least 6.6% of the total deforestation in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Jurisdictional risk assessment and implementation of theory of change to sustainable palm oil in Pelalawan District, Riau Province
The jurisdictional approach has been widely used to address multifaceted issues associated with commodity-driven deforestation. Risk assessment at the jurisdictional level is required to implement jurisdictional programs. We developed a risk framework and indicator to assess the risks associated with achieving sustainable palm oil, using Pelalawan District as a case study. Pelalawan scored 0.48 out of 1, with the highest risks in the percentage of deforestation driven by oil palm plantation in mineral forest and pressure due to demand by global trade/export. Risks that are not mitigated will hamper the district’s effort to achieve sustainability. Following the assessment, we brought together multistakeholder in a workshop to develop a common vision using the theory of change framework. This study introduces new ways to approach sustainable palm oil initiatives in the palm oil sector using risk assessment and a theory of change framework.
The context of REDD+ in Brazil: drivers, agents, and institutions – 3rd edition
This study presents a complete update of the Brazil profile in the global and national context, as relates to the development and implementation of the national strategy for Reduction of Greenhouse Gas Emissions arising from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+), as part of CIFOR’s Global Comparative Study on REDD+.
Since 2007, Brazil has developed instruments and programs to better value its standing forests in the realm of the global Climate Convention. Over this period, federal and state governments have adopted public policies directed toward the reduction of deforestation, grounded in different measures and successive revisions since 2004 in the Plan for Prevention of Deforestation of the Legal Amazon (PPCDAm), resulting in a significant decline of 79% in deforestation rates between 2005 and 2013. But deforestation still represents over 5,000 km2 of tropical forests each year in the Brazilian Amazon alone. In fact, the current political arena promotes activities that stimulate deforestation, motivated in part of by the revisions in the national Forest Code in 2012. The study describes the actors, institutions and strategies adopted throughout this period, evaluating the context of implementation of REDD+ in the country. In conclusion, it indicates the potential to achieve continuous reduction in deforestation in an efficient, effective and equitable fashion, seeking to attain the “zero illegal deforestation” target by 2025 adopted by Brazil in its contribution to the Paris Agreements of 2015.
The context of REDD+ in Myanmar: Drivers, agents and institutions [Burmese]
The Republic of the Union of Myanmar is a forest resource-rich country, but is also facing serious deforestation and forest degradation problems. Currently, Myanmar’s forest still covers more than 40% of the country’s land area (Aung (2001) but 70% of its population live in rural areas, and the agricultural sector is the main contributor to the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) (30%) (World Bank 2014). The country faces the all-too-common dilemma of how to develop its economy while at the same time curbing environmental degradation and contributing to carbon emissions reduction. In 2013, Myanmar adopted a REDD+ program and started its preparatory phase. Myanmar established and developed its National Forest Monitoring System (NFMS) and Reference Emission Levels (RELs) for REDD+ following the guidance and modalities set out by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Implementing REDD+ requires political commitment to address direct and indirect drivers of deforestation, an adequate funding mechanism that is based on a thorough analysis of all costs and benefits, a transparent and equitable benefit-sharing mechanism, and a participatory decision-making approach in which all stakeholders can take part in REDD+. The Global Comparative Study on REDD+, together with its country partners, is compiling profiles of 14 countries to better understand the socioeconomic contexts in which REDD+ policies and processes emerge.
Oil wealth and the fate of forest: a comparative study of eight tropical countries
Oil production can damage rainforests, but this is just one side of a complicated story about the impact of oil on land use. This book a study of eight tropical oil-producing countries, examines the linkages between trade, macroeconomics and policies affecting the environment. In a balanced and comprehensive review, including a detailed assessment of land use in Cameroon, Ecuador, Gabon, Papua New Guinea and Venezuela, the author comes up with a counterintuitive suggestion: oil revenues often indirectly come to protect tropical forests. There are numerous implications for policy formulation to decide what can be done to diminish deforestation without jeopardising economic growth.
Stocks and fluxes of carbon associated with land use change in Southeast Asian tropical peatlands: A review
The increasing and alarming trend of degradation and deforestation of tropical peat swamp forests may contribute greatly to climate change. Estimates of carbon (C) losses associated with land use change in tropical peatlands are needed. To assess these losses we examined C stocks and peat C fluxes in virgin peat swamp forests and tropical peatlands affected by six common types of land use. Phytomass C loss from the conversion of virgin peat swamp forest to logged forest, fire-damaged forest, mixed croplands and shrublands, rice field, oil palm plantation, and Acacia plantation were calculated using the stock difference method and estimated at 116.9 ± 39.8, 151.6 ± 36.0, 204.1 ± 28.6, 214.9 ± 28.4, 188.1 ± 29.8, and 191.7 ± 28.5 Mg C ha-1, respectively. Total C loss from uncontrolled fires ranged from 289.5 ± 68.1 Mg C ha-1 in rice fields to 436.2 ± 77.0 Mg C ha-1 in virgin peat swamp forest. We assessed the effects of land use change on C stocks in the peat by looking at how the change in vegetation cover altered the main C inputs (litterfall and root mortality) and outputs (heterotrophic respiration, CH4 flux, fires, and soluble and physical removal) before and after conversion. The difference between the soil input-output balances in the virgin peat swamp forest and in the oil palm plantation gave an estimate of peat C loss of 10.8 ± 3.5 Mg C ha-1 yr-1. Peat C loss from other land use conversions could not be assessed due to lack of data, principally on soil heterotrophic respiration rates. Over 25 years, the conversion of tropical virgin peat swamp forest into oil palm plantation represents a total C loss from both biomass and peat of 427.2 ± 90.7 Mg C ha-1 or 17.1 ± 3.6 Mg C ha-1 yr-1. In all situations, peat C loss contributed more than 63% to total C loss, demonstrating the urgent need in terms of the atmospheric greenhouse gas burden to protect tropical virgin peat swamp forests from land use change and fires.
Oil, macroeconomics, and forests
How does an oil boom affect the forest cover of tropical oil exporting-countries? Are they more or less likely than non-oil countries to experience forest loss? What macro-economic linkages and policies are decisive? This article summarises research on land-use changes in eight tropical developing countries. Our country-comparative approach reveals that the direct oil impacts on forests are unquestionably subordinate compared to oil’s derived macroeconomic impact. In most cases, oil wealth indirectly but significantly comes to protect tropical forests. The core mechanism here is that oil rents cause ‘Dutch Disease’, decreasing the price-competitiveness of agriculture and logging, which strongly diminishes pressures for deforestation and forest degradation. But domestic policy responses to oil wealth are also vital determinants for the forest outcome. When governments use most oil wealth for urban spending sprees, this reinforces the core effect by pulling more labor out of land-using and forest-degrading activities. Yet, in extreme cases when boosting oil revenues finance large road-construction programs or frontier-colonization projects, the core forest-protective effect of oil wealth can be reversed. Repeated currency devaluation and import protection of heavily land-using domestic sectors also contribute to increased forest pressures. These conclusions have ample policy implications, reaching beyond the group of tropical oil countries. Other international capital transfers, like bilateral credits, aid or debt relief can have similar impacts. These measures will alleviate pressures on forests, unless they come to bolster specific forest-detrimental policies. This also provides some suggestions on what forest-friendly safeguards could realistically be taken in the design of structural adjustment programs, considering the important trade-offs between development and conservation objectives.
Governing knowledge transfer for deforestation monitoring: Insights from REDD+ projects in the Congo Basin region
Since the end of 2000s, many forest-rich countries have engaged into results-based deforestation reduction monitoring under REDD+ mechanisms. A set of methods and tools designed at international level is expected to be transferred to the domestic level in many developing countries, in order to generate information on how these countries contribute to global emissions reduction through local forest landscapes. Using the monitoring, reporting and verification (MRV) device as an example, this paper sets out to analyze this knowledge transfer by identifying bottlenecks. It proposes an original analysis that will help to better understand how such knowledge transfers could be improved at the domestic level. Based on empirical case studies related to REDD+ projects in Cameroon, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda, it assesses knowledge transfer and the role of stakeholders involved at multiple levels (global, regional, national and local). For this purpose, we used the Research Integration and Utilization (RIU) model, which is an analytical framework allowing analyses showing how scientific results can be owned, integrated and disseminated to meet specific needs. Results show that there is a weakness in MRV knowledge transfer from global to local levels and back. The MRV knowledge has a strong research background, a weak MRV knowledge integration and a mitigated direct utilization. The RIU model allows us to identify significant weaknesses in the transfer of MRV knowledge, including institutional dysfunction, weak institutional coordination, a lack of integration and reduced utilization of the scientific knowledge produced, despite the creation of coordinating institutions. These weaknesses are due partly to the absence of a common platform between exogenous and endogenous knowledge. To overcome these obstacles, synergies between scientists and indigenous actors should be explored and developed.
Forests and deforestation: Definitions, thresholds and implications
Key Messages
Defining the term ‘forest’ and the inseparable concepts of ‘deforestation’ and ‘forest degradation’ is a prerequisite for strategies aiming to eliminate imported deforestation from tropical commodity supply chains. The definition must form part of a well-defined legal and political framework; it must be consensual, pragmatic and customizable to the variety of ecological contexts in countries producing commodities likely to exacerbate deforestation (Eba’a Atyi, 2021). This undertaking could expose conflicts of opinion between consumers concerned about the environment and producer countries with development goals.