Potential of Community-Based Forest Management to Mitigate Climate Change in the Philippines

Community-based forest management (CBFM) is the principal strategy in managing inhabited ‘forest land’ in the Philippines. It involves the participation of local communities in various forestry activities to achieve sustainable forestry, advance social justice and improve socioeconomic welfare, and promote a stable and healthy environment. This paper analyses the potential benefits of agroforestry farms in CBFM sites to mitigate climate change. The incorporation of trees in farms and landscapes has led to enhanced carbon storage and sequestration. Half a million hectares of agroforestry farms in CBFM sites in the Philippines are estimated to store 25 MtC while sequestering 2.7 MtC annually. Lessons are drawn from three carbon sequestration projects under development using CBFM as the main approach. Income from carbon credits is not sufficient to recover the cost of tree planting. The transaction costs of forestry CDM projects are substantial and could prove to be the greatest barrier to project fruition. Government institutions must find ways to encourage project developers by simplifying rules and regulations for forestry carbon projects. Forest definition must be assessed. Project developers and the government could also explore the voluntary carbon market which is more flexible than the CDM market. Policy and technical studies must be conducted to ascertain the potential of the REDD for CBFM sites in the country.     

REDD+机制各缔约方观点总结分析及我国对策建议

减少发展中国家毁林及森林退化引起的温室气体排放, 森林保护、可持续森林管理和增加森林碳储量(REDD+)在减缓气候变化行动中的作用越来越明显, 已经成为《联合国气候变化框架公约》谈判的重要议题。近年来各缔约方针对方法学、融资机制和REDD+与清洁发展机制(CDM)关系的谈判争论越来越激烈。在《联合国气候变化框架公约》第18次缔约方会议(COP18)期间, 对REDD+议题提出了新的要求, 除了有关于逐步建立国家水平森林参考排放水平或参考水平等有关方法学的技术与科学问题外, 基金在融资机制中的作用和非碳效益支付议题也有待进行深入的磋商。文中基于对各缔约方提案的分析结果和REDD+示范项目开展情况, 结合我国森林资源现状, 分析了REDD+机制对我国可能产生的影响并提出后续谈判期的对策建议。     

A Systems Analysis of Factors Affecting Leakage in Reduced Emissions From Deforestation and Degradation Projects in Tropical Forests in Developing Nations

This paper uses systems analysis to examine the factors that influence leakage in Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD) projects in tropical forest areas in developing countries. A causal loop diagram is used to identify some key intervention points for stakeholders to reduce the negative impacts of leakage. One of the most important intervention points identified is to provide livelihood alternatives to supplement the resources and the income that neighbouring small-scale landholders and communities must forego for the REDD initiative to be successful. The question remains, however, of how best to organise and distribute these resource allocations and payments to support the REDD project objectives. It is concluded that in many cases, developing countries with tropical forest coverage are unlikely to benefit from REDD in the foreseeable future, because of constraints related to economies of scale, but also because of political instability and lack of institutional capacity in many of these nations. Moreover, the risk remains that many of these developing countries will suffer from cross-border market leakage due to REDD projects conducted elsewhere, and that this will lead to negative local forest conservation and livelihood outcomes.     

Exploring the role of forest resources in reducing community vulnerability to the heat effects of climate change

While the growing literature on forest ecosystem services has examined the value and significance of a range of services, our understanding of the health-related benefits of ecosystem services from forests is still limited. To characterize the role of forest resources in reducing community vulnerability to the heat effects of climate change, a general index of heat vulnerability (HEVI) was developed through Principle Components Analysis (PCA) and subsequently used within ANVOA and Poisson regression to assess the relationship between the amount and type of forest resources (species, management regime, spatial pattern) and a county's vulnerability to the heat effects of climate change. Results of the ANOVA showed significant differences in the extent and characteristics of forests among counties experiencing different levels of heat vulnerability. The Poisson regression using county heat mortality as the dependent variable found forest characteristics to have a significant influence on heat mortality when other determinants of vulnerability were controlled. A negative and significant relationship was specifically found between forest area and heat related mortality, which supports the hypothesis that the extent of forest coverage helps to alleviate vulnerability associated with heat effects. These findings have important implications for understanding the role of forest ecosystem services in reducing a community's vulnerability to the heat effects of climate change. Findings will also be useful in guiding land use planning and preserving desirable forest characteristics to help communities adapt to climate change.     

REDD+ initiatives for safeguarding biodiversity and ecosystem services: harmonizing sets of standards for national application

In the context of growing concerns about environmental aspects of reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation in developing countries (acronym REDD+), we conducted a comparative analysis of three sets of globally-applicable standards and one instrument of REDD+ initiatives for safeguarding biodiversity and ecosystem services: (1) social and environmental principles and criteria, (2) REDD+ social and environmental standards, (3) climate, community, and biodiversity project design standards, and (4) strategic environmental and social assessment. We found that their projected proximal outcomes for biodiversity and ecosystem service treatments, and approaches to achieve them, are not uniform (e.g., differences in spatial coverage for expecting positive impacts, prioritized REDD+ activities, and expected level of rigor in biodiversity and ecosystem service monitoring). We also found that all four include identification of the priority areas for biodiversity and ecosystem services, plus monitoring and mitigation of the negative impacts of REDD+ activities. These all require substantial time and resources to fully address what the three standards and the instrument actually stipulate. We thus propose options for harmonizing their use to facilitate scaling-up of efforts to strengthen safeguards, from the project level to the national level, while respecting individual national contexts and taking advantage of each standard’s characteristics.     

林业减排增汇机制对中国多功能森林经营的影响与启示

随着社会经济的发展, 人们对林业提出了更高层次的、更为多元化的要求, 多功能森林经营应运而生。在全球气候变化背景下, 国际社会对林业减排增汇潜力越来越关注和重视, 由此产生的林业减排增汇机制对我国多功能森林经营的开展将产生巨大影响。文中对林业减排增汇机制和多功能森林经营的关系及其可能产生的潜在影响进行了分析, 提出了林业减排增汇计划的实施对我国开展多功能森林经营的一些有益启示。     

拉美国家参与全球森林治理的3种模式

随着对全球变暖和气候变化的担忧和关注在国际政策辩论中占据越来越重要的地位,全球对森林治理问题的兴趣和关注也在日益增长。森林已被定位为具有全球价值的碳库,对碳封存和缓解气候变暖具有重要作用。在这种背景下,拉丁美洲的森林治理在应对气候变化方面被视为具有全球重要性。文中以REDD为分析视角,从分阶段的方式出发,将拉美国家参与全球森林治理的模式分为以巴西为代表的自信模式、以哥伦比亚和哥斯达黎加为代表的包容模式和以玻利维亚为代表的抗拒模式3种;通过分析认为,拉美国家有最终实现减少森林砍伐和森林退化的巨大潜力以及利用其丰富的森林资源缓解气候变化的相应能力,但需要坚定森林治理和改革的决心并保证REDD政策实施的持续性。     

International Finance for REDD+ Within the Context of Conservation Financing Instruments

Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation (REDD+) is a conservation finance instrument based on the payments for ecosystem services model, wherein governments, private landowners, concession holders, and/or communities are compensated for undertaking activities which mitigate greenhouse gas emissions from forest use and land use change. This article reviews the numerous sources for REDD+ finance within the context of total global conservation finance. In 2013, there were approximately 47 REDD+ projects conserving nearly 20 million ha with a total transacted value in carbon offset credits estimated to be US$98.8 million. Scaling up conservation financing instruments, particularly REDD+, is critical to halting tropical deforestation and reversing the trend of global climate change. Although the bulk of REDD+ financing, especially for capacity building efforts, comes from public sector channels, this article discusses five opportunities for private sector firms to support REDD+: a firm can develop their own project; a firm can donate unrestricted funds to a nonprofit organization; a firm can invest in a for-profit firm; a firm can choose to support a particular REDD+ project; or a firm can invest into a dedicated fund.     

Climate change impacts,adaptive capacity,and vulnerability of European forest ecosystems

This study compiles and summarizes the existing knowledge about observed and projected impacts of climate change on forests in Europe. Forests will have to adapt not only to changes in mean climate variables but also to increased variability with greater risk of extreme weather events, such as prolonged drought, storms and floods. Sensitivity, potential impacts, adaptive capacity, and vulnerability to climate change are reviewed for European forests. The most important potential impacts of climate change on forest goods and services are summarized for the Boreal, Temperate Oceanic, Temperate Continental, Mediterranean, and mountainous regions. Especially in northern and western Europe the increasing atmospheric CO₂ content and warmer temperatures are expected to result in positive effects on forest growth and wood production, at least in the short–medium term. On the other hand, increasing drought and disturbance risks will cause adverse effects. These negative impacts are very likely to outweigh positive trends in southern and eastern Europe. From west to east, the drought risk increases. In the Mediterranean regions productivity is expected to decline due to strongly increased droughts and fire risks.     

Assessing the vulnerability of a forest ecosystem to climate change and variability in the western Mediterranean sub-region of Turkey: future evaluation

This study evaluates the multifactorial spatial modelling used to assess vulnerability of the Du¨ zlerc?am?(Antalya) forest ecosystem to climate change.This was done to produce data,to develop tools to support decisionmaking and the management of vulnerable Mediterranean forest ecosystems affected by climate change,and to increase the ability of these forest ecosystems to adapt to global change.Based on regionally averaged future climate assessments and projected climate indicators,both the study site and the western Mediterranean sub-region of Turkey will probably become associated with a drier,hotter,more continental and more water-deficient climate.This analysis holds true for all future scenarios,with the exception of RCP4.5 for the period from 2015 to 2030.However,the present dry-sub humid climate dominating this sub-region and the study area shows a potential for change towards more dry climatology and for it to become semiarid between 2031 and 2050 according to the RCP8.5 high emission scenario.All the observed and estimated results and assessments summarized in this study show clearly that the densest forest ecosystem in the southern part of the study site,characterized by mainly Mediterranean coniferous and some mixed forest and maquis vegetation,will very likely be influenced by medium and high degrees of vulnerability to future environmental degradation,climate change and variability.     

Five years of REDD+ governance: The use of market mechanisms as a response to anthropogenic climate change

Forest ecosystems worldwide are increasingly subjected to human intervention, leading commentators to argue that forests should be viewed as anthropogenic ecosystems. REDD+ is an emerging inter-governmental policy instrument aimed at both reducing deforestation and forest degradation and combatting climate change, whereby developed countries pay developing countries to reduce their forest-based emissions. The paper details a five-year research project to evaluate REDD+ quality of governance and develop governance standards for the mechanism. Quality of governance was evaluated in five key international institutional elements: the REDD + related negotiations in the global climate talks; the support and funding agencies UN-REDD, Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF), Forest Investment Programme (FIP) and the REDD + Partnership. This research was complemented by national level governance assessments and related standards setting initiatives in Nepal and Papua New Guinea. The researchers conclude that REDD+ confronts a number of challenges, notably around resources for capacity building, and benefit sharing. In addition, the lack of provisions for changing behaviour and solving the problem of forest-based emissions in the current safeguards render them inadequate to the task of delivering quality of governance. In the absence of consistent governance standards, REDD + will only partially be successful in combatting climate change in the Anthropocene.     

Are Vietnamese farmers able to combat global climate change? A case study on perceptions and attitudes towards sustainable forest management and REDD+ in Central Vietnam

ABSTRACT

Global efforts to combat climate change has led to the establishment of the Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation program (REDD+). This study concerns the implementation of REDD+ among local landscapes and communities in Vietnam. How do affected forest-dependent households perceive their roles in sustainable forest management and REDD+ and how do these perceptions and attitudes influence the (potential) socio-ecological performance of REDD+? Two communes consisting of forest-dependent and indigenous communities in Central Vietnam were selected for this study–the former involved in the UN-REDD program and the latter involved in a REDD+ program of Fauna and Flora International (FFI). Here, we differentiated between a ‘do no harm’ and pro-carbon (UN-REDD), and pro-poor (FFI-REDD+) approach to REDD+. Employing an applied socio-ecological systems framework, we conducted household surveys (n = 102) and we adopted qualitative research methods. This study identified the importance of traditional ecological knowledge systems in sustainable forest management. While pro-poor REDD+ was more inclusive, both REDD+ programs in our study were implemented in a top down manner. Lastly, households’ attitudes and perceptions towards rulemaking, sanctioning, monitoring, cultural capital (beliefs and worldviews) and forest protection technology were identified as (potential) local drivers for successful REDD+ implementation in both communes.     

Adapting the Congo Basin forests management to climate change: Linkages among biodiversity,forest loss,and human well-being

Tropical forests are at the center of any global debate on climate change and sustainable forest management because of their twin roles in climate change adaptation and mitigation and for resilient development. However, in the countries of the Congo Basin forests receive very little attention in national planning and policies. Climate change is not currently considered in decisions and long-term forest management plans in these countries. This paper demonstrates that: (1) Congo Basin forests are needed for adaptation because they can help to decrease human vulnerability to climate change; and (2) Congo Basin forest management practices need to be adapted to accommodate climate change because these forests are vulnerable to climate change. A framework for facilitating adaptation in forestry is discussed and a review of adaptive actions presented. The paper recommends the adoption of sustainable forest management approach that includes a climate change focus. Such management should not only avoid any adverse effects on the forest resources and conservation of biodiversity, but also provides opportunities for greater, more sustainable rural development and poverty alleviation through income generation and employment opportunities.     

国外森林碳融资模式比较及其对我国的启示

林业在应对气候变化方面的作用和地位越来越为各国和国际社会所重视。与其他缓解气候变化的选择相比, 森林碳减排的成本相对较低。但是, 资金缺口目前已成为REDD和REDD+面临的主要挑战之一, 也成为各国政府、学术界和企业界共同关注的焦点。文中对国外森林碳融资模式进行归纳分析, 指出其发展趋势, 提出国外实践对我国发展森林碳融资的借鉴意义。     

减少毁林和森林退化引起的排放:一个综述视角的分析

减少因毁林和森林退化引起的温室气体排放(REDD)对控制和减缓全球气候变暖具有重要作用。UNFCCC第11次缔约国会议将REDD议题列入气候谈判议程, 希望REDD成为2012年后承诺期减缓气候变化的重要措施之一。文中在对国际社会关于REDD的谈判进展和指导原则等进行概述的基础上, 探讨了当前国际社会关注的REDD的焦点问题, 分析了这些焦点问题的现状及其可能的发展趋势, 并据此提出讨论和建议。     

Is Recentralization Really Dominant? The Role of Frontline Foresters for Institutional Arrangement in the Philippines

Decentralized forest policy has been moderately successful in delivering resource-use rights to local people. At the same time, it is possible that decentralization leads to recentralization because governments never give their authority over forest resources. Recentralization studies have paid little attention to the potential of local dynamics to lead to institutional arrangements that affect forest outcomes. This paper uses a case study of Community-based Forest Management (CBFM) in the Philippines to explore how local realities lead to the development of effective institutions for forest management. In this case study, local informal regulations of forest resource use were created through the process of settling local conflicts among competing CBFM interests, including members and non-members of people’s organizations, and frontline foresters who are working at local level. Frontline foresters played a role as coordinator of institutional arrangements that regulate local forest exploitation within the CBFM implementation process. The behavior of frontline foresters affected by their own personalities and existing social relations among residents, can deter recentralization in some ways. More attention is needed on the role of frontline foresters and non-members of people’s organization as influential negotiators in state-society relations concerning forests.     

转型期我国东北国有林区职工家庭脆弱性的理论探讨

国有林区职工家庭是林区复合系统中最微观的主体,国有林区的转型发展影响着林区职工家庭,职工家庭的生计态势也影响着国有林区的顺利转型和发展。因此,在国有林区转型发展的新时期,关注林区职工家庭的发展态势具有一定的现实意义。文中将国有林区职工家庭脆弱性界定为林区职工在面对突发或是长期的外在压力、冲击或风险时的抵御能力,或是面临外在环境变化时适应能力不足、不安全或是易受灾的程度;并依据生计理论,从物质资本、人力资本和社会资本分析东北国有林区职工家庭脆弱性具体表现维度;应用压力-状态-响应（PSR）模型分析东北国有林区职工家庭脆弱性的形成演化机理。结果表明,东北国有林区职工家庭脆弱性的形成是职工家庭内外部环境因子的压力与职工家庭自身对因子响应能力共同决定的结果;长期来看,林区职工家庭的脆弱性有向威胁森林资源安全、抑制林区经济发展、破坏林区社会稳定3个方向演化扩散的趋势。     

全球人工林环境管理策略研究

全球人工林为木材生产和缓解贫困做出了重要贡献, 在减缓和适应气候变化中起到了非常重要的作用。文中在介绍全球人工林资源的基础上, 分析了人工林对生物多样性、水分循环、养分循环和碳循环的影响和相互作用机制, 提出了人工林环境管理策略, 即建立人工林多功能经营制度、通过森林认证助推人工林可持续经营、充分利用REDD+机制提高人工林固碳效应的政策推动策略, 加强生物多样性保护、降低人工林对水循环负面影响、提高人工林的养分循环、促进人工林生态系统碳循环的生态系统完整性策略, 以及保育高保护价值区域策略和鼓励利益相关者参与人工林规划与管理策略。     

A reality check on the landscape approach to REDD+: Lessons from Latin America

Developing and institutionalizing cross-sectoral approaches to sustainable land use remains a crucial, yet politically contested, objective in global sustainability governance. There is a widely acknowledged need for more integrated approaches to sustainable land use that reconcile multiple landscape functions, sectors and stakeholders. However, this faces a number of challenges in practice, including the lack of policy coherence and institutional conflicts across agricultural and forest sectors. In this context, the global climate change mitigation mechanism of “reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation” (REDD+) has been flagged as a unique opportunity to stimulate the development and institutionalization of more integrated, “landscape” approaches to sustainable land use. In this article, we provide a reality check for the prospects of REDD+ to deliver on this promise, through analyzing three pioneer cases of REDD+ development and implementation in Brazil, Ecuador, and Mexico. We analyze how REDD+ has operated in each of these three contexts, based on field work, key-informant interviews, and analysis of primary and secondary documents. Our findings suggest that REDD+ has stimulated development of “niche” sustainable land-use investments in each case, which aim to integrate forest conservation and agricultural development goals, but has done so while competing with business-as-usual incentives. We conclude that national and international political commitment to more integrated and sustainable land-use approaches is a precondition for, rather than a result of, transformative REDD+ interventions.     

2010年全球森林资源评估特点与启示

介绍了由联合国粮农组织(FAO)牵头开展的2010年全球森林资源评估内容指标、技术方法和主要结果,总结了2010年中国森林资源评估和国家报告编报情况及其成效。从我国实际出发,分析了我国林业监测统计面临的紧迫问题,结合世界各国和FAO等国际组织森林资源监测评估经验,提出了增强全国监测评估结果时效性和说服力、提升我国林业应对森林可持续经营评价、森林碳汇计量和REDD+等全球气候变化焦点议题能力的途径和措施。