我国REDD+行动的测量、报告和核查体系

对《UNFCCC》缔约方会议关于REDD+行动可测量、可报告和可核查的相关规定进行解读;分析现阶段我国实现REDD+行动可测量、可报告和可核查目标的难点和重点;提出适合我国国情的REDD+行动类型;建立以目的、实施状况、对可持续发展和消除贫困的贡献、环境效果、可持续性和成本有效性为普遍性指标的我国REDD+行动的测量、报告和核查体系框架.     

Generalized functions of biomass expansion factors for conifers and broadleaved by stand age,growing stock and site index

Parties to the Kyoto Protocol and/or the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) are required to account for their direct human-induced carbon emissions and removals including those from forestry and other land use related activities. In most European countries, the forestry related greenhouse gas inventories are largely or exclusively based on converting tree volume data from national forest inventories to biomass using biomass conversion and expansion factors (BCEFs). However, country specific data for many species are often lacking, which considerably increases the uncertainties of the greenhouse gas inventories. The focus of this research was to develop, using internationally published datasets that cover a large geographical area, an extended set of generalized curves of such biomass expansion factors for several species or species groups by age, growing stock and site index.     

RothCUK – a dynamic modelling system for estimating changes in soil C from mineral soils at 1-km resolution in the UK

We describe the development and application of an integrated data and modelling system for estimating soil carbon (C) fluxes from mineral soils caused by changes in climate, land use and land management at 1‐km resolution in the UK (RothCUK). The system was developed with the aim of improving methods for United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and Kyoto Protocol accounting and integrates national scale data sets of soil properties, land use and climate with the Rothamsted carbon model (RothC). A preliminary estimate of soil C fluxes because of land use change (LUC) over the period 1990–2000 is presented as an example application of the system. RothCUK shows LUC to be a net source of CO₂ from 1990 to 2000 although the RothC estimate was smaller (6488 kt C) than the estimate from the single exponential model (SEM) method currently used to calculate C fluxes due to LUC for the UK National Greenhouse Gas Inventory (mean: 9412 kt C). Based on previous studies, an uncertainty range in our estimates of ±50–100% seems plausible. In agreement with the SEM, RothCUK suggests that the largest single contributor to soil C fluxes from LUC was conversion of grassland to arable land. Differences between the results may be attributed to differences in the two models and the assumptions and underlying data used in making the calculations. The RothCUK system provides a powerful method for estimating changes in soil C stocks, enabling areas and management systems with particularly large changes in soil C stocks to be located at fine resolution.     

REDD机制的理论、实践与国际法规制的探讨

减少砍伐森林和森林退化导致的温室气体排放(REDD)是联合国粮农组织、联合国开发计划署、联合国环境规划署三方的联合行动计划,目标是每年从发达国家筹集资金,帮助发展中国家减少毁林造成的温室气体排放.探讨了REDD机制的产生、发展、内涵、基本原则、关键问题及重要实践,同时指出了REDD机制在UNFCCC的国际法框架内的经济法、环境法、人权法等领域正式确立所需的国际法规制.     

Estimating the biomass and carbon pool of stump systems at a national scale

Countries that are signatories to the UNFCCC and its supplementary Kyoto Protocol are obliged to report changes in carbon pools. These should include the pool of carbon held in tree stumps and roots but, to date, few countries have been able to report this or separate it from the dead-wood pool. The aim of this study was to develop a general system for estimating and monitoring changes in stump system carbon using data from a traditional National Forest Inventory. The system was derived using data based on measurements of carbon (biomass) in inventoried permanent sample plots representing all relevant classes of land-use. With this design it was possible to trace matched carbon at the level of individual trees or stumps back to land-use prior to the 1990 baseline year. Between 1990 and 2003 in Sweden, the average annual net sink of stump systems was estimated to amount to 6.7 Mt CO₂ equiv. year⁻¹ – comparable to the reported net sink in 2008 of about 15 Mt CO₂ equiv. year⁻¹ from the whole Land Use, Land-Use Change and Forestry sector, which excluded any carbon in stump systems. In 2003 the carbon stock of stumps and roots was estimated at 495 Mt CO₂ equiv.; approximately five times that of the dead-wood pool as defined in Sweden, i.e. dead wood that mainly consists of boles. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change requests that reported carbon should be matched to land-use and traced back to the 1990 base year; however, the present study confirms expectations that most carbon in stumps and roots is found on Forest land. The minimum requirements for estimating the carbon pool in stump systems at a national scale using the proposed methodology are that there should be: (i) a consistent time-series of harvest data, usually estimated as merchantable volume; (ii) conversion factors from merchantable volume to stump system biomass at death; and (iii) a representative decomposition model.     

How Can We Incentivize Tropical Forest Restoration?

International policy incentives to promote tropical forest restoration, community forestry, and payments for environmental services have not been widely adopted at scale. It is possible that reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation and related activities (REDD+) could be a policy tool for encouraging larger scale restoration efforts in the tropics. Although there are political challenges to ensuring the inclusion of restoration activities in REDD+, its use might facilitate the forest transition in tropical countries, reduce carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere, and garner political support for these policies and approaches.