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Crediting carbon in dry forests: The potential for community forest management in West Africa

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  • Skutsch, Margaret M.
  • Ba, Libasse

Abstract

Policy on Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation in Developing Countries (REDD) is currently being debated under the auspices of the UNFCCC. The paper reviews developments in this, particularly as regards potential crediting for reduced forest degradation in places such as the Sahel, given that degradation in the tropical dry forests and savanna woodlands is a considerable source of carbon dioxide emissions. It then presents field data from sites in Guinea Bissau, Mali and Senegal where the Kyoto: Think Global Act Local project has been working for a number of years. In these sites, the local communities had been managing their forests under a variety of different programmes before KTGAL started. The purpose of KTGAL was to record the carbon outcomes of typical community forest management regimes, and to assess whether local communities were capable of making carbon stock measurements themselves. The results indicate that carbon savings range from 5 to 14Â tons carbon dioxide per hectare, if both avoided degradation and increased biomass due to forest enhancement are included. They also show that communities can be trained relatively easily to make stock (and thus carbon) assessments, at a much lower cost than employing professional forest surveyors. It is not clear yet whether both reduced degradation and enhanced stock will be rewarded under REDD, nor is it sure how much of the financial reward might potentially be claimed by the communities, but even if only 10% of the financial value of the carbon were to filter back to the communities, this would still represent a considerable incentive for participation.

Suggested Citation

  • Skutsch, Margaret M. & Ba, Libasse, 2010. "Crediting carbon in dry forests: The potential for community forest management in West Africa," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 12(4), pages 264-270, April.
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:forpol:v:12:y:2010:i:4:p:264-270
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Simon L. Lewis & Gabriela Lopez-Gonzalez & Bonaventure Sonké & Kofi Affum-Baffoe & Timothy R. Baker & Lucas O. Ojo & Oliver L. Phillips & Jan M. Reitsma & Lee White & James A. Comiskey & Marie-Noël Dj, 2009. "Increasing carbon storage in intact African tropical forests," Nature, Nature, vol. 457(7232), pages 1003-1006, February.
    2. Jeff Tollefson, 2008. "Save the trees," Nature, Nature, vol. 452(7183), pages 8-9, March.
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    Cited by:

    1. Dan-Bi Um, 2021. "Assigning a grass-root NGO role to legitimate organizations as resident watch-dogs in negotiating carbon benefits derived from multilateral funding," International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 21(4), pages 631-646, December.
    2. Ram Avtar & Haruo Sawada & Pankaj Kumar, 2013. "Role of remote sensing and community forestry to manage forests for the effective implementation of REDD+ mechanism: a case study on Cambodia," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 15(6), pages 1593-1603, December.
    3. Neudert, Regina & Olschofsky, Konstantin & Kübler, Daniel & Prill, Laura & Köhl, Michael & Wätzold, Frank, 2018. "Opportunity costs of conserving a dry tropical forest under REDD+: The case of the spiny dry forest in southwestern Madagascar," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 95(C), pages 102-114.
    4. Watson, Charlene & Mourato, Susana & Milner-Gulland, E. J., 2013. "Uncertain emission reductions from forest conservation: REDD in the Bale mountains, Ethiopia," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 54192, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.

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