In the context of climate change, the mitigating effects of forests
(covering around 30% of the world’s land area) are well understood and
acknowledged globally. The IPCC Fourth Assessment Report and other
studies estimate the release of CO2 from the effects of land use changes on
plants and soil carbon at around one-third of the total global anthropogenic
CO2 emissions (IPCC 2007a). An oft-quoted estimated figure of emissions
from deforestation globally in the 1990s is 5.8 GtCO2/yr.
Given that forest can be both a source as well as a sink, the world should
strive to reduce emissions by sources and/or increase removals by sink in the
forestry sector. REDD aims at reducing emissions arising as a result of
deforestation as well as degradation. A/R aims at increasing the removal of
CO2 (sequestration) from the atmosphere by way of afforestation and
reforestation. And of course, the general idea of sustainable forest
management, or SFM, is to manage the available forests to meet the societal
needs in the long run. Taken together, the combined efforts could optimize
climate change concerns, ecological concerns, conservation concerns,
livelihood concerns, and societal needs for timber, fiber, and bio energy.
Both the Stern Review and the IPCC Working Group on Climate Change
Mitigation concluded that mitigation efforts targeted to reduce deforestation
rates and degradation present the greatest benefit because of the size of the
source as well as the cost-effectiveness (Stern 2007; IPCC 2007b). Also, the
Bali Action Plan decided upon during the UNFCCC (United Nations
Framework Convention on Climate Change) Conference of Parties at its
thirteenth session states that enhanced national/international on mitigation
of climate change should include, among others, consideration of Policy
approaches and positive incentives on issues relating to reducing emissions from
deforestation and forest degradation in developing countries; and the role of
conservation, sustainable management of forests and enhancement of carbon forest stocks in developing countries (UNFCCC 2007).
The net emissions from the forestry activities combined should be
calculated at the national scale and should be based on the historical
baseline.
In the international climate forums, discussions on REDD have focused
primarily on the methodology for estimating and monitoring emissions
from deforestation and degradation. While it is agreed that reliable,
accurate, and cost-effective measurement of tropical deforestation is
possible with satellite remote sensing and is being used extensively in many
developed countries, these technological and methodological capabilities
for monitoring deforestation can be transferred to developing countries to
reduce the cost of monitoring deforestation. Among the developing
countries, India is considered a pioneer in forest cover monitoring. Forest
cover is assessed on a biennial cycle, which is based on digital
interpretation of satellite imagery and intensive ground truthing and
accuracy assessment. India could also help build capacities of other
developing countries in monitoring their forest cover (and thus
deforestation and afforestation/reforestation) in a framework of South–
South cooperation, with financial support from developed countries.
Monitoring degradation requires use of high-resolution satellite imagery;
increasing the cost of monitoring. On the other hand, it could be carried
out with more extensive ground truthing, which can be comparatively less
expensive and also could provide employment to local forest-dependent
people, who can be trained to participate in field surveys and forest
inventories (along with the forest department). Engaging forest-dependent
communities for monitoring activities would have the added benefit of
mobilizing their support for forest protection.
Given the technology and methodological capacities, each country should
be able to develop a national forest inventory that accounts for
deforestation, degradation, afforestation/reforestation. The host country
could be provided a positive incentive, in the form of annual payments, to
compensate for maintaining the forest cover and for increasing the flow of
carbon sequestration.
Understanding that there are varying national circumstances, the
UNFCCC could create different financial instruments for the range of
different actions that a would-be host country can implement. Some of the
suggested funds are Reducing Deforestation Fund, Stabilization Fund, and
Forest Conservation Fund. These should reflect the value of natural, old
growth forest stands as well as new afforested (plantations) areas. Also, a
fund to address the challenges of would-be host countries could also be
developed by the UNFCCC to help host countries build capacities and
implement these projects.
Around the world, it is being increasingly felt that forests have to be
managed in partnership with the forest-dependent communities (and other
stakeholders) as opposed to having a centralized administrative structure
(such as the forest department). Associated policy issues of forest rights and
land tenure are also being (not always successfully) addressed.
Operationalizing any REDD mechanism would definitely have to take the
current ongoing policy debates into consideration. Communities that
traditionally have been the stewards and users of the forests have to be
involved in developing any REDD scheme to get their buy-in. And the
REDD schemes have to ensure that the monetary benefits (of carbon credits) reach those who have been the custodians of the forests. The
implementation of any schemes would depend heavily on the institutional
and governance structure in the countries that would participate in the
schemes.
The world requires a multi-pronged approach to address climate change
concerns. Addressing forestry issues (REDD, A/R, SFM) would help us to
approach a desirable level of carbon concentration at a quicker pace. One
should also take into cognizance the fact that forests are susceptible to
climate change and could lose their ability to adapt to climate change at
some high level of carbon concentration in the atmosphere, resulting in
reduction in their mitigation potential.
It is globally agreed that there are multiple, complex underlying causes
of deforestation and degradation. These vary from local pressures to
agricultural demands to international trade aspects. It should be noted that
while stopping deforestation and degradation is easier said than done, the
achievement of sustainable development depends on how these forestry and
related institutional and governance issues are addressed holistically.
Another facet of our long-standing concern, in general, is the demand on
the natural resources for and as a result of development. With time,
development has evolved to include sustainability, which, in turn, is
presently evolving towards inclusion of low-carbon/carbon-neutrality. While
the discussions would rage on for sometime before consensus is reached,
many of these issues would become slightly easier to address if the demands
(as a result of both population growth as well as increasingly carbon intensive
lifestyles) are moderated.
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