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Potential Biodiversity Benefits from International Programs to Reduce Carbon Emissions from Deforestation

AMBIO volume 41, pages 78–89 (2012)Cite this article

Abstract

Deforestation is the second largest anthropogenic source of carbon dioxide emissions and options for its reduction are integral to climate policy. In addition to providing potentially low cost and near-term options for reducing global carbon emissions, reducing deforestation also could support biodiversity conservation. However, current understanding of the potential benefits to biodiversity from forest carbon offset programs is limited. We compile spatial data on global forest carbon, biodiversity, deforestation rates, and the opportunity cost of land to examine biodiversity conservation benefits from an international program to reduce carbon emissions from deforestation. Our results indicate limited geographic overlap between the least-cost areas for retaining forest carbon and protecting biodiversity. Therefore, carbon-focused policies will likely generate substantially lower benefits to biodiversity than a more biodiversity-focused policy could achieve. These results highlight the need to systematically consider co-benefits, such as biodiversity in the design and implementation of forest conservation programs to support international climate policy.

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Notes

  1. In theory, the minimum annual payment that a landowner would be willing to accept to forego agricultural production on their land (i.e., the rental rate of the land) would be equal to the net revenues, or profits, that they could earn by farming the land, and the cost to purchase the land outright (i.e., the market price of the land) would be the discounted present value of the full future stream of potential net agricultural revenues.

  2. To illustrate the calculations, consider an ecoregion with 10,000 ha of forests and a deforestation rate of 0.6%/year. In this case, we expect 60 ha to be deforested in this ecoregion in the coming year. If the aboveground carbon content of these forests is 57 tons C /ha (the average in our data), 3,420 tons of carbon will be released into the atmosphere as a result of deforestation in this region. If the average annualized cost of forest protections in this ecoregion is $11/ha (the average potential annual agricultural revenue in our data), the cost of avoiding these emission amounts to $110,000. Therefore, the unit cost of avoiding these emissions is about $32 per ton C, or $8.8 per ton CO2.

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Acknowledgments

We gratefully acknowledge financial support from the Mistra Foundation’s Climate Policy Research Program (Clipore). Thanks also to two anonymous referees for valuable comments.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Resources for the Future, 1616 P St. NW, Washington, DC, 20036, USA

    Juha Siikamäki

  2. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, EPA West Bldg—Suite 4316T (MC1809T), 1301 Constitution Ave. NW, Washington, DC, 20460, USA

    Stephen C. Newbold

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  1. Juha Siikamäki
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Correspondence to Juha Siikamäki.

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Siikamäki, J., Newbold, S.C. Potential Biodiversity Benefits from International Programs to Reduce Carbon Emissions from Deforestation. Ambio 41 (Suppl 1), 78–89 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13280-011-0243-4

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Keywords

  • Forests
  • Carbon
  • Biodiversity
  • Conservation
  • REDD
  • Priorities

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