Abstract
Setting a baseline for carbon stock changes in forest and land use sector mitigation projects is an essential step for assessing additionality of the project. There are two approaches for setting baselines namely, project-specific and regional baseline. This paper presents the methodology adopted for estimating the land available for mitigation, for developing a regional baseline, transaction cost involved and a comparison of project-specific and regional baseline. The study showed that it is possible to estimate the potential land and its suitability for afforestation and reforestation mitigation projects, using existing maps and data, in the dry zone of Karnataka, southern India. The study adopted a three-step approach for developing a regional baseline, namely: (i) identification of likely baseline options for land use, (ii) estimation of baseline rates of land-use change, and (iii) quantification of baseline carbon profile over time. The analysis showed that carbon stock estimates made for wastelands and fallow lands for project-specific as well as the regional baseline are comparable. The ratio of wasteland Carbon stocks of a project to regional baseline is 1.02, and that of fallow lands in the project to regional baseline is 0.97. The cost of conducting field studies for determination of regional baseline is about a quarter of the cost of developing a project-specific baseline on a per hectare basis. The study has shown the reliability, feasibility and cost-effectiveness of adopting regional baseline for forestry sector mitigation projects.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
A project activity is additional if anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases by sources are reduced below those that would have occurred in the absence of the project activity (UNFCCC 2002). Further, institutional and financial additionality need to be established under the rules of the Clean Development Mechanism CDM.
The agro-ecological zones of India are based on physiography, soils, bio-climate and length of growing period (Sehgal et al. 1992).
Land evaluation is formally defined as ‘the assessment of land performance when used for a specified purpose, involving the execution and interpretation of surveys and studies of land forms, soils, vegetation, climate and other aspects of land in order to identify and make a comparison of promising kinds of land use in terms applicable to the objectives of the evaluation’ (FAO 1976).
Working plans are prepared for a forest division for 10 years.
Afforestation is defined as “the direct human-induced conversion of land that has not been forested for a period of at least 50 years to forested land through planting, seeding and/or the human-induced promotion of natural seed sources” and Reforestation is defined as “the direct human-induced conversion of non-forested land to forested land through planting, seeding and/or the human-induced promotion of natural seed sources, on land that was forested but that has been converted to non-forested land”.
Forests, according to the Forest Survey of India is defined as “all lands, more than one hectare in area, with a tree canopy density of more than 10%”. This is under the control of the state forest departments.
Wastelands are marginal or degraded lands largely publicly owned but however could include marginal private lands also. National Remote Sensing Agency defines wastelands as “degraded land which can be brought under vegetative cover with reasonable effort, and which is currently under utilized and/or which is deteriorating for lack of appropriate water and soil management or on account of natural causes”.
A land quality is a complex attribute of land that acts in a distinct manner in its influence on the suitability of land for a specific use. Examples are moisture availability, erosion resistance, flooding hazard, nutritive value of pastures, accessibility.
References
Benitez P, Olschewski R et al (2001) Analisis costobeneficio de usos del suelo y fijacion de carbono en sistemas forestales de Ecuador noroccidental, Eschborn
Chomitz KM (1998) Baselines for greenhouse gas reductions: Problems, precedents, solutions, Report prepared for the Carbon Offsets Unit, World Bank, Development Research Group, World Bank
Davidson EA (1995) Spatial covariation of soil organic carbon, clay content, and drainage class at a regional scale. Landsc Ecol 10(6):349–362
de Jong Ben HJ (2001) Uncertainties in estimating the potential for carbon mitigation of forest management. For Ecol Manage 154:85–104
Eswaran H, Van den Berg E et al (1995) Global soil carbon resources. In: Lal R, Kimble JM et al. (eds), Advances in soil science: soils and global change, 1995. Lewis Publishers, CRC Press, Boca Raton, FL
FAO (1976) A framework for land evaluation. FAO Soils Bulletin 32
FAO (1984) Land evaluation for forestry. FAO forestry paper 48. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, FAO, Rome
FSI (1996) Volume equations for forests of India, Nepal and Bhutan, Forest Survey of India MoEaF, Government of India, 1996
Hargrave T, Helme N et al (1998) Options for simplifying baseline setting for joint implementation and clean development mechanism projects, Center for Clean Air Policy
Kaimowitz D, Angelsen A (1998) Economic models of tropical deforestation: a review, Center for International Forestry Research. Bogor, Indonesia
Kern JS, Turner DP et al (1998) Spatial patterns in soil organic carbon pool size in the Northwestern United States. In: Lal R, Kimbal JM et al (eds) Soil processes and the carbon cycle. CRC Press,Boca Raton, Florida
Kimble JM, Eswaran H et al (1991) Organic carbon on a volume basis in tropical and temperate soils. In trans. Int. Congr. Soil Sci. 14th, Soc soil Science. 1991. Kyoto, Japan, Vol. 5: pp 248–253
KSLUB (2001) Perspective land use plan for Karnataka – 2025 In. Karnataka State Land Use Board, Bangalore, Karnataka
Lambin EF, Baulies X et al (1999) Land-use and land-cover change implementation strategy In. Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, Stockholm, Sweden
Masera O, Garza-Caligaris JF et al (2001) Modeling carbon sequestration in afforestation and forest management projects: The CO2fix V.2 Approach. Ecol Model 164(2003):177–199
Nabuurs GJ, Garza-Caligaris JF et al (2001) CO2FIX V2.0—Manual of a model for quantifying carbon sequestration in forest ecosystems and wood products. ALTERRA Report. Wageningen The Netherlands
NRSA (1995) Report on area statistics of land use/land cover generated using remote sensing techniques, National Remote Sensing Agency, Department of Space. Hyderabad
NRSA (2004) Atlas of wastelands map of India, National Remote Sensing Agency, Department of Space. Hyderabad
Paladina L, Pontius GR Jr (2004) Accuracy assessment and uncertainty in baseline projections for land-use change and forestry projects. http://www.clarku.edu/∼rpontius/paladino_pontius_2004_ties.pdf
Parkinson S, Begg K et al (2001) Accounting for flexibility against uncertain baselines: lessons from case studies in the eastern European energy sector. Climate policy 1:55–73
Paul KI, Polglase PJ et al (2002) Change in soil carbon following afforestation. For Ecol Manage 168:241–257
Post WM, Izaurralde RC et al (2001) Monitoring and verifying changes for organic carbon in soil. Clim Chang 51:73–99
Sathaye JA, Meyers S et al (1995) Greenhouse gas mitigation assessment: A guidebook. Kluwer Academic Publishers
Sehgal J, Mandal DK et al (1992) Agro-ecological regions of India (2nd ed.) In Tech.Bull. NBSS Publ., 24. Oxford & IBH Publication Co. Pvt. Ltd. New Delhi and NBSS&LUP, Nagpur. 130
Sommer A, Murray B et al (2004) Project specific or performance-standard baseline? Testing the alternatives for a forest carbon sequestration project. In the 3rd DOE carbon sequestration conference, May 3–6, 2004. 2004. Alexandria, Virginia
UNFCCC (2002) Methodological issues land use, land-use change and forestry: Definitions and modalities for including afforestation and reforestation activities under article 12 of the Kyoto Protocol in the first commitment period: Options paper on modalities for addressing baselines, additionality and leakage. 2002
WRI/WBCSD (2003) The greenhouse gas protocol: Project quantification standard, in Road test draft (September 2003). 2003
World Resources Institute WRI, Mitigating climate change through forest and land use activities, 1999. http://www.wri.org/climate/mitigate.html
Acknowledgements
This work was supported by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Atmospheric Programs through the U.S. Department of Energy under Contract No. DE-AC02–05CH11231. Disclaimer: The views and opinions of the authors herein do not necessarily state or reflect those of the United States Government or the Environmental Protection Agency. The authors would also like to thank the Ministry of Environment and Forests for supporting and encouraging the research activities on climate change at the Indian Institute of Science. We also thank Jayant Sathaye and Ken Andrasko for their contribution at various stages of development of this study. This project was conducted under the USEPA-Ministry of Environment and Forests support.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Sudha, P., Subhashree, D., Khan, H. et al. Development of regional climate mitigation baseline for a dominant agro-ecological zone of Karnataka, India. Mitig Adapt Strat Glob Change 12, 1051–1075 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11027-006-9064-3
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11027-006-9064-3