Evaluating the carbon sequestration benefits of forestry projects in developing countries

This report develops a land use and carbon sequestration (LUCS) model to evaluate the carbon-offset potential of proposed forestry projects in Thailand, Panama, Mexico, Nepal, and Wester n Amazon. The model estimates how the landscape would change over the sponsoring power plant"s lifespan, and how much carbon a particular forestry project would sequester and at what cost. Lessons learned from the evaluation of the proposals include the following. (1) Only a relatively small number of projects could be directly funded as carbon offset projects. Only five proposals met the defined criteria, which included reasonable cost per unit of carbon sequestered, significant local involvement and benefit, and institutional experience and competence. Many of the proposals were poorly conceptualized due to inexperience and a misunderstanding of the request. (2) It was difficult to quantitatively define project benefits, especially due to remoteness of the sites, neglect by official government agencies and development institutions, and complexity of the analysis. (3) The largest carbon sequestration benefits were found in areas where a substantial amount of biomass faces a significant threat. The least expensive and most immediate way of sequestering carbon in forests appears to be through the protection of standing forests. In areas where the forest has already been denuded, the protection of existing stands is not possible, and reforestation is an expensive option. Where there is no immediate or significant threat of forest depletion or degradation, there is little to be gained from an investment in forest protection. (4) Project design and analysis should focus not only on direct benefits, such as carbon sequestered in planted trees, but on possibly even larger secondary benefits such as the economic well-being of the local population, which has a vested interest in preserving a resource which provides a stream of income over time. In sum, carbon sequestration projects, while not a panacea to global warming problems, are one of the many tools that can be used to combat it. Includes references.