Carbon sequestration in tropical agroforestry systems

CELIA A. HARVEY,∗‡‡‡ OLIVER KOMAR,† ROBIN CHAZDON,‡ BRUCE G. FERGUSON,§ BRYAN FINEGAN,∗∗ DANIEL M. GRIFFITH,†† MIGUEL MARTINEZ-RAMOS,‡‡ HELDA MORALES,§ RONALD NIGH,§§ LORENA SOTO-PINTO,§ MICHIEL VAN BREUGEL,∗∗∗ AND MARK WISHNIE††† ∗Department of Agriculture and Agroforestry, CATIE, Apdo 7170, Turrialba, Costa Rica †Programa de Ciencias para la Conservacion, SalvaNATURA, Colonia Flor Blanca, 33 Avenida Sur #640, San Salvador, El Salvador ‡Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT 06268-3043, U.S.A. §Departamento de Agroecoloǵia, El Colegio de la Frontera Sur, Carretera Panamericana y Periferico Sur s-n, San Cristobal de Las Casas, Chiapas, Mexico ∗∗Department of Natural Resources and Environment, CATIE, Apdo 7170, Turrialba, Costa Rica ††Biodiversity of BOSAWAS Biosphere Reserve, Saint Louis Zoo, Managua, Nicaragua ‡‡Centro de Investigaciones en Ecosistemas, UNAM, AP 27-3 Santa Maŕia de Guido, CP 58089, Morelia, Michoacan, Mexico §§Centro de Investigaciones y Estudios Superiores en Antropoloǵia Social, San Cristobal de las Casas, Chiapas, Mexico ∗∗∗Centre for Ecosystem Studies, Wageningen University, P.O. Box 47, 6700 AA Wageningen, The Netherlands †††Equator Environmental, LLC, 250 Park Avenue South, New York, NY 10003, U.S.A.

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Integrating Agricultural Landscapes with Biodiversity Conservation in the Mesoamerican Hotspot

Markets for ecosystem services are being promoted across the developing world, amidst claims that the provision of economic incentives is vital to bring about resource conservation. This article argues that equity and legitimacy are also critical dimensions in the design and implementation of such markets, if social development goals beyond economic gains are to be achieved. The article examines this issue by focusing on two communities involved in a project for carbon sequestration services of forests in the state of Chiapas, Mexico. The perceived legitimacy of the activities and the distribution of economic outcomes and project-related information are found to be mediated by organizational allegiances and the history of social relations regarding access to property and forest resources. Political affiliation determines the project's legitimacy, while the poorest farmers and women have been excluded from project design and implementation. The authors argue that pitfalls such as these contribute to reinforcing existing power structures, inequities and vulnerabilities, and suggest that this is a product of the nature of emerging markets. Markets for ecosystem services are, in effect, limited in promoting more legitimate forms of decision making and a more equitable distribution of their outcomes.

The Equity and Legitimacy of Markets for Ecosystem Services

http://biology.mcgill.ca/faculty/potvin/articles/Kirby&Potvin_07.pdf

Variation in carbon storage among tree species: Implications for the management of a small-scale carbon sink project

This paper investigates the equity implications of marketing ecosystem services in protected areas and rural communities. We use a three-tiered equity framework to analyse four distinct efforts to commercialise watershed recharge and carbon dioxide fixation by forests in Meso-America. We show that project development and participation are strongly mediated by organisational networks, as well as existing rights of access over land and forest resources. We demonstrate that procedural fairness diverges strongly when initiatives are implemented in protected areas or in rural communities. While in the former reserve managers and intermediaries concentrate all decision-making power, initiatives working with rural communities are able to integrate more significantly service providers in management decisions. Marketing ecosystem services in protected areas contributes to reduce expenditure rates for protected area management, but also results in less equitable outcomes, as rural communities and forest resource users become excluded from receiving sustained development benefits. When ecosystem services are commercialised by rural farmers, payments do not cover opportunity costs but act as a significant incentive for participation in most cases. Ecosystem service providers also benefit from complementary project activities, such as forest management training and agricultural extension support. We argue that limited economic impact and existing inequities in decision-making and outcomes can be explained by problems of institutional design, in particular the inability of markets and payments for ecosystem services to account for context-related factors, such as property rights.

Equity implications of marketing ecosystem services in protected areas and rural communities: Case studies from Meso-America

Although forestry and agroforestry are recognized as promising land-use alternatives for reducing the increasing levels of global atmospheric carbon, the viability of carbon sequestration projects at the land-user level has rarely been evaluated. The authors present the results of a feasibility study to: (1) evaluate the interest of local communities in a carbon sequestration project and how they would organize themselves for the proposed forestry project; (2) identify the carbon sequestration potential of the agroforestry/forestry systems that are both ecological viable and preferred by local farmers; (3) determine the social constraints of and potential for, such projects; and (4) assess the economic potential of the carbon offsets estimated for such systems. This project was carried out by an interdisciplinary team of scientists and farmers in two ecological regions: the Tojolabal and Tzeltal zones of Chiapas, Mexico. Five systems with high carbon sequestration potential were considered technically and socially viable for each region. Initially, all participants will plant trees on an individual basis in their coffee plantation, fallow, and pasture lands, or in their maize fields. The estimated amount of carbon sequestered ranged from 46.7 to 236.7 tons of carbon per hectare (tC/ha). Net income benefits due to converting fields from maize cultivation to farm forestry ranged from 500-1000 dollars/ha depending on the value assigned to the sequestered carbon. Forests and farm woodlands that are sustainably managed have substantial economic and carbon sequestration potential. The principal barrier to communal forest management appears to be sociopolitical rather than economic. Because forests management requires longterm investments, good planning is essential and includes community control of projects, selection of appropriate tree species, and management techniques specific to the ecological and social conditions of the area. 19 refs., 3 figs., 3 tabs.

Community forest management and carbon sequestration: a feasibility study from Chiapas, Mexico

In Mexico an estimated 4.5 × 106ha are available for farm forestry, while up to 6.1 × 106 ha could be saved from deforestation by making shifting agriculture more productive and sustainable. Various farm forestry systems are technically, socially, and economically viable, including live fences, coffee with shade trees, plantations, tree enrichment of fallows, and taungya, with a C-sequestration potential varying from 17.6 to 176.3 Mg C ha−1. A self-reporting system with on-site spot checks is presented for the monitoring and evaluation (M&E), and will be tested in a farm forestry C-sequestration pilot project, to begin in Chiapas, Mexico, in 1997. The M&E procedure will facilitate the collection of field data at low cost, help ensure that the systems continue to address the needs of farmers, and give farmers an understanding of the value of the service that they are providing.

A framework for monitoring and evaluating carbon mitigation by farm forestry projects: Example of a demonstration project in Chiapas, Mexico

Forestry and Agroforestry Land-Use Systems for Carbon Mitigation: An Analysis from Chiapas, Mexico

Chiapas is among the poorest of Mexico's states and has been characterized by political instability, civil unrest, escalating population and widespread deforestation. Recent history and current land use issues were investigated in two highland communities, Juzanajab and Palma Real, to assess the factors influencing forest management decisions and the potential for sustainable forest use on communally-owned land. The two communities contrasted markedly, Juznajab possessing a larger forest resource, a higher population density, but a lower degree of marginalization. These differences were found to result from the contrasting historical development of the two areas, particularly with respect to the pattern of land use prior to agrarian reform and the impact of agrarian reform itself. More recently, agricultural intensification and intensive timber harvesting have impacted on the forest resources of both communities. The communities also differed in pattern of forest use, five and fourteen different ...

John Taylor

Papers

Community forest management and carbon sequestration: a feasibility study from Chiapas, Mexico

A framework for monitoring and evaluating carbon mitigation by farm forestry projects: Example of a demonstration project in Chiapas, Mexico

Forestry and Agroforestry Land-Use Systems for Carbon Mitigation: An Analysis from Chiapas, Mexico

The potential for community-based forest management in Chiapas, Mexico: a comparison of two case studies.