REDD: a reckoning of environment and development implications

doi:10.1016/j.tree.2010.03.005

Trends in Ecology & Evolution

Volume 25, Issue 7, July 2010, Pages 396-402

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tree.2010.03.005 Get rights and content

Reducing Emissions from Deforestation (REDD) aims to curb carbon emissions from deforestation by financially compensating forest owners. However, compensation based on the opportunity costs of REDD might underestimate true costs by failing to account for downstream economic values of current land uses, including employment and wealth generated by processing and service industries. A comprehensive analysis of REDD impacts should also include sociopolitical impacts. REDD might exclude people from forest land, causing demographic shifts, and the declining tax revenues from commodity production and associated industries might be a disincentive to government investment in forested regions to the detriment of forest communities and regional development. We argue for the need to recognize and appropriately compensate the full range of economic, social and political net costs of REDD.

Section snippets

Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD)

Tropical deforestation and forest degradation represent the second largest source of global greenhouse gas emissions, accounting for 12–20% of anthropogenic carbon emissions 1, 2. Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation (REDD) is a mechanism that aims to reduce carbon emissions from deforestation by providing financial incentives to conserve rather than exploit forests 3, 4. Reducing emissions by avoiding deforestation was excluded from the Kyoto Protocol owing to both

A comprehensive trade-off analysis

We argue that alongside the negotiation and implementation of REDD, a comprehensive analysis of its implications and consequences is needed to show land owners and decision makers where, to what degree and in what context REDD could be appropriately adopted. This needs to go beyond the analysis of financial compensation for forfeiture of conventional land use activities to incorporate indirect and less tangible costs and benefits associated with REDD and REDD+. We conjecture that the success of

The need for a comprehensive trade-off model

If REDD is to be socially and politically acceptable there needs to be a comprehensive trade-off analysis incorporating an assessment of the less tangible costs and benefits. Although complex, such a comprehensive analysis is likely to provide welcome guidance for politicians reflecting on the issues identified during negotiation and implementation of REDD. From a social and conservation perspective, the benefits of a comprehensive trade-off analysis are myriad. It would allow researchers to

Conclusions

A successful implementation of REDD must recognize and overcome both direct and indirect costs of forest conservation. There are many incentives for forest conversion that range in scale from those influencing household decisions to those that shape international client–consumer relationships among companies and countries. If REDD is to be implemented for as long as land-based carbon mitigation strategies are needed (i.e. several decades), it will be necessary to make a complete reckoning of

Acknowledgements

We thank C.J.P. Colfer and P. Levang for helpful discussions. We also thank William F. Laurance and two anonymous reviewers for their comments. L.P.K. is supported by an ETH Fellowship and the Swiss National Science Foundation.

Glossary

Biodiversity banking and offsets: a financial scheme designed to compensate forest owners with biodiversity credits for maintaining forests and biodiversity on their lands; these credits can be sold to developers to offset the impacts of biodiversity on lands elsewhere as a result of development.
Carbon capture and storage: a technology-based means of reducing fossil fuel carbon emissions by sequestering carbon dioxide from point sources (e.g. power plants) and storing it to prevent its release into

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The distributive equity and the incentives to the private sector in reducing emissions from deforestation and degradation-plus
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Distributive equity substantially impacts the success of reducing emissions from deforestation and degradation-plus (REDD+). Therefore, if more private financing is to be attracted to REDD+, it is necessary to understand the effects of distributive equity on private investors’ decision-making behavior. However, current studies have not examined the effect of distributive equity on the actions of stakeholders, including private investors. This study examines the actions of private investors and landowners under four distributive equity scenarios and their effect on the effectiveness of REDD+ within a theoretical framework that takes into account distributive equity in REDD+. In addition, a numerical illustration is used to compare the differences in the effects of equity preferences in the four scenarios. The results show that stakeholder equity preferences can enhance REDD+ effectiveness, suggesting that equity and effectiveness are not antagonistic. In addition, distributive equity may reduce the utility of private investors in REDD+, thus causing the incentives of the equity preference of private investors to become critical to the REDD+ policy design. Finally, the findings also show that the distributive equity mechanism in REDD+ depends on the spontaneous formation of stakeholders rather than on command-and-control measures. Therefore, compared with other mechanisms, this distributive equity mechanism is more common and more likely to attract private investors.
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Since the early 2000′s when discussions started around the concept of REDD+ , numerous studies estimated the opportunity costs often implicitly viewed as proxies for the total costs of avoided deforestation. We reviewed their methods and the stated objectives to assess their alignment, suitability and robustness. We found a lack of correspondence between methods and objectives, which include setting compensation levels, identifying cost-efficient activities, or assessing financial viability with respect to carbon markets. While the search for perfect accuracy is a fallacy, some major mistakes must be avoided, e.g. equating the costs of avoided deforestation to opportunity costs or including an inappropriate group of economic agents in the calculations. Best practises must be followed to ensure that estimations properly inform intervention design, decisions and policies; they refer to methods applied and their suitability for related decisions. They include: the need to first define objectives and then adapt methods because estimations can be done variously with contrasted results; to cautiously determine the scope - which stakeholders and stages of value chain are considered - while prioritising the broad picture and avoiding getting lost in estimation details; to discuss sensitivity of results and recognise uncertainties; and to consider the implications of scale in the study design. Given the urgency to preserve natural forest and mitigate climate change in the most cost-effective way, we believe that our analysis and its recommendations are a step in this direction with expected increased emissions reductions due to improved interventions.
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Trends in Ecology & Evolution

OpinionREDD: a reckoning of environment and development implications

Section snippets

Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD)

A comprehensive trade-off analysis

The need for a comprehensive trade-off model

Conclusions

Acknowledgements

Glossary

Global Environ. Change

Global Environ. Change.

Global Environ. Change

World Dev.

World Dev.

World Dev.

Curr. Biol.

Trends Ecol. Evol.

Global biodiversity scenarios for the year 2100

Science

Generating carbon finance through avoided deforestation and its potential to create climatic, conservation and human development benefits

Philos. Trans. R. Soc. Lond. B. Biol. Sci.

Reducing greenhouse gas emissions from deforestation and forest degradation: global land-use implications

Science

Do Trees Grow on Money: the Implications of Deforestation Research for Policies to Promote REDD

A new initiative to use carbon trading for tropical forest conservation

Biotropica

Leakage from an Avoided Deforestation Compensation Policy: Concepts, Empirical Evidence, and Corrective Policy Options

Global cost estimates of reducing carbon emissions through avoided deforestation

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U. S. A.

Pan-tropical monitoring of deforestation

Environ. Res. Lett.

REDD in the red: palm oil could undermine carbon payment schemes

Conserv. Lett.

Cutting Corners: World Bank's Forest and Carbon Fund Falls Forests and Peoples

Carbon payments as a safeguard for threatened tropical mammals

Conserv. Lett.

Opinion
REDD: a reckoning of environment and development implications