[C] The Hidden Frontier of Forest Degradation - Rainforest Alliance

We review here case studies to provide location-specific
and strategy-specific examples of the major
themes of the paper. Since strategies to both avoid
logging and reduce logging impacts are receiving a great deal
of interest, we include two case studies on logging: a “stop logging”
strategy being implemented in Bolivia and an “improved
forest management” (IFM) strategy being implemented in
California. We include a third case study on indigenous community-based
fire management as a strategy to reduce carbon
emissions in Australia. Finally, we describe an improved
efficiency cook stove program in Cambodia that reduces fuelwood
collection. In each case, we describe the major themes of
this paper: (1) drivers and magnitude of degradation emissions,
(2) accounting methods, (3) strategic approach, and (4) political
& institutional challenges, standards and solutions. Since
these case studies are projects (not national-scale), the last
issue revolves largely around standards at the project scale.
Halting Emissions from Logging at Noel Kempff, Bolivia
SUMMARY FOR POLICY & PRACTICE
» Emissions avoided by stopping commercial logging generated the majority of REDD credits from the Noel Kempff Mercado Climate Action
Project, the first third party verified REDD project.
» Leakage from avoided commercial logging was successfully tracked at a local scale (activity leakage) and modeled at a national scale (market
leakage), resulting in a 16 percent deduction to credits avoiding degradation generated to cancel out the effects of leakage.
» A well-designed community development plan was crucial to REDD to: a) assure local communities and indigenous groups benefit from project
activities and b) address the drivers of deforestation and degradation.
» Robust standards recently developed for REDD, particularly the Voluntary Carbon Standard, incorporate lessons learned from the pioneering
efforts of Noel Kempff. These new standards, which didn’t exist when Noel Kempff was started, allow project developers to design REDD activities in
ways that generate high quality verified emissions reductions by accounting for the challenges posed by measuring/monitoring, baselines, leakage
and permanence.
PROJECT SUMMARY
The Noel Kempff Mercado Climate Action Project (“Noel
Kempff”) was one of the world’s first large-scale projects to
implement Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and
Degradation (REDD) in practice. Noel Kempff is addressing
the drivers of both D’s in REDD: deforestation from conversion
to agriculture and degradation from logging activities in
timber concessions. In late 1996, The Nature Conservancy and
Bolivian conservation organization Fundación Amigos de la
Naturaleza (FAN) worked together with the Government of
Bolivia and timber concession holders to terminate logging
rights in an area in the northeast of the Department of Santa
Cruz and incorporate the land into an existing national park.
In addition, to address the threat of deforestation from agricultural
expansion, project developers worked with local
communities on a robust community development plan, which
included the facilitation of their application for land tenure
and alternative employment opportunities. In 2005, Noel
Kempff became the first REDD project to be verified by a
third party, using rigorous standards based upon those developed
for the Kyoto Protocol’s Clean Development Mechanism.
With achievement of this milestone, the project serves as a
powerful example of how well-designed REDD projects can
result in real, scientifically measurable, and verifiable emissions
reductions.
DRIVERS AND MAGNITUDE OF DEGRADATION EMISSIONS
The main driver of deforestation in the area was expansion of
subsistence farming activities by seven local communities situated
adjacent to the project boundaries. These communities
also depended on the forest for hunting, fishing, fuelwood and
botanicals. The main driver of degradation in the area was
commercial logging operations in four timber concessions
adjacent to (and in one case overlapping) the original national
park boundaries. A sawmill on one of the concessions provided
employment for about 20 local community members.
The project is estimated to avoid the emission of 5,838,813
metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (tCO 2 e) over its 30-
year lifetime. Of this total, about three-quarters of the carbon
benefits, or close to 4,500,000 tCO 2e , are estimated to come
from the avoided degradation component of the project. Thus
far, a total of 1,034,107 tCO 2 e have been verified to have been
avoided from 1997 to 2005 (371,650 tCO 2 e from avoided
deforestation and 791,433 tCO 2 e from avoided degradation).
This equates to 763 hectares (ha) saved from deforestation
and 468,474 square meters of timber left standing.
STRATEGIC APPROACH
In order to avoid future deforestation from agricultural
expansion, project developers worked with the seven local
communities on a 10-year community development plan. The
plan included five main strategies to ensure that negative impacts
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