Climate Action 2010-2011

Redd, Sustainable Forest Management and Agriculture
Forests in developing countries are being cleared at a rapid pace for many reasons.
© Creative commons/flickr/mïK
How climate
change can
catalyse sustainable
land management
Dr Charlotte Streck
Director of Climate Focus
In land-use policies, particularly forestry and agriculture,
climate change mitigation, food security and poverty
reduction come together. Collectively, deforestation and
agricultural practises are responsible for an estimated
30 per cent of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.
By contrast, environmentally responsible forest and
agricultural management can offset emissions by absorbing
CO 2
from the atmosphere. Adopting sustainable landuse
practices is a valid, and in many cases cost-effective,
mitigation strategy that often comes in tandem with
significant adaptation, livelihood and biodiversity benefits.
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Despite the potential of the land-use sector in
mitigating climate change, the international climate
regime so far does not create many incentives to tap into
this opportunity. The UN Framework Convention on
Climate Change (UNFCCC) recognises that all sinks
and reservoirs of GHGs have an important impact on
terrestrial and marine ecosystems. The Convention’s
objective to stabilise GHG concentrations in the
atmosphere “at a level that would prevent dangerous
anthropogenic interference with the climate system”
should be tackled, at least in part, by exploiting the
capacity of sinks to reduce GHG concentrations.
Under the rules of the Kyoto Protocol, developed
countries may use direct human-induced changes in
GHG emissions and removals by sinks since 1990 as part
of their emission reduction targets. Developed countries
must account for changes in forest carbon stocks and
report some agricultural emissions (mainly methane and
nitrous oxide emissions from human-induced biological
processes). Others are optional, such as CO 2
removal
from cropland management.
The Protocol’s Clean Development Mechanism
(CDM) offers incentives for mitigation of land-userelated
emissions in developing countries through manure
and waste water management, as well as afforestation and
reforestation. But neither the UNFCCC nor the Kyoto
Protocol has provided incentives for reduced emissions
from deforestation or the enhancement of carbon stocks
through soil carbon sequestration in developing countries.
However, there are signs that things may change.
Over the last few years, the contribution of landuse
practices to global climate change has garnered
increasing attention in international climate negotiations.
The primary focus rests on strategies and incentive
mechanisms that reduce emissions from deforestation
and forest degradation (REDD), with a mitigation
potential of 4.3 gigatonnes of CO 2
equivalent (GtCO 2
e)
by 2020. Another 1.5 GtCO 2
e could potentially be
abated in the form of carbon captured by existing and
newly planted forests as well as 1.9 GtCO 2
e sequestered
by more sustainable agricultural practices (Project
Catalyst, 2009) (jointly referred to as REDD+).
At COP 11 in Montreal in 2005, developing countries
tabled a motion indicating they were prepared to reduce
emissions from deforestation provided appropriate
incentives were put in place. That motion triggered intense
negotiations under the UNFCCC and the establishment
of various initiatives to build capacity and develop
REDD+ demonstration projects.
In recent years, political momentum to address
emissions from agriculture has also grown. As global
food production is expected to double by 2050, GHG
emissions from the sector must be stabilised to achieve
emission targets advocated by the Intergovernmental
Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). At the same time,
climate change will depress agricultural yields making
adaptation one of the main challenges of the agricultural
sector. Well-designed policies at the national and
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