Climate change mitigation: a spatial analysis of global land suitability for Clean Development Mechanism afforestation and reforestation

Within the Kyoto Protocol, the clean development mechanism (CDM) is an instrument intended to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, while assisting developing countries in achieving sustainable development, with the multiple goals of poverty reduction, environmental benefits and cost-effective emission r...

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Autores principales: Zomer, Robert J., Trabucco, Antonio, Bossio, Deborah A., Verchot, Louis V.
Formato: Journal Article
Lenguaje:Inglés
Publicado: Elsevier 2008
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://hdl.handle.net/10568/19940
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author Zomer, Robert J.
Trabucco, Antonio
Bossio, Deborah A.
Verchot, Louis V.
author_browse Bossio, Deborah A.
Trabucco, Antonio
Verchot, Louis V.
Zomer, Robert J.
author_facet Zomer, Robert J.
Trabucco, Antonio
Bossio, Deborah A.
Verchot, Louis V.
author_sort Zomer, Robert J.
collection Repository of Agricultural Research Outputs (CGSpace)
description Within the Kyoto Protocol, the clean development mechanism (CDM) is an instrument intended to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, while assisting developing countries in achieving sustainable development, with the multiple goals of poverty reduction, environmental benefits and cost-effective emission reductions. The CDM allows for a small percentage of emission reduction credits to come from afforestation and reforestation (CDM-AR) projects.We conducted a global analysis of land suitability for CDM-AR carbon ‘sink’ projects and identified large amounts of land (749 Mha) as biophysically suitable and meeting the CDM-AR eligibility criteria. Forty-six percent of all the suitable areas globally were found in South America and 27% in Sub-Saharan Africa. In Asia, despite the larger land mass, relatively less land was available. In South America and Sub-Saharan Africa the majority of the suitable land was shrubland/grassland or savanna. In Asia the majority of the land was low-intensity agriculture. The sociologic and ecological analyses showed that large amounts of suitable land exhibited relatively low population densities. Many of the most marginal areas were eliminated due to high aridity, which resulted in a generally Gaussian distribution of land productivity classes. If the cap on CDM-AR were raised to compensate for a substantially greater offset of carbon emission through sink projects, this study suggests that it will be increasingly important to consider implications on local to regional food security and local community livelihoods.
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spelling CGSpace199402024-08-27T10:36:32Z Climate change mitigation: a spatial analysis of global land suitability for Clean Development Mechanism afforestation and reforestation Zomer, Robert J. Trabucco, Antonio Bossio, Deborah A. Verchot, Louis V. climate change afforestation land use clean development mechanism Within the Kyoto Protocol, the clean development mechanism (CDM) is an instrument intended to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, while assisting developing countries in achieving sustainable development, with the multiple goals of poverty reduction, environmental benefits and cost-effective emission reductions. The CDM allows for a small percentage of emission reduction credits to come from afforestation and reforestation (CDM-AR) projects.We conducted a global analysis of land suitability for CDM-AR carbon ‘sink’ projects and identified large amounts of land (749 Mha) as biophysically suitable and meeting the CDM-AR eligibility criteria. Forty-six percent of all the suitable areas globally were found in South America and 27% in Sub-Saharan Africa. In Asia, despite the larger land mass, relatively less land was available. In South America and Sub-Saharan Africa the majority of the suitable land was shrubland/grassland or savanna. In Asia the majority of the land was low-intensity agriculture. The sociologic and ecological analyses showed that large amounts of suitable land exhibited relatively low population densities. Many of the most marginal areas were eliminated due to high aridity, which resulted in a generally Gaussian distribution of land productivity classes. If the cap on CDM-AR were raised to compensate for a substantially greater offset of carbon emission through sink projects, this study suggests that it will be increasingly important to consider implications on local to regional food security and local community livelihoods. 2008-06 2012-06-04T09:12:53Z 2012-06-04T09:12:53Z Journal Article https://hdl.handle.net/10568/19940 en Limited Access Elsevier Zomer, R.J., Trabucco, A., Bossio, D.A., Verchot, L.V. 2008. Climate change mitigation: a spatial analysis of global land suitability for Clean Development Mechanism afforestation and reforestation . Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment 126 :67-80 doi:10.1016/j.agee.2008.01.014. ISSN: 0167-8809.
spellingShingle climate change
afforestation
land use
clean development mechanism
Zomer, Robert J.
Trabucco, Antonio
Bossio, Deborah A.
Verchot, Louis V.
Climate change mitigation: a spatial analysis of global land suitability for Clean Development Mechanism afforestation and reforestation
title Climate change mitigation: a spatial analysis of global land suitability for Clean Development Mechanism afforestation and reforestation
title_full Climate change mitigation: a spatial analysis of global land suitability for Clean Development Mechanism afforestation and reforestation
title_fullStr Climate change mitigation: a spatial analysis of global land suitability for Clean Development Mechanism afforestation and reforestation
title_full_unstemmed Climate change mitigation: a spatial analysis of global land suitability for Clean Development Mechanism afforestation and reforestation
title_short Climate change mitigation: a spatial analysis of global land suitability for Clean Development Mechanism afforestation and reforestation
title_sort climate change mitigation a spatial analysis of global land suitability for clean development mechanism afforestation and reforestation
topic climate change
afforestation
land use
clean development mechanism
url https://hdl.handle.net/10568/19940
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