The scope for reducing emissions from forestry and agriculture in the Brazilian Amazon

Reducing emissions from agriculture, forestry, and other land uses is considered an essential ingredient of an effective strategy to mitigate global warming. Required changes in land use and forestry, however, often imply foregoing returns from locally more attractive resource use strategies. We ass...

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Main Authors: Börner, J., Wunder, Sven
Format: Journal Article
Language:Inglés
Published: MDPI 2012
Subjects:
Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/10568/94521
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author Börner, J.
Wunder, Sven
author_browse Börner, J.
Wunder, Sven
author_facet Börner, J.
Wunder, Sven
author_sort Börner, J.
collection Repository of Agricultural Research Outputs (CGSpace)
description Reducing emissions from agriculture, forestry, and other land uses is considered an essential ingredient of an effective strategy to mitigate global warming. Required changes in land use and forestry, however, often imply foregoing returns from locally more attractive resource use strategies. We assess and compare the prospects of mitigating climate change through emission reductions from forestry and agriculture in the Brazilian Amazon. We use official statistics, literature, and case study material from both old and new colonization frontiers to identify the scope for emission reductions, in terms of potential additionality, opportunity costs, technological complexity, transaction costs, and risks of economic and environmental spillover effects. Our findings point to a comparative advantage in the Brazilian Amazon of forest conservation-based over land-use modifying mitigation options, especially in terms of higher potential additionality in emission reductions. Low-cost mitigation options do exist also in use-modifying agriculture and forestry, but tend to be technologically complex thus requiring more costly intervention schemes. Our review points to a series of regional development deficits that may come to hamper attempts to tap into the large-scale climate change mitigation potential often associated with the Amazon. Low-hanging fruits for mitigation do exist, but must be carefully identified based on the performance indicators we discuss.
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spelling CGSpace945212025-06-17T08:23:47Z The scope for reducing emissions from forestry and agriculture in the Brazilian Amazon Börner, J. Wunder, Sven agriculture climate change land use opportunity costs regional development emission mitigation Reducing emissions from agriculture, forestry, and other land uses is considered an essential ingredient of an effective strategy to mitigate global warming. Required changes in land use and forestry, however, often imply foregoing returns from locally more attractive resource use strategies. We assess and compare the prospects of mitigating climate change through emission reductions from forestry and agriculture in the Brazilian Amazon. We use official statistics, literature, and case study material from both old and new colonization frontiers to identify the scope for emission reductions, in terms of potential additionality, opportunity costs, technological complexity, transaction costs, and risks of economic and environmental spillover effects. Our findings point to a comparative advantage in the Brazilian Amazon of forest conservation-based over land-use modifying mitigation options, especially in terms of higher potential additionality in emission reductions. Low-cost mitigation options do exist also in use-modifying agriculture and forestry, but tend to be technologically complex thus requiring more costly intervention schemes. Our review points to a series of regional development deficits that may come to hamper attempts to tap into the large-scale climate change mitigation potential often associated with the Amazon. Low-hanging fruits for mitigation do exist, but must be carefully identified based on the performance indicators we discuss. 2012 2018-07-03T11:01:20Z 2018-07-03T11:01:20Z Journal Article https://hdl.handle.net/10568/94521 en Open Access MDPI Börner, J., Wunder, S. . 2012. The scope for reducing emissions from forestry and agriculture in the Brazilian Amazon Forests, 3 (3) : 546-572. https://doi.org/10.3390/f3030546
spellingShingle agriculture
climate change
land use
opportunity costs
regional development
emission
mitigation
Börner, J.
Wunder, Sven
The scope for reducing emissions from forestry and agriculture in the Brazilian Amazon
title The scope for reducing emissions from forestry and agriculture in the Brazilian Amazon
title_full The scope for reducing emissions from forestry and agriculture in the Brazilian Amazon
title_fullStr The scope for reducing emissions from forestry and agriculture in the Brazilian Amazon
title_full_unstemmed The scope for reducing emissions from forestry and agriculture in the Brazilian Amazon
title_short The scope for reducing emissions from forestry and agriculture in the Brazilian Amazon
title_sort scope for reducing emissions from forestry and agriculture in the brazilian amazon
topic agriculture
climate change
land use
opportunity costs
regional development
emission
mitigation
url https://hdl.handle.net/10568/94521
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