Potencial de mitigación del cambio climático en bosques. Ejemplo del Bosque La Primavera (México). (Publicado en Forests, Noviembre 2013).

El artículo presenta resultados de un inventario forestal en el Bosque La Primavera en México, los resultados sirven para estimar el contenido de carbono en la biomasa, estimar el potencial de captura de carbono y el potencial de reducción de emisiones; de esta forma se estima la contribución potencial a la mitigación del cambio climático. 

Título: Potential for Climate Change Mitigation in Degraded Forests: A Study from La Primavera, México.

Abstract: Forests contribute to climate change mitigation by removing atmospheric carbon dioxide and storing it in biomass and other carbon pools. Additionally, since appropriate forest management can reduce emissions from deforestation and forest degradation, it is important to estimate the magnitude of these services to include them into climate policy. We used a forest inventory stratified by canopy cover in the oak-pine forest of La Primavera Biosphere Reserve in México (30,500 ha), to assess the potential provision of forest carbon services. Inventory results were used in combination with a Landsat image to estimate carbon stocks in arboreal biomass. Potential carbon removals were calculated from published allometric equations and models estimating tree growth rates, for enhancements in forested areas and for reforestation/afforestation. Carbon stocks estimated in arboreal biomass at the time of the inventory were 4.16 MtCO2eq (3.42–4.89). The potential for further carbon sequestration and enhancement could take the level of stocks up to 9.77 MtCO2eq (7.66–11.89, 95% confidence interval); previous fires have degraded carbon stocks below their natural potential. The results present a gradient of carbon stocks for different degradation levels and are consistent with national and international estimates and previous local research. The baseline for the estimation of reduced emissions is critical for assessing the overall contribution of forests to mitigate climate change. The local baseline of emissions might be around 1% according to historical data; however, when enhancements and reduced emissions are valuated together, a baseline of 3.7% is required to prevent the creation of perverse incentives favouring previously degraded areas; considering these figures for reduced emissions, the yearly carbon services provided by La Primavera, including enhancements, sequestration and reduced emissions, could be between 169.4 ktCO2eq/year (134.8–204.5) and 282.1 ktCO2eq/year (228.2–337.1), respectively. Over a period of 60 years, this would be equivalent to 2.4 and 4.1 times the magnitude of mean standing stocks at the time of the inventory. If incentive-based mechanisms are used to maintain and enhance forest carbon services and perverse incentives are to be avoided, a balanced mix of incentives and controls is needed.

Keywords: forest monitoring; forest management; carbon sequestration; carbon markets; positive incentives

Éste artículo es de acceso libre, se puede consultar en:
http://www.mdpi.com/1999-4907/4/4/1032

Referencia. Balderas Torres, A.; Ontiveros Enríquez, R.; Skutsch, M.; Lovett, J.C. Potential for Climate Change Mitigation in Degraded Forests: A Study from La Primavera, México. Forests 2013, 4, 1032-1054.

Pago por servicios ambientales y desarrollo sustentable. Estudio del occidente de México. (Publicado en Ecosystem Services, Mayo 2013)

Este artículo analiza las preferencias de ejidatarios y propietarios de predios forestales y agropecuarios alrededor del Bosque La Primavera en Jalisco, México, en relación a la participación en proyectos de pagos por servicios ambientales y de incentivos por la conservación y restauración forestal.

Título: Payments for ecosystem services and rural development: Landowners' preferences and potential participation in western Mexico

Abstract. Incentive-based mechanisms can contribute to rural development and deliver environmental services, but need to be attractive to landowners and communities to ensure their participation. Here we study the views of landowners and agrarian communities (ejidos) from central Jalisco in Mexico to identify characteristics that payment for environmental services (PES) programs conserving/enhancing forest cover could include in their design. A choice experiment was applied to 161 landowners and ejido- landowners. Results show that importance and dependency on cash payments can decrease if interventions to promote local development through improved health and education services and generation of employment and productive projects are included. Responses indicate that communal forested areas in ejidos would be most likely to enroll into PES. In some cases grasslands could be afforested. Agroforestry practices providing other environmental services could also be implemented (e.g. windbreaks). Potential enrollment is lower in agricultural and peri-urban areas due to higher opportunity costs. Higher payments favor enrollment but may compromise the program's efficiency since aggregated cash-flow over long periods can exceed the present value of the land itself in some areas. Offering a mix of cash and non-cash benefits based on local developmental needs might be the best way to promote participation in PES.

Referencia: Balderas Torres, A., MacMillan, D.C., Skutsch, M., Lovett, J.C. 2013. Payments for ecosystem services and rural development: Landowners' preferences and potential participation in western Mexico. Ecosystem Services, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ecoser.2013.03.002i.

El artículo está disponible en:
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2212041613000181

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Utilizando el área basal para estimar carbono en biomasa aérea en bosques: La Primavera (Publicado en Forestry, Diciembre 2012)

Este artículo analiza el potencial de utilizar el área basal, que es una variable fácil de medir en campo, para estimar carbono forestal, con base en un inventario forestal.

Titulo: Using basal area to estimate aboveground carbon stocks in forests: La Primavera Biosphere’s Reserve, Mexico.

Increasing use of woody plants for greenhouse gas mitigation has led to demand for rapid, cost-effective estimation of forest carbon stocks. Bole diameter is readily measured and basal area can be correlated to biomass and carbon through application of allometric equations. We explore different forms of allometric equations and analyse the potential to use of equations for individual trees to derive stand-level equations, where the basal area and the average diameter are used as explanatory variables. To test the relationships derived from published allometric equations, we used data from a forest inventory in the oak–pine forests in La Primavera (Mexico). Results show that in two forests with the same species and basal area, there will be more carbon where trees are larger. Allometric equations for individual trees can be transformed into stand-level equations. The values of average diameter weighted by the basal area for these equations can be based on a small sample of large trees once the local relationship between tree size and tree density per hectare is known. This approach could considerably reduce field data requirements in comparison with inventory methods based on enumeration of all trees for estimation of biomass and carbon.

Referencia: Balderas Torres, A., Lovett, J.C. 2012. Using basal area to estimate aboveground carbon stocks in forests: La Primavera Biosphere’s Reserve, Mexico. Forestry: An International Journal of Forest Research. doi: 10.1093/forestry/cps084

El artículo está disponible en:
http://forestry.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2012/12/19/forestry.cps084

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Building sustainable global research partnerships – and saving the puma (Publicado con Jon C. Lovett en The Guardian en línea, Agosto 2012)

A UK-funded conservation project in Mexico has involved local landowners, universities and a Grammy award-winning band to achieve a triple bottom line of sustainability, reports Jon Lovett.

Posted by Jon Lovett and arbalto Monday 20 August 2012 

Biodiversity conservation has extended the forest, creating wildlife corridors for the puma. Photograph: Raul Arboleda/AFP/Getty Images

Biodiversity conservation has changed in recent years. In the old days things were straightforward. Conservationists identified what they wanted to preserve: a species, a habitat, a grand scenic view, and then they lobbied government to get it protected. Lawmakers then created red-lists, nature reserves and national parks with strict conditions about access and use. But there are two key problems with this approach. Enforcing laws is expensive, and restricting access often denies the poorest and most marginalised. New approaches adopt sustainability principles in which environmental protection must go hand in hand with economic and social goals.

But how does this work in practice? Professor Jon Lovett, who is taking up a new post with the University of Leeds, has just completed a three year project in the La Primavera Biosphere reserve in Mexico funded by the UK Darwin Initiative working closely with the reserve's management authority, local universities including the Universidad Jesuita de Guadalajara, Mexican NGOs and agricultural land-owning community groups, called 'ejidos'.

Integrating the interests of many different groups is challenging: the ejidos need financially viable land use, the conservation groups want as much nature protected as possible, and the management authority is caught in the middle. The project first brought all the groups together to express their views, then set about estimating the reserve's ecosystem service values and working out some way of paying the ejidos for conservation efforts on their land.

La Primavera is on an old volcano right next to the city of Guadalajara and is covered by oak pine forests. Guadalajara is growing rapidly and La Primavera is getting cut off from other forests, such as that on the nearby Tequila Volcano and Sierra de Quila, by roads and urban expansion. The forest was home to big cats like the puma, but the last one was shot in the 70s. Then, in 2009, about 30 years after the last direct evidence of pumas in the area, camera traps were set up throughout the forest by researchers from a local NGO, Aura Jaguar, and a few months later yielded pictures of a graceful puma.

To get more evidence of the puma I contacted an old friend, Sam Wasser, who has a team of 'conservation canines', dogs trained to search for dung of carnivores, which can then be identified by the DNA they contain. One of his PhD students, Jen White, was working in Mexico on jaguars and she came over to La Primavera with her dog Scooby. They spent a week scouring the forest but DNA analysis revealed only bobcats; recent rains had deteriorated DNA traces in many samples for which results were inconclusive. The puma was obviously still very rare and corridors were needed to connect La Primavera to the other nearby forests.

Land in Mexico can be commonly or privately owned. Most of the land for potential corridors is owned communally by ejidos and is used for livestock ranching but there are also pressures for farming, either for food crops or the agave plant, which is the basis of tequila production. If land use is switched to wildlife corridors, then forest owners will need to be compensated, and the money has to come from somewhere.

Concern over the economic impact of human interference with the Earth's climate means that the natural ability of trees to sequester and store the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide gives them a monetary value for the carbon they contain. So we explored ways of making a monetary link between the carbon dioxide emitted by people in Guadalajara and tree planting and forest conservation. Then we had a stroke of good fortune.

The La Primavera management office put us in in touch with Selva Negra, the environmental NGO of the rock band Maná who were just about to start a world tour promoting their new album Drama y Luz and were looking for a way to offset the tour's carbon emissions. This Grammy award winning band are famous throughout Latin America, but originate from Guadalajara and were keen on supporting a local project for the city. Moreover they were able to meet with the president of Mexico, helping to secure inclusion of the project within existing environmental programmes.

Negotiations were held with the ejido of Ahuisculco located in one of the biological corridors connecting La Primavera to Sierra de Quila to create a conservation and reforestation project. The project was designed for a 10-year period and will provide the resources to conserve more than 1000 hectares of forest and reforest more than 100 hectares. The third pillar of sustainability is that of social development: money on its own is not enough, the community needs to be supported as a whole.

Selva Negra is creating an integrated strategy to promote local development, not only focusing on the commodification of carbon offsets, but also working with local universities on a community project to manage domestic wastes and wastewater, and to monitor water quality in wells and streams. Furthermore Selva Negra and the universities are consulting on the opening a high school education centre in the community – at present students need to go to other cities or just quit school. The plan involves investing an estimated £500,000.

The project therefore has a triple win: biodiversity conservation by strategically extending the forest creating wildlife corridors for the puma and other animals; economic sustainability by linking the producer and consumer of an ecosystem service; and social sustainability by creating community health and education initiatives.

However, it is not easy. We did a great deal of research into the best ways of making the payments and there needed to be lots of negotiations with the Ahuisculco ejido. We were also fortunate to build up partnerships with Selva Negra and Maná. The next stage will be to work out a way for the citizens of Guadalajara, or any city, to pay for the ecosystem services they consume, putting conservation of the planet's life support systems on a firmer footing.

Jon Lovett is project coordinator and professor of Global Challenges at the University of Leeds. Arturo Balderas Torres is a lecturer at ITESO in Guadalajara and is completing a PhD at the University of Twente based on the project.

Fuente Original:

http://www.theguardian.com/higher-education-network/blog/2012/aug/20/puma-conservation-research-partnerships-mexico

Valoración de los servicios forestales de mitigación del cambio climático: El caso de Guadalajara y La Primavera (Publicado en REC, Julio 2012)

The valuation of forest carbon services by Mexican citizens: the case of Guadalajara city and La Primavera biosphere reserve.

Abstract. Adequate demand for, and recognition of, forest carbon services is critical to success of market mechanisms for forestry-based conservation and climate change mitigation. National and voluntary carbon-offsetting schemes are emerging as alternatives to international compliance markets. We developed a choice experiment to explore determinants of local forest carbon-offset valuation. A total of 963 citizens from Guadalajara in Mexico were asked to consider a purchase of voluntary offsets from the neighbouring Biosphere Reserve of La Primavera and from two alternative more distant locations: La Michilía in the state of Durango and El Cielo in Tamaulipas. Surveys were applied in market stall sessions and online using two different sampling methods: the snowball technique and via a market research company. The local La Primavera site attracted higher participation and valuation than the more distant sites. However, groups particularly interested in climate change mitigation or cost may accept cost-efficient options in the distant sites. Mean implicit carbon prices obtained ranged from $6.79 to $15.67/tCO2eq depending on the surveying methodology and profile of respondents. Survey application mode can significantly affect outcome of the experiment. Values from the market stall sessions were higher than those from the snowball and market research samples obtained online; this may be linked to greater cooperation associated with personal interaction and collective action. In agreement with the literature, we found that valuation of forest carbon offsets is associated with cognitive, ethical, behavioural, geographical and economic factors.

Keywords Stated preference methods; Market mechanisms; REDD+; Environmental services; Choice modelling.

Referencia: Balderas Torres, A., MacMillan, D.C., Skutsch, M., Lovett, J.C. 2012. The valuation of forest carbon services by Mexican citizens: the case of Guadalajara city and La Primavera biosphere reserve. Regional Environmental Change, 1-20, DOI: 10.1007/s10113-012-0336-z.

El artículo publicado por Springer se puede consultar en la siguiente dirección: http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs10113-012-0336-z#page-1

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Una propuesta para la distribución de beneficios en REDD+ (Publicado junto con Margaret Skutsch, en Forests, Marzo 2012)

Splitting the Difference: A Proposal for Benefit Sharing in Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+). 

Abstract: The objective of REDD+ is to create incentives for the reduction of emissions from deforestation and forest degradation and for the increase of carbon stocks through the enhancement, conservation and sustainable management of forests in developing countries. As part of the international negotiations under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), compensation would be estimated in relation to national performance but how these incentives will be channeled within countries has not been specified and there are concerns about how the benefits will be shared among different stakeholders. One central issue is that under the national approach good performance in one region can be offset by underperformance in other regions of the country thus preventing the generation of predictable local incentives. Other issues relate to the need to provide incentives to a wide range of stakeholders and to avoid perverse reactions. To address these and other issues we propose separating the accounting of reduced deforestation, reduced degradation and enhancement of forests. The local attribution of credits would be easier for carbon enhancement, and possibly reduced degradation, than for reduced deforestation, since carbon gains can, in principle, be measured locally in the first two cases, while estimating achievements in reduced deforestation requires a regional approach. This separation in attribution of rewards can help to create adequate incentives for the different stakeholders and overcome some of the problems associated with the design and implementation of national REDD+ programs.

Keywords: avoided emissions; carbon enhancement; forest management; positive incentives

El artículo se publicó en la revista de acceso libre Forests: http://www.mdpi.com/1999-4907/3/1/137

Este artículo analiza las implicaciones y dificultades para atribuir a nivel local los beneficios de REDD+; el enfoque ha servido como fundamento para la promoción de un mercado voluntario para
captura de carbono en México (actualmente en desarrollo).

Referencia: Balderas Torres A., Skutsch M. 2012. Splitting the Difference: A Proposal for Benefit Sharing in Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+). Forests. 3(1):137-154.

Abordando degradación forestal local en REDD+. (Coautor, articulo publicado en Carbon Balance and Management, Diciembre, 2011)

Título: Dealing with locally-driven degradation: A quick start option under REDD+.

Abstract.
The paper reviews a number of challenges associated with reducing degradation and its related emissions through national approaches to REDD+ under UNFCCC policy. It proposes that in many countries, it may in the short run be easier to deal with the kinds of degradation that result from locally driven community over-exploitation of forest for livelihoods, than from selective logging or fire control. Such degradation is low-level, but chronic, and is experienced over very large forest areas. Community forest management programmes tend to result not only in reduced degradation, but also in forest enhancement; moreover they are often popular, and do not require major political shifts. In principle these approaches therefore offer a quick start option for REDD+. Developing reference emissions levels for low-level locally driven degradation is difficult however given that stock losses and gains are too small to be identified and measured using remote sensing, and that in most countries there is little or no forest inventory data available. We therefore propose that forest management initiatives at the local level, such as those promoted by community forest management programmes, should monitor, and be credited for, only the net increase in carbon stock over the implementation period, as assessed by ground level surveys at the start and end of the period. This would also resolve the problem of nesting (ensuring that all credits are accounted for against the national reference emission level), since communities and others at the local level would be rewarded only for increased sequestration, while the national reference emission level would deal only with reductions in emissions from deforestation and degradation.

Keywords: Low-level degradation; below canopy; community management; monitoring; RELs; RLs; crediting; nesting.

Referencia: Sktusch, M., Balderas Torres, A., Mwampamba, T.H., Ghilardi, A., Herold, M. 2011. Dealing with locally-driven degradation: A quick start option under REDD+. Carbon Balance and Management 6:16.

El artículo es de acceso libre y se puede descargar y consultar en: http://www.cbmjournal.com/content/6/1/16

Curva de costos para proyectos de reforestación/forestación para captura de carbono. (Publicado en Ecological Economics, Enero 2010)

Título del Articulo:
Analysis of the carbon sequestration costs of afforestation and reforestation agroforestry practices and the use of cost curves to evaluate their potential for implementation of climate change mitigation.

Abstract:

Carbon sequestration in forest sinks is an important strategy to remove greenhouse gases and to mitigate climate change; however its implementation has been limited under the Clean Development Mechanism of the Kyoto Protocol which has not created the incentives for widespread implementation. The objective of this paper is to analyze the sequestration costs of agroforestry afforestation and reforestation projects (ARPs) following a partial market equilibrium using average cost curves and economic break even analysis to identify the supply costs. The modelling done in this work contrasts the voluntary and clean development mechanism transaction costs. Data is based on the voluntary project, Scolel Té, being implemented in Mexico. Cost curves are developed for seven different sequestration options considering transaction and implementation costs; information from agricultural production in Chiapas Mexico is used to integrate opportunity costs of two agroforestry practices suggesting that sequestration costs may follow a "U" shape, with an initial reduction due to economies of scale and a subsequent increase caused by high opportunity costs. The widespread implementation of agroforestry options not requiring complete land conversion (e.g. living fences and coffee under shade) might be cost effective strategies not generating high opportunity costs. Results also suggest that payments in the early years of the project and lower transaction costs favour the development of ARPs in the voluntary market especially in marginal rural areas with high discount rates.

Liga Permanente: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0921800909003942

Referencia: Balderas Torres, A., Marchant, R., Lovett, J.C., Smart, J.C.R., Tipper, R. 2010. Analysis of the carbon sequestration costs of afforestation and reforestation agroforestry practices and the use of cost curves to evaluate their potential for implementation of climate change mitigation. Ecological Economics, Volume 69, Issue 3, 15 January 2010, Pages 469-477.

Revisión de la COP 14 en Poznan (Transferencia de Tecnología). (Co-autor, Publicado en Energy Policy, Septiembre 2009)

Título: Review of the 2008 UNFCCC meeting in Poznan

Abstract. Technology transfer is a central component in policies and action to prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system. Without creation and adoption of suitable environmentally sound technologies it will not be possible to follow the basic principles of sustainable development. Technology transfer was expected to be a major item at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Poznań, Poland, 1–12 December 2008, but was eclipsed by discussions on Reducing Emissions from Deforestation in Developing Countries. However, agreement was reached on a report from the Global Environment Facility called the ‘Poznań strategic programme on technology transfer’ outlining proposals to scale-up investment. At the meeting it was not possible to reach agreement on inclusion of carbon capture and storage technology under the clean development mechanism and other areas of unresolved discussion included intellectual property rights and revision of the principle of differentiated responsibility. Side-events to the main meeting provided two important indications of future directions. First, intellectual property rights were discussed at length primarily with the opinion that they were not a major barrier to technology transfer. Second, representatives from the business sector were regarding environmentally sound technologies as an opportunity for economic growth and development.

Lovett, J.C., Hofman, P.S., Morsink, K., Balderas Torres, A., Clancy, J.S., Krabbendam, K. 2009. Review of the 2008 UNFCCC meeting in Poznan. Energy Policy, Volume 37, Issue 9, September 2009, Pages 3701-3705

El artículo está disponible en: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301421509004194

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