Global Climate Change mitigation through Participatory Management of Multifunctional Forests: Carbon Sink Project as a Community-driven Approach in Harda, MP, India

Deep Narayan PandeyIUFRO Research Group 6.19.00-EthnoforestryIndian Institute of Forest ManagementBhopal, Indiadnpandey@ethnoforestry.org

Not to the scale

Vitousek, Peter M., Mooney, Harold A., Lubchenco, Jane, Melillo, Jerry M.. Human Domination of Earth's Ecosystems. Science 1997 277: 494-499

Geographical distribution of fossil fuel sources of CO2 as of

1990. The global mean is 12.2 g m 2 year 1

Carbon emissions associated with fossil fuel combustion. (Top) Carbon emissions per person, 1999. (Bottom) 1999 Carbon emissions and expected increase by 2010.

Sandalow, David B., Bowles, Ian A.Fundamentals of Treaty-Making on Climate Change

Science 2001 292: 1839-1840

F. W. Zwiers, Nature 416, 690-691 (2002).

A warmer world during the decade 2020–30

The change projected by CGCM2 falls well within the approximate 5–95% uncertainty ranges estimated by Stott and Kettleborough (0.3–1.3 K) and by Knutti et al. (0.5–1.1 K).

0.0 2.5

Biodiversity hotspots for conservation priorities

N. Myers et al., Nature 403, 853 - 858 (2000)

0

2

4

6

Ha (109)

Croplands 1.54 1.66 1.89

Pasturelands 3.47 3.67 4.01

Total 5.01 5.33 5.9

2000 2020 2050

D. N. Pandey, Climate Policy 2, (2002)

Carbon sequestration in agroforestry systems

Reserve and Protected Forests in Rahatgaon and Handia Ranges

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27913

580

10543 11123

05000

1000015000200002500030000

RF (ha) PF (ha) Total

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Rahatgaon

Handia

Forest area affected by illegal felling (1998)

95

3 213

40 47

020406080

100

No impact Mediumimpact

Highimpact

% o

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Rahatgaon

Handia

Division

Effect of protection (trees per ha)

0

200

400

600

1=0 years, 2= 10 years, 3= 50 years

Handia 62 254 515

Rahatgaon 57 271 237

1 2 3

Biomass in sample plots (metric tons per ha)

54.6

110.4 112.4

37.6 41.9

177.4

0

50

100

150

200

Unprotected 8-10 years ofprotection

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Rahatgaon

Handia

Handia

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Rahatgaon

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Rahatgaon

Handia

Carbon Values of Sample Forest PlotstC ha-1

Potential Carbon Additionality in Handia under CDM

0

20

40

60

80

100tC

/ha

Baseline 0.3 19.6 21.8 23 34.4

CDM Project 3.4 19.6 47.2 64.2 92.4

Additionality 0 25.4 41.2 58.8

Current year After 8 years After 12 years After 50 years

Sequestration (tC/ha/yr)

Building up of carbon pool (tC/ha)

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Lessons from conservation proxy for Carbon Sink

Loss of original habitat (expressed in % of original distribution)

Corbet and Hill (1992)

Key functions Key management guidelines for multifunctional forests

Biodiversity Conservation and maintenance of ecosystem functions     

         Representation of all forest types in protected areas, both formal1 and ethnoforestry regimes.·         Protection of natural forests against wild-fires, grazing, and unmanaged removals·         Priority protection to threatened ecosystems such as tropical dry forests·         Preventing fragmentation and providing connectivity to conserve biodiversity in landscape continuum. Fragmentation of natural forests has a sequential path that starts with killing of big trees followed by degeneration of habitat specialists, paucity of regeneration due to impoverished seed germination in fragments, and ends in denuded areas.·         Maintenance of gene pool diversity in natural and cultural landscapes·         Restoration of degraded forests with multiple use trees, shrubs and herbs along with regeneration regimes that necessarily combine rainwater harvest, direct seeding, resprouting, and plantations if needed.·         Maintenance of woody vegetation in ethnoforestry regimes in landscape continuum (households, cultural landscapes, agroecosystems, and wilderness).·         Protection to a variety of woody vegetation management regimes in agroecosystems to maximize social and economic benefits to the people as well maintenance of ecosystems functions such as natural pest control, pollination, carbon storage, regulation of hydrological cycle etc.·         Only low intensity logging followed by matching regeneration in secondary forests and ethnoforestry regimes.·         Protection of the functional groups of biodiversity         Protection to large trees in natural, cultural and human modified landscapes as they act as seed source, conserve carbon pool, and act as habitat for seed-dispersing birds, small mammals, and other faunal species.·         Soil conservation, and enhancement of soil fertility through conservation/restoration of woody leguminous species across landscape continuum.·         Application of the principles of sustainability science for forest management attempting to address the nature-society interaction will need an interdisciplinary approach as well as multiple stocks of knowledge and institutional innovations to navigate transition towards a sustainable forest management ·         Community-based management regimes built on the principle of equity of knowledge among stakeholders, and that rely capitalizing on natural recovery mechanisms will prevent further catastrophic shift and degradation and retain the multiple values of land.  

Yield of goods and services to the society    

Enhancing the carbon storage in trees, woody vegetation and soils    

Social , economic well-being

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Changes in carbon stocks (the amount of sequestered carbon) in Chinese forests over the past half-century.

The fate of sequestered carbon in USA S. Pacala et al., Science 292, 2316-2320 (2001).

J. Fang et al., Science 292, 2320-2322 (2001).

Further Reading:Ravindranath, N. H., Pandey, D. N., Murthy, I., Bist, R. and Jain, D. 2001. Communities & Climate Change (ed. Poffenberger, M.), CFI, Santa Barbara, USA, pp.1-73.

Pandey, D. N. 2002. Global climate change and carbon management on multifunctional forests. Current Science 83: 593-602.Pandey, D. N. 2002. Sustainability science for tropical forests. Conservation Ecology 6 (1): r13.

Pandey, D. N. 2002. Carbon sequestration in agroforestry systems. Climate Policy (in press).