Dataset Information

Quantifying carbon stocks in shifting cultivation landscapes under divergent management scenarios relevant to REDD.

ABSTRACT: Shifting cultivation dominates many tropical forest regions. It is expanding into old-growth forests, and fallow period duration is rapidly decreasing, limiting secondary forest recovery. Shifting cultivation is thus a major driver of carbon emissions through deforestation and forest degradation, and of biodiversity loss. The impacts of shifting cultivation on carbon stocks have rarely been quantified, and the potential for carbon-based payments for ecosystem services (PES), such as REDD+, to protect carbon in shifting cultivation landscapes is unknown. We present empirical data on aboveground carbon stocks in old-growth forest and shifting cultivation landscapes in northeast India, a hotspot of threatened biodiversity. We then model landscape-level carbon stocks under business-as-usual scenarios, via expansion into the old-growth forest or decreasing fallow periods, and intervention scenarios in which REDD+ is used to either reduce deforestation of primary or secondary forest or increase fallow period duration. We found substantial recovery of carbon stocks as secondary forest regenerates, with a 30-yr fallow storing about one-half the carbon of an old-growth forest. Business-as-usual scenarios led to substantial carbon loss, with an 80% reduction following conversion of old-growth forest to a 30-yr shifting cultivation cycle and, relative to a 30-yr cultivation landscape, a 70% reduction when switching to a 5-yr cultivation cycle. Sparing old-growth forests from deforestation using protected areas and intensifying cropping in the remaining area of shifting cultivation is the most optimal strategy for carbon storage. In areas lacking old-growth forest, substantial carbon stocks accumulate over time by sparing fallows for permanent forest regeneration. Successful implementation of REDD+ in shifting cultivation landscapes can help avert global climate change by protecting forest carbon, with likely co-benefits for biodiversity.

SUBMITTER: Borah JR

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6175365 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Quantifying carbon stocks in shifting cultivation landscapes under divergent management scenarios relevant to REDD.

Borah Joli R JR Evans Karl L KL Edwards David P DP

Ecological applications : a publication of the Ecological Society of America 20180725 6

Shifting cultivation dominates many tropical forest regions. It is expanding into old-growth forests, and fallow period duration is rapidly decreasing, limiting secondary forest recovery. Shifting cultivation is thus a major driver of carbon emissions through deforestation and forest degradation, and of biodiversity loss. The impacts of shifting cultivation on carbon stocks have rarely been quantified, and the potential for carbon-based payments for ecosystem services (PES), such as REDD+, to pr ...[more]

PMID: 30044898

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Project description:BACKGROUND:To reduce the uncertainty in estimates of carbon emissions resulting from deforestation and forest degradation, better information on the carbon density per land use/land cover (LULC) class and in situ carbon and nitrogen data is needed. This allows a better representation of the spatial distribution of carbon and nitrogen stocks across LULC. The aim of this study was to emphasize the relevance of using in situ carbon and nitrogen content of the main tree species of the site when quantifying the aboveground carbon and nitrogen stocks in the context of carbon accounting. This paper contributes to that, by combining satellite images with in situ carbon and nitrogen content in dry matter of stem woods together with locally derived and published allometric models to estimate aboveground carbon and nitrogen stocks at the Dassari Basin in the Sudan Savannah zone in the Republic of Benin. RESULTS:The estimated mean carbon content per tree species varied from 44.28?±?0.21% to 49.43?±?0.27%. The overall mean carbon content in dry matter for the 277 wood samples of the 18 main tree species of the region was 47.01?±?0.28%-which is close to the Tier 1 coefficient of 47% default value suggested by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The overall mean fraction of nitrogen in dry matter was estimated as 0.229?±?0.016%. The estimated mean carbon density varied from 1.52?±?0.14 Mg C ha-1 (for Cropland and Fallow) to 97.83?±?27.55 Mg C ha-1 (for Eucalyptus grandis Plantation). In the same order the estimated mean nitrogen density varied from 0.008?±?0.007 Mg ha-1 of N (for Cropland and Fallow) to 0.321?±?0.088 Mg ha-1 of N (for Eucalyptus grandis Plantation). CONCLUSION:The results show the relevance of using the in situ carbon and nitrogen content of the main tree species for estimating aboveground carbon and nitrogen stocks in the Sudan Savannah environment. The results provide crucial information for carbon accounting programmes related to the implementation of the REDD?+?initiatives in developing countries.

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Dataset Information

Quantifying carbon stocks in shifting cultivation landscapes under divergent management scenarios relevant to REDD.

Publications

Quantifying carbon stocks in shifting cultivation landscapes under divergent management scenarios relevant to REDD.

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