Abram, NK;
MacMillan, DC;
Xofis, P;
Ancrenaz, M;
Tzanopoulos, J;
Ong, R;
Goossens, B;
... Knight, AT; + view all
(2016)
Identifying Where REDD plus Financially Out-Competes Oil Palm in Floodplain Landscapes Using a Fine-Scale Approach.
PLoS One
, 11
(6)
, Article e0156481. 10.1371/journal.pone.0156481.
Preview |
Text
Morel_Identifying Where REDD plus Financially Out-Competes Oil Palm in Floodplain Landscapes Using a Fine-Scale Approach_VoR.pdf - Published Version Download (2MB) | Preview |
Abstract
Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation (REDD+) aims to avoid forest conversion to alternative land-uses through financial incentives. Oil-palm has high opportunity costs, which according to current literature questions the financial competitiveness of REDD+ in tropical lowlands. To understand this more, we undertook regional fine-scale and coarse-scale analyses (through carbon mapping and economic modelling) to assess the financial viability of REDD+ in safeguarding unprotected forest (30,173 ha) in the Lower Kinabatangan floodplain in Malaysian Borneo. Results estimate 4.7 million metric tons of carbon (MgC) in unprotected forest, with 64% allocated for oil-palm cultivations. Through fine-scale mapping and carbon accounting, we demonstrated that REDD+ can outcompete oil-palm in regions with low suitability, with low carbon prices and low carbon stock. In areas with medium oil-palm suitability, REDD+ could outcompete oil palm in areas with: very high carbon and lower carbon price; medium carbon price and average carbon stock; or, low carbon stock and high carbon price. Areas with high oil palm suitability, REDD+ could only outcompete with higher carbon price and higher carbon stock. In the coarse-scale model, oil-palm outcompeted REDD+ in all cases. For the fine-scale models at the landscape level, low carbon offset prices (US $3 MgCO_{2} e) would enable REDD+ to outcompete oil-palm in 55% of the unprotected forests requiring US $27 million to secure these areas for 25 years. Higher carbon offset price (US $30 MgCO_{2}e) would increase the competitiveness of REDD+ within the landscape but would still only capture between 69%-74% of the unprotected forest, requiring US $380–416 million in carbon financing. REDD+ has been identified as a strategy to mitigate climate change by many countries (including Malaysia). Although REDD+ in certain scenarios cannot outcompete oil palm, this research contributes to the global REDD+ debate by: highlighting REDD+ competitiveness in tropical floodplain landscapes; and, providing a robust approach for identifying and targeting limited REDD+ funds.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Identifying Where REDD plus Financially Out-Competes Oil Palm in Floodplain Landscapes Using a Fine-Scale Approach |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1371/journal.pone.0156481 |
| Publisher version: | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0156481 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | © 2016 Abram et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). |
| Keywords: | Oil palm, Forests, Payment, Finance, Economic models, Carbon sequestration, Conservation science, Biodiversity |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Life Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Life Sciences > Div of Biosciences |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10080546 |
Archive Staff Only
 |
View Item |
