Opportunities for avoided deforestation with sustainable benefits in the forest margins of Central Africa

Trees and forests play important roles in global climate change mitigation. On the one hand, trees growing in forests and on farms are one of the world’s greatest sinks of carbon. Afforestation in Europe now offsets significant amounts of global emissions and there are many unexploited opportunities for afforestation and reforestation in the developing world. On the other hand, tropical deforestation is one of the largest sources of greenhouse gas emissions. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change estimate that in 2004, the forest sector was responsible for 17.4% of global greenhouse gas emissions. Global-level studies of the economics of climate change mitigation indicate that afforestation and avoided deforestation are among the most attractive investments for reducing net greenhouse gas emissions (total emissions less total sequestration). The ASB Partnership for the Tropical Forest Margins has conducted biophysical, socioeconomic and institutional research on the tradeoffs associated with alternative land uses in the humid tropics. Building on previous research at the ASB benchmark sites, this paper presents spatially-explicit analyses of the tradeoffs between carbon and economic returns in three sites in Indonesia, and one site in each of Peru and Cameroon. Located in the humid forest zones of Southeast Asia, the Amazon basin, and Central Africa, these sites represent a range of the conditions that shape tree and forest management across the humid tropics. Indonesia is particularly distinguished by having the world’s highest levels of land-based emissions of greenhouse gases and largest CO2 emissions from conversion of peat lands.

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