COUPLING CARBON SEQUESTRATION AND

1
COUPLING CARBON SEQUESTRATION AND SUSTAINABLE
DEVELOPMENT Petra Tschakert Department of
Biology McGill University Beijing, November 15,
2004
2
Carbon Sinks (COP 9)
CLEAN DEVELOPMENT MECHANISM (CDM)
3
Multi-Use Ecosystem Carbon Projects(UNFCCC, CDM)
UN Conventions on Climate Change, Biological
Diversity, and Desertification
4
Carbon Development Disjunction
SOCIAL ACTORS
Compatible? Mutually exclusive?
5
Carbon Development Disjunction
. Technical structural solutions in
a Predictable World Equilibrium, but
disturbed by degradation ?back in balance
. Social institutional solutions in a World
of Uncertainty Dynamic, persistent
non-equilibrium ?adaptive management
SOCIAL ACTORS
BRIDGE THE GAP
Compatible? Mutually exclusive?
6
The New Carbon Economy
Emerging trade in C emissions Market-based policy
instruments (CDM)

• Ambitious claims about SD benefits of
  market-based policy instruments
• BUT need to investigate SD and equity
  dimensions of these instruments
• Development benefits often more hypothetical
  than real
• (Tyndall Centre for Climate
  Change Research)

Main criticism

• Discourses of global managerialism (Adger et al.,
  2001 Brown and Cabrera, 2003)
• Difficulties in incorporating local ecological
  social realities
• Downplaying of issues of justice and equity
• Local losers and winners rendered invisible
• Focus on global solutions while neglecting
  heterogeneity at local level

7
Contribution of CDM Projects to Sustainable
Development

• Equity key component of SD (Brown and Cobrera,
  2003)
• Who benefits?
• Who is included in decision-making and actions?

• Equity in access to C markets and natural
  resources
• (land, property rights)
• Equity in institutions and decision-making
• (having a voice, inclusion and negotiation of
  competing views)
• Equity in outcome
• (impact on social actors winners and losers)

8
Socio-economic Drivers and Incentives
Opportunities and Constraints
Land use and management
Measurements Monitoring Verification
Social learning Actor involvement Empowerment
9
Linking Carbon and Sustainable Livelihoods
10
The Greening of the Sahel Understanding Drivers
11
Methodologies

• Stakeholder multi-criteria analysis (Brown and
  Corbera, 2003)
• Livelihood analysis (Tschakert et al., in prep.)
• Actor-based cost-benefit analysis (Tschakert,
  2004)
• Cash-flow analysis (STELLA) (Tschakert, 2004)

12
Stakeholder Multi-Criteria Analysis(Brown and
Corbera, 2003)

• Identification of primary and secondary
  stakeholders
• Interest and role in project, scale of influence
  in decision-making
• General perspectives, priorities, and preferences
• 2) Qualitative evaluation of SD indicators for
  project
• assessment monitoring (16 indicators)
• Carbon Net CS, Internal rate of return, risk,
  eligibility under CDM
• Ecological soil erosion, species richness, water
  availability, soil fertility
• Social income, property rights, access to
  productive resources, institutional
• organization, management and
  decision-making, participation, health
• services, education capacity building
• 3) Project evaluation under criteria/indicators
  matrix
• 4) Ranked alternatives and qualitative data for
  project planning

13
Livelihood Analysis
Livelihood opportunity set of an individual or
a household determined by their asset endowment
(land, labor, human capital, livestock) and the
chosen allocation of those assets across various
activities to generate benefits (Barrett et al.,
2001) Analysis of diversification patters to
understand what people consider their most
feasible and attractive options for exchanging
and allocating assets

• Interhousehold heterogeneity in asset endowments
  market access
• Determines HH choices, LH strategies, and
  diversification patterns
• Determines likelihood of changing these patterns
  (CS project)

14
Socio-economic Heterogeneity, Panama
Tschakert (unpublished)
15
Income Shares per Income Terciles, Panama
Tschakert (unpublished)
16
Land Use per Wealth Group, Panama
Tschakert (unpublished)
Winners and Losers?
17
Cost-Benefit Analysis, Old Peanut BasinNet
Present Values (NPV), 25 years ( ha-1), 20
Discount Rate
18
Dryland Trade-offsC gains versus economic
profitability
19
Cash Flow Analysis at HH Level (STELLA)
Tschakert. 2004, Agricultural Systems, 81 (3)
227-253
20
Inventory of Management Options, Senegal
Tschakert. 2004, Agricultural Systems, 81 (3)
227-253
21
Carbon Sequestration Projects
Risks Illegal wood poaching Fires Encroachment L
ow payments High transaction costs Leakage
(forest fires, cattle grazing) Lack of human
resources
22
Project Results, Trends, and Lessons

• Farmers and communities are not homogeneous
  groups
• They do NOT participate fully, benefit equally
  and share same interests in C
• Better-endowed actors are more likely to
  participate in and benefit from projects
• (larger land holdings, high-return income
  generating activities, less reliance on cropland)
• Women play key role in NRM, but excluded from
  project decision-making
• Some opposition (fear that land is sold to
  foreigners)
• Difficulties to understand concept of CS,
  funding, C market
• Need for robust and flexible institutional
  framework
• Only small improvements (income,
  diversification, other env dev concerns)
• Financial benefits, but only for a small number
  of families
• Consolidation of land tenure
• Enhanced social capital through strengthening of
  local institutions
• Need for basket of management choices from which
  actors choose

Brown, Adger, Boyd, Corbera-Elizalde, Shackley,
2004 Tschakert, 2004 and Tschakert and Tappan,
2004 Grieg-Gran, Porras, Wunder, 2005 (in press)
23
Critical Elements for Regional C Budgets

• Understand drivers of land use change
• Land use decision are linked to household
  diversification patterns
• Interhousehold heterogeneity in constraints and
  incentives is
• reflected in diversification behavior
• Need for ground-truthing
• Address opportunities and constraints of actors
  to
• get involved in carbon sequestration
  activities
• Evaluation of stakeholder needs
• Collective learning capacity building

24
Relevant literature cited Adger, W.N.,
Benjaminsen, T.A., Brown, K. and H. Svarstad.
2001. Advancing a political ecology of global
environmental discourses. Development and Change,
32 681-715. Brown K. and E. Corbera. 2003.
Exploring equity and sustainable development in
the new carbon economy. Climate Policy, 3S1
S41-S56. Tschakert P. 2004. The costs of soil
carbon sequestration an economic analysis For
small-scale farming systems in Senegal.
Agricultural Systems, 81 (3) 227-253 Tschakert.
More food, less poverty? The potential role of
carbon sequestration In smallholder farming
systems in Senegal. In Climate change and global
food security (in press) Tschakert P. and G.
Tappan. 2004. The social context of carbon
sequestration Considerations from a multi-scale
environmental history of the Old Peanut Basin Of
Senegal. Journal of Arid Environments, 59
535-564. Brown, K., Adger, N. Boyd, E.,
Corbera-Elizalde, E. and S. Shackley. 2004. How
do CDM projects contribute to sustainable
development? Technical Report 16, Tyndall Centre
for Climate Change Research.