In collaboration with the Macaulay Land Use Research Institute (UK), ASB has contributed research to a review of methodologies to support the implementation of reduced emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD) in developing countries.
The overall objective of the project is to contribute to the development of robust methodologies for estimating baselines for calculating avoided deforestation and forest degradation in tropical countries, and to make recommendations for demonstration projects applying these methodologies.
Assess available data on forest cover and country-specific estimates of REDD emissions and projections. ASB did this via a review of the scientific and other literature on existing methodologies for estimating historical and current rates of tropical deforestation and forest degradation for the main countries involved.
Identify proximal and ultimate causal links between trends in deforestation and forest degradation rates, and the underlying drivers. ASB reviewed the scientific and other literature on the drivers of deforestation these countries, with particular emphasis on socio-economic factors, taking into account recent developments such as global biofuel demand.
Evaluate methodologies for establishing country-specific REDD reference emission levels. ASB is relating key corresponding socioeconomic indicators of these drivers to variables to rates of deforestation at the national level for the same countries.
Identify potential REDD demonstration projects. To meet this objective, we will use the results of the project together with our own experience to identify and recommend locations for demonstration projects where methodologies to reduce emissions from deforestation and degradation below reference baselines (without ‘leakage’) can be applied in a second phase of the project.