Responses to climate change must now focus on reducing greenhouse gas emissions enough to avoid runaway impacts (avoiding the unmanageable) and on addressing the impacts that are already with us (managing the unavoidable). Managing natural ecosystems as carbon sinks and resources for adaptation is increasingly recognised as a necessary, efficient and relatively cost-effective strategy. The Stern Review on the Economics of Climate Change recommended that governments develop policies for climate sensitive public goods including natural resource protection, coastal protection and emergency preparedness. The worlds protected area network already helps mitigate and adapt to climate change. Protected areas store 15 per cent of terrestrial carbon and supply ecosystem services for disaster reduction, water supply, food and public health, all of which enable community-based adaptation. Many natural and managed ecosystems can help reduce climate change impacts. But protected areas have advantages over other approaches to natural ecosystem management in terms of legal and governance clarity, capacity and effectiveness. In many cases protection is the only way of keeping carbon locked in and ecosystem services running smoothly. Without the investment made in protected areas systems worldwide, the situation would be even worse. Increasing investment through a partnership of governments, communities, indigenous peoples, non-governmental organisations and the private sector would ensure greater protection of these essential services. Evidence suggests that protected areas work: even since this report was completed, a new World Bank review shows how tropical protected areas, especially those conserved by indigenous peoples, lose less forest than other management systems. But these co-benefits for climate, biodiversity and society are often missed or ignored. This book clearly articulates for the first time how protected areas contribute significantly to reducing impacts of climate change and what is needed for them to achieve even more. As we enter an unprecedented scale of negotiations about climate and biodiversity it is important that these messages reach policy makers loud and clear and are translated into effective policies and funding mechanisms.
NbS Target: Climate Change Mitigation
Climate change mitigation
Pursuing economic targets of job creation, growth, and innovation while tackling global environmental challenges, has long been seen as impossible. However, any long-term economic competitiveness and security depends on the extent to which natural resources are used sustainably. Therefore, the European Union is investing in nature-based solutions to achieve this double goal. The difference between the prevailing economic model and a sustainable resource use has long seemed insurmountable. While many debates are paralyzed or radicalized, nature-based solutions could offer a transition path with realistic, incremental steps toward a sustainable economy as envisaged by the EU Horizon 2020 vision. This paper outlines the basics of a nature-based scenario for Europe, and proposes criteria to focus, guide, and evaluate the implementation of nature-based solutions, geared at production of wide socioeconomic benefits, provision of jobs, and low-carbon technology innovations.
For centuries, UK peatlands have been subject to competing sectoral land use and resource demands, generally resulting in their progressive degradation. There is now considerable interest in improving their management, especially in the uplands, partly because of their extreme sensitivity to environmental change and partly because of increasing recognition of the range of ecosystem services they provide. A change in emphasis in the research agenda has been detected, shifting from what peat ecosystems are to what they do. This is linked to a paradigm shift in the attitude of governments and, more generally, in civil society, to account for the wider values of ecosystem functioning. The ecosystem approach is used here as a framework to present more integrated thinking about future peatland management. Key questions, identified for societal consideration and debate, are matched to the 12 principles of the ecosystem approach sensu the Convention on Biological Diversity. A case is made for a more functional approach to defining management objectives based on delivery of ecosystem services. A compatibility matrix is used to indicate the possibilities of simultaneous delivery of services and likely incompatibilities among services. A critique is presented of features of UK upland peat ecosystems which characterise their ecological ‘status’ and societal context in relation to climate-change issues. The relative importance of climate as opposed to human activities in both peat formation and subsequent development remains a tantalising question, the resolution of which is highly relevant to the maintenance of existing peat and possibilities for ecosystem restoration, given changes in the climate envelope. Setting policy priorities requires a strong interdisciplinary evidence base. It also demands greater understanding of the effects of both direct and indirect human activities, as well as climate change, on the ability of upland peat ecosystems to deliver societal benefits, which previously may have been undetected, undervalued or simply taken for granted.
Agroforestry is one of the most conspicuous land use systems across landscapes and agroecological zones in Africa. With food shortages and increased threats of climate change, interest in agroforestry is gathering for its potential to address various on-farm adaptation needs, and fulfill many roles in AFOLU-related mitigation pathways. Agroforestry provides assets and income from carbon, wood energy, improved soil fertility and enhancement of local climate conditions; it provides ecosystem services and reduces human impacts on natural forests. Most of these benefits have direct benefits for local adaptation while contributing to global efforts to control atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations. This paper presents recent findings on how agroforestry as a sustainable practice helps to achieve both mitigation and adaptation objectives while remaining relevant to the livelihoods of the poor smallholder farmers in Africa.
Attention has recently been paid to how REDD+ mitigation policies are integrated into other sectoral policies, particularly those dealing with climate adaptation at the national level. But there is less understanding of how subnational policy and local projects are able to incorporate attention to adaptation; therefore, we use a case study in Vietnam to discuss how REDD+ projects and policies address both concerns of mitigation and adaptation together at subnational levels. Through stakeholder interviews, focus groups, and household surveys in three provinces of Vietnam with REDD+ activities, our research sought to understand if REDD+ policies and projects on the ground acknowledge that climate change is likely to impact forests and forest users; if this knowledge is built into REDD+ policy and activities; how households in forested areas subject to REDD+ policy are vulnerable to climate change; and how REDD+ activities can help or hinder needed adaptations. Our findings indicate that there continues to be a lack of coordination between mitigation and adaptation policies in Vietnam, particularly with regard to REDD+. Policies for forest-based climate mitigation at the national and subnational level, as well as site-based projects, have paid little attention to the adaptation needs of local communities, many of whom are already suffering from noticeable weather changes in their localities, and there is insufficient discussion of how REDD+ activities could facilitate increased resilience. While there were some implicit and coincidental adaptation benefits of some REDD+ activities, most studied projects and policies did not explicitly target their activities to focus on adaptation or resilience, and in at least one case, negative livelihood impacts that have increased household vulnerability to climate change were documented. Key barriers to integration were identified, such as sectoral specialization; a lack of attention in REDD+ projects to livelihoods; and inadequate support for ecosystem-based adaptation.
Using forests to mitigate climate change has gained much interest in science and policy discussions. We examine the evidence for carbon benefits, environmental and monetary costs, risks and trade-offs for a variety of activities in three general strategies: (1) land use change to increase forest area (afforestation) and avoid deforestation; (2) carbon management in existing forests; and (3) the use of wood as biomass energy, in place of other building materials, or in wood products for carbon storage. We found that many strategies can increase forest sector carbon mitigation above the current 162–256 Tg C/yr, and that many strategies have co-benefits such as biodiversity, water, and economic opportunities. Each strategy also has trade-offs, risks, and uncertainties including possible leakage, permanence, disturbances, and climate change effects. Because ∼60% of the carbon lost through deforestation and harvesting from 1700 to 1935 has not yet been recovered and because some strategies store carbon in forest products or use biomass energy, the biological potential for forest sector carbon mitigation is large. Several studies suggest that using these strategies could offset as much as 10–20% of current U.S. fossil fuel emissions. To obtain such large offsets in the United States would require a combination of afforesting up to one-third of cropland or pastureland, using the equivalent of about one-half of the gross annual forest growth for biomass energy, or implementing more intensive management to increase forest growth on one-third of forestland. Such large offsets would require substantial trade-offs, such as lower agricultural production and non-carbon ecosystem services from forests. The effectiveness of activities could be diluted by negative leakage effects and increasing disturbance regimes. Because forest carbon loss contributes to increasing climate risk and because climate change may impede regeneration following disturbance, avoiding deforestation and promoting regeneration after disturbance should receive high priority as policy considerations. Policies to encourage programs or projects that influence forest carbon sequestration and offset fossil fuel emissions should also consider major items such as leakage, the cyclical nature of forest growth and regrowth, and the extensive demand for and movement of forest products globally, and other greenhouse gas effects, such as methane and nitrous oxide emissions, and recognize other environmental benefits of forests, such as biodiversity, nutrient management, and watershed protection. Activities that contribute to helping forests adapt to the effects of climate change, and which also complement forest carbon storage strategies, would be prudent.
Climate change is one of the significant concerns in land and resource management, creating an urgent need to build social-ecological capacity to address widespread and uncertain environmental changes. Given the diversity and complexity of ecological responses to climate change “ecosystem management” approaches are needed to provide solutions for meeting both ecological and human needs, while reducing anthropogenic warming and climate-related impacts on society. For instance, ecosystem management can contribute to a reduction in the greenhouse gas emissions through improved land-use and reduced deforestation at a regional scale. Further, conserving and restoring naturally-functioning ecosystems, which is often one of the goals of ecosystem management can significantly contribute to buffering ecological responses to climate extremes such as droughts and wildfires. Moreover, ecosystem management helps build capacity for learning and adaptation at multiple scales. As a result, societies will be better prepared to respond to surprises and uncertainties associated with climate change. In this regard, it is imperative to reframe climate change issues based on the ecosystem approach. Although climate change and ecosystem management plans have largely developed independently, it is now essential for all stakeholders to work together to achieve multiple goals. The ecosystem-based approaches can enable flexible and effective responses to the uncertainties associated with climate change. Reframing ecosystem management helps to face an urgent need for reconsideration and improvement of social-ecological resilience in order to mitigate and adapt to the changing climate.
Decreasing the human impact on the atmosphere will necessitate active management of terrestrial carbon pools and greenhouse gas fluxes. Biospheric greenhouse gas emission mitigation measures such as increasing forest area and increasing forest biomass density, build-up of soil carbon and avoided emissions from deforestation offer cost-efficient solutions while in the long run they are limited by land availability, saturation, and concerns about their permanence. Biomass can also be used to produce low greenhouse gas intensive materials, feedstock for energy production and if combined with carbon capture and sequestration it can offer permanent negative emissions. Although most terrestrial management options appear as competitive mitigation measures from an economic point of view, issues of governance remain most contentious as they induce competition for land and other ecosystem services.
Studies of restoration ecology are well established for northern peatlands, but at an early stage for tropical peatlands. Extensive peatland areas in Southeast Asia have been degraded through deforestation, drainage and fire, leading to on- and off-site environmental and socio-economic impacts of local to global significance. To address these problems, landscape-scale restoration measures are urgently required. This paper reviews and illustrates, using information from on-going trials in Kalimantan, Indonesia, the current state of knowledge pertaining to (i) land-cover dynamics of degraded peatlands, (ii) vegetation rehabilitation, (iii) restoration of hydrology, (iv) rehabilitation of carbon sequestration and storage, and (v) promotion of sustainable livelihoods for local communities. For a 4500 km2 study site in Central Kalimantan, Indonesia, we show a 78% reduction in forest cover between 1973 and 2003 and demonstrate that fire, exacerbated by drainage, is the principal driver of land-use change. Progressive vegetation succession follows infrequent, low-intensity fires, but repeated and high-intensity fires result in retrogressive succession towards non-forest communities. Re-wetting the peat is an important key to vegetation restoration and protection of remaining peat carbon stocks. The effectiveness of hydrological restoration is discussed and likely impacts on greenhouse gas emissions evaluated. Initial results indicate that raised water levels have limited short-term impact on reducing CO2 emissions, but could be critical in reducing fire risk. We conclude that successful restoration of degraded peatlands must be grounded in scientific knowledge, relevant to socio-economic circumstances, and should not proceed without the consent and co-operation of local communities.
Potential interactions between food production and climate mitigation are explored for two situations in sub-Saharan Africa, where deforestation and land degradation overlap with hunger and poverty. Three agriculture intensification scenarios for supplying nitrogen to increase crop production (mineral fertilizer, herbaceous legume cover crops—green manures—and agroforestry—legume improved tree fallows) are compared to baseline food production, land requirements to meet basic caloric requirements, and greenhouse gas emissions. At low population densities and high land availability, food security and climate mitigation goals are met with all intensification scenarios, resulting in surplus crop area for reforestation. In contrast, for high population density and small farm sizes, attaining food security and reducing greenhouse gas emissions require mineral fertilizers to make land available for reforestation; green manure or improved tree fallows do not provide sufficient increases in yields to permit reforestation. Tree fallows sequester significant carbon on cropland, but green manures result in net carbon dioxide equivalent emissions because of nitrogen additions. Although these results are encouraging, agricultural intensification in sub-Saharan Africa with mineral fertilizers, green manures, or improved tree fallows will remain low without policies that address access, costs, and lack of incentives. Carbon financing for small-holder agriculture could increase the likelihood of success of Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation in Developing Countries programs and climate change mitigation but also promote food security in the region.
MPAs enhance some of the Ecosystem Services (ES) provided by coral reefs and clear, robust valuations of these impacts may help to improve stakeholder support and better inform decision-makers. Pursuant to this goal, Cost-Benefit Analyses (CBA) of MPAs in 2 different contexts were analysed: a community based MPA with low tourism pressure in Vanuatu, and a government managed MPA with relatively high tourism pressure, in Saint Martin. Assessments were made on six ES: fish biomass, scenic beauty, protection against coastal erosion, bequest and existence values, social capital and CO2 sequestration, which were quantified via different approaches that included experimental fishery, surveys and benefit transfer. Total operating costs for each MPA were collected and the benefit-cost ratio and return on investment based on 25-year discounted projections computed. Sensitivity analyses were conducted on MPA impacts, and discount rates (5%, 7% and 10%). The investment indicators all showed positive results with the impact on the tourism ES being the largest estimated for all MPAs, highlighting the importance of this relationship. The study also demonstrated a relatively high sensitivity of the results to different levels of impacts on ES, which highlights the need for reducing scientific knowledge gaps.
The idea of ‘nature-based solutions’ (NBS) is now being used to reframe policy debates on biodiversity conservation, climate change adaptation and mitigation strategies, and the sustainable use of natural resources, among other issues. While interesting and potentially useful for those debates, it is a concept that still needs to be clearly defined; its use is not confined to discussions about ecosystem services and natural capital. For example, it is also used to describe such things as soft engineering approaches designed to enhance resilience and reduce risk to people in large settlements (e.g. Marton-Lefevre, 2012; van Wessenbeeck, 2014), and to work in the field of biomimicry and industrial design2 (e.g. Neves and Francke, 2012) – learning from nature, rather than finding strategies based on nature that would contribute to its conservation. However, by emphasising the utilitarian aspect of natural capital and ecosystem services, the idea of ‘nature-based solutions’ is clearly eye-catching and relevant to current debates about the links between people and nature. It is therefore wise to ask what new insights it brings. Is it intended to re-package the demand for sustainable development and nature conservation in a way that concepts of biodiversity and ecosystem services do not? Does it represent an approach to policy and management distinctly different from those already being applied? It is not altogether clear that it does. For example, the idea of NBS can be seen to encompass existing concepts such as ‘nature-based interventions’, ‘ecosystem-based solutions’, and particularly ‘ecosystem-based adaptation’ (see for example Rizvi et al, 2015; Andrade et al., 2011). A report from the Horizon 2020 Expert Group on NBS suggests that the concept “builds on and supports other closely related concepts, such as the ecosystem approach, ecosystem services, ecosystem-based adaptation/mitigation, and green and blue infrastructure” (EC, 2015). From another perspective, however, the use of the term ‘NBS’ might prompt positive changes in how some of these existing concepts are framed. It could refocus attention on sustainable development and encouraging consideration of biodiversity and ecosystems within solutions to wider societal challenges including climate change adaptation, food security, water crises etc.
The perception that agroforestry systems have higher potential to sequester carbon than comparable single-species crop systems or pasture systems is based on solid scientific foundation. However, the estimates of carbon stock of agroforestry systems in Africa — reported to range from 1.0 to 18.0 Mg C ha1 in aboveground biomass and up to 200 Mg C ha1 in soils, and their C sequestration potential from 0.4 to 3.5 Mg C ha1 yr1 –are based on generalizations and vague or faulty assumptions and therefore are of poor scientific value. Although agroforestry initiatives are promising pathways for climate-change mitigation, rigorous scientific procedures of carbon sequestration estimations are needed for realizing their full potential.
Strong decreases in greenhouse gas emissions are required to meet the reduction trajectory resolved within the 2015 Paris Agreement. However, even these decreases will not avert serious stress and damage to life on Earth, and additional steps are needed to boost the resilience of ecosystems, safeguard their wildlife, and protect their capacity to supply vital goods and services. We discuss how well-managed marine reserves may help marine ecosystems and people adapt to five prominent impacts of climate change: acidification, sea-level rise, intensification of storms, shifts in species distribution, and decreased productivity and oxygen availability, as well as their cumulative effects. We explore the role of managed ecosystems in mitigating climate change by promoting carbon sequestration and storage and by buffering against uncertainty in management, environmental fluctuations, directional change, and extreme events. We highlight both strengths and limitations and conclude that marine reserves are a viable low-tech, cost-effective adaptation strategy that would yield multiple cobenefits from local to global scales, improving the outlook for the environment and people into the future
Ecologically relevant restoration of secondary Atlantic forest on abandoned land offers a potential means to recover biodiversity and improve crucial ecosystem services, including carbon sequestration. Early secondary successional trajectories are determined by a range of environmental factors that influence plant community development. Context-specific understanding of forest vegetation communities, their dynamics, and underlying drivers is needed for future restoration strategies. In this study we examined relationships between soil (chemical and physical) and environmental (landscape and topographical) characteristics, plant community attributes, and carbon stocks during early secondary succession. Data were collected at two sites undergoing early secondary succession in seasonally-dry Atlantic Forest (Rio de Janeiro State, Brazil). Both sites were previously used for pasture and abandoned at similar times, but showed differing vegetation communities. We found tree biomass and diversity and ecosystem carbon storage to be strongly positively related to the amount of surrounding forest, less steep slopes and clay soils, and negatively to the abundance of the shrub Leandra aurea. Soil carbon pools significantly increased with aboveground tree biomass. The only factor significantly affecting the metric of overall successional development (combining tree biomass and diversity) was total surrounding forest cover. Our findings suggest recovery of secondary forest and below- and aboveground carbon storage is limited by the amount of adjacent forest, some soil properties and dense shrub establishment down-regulating the succession process. Overall we offer evidence of potential to improve recovery of Atlantic forest with ecologically relevant seeding/planting programmes and selective shrub removal that could benefit ecosystem carbon storage.
Legume tree-based farming systems sit at a crucial nexus of agroecological sustainability. Their capacity to support microbial N2 fixation can increase soil nitrogen (N) availability and therefore improve soil fertility, crop yields, and support long-term stewardship of natural resources. However, increasing N availability oftentimes catalyzes the release of N into the surrounding environment, in particular nitrous oxide (N2O) — a potent greenhouse gas. We summarize current knowledge on the agroecological footprint of legume-based agroforestry and provide a first appraisal of whether the technology represents a pathway toward sustainable development or an environmental hazard.
Massive deforestation induced by unplanned urbanization in the hilly watersheds of Brahmaputra basin, India, has led to ecological imbalance and is gradually transforming this basin into a multi-hazard zone. Removal of green cover is also becoming a matter of global concern, as it can accelerate the adverse impacts of climate change. People coming in search of work generally reside in the hills, as they cannot afford the high cost of land in plains. This has led to deforestation of the hilly area and has resulted in increased surface erosion from the upper catchments. Though sediment and water yield from these degraded watersheds could have been minimized by implementing ecologically sustainable management practices (EMPs), such as grass land, forest land and detention pond, poor economic conditions of the people stands in the way of field implementation. On the other hand, major industries, which can be held responsible for emission of greenhouse gases, can be asked to finance greenery development in these hilly watersheds through implementation of selected EMPs to earn carbon credit for them. To convert this concept into reality, the EMP combination must be selected in such a way that it restricts sediment and water yield from the watershed within the permissible limit and maximizes its carbon sequestration capacity at minimum possible cost. Such optimal planning is a prerequisite for preparing an acceptable logical agreement between Government and private companies. Keeping this in mind, an optimization model was developed and applied to a micro watershed of Guwahati to explore its applicability in actual field. The model developed in this study provides most logical carbon credit negotiation, subject to the availability of reliable value of CO2 sequestration for different EMPs.
Operational approaches have been more and more widely developed and used for providing marine data and information services for different socio-economic sectors of the Blue Growth and to advance knowledge about the marine environment. The objective of operational oceanographic research is to develop and improve the efficiency, timeliness, robustness and product quality of this approach. This white paper aims to address key scientific challenges and research priorities for the development of operational oceanography in Europe for the next 5–10 years. Knowledge gaps and deficiencies are identified in relation to common scientific challenges in four EuroGOOS knowledge areas: European Ocean Observations, Modelling and Forecasting Technology, Coastal Operational Oceanography and Operational Ecology. The areas “European Ocean Observations” and “Modelling and Forecasting Technology” focus on the further advancement of the basic instruments and capacities for European operational oceanography, while “Coastal Operational Oceanography” and “Operational Ecology” aim at developing new operational approaches for the corresponding knowledge areas.
Emissions from deforestation are significant and account for more than 18% of global annual anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions. With the Bali Action Plan categorically placing reduced emissions from degradation and deforestation (REDD) activities on the agenda of future climate change negotiations, there is now a strong possibility that policy approaches and incentives relating to enhancement of carbon stocks in low biomass forests will be successfully negotiated and accepted as a legitimate greenhouse gas mitigation option in the upcoming post-2012 climate change regime. Using the institutional mechanisms provided by community-based forest management (CBFM), 833.8 Tg carbon can be sequestered by enhancement of forest carbon stocks in low biomass Indian forests. By protection refugia, restoring biodiversity, providing connectivity, mimicking nature in plantations and controlling man-made fires, CBFM as practiced in India can be an effective way of managing forests during times of climate change. Appropriately designed CBFM policy can provide means to sustain and strengthen community livelihoods and at the same time avoid deforestation, restore forest cover and density, provide carbon mitigation and create rural assets. Channeling carbon investment funds into CBFM projects can make both development and conservation economically viable and attractive for the local communities to maintain biodiversity and integrity of nature. However, before actual funding under the Clean Development Mechanism and other international C investment funds is available, policy approaches and positive incentives on issues relating to REDD need to be negotiated and agreed upon by the participating nations to UNFCCC.
A methodology is presented to construct supply curves and cost–supply curves for carbon plantations based on land-use scenarios from the Integrated Model to Assess the Global Environment (IMAGE 2). A sensitivity analysis for assessing which factors are most important in shaping these curves is also presented. In the IPCC SRES B2 Scenario, the carbon sequestration potential on abandoned agricultural land increases from 60 MtC/year in 2010 to 2,700 MtC/year in 2100 for prices up to 1,000 $/tC, assuming harvest when the mean annual increment decreases and assuming no environmental, economical or political barriers in the implementation-phase. Taking these barriers into consideration would reduce the potential by at least 60%. On the other hand, the potential will increase 55 to 75% if plantations on harvested timberland are considered. Taking into account land and establishment costs, the largest part of the potential up to 2025 can be supplied below 100 $/tC (In this article all dollar values are in US dollars of 1995, unless indicated otherwise.). Beyond 2050, more than 50% of the costs come to over 200 $/tC. Compared to other mitigation options, this is relative cheap. So a large part of the potential will likely be used in an overall mitigation strategy. However, since huge emission reductions are probably needed, the relative contribution of plantations will be low (around 3%). The largest source of uncertainty with respect to both potentials and costs is the growth rate of plantations compared to the natural vegetation.
Changes in land use and management practices to store and sequester carbon are becoming integral to global efforts that both address climate change and alleviate poverty. Knowledge and evidence gaps nevertheless abound. This paper analyses the most pressing deficiencies in understanding carbon storage in both soils and above ground biomass and the related social and economic challenges associated with carbon sequestration projects. Focusing on the semi-arid and dry sub-humid systems of sub-Saharan Africa which are inhabited by many of the world’s poor, we identify important interdisciplinary opportunities and challenges that need to be addressed, in order for the poor to benefit from carbon storage, through both climate finance streams and the collateral ecosystem service benefits delivered by carbon-friendly land management. We emphasise that multi-stakeholder working across scales from the local to the regional is necessary to ensure that scientific advances can inform policy and practice to deliver carbon, ecosystem service and poverty alleviation benefits.
This special feature provides an overview on how the ecosystem service concept has been and can be incorporated into the science, practice, and policies of ecological restoration (ER) and evidence-based land-use. It includes an edited selection of eleven invited and peer-reviewed papers based on presentations given during the 9th European Conference on Ecological Restoration in 2014. The focus is on Europe, but many contributors also make appraisals and recommendations at the global scale. Based on the contributors’ papers, and our own overview of the promise of ecological restoration in the existing international treaties, coalitions, and conventions, we propose that the following actions could contribute to the positive impacts of ER on biodiversity maintenance, ecosystem functioning, progressive mainstreaming the concepts of both ER and ecosystem services, significant mitigation and offsetting of anthropogenic climate change, and lasting enhancement of both ecosystem and human health: • ER should be incorporated into land use planning, wherever needed, and the synergies and trade-offs of different land use scenarios should be assessed in terms of their impacts on ecosystem services. • The discourse of ER should be enlarged, wherever it is needed, to include multifunctional land use that simultaneously supports sustainable production systems, built environments, and the quality and quantity of diverse ecosystem services. This approach will generate ecological, social, and economic benefits in the long run. • Monitoring and evaluation of ER projects should be a continuous process involving careful selection of indicators chosen with the full range of stakeholders in mind, and a sufficiently long-term perspective to catch the progress of long-term or highly dynamic ecosystem processes. • Scientists should actively participate in policy and land management discussions in order to give their views on the potential outcomes of decisions. • Greater cooperation and exchanges are needed within the EU and globally in order to accelerate the upscaling, improvement, and mainstreaming of both large-scale ER and the science and application of the ecosystem services concept.
The Kyoto Protocol (KP) requires signatories to reduce CO2-equivalent emissions by an average of 5.2% from 1990 levels by the commitment period 2008–2012. This constitutes only a small proportion of global greenhouse gas emissions. Importantly, countries can attain a significant portion of their targets by sequestering carbon in terrestrial ecosystems in lieu of emission reductions. Since carbon sink activities lead to ephemeral carbon storage, forest management and other activities that enhance carbon sinks enable countries to buy time as they develop emission reduction technologies. Although many countries are interested in sink activities because of their presumed low cost, the analysis in this paper suggests otherwise. While potentially a significant proportion of required CO2 emission reductions can be addressed using carbon sinks, it turns out that, once the opportunity cost of land and the ephemeral nature of sinks are taken into account, costs of carbon uptake could be substantial. Carbon uptake via forest activities varies substantially depending on location (tropical, Great Plains, etc.), activity (forest conservation, tree planting, management, etc.), and the assumptions and methods upon which the cost estimates are based. Once one eliminates forestry projects that should be pursued because of their biodiversity and other non-market benefits, or because of their commercial profitability, there remain few projects that can be justified purely on the grounds that they provide carbon uptake benefits.
Climate change and biodiversity loss are two of the greatest challenges of the 21st century. To date, actions proposed by the international community to address these problems have largely been conducted in a piecemeal fashion. Conservation biologists advocate for low-intensity management in temperate protected areas to maintain and restore biodiversity. Low-input, high-diversity biomass from such areas has been proposed as a promising alternative bioenergy feedstock. Here, we show that there is a vast unexploited biomass-for-bioenergy potential present in Natura 2000, the European nature conservation network. Spanning 7.5 million hectares (ha), non-forest ecosystems within Natura 2000 have a biomass production of 17.9 teragrams (Tg) of dry matter annually. The conversion of this biomass to bioenergy will not lead to the displacement of food production systems, thereby avoiding 12.5 Tg of carbon dioxide equivalent greenhouse-gas emissions and circumventing between 1.2 and 2.8 million ha of indirect land-use change. The use of conservation biomass as bioenergy feedstock clearly offers the opportunity to reconcile biodiversity goals and climate-change mitigation.