Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+): Transaction Costs of Six Peruvian Projects

Abstract

ABSTRACT. Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) has received strong support as a major component of future global climate change policy. The financial mechanism of REDD+ is payment for the ecosystem service of carbon sequestration in tropical forests that is expected to create incentives for conservation of forest cover and condition. However, the costs of achieving emissions reduction by these means remain largely unknown. We assess the set-up, implementation, and monitoring costs, i.e., collectively the transaction costs, of six of the first seven REDD+ project designs from the Peruvian Amazon and compare them with established projects in Brazil and Bolivia. The estimated costs vary greatly among the assessed projects from US$0.16 to 1.44 ha-1 yr-1, with an average of US$0.73 ha-1 yr-1, though they are comparable to earlier published estimates. The results indicate that the costs of implementing REDD+ are highly uncertain for participating developing countries because of issues such as inadequate project design and how additionality is determined. Furthermore, some insight is obtained into how different activities to reduce deforestation and forest degradation, the type of implementer, and project location affect implementation costs of REDD+ projects. Even with these first estimates, the cost of preserving existing intact forests in the Peruvian Amazon may have been underestimated.

The importance of crown dimensions to improve tropical tree biomass estimates

“…Specifically, we worked in Madre de Dios, Peru, which is currently experiencing rapid immigration and development, largely due to the completion of the Interoceanic Highway (Oliveira et al 2007, Asner et al 2010, and is the site of many upcoming REDD/REDDþ projects (Rendo´n Thompson et al 2013). We hypothesized that, although trees are relatively short in southwestern Amazonia (Nogueira et al 2008b, Feldpausch et al 2011, larger crowns will at least partially compensate for their lower stature, and accounting for tree height but ignoring crown dimensions will systematically underestimate AGB.…”

Assessing participatory practices in community-based natural resource management: Experiences in community engagement from southern Africa

“…While we recognise that the results display a certain level of context specificity (such as the role of Traditional Authorities within communities), many lessons are applicable to projects in other areas and promoting different types of environmental management. For example, problems with power struggles and conflicting interests between actors have been noted in community forestry initiatives from across the US, Nepal, Kenya and Tanzania (McDermott and Schreckenberg, 2009) and recent REDD+ forest projects in Peru (Rendon Thompson et al, 2013). Elite capture is widely thought to be the primary reason for the breakdown of the flagship CAMPFIRE initiatives in Zimbabwe (Balint andMashinya, 2006, Borgerhoff Mulder, 2011) and a barrier to implementation of Joint Forest Management in India (Balooni et al, 2010).…”

Costs, cobenefits, and community responses to REDD+: a case study from Nepal

“…For example, they are comparable to transaction costs of US$4 to 15 per hectare estimated by Grieg-Gran (2006, as cited in Rendón Thompson et al 2013) for eight tropical countries but slightly higher than US$4.5 estimated by Borner andWunder (2007, as cited in Rendón Thompson et al 2013) for REDD+ projects in the Brazilian Amazon. They are much higher than estimates by Rendón Thompson et al (2013) that comprises set up, monitoring, and implementation costs in six sites in the Peruvian Amazon (US$0.73 per hectare per year). Some of these differences can be explained by major differences in definitions of costs, making comparisons difficult.…”