A virtual field test of forest management carbon offset protocols: the influence of accounting
| Title | A virtual field test of forest management carbon offset protocols: the influence of accounting |
| Publication Type | Journal Article |
| Year of Publication | 2009 |
| Authors | Galik, CS, Mobley ML, Richter DD |
| Journal | Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change |
| Abstract | Of the greenhouse gas (GHG) mitigation options available from U.S. forests and agricultural lands, forest management presents amongst the lowest cost and highest volume opportunities. A number of carbon (C) accounting schemes or protocols have recently emerged to track the mitigation achieved by individual forest management projects. Using 50-year C cycling data from the Calhoun Experimental Forest in South Carolina, USA, C storage is estimated for a hypothetical forest management C offset project operating under seven of these protocols. After 100 years of project implementation, net C sequestration among the seven protocols varies by nearly a full order of magnitude. This variation stems from differences in how individual C pools, baseline, leakage, certainty, and buffers are addressed under each protocol. This in turn translates to a wide variation in the C price required to match the net present value of the non-project, business-as-usual alternative. Collectively, these findings suggest that protocol-specific restrictions or requirements are likely to discount the amount of C that can be claimed in “real world” projects, potentially leading to higher project costs than estimated in previous aggregate national analyses. |
| URL | http://www.springerlink.com/content/45652j023u560257/?p=0400d14ad003482aa0f0e1fdd448baa6&pi=0 |
| DOI | 10.1007/s11027-009-9190-9 |