Deforestation And Its Potential Disruption Of The Weather Patterns Of The Democratic Republic Of The Congo Insights From The Kahuzi Biega National Park Landscape

Mount Elgon is a transboundary East African montane ecosystem that harbors unique biological diversity and provides critical goods and services to the surrounding densely populated communities. As a key water tower, the effectiveness of forest- and land-management policies has direct impacts on agriculture, hydropower, fisheries and other sectors across large watersheds in Uganda and Kenya (and onward to the whole Nile River basin). The Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA), the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) and the Kenya Forest Service (KFS) have developed a range of exclusionary protected area and partial-access participatory forest management approaches to enforce national conservation mandates in different portions of the Mount Elgon. The future resilience of forest assemblages will be challenged as climate change and increased variability in weather patterns interact that with societal interventions that may enable the introduction of exotic species, the expansion of diseases. The objective of this study was to assess the impact of different forest governance regimes on forest structure and composition over time (1997-2014). Two study sites in Uganda (Kapkwai and Bufuma) and Kenya (Chorlem and Kimothon) under differing forest governance arrangements were monitored from 1997 to 2014 using the International Forestry Resources and Institutions (IFRI) methodology. Each forest unit was sampled three to four times (1997, 2001/2, 2008, 2013/14), at 30 randomly established sample plots. Data was collected on seedlings (counts), saplings and shrubs (diameter at breast height [DBH] and height), trees (DBH and height) and forest use. This analysis of forest structure and composition included density, basal area, dominant species, species richness and the Shannon-Wiener species diversity index. When comparing the outcomes for participatory forest management and centralized forest management in Uganda versus Kenya, the results defy dogmatic generalizations as the outcomes differed in the two countries. Furthermore, this study highlighted the fragility of certain improvements in forest resilience. In this respect, recent declines in forest cover mean that these forest management regimes will need to continue improving their engagement with local communities in order to address both internal socioeconomic and urban-/private sector-driven deterioration of Mount Elgon's forests. This study also highlights the need for greater integration of development (climate-change adaptation) and conservation (climate-change mitigation) policies.

Tropical forests affect climate, and the removal of the forests will change climate. Or not? This book discusses basic questions on how far, if at all, tropical deforestation leads to climatic change. The question of this uncertainty is particularly addressed. One important consequence of the uncertainties of whether deforestation affects climate is how scientific findings best illuminate the policy-making process.

This CIFOR Occasional Paper presents research results on challenges experienced by proponents in their efforts to establish REDD+ subnational initiatives in Brazil, Peru, Cameroon, Tanzania, Indonesia, and Vietnam. On the basis of in-depth interviews with 23 organizations collaborating in CIFOR’s Global Comparative Study on REDD+, it was found that the biggest challenges are tenure and the (currently) disadvantageous economics of REDD+. The study observes several patterns connected with these challenges. Performance-based conditional incentives are judged important but are not as central as once envisioned. Although most organizations are forging ahead with REDD+ in spite of the difficulties, some are drifting away from the label “REDD+.” Most of the organizations rely heavily on “integrated conservation and development” as a mode of operation, which enables them to move forward in anticipation of more favorable conditions for REDD+, but raises questions about whether REDD+ will fulfill its promise as an innovative and more effective form of conservation. The study proposes some options for overcoming the main challenges, and observes that there are some grounds for hope that REDD+ can eventually turn the corner and fulfill its potential for greatly reducing deforestation and forest-based carbon emissions.

Avoided deforestation can be characterized as the use of financial incentives to reduce rates of deforestation and forest degradation, with much of the focus on forests in tropical countries. While avoided deforestation, as a policy issue, is not new, the current debate in academic and policy circles on including it in future climate change mitigation strategies such as the Clean Development Mechanism is gathering pace – and this debate is only likely to intensify as negotiations continue over what should be included in the successor agreement to the Kyoto Protocol, which is set to expire in 2012. Up until now, however, the debate in terms of the scientific and economic implications of avoided deforestation has not been brought together. This book aims to bring together important research findings in the area along with their policy implications, whilst linking avoided deforestation to political economy as well as to the latest developments in environmental and natural resource economics.