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Sustainable forest management and global climate change: selected case studies from the Americas
Climate Policy 2 (2002) 119–126
Book reviews Sustainable forest management and global climate change: selected case studies from the Americas Mohammed H.I. Dore, Rubén Guevara (Eds.), Edward Elgar Publishing Limited, Cheltenham, 2000, 281 pp., £65, Hardback, ISBN: 1840641614 If this book is any indication of the cross-fertilization that can occur between the fields of climate change and forest ecology, there is reason for optimism. While forest ecologists have long been espousing the idea that forests provide valuable goods and services, carbon-sequestration services are only now gaining recognition through the international climate negotiations. The climate negotiations may bring another unintentional benefit to forests: through carbon-sequestration activities, project developers could actually implement the sustainable practices that forest ecologists support. To improve forestry practices on the ground, forest ecologists will have to ensure that sinks managers have been indoctrinated into their own field’s best practices. This book, by providing the climate audience with some of the lessons learned from sustainable forestry management, is a good start. Through case studies, forest economic valuations and forest-policy analysis, the book succeeds in presenting some of the difficulties and successes of sustainable forest management and in valuing carbon-sequestration services. Beyond the introduction, however, the book does not tie the subject matter to climate change. It is left to the reader to distil the applicability of the lessons learned from forest management to international rule-making for climate-change mitigation or to the forest initiatives that will stem from the agreement. Each of the 10 chapters of this work can inform the international climate debate. The central tenet of the book as a whole is that the current under-valuation of forest goods and services, beyond timber, continues to drive land-use decision making. The book implicitly suggests an ecosystem approach to forest management that is also socially inclusive—i.e. sustainable management. Pinning down the practical implementation of sustainability is difficult, but the book provides some examples through case studies that exemplify the approach. The elements that constitute sustainability in forest management can be distilled principally from the first and third sections of the book. In Chapter 1, Sáenz and aus der Beek make concrete management recommendations for the protection of flora and fauna (e.g. leave non-commercial timber on the ground as corridors for small rodents), soils and watersheds, as well as, for employment generation (e.g. utilize branches of felled trees to satisfy demands for fuel-wood and charcoal), tourism promotion and timber and non-timber goods production. These practical suggestions will be very helpful to Annex-1 countries planning the management of their forest sinks, for instance. However, the second half of the chapter is fairly technical and not well integrated into the first section. The book’s Chapter 2 will be particularly useful to those planning reforestation projects for credit under the CDM, as well as other resource-planning projects. Steven Shultz’s chapter focuses on the 1469-3062/02/$ – see front matter © 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
120
Book reviews
usefulness of geographic information systems (GIS) in obtaining the geophysical and socio-economic data needed to plan resource management activities in tropical watersheds. In very accessible terms, Shultz first describes how GIS information is obtained by overlaying various types of geo-referenced data and details its usefulness. Shultz then succinctly and clearly explains the steps taken to gather the information necessary for planning a reforestation and a conservation strategy for two Costa Rican watersheds using two case studies, which include cost and time budgets. Land-use project implementers and planners can use this careful account as a guide for selecting criteria for the identification of critical land areas, for including existing resources and involving stakeholders in the planning, and for budgeting people hours and expenses, among other uses. Shultz’ chapter is so clear that it can be used as a “how to” workbook for anyone planning sinks work, particularly in developing countries since he highlights the surprisingly low costs involved in the methods used. In the following chapter, Mark Johnston and Peter Uhlig present estimates of carbon storage in soils and vegetation in the forests of northern Ontario, providing species-specific estimates. This information is of obvious relevance for Canada’s sinks management, but its usefulness extends to other boreal countries and to inform sinks policy at the international level. For those not versed in the technical side of carbon assessment, this chapter may provide some insight into the various methods used, their assumptions and consequent accuracy. The second part of the book is dedicated to the valuation of forest services, with an emphasis on carbon-sequestration, and is fairly technical. Mohammed Dore and Mark Johnston argue that the marginal social opportunity cost (MSOC) of forests per hectare must enter into any harvesting decision model or any other social cost-benefit analysis on forest use. Through in-depth economic analysis, they estimate the MSOC value for Canada’s boreal forests as between US$ 290 and 412 (in 1986 Canadian dollars) per hectare. In the following chapter, Octavio Ramirez provides the tropical counterpoint to the valuation analysis and differentiates between the value of natural primary, naturally regenerating secondary and artificial plantations. Ramirez’s most provocative conclusion is that if carbon-sequestration is one of the main objectives of a system of forest incentives, promoting secondary forest regeneration should be a priority over primary forest conservation. Dore, Kulshreshtha and Johnston offer a cost/benefit analysis for land-use in the boreal plain of Canada in which they consider the continuation of agricultural production or reforestation of the land. Given the volatility of grain prices and soil characteristics, they conclude that reforestation for agroforestry or commercial use would produce greater social gain than agriculture. In the following chapter, the valuation by Tania Ammour, Néstor Windevoxhel and Gustavo Sención focuses on mangrove forests in Nicaragua and a subtropical forest in Guatemala. This collection of four papers on valuation should be of great interest to environmental economists and could guide the development of the carbon market, although it is difficult to assess the immediate applicability of the research to the current carbon-market reality. Given that stakeholder buy-in is crucial to project success, the policy chapter that follows has direct relevance for sinks managers as it offers a model for collaborative forest management. Here, Kulshreshtha describes and evaluates the success of the Saskatchewan model forest in which governments (both federal and provincial), indigenous groups and private interests collaborate in the management of the forest. Although it is too soon for a final assessment, the project appears to be successful as the parties have agreed to continue their partnership and extend it. Segura-Bonilla’s thorough review of land-use policy and the incentive system in Costa Rica may be of interest to sinks policy makers in their planning of market-mechanism use, but the very interesting questions posed, which link climate policy to the research described, are not answered; instead, the author
Book reviews
121
suggests further research. The final chapter of the book may have been included as an afterthought to incorporate Brazil in the hemispheric analysis, as it is not of the same high quality that characterizes the rest of the research presented. The article describes the possibility of reforesting the drylands of northeast Brazil with the native species caatinga, but fails to provide the in-depth analysis necessary to motivate investment through the CDM, for instance. Although the quality of the writing and the technical detail of the analyses are uneven, the book is a great introduction to sustainable forestry practices for climate policy makers. The book also makes an important contribution beyond the climate field and into environmental valuation. The relevance of the work to climate issues could be more explicit, but the interested sinks reader is sure to find useful ideas and recommendations in the great variety of chapter topics. Silvia Llosa World Resources Institute, 10 G Street NE, Washington, DC 20002, USA Tel.: +1-202-729-7720; fax: +1-202-729-7798 PII: S 1 4 6 9 - 3 0 6 2 ( 0 2 ) 0 0 0 0 4 - 9 E-mail address: [email protected] (S. Llosa) Climate Change and European Leadership: A Sustainable Role for Europe? Joyeeta Gupta and Michael Grubb (Eds.), Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht/Boston/London, 2000, 344 pp., £93.00 Hb, ISBN 0-7923-6466-X Climate change and European leadership deals with two of the most critical issues of our time—the world’s greatest environmental problem and its most ambitious experiment in governance—in a critical analysis of the EU’s claims to be a leader in the climate change regime. The basic thesis of this book, which originated as a project sponsored by the European Commission, is simple. The climate change regime is in need of leadership, exercising that leadership is a “European task”, but the EU has so far failed to transform its leadership aspirations into reality. The book is broadly optimistic on whether it could ever do so, but inconclusive on how. Its subject matter has certainly become more relevant following the failed sixth Conference of the Parties (COP 6) to the climate change Convention (The Hague, November 2000), where the EU was accused by many of precipitating the negotiating collapse, and the triumph of the resumed COP 6 (Bonn, July 2001), where the EU won equally strong accolades for its skilled leadership. Although one cannot help but wish the book had been written some 18 months later to take these developments into account, its analysis remains remarkably pertinent. Written by a team of highly-respected European climate change researchers from six different countries, the book is a collection of diverse chapters covering various aspects of European leadership on climate change, including analyses of the EU’s internal organization and domestic climate policy, its role in other environmental regimes, opportunities for the EU to lead in the climate change arena and a socio-economic analysis of climate policy strategies. While all chapters make for interesting reading, the relevance of some to the book’s core subject matter is rather questionable. Like the EU itself, the book sometimes lacks coherence, with the various chapters fitting only awkwardly into a unified whole. The final chapter, however, does a heroic job in pulling together the disparate threads and making sense of the whole volume. If you only have time to read one chapter, then this should be the one. The main complaint that could be levelled against this book is that, while it paints a compelling picture of the EU’s role in the climate change regime and the dilemmas that it faces (although it does assume too
Book reviews Sustainable forest management and global climate change: selected case studies from the Americas Mohammed H.I. Dore, Rubén Guevara (Eds.), Edward Elgar Publishing Limited, Cheltenham, 2000, 281 pp., £65, Hardback, ISBN: 1840641614 If this book is any indication of the cross-fertilization that can occur between the fields of climate change and forest ecology, there is reason for optimism. While forest ecologists have long been espousing the idea that forests provide valuable goods and services, carbon-sequestration services are only now gaining recognition through the international climate negotiations. The climate negotiations may bring another unintentional benefit to forests: through carbon-sequestration activities, project developers could actually implement the sustainable practices that forest ecologists support. To improve forestry practices on the ground, forest ecologists will have to ensure that sinks managers have been indoctrinated into their own field’s best practices. This book, by providing the climate audience with some of the lessons learned from sustainable forestry management, is a good start. Through case studies, forest economic valuations and forest-policy analysis, the book succeeds in presenting some of the difficulties and successes of sustainable forest management and in valuing carbon-sequestration services. Beyond the introduction, however, the book does not tie the subject matter to climate change. It is left to the reader to distil the applicability of the lessons learned from forest management to international rule-making for climate-change mitigation or to the forest initiatives that will stem from the agreement. Each of the 10 chapters of this work can inform the international climate debate. The central tenet of the book as a whole is that the current under-valuation of forest goods and services, beyond timber, continues to drive land-use decision making. The book implicitly suggests an ecosystem approach to forest management that is also socially inclusive—i.e. sustainable management. Pinning down the practical implementation of sustainability is difficult, but the book provides some examples through case studies that exemplify the approach. The elements that constitute sustainability in forest management can be distilled principally from the first and third sections of the book. In Chapter 1, Sáenz and aus der Beek make concrete management recommendations for the protection of flora and fauna (e.g. leave non-commercial timber on the ground as corridors for small rodents), soils and watersheds, as well as, for employment generation (e.g. utilize branches of felled trees to satisfy demands for fuel-wood and charcoal), tourism promotion and timber and non-timber goods production. These practical suggestions will be very helpful to Annex-1 countries planning the management of their forest sinks, for instance. However, the second half of the chapter is fairly technical and not well integrated into the first section. The book’s Chapter 2 will be particularly useful to those planning reforestation projects for credit under the CDM, as well as other resource-planning projects. Steven Shultz’s chapter focuses on the 1469-3062/02/$ – see front matter © 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
120
Book reviews
usefulness of geographic information systems (GIS) in obtaining the geophysical and socio-economic data needed to plan resource management activities in tropical watersheds. In very accessible terms, Shultz first describes how GIS information is obtained by overlaying various types of geo-referenced data and details its usefulness. Shultz then succinctly and clearly explains the steps taken to gather the information necessary for planning a reforestation and a conservation strategy for two Costa Rican watersheds using two case studies, which include cost and time budgets. Land-use project implementers and planners can use this careful account as a guide for selecting criteria for the identification of critical land areas, for including existing resources and involving stakeholders in the planning, and for budgeting people hours and expenses, among other uses. Shultz’ chapter is so clear that it can be used as a “how to” workbook for anyone planning sinks work, particularly in developing countries since he highlights the surprisingly low costs involved in the methods used. In the following chapter, Mark Johnston and Peter Uhlig present estimates of carbon storage in soils and vegetation in the forests of northern Ontario, providing species-specific estimates. This information is of obvious relevance for Canada’s sinks management, but its usefulness extends to other boreal countries and to inform sinks policy at the international level. For those not versed in the technical side of carbon assessment, this chapter may provide some insight into the various methods used, their assumptions and consequent accuracy. The second part of the book is dedicated to the valuation of forest services, with an emphasis on carbon-sequestration, and is fairly technical. Mohammed Dore and Mark Johnston argue that the marginal social opportunity cost (MSOC) of forests per hectare must enter into any harvesting decision model or any other social cost-benefit analysis on forest use. Through in-depth economic analysis, they estimate the MSOC value for Canada’s boreal forests as between US$ 290 and 412 (in 1986 Canadian dollars) per hectare. In the following chapter, Octavio Ramirez provides the tropical counterpoint to the valuation analysis and differentiates between the value of natural primary, naturally regenerating secondary and artificial plantations. Ramirez’s most provocative conclusion is that if carbon-sequestration is one of the main objectives of a system of forest incentives, promoting secondary forest regeneration should be a priority over primary forest conservation. Dore, Kulshreshtha and Johnston offer a cost/benefit analysis for land-use in the boreal plain of Canada in which they consider the continuation of agricultural production or reforestation of the land. Given the volatility of grain prices and soil characteristics, they conclude that reforestation for agroforestry or commercial use would produce greater social gain than agriculture. In the following chapter, the valuation by Tania Ammour, Néstor Windevoxhel and Gustavo Sención focuses on mangrove forests in Nicaragua and a subtropical forest in Guatemala. This collection of four papers on valuation should be of great interest to environmental economists and could guide the development of the carbon market, although it is difficult to assess the immediate applicability of the research to the current carbon-market reality. Given that stakeholder buy-in is crucial to project success, the policy chapter that follows has direct relevance for sinks managers as it offers a model for collaborative forest management. Here, Kulshreshtha describes and evaluates the success of the Saskatchewan model forest in which governments (both federal and provincial), indigenous groups and private interests collaborate in the management of the forest. Although it is too soon for a final assessment, the project appears to be successful as the parties have agreed to continue their partnership and extend it. Segura-Bonilla’s thorough review of land-use policy and the incentive system in Costa Rica may be of interest to sinks policy makers in their planning of market-mechanism use, but the very interesting questions posed, which link climate policy to the research described, are not answered; instead, the author
Book reviews
121
suggests further research. The final chapter of the book may have been included as an afterthought to incorporate Brazil in the hemispheric analysis, as it is not of the same high quality that characterizes the rest of the research presented. The article describes the possibility of reforesting the drylands of northeast Brazil with the native species caatinga, but fails to provide the in-depth analysis necessary to motivate investment through the CDM, for instance. Although the quality of the writing and the technical detail of the analyses are uneven, the book is a great introduction to sustainable forestry practices for climate policy makers. The book also makes an important contribution beyond the climate field and into environmental valuation. The relevance of the work to climate issues could be more explicit, but the interested sinks reader is sure to find useful ideas and recommendations in the great variety of chapter topics. Silvia Llosa World Resources Institute, 10 G Street NE, Washington, DC 20002, USA Tel.: +1-202-729-7720; fax: +1-202-729-7798 PII: S 1 4 6 9 - 3 0 6 2 ( 0 2 ) 0 0 0 0 4 - 9 E-mail address: [email protected] (S. Llosa) Climate Change and European Leadership: A Sustainable Role for Europe? Joyeeta Gupta and Michael Grubb (Eds.), Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht/Boston/London, 2000, 344 pp., £93.00 Hb, ISBN 0-7923-6466-X Climate change and European leadership deals with two of the most critical issues of our time—the world’s greatest environmental problem and its most ambitious experiment in governance—in a critical analysis of the EU’s claims to be a leader in the climate change regime. The basic thesis of this book, which originated as a project sponsored by the European Commission, is simple. The climate change regime is in need of leadership, exercising that leadership is a “European task”, but the EU has so far failed to transform its leadership aspirations into reality. The book is broadly optimistic on whether it could ever do so, but inconclusive on how. Its subject matter has certainly become more relevant following the failed sixth Conference of the Parties (COP 6) to the climate change Convention (The Hague, November 2000), where the EU was accused by many of precipitating the negotiating collapse, and the triumph of the resumed COP 6 (Bonn, July 2001), where the EU won equally strong accolades for its skilled leadership. Although one cannot help but wish the book had been written some 18 months later to take these developments into account, its analysis remains remarkably pertinent. Written by a team of highly-respected European climate change researchers from six different countries, the book is a collection of diverse chapters covering various aspects of European leadership on climate change, including analyses of the EU’s internal organization and domestic climate policy, its role in other environmental regimes, opportunities for the EU to lead in the climate change arena and a socio-economic analysis of climate policy strategies. While all chapters make for interesting reading, the relevance of some to the book’s core subject matter is rather questionable. Like the EU itself, the book sometimes lacks coherence, with the various chapters fitting only awkwardly into a unified whole. The final chapter, however, does a heroic job in pulling together the disparate threads and making sense of the whole volume. If you only have time to read one chapter, then this should be the one. The main complaint that could be levelled against this book is that, while it paints a compelling picture of the EU’s role in the climate change regime and the dilemmas that it faces (although it does assume too