REDD+ & LULUCF

1. Forest Carbon and
Climate Change
Mitigation:
Recent
Developments in the
International Policy
Framework

2. UN Climate Negotiations: two
streams addressing forests
• Reducing emissions from deforestation
and forest degradation (REDD), a
mechanism to be applied in developing
countries pursuant to the Bali Action Plan
• Land Use, Land Use Change and Forestry
(LULUCF), applied to developed countries
(Annex 1) under the Kyoto Protocol

3. REDD
• 17% of global emissions result from
deforestation, mostly tropical forests
• Impact of forest degradation also
substantial: <25%
• Industrial logging & roading are major
factors
• Plantation conversion a big issue
• Forest sector initially, maybe expansion
across land base later

4. Expanded to REDD +
• REDD focus is emissions reductions – these can
be immediate and large
• REDD+ focus is enhancing carbon stocks, ie
sequestration – slower: through restoration of
degraded natural forest, agro-forestry and
conservation agriculture, afforestation and
reforestation
• Problem: attempts to include SFM in REDD+
inherently emissive activities: logging, plantation
conversion of natural forests, oil palm
establishment on cleared peat-swamp forest

5. Prioritisation of actions
• (a) reducing immediate and ongoing
emissions from deforestation and forest
degradation, giving priority to protecting
intact natural forests and maintaining their
existing carbon stocks, above and below
ground;

6. Prioritisation of actions
• (b) enhancing removals by restoring
degraded forests to functioning
ecosystems;
• (c) sustainable management of secondary
forests to the extent that it reduces
pressure on intact forests and reduces
deforestation and forest degradation.

7. REDD Safeguards
• Ensure rights & interests of indigenous
peoples and forest dependant
communities
• Ensure biodiversity & ecosystems
services
• Against plantation conversion
• Ensure strong forest governance
• Monitor, report and verify application of
safeguards

8. Other REDD issues
• Offsetting: developed countries avoiding action
in other sectors, at home
• Permanence and leakage (displacement)
• Demand-side management - illegal logging &
sustainable consumption : All countries should
support REDD actions by addressing the diverse
social and economic drivers of deforestation and
forest degradation to relieve the pressures on
forests that result in greenhouse gas emissions.

9. Developed Country Forests
• Opportunities to reduce emissions in developed
countries
In Australia:
• Substantial withdrawal from native forest logging
– Gunns’ announcement
• Tasmanian forest ‘peace’ talks & likely increase
in protected forest areas
• Commitment to 5-20% emissions reduction
cannot be met by existing measures and ETS
not happening soon

10. Land Use, Land Use Change, and
Forestry (LULUCF)
• Rules under negotiation for 2nd
Commitment
Period of the Kyoto Protocol (commences 2012)
• Applies to developed countries that are Parties
to and have targets under the KP
• Current rules notoriously perverse – enable
countries to hide emissions whilst accounting for
sequestration
• New rules should provide incentives for
emissions reductions

11. LULUCF issues
Current accounting rules:
• Activities-based accounting
• Only 3 are compulsory – deforestation,
afforestation and reforestation (Article 3.3)
• Countries can pick & choose which other
activities to account – so they don’t choose
emissive activities (Article 3.4)
• The accounts are skewed to understate
emissions and do not reflect what the
atmosphere sees

12. Forests Accounting
• Very few countries account for ‘forest
management’ (ie logging)
• Australia does not account for logging
emissions (forest management)
• Neither does Australia (or others)
account for the conversion of native
forests to plantations

13. Logging reduces the carbon stored
in a natural forest by 40 - 60%

14. Forests Definition in use under the
Kyoto Protocol
• A structural definition
A minimum area of land of 0.05 ha with crown tree cover (or equivalent
stocking level) of more than 10% with trees with the potential to
reach a minimum height of 2 meters at maturity in situ
It includes (i) young stands of natural regeneration, (ii) all plantations
which have yet to reach a crown density of 10-30% or tree height of
2-5 meters, (iii) areas normally forming part of the forest area which
are temporarily un-stocked as a result of human intervention such
as harvesting or natural causes but which are expected to revert to
forest
• Includes plantations – blind to conversion

16. Revision of accounting rules
• Attempt to tackle design flaws and make
LULUCF accounts more comprehensive
and symmetrical
On forest management:
• Make accounting for logging emissions
mandatory
• Revise forest definition - plantations are
not forests, they are an agricultural crop

17. Reference levels for forest
management
• Issue of how baselines will be set, to
which future emissions will be compared
• 1st
Commitment Period related emissions
to 1990 base year
• Proposal for projected reference levels, to
be set individually by each country for 2nd
Commitment Period

18. LULUCF loopholes
• Proposed reference levels contain large
emissions loopholes – in total 400mt, Australia’s
is approx 50 mt
• How? Business as usual plus increased levels of
future logging are included in the baseline
• Why? Emissions reduction is not the focus
• Impact: undermines developed country targets &
fails to incentivise emissions reduction

19. Other forest issues
• Natural disturbance – need to ensure that
Australia is not penalised for extraordinary
events such as catastrophic wildfire
• Biofuels combustion & biomass burning currently
accounted as carbon neutral, but emissions go
to atmosphere - ensure such emissions are
accounted under LULUCF
• Harvested wood products – proposals over-
emphasise sequestration & must await more
comprehensive, land-based accounting

20. Example: perverse effect of skewed
accounting rules
• A & R must be accounted for, so the 2020
plantations have contributed credits
• But when they are logged the emissions (debits)
must be accounted too
• However logging emissions for forest
management of other areas not accounted
• Therefore Tasmanian wedges report
recommends not logging 2020 plantations
(avoids debits) & log native forest (avoids debits)
• This is bizarre!

21. Take home message
• There is significant potential to reduce emissions
from deforestation and forest degradation in
Australia, and particularly in Tasmania
• International policy under the Kyoto Protocol
should show more ambition to reduce emissions
in the sector, rather than hiding them
• Australia has not yet determined it’s position on
‘forest management’ and could become a
champion for mandatory accounting referenced
to historic emissions

22. For information contact:
peg.putt@wilderness.org.au
.