Cost-effectiveness of REDD+ Projects in Nicaragua (Doctorate project/2014 - 2017)
Modelling both deforestation and forest degradation and investigating the weight of each individual phenomenon is fundamental to lay the basis for effective REDD+ initiatives. The overall objective of this study is to model future dynamics of deforestation and forest degradation and examine their economic and environmental impact in a REDD+ project.
Nicaragua is the largest Central American country with forests covering 25 % of its total land area. It has the largest remaining forest cover in in the region, although the deforestation rate is still alarmingly high - almost half of the forest cover has been lost since 1950. In 2008, Nicaragua became a member of the Forest Carbon Partnership Facility and is currently developing a REDD+ national strategy, called ENDE (Estrategia Nacional de Deforestación y Degradación Forestal Evitada). ENDE involves many components, such as: policy arrangements, strategic environmental and social assessment, scenarios of reference and monitoring systems.
Despite promising advances in the Readiness phase, many technical and knowledge gaps still need to be addressed. Some of the key gaps identified are related to the scale of REDD+ implementation, the weight of drivers or proxies by scale and activity, the design of a monitoring, registration and verification (MRV) system, assessment of risk zones due to deforestation and forest degradation, the cost-effectiveness of the REDD+ activities.
Similar to Nicaragua, many other tropical countries willing to participate in REDD+ are facing with scientific and technical challenges. This study aims to provide them with a quick tool able to predict with great accuracy areas of deforestation and degradation risk. It uses freely available data and software, and does not require strong technical expertise. The tool finds multiple functions in: identifying target areas for REDD+ projects; monitoring the effective allocation of REDD+ incentives; supporting for setting Reference Levels.
Moreover, based on tool findings, differences between deforestation and forest degradation activities are investigated in terms of areas concerned, carbon balance and potential incentives allocation.
Monitoring and modelling land use dynamics to maximize cost-effectiveness of REDD+ projects
- Bi-nationally joint supervised doctoral thesis
Partner institutions
- Universität Hamburg and Università degli Studi del Molise (Italy)
Contact:
- Giulio di Lallo
Duration: 2014 - 2017