Start Date
5-12-2024 1:00 PM
Presentation Type
Presentation
Keywords
Himalayan forests, forest carbon, community forests
Abstract
Community Forestry (CF) is recognized globally as a forest management regime with the potential to address deforestation and forest degradation, provide forest goods and services to local communities and contribute to climate change mitigation. Around 4% of Bhutan’s forests are currently under CF management and these forests provide essential goods and services for local communities. However, the potential of CF in Bhutan to contribute to climate change mitigation is not well understood and has not been researched. The Bhutan Government is currently exploring the potential to generate revenue from the sale of carbon sequestered in its forests. Community Forestry can contribute to this goal because of the presence of functioning CFMGs that can exercise effective local authority (if they wish) to ensure the adoption of management practices aimed at increasing carbon sequestration. An impediment to reaching this goal is that not much is known in Bhutan about what is involved in engaging in forest-based carbon markets. This research is a first step in addressing that knowledge gap by assessing the potential of community forests to sequester carbon.
In this research, we estimated the carbon stock and carbon sequestration of community forests in Bhutan by using data from the 2015 National Forest Inventory (NFI). The total biomass carbon in community forests was 130.3 Mg ha-1 (107.3–153.2) and the soil organic carbon was 52.8 Mg ha-1 (30.4–75.1). Carbon sequestration was 0.7 Mg ha-1 yr⁻¹. The values for biomass carbon in Bhutan’s community forests as well as the non-community forests (all other forests) were similar to those reported from Forest Resource Assessment and NFI for forests in Nepal and the Indian Himalayan states respectively. Disaggregation of data from 38 research studies across the Himalayan region indicated that biomass carbon in Bhutan’s forests was significantly lower than that in well-stocked (non-degraded) forests in the Indian and Nepal Himalayas. It was also much lower than that in Bhutan’s Forest Management Units, which were used as an indicator of the potential upper limit of biomass carbon in Bhutan’s forest environment.
This study confirms that there is potential to increase carbon sequestration by improving management of existing forests. Currently, the 107,866 ha of community forests in Bhutan store about 19 million Mg of carbon. With improved management by Community Forest Management Groups, which have the institutional capacity to control local management outcomes, the carbon stock could likely be doubled (to 40 million Mg of carbon), thereby demonstrating the potential of Community Forestry to play an important role in climate change mitigation, while not jeopardizing the provision of day-to-day goods and services to local communities.
While carrying out this research it became apparent that much more needs to be explored before Bhutan engages in forest-based carbon markets. In particular, a framework is needed for discussion and informed policy decision making on issues including: forest carbon ownership, trade-offs, additionality, transaction costs, leakage and appropriate policies to regulate carbon sales and benefit distribution. These issues with be addressed in future stages of this research.
Recommended Citation
Delma, S. (2024). Potential of community forestry in Bhutan to mitigate climate change: Carbon stocks, sequestration and trade-offs. Australia-Bhutan Research Conference. Edith Cowan University. https://ro.ecu.edu.au/abr_conference/2024/Thursday_December_5th/5
Included in
Potential of community forestry in Bhutan to mitigate climate change: Carbon stocks, sequestration and trade-offs
Community Forestry (CF) is recognized globally as a forest management regime with the potential to address deforestation and forest degradation, provide forest goods and services to local communities and contribute to climate change mitigation. Around 4% of Bhutan’s forests are currently under CF management and these forests provide essential goods and services for local communities. However, the potential of CF in Bhutan to contribute to climate change mitigation is not well understood and has not been researched. The Bhutan Government is currently exploring the potential to generate revenue from the sale of carbon sequestered in its forests. Community Forestry can contribute to this goal because of the presence of functioning CFMGs that can exercise effective local authority (if they wish) to ensure the adoption of management practices aimed at increasing carbon sequestration. An impediment to reaching this goal is that not much is known in Bhutan about what is involved in engaging in forest-based carbon markets. This research is a first step in addressing that knowledge gap by assessing the potential of community forests to sequester carbon.
In this research, we estimated the carbon stock and carbon sequestration of community forests in Bhutan by using data from the 2015 National Forest Inventory (NFI). The total biomass carbon in community forests was 130.3 Mg ha-1 (107.3–153.2) and the soil organic carbon was 52.8 Mg ha-1 (30.4–75.1). Carbon sequestration was 0.7 Mg ha-1 yr⁻¹. The values for biomass carbon in Bhutan’s community forests as well as the non-community forests (all other forests) were similar to those reported from Forest Resource Assessment and NFI for forests in Nepal and the Indian Himalayan states respectively. Disaggregation of data from 38 research studies across the Himalayan region indicated that biomass carbon in Bhutan’s forests was significantly lower than that in well-stocked (non-degraded) forests in the Indian and Nepal Himalayas. It was also much lower than that in Bhutan’s Forest Management Units, which were used as an indicator of the potential upper limit of biomass carbon in Bhutan’s forest environment.
This study confirms that there is potential to increase carbon sequestration by improving management of existing forests. Currently, the 107,866 ha of community forests in Bhutan store about 19 million Mg of carbon. With improved management by Community Forest Management Groups, which have the institutional capacity to control local management outcomes, the carbon stock could likely be doubled (to 40 million Mg of carbon), thereby demonstrating the potential of Community Forestry to play an important role in climate change mitigation, while not jeopardizing the provision of day-to-day goods and services to local communities.
While carrying out this research it became apparent that much more needs to be explored before Bhutan engages in forest-based carbon markets. In particular, a framework is needed for discussion and informed policy decision making on issues including: forest carbon ownership, trade-offs, additionality, transaction costs, leakage and appropriate policies to regulate carbon sales and benefit distribution. These issues with be addressed in future stages of this research.
Additional Information
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