Bousfield Christopher G, Massam Mike R, Peres Carlos A, Edwards David P
Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, School of Biosciences, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, S10 2TN, United Kingdom.
Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, School of Biosciences, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, S10 2TN, United Kingdom.
J Environ Manage. 2022 Jul 15;314:115094. doi: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2022.115094. Epub 2022 Apr 22.
Selective logging is pervasive across the tropics and unsustainable logging depletes forest biodiversity and carbon stocks. Improving the sustainability of logging will be crucial for meeting climate targets. Carbon-based payment for ecosystem service schemes, including REDD+, give economic value to standing forests and can protect them from degradation, but only if the revenue from carbon payments is greater than the opportunity cost of forgone or reduced logging. We currently lack understanding of whether carbon payments are feasible for protecting Amazonian forests from logging, despite the Amazon holding the largest unexploited timber reserves and an expanding logging sector. Using financial data and inventories of >660,000 trees covering 52,000 ha of Brazilian forest concessions, we estimate the carbon price required to protect forests from logging. We estimate that a carbon price of $7.90 per tCO is sufficient to match the opportunity costs of all logging and fund protection of primary forest. Alternatively, improving the sustainability of logging operations by ensuring a greater proportion of trees are left uncut requires only slightly higher investments of $7.97-10.45 per tCO. These prices fall well below the current compliance market rate and demonstrate a cost-effective opportunity to safeguard large tracts of the Amazon rainforest from further degradation.
选择性采伐在热带地区普遍存在，不可持续的采伐会耗尽森林生物多样性和碳储量。提高采伐的可持续性对于实现气候目标至关重要。基于碳的生态系统服务支付计划，包括减少毁林和森林退化所致排放量计划（REDD+），赋予了现存森林经济价值，并能保护其免遭退化，但前提是碳支付的收入要高于放弃或减少采伐的机会成本。尽管亚马孙地区拥有最大的未开发木材储备且采伐行业不断扩张，但我们目前尚不清楚碳支付对于保护亚马孙森林免遭采伐是否可行。利用涵盖巴西5.2万公顷森林特许权区的66万多棵树木的财务数据和清查信息，我们估算了保护森林免遭采伐所需的碳价格。我们估计，每吨二氧化碳7.90美元的碳价格足以抵消所有采伐的机会成本，并为保护原始森林提供资金。或者，通过确保更高比例的树木不被砍伐来提高采伐作业的可持续性，每吨二氧化碳只需略高的7.97 - 10.45美元投资。这些价格远低于当前的履约市场价格，表明这是一个具有成本效益的机会，可保护大片亚马孙雨林免遭进一步退化。
