IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/masfgc/v19y2014i6p693-713.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Will funding to Reduce Emissions from Deforestation and (forest) Degradation (REDD+) stop conversion of peat swamps to oil palm in orangutan habitat in Tripa in Aceh, Indonesia?

Author

Listed:
  • Hesti Tata
  • Meine Noordwijk
  • Denis Ruysschaert
  • Rachmat Mulia
  • Subekti Rahayu
  • Elok Mulyoutami
  • Atiek Widayati
  • Andree Ekadinata
  • Riswan Zen
  • Adji Darsoyo
  • Rahayu Oktaviani
  • Sonya Dewi

Abstract

Tripa is the last remaining peat-swamp forest that harbours a potentially viable Sumatran orangutan (Pongo abelii) sub-population in a formally but not effectively protected area. It appears to be a simple showcase where current efforts to financially support reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD+) converge with biodiversity and social co-benefits. In practice, however, situation is more complex. REDD+ efforts interact with global palm oil trade and regulatory approaches (the moratorium) to achieve national goals for emissions reduction under umbrella of nationally appropriate mitigation actions (NAMA). To contextualize this debate, we assessed (i) land-use history and formal basis of palm-oil companies’ rights; (ii) carbon (C) stocks, historical emission levels and potential emissions that can be avoided; (iii) economic benefits of land-use options and opportunity costs of avoiding emissions; (iv) biodiversity and environmental services; and (v) alternative options for “high C stock development” and employment generation. Natural forest cover declined (54 % in 1995, 18 % in 2009) while oil palm increased 4–39 %. Aboveground C stocks decreased from 148 Mg ha −1 in 1990 to 61 Mg ha −1 in 2009, leading to average annual emissions of 14.5 Mg (carbon dioxide) CO 2 e ha −1 year −1 . While 41 % of these emissions yield less than American Dollar (USD) 5 of current economic benefits per Mg CO 2 e emitted and might be compensated by REDD+, nearly all new emissions derive from a breach of existing laws, regulations and voluntary palm-oil standards. Substantial investment in alternative employment is needed, rather than carbon payments per se, to support livelihoods in a low carbon emissions economy. Copyright The Author(s) 2014

Suggested Citation

  • Hesti Tata & Meine Noordwijk & Denis Ruysschaert & Rachmat Mulia & Subekti Rahayu & Elok Mulyoutami & Atiek Widayati & Andree Ekadinata & Riswan Zen & Adji Darsoyo & Rahayu Oktaviani & Sonya Dewi, 2014. "Will funding to Reduce Emissions from Deforestation and (forest) Degradation (REDD+) stop conversion of peat swamps to oil palm in orangutan habitat in Tripa in Aceh, Indonesia?," Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change, Springer, vol. 19(6), pages 693-713, August.
  • Handle: RePEc:spr:masfgc:v:19:y:2014:i:6:p:693-713
    DOI: 10.1007/s11027-013-9524-5
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1007/s11027-013-9524-5
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s11027-013-9524-5?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Lian Pin Koh & David S. Wilcove, 2007. "Cashing in palm oil for conservation," Nature, Nature, vol. 448(7157), pages 993-994, August.
    2. Stern,Nicholas, 2007. "The Economics of Climate Change," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521700801, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Sloan, Sean & Campbell, Mason J. & Alamgir, Mohammed & Collier-Baker, Emma & Nowak, Matthew G. & Usher, Graham & Laurance, William F., 2018. "Infrastructure development and contested forest governance threaten the Leuser Ecosystem, Indonesia," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 77(C), pages 298-309.
    2. Ruysschaert, Denis & Hufty, Marc, 2020. "Building an effective coalition to improve forest policy: Lessons from the coastal Tripa peat swamp rainforest, Sumatra, Indonesia," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 99(C).
    3. Alam, Md Jahangir & Rengasamy, Nagarajan & bin Dahalan, Mohd Puat & Halim, Sharina Abdul & Nath, Tapan Kumar, 2022. "Socio-economic and ecological outcomes of a community-based restoration of peatland swamp forests in Peninsular Malaysia: A 5Rs approach," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 122(C).
    4. Ni’matul Khasanah & Meine Noordwijk, 2019. "Subsidence and carbon dioxide emissions in a smallholder peatland mosaic in Sumatra, Indonesia," Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change, Springer, vol. 24(1), pages 147-163, January.
    5. Ruysschaert, Denis & Salles, Denis, 2014. "Towards global voluntary standards: Questioning the effectiveness in attaining conservation goals," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 107(C), pages 438-446.
    6. de Man, Reinier & German, Laura, 2017. "Certifying the sustainability of biofuels: Promise and reality," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 109(C), pages 871-883.
    7. Meine van Noordwijk & Robin Matthews & Fahmuddin Agus & Jenny Farmer & Louis Verchot & Kristell Hergoualc’h & Sebastian Persch & Hesti Tata & Betha Lusiana & Atiek Widayati & Sonya Dewi, 2014. "Mud, muddle and models in the knowledge value-chain to action on tropical peatland conservation," Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change, Springer, vol. 19(6), pages 887-905, August.
    8. Boer, Henry James, 2018. "The role of government in operationalising markets for REDD+ in Indonesia," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 86(C), pages 4-12.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Yang, Hongqiang & Li, Xi, 2018. "Potential variation in opportunity cost estimates for REDD+ and its causes," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 95(C), pages 138-146.
    2. Nir Y. Krakauer, 2014. "Economic Growth Assumptions in Climate and Energy Policy," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 6(3), pages 1-14, March.
    3. Stéphane Hallegatte, 2008. "A Proposal for a New Prescriptive Discounting Scheme: The Intergenerational Discount Rate," Working Papers 2008.47, Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei.
    4. Strand, Jon, 2011. "Carbon offsets with endogenous environmental policy," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 33(2), pages 371-378, March.
    5. Oliver Schenker, 2013. "Exchanging Goods and Damages: The Role of Trade on the Distribution of Climate Change Costs," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 54(2), pages 261-282, February.
    6. Alejandro Lopez-Feldman, 2013. "Climate change, agriculture, and poverty: A household level analysis for rural Mexico," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 33(2), pages 1126-1139.
    7. Bikki Jaggi & Alessandra Allini & Riccardo Macchioni & Annamaria Zampella, 2018. "Do investors find carbon information useful? Evidence from Italian firms," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 50(4), pages 1031-1056, May.
    8. Steve Newbold & Charles Griffiths & Christopher C. Moore & Ann Wolverton & Elizabeth Kopits, 2010. "The "Social Cost of Carbon" Made Simple," NCEE Working Paper Series 201007, National Center for Environmental Economics, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, revised Aug 2010.
    9. Richard Tol, 2011. "Regulating knowledge monopolies: the case of the IPCC," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 108(4), pages 827-839, October.
    10. Melissa Dell & Benjamin F. Jones & Benjamin A. Olken, 2014. "What Do We Learn from the Weather? The New Climate-Economy Literature," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 52(3), pages 740-798, September.
    11. Grüll, Georg & Taschini, Luca, 2011. "Cap-and-trade properties under different hybrid scheme designs," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 61(1), pages 107-118, January.
    12. Sam Fankhauser & Cameron Hepburn, 2009. "Carbon markets in space and time," GRI Working Papers 3, Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment.
    13. Maxmillan Martin & Yi hyun Kang & Motasim Billah & Tasneem Siddiqui & Richard Black & Dominic Kniveton, 2017. "Climate-influenced migration in Bangladesh: The need for a policy realignment," Development Policy Review, Overseas Development Institute, vol. 35, pages 357-379, October.
    14. Dietz, Simon & Gollier, Christian & Kessler, Louise, 2018. "The climate beta," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 87(C), pages 258-274.
    15. Stefano Bartolini & Francesco Sarracino, 2021. "Happier and Sustainable. Possibilities for a post-growth society," Department of Economics University of Siena 855, Department of Economics, University of Siena.
    16. Sheng, Yu & Xu, Xinpeng, 2019. "The productivity impact of climate change: Evidence from Australia's Millennium drought," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 182-191.
    17. George Halkos & Iacovos Psarianos, 2016. "Exploring the effect of including the environment in the neoclassical growth model," Environmental Economics and Policy Studies, Springer;Society for Environmental Economics and Policy Studies - SEEPS, vol. 18(3), pages 339-358, July.
    18. Mr. Jon Strand, 2007. "Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Supply for the G-7 Countries, with Emphasis on Germany," IMF Working Papers 2007/299, International Monetary Fund.
    19. Reinhard Mechler & Stefan Hochrainer & Asbjørn Aaheim & Håkon Salen & Anita Wreford, 2010. "Modelling economic impacts and adaptation to extreme events: Insights from European case studies," Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change, Springer, vol. 15(7), pages 737-762, October.
    20. Jasmina Ćetković & Slobodan Lakić & Angelina Živković & Miloš Žarković & Radoje Vujadinović, 2021. "Economic Analysis of Measures for GHG Emission Reduction," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(4), pages 1-25, February.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:masfgc:v:19:y:2014:i:6:p:693-713. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.