Enrichment Planting in Secondary Forests: a Promising Clean Development Mechanism to Increase Terrestrial Carbon Sinks

With the increasing need to reduce greenhouse gas concentrations, afforestation and reforestation (A/R) projects are being implemented under the Kyoto Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) and under the voluntary carbon (C) market. The specific objective of A/R C projects is to enhance terrestrial sinks. They could also provide low-income communities in developing countries with a source of revenue, as well as a number of ecological and social services. However, feasibility issues have hindered implementation of A/R CDMs. We propose enrichment planting (EP) in old fallow using high-value native timber species as a land-use alternative and a small-scale C projects opportunity. We present EP in the context of ongoing work in a poor indigenous community in eastern Panama. We consider economic risks and advantages and concordance with existing modalities under the compliance market. The potential storage capacity for EP at the site of our study was ~113 Mg C ha-1, which is comparable to other land uses with high C storage, such as industrial teak plantations and primary forest. Because secondary forests show high aboveground biomass production, C projects using EP could harness large amounts of atmospheric C while improving diversity. Carbon projects using EP can also provide high levels of social, cultural, and ecological services by planting native tree species of traditional importance to local communities and preserving most of the secondary forest's ecological attributes. Therefore, EP planting could be considered as a way to promote synergies between two UN Conventions: climate change and biodiversity. SINTESIS Con la necesidad apremiante de reduccion de los gases de efecto invernadero, proyectos de aforestacion y reforestacion (A/R) pueden implementarse bajo el Mecanismo de Desarrollo Limpio del Protocolo de Kyoto (MDL) o en el contexto del mercado voluntario. El objetivo especifico de los mercados de carbono, voluntario o de compromiso, es de estimular el almacenamiento de carbono terrestre. Ademas, los proyectos de carbono podrian presentar una oportunidad para cambiar practicas de uso de la tierra y proteger la biodiversidad mientras se provee un ingreso a las comunidades de paises en desarrollo para mantener servicios ambientales. Proponemos un enriquecimiento de plantacion cubierta (EP) en rastrojos o bosques secundarios utilizando especies de maderas nativas preciosas como alternativa forestal y proyecto de carbono a pequena escala. Los diferentes aspectos de implementacion del A/R-MDL actual estan tomados en cuenta. Discutimos la EP en el contexto de investigaciones continuas en la comunidad indigena Ipeti- Embera en Panama-Este. En nuestro sitio, el potencia de almacenamiento de carbono para la EP podria ser de 113 Mg C ha-1, lo cual es comparable a otros usos del suelo como plantaciones de teca y bosque primario. Como los rastrojos presentan una alta produccion de biomasa, proyectos de carbono con EP podria acumular cantidades grandes de carbono atmosferico mientras se proveen beneficios socio-economicos. Al mismo tiempo EP podria mantener la estructura ecologica del bosque secundario y la biodiversidad promoviendo sinergias entre dos convenios: el de Biodiversidad y el de cambios climaticos.