‘Yes-in-my-backyard’: Spatial differences in the valuation of forest services and local co-benefits for carbon markets in México

Forests provide many and large benefits, including cost-efficient climate change mitigation. However international carbon markets have not stimulated the demand for forestry offsets. Domestic market-mechanisms are emerging inmany countries and forests could be highly valued through these policies asmost of the benefits produced by forests are enjoyed locally. Here, a choice experiment explores drivers of valuation and willingness to pay for forest carbon services in voluntary markets in Mexico by comparing the valuation of citizens from four regions to test geographical preference for projects (n = 645). Findings from multinomial-logit models show valuation of forest carbon services is transferable and citizens would pay more for offsets from projects closer to their homes. Proximate forests provide a range of co-benefits to local users, including environmental services and opportunities for recreation. Factors related to valuation include sense of responsibility, previous knowledge of carbon emissions, previous visits to the sites, regional identification and the valuation of local environmental services (e.g. improvements in local air quality). Knowledge of spatial heterogeneity in valuation of the use of forest services can help to design market-based instruments by identifying highly valued areas for environmental services programs and carbon markets

Valoración de áreas forestales próximas a zonas urbanas en México: incorporando a los usuarios de los servicios ambientales en REDD+

Investigaciones previas muestran que la valoración de los servicios ambientales de los bosques entre los usuarios muestra una heterogeneidad geográfica asociada a la proximidad y el potencial para disfrutar valores de uso (p.e. recreación). Este trabajo muestra una metodología para identificar los bosques y selvas que tienen una mayor valoración por parte de la población urbana en México. Se utiliza información de un estudio de valoración económica descrito en Balderas-Torres et al., (2015) en el cual participaron 645 personas de los estados de Jalisco, Durango, Tamaulipas y la zona conurbada de la ciudad de México; en dicho estudio se obtuvo una ecuación exponencial del porcentaje de visitas a tres áreas naturales protegidas (i.e. La Primavera, La Michilía y el Cielo) en función de la distancia euclidiana desde las ciudades de residencia. Este trabajo utiliza dicha ecuación en combinación con la información del tamaño de la población de las 125 localidades con más habitantes del país para estimar las visitas a áreas forestales de todo el país utilizando unidades de análisis de 2,500 m2. Los resultados muestran que las áreas con mayor probabilidad de ser visitadas y generarían mayores beneficios a los usuarios de los servicios ambientales se encuentran en el centro del país dada la concentración de la población en la capital. Este enfoque permite identificar áreas prioritarias para la conservación y restauración ambiental dentro de iniciativas estatales o nacionales como REDD+ y los programas de Pago por Servicios Ambientales para incorporar la valoración y preferencias de los usuarios desde el lado de la demanda.ITESO, A. C.Universidad Nacional Autónoma de MéxicoUniversity of Twent

Dealing with locally-driven degradation: A quick start option under REDD+

The paper reviews a number of challenges associated with reducing degradation and its related emissions through national approaches to REDD+ under UNFCCC policy. It proposes that in many countries, it may in the short run be easier to deal with the kinds of degradation that result from locally driven community over-exploitation of forest for livelihoods, than from selective logging or fire control. Such degradation is low-level, but chronic, and is experienced over very large forest areas. Community forest management programmes tend to result not only in reduced degradation, but also in forest enhancement; moreover they are often popular, and do not require major political shifts. In principle these approaches therefore offer a quick start option for REDD+. Developing reference emissions levels for low-level locally driven degradation is difficult however given that stock losses and gains are too small to be identified and measured using remote sensing, and that in most countries there is little or no forest inventory data available. We therefore propose that forest management initiatives at the local level, such as those promoted by community forest management programmes, should monitor, and be credited for, only the net increase in carbon stock over the implementation period, as assessed by ground level surveys at the start and end of the period. This would also resolve the problem of nesting (ensuring that all credits are accounted for against the national reference emission level), since communities and others at the local level would be rewarded only for increased sequestration, while the national reference emission level would deal only with reductions in emissions from deforestation and degradation

Yes in my backyard: market based mechanisms for forest conservation and climate change mitigation in La Primavera, México

This work makes a multidisciplinary analysis of the potential of market-based mechanisms in the provision of forest carbon services based on local demand in the context of climate change mitigation. The analysis contrasts, from the perspective of an emerging economy (Mexico), the possibilities of local markets versus the global markets mechanisms being developed under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)