Class Year
2011
Document Type
Journal Article
Publication Date
2011
Abstract
This article argues that the current design of REDD is a myopic Partial PES at best. Forest ecosystems provide numerous services beyond the sequestration of CO2, such as protecting upstream watersheds, conserving biodiversity and gene pools, soil formation, nutrient recycling, and plant pollination. Thus REDD programs should recognize and include these and other ecosystem services. After reviewing REDD in the international context and the accounting scheme, recommendations and concerns are provided for why the expansion of REDD to include other ecosystems and services would result in not only a greater CO2 reduction, but also other important environmental benefits. The article concludes by recognizing that REDD’s accounting loopholes, by focusing solely on CO2 reduction without recognition of the ensuing impact from that reduction, will impose negative externalities on other ecosystem services, and that REDD needs to transition to a program that internalizes these externalities.
Recommended Citation
Lopes,Paulo A. "Is REDD Accounting Myopic?: Why Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation Programs Should Recognize and Include Other Ecosystems and Services Beyond CO 2 Sequestration." Sustainable Development Law & Policy 11, no. 2 (2011): 25-30, 78-82.