Submissions Accepted for Presentation at the World Bank Land Conference 2024

The global forest sector is expected to play a major role in achieving the Paris Agreement’s temperature targets. Therefore, there is an urgent need to explore practical and promising solutions to the challenges facing carbon accounting and policy assessment as the global community undertakes forest sector actions—including the REDD+ initiative. This book demonstrates how vital it is that we identify appropriate perspectives and formulate approaches to address these challenges in an integrated and effective manner. In doing so, it addresses many of the major issues, including the differential potentials for carbon sequestration within various forest ecosystems as well as for storage within a variety of harvested wood products, the joint production of timber and carbon, and the measurement and impact of forest carbon offsets and credits, results-based payments, and other nationally determined contributions centered differences. The book also examines regional and national case studies from across the world.

In this paper, we examine the institutional and financial innovations to achieve a meaningful recognition of the value tropical nations and their forests can provide for global mitigation efforts. On the institutional front, tackling deforestation will require an economic transition promoting productivity beyond commodities, as well as forest conservation and sustainable rural livelihoods in a frame of jurisdictional REDD+ programs. On the financial front, we show how a combination of forest carbon bonds, where countries can sell forward their emission reduction outcomes, as well as call and put options can be used to de-risk and encourage early investment in jurisdictional REDD+. Our estimates suggest the SAFE could obtain up to US$9-18 billion in trading call options on future emission reduction vintages (2024-2030) and raise up to US$45 billion for upfront investment by trading low-risk forest carbon bonds. The instruments and methods we propose can be used by other tropical nations.

This article underscores the role of land in mitigating climate change and stresses the connection between reducing emissions and safeguarding the rights of communities. While industrialised countries acknowledge their responsibility to increase emissions reductions, the effects of mitigation and adaptation on land use affect millions of people. Delivering on all governments’ commitments to land-carbon dioxide removal would encompass 1.2 billion hectares of land, triggering significant transformations of land use, including afforestation initiatives, which though crucial for carbon offsetting are criticized for displacing communities. The success of climate action depends on effective governance more than on any other factor. This article argues that while climate action may affect land rights, good governance can facilitate just and equitable transitions and socio-economic opportunities. Case studies illustrate the delicate balance that must be struck between environmental protection and governance, emphasizing the need for holistic strategies that safeguard both ecosystems and the rights of communities.

In this paper, we explore the governance structures of carbon farming projects and assess how existing structures reduce transaction costs to facilitate the engagement of smallholder farmers. Building on qualitative data from eleven carbon farming projects in Kenya, we developed a generalized project-level governance structure. Our analysis of project-level governance structures revealed the need for multi-stakeholder partnerships, the importance of local implementation partners with strong connections to potential project participants and the need to develop multi-layer farmer-based structures for effective project implementation. The operational and geographic overlap of existing carbon farming projects, paired with recent growth in new projects entering the market, calls for the development of cross-project governance structures. Our findings provide important insights on the operationalization of smallholder carbon farming projects, relevant for project developers and policymakers in Kenya and beyond.