最新REDD in the red palm oil could undermine carbon.pdfVIP

LETTER REDD in the red: palm oil could undermine carbon payment schemes 1 2 2 Rhett A. Butler , Lian Pin Koh , Jaboury Ghazoul 1 M, P.O. Box 0291, Menlo Park, CA 94026, USA 2 ¨ ¨ ¨ Institute of Terrestrial Ecosystems, ETH Zurich, Universitatstrasse 16, Zurich 8092, Switzerland Keywords Abstract Biodiesel; biodiversity; biofuels; climate change; Southeast Asia. Mechanisms to reduce carbon emissions from deforestation and forest degra- dation (REDD) have been gaining momentum as a way to combat global Correspondence warming, fund forest conservation, and deliver economic benefits to rural Lian Pin Koh, Institute of Terrestrial Ecosystems, ¨ ¨ ¨ populations. However, the economic viability of REDD schemes will depend ETH Zurich, Universitatstrasse 16, Zurich 8092, Switzerland. Tel: +41 44 632 6836; fax: +41 44 on the profitability of alternative land uses. Oil palm agriculture has become 632 1575. E-mail: lian.koh@env.ethz.ch a major driver of tropical deforestation over the last few decades. Here, we model and compare the profitability of converting forest to oil palm versus Received: 23 September 2008; accepted 17 conserving it for an REDD project. We show that converting a hectare of for- December 2008 est for palm oil production will be more profitable (yielding net present val- ues of $3,835–$9,630) to land owners than preserving it for carbon credits doi: 10.1111/j.1755-263