Skip to main content
Kent Academic Repository

Identifying Where REDD+ Financially Out Competes Oil Palm in Floodplain Landscapes Using a Fine-Scale Approach

Davis, Sarah C., Abram, Nicola K., MacMillan, Douglas C., Xofis, Panteleimon, Ancrenaz, Marc, Tzanopoulos, Joseph, Ong, Robert, Goossens, Benoit, Koh, Lian Pin, Del Valle, Christian, and others. (2016) Identifying Where REDD+ Financially Out Competes Oil Palm in Floodplain Landscapes Using a Fine-Scale Approach. PLoS ONE, . pp. 1-23. ISSN 1932-6203. (doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0156481) (KAR id:56917)

Abstract

Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation (REDD+) aims to avoid forest conversion to alternative land-uses through financial incentives. Oil-palm has high opportunity costs, which according to current literature questions the financial competitiveness of REDD+ in tropical lowlands. To understand this more, we undertook regional finescale and coarse-scale analyses (through carbon mapping and economic modelling) to assess the financial viability of REDD+ in safeguarding unprotected forest (30,173 ha) in the Lower Kinabatangan floodplain in Malaysian Borneo. Results estimate 4.7 million metric tons of carbon (MgC) in unprotected forest, with 64% allocated for oil-palm cultivations. Through fine-scale mapping and carbon accounting, we demonstrated that REDD+ can outcompete oil-palm in regions with low suitability, with low carbon prices and low carbon stock. In areas with medium oil-palm suitability, REDD+ could outcompete oil palm in areas

with: very high carbon and lower carbon price; medium carbon price and average carbon stock; or, low carbon stock and high carbon price. Areas with high oil palm suitability, REDD + could only outcompete with higher carbon price and higher carbon stock. In the coarse-scale model, oil-palm outcompeted REDD+ in all cases. For the fine-scale models at the landscape level, low carbon offset prices (US $3 MgCO2e) would enable REDD+ to outcompete oil-palm in 55% of the unprotected forests requiring US $27 million to secure these areas for 25 years. Higher carbon offset price (US $30 MgCO2e) would increase the competitiveness of REDD+ within the landscape but would still only capture between 69%-74% of the unprotected forest, requiring US $380–416 million in carbon financing. REDD+ has been identified as a strategy to mitigate climate change by many countries (including Malaysia). Although REDD+ in certain scenarios cannot outcompete oil palm, this research contributes to the global REDD+ debate by: highlighting REDD+ competitiveness in tropical floodplain landscapes; and, providing a robust approach for identifying and targeting limited REDD+ funds.

Item Type: Article
DOI/Identification number: 10.1371/journal.pone.0156481
Uncontrolled keywords: Oil palm; Forests; Economic models; Carbon sequestration; Conservation science; Biodiversity
Subjects: G Geography. Anthropology. Recreation
Q Science > QH Natural history > QH75 Conservation (Biology)
Divisions: Divisions > Division of Human and Social Sciences > School of Anthropology and Conservation
Depositing User: Douglas MacMillan
Date Deposited: 22 Aug 2016 11:14 UTC
Last Modified: 09 Jan 2024 05:21 UTC
Resource URI: https://kar.kent.ac.uk/id/eprint/56917 (The current URI for this page, for reference purposes)

University of Kent Author Information

MacMillan, Douglas C..

Creator's ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2573-5049
CReDIT Contributor Roles:

Tzanopoulos, Joseph.

Creator's ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3322-2019
CReDIT Contributor Roles:
  • Depositors only (login required):

Total unique views for this document in KAR since July 2020. For more details click on the image.