Modeling trade-offs across carbon sequestration, biodiversity conservation, and equity in the distribution of global REDD+ funds

• Published in: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences - PNAS Vol. 116; no. 45; pp. 22645 - 22650
• Main Authors: Palomo, Ignacio, Dujardin, Yann, Midler, Estelle, Robin, Manon, Sanz, María J., Pascual, Unai
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States National Academy of Sciences 05.11.2019
• Series: From the Cover
• Subjects: Biodiversity; Biological Sciences; Carbon; Carbon Sequestration; Carbon sinks; Climate Change; Climate change mitigation; Conservation; Conservation of Natural Resources - economics; Deforestation; Developing countries; Emissions; Emissions control; Equity; Financial Management - economics; Forest degradation; Forests; Funds; Incentives; Land degradation; LDCs; Models, Econometric; Social Sciences; Tradeoffs; Trees - growth & development; Wildlife conservation; biodiversity; trade-offs; REDD; equity; climate change
• ISSN: 0027-8424; 1091-6490
• DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1908683116

The program on Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) is one of the major attempts to tackle climate change mitigation in developing countries. REDD+ seeks to provide result-based incentives to promote emission reductions and increase carbon sinks in forest land while promoting other cobenefits, such as the conservation of biodiversity. We model different scenarios of international REDD+ funds distribution toward potential recipient countries using 2 carbon emission reduction targets (20% and 50% compared to the baseline scenario, i.e., deforestation and forest degradation without REDD+) by 2030. The model combines the prioritization of environmental outcomes in terms of carbon sequestration and biodiversity conservation and social equity, accounting for the equitable distribution of international REDD+ funds. Results highlight the synergy between carbon sequestration and biodiversity conservation under alternative fund allocation criteria, especially for scenarios of low carbon emission reduction. Trade-offs increase when distributional equity is considered as an additional criterion, especially under higher equity requirements. The analysis helps to better understand the inherent trade-offs between enhancing distributional equity and meeting environmental targets under alternative REDD+ fund allocation options.