Phase 4 of the project was approved in June 2008 and fieldwork has continued in 4 locations in Tanzania, 4 in Senegal, 5 in Guinea Bissau, 1 in Mali, 9 in India, and 3 in Nepal. A number of sites are planned for research in Papua New Guinea. All these sites are areas where communities have already been managing their forests for some time and the primary purpose of the field work is to assess (i) the amount of carbon that accumulates under such management (ii) the ability of communities to make carbon stock inventories (iii) the costs of making such inventories and (iv) the opportunity costs of managing these forests. In some of the locations control sites in unmanaged forest have been measured for comparison. Preliminary analysis of the carbon data indicates that areas of dry forest (rainfall 700-1200mm) accumulated carbon at rates of 0.2 -1.5 tons standing carbon per year (about 1 - 5 tons CO2 equivalent), while our mountain forest sites (rainfall 1000 - 15000mm) accumulated at 1 - 3.5 tons (about 3.5 - 12 tons CO2).
Since the last phase of the project, it has become clear that forest management is unlikely to be taken up as climate policy under CDM but rather become an element within REDD (Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation). Community forest management is particularly suited to reducing forest degradation and reversing this through forest enhancement. On the policy side therefore we have been working to support REDD policy development and to ensure that forest enhancement is included in the international agreement. The project has been very active in international fora on REDD, participating in CoP13 in Bali and in the Forestry Day and presenting preliminary findings at various side events as well as a new book describing project results in the Himalayan region. Several papers on degradation and forest enhancement have been prepared and published, including two Policy Pieces in the African Journal of Ecology, and a brochure for policy makers called "In REDD, the second D is for Degradation". These can be downloaded from the Resources section of this website.
Other recent news
The KTGAL project meeting was held on June 9th and 10th during the twenty-eighth sessions of the "Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice" (SBSTA) and the "Subsidiary Body for Implementation (SBI) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change" in Bonn during 4-13 June 2008.
KTGAL's project was mentioned on the "UNEPs Annual report", if you want to look this information follow this link.
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updates on progress of this project, please contact the manager, Laura Franco
(m.l.francogarcia@utwente.nl)