Climate Change Mitigation and Sustainable
Development in Peru: Compatible Goals?

Jenny Henman and Steven Hamburg

This research project explores the realities associated with carbon emissions trading both from an ecological and social perspective. The principle of carbon emissions trading stems from the Kyoto Protocol where industrialized nations are able to invest in carbon sequestering projects in developing nations to meet their commitments to reduce greenhouse gases. This grants investors, the industrialized nations, emissions credits at lower cost than domestic abatement, whilst providing host countries with an additional source of economic investment. As tropical deforestation contributes approximately 20 percent of global carbon dioxide emissions forestry projects are one mechanism for achieving Kyoto goals. Future creditable land use options include reforestation, forest enrichment and preservation of primary forest. The land use implications of the potential for carbon trading are being examined at the local level through a case study area of 400,000 hectares outside the city of Iquitos in the Northern Peruvian Amazon. Through the use of remote sensing, ecological surveys and qualitative research techniques an initial feasibility study is currently being executed.

This Masters research thesis examines the potential for carbon emissions trading through forestry management in the Peruvian Amazon. Various methodologies were employed; the study area was mapped through the use of remote sensing, carbon stocks were estimated using ecological inventories and the social context and future scenarios were examined through a combination of qualitative techniques with local communities, and policy makers. It is hoped this integrated project will feed into future development plans for the study area located just outside Iquitos, in the north-east of Peru.

Figure 1: Future Scenarios: a local farmer’s map of his vision for future land-use

Updated 05/01/2006
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