Details of Award
NERC Reference : NE/L009811/1
Estimating Fire Emissions in a Tropical Peatland REDD+ Project
Training Grant Award
- Lead Supervisor:
- Professor MJ Wooster, King's College London, Geography
- Grant held at:
- King's College London, Geography
- Science Area:
- Atmospheric
- Terrestrial
- Overall Classification:
- Atmospheric
- ENRIs:
- Biodiversity
- Environmental Risks and Hazards
- Global Change
- Natural Resource Management
- Science Topics:
- None
- Abstract:
- This CASE studentship links King's College London with CASE partner the Zoological Society of London (ZSL). Through calculations made using satellite Earth Observation, informed by fieldwork and small-scale experiments, it targets the estimation of biomass burning greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in a 'Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation' (REDD+) demonstration project led by ZSL and located in a threatened Indonesian tropical peatland, home to many unique flora and fauna on Sumatra. REDD+ represents an international effort, led by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), to create economic value for tropical forest carbon stores, offering substantial and meaningful incentives for developing countries to reduce GHG emissions from forested lands by investing in low-carbon development. ZSL is highly engaged in REDD+ since reductions in forest degradation and deforestation will in turn bring potentially large-scale biodiversity conservation and poverty-reduction co-benefits, in addition to reducing the GHG emissions themselves. The UK played a large part in establishing and developing REDD+ under the UNFCCC, and is a strong supporter of the mechanism. Prof. Jim Penman of the UK Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC) was principal architect of the treatment of land-use, land use change and forestry in the climate negotiations that ultimately increased the political momentum of REDD+. REDD+ relies on incentive payments made in response to reported GHG emissions reductions stated within specified confidence limits. ZSL is leading a REDD+ project in the Berbak region of Sumatra between 2014 and 2018, and a successful demonstration should lead to major benefits in terms of reduced deforestation and forest degradation, GHG emissions mitigation, biodiversity conservation and ecosystem service maintenance. Fire is highly prevalent in the region, as evidenced by the widely reported June 2014 intense haze event from Sumatran fires that affected even surrounding countries. A reduction in burning through changes in land management practices is one way that ZSL and their Indonesian partners plan to reduce GHG emissions under REDD+ incentive payments, but to do this a reporting mechanism for these fire emissions has to be delivered. The aim of this NERC CASE PhD studentship is to undertake research that will aid ZSL in delivering GHG emissions reduction reporting under their REDD+ project, specifically in relation to biomass burning (fire) in a region combining tropical forest, agriculture and peatland. The reporting is made relative to a baseline period before the landscape management interventions were commenced, so calculating these baseline emissions for the last 5 years or longer is a key task of this CASE studentship. Then, REDD+ must demonstrate quantified GHG emissions reductions over a sufficiently long time-period wrt the baseline, and with sufficient confidence (i.e. accuracy and precision), for the project to earn continued funding through the internationally agreed REDD+ incentive mechanisms/payments. The aim is that funding is then used to continue to maintain, or enhance, changes already made to local landscape management practises in order to protect the forest and its biodiversity, this in turn ideally leading ultimately to a sustainable path to regional development. So, a second key task of the PhD is to deliver to ZSL a proven methodology that they can use to estimate these emissions reductions, and to do this with quantified uncertainties. Finally, the student should apply this methodology to the first few years of the REDD+ project during year 2 and 3 of their PhD, to attempt to provide the first evidence of any emission reduction outcome from the landscape-scale interventions that ZSL and their local Indonesian partners are planning to make (e.g. changes in local burning practices).
- NERC Reference:
- NE/L009811/1
- Grant Stage:
- Awaiting Completion
- Scheme:
- DTG - directed
- Grant Status:
- Closed
- Programme:
- Industrial CASE
This training grant award has a total value of £91,515
FDAB - Financial Details (Award breakdown by headings)
| Total - Fees | Total - Student Stipend | Total - RTSG |
|---|---|---|
| £16,226 | £64,292 | £11,000 |
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