Linking local action to international climate agreements in the tropical dry forests of Mexico

Payment for environmental services (PES) is widely seen as an instrument to promote sustainable management of natural resources while contributing to local development. Many countries, including Mexico, are planning to participate in the new UNFCCC climate change policy on Reduced Emissions from Deforestation in Developing countries (REDD+) by using forms of PES to reward rural communities that are able to bring about reductions in deforestation and forest degradation, and enhancement of forest stock. However, unlike most existing PES schemes which are area based, international payments for carbon reductions will be in terms of output (per ton carbon). The quantification involved brings with it a number of problems, but also opportunities. At the heart of the proposed study is the idea, developed in earlier research by the team, that communities themselves are able to quantify, record and transmit data on carbon and other ESs, and that in doing this, they will be in a stronger position to claim rewards from the payments system. The current proposal builds on these earlier findings to estimate the potential for community forest management to link to carbon markets. This potential includes the biophysical potential (growth rates of carbon stock under community management); the capacity of communities to organize themselves to reduce rates of deforestation and degradation; their capacity to measure the stock changes; the costs involved (direct costs of sustainable management, opportunity costs, and transaction costs associated with marketing carbon); and knowledge of marketing opportunities. A major factor in this is the nature of the information required; the forms in which it is represented and interpreted; the direction and power of information flow between communities and policy-makers; whether community-sourced information will be considered legitimate in other parts of the market chain; and what conditions are placed on this by different markets. Loss of biomass in dry forests particularly through degradation is significant in terms of the global carbon cycle, but has been under researched compared to losses due to deforestation in rainforests. The study will be therefore undertaken in tropical dry forests in the state of Michoacan and Jalisco in Mexico. The results of the study will be of direct relevance globally both for the development of community based approaches and for the design of international policy for carbon markets. Project results will be disseminated through existing networks developed by the project team and at the UNFCCC conference of parties meetings.