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Title: Development Of Regional Climate Mitigation Baseline For A DominantAgro-Ecological Zone Of Karnataka, India

Journal Article · · Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for GlobalChange

Setting a baseline for carbon stock changes in forest andland use sector mitigation projects is an essential step for assessingadditionality of the project. There are two approaches for settingbaselines namely, project-specific and regional baseline. This paperpresents the methodology adopted for estimating the land available formitigation, for developing a regional baseline, transaction cost involvedand a comparison of project-specific and regional baseline. The studyshowed that it is possible to estimate the potential land and itssuitability for afforestation and reforestation mitigation projects,using existing maps and data, in the dry zone of Karnataka, southernIndia. The study adopted a three-step approach for developing a regionalbaseline, namely: i) identification of likely baseline options for landuse, ii) estimation of baseline rates of land-use change, and iii)quantification of baseline carbon profile over time. The analysis showedthat carbon stock estimates made for wastelands and fallow lands forproject-specific as well as the regional baseline are comparable. Theratio of wasteland Carbon stocks of a project to regional baseline is1.02, and that of fallow lands in the project to regional baseline is0.97. The cost of conducting field studies for determination of regionalbaseline is about a quarter of the cost of developing a project-specificbaseline on a per hectare basis. The study has shown the reliability,feasibility and cost-effectiveness of adopting regional baseline forforestry sectormitigation projects.

Research Organization:
COLLABORATION - Indian Institute ofScience
DOE Contract Number:
DE-AC02-05CH11231
OSTI ID:
927320
Report Number(s):
LBNL-61458; MASCFV; R&D Project: E14841; BnR: 400408000; TRN: US200811%%245
Journal Information:
Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for GlobalChange, Vol. 12, Issue 6; Related Information: Journal Publication Date: July 2007; ISSN 1381-2386
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English