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Title: Avoided land use conversions and carbon loss from conservation purchases in California

Journal Article · · Journal of Land Use Science
 [1];  [2];  [1];  [1]
  1. Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States)
  2. Univ. of Colorado, Boulder, CO (United States)
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Conversion of natural lands to residential and agricultural uses can limit carbon (C) storage. Conservation measures, such as purchasing land to prevent development, can preserve stored aboveground C. Furthermore, since it is difficult to know what would happen to the land in the absence of conservation interventions, the additional carbon benefit of these programs remains unknown. Therefore, we analyzed 73 coastal parcels (292,184 total acres) acquired by the California State Coastal Conservancy (SCC) and developed counterfactual scenarios to highlight the impact of conservation actions. We found that an additional 55 * 103 Mg aboveground C (1.357% of the total stored carbon) was protected. The methodology we develop here, which incorporates expert opinion and neighboring land conversion trends, effectively evaluates the impact of conservation purchases to prevent land conversion, and could be used to measure changes of various ecosystem services.

Research Organization:
Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC02-05CH11231
OSTI ID:
1510753
Journal Information:
Journal of Land Use Science, Vol. 13, Issue 4; ISSN 1747-423X
Publisher:
Taylor & FrancisCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 2 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

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Figures / Tables (10)

Figure 1(p. 6)figure Figure 1
Table 1(p. 8)table Table 1
Figure 2(p. 10)figure Figure 2
Table 2(p. 13)table Table 2
Figure 3(p. 17)figure Figure 3
Table 3(p. 17)table Table 3
Figure 4(p. 18)figure Figure 4
Figure 5(p. 19)figure Figure 5
Figure 6(p. 20)figure Figure 6
Table 4(p. 21)table Table 4

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32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATION
54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
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counterfactual analysis
highest and best use (HBU) of land