More than carbon stocks: A case study of ecosystem-based benefits of REDD+ in Indonesia

During the 15th Conference of the Parties (COP 15), Parties agreed that reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation and enhancing ‘removals of greenhouse gas emission by forests’ (REDD+) in developing countries through positive incentives under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) was capable of dealing with global emissions. As REDD+ seeks to lower emissions by stopping deforestation and forest degradation with an international payment tier according to baseline scenarios, opportunities for ecosystem benefits such as slowing habitat fragmentation, conservation of forest biodiversity, soil conservation may be also part of this effort. The primary objective of this study is to evaluate ecosystem-based benefits of REDD+, and to identify the relationships with carbon stock changes. To achieve this goal, high resolution satellite images are combined with Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) to identify historical deforestation in study area of Central Kalimantan, Indonesia. The carbon emissions for the period of 2000–2005 and 2005–2009 are 2.73 × 105 t CO2 and 1.47 × 106 t CO2 respectively, showing an increasing trend in recent years. Dring 2005–2009, number of patches (NP), patch density (PD), mean shape index distribution (SHAPE_MN) increased 30.8%, 30.7% and 7.6%. Meanwhile, largest patch index (LPI), mean area (AREA_MN), area-weighted mean of shape index distribution (SHAPE_AM), neighbor distance (ENN_MN) and interspersion and juxtaposition index (IJI) decreased by 55.3%, 29.7%, 15.8%, 53.4% and 21.5% respectively. The area regarding as positive correlation between carbon emissions and soil erosion was approximately 8.9 × 103 ha corresponding to 96.0% of the changing forest. These results support the view that there are strong synergies among carbon loss, forest fragmentation and soil erosion in tropical forests. Such mechanism of REDD+ is likely to present opportunities for multiple benefits that fall outside the scope of carbon stocks.