Fiscal Policy to Mitigate Climate Change: A Guide for Policymakers by Ian W.H. Parry; Ruud de Mooij; Michael Keen

Author:Ian W.H. Parry; Ruud de Mooij; Michael Keen
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781475508383
Publisher: International Monetary Fund
Published: 2012-08-15T00:00:00+00:00

Forest Ownership

Another complexity that must be overcome to create a global program involves overlapping forest ownership. In many forests in the developed world, forests are owned privately by an individual or firm. Most carbon storage programs imagine that they must deal with only a single owner. However, even in developed economies, a great deal of forest is owned by the government or held in some type of common ownership. Here there may be many interest groups that cherish very different aspects of the same forest. A program that encourages more carbon in the forest would enhance some of those services but threaten others. For example, people who would enjoy old growth should welcome storage programs that lengthen tree rotations. However, water flows from such forests would likely be reduced as older forests tend to evaporate more water. People who like species that depend on younger forests would also be negatively affected by the carbon storage program. The carbon storage program may not be universally accepted as an improvement in forest management by these diverse interests.

In many developing economies, the issue of forest ownership is even more complex. Overlapping interests are typical in many tropical forests. The government or timber concessions may have the right to harvest the timber. But local inhabitants may have the right to harvest the wildlife, collect nontimber forest products or firewood, or graze their animals. What incentives will be given to each group to store more carbon? What if the forest is owned by a village or large family? How will the carbon program interact with the village? It is far more difficult to make transactions with villages or large families than a single forest owner. Current economic analyses have not grasped the cost of this problem at all. In principle, one would need to encourage each party to cooperate with a separate payment.

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