Cost-effective restoration for carbon sequestration across Brazil's biomes

Autor(es)

Barros, F. de. V. ; Lewis, K. ; Robertson, A. D. ; Pennington, R. T. ; Hill, T. C. ; Matthews, C. ; Lira-Martins, D. ; Mazzochini, G. G. ; Oliveira, R. S. ; Rowland, L.

• Tipo de documento: Artigo Científico
• Fonte: Science of The Total Environment; v. 876, p. 12-pg., 2023-03-16.

Resumo

Tropical ecosystems are central to the global focus on halting and reversing habitat destruction as a means of mitigat-ing carbon emissions. Brazil has been highlighted as a vital part of global climate agreements because, whilst ongoing land-use change causes it to be the world's fifth biggest greenhouse gas emitting country, it also has one of the greatest potentials to implement ecosystem restoration. Global carbon markets provide the opportunity of a financially viable way to implement restoration projects at scale. However, except for rainforests, the restoration potential of many major tropical biomes is not widely recognised, with the result that carbon sequestration potential maybe squandered. We synthesize data on land availability, land degradation status, restoration costs, area of native vegetation remaining, carbon storage potential and carbon market prices for 5475 municipalities across Brazil's major biomes, including the savannas and tropical dry forests. Using a modelling analysis, we determine how fast restoration could be implemented across these biomes within existing carbon markets. We argue that even with a sole focus on carbon, we must restore other tropical biomes, as well as rainforests, to effectively increase benefits. The inclusion of dry forests and savannas doubles the area which could be restored in a financially viable manner, increasing the potential CO2e sequestered >40 % above that offered by rainforests alone. Importantly, we show that in the short-term avoiding emissions through conservation will be necessary for Brazil to achieve it's 2030 climate goal, because it can sequester 1.5 to 4.3 Pg of CO2e by 2030, relative to 0.127 Pg CO2e from restoration. However, in the longer term, restoration across all biomes in Brazil could draw down between 3.9 and 9.8 Pg of CO2e from the atmosphere by 2050 and 2080. (AU)

• Processo FAPESP: 19/18145-1 - Restaurando ecossistemas neotropicais secos - seria a composição funcional das plantas a chave para o sucesso?
• Beneficiário: Guilherme Gerhardt Mazzochini
• Modalidade de apoio: Bolsas no Brasil - Pós-Doutorado
• Processo FAPESP: 19/18176-4 - O papel das características funcionais das plantas nas taxas de sucesso dos esforços de restauração de florestas tropicais secas e savanas (TDFS)
• Beneficiário: Demetrius Lira Martins
• Modalidade de apoio: Bolsas no Brasil - Pós-Doutorado
• Processo FAPESP: 19/07773-1 - Restaurando ecossistemas neotropicais secos - seria a composição funcional das plantas a chave para o sucesso?
• Beneficiário: Rafael Silva Oliveira
• Modalidade de apoio: Auxílio à Pesquisa - Temático