A major contributor to global warming is the increasing amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Land use management may be a means to countering global warming by increasing the carbon sink potential. Terrestrial carbon budgets were prepared for forested (Douglas-fir), agricultural (hay), and urban sites in Abbotsford, B.C. The results indicate that the greatest amount of carbon is stored in the forested sites, followed by the hay sites, with the lowest amount in the urban sites. To maximize carbon in storage the use of trees either as forests or in pockets within the landscape is the best option. To simulate and to expand the utility of these carbon budgets, the study used the CENTURY model. The results of the simulations indicate that forests are a major carbon sink as was found earlier. Carbon storage under hay is at a relative steady state, except during the cultivation years when it becomes a carbon source. Lawn in an urban setting is a carbon source. The results of the simulations suggest that management can be used to increase the carbon sink. It also indicates that soils are a major carbon pool representing 20% of the forest, 90% of the hay, and 95% of the lawn budgets. For the general public and decision-makers to become more aware of the impact of changing land use on carbon storage, at the lot, local, or regional levels, they require a userfriendly decision-making tool. A derivative of the CENTURY model, CLU (for CENTURY Land Use), was developed. It was designed to be user-friendly and at the same time maintain the integrity of the parent model. It allows the user to input site-specific data and obtain site related output carbon data on a component basis, which can be used to assess how a potential change in land use or management may affect the amount of carbon in storage. The model should be suitable as a research tool and for planning and educational purposes.

A major contributor to global warming is the increasing amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Land use management may be a means to countering global warming by increasing the carbon sink potential. Terrestrial carbon budgets were prepared for forested (Douglas-fir), agricultural (hay), and urban sites in Abbotsford, B.C. The results indicate that the greatest amount of carbon is stored in the forested sites, followed by the hay sites, with the lowest amount in the urban sites. To maximize carbon in storage the use of trees either as forests or in pockets within the landscape is the best option. To simulate and to expand the utility of these carbon budgets, the study used the CENTURY model. The results of the simulations indicate that forests are a major carbon sink as was found earlier. Carbon storage under hay is at a relative steady state, except during the cultivation years when it becomes a carbon source. Lawn in an urban setting is a carbon source. The results of the simulations suggest that management can be used to increase the carbon sink. It also indicates that soils are a major carbon pool representing 20% of the forest, 90% of the hay, and 95% of the lawn budgets. For the general public and decision-makers to become more aware of the impact of changing land use on carbon storage, at the lot, local, or regional levels, they require a userfriendly decision-making tool. A derivative of the CENTURY model, CLU (for CENTURY Land Use), was developed. It was designed to be user-friendly and at the same time maintain the integrity of the parent model. It allows the user to input site-specific data and obtain site related output carbon data on a component basis, which can be used to assess how a potential change in land use or management may affect the amount of carbon in storage. The model should be suitable as a research tool and for planning and educational purposes. / Science, Faculty of / Resources, Environment and Sustainability (IRES), Institute for / Graduate

published_or_final_version / Earth Sciences / Master / Master of Philosophy

The mandatory and voluntary carbon markets have both developed around the increasing trade of carbon offsets. In order to add legitimacy to an otherwise intangible commodity there has been a rise in the development of third party carbon certification standards, particularly in the voluntary market. These standards aim to provide independent, third party certification to projects that are developed specifically to generate and sell carbon offsets. South Africa has the opportunity to engage with these markets, but current participation in and certification of projects is sluggish. These projects have not taken off mainly due to the high transaction costs and lag times surrounding the current certification of projects', complex baseline methodologies, accounting uncertainty and the often bureaucratic systems surrounding the current voluntary carbon certification standards and methodologies. In order to overcome these pitfalls this project aimed to address these challenges through initiating the development of a preliminary South African voluntary carbon standard. This was done by: a) undertaking a critical assessment of the development of current carbon markets, with a particular focus on voluntary markets and third party certification, b) critically analysing the current voluntary carbon certification standards for best practices, pitfalls and weaknesses. To provide a better understanding of the historical development of voluntary certification standards, various established certification standards were evaluated, including the Forestry Stewardship Council (FSC), Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) and ISO 14000 standards. This analysis focussed on the challenges they faced in acceptance and in particular how they have managed to operationalize sustainable development within the certification process. In order to explicitly ensure the incorporation of a sustainable development assessment of projects under the proposed standard, an expert workshop was held with 14 experts from a wide variety of disciplines. These experts identified the crucial sustainable development challenges facing South Africa. They identified 12 sub-themes and 44 indicators that could be used to measure and incorporate sustainable development indicators into the certification process. These were then further developed through using the 'Input – Output – Outcome – Impact' framework model which allowed the indicators to be organised and understood and thus practical. The analysis of the voluntary certification standards and the development of the sustainable development indicator framework were ultimately incorporated into the development of the proposed South African voluntary carbon standard. The key approach to this standard is the incorporation and focus of the proposed standard to ensuring the generation of net SD benefits and placing them at the same level as carbon within the project design and development, validation and verification process. The full and effective integration of these has been missing within current fully fledged voluntary carbon standards, as they often rely on a mixture of project design standards to achieve this. Offering the inclusion of all components into one standard, specifically designed for South Africa, will not only assure SD credentials but also increase transparency and understanding, and reduce costs. This thesis allowed for the development of innovative new ideas and process focussed specifically at including and mainstreaming South Africa’s developmental challenges into the certification process. This is the hoped that the standard will effectively certify South African based landscape restoration projects, but also decrease costs and increase efficiencies in order to encourage the development of these projects. This preliminary standard not only aims to incorporate and address all the issues identified but also has the end goal of acting as the basis for future debate and development surrounding a potential South African voluntary carbon certification standard.