Preventing emissions from deforestation is propagated as an effective strategy to combat climate change. At the same time forest landscapes are habitat to the last remaining traditional societies of this planet. For a long time forest conservation programs neglected the role of these indigenous communities for forest landscapes. Historical ecology pushes a change of environmental narratives towards an understanding that biocultural diversity has had and will have a significant impact on resource use and on the transformation of landscapes. A growing number of debates on global environmental justice and poverty alleviation goals call for such an integrated approach in protecting biodiversity and cultural diversity when conserving forest landscapes. Although this topic is discussed, there is a gap in scientific literature on how such an approach can actually be implemented in practise. This paper examines how the dual-objective of forest conservation and protection of cultural diversity can be achieved in practise by applying a case study of a conservation project, Carbon Tanzania. Carbon Tanzania is operating in an area in northern Tanzania inhabited by one of the few remaining hunting and gathering societies on the planet, the Hadzabe. Carbon Tanzania conservation project issues carbon credits which can be bought by companies, organisations and individuals to offset their emissions. Interviews with the different actors have been conducted in the course of the research project in order to examine how Carbon Tanzania’s ‘community-led project’ contextualizes the dual objective of protecting forests and the Hadzabe culture. The results show that the implementation of the project is facilitated through an integrated network of different actors and organisations. Critical for the operations in the area is secured land ownership and a binding land use plan in order to protect the area from external pressure and to manage the utilization of the landscape by the different communities within the area. Payments for ecosystem services generate benefits for the local forest community and support community development. This form of ‘productive’ land utilization offers a path in changing development narratives for African countries.

Rapid, human-forced climate change as a result of greenhouse gases is threatening the fabric of human civilisation itself. It is clear that we need to alter our development and poorer countries will need to develop while limiting their emissions, but it is not clear what sustainable development would entail. Climate change policy solutions have pivoted on carbon trading, under the auspices of the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), but this too has failed to limit growth in carbon emissions. This report looks at the operations of the CDM in South Africa as a source of climate finance meant to facilitate sustainable development. Though South Africa has emphasised its commitment towards a low-carbon transition, in practice its national planners seek to preserve energy-intensive mineral and industrial sectors. This research draws on both primary and secondary documents as well as interviews with carbon professionals to conclude that CDM projects have played a limited role in South Africa, but has tended to reproduce the existing minerals and energy complex within the country.

No description available.

Canada's commitment to the Kyoto Protocol provides agricultural producers with an opportunity to supply carbon offset credits to a domestic carbon market and receive revenue from the sale of these credits. This study employed the multiple bounded discrete choice method to estimate Quebec hog producers' willingness to accept compensation to adopt two management practices that reduce carbon emissions; i.e. reduced protein feeding and adopting a manure storage cover. The average willingness to accept compensation for reduced protein feeding was $46.71 per tonne of CO2 equivalent and for the manure storage cover was $40.40 per tonne of CO2 equivalent. In addition, hog producers were asked what cost they would be willing to bear if they received $20 per animal unit in carbon offset credit revenue. The average cost they were willing to bear was $11.88. Key factors that influenced producers' decisions were identified. Results can be used to improve the institutional rules and public policy associated with developing a domestic carbon emission trading mechanism. Starting-point and sequencing bias were tested for with the convolution approach. Starting-point bias was found in all the hypothetical situations; while sequencing bias was not found.

The Canadian agricultural sector was recognised as a potential seller of carbon offset credits in the domestic emission trading system. A number of beneficial management practices may reduce GHG emissions while increasing production efficiency and profitability of agricultural activities. A contingent valuation survey was used to estimate the carbon offset price at which feedlot operators in Ontario would adopt two management practices that reduce GHG emissions: adding roasted soybean seeds to a cattle diet and increasing the intensity of feedlot operations. The value elicitation questions to estimate the mean WTA compensation were designed using a multiple bounded discrete choice format developed by Welsh and Poe (1998). / It was estimated that at a carbon offset price of $ 25.14/t CO2 e provided enough incentive for feedlot operators to intensify their operations and a price of $ 109.51/t CO2e to change their feeding strategies. The mean willingness to accept a cost to change a conventional practice to a greenhouse gas emissions reducing practice was estimated to be 62% of the carbon revenue. The regression analysis demonstrated that producers' willingness to accept compensation was influenced by the individual's characteristics, farm structure variables, and practice attributes. Policy makers may use these results in the design of greenhouse gas reduction strategies for the beef sector.

Environmental strategies implemented today are strongly influenced by the ideologies capitalism, neoliberalism and ecomodernism. As such, they should promote global economic expansion while mitigating environmental impact. This is in line with the prevailing environmental political discourse of sustainable development, in which economic, ecological and social dimensions are considered compatible and dependent on each other. However, this essay challenges the normative assumption regarding the win-win-win narrative by examining the economic, ecological and social consequences of Max Burgers’ environmental strategies through three critical scientific theories. By posing an ideology critique and through the lens of our theoretical framework, we find that Max Burgers mystifies the apparent relation between local economic growth, global ecological impact and divided social progress, thus reinforcing unequal power dynamics and patterns of uneven development.

Thesis (Ph. D. (Accounting)) -- University of Limpopo, 2017. / This research examined the effect of carbon emissions reduction on financial performance Johannesburg Stock Exchange’s SRI companies. Empirical results of corporate fossil energy-based dependence on environment and economic performance thus far have been ambiguous. The major objective of this research was to examine the effect of emissions and energy intensity on market and accounting based performance measures. This research adopted the positivist paradigm approach and therefore used a quantitative causal research approach. Archival data was collected from fourteen JSE’s SRI companies for seven years. The research applied a panel data analysis, a total of 98 observations were derived from panel data set. Multiple linear and causal econometric models were applied in the data analyses namely ordinary least squares (OLS), fixed effects and dynamic models. OLS results showed a significant effect of energy usage intensity (ENGINT) on return on assets (ROA), and return on sales (ROS), with carbon emissions intensity (EMSINT) exhibiting a significant effect on return on assets (ROA), and return on sales (ROS). When the study controlled for omitted variable bias and possible orthogonality condition, a significant negative effect of energy intensity (ENGINT) on equity returns (EQRTNS) was found. Impulse response analysis revealed that shocks in energy intensity on average tend to decrease firms’ financial value, while shocks in emissions intensity on average increase firms’ financial value within the sampled companies. Whilst testing for causality, the Panel Granger causal analysis showed unidirectional effect of EMSINT on EQRTNS, and bidirectional causal relationship between EMSINT and MVE/S at 1% significant level. This research made a contribution by extending the model used by previous researchers through the use of multiple market and accounting based performance measures which were analysed using advanced econometric models: Arellano-Bond DPD model, impulse response function in short PVARs and Bootstrap dynamic panel threshold model. In addition, this thesis suggested a model to advance future research on carbon emissions and firm performance and managerial decision propensity for carbon reduction. / Carbon Disclosure Project and School of Accountancy of the University of Limpopo

The voluntary carbon market, the area of focus for this thesis, developed alongside the compliance carbon market when individuals and organisations elected to compensate for their CO2 emissions. The steep growth in demand for voluntary carbon offset credits stemmed from the 2015 Paris Agreement. Climate issues were firmly on the agenda and carbon offsetting was viewed as a way for countries to meet their carbon reduction targets in efforts towards mitigating climate change. Since then, there has been a shift to natural climate solutions, namely forestry and land use carbon projects.  The ideal host location for such projects oftentimes have an existing, usually poor, population.  Project developers claim to help such populations by providing community benefits such as job creation and improved agricultural practices.  However, there is a gap in the research which focuses on the future of these communities after the projects, and how sustainable the benefits are.  This thesis examines the community benefits of two REDD+ (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation) projects: Alto Mayo Conservation Initiative, Peru and Yaeda Valley REDD Project, Tanzania.  Interviews with project developers are cross-referenced with project documents and other available sources to analyse the sustainability of the livelihood impacts.  The results show that the positive impacts of voluntary carbon projects on a local community can be sustained post-project. Overall, the well-being of community members can improve, as can decision-making skills and capacity levels.  Project participants can become more adaptable to shocks as their livelihoods have diversified and they have stronger links with international markets.  This link with international markets, however, can also become a barrier to livelihood benefits. As local people become reliant on market demand and project funds, they move away from subsistence farming and when demand drops, they may find it hard to prosper.  Additionally, there is a risk that following the departure of the project and its developers, more malevolent and powerful parties may move into the area.  To overcome these barriers, livelihood diversification opportunities need to be strengthened and land tenure issues clarified.

No description available.

Thesis (MPhil)--Stellenbosch University, 2012. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: In the context of both climate change and peak oil, it is clear that the tourism industry cannot continue with a business-as-usual approach. Unfettered fossil fuel use is no longer an option and novel approaches need to be explored in order to change the configuration of energy systems. Transport is particularly energy intense and consequently, since it involves travel, so is tourism. The Drifters Desert Nature Reserve (DDNR) is probably a net carbon sink. The property is large and has thousands of long lived trees and bushes: but this would be an ‘easy out’ in an industry which is has a reputation for evading tough questions. Are there affordable techniques that can be employed by the Reserve that will reduce its carbon footprint and enable it to move toward being entirely carbon neutral, without relying on sequestration? A willingness to pay (WTP) survey investigating if clients were prepared to pay a voluntary amount towards reducing the emissions of the DDNR, thereby offsetting some of their own emissions, was conducted; 121 questionnaires were completed. The results were extrapolated out to represent the WTP of the 1055 clients that visited the DDNR in the last year. It was found that 73% of all the clients who stay at the DDNR are willing to pay toward helping the DDNR change the way its systems are configured as a means to offset some of their own emissions debt in getting to the reserve. Lodge clients were prepared to pay almost double the amount clients staying at the campsite would consider. In both cases, WTP was around 10% of the value of the accommodation package chosen. The fossil fuel use and consequent carbon dioxide debt of the DDNR was calculated and emissions were found to be in the region of 30 tonnes per annum. As per the case in the greater Namibia, transport is responsible for the bulk of the carbon dioxide output, with energy provision in this off-grid reserve being a close second. Of four potential interventions considered, two were found to be financially viable, regardless of the WTP of clientele. It is speculated that WTP on a small scale is administratively laborious and the potential contribution of a voluntary offsetting payment was perhaps not high to justify the implementation of the scheme. It was however found that reconfiguring the energy systems would definitely be a worthwhile exercise. On corporate level where efficiencies of size amplify gains, Drifters, as a group of 14 lodges and an overland company, may well find that a transparent voluntary emissions reduction (VER) payment, ring-fenced, appropriately used, and properly implemented, is worthwhile. Ethically, however, injecting VER payments into a balance sheet is problematic, especially where the payback period of the technological interventions is short and the benefits derived are long term. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die gebruik van fossielbrandstowwe wat in die huidige tydsgewrig tot die opwekking van oormatige kweekhuisgasse lei is nie langer aanvaarbaar nie en innoverende opsies om die voortgesette generasie van energie te verseker, sal nagestreef moet word. Een van die grootste verbruikers van energie is vervoer, en vervolgens is dit ook die geval dat toerisme, wat swaar op vervoer staatmaak, ‘n groot gebruiker van energie is. Aangesien daar etlike gevestigde bome en bosse op hierdie woestynreservaat is, is die Drifters Desert Nature Reserve (DDNR) moontlik ‘n netto bespaarder van koolstofgasse, maar dit kan nie sondermeer daargelaat word in ‘n bedryf wat bekend is daarvoor dat dit graag die moeilike vrae vermy nie. Daar is dus gevra: is daar bekostigbare tegnieke wat moontlik by die DDBR aangewend kan word om die koolstofvoetafdruk te verminder en dit in staat kan stel om totaal koolstofneutraal te word, sonder om op ingryping staat te maak? Navorsing is gedoen en 121 vraelyste is voltooi om vas te stel of kliente gewillig sou wees om ‘n vrywillige bydrae te maak om die afskeid van koolstof te beheer en daardeur hul eie koolstofvoetafrdruk te verminder, in ‘n sg “gewilligheid om te betaal” oftewel “willingness to pay” (WTP) opname. Die resultate is deurgevoer as verteenwoordigend van die 1 055 kliente wat verlede jaar die oord besoek het. Daar is gevind dat 73% van die kliente wat die oord besoek bereid sou wees om die DDNR geldelik te help om sy stelsels te verander as ‘n teenrekening om hul eie koolstofbesoedeling op pad daarheen te vergoed. Kliente wat die losie gebruik het was bereid om meer te betaal as diegene wat by die kampeerterrein tuisgegaan het. Die hele reservaat se jaarlikse koolstofdioksied debiet is bereken, en die jaarlikse opwekking is op ongeveer 30-tonne vasgestel. Nes in Namibie as geheel is vervoeruitlaatgasse verantwoordelik vir die oorgrote meerderheid opwekking, met die voorsiening van energie by die afgelee oord kort op sy hakke. Van die vier moontlike ingrypings wat oorweeg is, is twee finansieel die moeite werd gevind, ongeag die kliente se gewilligheid om geldelik by te dra. Die bestuur van aanvraag is ook oorweeg, en hoewel dit nie gekwantifiseer is nie, is dit nes die moontlikheid van tegnologiese innovering, duidelik deel van die oplossing, Daar is gevind dat ‘n stelsel van betaling op plaaslike vlak moeilik sou wees om die administreer, en aangesien selfs die gewilliges nie oorgretig is nie, is daar tot die gevolgtrekking gekom dat dit nie die moeite sou loon nie. Ongeag bogenoemde beginsel van toersitebydraes is daar gevind dat dit ongetwyfeld die moeite werd sou wees om die energiestelsels aan te pas. Maar dit sal nie noodwendig op ‘n korporatiewe of ‘n makro-skaal werk nie, veral nie waar grote ‘n rol speel nie. As maatskappygroep mag Drifters vind dat met ‘n deursigtige, vrywillige uitlaatverminderingspaaiement, wat afgebaken, korrek aangewend en effektief bestuur word, die kool die sous werd sou wees.