Measuring the Opportunity Cost of Carbon Sequestration in Tropical Agriculture

Zelek, Charles; Shively, Gerald

doi:10.2307/3147021

Cited by 21 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 18 publications

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“…Delaware is one of the participants in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, which is a cooperative effort of ten states from northeast and Mid-Atlantic to cap and trade carbon emissions [24]. This too can help in the economy of the region [25].…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evaluation of Best Management Practices in Millsboro Pond Watershed Using Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) Model

Sood¹,

Ritter²

2010

JWARP

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The Inland Bays in southern Delaware (USA) are facing eutrophication due to the nutrient loading from its watershed. The source of nutrients in the watershed is predominantly agriculture. The Millsboro Pond, a sub-watershed within the Inland Bays basin, was modeled using the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) model. It was found that the contribution of ground water from outside the watershed had a significant impact on the hydrology of the region. Once the model was calibrated and validated, five management scenarios were implemented, one at a time, to measure its effectiveness in reducing the nutrient loading in the watershed. Among the Best Management Practices (BMPs), planting winter cover crops on the agriculture land was the most effective method in reducing the nutrient loads. The second most effective method was to provide grassland riparian zones. The BMPs alone were not able to achieve the nutrient load reduction as required by the Total Maximum Daily Loads (TMDLs). Two extra scenarios that involved in replacing agriculture land with forest, first with deciduous trees and then with high yielding trees were considered. It is suggested that to achieve the required TMDL for the watershed, some parts of the agricultural land may have to be effectively converted into the managed forest with some high yielding trees such as hybrid poplar trees providing cellulose raw material for bio fuels. The remaining agriculture land should take up the practice of planting winter cover crops and better nutrient management. Riparian zones, either in form of forest or grasslands, should be the final line of defense for reducing nutrient loading in the watershed.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evaluation of Best Management Practices in Millsboro Pond Watershed Using Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) Model

Sood¹,

Ritter²

2010

JWARP

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“…At farm level, where important ALUC decisions are taken, farmers face a trade-off between land conservation and short-term land productivity (Zelek and Shively 2003). Economists also argue that environmental externalities of tree cultivation increase the gap between the private and social cost of land uses (Alix-Garcia and Wolff 2014;Sobool 2004), creating inefficiencies in land allocation.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 98%

Assessing agricultural land-use change in the Midlands region of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa: application of mixed multinomial logit

Hitayezu

Wale

Ortmann

2015

Environ Dev Sustain

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On-farm tree cultivation is considered an important strategy to mitigate detrimental environmental impacts of agricultural land-use change (ALUC). In South Africa, however, little is known about farm-level incentives and constraints that govern ALUC decisions among small-scale farmers. To address this knowledge gap, this study employs a mixed multinomial logit model by using a combination of revealed and stated preference data. After correcting for endogeneity, the estimated results show that decisions about ALUC are rationally derived and driven by clear but heterogeneous preferences and trade-offs between crop productivity, food security and labour saving. The results further show that the decision to plant sugarcane is constrained by landholding, whilst farmland afforestation is negatively influenced by household size. Decisions to convert land use are also driven by the behaviour of peer groups and agro-ecological conditions. Based on these findings, important policy implications for sustainable land use are outlined.

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“…Subsequent studies included the opportunity costs of forgone agricultural uses and constructed cost schedules to estimate the average annual costs and potential carbon benefits of establishing forests (e.g., see [7]). According to the literature above, most studies did not consider the effect of the penalty for the farmers who harvest forests before the contract year, and mainly, if not solely, considered the private opportunity cost of afforestation for deciding the carbon payment; their goal is to ensure the effectiveness of the policy (e.g., see [6], [13]). Huang and Kronrad [6] applied Faustmann formula [4] to compute the land expectation values (LEV) of the optimal private rotation period and that of the rotation period maximizing average annual harvest of timber; the difference is then given to the landowner as compensation for extending the rotation period from the private optimal one to the one with maximum carbon sequestration.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The social benefits consists of private as well as external benefits, but their studies consider only the benefit of carbon sequestration but no timber value in the computation of the optimal rotation period. Zelek and Shively [13] suggested that the carbon payment should be decided by minimizing the government expenditure such that some predetermined carbon sequestration level can be achieved. They proposed that the minimization of the government expenditure and the amount of carbon payment should be determined in a manner of competitive bidding by the landowners.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Modeling the Optimal Environment Service Payment for Afforestation Program

Liu

Lin²,

Lin

2009

2009 Second International Conference on Environmental and Computer Science

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In addition to the commodity value of lumber, forests can also provide the function of conserving water and land resources, enriching biodiversity, and modulating micro-climate, etc. To secure the effective supply of forest resources, it is essential for governments to formulate subsidy programs for afforestation. Under most current afforestation programs in the world, the amount of afforestation payment covers only the total cost of afforestation and the opportunity cost of agricultural land, in which the social benefits of forests are not taken into consideration, and the period of payment is mainly determined by the forest rotation years of most common trees planted. However, based upon our model, it is found that the current afforestation program in Taiwan will not be able to achieve the socially optimal result; it will also cause higher government expenditure in subsidizing farmers. Different from the previous literature that did not consider the effect of the penalty for the farmers who harvest forests before the contract year, and only used the forest maintenance year to determine the duration of carbon payment without considering its proper justification, we develop a landowner's behavior model to determine the optimal payment structure over the whole period, and analyze the effects of the penalty payment. Based upon our theoretical model, a simulation is conducted by using cunnignhania lancelata as an example to determine the optimal number of years and the optimal amount of carbon payment each year. It is shown that our model can be applied to different kinds of trees over various kinds of situations. * †

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Measuring the Opportunity Cost of Carbon Sequestration in Tropical Agriculture

Cited by 21 publications

References 18 publications

Evaluation of Best Management Practices in Millsboro Pond Watershed Using Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) Model

Evaluation of Best Management Practices in Millsboro Pond Watershed Using Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) Model

Assessing agricultural land-use change in the Midlands region of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa: application of mixed multinomial logit

Modeling the Optimal Environment Service Payment for Afforestation Program

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