Published: 2022
Total Pages: 0
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Forests play an important role in the global carbon cycle and are home to a significant portion of the world's terrestrial biodiversity. Global concerns about climate change forces governments to mitigate climate change by reducing greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, including the contribution from the forestry sector. One of the greenhouse gas mitigation strategies of the forestry sector is reducing the rate of deforestation and forest degradation and increasing forest carbon stocks. As part of the global community, Indonesia is committed to contributing to climate change mitigation by reducing deforestation and forest degradation and increasing forest carbon stocks by improving forest management. This thesis focuses on optimal forest management for climate change mitigation in Indonesia in the even-aged forest (plantation forest) and uneven-aged forest (natural forest). The method used in this thesis is the modified Faustmann approach to analyze the optimal forest management with additional income from carbon credit. The findings of this thesis are as follows: First, compared to the current carbon model, the Verified Carbon Standard (VCS) model, one of the most used schemes in the voluntary carbon market, is less cost-effective. The inefficiencies of VCS are more pronounced for longer rotation or storing more carbon in forest biomass. Second, resin production in the pine forest lengthens the rotation and supports carbon storage. Better site conditions mean faster timber growth and thus a shorter rotation for timber production only. Additional income from resin production will lengthen the rotation, with a more pronounced effect on rotation at the lower site qualities. At lower site qualities and at the same age, the number of trees is higher than that at higher site quality. Therefore, resin production of pine forest is somewhat larger in the lower site qualities. Third, at low carbon prices, sustainable forest management, forest carbon sequestration, and commercial timber production – all of which are crucial for employment in the sawmill and manufacturing industries – go hand in hand, but at higher prices, they become alternatives. The land expectation value is negatively impacted by compensation for the carbon stored in end-use wood products (EWP). Fourth, allowing damaged trees to remain on the plot results in significantly higher basal areas and carbon storage in aboveground biomass (AGB) compared to the situation where damaged trees are assumed to decay sufficiently fast that they do not affect ingrowth or stand composition. The ability of managed tropical forests to store carbon and provide ecosystem services in response to programs – such as payments for ecosystem services, conservation, sustainable forest management, and enhancement of forest carbon stocks in developing countries (e.g. reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation, as well as sustainable management of forests and the conservation and enhancement of forest carbon stocks in developing countries /REDD+) – may thus be grossly underestimated.