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Carbon sequestration : trade-offs of planting trees on agricultural land Gilsenan, Rory
Abstract
For some time, climate change has been considered by many to be one of the world's greatest, and most critical, environmental concerns of our age. In 1997 these concerns led to the creation of the Kyoto Protocol, which was designed to limit greenhouse emissions in an attempt to mitigate climate change. Canada's commitment under this agreement is a reduction in emissions to 6% below its 1990 levels, and one of the options that is under consideration to enable Canada to partially meet its commitments is carbon sequestration by planting trees on marginal land. The sequestered carbon can then be counted as a credit in Canada's net emissions budget. Hybrid poplar (Populus hybrids) has been identified as the tree species for this purpose in the study region of this thesis, due to its high growth rates. Landowners, however, prefer a mix of trees. In this thesis I explore some of policy implications involved in the undertaking of a largescale tree planting program by developing a non-linear programming model that examines the tradeoffs between carbon sequestration, tree species diversity and net profits in terms of net present value (NPV). In the context of the model developed, tree species diversity is used as a proxy for biodiversity and landscape diversity, and a landowner survey is used to determine the mix of tree species that landowners would prefer. Eight tree species are considered in the context of the model, using two different discount rates, and a series of tree planting scenarios are developed, which show the tradeoffs that result from planting varying amounts of each tree species in the Peace River regions of Alberta and British Columbia. Land availability in this region is estimated using a land supply function that is based on predicted crop yields from the landowner survey. The full range of trade-offs are illustrated, in part, through a series of production possibility relationships, which plot the three main policy objectives against each other. The results indicate that NPV can range from -$18.4 million over the 120 year planning period to just over $10.4 million, depending on the species mix planted and the discount rate utilized. Similarly, carbon sequestered can range from some 233 thousand tonnes to around 2.4 million tonnes over the same period, and the trade-offs with diversity can be significant.
Item Metadata
Title |
Carbon sequestration : trade-offs of planting trees on agricultural land
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Creator | |
Publisher |
University of British Columbia
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Date Issued |
2003
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Description |
For some time, climate change has been considered by many to be one of the world's
greatest, and most critical, environmental concerns of our age. In 1997 these concerns led to the
creation of the Kyoto Protocol, which was designed to limit greenhouse emissions in an attempt to
mitigate climate change. Canada's commitment under this agreement is a reduction in emissions to
6% below its 1990 levels, and one of the options that is under consideration to enable Canada to
partially meet its commitments is carbon sequestration by planting trees on marginal land. The
sequestered carbon can then be counted as a credit in Canada's net emissions budget. Hybrid poplar
(Populus hybrids) has been identified as the tree species for this purpose in the study region of this
thesis, due to its high growth rates. Landowners, however, prefer a mix of trees.
In this thesis I explore some of policy implications involved in the undertaking of a largescale
tree planting program by developing a non-linear programming model that examines the tradeoffs
between carbon sequestration, tree species diversity and net profits in terms of net present value
(NPV). In the context of the model developed, tree species diversity is used as a proxy for
biodiversity and landscape diversity, and a landowner survey is used to determine the mix of tree
species that landowners would prefer. Eight tree species are considered in the context of the model,
using two different discount rates, and a series of tree planting scenarios are developed, which show
the tradeoffs that result from planting varying amounts of each tree species in the Peace River
regions of Alberta and British Columbia. Land availability in this region is estimated using a land
supply function that is based on predicted crop yields from the landowner survey.
The full range of trade-offs are illustrated, in part, through a series of production possibility
relationships, which plot the three main policy objectives against each other. The results indicate
that NPV can range from -$18.4 million over the 120 year planning period to just over $10.4
million, depending on the species mix planted and the discount rate utilized. Similarly, carbon
sequestered can range from some 233 thousand tonnes to around 2.4 million tonnes over the same
period, and the trade-offs with diversity can be significant.
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Extent |
4512474 bytes
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Genre | |
Type | |
File Format |
application/pdf
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Language |
eng
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Date Available |
2009-11-17
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Provider |
Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library
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Rights |
For non-commercial purposes only, such as research, private study and education. Additional conditions apply, see Terms of Use https://open.library.ubc.ca/terms_of_use.
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DOI |
10.14288/1.0091250
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URI | |
Degree | |
Program | |
Affiliation | |
Degree Grantor |
University of British Columbia
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Graduation Date |
2004-05
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Campus | |
Scholarly Level |
Graduate
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Aggregated Source Repository |
DSpace
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Item Media
Item Citations and Data
Rights
For non-commercial purposes only, such as research, private study and education. Additional conditions apply, see Terms of Use https://open.library.ubc.ca/terms_of_use.