|
Project properties |
|
| Title | Assessing the carbon credit potential of multiple forest types using default values. |
| Group | Forest Ecology and Forest Management Group |
| Project type | internship |
| Credits | 24 |
| Supervisor(s) | External: Treevive’s CEO Liesbeth Gort: l.gort@treevive.earth
prof.dr. PA (Pieter) Zuidema |
| Examiner(s) | prof.dr. PA (Pieter) Zuidema |
| Contact info | Liesbeth Gort: l.gort@treevive.earth |
| Begin date | 2024/03/01 |
| End date | |
| Description | An indication of the potential amount of carbon credits is one of biggest questions we get from potential investors/clients during early stages of project development. Forestry carbon projects typically mitigate or prevent carbon emissions through activities such as reforestation, preventing deforestation, or through improved forest management. These efforts generate carbon credits, also known as "carbon offsets," which can be sold on the voluntary carbon market. In simple terms, carbon credits are generated by the difference between net carbon sequestration in the project scenario, minus the net carbon sequestration (or avoided net emissions) in the baseline or without project scenario, minus a couple of deductions covering risk, uncertainty and leakage.
To estimate numbers in the initial stages of project development and feasibility analysis, Treevive needs general default values for deductions, carbon values, and biomass increment rates for different forest types when specific project defaults are unavailable. These default values will serve as a tool to provide an initial indication of the possible amount of carbon credits. To come up with these default values, the following methods should be considered: The deductions can be based on VCS verified projects to date. Per project type (various ARR project types, various REDD+ project types, and various IFM project types) the VCS project data base can be searched and the deductions per type can be inventoried for different climatic regions and forest types. With that information a band width (not an average!) can be determined for each category (at least 3 deductions per project type: risk, uncertainty and leakage; and at least a number of yet to be determined climatic regions and/or forest types). For the determination of carbon values in specific forest types, and biomass increment rates the Good Practice Guidance (GPG) for Land Use, Land-Use Change and Forestry (LULUCF) of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) can be used. In the absence of location-specific data, the IPCC GPG provides default values that you can utilize. The assignment focuses on these default values and is about creating a tool, e.g. matrix, that can be used by Treevive and Form International to get a first indication of how many VCU’s can be generated for specific project types and under what circumstance. Internet page of organization: https://treevive.earth/ https://forminternational.nl/ Keywords to search by: only needed for the search option on the FEM education webpage; in TIP students can search for any word in the whole text! remove in the lists below those that are not applicable. Don’t add your own. Topic(s): Sustainable forest management/ Region(s): America's/ Africa /Asia Climate(s): Tropical zone |
| Used skills | |
| Requirements | Standard for MSc thesis:
- WEC-31806 Ecological Methods I, or a comparable alternative course; - One FEM course (at least), depending on the topic of the thesis: FEM-30306 Forest Ecology and Forest Management, FEM-30806 Resource Dynamics Sustainable Utilization, FEM-32306 Agroforestry, or Models for Ecological Systems FEM-31806 If different: give course code and name Standard for BSc thesis minimal 120 credits |