title: A ranking of net national contributions to climate change mitigation through tropical forest conservation.
abstract: Deforestation in tropical regions causes 15% of global anthropogenic carbon emissions and reduces the mitigation potential of carbon sequestration services. A global market failure occurs as the value of many ecosystem services provided by forests is not recognised by the markets. Identifying the contribution of individual countries to tropical carbon stocks and sequestration might help identify responsibilities and facilitate debate towards the correction of the market failure through international payments for ecosystem services. We compare and rank tropical countries' contributions by estimating carbon sequestration services vs. emissions disservices. The annual value of tropical carbon sequestration services in 2010 from 88 tropical countries was estimated to range from $2.8 to $30.7 billion, using market and social prices of carbon respectively. Democratic Republic of Congo, India and Sudan contribute the highest net carbon sequestration, whereas Brazil, Nigeria and Indonesia are the highest net emitters.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biological Sciences, National University of Singapore, 14 Science Drive 4, 117543 Singapore, Singapore. Electronic address: dbsctlr@nus.edu.sg.
authors.forename: L R
authors.initials: LR
authors.lastname: Carrasco
authors.affiliation: Department of Biological Sciences, National University of Singapore, 14 Science Drive 4, 117543 Singapore, Singapore.
authors.forename: S K
authors.initials: SK
authors.lastname: Papworth
mesh_terms: D002244:Carbon; D057965:Carbon Sequestration; D057231:Climate Change; D003132:Commerce; D003247:Conservation of Natural Resources; D065928:Forests; D014197:Trees; D014329:Tropical Climate
chemical_list: D002244:Carbon
keywords: Climate change; Deforestation; Greenhouse gas; Natural capital; Payment for environmental services