Land-Use and Terrestrial Carbon Sink Management

Maintaining and expanding global rural carbon sinks (eg related to forestry and agriculture) will contribute about half of the cost-effective mitigation of carbon emissions required to reach 2020 targets. The problem today is that, measured solely in terms of monetary value, trees in the rainforests are worth more dead than alive. Reversing that requires capturing the true value of the carbon sink that rainforests provide.

We estimate that the economic value of eliminating deforestation exceeds US$400 billion per year. In contrast, funding the associated opportunity, monitoring, protection, and transaction costs are likely to be in the range of US 20 - $40 billion per year. This opportunity for high returns is ripe for innovation through the research & development of a global “Forest Skin.”

This will take the form of an open network platform for near real-time, highly distributed mass remote sensing, measurement, risk-profiling and continuous monitoring of carbon stocks and flows. This will generate trust and enable collaboration among relevant players in all sectors. This platform will use a mash-up of geo-referenced satellite, unmanned aerial vehicle, participatory networks and multiple ground-based sensor networks to estimate the forest’s carbon stock dynamics and its risk profile.