production and transport of coal, natural gas, and oil. Methane emissions also result from livestock and other agricultural practices and by the decay of organic waste in municipal solid waste landfills. The CH4 profile as a greenhouse gas (GHG) is shown below with other GHG’s and their warming potential, atmospheric lifetime, molecular weight and radiative forcing. Note that a full GHG budget would include measurements for all of the gases listed, however, rarely are such full budgets measured in practice. PαC intends to increase the number of GHG’s directly measured by the System of Systems network resulting in a multi-gas GHG emissions measurement and reduction approach.
Houweling, Sander, Peter Bergamaschi, Frederic Chevallier, Martin Heimann, Thomas Kaminski, Maarten Krol, Anna M. Michalak, and Prabir Patra. “Global inverse modeling of CH 4 sources and sinks: an overview of methods.” Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics 17, no. 1 (2017): 235-256.
Saunois, Marielle, Philippe Bousquet, Benjamin Poulter, Anna Peregon, Philippe Ciais, Josep G. Canadell, Edward J. Dlugokencky et al. “Variability and quasi-decadal changes in the methane budget over the period 2000-2012.” Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics Discussions (2017): 1-39.
Indigenous Peoples collectively-managed territories and local communities store about one quarter of the carbon stored aboveground in the world’s tropical forests. The intimate relationship between Indigenous Peoples and their immediate environment is characterized by minimal impact of their livelihoods on their ecological surroundings. Thus, enabling Indigenous Peoples to remain on their land and restoring land rights to displaced Indigenous Peoples will likely result in avoidance of CO2 emissions that occur during forest destruction in addition to efflux of CO2 from below ground carbon stores released when above ground biomass is removed from an area.
The Biosphere Box with a seal represents Indigenous Peoples and their persistence within an ecosystem as an avoidance offset that can be measured by PαC across an area that is currently inhabited or will be occupied by Indigenous Peoples. Project revenues may be used to secure or acquire land for Indigenous Peoples and is of high importance to the mission of PαC.
Asante, Eric Appau, Stephen Ababio, and Kwadwo Boakye Boadu. “The Use of Indigenous Cultural Practices by the Ashantis for the Conservation of Forests in Ghana.” SAGE Open 7, no. 1 (2017): 2158244016687611.4
Marinaro, Sofía, H. Ricardo Grau, Néstor Ignacio Gasparri, Tobias Kuemmerle, and Matthias Baumann. “Differences in production, carbon stocks and biodiversity outcomes of land tenure regimes in the Argentine Dry Chaco.” Environmental Research Letters 12, no. 4 (2017): 045003.
Pagdee, Adcharaporn. “Community forest: a local attempt in natural resource management, economic value of ecosystem services, and contribution to local livelihoods.” Asia-Pacific Journal of Science and Technology 13, no. 10 (2017): 1129-1134.
Activities related to improved forest management are those implemented on forests remaining as forests. Various forest management activities can be changed that could increase carbon stocks or reduce greenhouse gas emissions, but only a subset of these activities make a measureable difference to the long-term increase in greenhouse gas benefits compared to business-as-usual practices. Improved forest management for carbon offset projects may include:
PAC will apply the direct measurement approach to improved forest management project areas.
Bösch, Matthias, Peter Elsasser, Joachim Rock, Sebastian Rüter, Holger Weimar, and Matthias Dieter. “Costs and carbon sequestration potential of alternative forest management measures in Germany.” Forest Policy and Economics 78 (2017): 88-97.
Bravo, Felipe, Miren del Río, Andrés Bravo-Oviedo, Ricardo Ruiz-Peinado, Carlos del Peso, and Gregorio Montero. “Forest Carbon Sequestration: The Impact of Forest Management.” Managing Forest Ecosystems: The Challenge of Climate Change (2017): 251-275.
Cerutti, Paolo Omar, Daniel Suryadarma, Robert Nasi,