Carbon Sequestration

The importance of tropical forest to the issue of Climate Change has been advocated in the literature and has received recognition as a matter of importance in the Convention on Climate Change arising out of the 1992 Rio de Janeiro Earth Summit.

Iwokrama's potential to contribute to the discussion in a scientific manner and from a management perspective was recognised early by grants from Mauritius and the Maldives - two island nations which are likely to be among the first to experience any harmful effects of Climate Change and an associated rise in global sea level.

Iwokrama intends to develop understanding and estimates of the function of tropical forest to store carbon which could inform economic consideration of this forest value. In addition to the projects below, this research area continues to be a priority area.

• A study on the quantification of the short-term carbon stock responses to reduced impact logging and conventional logging practice in Guyana. This was an MSc Thesis by University of the West Indies postgraduate student Khemraj Parsram.

• The delineation of seasonal flooding of tropical forest using high resolution radar. This was a joint study by Vijay Datadin (Iwokrama), Dr. Bruce Chapman (NASA CalTech Jet Propulsion Laboratory) and Dr. Eileen Helmer (USDA Forest Service International Institute of Tropical Forestry). The sequestering ability of forested areas is influenced by the flooding of those areas during the wet season. The researchers looked at the delineation of this phenomenon using high resolution canopy-penetrating satellite radar, demonstrating the application of recent advances in technology in a real world management context and providing data to help fine tune bulk scientific and economic estimates.

• A spatial and temporal study of total biomass and carbon content (standing biomass, leaf litter, soil organic matter) of several key forest types within the Iwokrama Forest. The study has established new permanent study plots in the Iwokrama Forest and a neighbouring area and will also look at variation due to species. This was a study conducted by Dr. Raquel Thomas (Iwokrama Forest Ecology Unit, and now of the Guyana Forestry Commission).

• A study estimating biomass for forest types in Guyana - with a view towards informing carbon offset discussions. This was a consultancy by Dr. Hans ter Steege of Utrecht University of The Netherlands.