— As countries experience economic growth and choose among available development pathways, they a... more — As countries experience economic growth and choose among available development pathways, they are in a favorable position to adopt natural resource use technologies and production practices that favor efficient use of inputs, healthy soils, and ecosystems. Current emphasis on increasing resilience to climate change and reducing agricultural greenhouse gasses (GHG) emissions strengthens the support for sustainable agricultural production. In fact, reducing losses in soil fertility, reclaiming degraded lands, and promoting synergistic interaction between crop production and forests are generally seen as good climate change policies. In order for decision-makers to develop long-term policies that address these issues, they must have tools at their disposal that evaluate trade-offs, opportunities, and repercussions of the options considered. In this paper, the authors combine and reconcile the output of three models widely accessible to the public to analyze the impacts of policies that target emission reduction in the agricultural sector. We present an application to Colombia which reveals the importance of considering the full scope of interactions among the various land uses. Results indicate that investments in increasing the efficiency and productivity of the livestock sector and reducing land allocated to pasture are preferable to policies that target deforestation alone or target a reduction of emissions in crop production. Investments in livestock productivity and land-carrying capacity would reduce deforestation and provide sufficient gains in carbon stock to offset greater emissions from increased crop production while generating higher revenues.
A methodological approach for the non-monetary valuation of ecosystem services in three communiti... more A methodological approach for the non-monetary valuation of ecosystem services in three communities of the Colombian Amazon Una aproximación metodológica para la valoración no monetaria de servicios ecosistémicos en tres comunidades de la Amazonia Colombiana ABSTRACT RESUMEN To conduct a non-monetary valuation of ecosystem services, this study explored combining data on the use of ecosystem resources with measuring the effort expended on agricultural activities in three communities of the lower Caqueta, Colom-bian Amazon. By measuring the energy expended by people during their principal subsistence activities, a measure of well-being was also indirectly obtained. For the three communities, the most costly ecosystem service in terms of energy expended was land in forests, which is prepared for planting with felling and clearing, with a value of 1,353 kcal per workday. This was followed by bush meat from hunting at 811 kcal per workday, fish at 682 kcal, obtaining food from the chagra (small family farming plot) at 470 kcal, collecting fruits at 380 kcal, collecting firewood at 148 kcal, and fetching water at 29 kcal. The preparation of casabe (cassava flatbread) as a cultural service has an energy cost of 386 kcal, while preparing mambe (toasted pulverized coca leaves) has a much higher cost at 808 kcal.
The LivestockPlus consortium was created to enable the development and implementation of National... more The LivestockPlus consortium was created to enable the development and implementation of Nationally Appropriate Mitigation Actions (NAMAs) for the cattle sector in Costa Rica and Colombia by providing technical support and generating critical information and guidelines necessary to identify appropriate mitigation options and support planning and policies for the scaling up of NAMAs. Costa Rica and Colombia are at intermediate and beginning stages of developing NAMAs for the cattle sector, respectively, and provide sites representative of larger areas of pasture systems in the region. This new initiative seeks to determine what the technical options for low emissions pasture development in Latin America are and how these can be scaled up using NAMAs and other policies. The main objectives of this new project are (1) to characterize the socioeconomic and biophysical contexts in which different cattle farmers operate; (2) quantify country specific greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from di...
El esquema de Pago por Servicios Ambientales (PSA) se viene promoviendo como un instrumento efici... more El esquema de Pago por Servicios Ambientales (PSA) se viene promoviendo como un instrumento eficiente para el manejo del recurso hídrico, incluso algunos autores se aventuran a afirmar que este instrumento permitirá igualmente aliviar la pobreza rural. En este trabajo se ...
— As countries experience economic growth and choose among available development pathways, they a... more — As countries experience economic growth and choose among available development pathways, they are in a favorable position to adopt natural resource use technologies and production practices that favor efficient use of inputs, healthy soils, and ecosystems. Current emphasis on increasing resilience to climate change and reducing agricultural greenhouse gasses (GHG) emissions strengthens the support for sustainable agricultural production. In fact, reducing losses in soil fertility, reclaiming degraded lands, and promoting synergistic interaction between crop production and forests are generally seen as good climate change policies. In order for decision-makers to develop long-term policies that address these issues, they must have tools at their disposal that evaluate trade-offs, opportunities, and repercussions of the options considered. In this paper, the authors combine and reconcile the output of three models widely accessible to the public to analyze the impacts of policies that target emission reduction in the agricultural sector. We present an application to Colombia which reveals the importance of considering the full scope of interactions among the various land uses. Results indicate that investments in increasing the efficiency and productivity of the livestock sector and reducing land allocated to pasture are preferable to policies that target deforestation alone or target a reduction of emissions in crop production. Investments in livestock productivity and land-carrying capacity would reduce deforestation and provide sufficient gains in carbon stock to offset greater emissions from increased crop production while generating higher revenues.
A methodological approach for the non-monetary valuation of ecosystem services in three communiti... more A methodological approach for the non-monetary valuation of ecosystem services in three communities of the Colombian Amazon Una aproximación metodológica para la valoración no monetaria de servicios ecosistémicos en tres comunidades de la Amazonia Colombiana ABSTRACT RESUMEN To conduct a non-monetary valuation of ecosystem services, this study explored combining data on the use of ecosystem resources with measuring the effort expended on agricultural activities in three communities of the lower Caqueta, Colom-bian Amazon. By measuring the energy expended by people during their principal subsistence activities, a measure of well-being was also indirectly obtained. For the three communities, the most costly ecosystem service in terms of energy expended was land in forests, which is prepared for planting with felling and clearing, with a value of 1,353 kcal per workday. This was followed by bush meat from hunting at 811 kcal per workday, fish at 682 kcal, obtaining food from the chagra (small family farming plot) at 470 kcal, collecting fruits at 380 kcal, collecting firewood at 148 kcal, and fetching water at 29 kcal. The preparation of casabe (cassava flatbread) as a cultural service has an energy cost of 386 kcal, while preparing mambe (toasted pulverized coca leaves) has a much higher cost at 808 kcal.
The LivestockPlus consortium was created to enable the development and implementation of National... more The LivestockPlus consortium was created to enable the development and implementation of Nationally Appropriate Mitigation Actions (NAMAs) for the cattle sector in Costa Rica and Colombia by providing technical support and generating critical information and guidelines necessary to identify appropriate mitigation options and support planning and policies for the scaling up of NAMAs. Costa Rica and Colombia are at intermediate and beginning stages of developing NAMAs for the cattle sector, respectively, and provide sites representative of larger areas of pasture systems in the region. This new initiative seeks to determine what the technical options for low emissions pasture development in Latin America are and how these can be scaled up using NAMAs and other policies. The main objectives of this new project are (1) to characterize the socioeconomic and biophysical contexts in which different cattle farmers operate; (2) quantify country specific greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from di...
El esquema de Pago por Servicios Ambientales (PSA) se viene promoviendo como un instrumento efici... more El esquema de Pago por Servicios Ambientales (PSA) se viene promoviendo como un instrumento eficiente para el manejo del recurso hídrico, incluso algunos autores se aventuran a afirmar que este instrumento permitirá igualmente aliviar la pobreza rural. En este trabajo se ...
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