| 1. |
- Freitas, Flavio L M, et al.
(författare)
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Who owns the Brazilian carbon?
- 2018
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Ingår i: Global Change Biology. - : Wiley. - 1365-2486 .- 1354-1013. ; 24:5, s. 2129-2142
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Brazil is one of the major contributors to land-use change emissions, mostly driven by agricultural expansion for food, feed and bioenergy feedstock. Policies to avoid deforestation related to private commitments, economic incentives, and other support schemes are expected to improve the effectiveness of current command and control mechanisms increasingly. However, until recently, land tenure was unknown for much of the Brazilian territory, which has undermined the governance of native vegetation and challenged support and incentive mechanisms for avoiding deforestation. We assess the total extent of public governance mechanisms protecting aboveground carbon (AGC) stocks. We constructed a land tenure dataset for the entire nation and modeled the effects and uncertainties of major land-use acts on protecting AGC stocks. Roughly 70% of the AGC stock in Brazil is estimated to be under legal protection, and an additional 20% is expected to be protected after areas in the Amazon with currently undesignated land undergo a tenure regularization. About 30% of the AGC stock is on private land, of which roughly two-thirds are protected. The Cerrado, Amazon and Caatinga biomes hold about 40%, 30% and 20% of the unprotected AGC, respectively. Effective conservation of protected and unprotected carbon will depend on successful implementation of the Forest Act, and regularization of land tenure in the Amazon. Policy development that prioritizes unprotected AGC stocks is warranted to promote conservation of native vegetation beyond the legal requirements. However, different biomes and land tenure structures may require different policy settings considering local and regional specifics. Finally, the fate of current AGC stocks relies upon effective implementation of command and control mechanisms, considering that unprotected AGC in native vegetation on private land only accounts for 6.5% of the total AGC stock.
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| 2. |
- Englund, Oskar, 1982, et al.
(författare)
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Legislative Readiness for RED
- 2011
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Rapport (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- An analysis of the legislative readiness among exporting countries to produce biofuels in compliance with the sustainability criteria in the EU Renewable Energy Directive
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| 3. |
- Englund, Oskar, 1982, et al.
(författare)
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The Role of National Legislation in Bioenergy Governance
- 2014
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Ingår i: World Bioenergy 2014 Proceedings. - 9789197762489 ; , s. 180-184
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Bioenergy supply chains pass several layers of governance, including both emerging governance mechanisms that specifically address bioenergy and existing regulations, such as environmental codes affecting forestry and agriculture. The sustainability requirements associated with the EU Renewable Energy Directive (EU-RED) is an example of how norms and sustainability priorities in one region can be expressed so as to influence activities in other regions, when actors in these other regions aim to produce for the EU market. Achieving aspirations for developing sustainable bioenergy production systems and supply and value chains requires coordination among actors and parties to ensure that all necessary governance mechanisms are in place and capable of fulfilling the appropriate standards setting, control, governance and assurance roles that are required, collectively. In this paper, the capacity of public governance to promote bioenergy production for the EU-RED market was assessed for thirteen countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Environmental legislation was assessed on how it covers the sustainability requirements included in EU-RED, as well as general sustainability aspects. The countries’ capacities to enforce legislation were assessed by combining globally applicable indexes. While some aspects (e.g., nature protection) were found to be mostly covered well in legislation, other (e.g., wetland protection, GHG emissions) where covered less well. Results indicate that enforcement of legislation can be a challenge in many countries.
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| 4. |
- Englund, Oskar, 1982, et al.
(författare)
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A new high-resolution nationwide aboveground carbon map for Brazil
- 2017
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Ingår i: Geo: Geography and Environment. - : Wiley. - 2054-4049. ; 4:2, s. e00045-
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Brazil is home to the largest tracts of tropical vegetation in the world, harbouring high levels of biodiversity and carbon. Several biomass maps have been produced for Brazil, using different approaches and methods, and for different purposes. These maps have been used to estimate historic, recent, and future carbon emissions from land use change (LUC). It can be difficult to determine which map to use for what purpose. The implications of using an unsuitable map can be significant, since the maps have large differences, both in terms of total carbon storage and its spatial distribution. This paper presents comparisons of Brazil’s new ‘official’ carbon map; that is, the map used in the third national communication to the UNFCCC in 2016, with the former official map, and four carbon maps from the scientific literature. General strengths and weaknesses of the different maps are identified, including their suitability for different types of studies. No carbon map was found suitable for studies concerned with existing land use/cover (LULC) and LUC outside of existing forests, partly because they do not represent the current LULC sufficiently well, and partly because they generally overestimate carbon values for agricultural land. A new map of aboveground carbon is presented, which was created based on data from existing maps and an up- to-date LULC map. This new map reflects current LULC, has high accuracy and resolution (50 m), and a national coverage. It can be a useful alternative for scientific studies and policy initiatives concerned with existing LULC and LUC outside of existing forests, especially at local scales when high resolution is necessary, and/or outside the Amazon biome. We identify five ongoing climate policy initiatives in Brazil that can benefit from using this map.
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| 5. |
- Englund, Oskar, 1982
(författare)
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On Sustainability of Biomass for Energy and the Governance Thereof
- 2016
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Due to concerns about climate change, energy security, and resource scarcity, non- renewable resources are increasingly being displaced by biomass. As with most human activities, the production of biobased products can be associated with negative impacts. Primarily, this relates to the biomass supply systems, i.e., agriculture and forestry, which currently are major causes of biodiversity loss and degradation of ecosystem services. Developing sustainable production systems when transitioning from non-renewable resources to biomass is imperative. This thesis aims to clarify the meaning of sustainability in the context of biomass for bioenergy, and contribute to our understanding of how different forms of governance can promote sustainably sourced biomass for bioenergy. The thesis is based on five appended papers: Paper I analyses to what extent, where, and under what conditions oil palm for biodiesel in Brazil can be produced profitably, and what risks and opportunities that can be associated with introducing large-scale oil palm production in Brazil. Paper II lays the foundation for understanding how new biomass production can be introduced into landscapes while supporting rather than compromising the ability of the landscape to supply other ecosystem services. Paper III describes different forms of governance and shows how these can play different roles in promoting sustainable bioenergy in different countries. Paper IV focuses on how short rotation coppice production systems are affected by EU policy and how different governance forms can assist in adapting production systems to conform to the corresponding sustainability requirements. Finally, Paper V assesses how sustainability certification (private governance) addresses biodiversity conservation and contributes to our understanding of possible improvements.
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| 6. |
- Mazzaro de Freitas, Flavio Luiz, et al.
(författare)
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Potential increase of legal deforestation in Brazilian Amazon after Forest Act revision
- 2018
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Ingår i: Nature Sustainability. - : Springer Nature. - 2398-9629. ; 1, s. 665-670
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The Brazilian Amazon rainforest is protected largely by command and control regulation of public and private land. The Brazilian Forest Act requires private landholders within the Amazon to set aside 80% of their land as legal reserves for nature protection, but this requirement can be reduced to 50% if more than 65% of a state’s territory is protected public land (for example, public conservation units and indigenous reserves). In the ongoing land designation process in Brazil, some Amazonian states may cross this 65% threshold. We assess the potential reduction in the legal reserve requirement from 80% to 50%, through spatially explicit modelling of scenarios concerning land tenure consolidation, employing up-to-date databases on land ownership. Depending on the outcome of land designation processes and political priorities, some 6.5–15.4 million hectares of private land previously protected as legal reserves may become available for legal deforestation. While protection of public land is crucial for safeguarding the Amazon, revisions of federal and state legislation may be needed to avoid the further extension of protected public land triggering increased legal deforestation on private lands. Zero-deforestation commitments and other initiatives may mitigate impacts in the absence of such revision.
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| 7. |
- Temrin, Hans, et al.
(författare)
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Is the higher rate of parental child homicide in stepfamilies an effect of non-genetic relatedness?
- 2011
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Ingår i: Current Zoology. - : Oxford University Press (OUP). - 1674-5507 .- 2396-9814. ; 57:3, s. 253-259
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- In an evolutionary perspective individuals are expected to vary the degree of parental love and care in relation to the fitness value that a child represents. Hence, stepparents are expected to show less solicitude than genetically related parents, and this lack of genetic relatedness has been used to explain the higher frequencies of child abuse and homicide found in stepfamilies. However, other factors than non-genetic relatedness may cause this over-representation in stepfamilies. Here we use a 45-year data set of parental child homicides in Sweden to test two hypotheses related to the higher incidence in stepfamilies: 1) adults in different types of family differ in their general disposition to use violence, and 2) parents are more likely to kill stepchildren than genetically related children. Of the 152 perpetrators in biparental families there was an overrepresentation of perpetrators in stepfamilies (n=27) compared with the general population. We found support for the first hypothesis in that both general and violent crime rates were higher in stepfamilies, both in the general population and among perpetrators of child homicide. However, we found no support for the second hypothesis because of the 27 perpetrators in stepfamilies the perpetrator killed a genetically related child in 13 cases, a stepchild in 13 cases and both types of children in one case. Moreover, out of the 12 families where the perpetrator lived with both stepchildren and genetic children, there was no bias towards killing stepchildren. Thus, we found no evidence for an effect of non-genetic relatedness per se.
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