Baseline carbon stocks assessment and projection of future carbon benefits of a carbon sequestration project in East Timor

Climate change is one of the most pressing environmental problems humanity is facing today. Forest ecosystems serve as a source or sink of greenhouse gases, primarily CO2. With support from the Canadian Climate Change Fund, the Community-based Natural Resource Management for Carbon Sequestration project in East Timor (CBNRM-ET) was implemented to “maintain carbon (C) stocks and increase C sequestration through the development of community-based resource management systems that will simultaneously improve livelihood security”. Project sites were in the Laclubar and Remexio Sub-districts of the Laclo watershed. The objective of this study was to quantify baseline C stocks and sequestration benefits of project components (reforestation with fast-growing species, primarily Casuarina equisetifolia, and agroforestry involving integration of Paraserianthes falcataria). Field measurements show that mature stands (?30 years) of P. falcataria and C. equisetifolia contain up to 200 Mg C ha?1 in above ground biomass, indicating the vast potential of project sites to sequester carbon. Baseline C stocks in above ground biomass were very low in both Laclubar (6.2 Mg C ha?1 for reforestation sites and 5.2 Mg C ha?1 for agroforestry sites and Remexio (3.0 Mg C ha?1 for reforestation and 2.5 Mg C ha?1 for agroforestry). Baseline soil organic C levels were much higher reaching up to 160 Mg C ha?1 in Laclubar and 70 Mg C ha?1 in Remexio. For the next 25 years, it is projected that 137 671 Mg C and 84 621 Mg C will be sequestered under high- and low C stock scenarios, respectively