Investigation and estimation of carbon absorption by natural forest in ba vi national park

MINISTRY OF AGRICULTURE AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT VIETNAM FORESTRY UNIVERSITY STUDENT GRADUATION THESIS INVESTIGATION and ESTIMATION OF CARBON ABSORPTION BY NATURAL FOREST IN BAVI NATIONAL PARK Major: Advanced Curriculum in Natural Resources Management Code: Faculty: Forest Resources and Environmental Management Advanced Education Program Developed in collaboration with Colorado State University, USA Student: Pham Nhat Tan Student ID: 1053090357 Class: K55 Natural resource management Course: 2010 - 2014 Supervisor: Assoc Prof Dr BUI THE DOI Ha Noi, 11/2014 ACKNOWLEDGENT This thesis has been completed in based on Nature Resource Management major – advance program During thesis completion, I received help and support from teachers of forest resources and environment management faculty and training division officers; I also thank the management committee, officers of Ba Vi National Park, who provided me with information and helped us in forest investigation on there I also would say “thank you” to all of teachers, who taught and helped me to complete this thesis; Specially, I grateful to Assoc Prof Dr Bui The Doi for his supervision during time of research completion I want to show deep gratitude to my team, who work with me directly in Ba Vi and data analysis time During the implementing the thesis, due to limitation of time and finance, also human resources acquainted with the actual work, my research is inevitable shortcoming I look forward to receiving some comments from teachers for more completion Thank you! Hanoi, October 23, 2014 Author: Pham Nhat Tan Contents ACKNOWLEDGENT ABSTRACT I INTRODUCTION II RESEARCH OBJECTIVES Long-term objective Short-term objectives 3.1 Research area description: 3.2 Establishment of plots: 3.3 Carbon estimation methods: 3.3.1 Direct use values: 3.3.2 Indirect use value: 4.1 Forest characteristics: 10 4.1.1 Forest composition of status IIA, IIIA1 10 4.1.2 Forest density; diameter; top height 12 4.2 Carbon absorption estimation: 14 4.2.1 Wood volume and dry biomass of plots 14 4.2.2 Carbon dioxide absorption 16 4.3 Carbon value (in currency) 17 V CONCLUSION & RECOMMENDATION 19 5.1 Conclusion 19 5.2 Shortcomings 20 5.3 Recommendation 20 REFERENCES Table List Table 4.1: Forest composition formula 11 Table 4.2: Percentage of family in plot 12 Table 4.3: Forest density & DBH 13 Table 4.4: Relationship of DBH and top height 14 Table 4.5: Wood volume and dry biomass 15 Table 6: CO2 absorption 17 Table 7: CO2 absorption value/ 18 ABSTRACT Carbon absorption is key tool of Payment for Environment Services Therefore, after investigation Ba Vi National Park, I will apply equation to calculate amount of carbon sequestration in plot I used formula TCS = AGTC + BC (where TCS: total carbon absorption, AGTC: carbon sequestration in above ground body, BC: carbon sequestration below ground) I used formula from Bao Huy model (2011) Carbon in whole tree above ground (trunk, bark, leaves and twigs): AGTC (kg) = 0.0428*DBH2.4628 (R2= 0.9378); and carbon in root tree: BC (kg) = 0.051*DBH2 – 0.6756*DBH + 2.8901 (R2 = 0.9983) I INTRODUCTION Ecosystem monitoring and assessment programs are critical for resource management, given how ecosystems vary in type, size, landscape settings, and the dramatic losses and degradation that have occurred These programs are increasingly addressing not just the loss of native ecosyste, but also their condition Data on the ecological condition of ecosystems can be used for ambient monitoring of status and trends, to prioritize sites for conservation or restoration, to guide mitigation applications at site and watershed or landscape scales and to contribute to land use planning (Fennessy et al 2007, FaberLangendoen et al 2008) In the world, carbon stock is tool of Payment for Environment Services, therefore it was study carefully Example “Research support for national forest system carbon assessments”, “Reduce uncertainty in the use of allometic biomass equation for predicting above ground tree biomass in mixed secondary forest” In Vietnam, we have some draft of “Method to quantify national park on terrestrial land” We already had researched on “Economy quantification of Phu Long mangroves forest” and some researcher’s assessment value of national park as “Estimate carbon absorption in Cuc Phuong national park” However we have not any research to evaluate the carbon of Ba Vi national park Actually, measuring ecological value of Ba Vi national park play an tremendous to determine who and how much will be received when we apply the mechanism of Payment for Environment Services According to Ba Vi National Park Management Board (2000), the total area of the national park is currently 6,786 ha, comprising a strict protection area of 1,092 ha, a forest rehabilitation area of 4,646 and an administration and services area of 1,048 Ba Vi is included on the 2010 list as a 6,726 national park, including 4,700 of natural forest According to data in Vietnam National Park (2014), until 8/2013, scientific research has been identified 1,526 plant species, belonging to 209 families of Tracheophytasin Ba Vi National Park In there, 51 species are members of rare list species in Vietnam Data Red Book (2007), IUCN The Ba Vi National Park also has 45 species of mammals, 115 species of birds, 27 species of amphibians, 61 reptiles, 86 species of insects, of which 23 precious and rare species are listed in the Red Book such as coolies, horse bears, yellow pangolins, white pheasants, monkeys, leopards, bears, flying squirrels… Forest investigation is important duty in forest management, especially estimation of carbon stock for REDD+ is necessary to in long term Year by year, we can see forest changing of direction, what problem is occurring Another thing, we should estimate the amount of carbon to define tools for supporting local people – who protected forest in protected area That is the base for applying PES for condition improvement for poor area, and reduce human impacts on protected areas That why I carried out the study on “Investigation and estimation of carbon absorption in Ba Vi national park II RESEARCH OBJECTIVES Long-term objective Provide bases on estimation of carbon absorption in the natural forest to serve the REDD+ in Ba Vi National Park Short-term objectives  To provide information for managers to determine cost and benefit of natural forest resource;  To determine forest characteristics of trees in nature: carbon stock, height and diameter of trees  To determine values of natural forest in Ba Vi national park based on amount of carbon absorption III METHODOLOGY 3.1 Research area description: Ba Vi National Park is center on Mount Ba Vi, an mountain isolated situated about 50 km west of Hanoi The mountain rises steeply out of a plain that rarely exceeds 30 m in elevation In general, slopes on the western side of Ba Vi mountain, at an average of 25°, are steeper than those on the east Above 400 m, the slopes on the western side may reach a gradient of 35°, and rocky cliffs are present Mount Ba Vi has three peaks: the highest is Dinh Vua at 1,296 m, followed by Tan Vien at 1,226 m and Ngoc Hoa at 1,120 m Because of the mountainous topography, the climate at Ba Vi varies with altitude Above 500 m, fog enshrouds the top of the mountain on most days General characteristics of Ba Vi is dominated by the latitude north factors, monsoon mechanism A combination of monsoon and latitude creates humid tropical climate with cold and dry winters Average annual temperature in the area is 23.4oC Temperature can down to 2.7oC and be up to 42oC At 400m high average temperature of 20.6oC while at elevation above 1000m, it is only 16oC Absolute temperature can lower down by 0.2oC The higher absolute temperature reaches to 33.1oC Average annual rainfall is 2,500ml, unevenly distributed during the year, concentrated in July, August 86.1% is air humidity Lowland is usually dry in December and January From height above 400m there is no dry season Northeast winds in the winters with a frequency are greater than 40% Forest type in Ba Vi National Park 3.2 Establishment of plots: Ba Vi national park has forest types: lowland evergreen forest, lower montane evergreen forest and lower montane mixed coniferous and broadleaf forest However, Ba Vi forest is affected by local people in buffer zone, so research was conducted forest types IIA (600m – 900m above sea level) and IIIA1 (900m – 1100m above sea level) In each forest type, plots were set up for investigation process In IIA forest, were established plot and plot at elevation 600m and 800m In the IIIA1 forest, plot and plot were placed on 900m and 1000m on contour lines Vplot = Determine the dry biomass: Each plot is 1000m2 and calculate the trees have D1,3 ≥ 6cm look up the wood density table of each plant species investigated and apply formula calculate carbon biomass and stock of Ketterings et al (2001): B = ABG + BGB AGB = r*ρ*D(2+c) BGB = ¼ AGB Where: B is dry biomass (kg/tree) AGB: above ground biomass (m3) BGB: below ground biomass (m3) D is diameter at breast height p: wood density (oven-dry weight / green volume) ρ = 0.62 g/cm3 r: parameter that is constant over wide range geographical areas, r = 0.11 c: coefficient accumulation is 0.467 Calculate the total of volume CO2 absorbed per - Bao Huy’s model (2009) Carbon in whole tree above ground (trunk, bark, leaves and twigs) AGTC (kg) = 0.0428*DBH2.4628 (R2= 0.9378) Carbon in root tree: BC (kg) = 0.051*DBH2 – 0.6756*DBH + 2.8901 (R2 = 0.9983) Total carbon sequestration: TCS (kg) = AGTC + BC Amount of CO2 absorbed (kg) = TCS * 44/12 Calculating value of CO2 absorption: VC = Mc x Pc VC: CO2 absorption value (USD/ton) MC: total CO2 absorption per (ton/ha) Pc = 5USD/ton IV RESULT AND DISCUSSION: 4.1 Forest characteristics: This research focuses on nature forest, so I use forest status map to define location for establishment plots 4.1.1 Forest composition of status IIA, IIIA1 The IIA and IIIA1 forest are affected by local people in long time So most individuals in there are invaluable and light demanding tree species such as Litsea aff glutinosa (Lour) C.B Roxb; Trema orientalis (L.) Bl; Liquidambar formosana Hance …The forest composition function is simple According to pervious research, in order to determine forest composition I will use formula: IV% = (N% +G%)/2 (where N% is percentage of density, G% is percentage of base area for each species in plot) Results are presented in table 4.1 Based on result, we recognized 52 species in plots Looking at table 4.1, we can see species form the forest composition formula for plot That numbers for plot 2, plot 3, and plot are 4, and species, respectively The Adinandra sp belongs to Theaceae family is dominant tree in location with 50.5% In plot 2, although Wendlandia paniculata DC species are highest percentage amount number species (18.3%), in forest composition ratio of Liquidambar formosana Hance species is higher The total important value of plot 3’s equation is 46.2% It consist of species Alangium chinense (Lour) Rehd; Cinnamomum iners; Mallotus yunnanensis In the plot 4, Ficus fulva Reinw ex Blume is dominant tree with 18.8% 10 Table 4.1: Forest composition formula IIA Plot IIIA1 Plot Plot Plot 42.8Adsp + 12.3 Sp1 23.3Lifo + 14.9Wepa 17.8Ciin+14.4Maco + 16.3 Fifu + 13.7 + 9.5Fifu + 7.2 Maco + 11.6Magr + 8.1Disp 14.0Alch + 55others Apdi +12.3Arba + 6.8 Made +12.7 + 42.2others +7.0 Cipa + Maha + 8.8 others 46.1 others Adinandra sp – Adsp; Alangium chinense (Lour) Rehd – Alch; Aporosa dioica – Apdi; Archidendron balansae (Oliv) – Arba; Cinnadenia paniculata – Cipa; Cinnamomum iners – Ciin; Dillenia sp – Disp; Ficus fulva Reinw ex Blume – Fifu; Liquidambar formosana Hance - Lifo; Macaranga denticulata Muell-Arg – Made; Machilus grandifolia – Magr; Mallotus cochinchinensis Lour – Maco; Manglietia hainanensi – Maha; Wendlandia paniculata DC – Wepa Comparing with research in Thuong Tien nature reserve, the dominant tree of Ba Vi national park is light demanding tree It differs from some locations in Thuong Tien area, meaning that Ba Vi is affected by human activities such as building facility for tourism, logging… About forest composition formula, number of species on Bavi’ formula is similar to number species forming Thuong Tien forest after 10 year recovering After survey process, 28 families are identified in plots In table 4.2, we know plot & plot have 11 families Theaceae is dominant family in plot with 50.5% while in plot family which has highest percentage is Lauraceae Combining table 4.1 and 4.2, all species in Theaceae is Adinandra sp 11 Table 4.2: Percentage of family in plot Plot Plot Plot Plot The Lauraceae is main family of plot and But in plot 2, it has main families with approximate percentages: Lauraceae (18.3%), Rubiaceae (18.3%), Altingiaceae (16.7%) And plot 4, the Euphorbiaceae is dominant family with 25.8% in total (18 families) 4.1.2 Forest density; diameter; top height Mean density of IIA forest is 1440 individuals/ha It is higher than mean density of IIIA1 forest The density of IIA area ranges from 630 individuals/ha to 2250 individuals/ha between plot & plot In IIIA1 forest, plant density of plot (1280 individual/ha) is higher than plot (890 individual/ha) 12 Table 4.3: Forest density & DBH IIA IIIA1 Plot Plot Plot Plot Density (individual/ha) 2250 630 890 1280 DBH 9.65 14.91 14.14 15.95 Data in table 4.3 shows that IIIA1 forest is higher average DBH than IIA forest The mean of D1.3 are 12.28cm and 15.05cm There are no significant different between plots in IIIA1 forest type Using z-test two sample for mean, we see substantial difference in IIA forest This cause from characteristic of dominant plant in each plot That can explain for diameter distribution of forest The result are showed in table is relationship between DBH and top height of each plot Most trunks in plot have diameter less than 15cm That individuals also have range of top height from 6m to 9.5m The maximum height in location is 13.5m It is a little lower than highest tree of plot (16m) The height of almost plant in plot is 6m to 12m 13 Table 4.4: Relationship of DBH and top height Plot Plot Plot Plot Looking at figures in table 4.4, we can conclude DBH and tree height have strong relationship: DBH is directly proportion with tree height value Looking back to table 4.2, characteristics of family explain why plot and plot have close DBH value That means percentage of plant height which concentrate on plot 2’s main range is highest The majority of tree height in plot from 6m to 15m The highest in this location is 25m That equal height with highest tree in plot 4.2 Carbon absorption estimation: 4.2.1 Wood volume and dry biomass of plots Because most trees in plots are wood of group III and IV, in order to calculate timber value and dry bio_mass, I used the average wood density equal 0.62 kg/m3 (chapter VIII: wood product, 2014) 14 Table 4.5: Wood volume and dry biomass IIA IIIA1 plot plot plot plot V- plot (m3) 7.23 6.79 12.60 19.10 Dry bio_mass (kg/ha) 64,637 59,128 10,3005 148,530 In table 4.5, there are no significant difference between not only wood volume value of plot and plot but also in dry biomass in each forest type The timber volume of both plots in IIA forest is lower than 10m3 Event average value of DBH and tree height of plot is higher than plot 1, the timber volume of plot is lower than that value of plot However between forest types, we can see it is extensive variance All values in IIIA1 forest are higher and larger range Further, every value of location is highest (the timber value is 19.1m3 and the dry biomass is 148,530kg/ha) Two factors directly affect to dry bio_mass of plot are number of individual and diameter at breast height It is identified based on figure In two plots, the average diameters are close which have higher number species will have higher dry biomass With the results of plot and plot 2, even average of diameter of plot is higher, dry biomass of plot is higher than its value in plot That reason come from number of individual in plot is more than time tree commune of plot 15 4.2.2 Carbon dioxide absorption Following Bao Huy model (2011), in this part, I calculate carbon sequestration based on equation: total carbon accumulated (TCS) = total carbon above ground + total carbon in root system Figure will present carbon sequestration distribution of all individual in plots The same as dry biomass, content of carbon in species have strong relationship with diameter The proportion of total amount carbon sequestration to plot and plot in IIA 16 forest is 3.6 (ton) and 3.3 (ton), relating to 36 ton/ha and 38 ton/ha That different level is not considerable But in IIIA1 forest, carbon accumulated in plot is much higher The total carbon sequestration in plot is 5.8 ton (~ 58 ton/ha) The carbon content of plot is up to 84 ton/ha Table 6: CO2 absorption IIA CO2 absorption (ton/ha) IIIA1 Plot Plot Plot Plot 132.4 122.3 211.9 307.8 Mean of CO2 absorption 127.4 259.9 in population (ton/ha) The same as result of carbon sequestration in plot, the ratio of carbon oxide is not changed The highest value from plot about CO2 absorption is 307.8 ton/ha Amount of CO2 was absorbed by plot is lowest, roughly 122.3 ton/ha It mean that CO2 absorption of IIIA1 forest is higher than IIA forest The tree species in IIIA1 forest can absorb about 260 ton/ha/yr The estimating CO2 absorption for IIA forest is about 127.5 ton/ha/yr 4.3 Carbon value (in currency) Because I don’t collect data about total area of each forest type, in this thesis, I will calculate value of CO2 absorption per hectare Using equation VC = Mc x Pc, and in this case the price of ton CO2 absorption is assumed as 5USD The result are showed in table 17 Table 7: CO2 absorption value/ IIA IIIA1 Plot Plot Plot Plot 662 611.5 1059.5 1539 Value of CO2 absorption (usd/ha) Mean value of CO2 absorption 636.8 1300 in population (usd/ha) The mean value of CO2 absorption in IIA status is 640 USD/ha, and its value in IIIA1 forest is 1,300 USD/ha ~ 26000000 VND/ha/year Even that smaller than value of broad leaves forest on krast in Cuc Phuong national park, it is higher than CO2 absorption value of other types like poor forest, bamboo forest, recovered forest … However, IIA forest in Ba Vi have a little smaller value of CO2 absorption than that of all types in Cuc Phuong National Park 18 V CONCLUSION & RECOMMENDATION 5.1 Conclusion  In study area, we recognized 52 species belong to 28 families Each plot has different dominant trees with different proportion Plot and plot have same Lauraceae family  Main tree plants in Ba Vi national park are invaluable and light demanding tree species: Mallotus cochinchinensis Lour; Liquidambar formosana Hance; …  The characteristics of species in plots are different The DBH and height are close relationship Trees in plot is not only highest average about DBH but also in height  There are no significant different about wood volume and dry biomass between plots in IIA forest The timber volume of both plots in IIA forest are lower than 10m Total wood volume and dry biomass of IIIA1 forest is higher than IIA plot The range of wood volume in Ba Vi national park from 6.79m3/ha to 19.1m3/ha while dry biomass range is 59 ton/ha to  Two factors directly affect to dry bio_mass of plot are number individual and diameter at breast height  Carbon accumulated in species has a strong relationship with diameter The different level of carbon sequestration in IIA forest is not considerable And the content of carbon sequestration in wood species at IIA area is 36 ton/ha – 38 ton/ha It is lower than carbon content of IIIA1 forest (from 58 ton/ha to 85 ton/ha) The mean of CO2 absorption of IIA, IIIA1 forest is 127.4 ton/ha and 259.9 ton/ha  Using price of ton carbon absorbed is 5usd, the mean value of CO2 absorption in IIA status is 640 usd/ha And its value in IIIA1 forest is 1300 USD/ha, approximate to 26000000 VND/ha/year  19 5.2 Shortcomings  Because of limitation in time, finance and human resources, this study just focused on tree species, but not on non-tree species for carbon absorption estimation  This thesis focus on some previous function Therefore in order to estimate carbon absorption we need find actual equation for this Ba Vi area 5.3 Recommendation  Continuing survey this area to determine forest characteristic change The value of stock increment year by year  Existing Payment for Environment Services but it not deserve forest area protection of families Therefor after we determine the value of Ba Vi National Park we can pay exactly money for protectors  Building a map of carbon stock not only for Ba Vi National Park but also for all of protected area in Vietnam  This research is investigated to estimated carbon absorbed by tree species Therefore, we must needing another researches about carbon sequestration in litter fall, soil, dead woody species and soil of this area./ 20 Establishment plot Measurement diameter Measurement diameter Measuring top height 21 REFERENCES (2014, 10) Retrieved from SCHOOL OF FOREST RESOURCES AND 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