Project

Incentive effects, acceptance and climate effectiveness of different remuneration options for climate protection in forestry (AnAKHon)

Climate change poses enormous challenges for forest management. According to the Climate Protection Act, the contribution of German forests to emission reductions in the Land Use, Land-Use Change and Forestry (LULUCF) sector is expected to increase significantly. Similarly, forests need to be adapted to climate change to ensure their long-term ability to mitigate climate change and provide other ecosystem services. The German Bundestag has therefore mandated the federal government to establish a permanent system to reward forest ecosystem services. The AnAKHon project aims to provide a basis for decision-making by assessing the incentive effects, the acceptance and the climate effectiveness of different options for climate protection in German forestry will be scientifically analyzed.

Background and Objective

The objectives of the project are to determine the climate effectiveness of existing proposals for remuneration of adaptation and climate protection measures in the forest, to determine the incentive effects and acceptance of the measures among forest owners, to determine the implementation costs of climate measures in the forest and to derive proposals for optimizating forest climate protection measures.

The project results will provide information for political decision makers on the suitability of forestry measures for climate protection reward systems as well as on the quantity and cost effects of the measures. For this purpose, "fact sheets" on the respective measure options will be prepared.

Approach

First, potential areas for climate protection and adaptation measures are surveyed. The potential physical climate impact of individual measures is estimated using carbon yield tables.
In different scenarios, a simulation model is used to calculate the carbon storage in forests and wood products. The simulation model is supplemented by findings from surveys. Expert surveys are used to determine data uncertainties and variability of risk and substitution factors. Forest owner surveys provide insights into farm-specific area potentials, the acceptance of different remuneration systems and the willingness to implement climate protection and adaptation measures in the forest.