Tropical forests and climate change

Land use change is responsible for about 10% of anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions. Tropical forest ecosystems can participate in both pillars of addressing global warming, namely mitigation and adaptation:

-Tropical forests and plantations are important potential carbon sinks, their biomass can provide energy to replace fossil fuels, while reducing deforestation and forest degradation and improving forest management (REDD+) can significantly reduce anthropogenic GHG emissions

-The ability of human societies, which are still essentially rural, to adapt to climate change depends in part on the state of available natural resources, while the necessary adaptation of tropical ecosystems to climate change can be facilitated by human interventions.

In the context of the implementation of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, mechanisms such as the Sustainable Development Mechanism (SDM) and REDD+, and voluntary markets, as well as ecosystem-based adaptation to climate change, provide a new opportunity for tropical forestry, as well as a potential lever for tropical forest protection or restoration. The module provides an understanding of the basic concepts of climate change, the role of tropical ecosystems in the global carbon cycle, and the technical, policy and economic responses to climate change issues.

Module Content:

This module provides basic knowledge on topics such as the carbon cycle, the mechanisms and consequences of climate change, and the technical and policy frameworks for mitigation and adaptation to climate change. The potential of tropical agro-ecosystems is assessed based on scientific studies and existing operational projects.

Teaching and Learning Methods:

-Course (18 hours)

-TD (3 hours).

Students gain an understanding of the biophysical and anthropogenic factors controlling interactions between tropical forest ecosystems and climate change and the institutional mechanisms developed in climate change mitigation involving land use.

Continuous assessment : 100%.