Page 80 - Çevre Şehir ve İklim Dergisi İngilizce - Özel Sayı

The Establishment of New Carbon Sink Areas in Non-Forest Lands and
Carbon Farming in the Process of Climate Change Adaptation

3.4. Carbon Economics and Carbon Crediting Mechanism in
Carbon Farming

The human impact on the carbon cycle is undeniable, and it is becoming
increasingly important to transform this impact into monetary value and
express it in measurable units. ‘Carbon Markets’ and “Carbon Economics”
developed in the last decade are the most concrete examples of this
transformation. Carbon economics focuses on calculating the amount of
carbon sequestered by sink areas and determining their financial and market
value. In this economics, the conversion of sink areas into CO₂ sequestration
and economic value by evaluating parameters such as rotation period,
interest rate, biomass amount and area is addressed within the framework of
mathematical economics (Görücü, 1997).
Since carbon dioxide is the gas with the largest share in global warming
worldwide, most of the scientific studies focus on the reduction or sequestration
of this gas. Sedjo (1989) developed an important strategy to mitigate climate
change with his proposal to expand afforestation. Similarly, Cline (1992)
emphasizes three main benefits of planting and afforestation in sink areas:
1. Saving Time: It is achieved to save 30-40 years of time in the transition
to non-carbon energy technologies.
2. Resilience: The high level of carbon stored provides greater resilience
to the uncertainties of global warming. For example, when the impacts
of global warming diminish, trees will create economic value as biomass
feedstock.
3. Use of Renewable Energy: Replacing fossil fuels with renewable
biomass energy can offer a solution to global warming.
Studies show that 150-250 million tonnes of carbon have been released
into the atmosphere as a consequence of land use changes since 1860
(Trexler, 1991). This wide range indicates the difficulty of quantifying carbon
emissions from land use change. Rapid population growth and expansion of
settlements are the main causes of land use change (Richards, 1990). The use
of forest areas for agricultural purposes also contributes significantly to this
change. Johnson (1991) suggests that 64% of tropical deforestation is due to
agriculture, 18% to commercial biomass production, 10% to fuelwood and 8%
to farmer use.
Tropical forests store much more carbon than other ecosystems. 1 hectare
of agricultural land stores 44 times less carbon than tropical forests in the same
area (Cairns and Meganck, 1994). The carbon storage capacities of different
ecosystems are shown in Table 1 according to their dry matter weights (Sarı, 2024).

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Special Issue / 2024