Deforestation and calculation of greenhouse gas emissions
Update: Direct Land Use Change Assessment Tool
Deforestation is an important global problem: it has severe negative impacts on the planet and contributes to climate change. Deforestation is a form of land use change. A well-known example of deforestation is for the cultivation of agricultural crops, such as soy and oil palm. Approximately 8% of global greenhouse gas emissions are attributed to land use change. However, calculating greenhouse gas emissions from land use change for a given crop in a particular country presents researchers with a huge challenge. In many cases there are simply no primary data. Our Direct Land Use Change Assessment Tool offers a solution. Version 2017.2 of the tool is now available via the Blonk Consultants tool portal.
Calculation of greenhouse gas emissions from land use change
In many cases a lack of primary data makes it difficult to calculate the impact of land use change for a specific crop in a specific country. Global or country-specific estimates based on statistics and satellite imagery are available, but making an estimate for a specific crop and country remains a challenge. Blonk Consultants has developed the Direct Land Use Change Assessment Tool to support researchers and other interested parties.Three functions
The Direct Land Use Change Assessment Tool is an Excel tool that provides a predefined calculation method to determine greenhouse gas emissions caused by land use change for crop cultivation. The tool has three basic functions, based on three different scenarios related to the availability of user data:- Country known & land use unknown: This estimate is based on a number of reference land use scenarios combined with data from relative crop-country extensions from FAO statistics.
- Country & land use unknown: A weighted average is determined on the basis of FAO statistics. The methodology used is the same as for ‘country known & land use unknown.’
- Country & land use known: This approach is described in PAS 2050-1 (published by BSI). The tool uses various IPCC data sources.
Update: Version 2017.2
The Direct Land Use Change Assessment Tool is regularly updated as new data become available. Version 2017.2 is now available and contains FAO statistics up to 2014. Many of the background data have been adapted, such as the reported areas, forest statistics and estimates of biomass carbon stocks in forests. In addition, a correction has been made for the way in which emissions are calculated, so that the results are fully in line with PAS 2050-1. In the previous version of the tool, the PAS 2050-1 calculations differed in a small number of cases, but this only affected the results in just a few cases.
The Direct Land Use Change Assessment Tool is regularly updated as new data become available. Version 2017.2 is now available and contains FAO statistics up to 2014. Many of the background data have been adapted, such as the reported areas, forest statistics and estimates of biomass carbon stocks in forests. In addition, a correction has been made for the way in which emissions are calculated, so that the results are fully in line with PAS 2050-1. In the previous version of the tool, the PAS 2050-1 calculations differed in a small number of cases, but this only affected the results in just a few cases.
Complete dataset:
9000+ crop- country combinations
It is possible to access the complete updated dataset. The dataset now contains more than 9,000 country and crop combinations for the functionality ‘land know & land use unknown’. The dataset can be purchased from our tool portal. This gives you access to various documents containing the data, including an Excel and pdf file. Your investment: 130 euro (ex. VAT)
The complete dataset is available from the Blonk Consultants tool portal.Full Excel tool
Of course, you can also purchase a licence for the entire Excel tool. The price of the full tool is available on request. Contact us for more information and a free price indication.
More information
Want to know more about our Direct Land Use Change Assessment Tool?
Contact Pieter van de Vijver with your questions.
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