The potential of the CDM to deliver pro-poor benefits

The potential of Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) projects to deliver pro-poor benefits at the community level is examined. Both regular CDM and premium add-on standard projects are evaluated, including the Gold Standard and Climate, Community and Biodiversity (CCB) Standard, through the use of seven poverty indicators. Some key characteristics associated with providing pro-poor benefits are also identified. Finally, the market potential of a revised or new premium add-on standard explicitly designed to deliver pro-poor benefits is assessed through the use of a survey. The results indicate that regular CDM projects are only moderately successful at delivering pro-poor benefits. Although the few projects registered that utilize the CCB Standard all performed well in delivering pro-poor benefits, those that used the Gold Standard performed only slightly better than regular CDM projects. Characteristics associated with providing pro-poor benefits include the use of add-on standards, a high level of stakeholder participation, and the development of projects by not-for-profit and government/intergovernmental organizations. The survey of carbon market participants indicated both an interest and desire for Certified Emission Reduction (CER) credits with pro-poor benefits attached and shows that the market potential for such a standard to be quite good.

Policy relevance

This analysis of the CDM goes beyond sustainable development to consider the potential of a project to deliver pro-poor benefits at the local community level. Specific characteristics associated with projects are identified that appear to deliver pro-poor benefits that may benefit future project design. Through this analysis and identifying these characteristics, actions may be taken to incorporate those into CDM project requirements or guidelines to advance the mechanism as a means to contribute to poverty alleviation.     

Book Reviews

Regular grid sampling structures in the plane are a common spatial framework for many studies. Constructing grids with desirable properties such as equality of area and shape is more difficult on a sphere. We studied the distortion characteristics of recursive partitions of the surface of the globe starting with the octahedron and icosahedron polyhedral models. We used five different methods for mapping from the polyhedral model to the surface of the sphere: the Gnomonic projection, Fuller's Dymaxion projection, Snyder's equal area polyhedral projection, direct spherical subdivision, and a recursive polyhedral projection. We increased partition density using both a 4-fold and a 9-fold ratio at each level of recursive subdivision by subdividing to the 8th level with the 4-fold density ratio (65 536 cells per polyhedral face) and to the fifth level with the 9-fold density ratio (59 049 cells per polyhedral face). We measured the area and perimeter of each cell at each level of recursion for each method on each model using each density ratio. From these basic measurements we calculated the range and standard deviation of the area measurement, and the mean, range, and standard deviation of a compactness measurement defined as the ratio of (the ratio of the perimeter to the area of the cell) to (the ratio of the perimeter to the area of a spherical circle with the same area). We looked at these basic measurements and their statistics using graphs of variation with recursion level, sums of squares analyses of variation, histograms of the distributions, maps of the spatial variation, and correlograms. The Snyder projection performed best in area distortion and the Gnomonic projection performed best in compactness distortion. The Fuller projection and the Sphere method had moderate distortion in both area and compactness relative to the worst methods. There was little difference in distortion performance between partitions using the 4-fold density ratio and those using the 9-fold density ratio. Partitions based on the icosahedron performed better for all statistics than those based on the octahedron.     

Effective methods for assessing ecological quality in intertidal soft-sediment habitats

Impacts of anthropogenic pollution on marine ecosystems are being addressed by legislation to protect and restore coastal and transitional waters. A range of biological measures have been investigated for their ability to indicate anthropogenic disturbance in subtidal soft-sediment habitats, but little work to date has focussed in intertidal habitats. This study investigated the sensitivity of communities, individual taxa, diversity indices and biotic indices to nutrient and organic enrichment in intertidal soft-sediment habitats. Variation in macrofaunal communities was more strongly associated with anthropogenic stressors than with natural environmental variation. Two multimetric indices, M-AMBI and IQI, were more closely associated with nutrient and organic pollution than the AMBI and ITI indices. Intertidal monitoring based on existing monitoring tools offers a cost effective alternative to subtidal monitoring and has potential to form the basis for an ecosystem level approach.     

The Geochemistry of the Igneous Rock Suite of St Martin, Northern Lesser Antilles

The island of St Martin lies inthe inactive part of the northernLesser Antilles island arc. The island consists of volcaniclasticsediments overlain and intruded by volcanic and plutonic rocks,which are in turn overlain by Miocene limestones. The extrusiveand intrusive rock suites are closely spaced in time (around27 Ma) although field relations suggest that the volcanic rockswere intruded by the plutons. Pluton emplacement gave rise tothermal metamorphism of the volcanic and volcaniclastic carapace,and to widespread hydrothermal alteration throughout the island. Geochemically, the igneous rocks of St Martin form a mildlytholeiitic to calc-alkaline typical subduction-related suite.The extrusive rocks are basalts to andesites, and the magmasappear to have differentiated largely through fractional crystallizationof plagioclase, clinopyroxene, and olivine. The REE displayflat chondrite-normalized patterns, with no significant Eu anomalydespite convincing evidence for plagioclase fractionation. Theplutonic rocks are more silica-rich diorites to granites, containingplagioclase, amphibole, and, less commonly, K-feldspar, sphene,zircon, and pyroxene. REE patterns are slightly LREE enrichedbut display distinct negative Eu anomalies. The fractionationof amphibole and accessory phases may have been important inthe evolution of the plutonic suite, as REE contents do notincrease overall with differentiation. Sr and Nd isotopic ratios of the St Martin suite form restrictedranges which vary little with differentiation, or between theextrusive and intrusive suiteSi ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr ratios are slightlyhigher and ¹⁴³Nd/^l44Nd slightly lower than for volcanic rocksuites from the currently active northern Lesser Antilles volcanicarc. Some of the high ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr ratios are explained in termsof hydrothermal alteration involving a high ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr fluid,associated with pluton emplacement. Pb isotope ratios are similarto those of the currently active northern Lesser Antilles arc,and correlate with SiO². Such correlations, together with largeranges of incompatible (and immobile) trace element ratios suggestthat open-system differentiation occurred during the evolutionof the St Martin suite. The composition of magma sources in the northern Lesser Antillesarc apparently has not changed significantly over the last 30Ma, despite a westward shift in the locus of arc magmatism.Addition of a slab-derived fluid to the mantle wedge is responsiblefor the high relative abundances of large ion lithophile elements(LILE) and enrichment in radiogenic Pb and Sr relative to mid-oceanridge basalt (MORB). Subsequent differentiation may involveassimilation of the arc basement in St Martin, which is believedto consist of Cretaceous to early Tertiary arc material, similarto that encountered in the Greater Antilles. ^*Present address: Department of Geosciences, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona 85721     

An Excel macro for generating trilinear plots

This computer note describes a method for creating trilinear plots in Microsoft Excel. Macros have been created in MS Excel's internal language: Visual Basic for Applications (VBA). A simple form has been set up to allow the user to input data from an Excel worksheet. The VBA macro is used to convert the triangular data (which consist of three columns of percentage data) into X-Y data. The macro then generates the axes, labels, and grid for the trilinear plot. The X-Y data are plotted as scatter data in Excel. By providing this macro in Excel, users can create trilinear plots in a quick, inexpensive manner.     

Impact of the Charleston Ocean Dredged Material Disposal Site on nearby hard bottom reef habitats

The deepening of shipping and entrance channels in Charleston Harbor (South Carolina, USA) was completed in April 2002 and placed an estimated 22 million cubic yards (mcy) of material in the offshore Charleston Ocean Dredged Material Disposal Site (ODMDS). To determine if sediments dispersed from the ODMDS were negatively affecting invertebrate and/or finfish communities at hard bottom reef areas around the disposal area, six study sites were established: three close to and downdrift of the ODMDS and three upcurrent and farther from the ODMDS. These sites were monitored biannually from 2000 to 2005 using diver surveys and annually using simultaneous underwater video tows and detailed sidescan-sonar. In general, the sediment characteristics of downdrift sites and reference sites changed similarly over time. Overall, the hard bottom reef areas and their associated communities showed little evidence of degradation resulting from the movement of sediments from the Charleston ODMDS during the study period.     

Using portfolio theory to guide reforestation and restoration under climate change scenarios

The general problem addressed by this study is that of designing a decision support system for planned adaptation to climate change that uses the principles of modern portfolio theory to minimise risk and maximise return of adaptive actions in an environment of deep uncertainty over future climate scenarios. Here we show how modern portfolio theory can use the results of a climate change impact model to select an optimal set of seed sources to be used in regenerating forests of white spruce in an environment of multiple, equally plausible future climates. This study shows that components of solutions are not selected to perform equally well across all plausible futures; but rather, that components are selected to specialise in particular climate scenarios. The innovation of this research rests in demonstrating that the powerful and widely used principles of quantifying and planning for risk and return in the uncertain environment of asset markets can be applied successfully to serve the objectives of planned adaptation to climate change.