Estimation and economic evaluation of aboveground carbon storage of Tectona grandis plantations in Western Panama

Tropical tree plantations may play an important role in mitigating CO2 emissions through their potential to capture and sequester carbon from the atmosphere. The Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) as well as voluntary initiatives provide economic incentives for afforestation and reforestation efforts through the generation and sale of carbon credits. The objectives of our study were to measure the carbon (C) storage potential of 1, 2 and 10-years old Tectona grandis plantations in the province of Chiriquí, Western Panama and to calculate the monetary value of aboveground C storage if sold as Certified Emission Reduction (CER) carbon credits. The average aboveground C storage ranged from 2.9 Mg C ha−1 in the 1-year-old plantations to 40.7 Mg C ha−1 in the 10-year-old plantations. Using regression analysis we estimated the potential aboveground C storage of the teak plantation over a 20 year rotation period. The CO2-storage over this period amounted to 191.1 Mg CO2 ha−1. The discounted revenues that could be obtained by issuance of carbon credits during a 20 year rotation period were about US60 for temporary CER and US60 for long-term CER, and thus, contribute to a minor extent (1%) to overall revenues, only.