Realizing Carbon's Value

Discourse and Calculation in the Production of Carbon Forestry Offsets in Costa Rica

Bibliographic Data

ID10963886
AuthorsDavid M Lansing, David Lansing (0000-0002-4586-7893, University of Maryland, Baltimore County, corresponding author)
Year2011
Volume43
Issue3
Pages731-753
Publication date2011-06-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueAntipode (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0066-4812 • E-ISSN: 1467-8330
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/j.1467-8330.2011.00886.x
OpenAlexW2006347594
LanguageEN
Citations received46
References cited21

This article examines the relation between discourse and value in the production of a carbon forestry offset project among indigenous smallholders in Costa Rica. By analyzing a pivotal cost–benefit calculation that changed the trajectory of the project, this article makes two principal claims. First, the intelligibility of the calculation is grounded in a discursive formation that is emergent from a history of development projects in the region, where particular ways of speaking about the relation between indigenous bodies and agriculture have allowed carbon's commodification to emerge as a desirable project. Second, the calculations resulted in quantified representations of space that were necessary for the offset to become useful within the framework of the Kyoto Protocol. In this case, the forestry offset's use value derived from quantified representations of agricultural space; a process that opened some forms of land use for receiving carbon while foreclosing on others

Agriculture · Archaeology · Carbon offset · Climate change · Commodification · Economics · Economy · Geography · Indigenous · Kyoto Protocol · Offset (computer science · Value (mathematics · Agriculture, Land Use, Rural Development · Computer Science · Conservation, Biodiversity, and Resource Management · Ecology · Forestry · Global trade, sustainability, and social impact