ABSTRACT
Allometry describes the practice of measuring one part of something in order to estimate the size of another (larger, harder to measure) part. For forests, allometry typically takes the form of a measurement of a tree’s diameter (at ‘breast height’, shortened to ‘DBH’) – a task easily performed in the field with a tape measure. Forest allometric equations have been used in various forms since the start of the twentieth century to provide an estimate of timber volume, biomass, and most recently carbon. In this chapter we explore how and why allometric equations have been adapted for use in forest carbon markets. To do so we draw on two interrelated strands of scholarship. First, science and technology studies ideas about ‘action-at-a-distance’ and the role of technologies and techniques in maintaining stability in a network, principally the idea of ‘immutable mobiles’; objects that move through space without changing (Latour 1987; Law 1987). Second, we consider conceptualisations of how markets are made, the practices of markets, and their technical, material components, drawing on the notion of market devices (Callon et al. 2007), defined as ‘the material and discursive assemblages that intervene in the construction of markets’ (Muniesa et al. 2007: 2). Our aim is to investigate the multiple, and sometimes unexpected, practices, rationalities, techniques and technologies that have turned greenhouse gas emissions into tradeable permits, using the case study of one particular carbon market, that of forest carbon, or REDD+. Further, we wish to understand how existing market practices that predate the creation of forest carbon as a commodity have shaped this market.
