Carbon sinking: West emits while the Third World sinks?

From the 17 to 20 November 2010, local communities and indigenous people gathered at Miklin Hotel, East Legon in Accra, Ghana to participate in a consultative meeting to discuss modalities for the development of a grant mechanism for inclusion of indigenous peoples and local communities in country and regional pilots. During the development of the World Bank Forest Investment Programme (FIP) it was identified that the full and effective, continuous participation of indigenous peoples and local communities in the design and implementation of FIP investment strategies is necessary. A dedicated grant mechanism should be established under the FIP to provide grants to indigenous peoples and local communities in country or regional pilots to support their participation in the development of the FIP investment strategies, programmes and projects.

The operational principles and priorities, funding modalities and governance of the dedicated grant mechanism should be developed through broad, transparent consultation with indigenous peoples and local communities (and their designated organisations) across all forest regions, and should build upon lessons learned from existing mechanisms.

Forests, carbon sinking and climate change are intimately intertwined. Forests have regulated the earth’s climate, rainfall, groundwater and soil and regulated air freshness since time immemorial. Their transpiration acts as a regulator of the balance of oxygen and carbon dioxide – the world’s forests and forest soils currently store more than one trillion tons of carbon1, twice the amount found floating free in the atmosphere.

While deforestation is responsible for about 20 per cent of greenhouse gases, overall, forests currently absorb more carbon than they emit. The problem, according to scientists, is that this critical carbon-regulating service could be lost entirely if the earth heats up by 2.5 degrees Celsius or more relative to pre-industrial levels – which is expected to occur if emissions are not substantially reduced. Further, higher temperatures, along with the prolonged droughts, more intense pest invasions, and other environmental stresses that could accompany climate change, would lead to considerable forest destruction and degradation.

Interestingly, those campaigning for carbon sinking and REDD+ projects are targeting local communities and indigenous peoples’ lands. Indigenous people have a valid point when they argue that they have every right to develop their own lands for crops just as the Western world has most of their land dedicated to farming

It’s common knowledge that trees and forests help by removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and converting it during photosynthesis to carbon, which they store in the form of wood and vegetation, a process referred to as carbon sequestration. Trees are generally about 20 per cent carbon by weight. The overall biomass of forests also acts as a carbon sink with the organic matter in forest soils – such as the humus produced by the decomposition of dead plants.

CENTER FOR EDUCATION AND DOCUMENTATION – INDIA

The concept of Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation (REDD) was first discussed at COP 11. India proposed the concept of ‘Compensated Conservation’, which is intended to compensate the countries for maintaining and increasing their forests as carbon pools.

Forest dwelling communities are often blamed for deforestation and degradation of forests, especially due to shifting cultivation. The traditional land rights of many peoples who have lived and tilled the land in some of these official ‘forest’ areas for generations, are not considered. The lack of clear documentation and absence of proper surveys even in the past makes it easier to declare such people to be ‘encroachers’ and face severe problems of evictions, and violence.

Carbon Sink afforestation projects make the forest communities highly vulnerable. With the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) and voluntary carbon offsets, payments for environmental services schemes, and increasing prices for commodities such as agro-fuels, palm oil or soya, there is little reason for optimism. As demand for land increases, people are being pushed off their existing territories. If the financial value of standing forests goes up they are increasingly likely to face governments and companies willing to go to extreme lengths to wrest their forests from them.

If the role of forests in climate change needs to be strengthened and the issues of climate change needs to be addressed, the structure of the Forest Department will need to be transformed. Policymakers will need to address both the ecological impacts of climate change on the forestry sector, as well as the social and economic impacts on communities. This will require effective forest management practices and policies as well as understanding the interrelations between communities, government, the private sector, and forestry products.

THE MARKET

The global carbon market is dominated by the EU and the US where companies that emit greenhouse gases are required to cut their emissions or buy pollution allowances or carbon credits from the market, under the EU Emissions Trading Scheme. Europe, which has seen volatile carbon prices due to fluctuations in energy prices and supply and demand, will continue to dominate the global carbon market for another few years, as the US and China – the world's top polluters – have yet to establish mandatory emission-reduction policies.

What is required is actually an ecosystems approach with a focus on climate justice and the rights and role of local communities. It should also address biodiversity and poverty effectively and challenge the underlying causes of deforestation directly, resolving governance, poverty and land tenure issues.

It is not deniable that climate change is affecting our lives. Nor can one deny that forest degradation in developing countries is adding to the challenge, and that action, particularly concerning the sustainable conservation of forests, is urgently needed. Moreover, carbon trading adds a new dimension to the discourse of climate change, as it widens the possibility for developed nations to assist already vulnerable forest communities to adapt or mitigate their livelihoods – in this way portrayed as destructive. This assistance, amidst a newly-formed carbon trading regime, will undoubtedly render such communities more vulnerable, as their already tenuous rights to forest land might be violated even further by local land-use projects that are implemented by the developed world.

On home ground, countries like the Democratic Republic of Congo, with its expansive forest cover, might increasingly be drawn upon by the UNFCCC to manage its forests in a sustainable manner. More REDD projects will follow, and in this process, forest communities’ livelihoods and rights to land will be violated. It is only now with carbon trade that incentives for the developed world to engage in projects in Africa, that aim to mitigate or adapt to climate change, might reinforce such violation of rights to forest-use.

There should be mechanism put in place for in-country carbon sinking. The trees need to be planted where carbon is being emitted other than asking Third World countries to plant them for carbon trading.

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* Maurice O. Odhiambo, Jamaa Resource Initiatives, PWYP-Kenya.
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