UNFCCC approves India's first CDM forestry project India recently celebrated a boost to its forestry sector with the registration of its first Small Scale Afforestation Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) project by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). This project is only the third CDM forestry project to be approved in the world, with the others in China and Moldova.
Dr. M. A. Khalid, Field Director at the Earthwatch India Regional Climate Centre was instrumental in setting up the project, while working for the Amity Institute of Global Warming and Ecological Studies.
Dr. Khalid says, "The project is entitled ‘Small Scale Cooperative Afforestation CDM pilot project activity on private lands affected by shifting sand dunes'. It is significant not only because it is the first small scale afforestation project in India, but also because it will enable farmers, private entrepreneurs and forest departments to effectively use degraded lands to promote forestry sector activities in India and beyond."
The project is part of the larger Haryana Community Forestry Project, co-funded by the European Commission. It was implemented by Haryana Forest Department, under which nearly 370 hectares of sand-dune affected lands, belonging to 227 farmers from eight villages, were selected. The project will help to stabilise shifting sand-dunes and wind-blown sandy soil, substantially reducing dust storms and subsequent loss of soil. The project land at present is usually left fallow. It supports little vegetation or natural regeneration as rain falls only once every three to four years.
In addition to the ecological benefits, the project will benefit poor farmers by creating over 11,500 carbon credits annually for a period of 20 years. It has been estimated that the net revenue per hectare per year with these carbon credits will be Rs. 6350 as compared to Rs. 1196 per hectare per year without.
"It was a daunting and challenging task for our team to get the farmers' approval and confidence for the CDM proposal, for which we had to spend weeks in villages conducting Participatory Rural Appraisals - a requirement of CDM projects to understand the past and future aspirations of the villagers," says Dr. Khalid. "The harsh ecological conditions of the project lands worked in our favour as we could easily prove the ecological, financial, technological and social benefits to the CDM board at UNFCCC."
The project has the potential to prove that greenhouse gas emission reductions are real, measurable, verifiable and additional to what would have occurred without such a project. It will also encourage other states to promote such activities as sustainable livelihood options for alleviating poverty among people living in the most degraded and ecologically harsh areas.
"The approval of this project is significant for India in many ways. To this point there has been little interest in the forestry sector for CDM projects. Despite the registration of a total of 1,500 CDM projects worldwide, there are only two other afforestation projects, neither of which are in India - a country which holds huge promise in the forestry sector because of its vast degraded land availability," says Dr. Khalid.
"The project will also encourage farmers and forest departments in Haryana and elsewhere in the country to use their degraded and low-productivity agricultural lands to promote forestry activities through raising plantations. The initiative could help earn millions of carbon credits and contribute to India's vision of achieving 33 per cent forest cover. To encourage such projects, support and funding is needed from governments and the corporate sector as it is difficult for poor farmers to provide this themselves."
There are 1,593 CDM projects registered around the world and the majority involve the energy sector (59.7 per cent) followed by waste handling and disposal (17.5 per cent) and agriculture (5.41 per cent), while the forestry sector has only 0.15 per cent. However, forestry sector projects can greatly help in stabilising emissions and aiding mitigation through the removal of CO2 from the atmosphere as trees sequester carbon and store it as biomass.
"Unfortunately, Certified Emissions Reductions (CERs) earned from forestry projects currently fetch low prices because there is a risk of carbon being re-emitted into the atmosphere through fires, decomposition etc," explains Dr. Khalid. "However, once the project gets registered, its CERs become a tradable commodity and can be virtually traded in Carbon Stock Exchanges".
According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report on Land-use, Land-use Change and Forestry, there is potential for the forestry sector to absorb 12-15 per cent of global emissions originating from fossil fuels.
Read more about the CDM forestry project.
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