Carbon markets can successfully bring revenue to poor rural communities through reforestation projects but the processes involved need reform and improvement. That is the conclusion of a World Bank report released recently which draws on seven years of experience of afforestation and reforestation (A/R) projects in 16 developing countries under the World Bank's BioCarbon Fund (BioCF). The report, released at the Africa Carbon Forum in Marrakesh, Morocco, finds that A/R projects in developing countries face numerous regulatory, capacity, finance and land tenure issues. Despite these barriers, the projects are not only mitigating climate change by contributing to the storage of carbon dioxide, they are also improving rural livelihoods, increasing resilience to climate change, conserving biodiversity, and restoring degraded lands. “Since 2004, the World Bank's BioCarbon Fund has built one of the largest portfolios of afforestation and reforestation projects under the UN's Clean Development Mechanism (CDM),” said Joëlle Chassard, Manager, Carbon Finance Unit of the World Bank. “When analyzing the most efficient mitigation opportunities in developing countries, it is important to look toward the future while taking stock of what has worked and what has not. This report provides lessons for all involved – project developers, validators, regulators, and national authorities” The BioCF is a public-private initiative mobilizing resources for projects that sequester or conserve carbon in forest- and agro-ecosystems. To date, the Fund has contracted 8.6 million emission reductions from 21 projects, most of which are on degraded lands. More than half of the projects involve planting trees for the purpose of environmental restoration. It demonstrates that land-based activities can generate emission reductions with strong environmental and socio-economic benefits for local communities. The report, The BioCarbon Fund Experience – Insights from Afforestation and Reforestation CDM Projects, documents lessons from the early years of implementing A/R projects in developing countries. It finds that these types of projects have proven challenging to develop and implement. Complex rules for designing CDM projects are among the obstacles, as is land eligibility and non-permanence. Non-permanence, for example the risk that trees burn down and thus lose their carbon stock, is currently addressed through temporary crediting, which can limit the demand for forest carbon assets.
