Manilla - Carbon markets offer promising new opportunities for simultaneously addressing climate change and chronic forest management challenges in developing countries, according to the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization.

Carbon trading schemes are increasingly seen as effective mechanisms to motivate local actions for addressing the global challenges of climate change. With recent recognition of the importance of trees and forests in climate change mitigation efforts, carbon markets are refocusing to reward forest protection and sound forest management.

“The potential exists for carbon markets to bring tangible rewards to local people as well as deliver important global environmental benefits,” according to Kazuyuki Tsurumi, FAO Representative in the Philippines. “To succeed, however, such schemes need to effectively involve local communities in all aspects of planning and implementation, and especially benefit distribution.”

With expectations running high for reaching a new global climate change agreement at the 15th Conference of the Parties of the United Nation’s Framework Convention on Climate Change this December in Copenhagen, Denmark, renewed attention is focusing on what such an agreement may mean for local people around the world.

Forests and trees are a particular flashpoint in climate change negotiations, considering that deforestation and forest degradation accounts for nearly 20 percent of all greenhouse gas emissions.

Despite forests now being placed at the forefront in the battle to put the brakes on global warming, deforestation rates remain high. FAO estimates that globally more than 13 million hectares of forests are lost each year.

Carbon markets are emerging as a promising new mechanism for addressing the twin problems of climate change and forest loss. Such schemes involve “buyers” making payments to forest and land managers in exchange for their efforts to protect trees and manage forests in ways that increase carbon storage.

While the emerging carbon markets offer enticing prospects, many details need to be resolved, especially with respect to local communities.

“As the de facto managers of large swaths of land and forests across Asia and the Pacific, local communities and farmers will inevitably play a critical role in the success or failure of forest-based climate migration efforts,” according to Patrick Durst, FAO senior forestry officer for the Asia-Pacific region.

FAO is launching a new regional project to address these challenges. The new project entitled “Linking Communities in Southeast Asia to Forestry-Related Voluntary Carbon Markets” will be implemented in five countries, namely Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Thailand, and the Philippines.

The project will focus on developing simple, user-friendly guidelines to help community forestry projects access voluntary carbon markets. An online “meeting point” will be created to help link buyers and sellers of forestry carbon credits, and model forests will be supported to pilot new carbon financing approaches.

Voluntary carbon markets typically involve small transactions, offer a flexible array of arrangements and can be negotiated relatively quickly, – important characteristics if local communities are to effectively benefit.

Secretary Jose L. Atienza, Jr. of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) and Mr. Kazuyuki Tsurumi, FAO Representative in the Philippines, signed today the official documents to formally launch the project. The Forest Management Bureau (FMB) is the lead agency of the Government for this project. A total budget of US$430 000 will be shared by the five participating countries for over a two-year period of project implementation.

For more information, contact Patrick Durst, FAO senior forestry officer, at [email protected]