Operationalizing Forestry mitigation projects under CDM T P

Operationalizing Forestry mitigation projects under CDM T P Singh Director, TERI School of Advanced Studies New Delhi, India

Opportunity in India Enormous degraded areas Vicious cycle of population pressure resulting in environmental degradation and increased poverty Virtuous cycle of forest/land restoration leading to poverty alleviation and sustainable development

Enabling Environment National Forest Policy 1988 n n n Increase forest cover to 33% of geographical area Linkage of Industry and Private tree growers Peoples’ involvement in Forest Management National Forestry Action Program 1999 n n Expanding forest area Improving forest productivity

CDM & Sink projects Restricted to Afforestation and Reforestation Up to 1% of 1990 on base emission level can be claimed as CERs

Unresolved issues in sink projects Baselines Additionality Permanence Leakage Measurement, monitoring, evaluation, verification & certification Transaction costs

Questions that need to be addressed What is the definition of Afforestation and Reforestation What constitutes sustainable development What category of land will be eligible What would be the potential eligible afforestation and reforestation activities What will be the Institutional mechanism to implement identified activities

Definitions of Forest, Afforestation and Reforestation In the Marrakesh Accord, forests, afforestation and reforestation have been defined as follows: Forest is defined as “a minimum area of land of 0. 05 -1. 0 hectares with tree crown cover (or equivalent stocking level) of more than 10 -30% with trees with the potential to reach a minimum height of 2 -5 meters at maturity in situ”

Definitions of Forest, A & R Afforestation is defined as “the direct humaninduced conversion of land that has not been forested for a period of at least 50 years to forested land through planting, seeding and/or the human-induced promotion of natural seed sources”. Reforestation is defined as “the direct humaninduced conversion of non-forested land to forested land through planting, seeding and/or the human-induced promotion of natural seed sources, on land that was forested but that has been converted to non-forested land”.

Eligible Project Activities Farm Forestry Strip Plantations Joint Forest Management Plantation of commercial timber species Raising of orchards

Farm Forestry Will probably meet the criteria of sustainable development and suitability of land category Highly desirable and cost effective from the developing country perspective Can result in growth of wood based industries

Farm Forestry (Cont…) Institutional mechanism could include n n n Farmers’ cooperatives Tree growers’ cooperatives Linkages of farmers with Industry

Farm Forestry (Potential) Case Study Pilibhit District, U. P. n n n Estimated available trees: 12. 3 million Estimated Potential: 26. 4 million Potential Carbon storage: 35, 200 t per year

Farm Forestry (Potential) Haryana survey results 55 million trees (constituting 10. 3 million cu. m volume of growing stock) were found outside the forest areas in village woodlots, farm forestry, along roads, canals, bunds and rail tracks. Potential Farm Forestry (8 mha) Potential Strip plantations (3 mha) n Long rotation tree species

Peoples’ involvement in Forest Management Joint Forest Management Program States trying to innovate and improve upon the existing program Forest Development Agencies (FDA).

Peoples’ involvement in Forest Management FDA will provide the funnel mechanism through which assistance under various schemes would flow and be targeted in the areas covered by the FDAs registered as federation of village forest committees/ ecodevelopment committees. Can FDAs be geared to become the hub of Carbon mitigation projects? ?

Establish linkages to develop carbon markets

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