Durban blog: A project to keep the forests

03/12-11 kl. 08:16 World

Photo: Marte Franck It is not all serious climate business in Durban. Participants relax at a concert on the beach

At the climate conference in Durban, University of Copenhagen forestry student Walid Mustapha, reflects on the challenges faced by a scheme to reduce greenhouse gases

by Walid Moustapha

Deforestation is a major contributor to CO2 emissions. As much as a third of all CO2 emissions can be related to deforestation according to some accounts. Policymakers have realized the potential for forests to act as carbon sinks and stores, and by means of different projects, a large proportion of atmospheric CO2 can be sequestered.

Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD +, see fact box right) is a set of steps designed to use market/financial incentives to reduce the emissions of greenhouse gases from deforestation and forest degradation.

While the solution seems easy the reality of implementation offers a different reality.

I attended a Redd+ side event hosted by the Center for International Forestry Research CIFOR, which offered information on the challenges of implementing REDD pilot projects in tropical regions.

Scarce private investment

Among the challenges, corruption is a major issue limiting the success of the projects which CIFOR through research has attempted to find solutions for. Corruption is difficult to combat. It is heterogeneous and occurs at many levels, but by implementing Measuring, Reporting, and Verification MRV and by offering performance-based payment to the parties involved, CIFOR believe that corruption can be limited.

While these solutions seem promising, Redd+ projects need funding, which is to be distributed between MRV, projects and performance based payments, but as the actual success of the pilot projects has been limited, private investment is becoming scarce. Funding through Clean Development Mechanism CDM, a Kyoto mechanism to help developing countries reducing greenhouse gas emissions, is still ongoing however.

Hopefully, the implementation of Redd+ measures will provide a better solution.

See Walid’s previous blog here.

Uni-avis@adm.ku.dk

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Facts

Walid Mustapha
Walid Fayez Mustapha is a member of the International Forestry Students' Association and Head of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change sub-commission for 2011/2012.

He is studying his Msc in Forest and Nature Management at the
Department of Forest and Landscape at the Faculty of Life Science, University of Copenhagen

COP17
COP 17, or the Conference of Parties 17, is an annual meeting where countries discuss and assess progress pertaining to climate change. The first COP was held in Nassau, Bahamas in 1994. The parties meet to adopt decisions and resolutions in order to take specific action against climate change. This year’s meeting is in Durban, South Africa.

REDD+
Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD or REDD+) uses market or financial incentives to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases from deforestation and forest degradation. Its original objective is to reduce green house gases but it can deliver "co-benefits" such as biodiversity conservation and poverty alleviation. It was first proposed at COP11 in 2005.