A second reforestation project has been registered by UN authorities, a milestone for the land-use sector after years of setbacks in tree-based carbon sequestration activities under the Kyoto Protocol.
The Moldova Soil Conservation Project was recently approved by the UN’s Clean Development Mechanism (
CDM) Executive Board, only the second afforestation and reforestation (A/R) project to reach this stage. Like the first A/R CDM project registered in China, the Moldova project is among a portfolio of 16 World Bank carbon forestry projects.
Being run by the country’s State Forest Agency, Moldsilva, the project will ultimately reforest 20,290 hectares of degraded land belonging to it and local councils. The 20-year project aims to deliver 2.5 million tonnes of CO2 (
MtCO2e) emission reductions by 2017 through carbon bio-sequestration in trees and soil. Up to 40 different native and naturalised tree species will be used.
On top of the carbon benefits, the CDM project design document claims the venture contributes to sustainable development by “restoring degraded lands, preventing soil erosion, increasing forest cover, improving soil productivity and increasing supplies of fuelwood, timber, and non-timber products to meet the needs of local communities”.
Only expiring temporary
CERs will be earned by the project, under the UN’s approach in the CDM not to award permanent offset credits in the A/R sector. The approach is designed to treat the tricky issue of ‘permanence’ in new forests, where carbon savings can’t be guaranteed to last forever given there is always the risk of fire, disease or logging at some future time.
Expiring CERs are just one of a range of
issues complicating projects for A/R developers that have resulted in a very long project approval timeline. As a result, this sector of the UN’s CDM has failed to take off like most other types of emissions reduction projects. Less than 30 forestry projects have been proposed to the CDM authorities out of more than 4000 in the total pipeline. The pipeline is dominated by activities in renewable energy, waste-to-energy conversion and industrial greenhouse-gas destruction.
Forestry carbon project developers have largely
moved to the voluntary market where a more pragmatic approach is being offered and a different solution to the issue of permanence.
More:
World Bank BioCarbon Fund: Moldova Soil Conservation ProjectRelated stories:
Time running out for CDM forestryOverview: Forest carbon standards in the voluntary market