A third afforestation and reforestation (A/R) project has been approved under the UN Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) this week. The CDM Executive Board has registered the Small Scale Cooperative Afforestation CDM Pilot Project Activity on Private Lands Affected by Shifting Sand Dunes.

It’s the first small-scale A/R project to be registered, a scheme to plant trees on the fringe of the Thar Desert in Rajasthan in India. A range of tree species, including acacia and eucalyptus for timber and Ber for fruit harvest, will be planted on 370 hectares of degraded cropland in cooperative venture with 227 local farmers and the Haryana Forest Department.

The project is estimated to generate 380,000 temporary CERs (tCERs) over its 20-year lifespan.

The project aims are to help stabilise sand dunes, increase soil quality, improve water holding capacity in the land, sequester carbon and generate credit revenues for local communities. The Haryana Forest Department looks upon this as a pilot project for eventual roll-out across areas of low-productivity agricultural land around the state.

There are now more than 1500 CDM projects registered in all, across a wide range of renewable energy, waste management and industrial gas destruction set to produce around 1.5 billion CERs by 2012. But the A/R sector has been held back by complexities and a system of non-permanent carbon crediting resulting in a low rate of project advancement through the CDM pipeline.

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