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Tree plantations and climate change: do they work? |
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A look at some of the problems and solutions.
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Over 345 million hectares of land globally could be forested or re-forested to help combat global warming. The Kyoto Protocol, which sets targets for industrialised countries to reduce greenhouse gases (GHG) emissions, has established the Clean Development Mechanism to support such initiatives. But do these programmes tackle the real causes of climate change?
The CDM allows industrialised countries and organisations to fund projects in developing countries aiming to contribute to reducing GHG emissions. These projects are attractive to developing country governments because they offer foreign income, and to industrialised organisations for their low land and labour costs.
Companies or governments with high emission levels can fund CDM projects that either increase carbon sinks (such as tree plantations) or expand existing carbon reservoirs (such as forest conservation). The idea is that by maintaining reservoirs or increasing sinks, a company is compensating for its own carbon emissions; however, this relationship has not been fully demonstrated.
There are other problems with tree plantation projects. Research by Acción Ecológica, Ecuador and the World Rainforest Movement examines the social and environmental impacts of CDM tree plantation projects in the Ecuadorian Sierra, such as the FACE-PROFAFOR.
Problems with tree planting CDM projects include:
* Many projects do not consider the environmental costs of tree plantations, such as the loss of water and destruction of primary ecosystems.
* Despite a commitment to plant native tree species, some projects plant non-local species that destroy water systems and soil structure.
* The actual reduction of carbon in the atmosphere is low, as non-native trees do not grow well in a foreign environment and extra carbon is released through soil degradation
* Local people do not always benefit from economic, social and environmental gains. For example, funds provided by overseas companies do not always cover the costs involved and local communities have to contribute their own resources to maintain plantations.
The CDM is a false solution to climate change and there are fundamental problems with the scheme. The idea does not attack the problem of excessive consumption of fossil fuels: industrialised countries use the CDM to avoid reducing their own GHG emissions. It is also impossible to accurately determine the exact quantities of atmospheric carbon sequestered through afforestation projects.
Furthermore, the targets set for emissions reduction are inadequate. The 1990 emissions levels, which are used as a baseline against which to measure progress, are arbitrary. The CDM sets a target of a 5.2 percent reduction of emissions. However, many studies maintain that for this reduction to have a real impact on the climate problem, the figure should be set at no less than 70 percent of the levels released 15 years ago.
The CDM framework enables industrialised countries to implement projects in developing countries and avoid reducing GHGs at the source. As an alternative, the research suggests:
* CDM funding resources should be urgently shifted towards an energy transition strategy.
* Researchers should focus more on analysing the impacts of plantations on land tenure and resource access for local inhabitants. |
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