World Bank Cites Benefits from Deforestation & Reforestation Projects

World Bank reports say that despite
challenges and barriers, the reforestation and other forest carbon projects are
not only mitigating climate change by contributing to the storage of carbon
dioxide, they are also improving rural livelihoods, increasing resilience to
climate change, conserving biodiversity, and restoring degraded lands.
Meanwhile, First Growth Ventures, an Australian company developing significant
forest carbon assets through a public private partnership with provincial
governments, has been purchased by Carbon Value. It will continue with the
development of the existing projects in SE Asia and will look to expand its
Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD) portfolio. Read
More

22 August 2011

Announcement

First Growth Ventures and Forest Carbon Assets

First Growth Ventures Pty Ltd (FGV), a
company developing significant forest carbon assets through a public private
partnership with provincial governments, has been purchased by Carbon Value Pty
Ltd. It will continue with the development of the existing projects in SE Asia
and will look to expand its Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and
Degradation (REDD) portfolio.

FGV is developing a programmatic approach to
forest carbon with the Government of the province of West Papua in Indonesia
for both the corporate social responsibility sector and the pre-compliance
market.

FGV has appointed as its Chief Executive
Officer Lewis Tyndall who will be running the operations of FGV from its Sydney
offices and looks forward to talking to companies or individuals interested in
the acquisition of carbon credits or REDD investments.

Before its purchase by Carbon Value, FGV was
a 100% owned subsidiary of First Growth Funds Limited group (ASX: FGF), which
was placed into administration on 17 July 2011.

Lewis Tyndall is a commercial and
environmental lawyer who has for many years owned, operated  and advised corporations in the environment
sector including being the founder of Climate Roundtable Pty Ltd. Lewis has
expertise in international carbon markets and in particular  the nascent but critical forest carbon
mechanisms being developed and accessed by rainforest nations globally.

About Carbon Value Pty Ltd:

Carbon Value Pty Ltd is a significant part of
the Australian and Singapore investment in the environment sector for Tim
Lebbon, who is also the Chairman of Adelaide-based Leadenhall VRG Pty Ltd. He
started the consultancy practice of Leadenhall in 1982 and has over twenty five
years’ experience in consulting and corporate advisory work. Tim is also a
director Noble Investments, Paragon Private Equity and chairman of Lowrie
Constructions (WA) Pty Ltd.

Website: www.leadenhall.com.au/Carbon_Value.htm

For the full Carbon Markets Report (June
2011) by the World Bank, go to www.carbonfinance.org

See
also a Special Report by David Fogarty for Reuters entitled Indonesia’s Jungle
Fumble http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/08/16/us-indonesia-carbon-idUSTRE77F0IK20110816

Reforestation Projects Bring Carbon Revenues
And Co-Benefits To Poor Communities

Project rules and processes need to improve,
says World Bank report

Marrakesh, July 5, 2011 – Carbon markets can
successfully bring revenue to poor rural communities through reforestation
projects but the processes involved need reform and improvement. That is the
conclusion of a World Bank report released today which draws on seven years of
experience of afforestation and reforestation (A/R) projects in 16 developing
countries under the World Bank’s BioCarbon Fund (BioCF).

The report, released at the Africa Carbon
Forum in Marrakesh, Morocco, finds that A/R projects in developing countries
face numerous regulatory, capacity, finance and land tenure issues. Despite
these barriers, the projects are not only mitigating climate change by
contributing to the storage of carbon dioxide, they are also improving rural
livelihoods, increasing resilience to climate change, conserving biodiversity,
and restoring degraded lands.

“Since 2004, the World Bank’s BioCarbon
Fund has built one of the largest portfolios of afforestation and reforestation
projects under the UN’s Clean Development Mechanism (CDM),” said Joëlle
Chassard, Manager, Carbon Finance Unit of the World Bank. “When analyzing the
most efficient mitigation opportunities in developing countries, it is
important to look toward the future while taking stock of what has worked and
what has not. This report provides lessons for all involved – project
developers, validators, regulators, and national authorities”

The BioCF is a public-private initiative
mobilizing resources for projects that sequester or conserve carbon in forest-
and agro-ecosystems. To date, the Fund has contracted 8.6 million emission
reductions from 21 projects, most of which are on degraded lands.  More than half of the projects involve
planting trees for the purpose of environmental restoration. It demonstrates that
land-based activities can generate emission reductions with strong
environmental and socio-economic benefits for local communities. The report,
The BioCarbon Fund Experience – Insights from Afforestation andReforestation
CDM Projects, documents lessons from the early years of implementing A/R
projects in developing countries.

It finds that these types of projects have
proven challenging to develop and implement. Complex rules for designing CDM
projects are among the obstacles, as is land eligibility and non-permanence.
Non-permanence, for example the risk that trees burn down and thus lose their
carbon stock, is currently addressed through temporary crediting, which can
limit the demand for forest carbon assets. The report suggests a number of
improvements that could make the implementation of these projects easier for
project developers and government officials.

“Implementing one of the first afforestation
and reforestation projects in Africa was a real challenge,” says Hailu Tefera,
Manager of Climate Change Programs at World Vision Ethiopia. “We started
developing our tree planting project in 2005 and it took four years to get to
CDM registration. It was not easy but well worth the effort and we now hope
that others can avoid the pitfalls that slowed us down and implement similar
projects – maybe even scaled up – all across our continent”.

The first A/R project was registered in China
in November 2006. However, it was not until 2009 that more projects followed. A
number of issues contributed to the slow start – the rules under the CDM were
defined later than projects in other sectors and methodologies for forestry
projects were complex and unclear. It took both time and funding to develop the
tools required to facilitate their application. Over time, the CDM Executive
Board simplified the rules, but adapting to such changes also proved to be a
challenge for project developers.  The
report says that even now, rules will require further simplification to
significantly scale up A/R projects under the CDM.

A/R projects are now being developed at a
faster pace with almost 50 in the pipeline, building on lessons learned,
established methodologies and tools. Today, 27 A/R CDM projects are registered
with the UNFCCC; 13 of them were developed with the support of the BioCF and,
of these, four are in Africa.

Some African countries are driving the
development of A/R CDM projects. In the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Ibi
Batéké reforestation project is set to absorb close to 1.6 million tons of

carbon dioxide between 2008 and 2037. Also with the support of the BioCF,
Africa’s first large-scale reforestation project on Humbo mountain in
Ethiopia’s Great Rift Valley was developed and is now looking to be scaled up.

In Moldova, the BioCF s supporting two A/R
projects where local farmers are restoring about 30,000 hectares of severely
degraded communal and public lands through soil conservation, sustainable
timber production, reducing soil erosion and enhancing plant biodiversity. The
projects are creating jobs while lowering greenhouse gas emissions that will
generate carbon credits.

“These projects provide a great
‘learning-by doing’ example of the benefits of close cooperation between
various stakeholders: international institutions such as the World Bank, local
and regional forest enterprises, Moldova’s Forest Research and Management
Institute, townships and local communities,” said Mr. Anatolie Pupoşoi,
General Director of the Forestry Agency Moldsilva.

For more information on the World Bank’s
carbon finance activities and the electronic version of this report, please
visit the website: www.carbonfinance.org

For more information on the BioCarbon Fund
please visit:

http://wbcarbonfinance.org/Router.cfm?Page=BioCF&ItemID=9708&FID=9708

Source: www.worldbank.org