By Alison Walkley
08 August 2009 [MEDIAGLOBAL]: The 635 million hectares of forest in Africa that make up 16 percent of the world’s forests are being threatened by deforestation and degradation, causing experts to deliberate on mitigation proposals.
Because of their dryness, the majority of Africa’s forests do not fit the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change’s limited definition of “forest.” This inhibits the protection of such lands and the ability to prevent further degradation.
Tim Clairs, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)‘s regional coordinator for biodiversity and international waters, and Robert Kelly, UNDP’s regional coordinator of Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) capacity development, told MediaGlobal, “The CDM includes the possibility of [African] countries earning carbon credits (certified emission reductions, CERs) for afforestation/reforestation. However, in practice such projects have not generated many CERs. There are only six registered CDM afforestation/reforestation projects globally, none of which are situated in Africa.”
Unfortunately, reduced deforestation and degradation was left out of the CDM during Kyoto Protocol negotiations, according to Clairs and Kelly. The reasons included “concerns over methodological issues and the fact that the Kyoto targets were negotiated without taking emissions reductions from reducing deforestation into full account,” they said. “An important component of the ongoing international climate change negotiations is whether and how to incorporate REDD [reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation in developing countries] into efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.”
Currently, Africa makes up about 2 percent of global CDM projects. Clairs and Kelly attribute this reality to three factors: time lags, lack of funds, and the investment environment.
“Africa’s CDM activity will grow, but the fact is that other opportunities elsewhere in the world have proved more attractive to date—notably industrial projects in China and India,” Clairs and Kelly said of timing.
The expense involved in mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions is the second issue. “These emissions are often dispersed, inaccessible, and small-scale,” contributing to higher costs, Clairs and Kelly noted.
Finally, Clairs and Kelly noted that multiple African countries “represent a challenging investment environment,” considering that the continent “accounts for 15 percent of the global population and 1 percent of global foreign direct investment.”
Clairs and Kelly added that “high up-front costs” and “significant delays in payback as trees grow” are among the barriers to CDM forestry in Africa. The European Union Emissions Trading Scheme also excludes carbon credits issued to forestry projects. Uncertain land ownership, limited road networks, and social issues also contribute to the problem.
In order for progress to be made in the fight for Africa’s forests, management baselines must be applied in order to determine how much carbon they can hold. One of the first steps for REDD in Africa, therefore, must be putting the forests under effective management, securing ownership prior to data collection on forest cover, biomass productivity, deforestation, and degradation.
Among the strategies experts recommend to reduce the negative impacts on African forests are greater crop and livestock agriculture around forest borders, improved domestic and industrial energy efficiency and conservation, use of efficient and sustainable harvesting of tree products, and improved wood processing efficiency.
Considering that more than 70 percent of Africa’s people rely on forest resources for their economies, it is crucial that they are maintained. According to Clairs and Kelly, African forests account for the highest gross domestic product in the world at six percent. “Therefore, forests are central to development.”
Experts recommend implementing agricultural policies that operate in harmony with environmental, energy, urbanization, and housing policies. All of these steps will contribute to the mitigation of climate change, as well as adaptation to its negative effects.
