The clean development mechanism and community forests in Sub-Saharan Africa: reconsidering Kyoto's “moral position” on biocarbon sinks in the carbon market
2010
Purdon, Mark
Negotiations of the Kyoto Protocol reached what has been called a moral position on biocarbon sinks which saw important limitations on their use in the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), the Protocol's main carbon offset system. After outlining this moral position, this article examines the consequences of these limitations on the viability of community forest participation in the CDM through a case study of three community forests in West Africa. Results suggest that there is significant carbon mitigation potential from forest conservation, reforestation as well as from improved fuelwood cookstoves at the community level. Yet under the current rules of the CDM, little of this overall carbon mitigation potential is able to be realized. Using qualitative research methodologies, it was learned that community respondents showed a pragmatic, yet cautious interest in the CDM while also emphasizing a need for land-use flexibility. The paper closes with a political discussion of the “‘moral position” on biocarbon sinks in the carbon market and concludes with policy recommendations for biocarbon sinks, in both the CDM and REDD, in the post-Kyoto climate change regime.
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