Kalahan prepares for carbon buyers
MANILA, Philippines — A carbon market fair will be held in early 2012 to link the Kalahan Forest Reserve (KFR) to potential carbon buyers and promote KEF’s agro-forestry system that practices ancient forest preservation techniques.
The World Agroforestry Center (WAC) is linking KFR in Nueva Vizcaya with a carbon market which will also aid private companies in investing in carbon offset projects, perhaps with the KFR as a potential site.
“We will facilitate negotiations of the Kalahan Educational Foundation with potential carbon buyers. We will organize a series of meetings,” said Dr. Rodel D. Lasco of WAC in a project brief.
A 900-hectare area is being prepared as an afforestation and reforestation site inside the ancestral domain of the Ikalahans — the indigenous people who are the original inhabitants of KFR. This site will be part of a project to build capability of Ikalahans to negotiate for a fair carbon pay.
The Ikalahan ancestral domain has been known for the Ikalahan’s practice of indigenous knowledge of forest preservation systems. These include “day-og” and “gengen,” ancient composting techniques on level and sloping land.
These practices are known to restore fertility in the soil.
As another soil preservation technique, “balkah” is a contour line of deep rooted plants which trap eroded topsoil at the belt line, said Lasco and Grace Villamor in “The Ikalahan Ancestral Domain.”
“With these, thousands of hectares of forestlands were preserved from further land conversion,” they said.
The Ikalahan ancestral domain covers 38,000 hectares in Nueva Vizcaya and 10,000 hectares across Nueva Ecija.
Even before carbon credits were introduced to reward people or institutions that contribute to reduction of carbon emission into the atmosphere, such incentives on efforts rewarding reduction of carbon emission had already been introduced in the KFR.
This was through WAC’s “Rewards for, Use of, and Shared Investment in Pro-poor Environmental Services (RUPES)” project in this Nueva Vizcaya forest.
WAC will be partnering with potential private sector partners such as Philippine Business for Social Progress in order to encourage private companies to participate in the Voluntary Carbon Market (VCM).
“Climate change has become a serious threat globally with potentially severe ecological and socio-economic consequences. Interventions that can simultaneously contribute to sequestering greenhouse gas emissions and alleviate poverty are urgently needed,” said WAC.
While developed countries are primarily the ones participating in the compliance market that gave rise to the carbon market, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) — a body coordinated by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) — proposed a new carbon-trading mechanism.
This new mechanism includes the VCM which promotes sustainable development in developing countries. It also aims to assist industrialized countries to comply with their quantified emissions limitations. – Melody M. Aguiba
Published in Manila Bulletin, http://mb.com.ph/articles/343659/kalahan-prepares-carbon-buyers, 05 December 2011