30 July 2008 | Luca Del Buono

 

The World Bank has selected 14 developing countries as the first to participate in a forest carbon fund that could earn them hundreds of millions of dollars for protecting and replanting tropical forests.

The countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America include Gabon, Ghana, Kenya, Liberia, Madagascar, Democratic Republic of Congo, Bolivia, Costa Rica, Guyana, Mexico, Panama, Nepal, Laos and Vietnam.

Joelle Chassard, manager of the World Bank's carbon finance unit, told Reuters in an interview on Thursday that the countries were chosen out of a group of 18 and qualify for grant funding that will give them the means to take part in the Forest Carbon Partnership Facility.

The carbon fund was launched last year as part of global efforts to address climate change caused by deforestation by compensating developing countries for greenhouse gas emission reductions.

Meanwhile, nine donor countries including Australia, Finland, France, Japan, Norway, Spain, Switzerland, Britain and the United States have agreed to contribute money to the facility. Further contributions from private and governments are expected in coming months.

Each country will receive an initial $200,000 to develop plans on how they intend to proceed, including future financial needs, Chassard said.

"The facility is set up at the moment to have a readiness fund of $100 million and a carbon fund of $200 million. I believe strongly there will be other resources available as we make progress," she said.

Governments will be required to develop a strategy to protect their forests, she said.

"Some countries have thought about deforestation for a long time and have already started to deal with it," Chassard said. "Other countries have known it's a problem and haven't really focused on it."

Deforestation, especially in the tropics, contributes about 20 percent of man-made global carbon emissions, which is more than all of the world's cars, trucks, trains and aircraft combined.

Environmental groups argue that protecting tropical forests from cutting and burning is the most direct and fastest way to mitigate some of the impact of climate change because they soak up vast amounts of carbon dioxide.

Chassard said countries face the difficult task of trying to determine the present state of their forests in order to measure future deforestation rates. They will also have to establish the carbon content in forests where not all trees are equal storehouses.

Read full article on the Reuters Interactive Online website

Source: Reuters Interactive Online website

blog comments powered by Disqus