Innovative Forest Financing Options and Issues: Forest Conservation and Management for Climate Change Mitigation

Trexler, Mark (1999) Trexler and Associates

As scientists, governmental decisionmakers, and the international community in general come to understand the impact of human activities on the global climate, the prospect of having to implement greenhouse gas emissions reduction targets and timetables becomes ever more likely. This paper examines the opportunities for climate change mitigation through forest and land use-based carbon offsets and places these opportunities in the overall context of evolving international policy negotiations and strategies for reducing the likelihood of significant human interference with global climate patterns. The intent is to frame a discussion of the best approach for an innovative forest financing project for countries with abundant forest reserves and a particular interest in the outcomes of international policy development in this area.

The paper is primarily designed to foster and facilitate discussion of how climate change mitigation funding through the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) or other vehicles might be used to assist the forestry sector and sustainable development goals of developing countries. CDM was created under Article 12 of the Kyoto Protocol adopted in December 1997 at the Third Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The materials specifically focus on issues associated with the potential use of forest protection and forest management as the basis for climate change mitigation projects under the CDM. Recognizing that significant uncertainties still exist regarding how the CDM will be interpreted and implemented, special attention has been given to the types of criteria likely to be proposed as negotiations proceed on the CDM.