Unesco Cousteau Ecotechnie Forum

Summary:

The increasing negative impact of human activities and land use on earth's environment over time, especially after industrialization and agricultural revolution.
The International concern about the environmental problems during the 1970s, and the 1980s.
The increasing concentration of green house gases (GHG) including CO2 and the temperature rise.
Developments on Climate Change issues and the year 1992 world summit.
The importance of Global carbon cycle in regulating the concentration of CO2 which is the most important GHG in the atmosphere.
Forests play an important role in the global carbon cycle, because they:
1. Store carbon
2. Exchange carbon with the atmosphere
3. Source of atmospheric carbon
4. Carbons sink through sequestration.
Carbon reduction in Kyoto protocol (the clean development mechanisms).
The Kyoto Protocol defines A forestation and Reforestation (A and R) as the forestry activities eligible for the CDM.
Baseline net greenhouse gas removal by sinks is the sum of the changes in carbon stock in the carbon pool within the project boundary that would have occurred in the absence of the project.
The Forestry-based CDM project must qualify through public registration and issuance processes in which spectrums of stakeholders are involved.
CDMs in Africa are still slowly growing not exceeding 2% of the world-wide CDM or carbon credits particularly forest-based projects.
Nearly 75% of CDMs are in Asia and pacific and about 21% in Latin America.
Renewable energy and energy efficiency CDM projects may exceed 60 - 66% of total registered CDMs.
African countries should benefit from this global attitude in order to develop enabling facilities to access carbon market finance and promote emission reduction projects.
Constrains facing CDM implementation.
Forest production rather than wood.