Carbon credit plan takes step forward

After years of scepticism and doubts over the benefits of the carbon sink project, Thailand is now ready to certify forest conservation projects which will allow investors to claim carbon credits under the Kyoto Protocol pact. Carbon sink projects certified by the Thailand Greenhouse Gas Management Organisation (TGO) will be eligible to claim carbon credits under the Kyoto accord to combat global warming.

TGO executive director Sirithan Pairojboriboon said his agency was ready to scrutinise proposed carbon sink projects after the United Nations had finalised the definition of forests eligible to claim carbon credits.

Carbon sinks, or reforestation and afforestation projects, are part of the Kyoto Protocol's Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), designed to help industrialised countries reach their targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions by investing in forest conservation projects in developing countries in exchange for carbon credits.

''All kind of big trees as well as mangroves and bamboo can be counted for carbon credits. Any carbon sink project proposals are now welcomed,'' Mr Sirithan said, adding that forest conservation projects were another interesting option for the carbon credit traders.

However, the experts were considering if palm oil plantations are eligible to claim carbon credits, he added.

The CDM's carbon sink projects have been criticised by environmentalists for not being the right means to cut greenhouse gas emissions as it allows industrialised countries to meet emission reduction targets by investing in environmental conservation schemes in developing countries instead of cutting their own emissions.

Thai environmental experts also fear it would affect national sovereignty and allow foreign access to biological resources since the project allows foreign investors to manage forest land in the country.

However, Mr Sirithan insisted that protected forests and forest plantations managed by the Forest Industry Organisation would be excluded from the scheme.

He said only projects that involve the conservation of newly-created or degraded forest land would be certified as carbon sink projects.

''The project will help dramatically increase forest coverage in the country,'' he added.

So far, a total of 27 CDM projects have been endorsed by the TGO, most of which are alternative energy projects.

Banthoon Setsirote, senior researcher from the National Human Rights Commission's sub-panel on natural resources development policy, said as the future of carbon sink projects remained vague, concerned parties should pay more attention to the so-called voluntary carbon trading project.

One of the projects was a 625-rai teak plantation in Sakon Nakhon province, where local teak planters were obliged to keep the trees for 30 years.

Carbon credits obtained from the plantation will be sold to a carbon market in the United States, he said.

The voluntary carbon market, set up in 1989 by private operators who are willing to cut their greenhouse gas emissions, aims to help the industrial sector learn more about greenhouse gas emission reduction and protect the global environment.