Friday, June 6, 2008

Bolivia's model rainforest protection scheme

The Christian Science Monitor reports on the Bolivian rainforest conservancy project that could be a world-wide model for fighting deforestation and global warming.

The Bolivian government along with conservancy groups and energy companies came together to save the rainforest in a first-of-its-kind plan called Noel Kempff Climate Action Project.

This venture sparked a carbon-reducing initiative called Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation, or REDD, which environmentalists criticized:
"But REDD is now seen as a leading solution to deforestation, which accounts for 20 percent of the world’s annual greenhouse-gas emissions – more than the transportation sector, according to the Center for International Forestry Research...

In Bolivia, the idea has been tested at the widest scale: The project bought out four timber concessions, nearly doubled the national park’s boundaries, and set up a carbon-monitoring system by which offsets are awarded to three participating energy companies (American Electric Power, BP, and PacifiCorp.) and the Bolivian government – offsets that could be traded on the voluntary carbon-trading market, and (in the case of the Bolivian government) the money reinvested in the communities affected."
Read the full story: Bolivia gets clean by staying green

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