There are two ways forests are being enlisted in the struggle against global warming. One is preventing deforestation and forest degradation, which release carbon into the atmosphere. The other is planting trees to absorb or sequester carbon dioxide. Projects to manage forests in ways that mitigate climate change also have the potential to deliver significant benefits for communities and wildlife. CIFOR has been helping the Climate, Community and Biodiversity Alliance (CCBA) to devise standards to assess the quality of projects like these.

The CCBA emerged as a challenge from industry to conservationists.

‘John Browne, then chief executive of British Petroleum (BP), wanted the company to support forest carbon projects, although he recognised that these had the potential to do both good and harm,’ says CCBA director, Joanna Durbin.

‘The research organisations played an extremely important role in devising the standards.’

Joanna Durbin
CCBA director

Browne suggested to Conservation International and The Nature Conservancy that they should work together to develop standards to help investors and buyers of carbon identify high-quality forest projects that delivered multiple benefits. In 2003, the CCBA was formed as a partnership among five NGOs, six companies, including BP, and three centres involved in tropical forestry research, namely CIFOR, the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF) and the Centro Agronómico Tropical de Investigación y Enseñanza (CATIE).

The CCBA’s first task was to devise standards for evaluating the impact of forest-based activities on the climate, local communities and biodiversity. An early draft was field tested in 2004, followed by public consultations, and the CCBA launched the first edition of the standards in May 2005.

‘With their expertise in all matters related to tropical forests and forest communities, the research organisations played an extremely important role in devising the standards,’ says Durbin. See http://www.climate-standards.org.

By the end of 2008, six forest carbon projects had been approved by the CCBA. These ranged in size from a 750 000-hectare avoided deforestation project in Aceh, Indonesia, to a 12-hectare reforestation scheme in Lincolnshire, England. The estimated annual carbon sequestering potential is 3.4 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent for the Aceh scheme and 172 tonnes for the Lincolnshire scheme. A further 21 projects were in the process of being evaluated by third-party auditors for CCBA approval at the end of 2008. Together they will cover 1.6 million hectares, with the potential to sequester almost 5 million tonnes of CO2 a year. This is equivalent to the annual emissions of the average US coal-fired power station or 480 000 US households.

‘The CCB Standards increase the value of projects by creating real benefits for the climate, local communities and overall environmental quality.’

John Browne
Former Chief Executive
British Petroleum

Within a relatively short period of time, says Durbin, the CCB Standards have been recognised as one of the best tools for measuring the quality of forest carbon projects, and have proved especially important in the design phase of many projects. By early 2009, over 170 project developers had contacted the Alliance to enquire about using its standards. These represent the majority of existing or planned forest carbon projects.

‘The original project developers were largely NGOs,’ says Durbin, ‘but the private sector is now getting involved in the trade and we get organisations telling us, “we’ve got a great project and we’ve found a buyer, but the buyer is insisting that we have CCB Standards”.’

Many investors and buyers are attracted by the standards because they help them to demonstrate their green credentials. Project developers have found that they improve their access to markets, and they have enabled some to gain a premium for their carbon.

CIFOR scientists Daniel Murdiyarso, Louis Verchot (formerly of ICRAF) and Bruno Locatelli (formerly of CATIE–CIRAD, the Centre de coopération internationale en recherche agronomique pour le développement) contributed to the standards.

The first edition of the standards reflected the Kyoto Protocol’s stipulation that forest carbon projects under the Clean Development Mechanism could involve reforestation and afforestation, but not avoided deforestation. The second edition reflects the importance of projects that will reduce emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD). The new standards were launched at Forest Day 2, a side event co-organised by CIFOR at the 14th UN Framework Convention on Climate Change Conference of the Parties.

Under the first set of standards, the CCBA awarded five projects with a gold rating. This was given to projects that targeted the poorest and most vulnerable communities, conserved biodiversity in sites of global significance, and provided significant support to help communities adapt to climate change. The second edition of CCB Standards introduced stricter criteria for gold rating.

The CCBA now plans to assist in the development of national standards in countries as far afield as Ecuador, Madagascar and Nepal, which have expressed an interest in piloting them. The standards could help governments to check the contribution carbon projects make to their sustainable development. National standards will be devised in partnership with civil society, groups representing indigenous peoples and local and international research agencies, including CIFOR, ICRAF and CATIE.

1. The Amaluza Hydroelectric Reservoir produces more than half of Ecuador’s electricity, but suffers from silting problems.
   Photo by Sven Wunder
2. Local community meeting in Nepal.
   Photo by Adrian Albano
3. Village of Antanandava, Madagascar, in the Manompana corridor where CIFOR conducts research for the Landscape Mosaics project.
   Photo by Jean-Laurent Pfund
4. A degraded forest in Nepal.
   Photo by Leasehold Forestry Programme of Nepal