Helping African farmers trade tree-planting carbon credits

The no-fee international affiliate of a U.S. law firm has announced that it has begun work to help African subsistence farmers to sell carbon credits created by tree-planting projects.

New Perimeter is the affiliate of DLA Piper, a U.S. law firm that is to work with International Small Group & Tree Planting Programme (TIST) to advise small groups of farmers in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda on the legal issues relating to launching and operating 'carbon-trading' schemes.

The concept of carbon credit came into existence as a result of increasing awareness on the need for global pollution control. It took the formal form after the international treaty now popularly known as the Kyoto Protocol. Carbon Credits are certificates awarded to entities that are successful in reducing the emissions that cause global warming. The Kyoto Protocol provides for three mechanisms that enable developed countries with quantified emission limitation and reduction commitments to acquire greenhouse gas reduction credits.

A developed country can take up a greenhouse gas reduction project activity in a developing country where the cost of such projects is usually much lower. The developed country would be given credits for meeting its emission reduction targets, while the developing country would receive the capital and clean technology to implement the project.

Carbon credits are measured in units of certified emission reductions (CERs). For trading purposes, one credit is considered equivalent to one tonne of CO2 emission reduced. Such a credit can be sold on the international market at a prevailing market rate.

DLA Piper has advised the farmers on legal issues including ownership and tenure, contracts, the sale of the credits, and the operation and regulation of credits sold on international markets.

It is hoped that by assisting the TIST in managing an afforestation scheme (generating carbon credits by planting trees in new areas) and a reforestation scheme (credits are generated by re-planting trees in de-forested areas), DLA Piper will also assist the East African farmers to
tackle some of the environmental contributors to drought and famine.

Carbon trading is a relatively new idea as a contribution to efforts to reducing carbon emissions pollution. There are still many unanswered questions about the modalities of the scheme and it is poorly understood by the general public. Since the UN Climate Change Conference in Nairobi in 2006, there has been much focus on the fact that while Africa is the lowest continental contributor to carbon emissions because of its low level of industrialization, it is the continent most at risk from their polluting effects.

Apart from being a serious environmental and economic issue that African farmers are already struggling to adjust to, climate change has also become a fashionable cause to champion, with public relations and other benefits. There are likely to be many initiatives touted as helping to reduce the effects of climate change while benefitting Africans, but only time will tell which are realistic and genuine and which are merely publicity stunts.