Community guidelines for accessing forestry voluntary carbon ... - FAO

inaccurate information about the forestry VCM, they may unwittingly
put their livelihoods, and their forests, at risk.
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)
engaged the services of Silvestrum VoF 1 to produce these guidelines as
part of a project 2 which helps smallholders and local communities in the
Asia-Pacific region to access the forestry VCM. Their aim is to create a
more even playing field so that these grassroots stakeholders, and the
groups that work on their behalf, can make the most of the potential
benefits, and avoid the dangers, of this new market.
Although the guidelines introduce several terms and concepts which will
be new to many forest sector stakeholders, a successful forestry VCM
project is about local goals, resources and abilities. Local forest owners,
and the communities to which they belong, must retain control of the
decision-making processes. The value of the forestry VCM is, after all,
small compared to the social, environmental and economic benefits on
which so many rural livelihoods depend.
Hiroyuki Konuma
Assistant Director-General and Regional Representative for Asia and the Pacific,
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
1 Silvestrum VoF, 1546 LJ Jisp, The Netherlands, www.silvestrum.com
2 TCP/RAS/3210: Linking communities in Southeast Asia to forestry-related voluntary
carbon markets
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