A Critical Conversation on Climate Change ... - Green Choices

224 development dialogue september 2006 – carbon tradinggood outcome, whether your objective was people’s welfare or longtermcarbon savings.Then, too, in the early years of the project, the tree species promotedwere often inappropriate for the climate and for degraded land areas.Damage by animals and sabotage of replanted areas also limited theexpansion of reforested areas.But what about agroforestry systems, which allow farmers to make use of thecarbon-sequestering areas?Agroforestry systems are indeed more attractive to local farmers, asthey serve multiple purposes (grazing, fodder and fuelwood provision,and subsistence or cash-crop components). But they typicallytake three to five years to become productive. That also makes thema difficult option for families with limited land.So it was hard to reconcile local people’s needs with the goal of carbon production.In more ways than one. Another problem was CARE’s need to channelmore and more of its limited personnel and finance into monitoringand measuring carbon instead of trying to improve people’slives.In the past, CARE had had a respectable record of promoting sustainableagriculture and agroforestry, and even some success in protectingwater sources through reforestation, although less so in theWestern Highlands. The organisation had a great deal of experiencein training local community extension agents, providing seeds andtree nursery supplies, and training local people in soil conservation,fodder production and watershed management. CARE extensionagents also provided advice and materials for improving grazing areasand soil recuperation, services that local project participants continueto evaluate positively.The new carbon focus for its work, however, meant that finance andstaff time began gravitating away from agroforestry towards reforestation,and away from farm extension work towards unfamiliar work inmodelling and monitoring carbon emissions benefits.Couldn’t the staff do both things at once?It’s not so easy. Carbon accounting is specialised, complicated work.The market needs hard carbon numbers. You can’t just look at a coupleof trees and say that they will have soaked up the carbon equivalentof one 1000-kilometre airline fl ight by 2020. You have to look atgrowth rates, soil changes, interaction with local communities, howVillagers in CARE’starget area.