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

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230 development dialogue september 2006 – carbon tradinggrounds and transform them into the private property of Europeans.It has also been used in India, with more mixed success, since the colonialera, and in Africa as well. And it was used in Europe during thegreat eras of enclosure 200 and more years ago. In each of these casesthe claim concealed and justified takeovers of land that was not onlyusable and ecologically rich, but used for all sorts of livelihood purposes.And the same is true of the paramo.PROFAFOR’s says that it would have liked to use native species but that‘the majority of native species have almost disappeared, and local knowledge ofindigenous tree species has been lost with the trees.’ 15Although the paramo zone has never been thickly forested, peoplethere retain a knowledge of native trees. In one PROFAFOR area,San Sebastián de SigSig in Azuay province, villagers are easily ableto name and describe uses for a dozen native species. 16 Yet the onlyAndean tree species used by the PROFAFOR project, and on a verysmall percentage of its sites, is Polylepis incana. This is a sub-paramospecies and it too is being planted in monoculture.The English-language PROFAFOR brochure says that local people ‘have asay in species selection and they prefer planting non-indigenous pine and eucalyptusspecies.’ 17 And the Ecuadorean government sees PROFAFOR as contributingto its own plans for aff oresting or reforesting 250,000 hectares in theAndean zone over 15 years.But what do local people themselves say about the pine plantations?Lets look at the history.PROFAFOR said the communities would get both income and employmentfrom the project. In addition to payments per planted hectare,they would get seedlings, technical assistance and training. Theywould have work for many years. They would have access to the plantationsto collect mushrooms, resins, firewood and wood from thinning.And after 20-30 years they would be allowed to harvest the treesand sell the timber. All PROFAFOR asked in return was 100 per centof the rights to the carbon fixed in the trees. It sounded terrific.Pine plantings in Ecuador.I have a feeling you’re going to tell me that things didn’t turn out as promised.That’s an understatement. Let’s start by looking at what happened inthree communities that signed contracts with the company between1997 and 2000. Communities were offered payments of between usd165 and usd 189 per hectare planted. But the cost of plants and technicalassistance during the first three first years of plantation was thendeducted, leaving the communities with about half of what they wereinitially offered (see Table 5).
offsets – the fossil economy’s new arena of conflict 231Table 5. Offered and actual payments for plantationsCommunityArealeasedPaymentagreedperhectare(in USD)Totalamountoffered(in USD)Deductionsfor plants andtechnicalassistance(in USD)Amountdisbursedto thecommunity(in USD)PercentdeductedSan Sebastián 400 ha $189 $75 ,600 $36,800 $38,800 49%de SigSigPisambilla 300 ha $165 $49,500 $22,500 $27,000 46%MojanditaAvelino Dávila130 ha $165 $21, 450 $9,750 $11,700 46%Source: PROFAFOR Forestation contractsWhen SigSig community asked how much technicians were being paidfor this technical assistance, they were told that PROFAFOR did nothave the ‘capacity to ask for these reports . . . it is an administrative matter’.Meanwhile, the price of the planting stock doubled or tripled. Andin the end it was the commune, and not PROFAFOR, as specified inthe contract, that had to transport the stock from the nursery.Well, but little misunderstandings like this will crop up in every business transaction.You just have to get on with it. What does this have to do with the bigpicture of addressing climate change?It doesn’t end there. After having deducted the cost of the seedlingsand technical assistance, PROFAFOR was obligated to pay 80 percent of the remainder in three instalments during the first year afterthe contract was signed – as long as it wasn’t necessary to replant morethan 25 per cent of the seedlings. The remaining 20 per cent was thento be handed over to the community ‘following complete fulfilmentof the activities foreseen’ by the company for the second and thirdyear after the contract was signed.There were several problems here that villagers weren’t ready for.First, when trees die because they ‘do not adapt’, the communityhas to take on the cost of new seedlings for re-plantation. This happensquite frequently, because of the quality of the plants, the coldand windy conditions of the high-altitude plantation areas, or forother reasons. According to Mary Milne of the Centre for InternationalForestry Research, the re-plantation rate for PROFAFOR is‘between 15 and 30 per cent and costs range between usd 865 and usd5,820, which have to be absorbed by the communities.’ 18A bigger problem is that because of the necessity of guaranteeinga long lifetime for the carbon sequestered in PROFAFOR’s trees,each community has to maintain the trees itself for 20-30 years beforebeing allowed to harvest them and sell the timber. (More recent
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PRESS RELEASEContact:Linda Chiavaro
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ContentsEditorial note 2Chapter 1 I
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editorial note 3in Dorset, UK - poi
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Chapter 2‘Made in the USA’A sho
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Chapter 5Ways forwardIn which the c
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ways forward 331‘Tinkering around
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ways forward 333suggests that the
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ways forward 335more stringent than
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ways forward 337Unlike carbon tradi
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ways forward 339hold little appeal
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ways forward 341Waiting their Chanc
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ways forward 343ways - many of whic
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ways forward 345energy - loan benef
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ways forward 347From an Open Letter
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ways forward 349be answered in the
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ways forward 351rogated by Indian v
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ways forward 353argue, they’ve he
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ways forward 355‘The US alone acc
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appendix - the durban declaration o
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appendix - the durban declaration o
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