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268 development dialogue september 2006 – carbon tradingSo who would carry out these regeneration projects?Here CFI came to a different conclusion than in Madhya Pradesh. InAndhra Pradesh, it decided, the best agencies for taking on forest regenerationwould be women’s self-help groups (SHGs).Which are what?SHGs were set up by the state-level Inter-Tribal Development Agencyduring the 1990s as a mechanism for improving the finances of householdsthrough micro-credit schemes and capacity-building, as well aslinking households with financial institutions and government authorities.CFI says that they’re much more dynamic, accountable and transparentthan other local institutions, such as forest protection committees,which are viewed as inefficient, untransparent, untrustworthy,and troubled in their relationship with the Forest Department.Sounds perfect.Except that it’s hard to see how the virtues of the women’s self-helpgroups could work for the carbon economy. For one thing, CFI statesthat only if the SHGs come together in a federation would carbon offsetforestry projects be financially viable, given the high trans actioncosts involved in preparing and carrying them out. Yet it does notexplain how such a federation could come about in rural communities,nor how SHGs could become involved in CDM projects andlink themselves to the carbon market. Nor does it mention that SHGscurrently work in relative isolation from the Panchayat Raj institutions(the ultimate village-level formal self-governing authority inrural India), the Forest Department and local forest protection committees.But surely there’s nothing to worry about yet. Maybe we can just learn as wego along.The problem is that the mere fact that studies like CFI’s are being carriedout already gives legitimacy to the idea of carbon offsets in theSouth. Few outsiders will notice that the conclusions are suspect.Still, you’ve only been talking about problems with JFM, not with carbon off -set trading as such.Whether or not JFM is involved, many Indian activists fear that by creatinga market for carbon, CDM projects will engender change in therelationship between Adivasis and their lands and forests. In order toavoid confl ict, any CDM project proponent will need to clarify whoowns the land, the project and the carbon. 96 This immediately militates
offsets – the fossil economy’s new arena of conflict 269The ‘Voluntary Market’ Comes to India: A Case StudyWhen the rock group Coldplay released itshit album A Rush of Blood to the Head, theband said that part of the climate damagecaused by its production would be offsetby the planting of 10,000 mango trees insouthern India.More than four years after the album’s release,however, many of Coldplay’s goodintentions have withered in the dry soilof Karnataka state, where the saplings itsponsored were planted. The middlemanin Coldplay’s initiative was the UK’s CarbonNeutral Company, which had claimedthat the scheme would soak up carbon dioxideemissions and help improve the livelihoodsof local farmers.The Carbon Neutral Company contractedthe task of planting the trees to a groupcalled Women for Sustainable Development(WSD), who got GBP 33,000 for thedeal. WSD is headed by Anandi SharanMeili, born in Switzerland of Indian originand a Cambridge graduate. She nowclaims that the scheme was doomed fromthe outset.In the villages of Varlakonda, Lakshmisagaraand Muddireddihalli, among the dozen thatMieli said had received mango saplings, noone had heard of Coldplay. Most of thosewho received saplings said they had notbeen given the nedessary funding for labour,insecticide or spraying equipment.One Lakshmisagara villager, Jayamma,managed to get 50 of her 150 trees to surviveonly because she had a well on herland. ‘I was promised 2,000 rupees everyyear to take care of the plants and a bag offertiliser. But I got only the saplings,’ shesaid. Some other villagers were also offeredsaplings but didn’t have enough water tonourish them.In nearby Varlakonda, about 10 fam ilieswere given approximately 1,400 saplings.Of these, just 600 survived. Another farmerwho took 100 saplings, said: ‘[Meili] promisedus that she’d arrange the water.’ Butvillagers said a tanker came only twice.One of the few successes is the stretch of300 mango trees owned by Narayanamma,69, and her husband Venkatarayappa, 74.They were apparently the only couple toreceive 4,000 rupees from Meili. At thesame time, they spent 30,000 rupees ontankers and labourers. ‘We were promisedmoney for maintenance every year but gotnothing’, said Narayanamma.Sitting in her spacious house in Bangalore,Meili said that she had distributed 8,000saplings, but acknowledged that 40 per centhad died. The project had foun dered, shesaid, because of inadequate funding. Sheaccused Future Forests of having a ‘condescending’attitude. ‘They do it for theirinterests, not really for reducing emissions.They do it because it’s good money,’ shesaid.The Carbon Neutral Company said thatWSD had a contractual responsibility toprovide irrigation and support to farmers.Richard Tipper, the director of theEdinburgh Centre for Carbon Management,which monitored the project forCarbon Neutral, said that the Karnatakaproject had ‘experienced major problems’because WSD had not raised the necessarymoney to administer the project and becauseof a long drought.
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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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6 development dialogue september 20
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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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appendix - the durban declaration o
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appendix - the durban declaration o
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