Monks Fight to Get Cambodian Forests on the Carbon Market

For years, the guardians of Sorng Rukavorn forest have drifted through the muted greens and grays of the underbrush in their saffron robes. In the far north of Cambodia, the monks live in what should be peaceful isolation, but all too often they have had to fend off incursions on this land. Using their authority as holy figures, they've turned away illegal loggers - among them, they say, armed police and soldiers - as well as local officials who have tried to wrestle control of the public land to parcel it out for their own profit.

Now the monks are looking for backup. They plan to institutionalize their communal ownership of the forest and shared profit from its 44,479-acre bounty by demarcating it an international ecological asset. Sorng Rukavorn is one of 13 community forests spreading over 168,032 acres in Oddar Meanchey province that is being registered as a bank of carbon credits. Under this nascent international tool of climate change mitigation referred to as Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD), governments and companies in industrialized nations can pay developing countries to cut carbon emissions on their behalf by not cutting trees. Deforestation accounts for roughly a quarter of greenhouse gas emissions from human activity, according to the UN. Trees and plants absorb the gas - produced by a number of natural and manmade processes, from the combustion of fossil fuels by factories, cars and volcanic eruptions, to the flatulence of livestock - and are therefore essential to balancing its levels in the atmosphere.

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Painting by Ivan Shishkin

Forest owners can sell carbon credits for their trees

IRVINE — Justin Maxson admits that the concept he's been explaining to Appalachian landowners is a little difficult to wrap your mind around:

"There's an odorless, colorless gas that is sucked out of the air by your trees, and somebody's going to pay you for that."

The gas is carbon dioxide, or CO2, which contributes to global warming. Industries that produce it, and want to reduce their carbon footprint, are willing to pay when healthy trees do what they do naturally, which is absorb the CO2 and store it.

Because the trees must be in forests that are well-managed, a side benefit is that the region's long-abused forests could finally get some respect. That, in turn, is good news for wildlife and water quality.

No money has changed hands yet, mostly because the program is voluntary and the recession has lowered the amount of money that companies are willing to spend. But legislation is looming that could limit CO2 emissions and push up prices.

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The painting is by Alfred Glendening

Hawaii resort project calls for investing in trees

KAILUA-KONA, Hawaii -

Visitors to the Big Island will have a chance to buy and plant a tree and then reap part of the profit when it's cut down in 30 years or so.

They'll also be able to monitor the tree's progress on the Internet, including how much carbon dioxide it absorbs and whether it ends up as a skateboard, koa canoe or part of a wind-power generator.

The Mauna Lani Resort and True Offsets, which is already developing a mill to process the wood, are partnering in the new ecological restoration project.

Guests will be offered the chance to plunk down $37 to buy a tree sapling, plant it in Hamakua and then watch it over the next several years via a Web site.

The plan is to mail tree investors a check for 5 percent of their plant's value at harvest time, which could be up to $2,500 on a koa tree that's worth $50,000 in today's market.

Or, less patient investors could go for something like bamboo, that could be harvested in about three years with a much smaller return. A single plant likely would produce only about $30 worth of bamboo in that time.

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The painting is by Laura Tasheiko

Planting trees for a better future

News form Thailand

With government assistance, Thai farmers can make significant income and contribute to a healthier planet through carbon credits.

Most Thai farmers plant trees and simply pray for good prices as their parents did for decades, but Sawai Sangsa-wang realised his trees are more valuable.

With the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) programme, also known as carbon credits, his perennial tree-planting not only produces income from payoon and teak, but he can also turn every tonne of carbon his plants reduce into income.

A Nakhon Si Thammarat native, Mr Sawai has grown trees most of his life. Last year, he started to grow more trees on his farmland in Chumphon once he learned about carbon credits.

A tree can help reduce 1.18 tonnes of carbon a year on average, acknowledged Mr Sawai, who is now the head of the Bank for Agriculture and Agricultural Co-operatives (BAAC) branch in Surat Thani.

''A company from Denmark has approached me through its agent in Singapore to buy credits generated from the plants,'' he said.

While the majority of Thais are not aware of carbon credits, Mr Sawai has become a role model and been provided opportunities through training in Japan to learn about the global carbon trading market and CDM.

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