Carbon sequestration and sustainable livelihoods

Abstract

With support from the Canadian government through the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), CIFOR has been facilitating a series of workshops and roundtable discussions on issues related to growing trees to sequester carbon and its influence on people's livelihoods. Interest in this topic has arisen out of the potential for such projects through the land-use, land-use change and forestry (LULUCF) provisions of the Kyoto Protocol. Properly designed, these projects will conserve and/or increase carbon stock and at the same time improving rural livelihoods. Among the topics discussed have been: what are the requirements of mandatory vs. voluntary carbon trading markets; what do project partners need to do to benefit from these; and what other ecosystem services (including water and biodiversity protection) could such initiatives provide in a bundled form, possibly being compensated for by interested stakeholders?