I wrote recently of California’s declaration to allow tropical forestry carbon offsets so that California businesses wouldn’t have to actually reduce their emissions, but I suggested that guilt-laden Californians could be doing more harm than good. The countries where they will supposedly be investing in forests have proven records for corruption.
I now feel vindicated. Reuters Africa reports that yesterday at the EU climate talks:
Brazil ruled out on Thursday letting rich countries offset their greenhouse gas emissions by helping to save the Amazon rain forest, an idea under active discussion by the European Union.
Indigenous peoples attending United Nations-led climate talks in Poznan protested that they had no chance of seeing such carbon cash, and appealed instead for money first to root out corruption and cement their land rights…
Some indigenous peoples groups oppose a carbon market approach until their tenure rights are made secure, fearing the lure of billions of dollars may trigger a land grab instead.
I guess they don’t want Nature Conservancy et al buying up their lands and profitting the corrupt in their countries.
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The world’s countries that are the largest carbon sinks are in order, Canada, Russia and the United States. The forests of these countries absorb the largest amount of carbon without re-releasing it to the atmosphere. Each country is a net oxygen exporter. The United States with the long established Arbor day reforestation would be well ahead of Russia except the US does burn a great deal of carbon based fuel. Climax tropical rain forests have powerful carbon recycling mechanisms. In the 1970's some of NASA's observations showed that the termites produced more carbon dioxide than all of man's activities. That was before China modernized and the industrialization of Korea the other parts of what is call the emerging markets so I do not think that the termites are still ahead of us. That humankind is less than 2% of the carbon cycle on the emissions side is important to keep in mind. The effects deforestation in reducing carbon dioxide absorption is four or five times greater than all carbon emissions.
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