The potential of carbon offsetting projects in the forestry sector for poverty reduction in developing countries

Background/Question/Methods International carbon markets and funds are increasingly supporting the development of reforestation, forest management and conservation projects around the developing world. This can have positive effects on the global climate and forest governance, as it translates into new public-private partnerships for sustainable forest management which may benefit forest dependent people, improve rural livelihoods and secure the conservation of natural resources in the future. However, carbon forestry projects may also bring detrimental effects to the poor, especially if their needs, concerns and rights are not taken into account in project design and implementation. Informed by project documentation and academic literature, this paper reviews existing carbon forestry projects in the developing world and their expected contribution in terms of emission reductions and livelihood benefits.

Results/Conclusions The latter principally include economic incentives for forest restoration and conservation, the strengthening of local organizations and conservation behavior, and the built up of new technical skills. Critically, the paper also highlights projects’ implementation challenges and negative impacts such as transaction costs, lack of ecological data, marginalization of land poorly endowed households, and disregard of customary property rights. The paper concludes by defining a number of project design and implementation aspects where ecological and social science research is urgently required.