ANNOUNCEMENTS
India had the highest number of Afforestation and Reforestation Clean Development Mechanism (A/R CDM) projects in the world at the time of writing this thesis. This research aims to assess the impacts of these projects on carbon stock and local livelihood and to study their carbon and non-carbon benefit distribution mechanisms. The research also explores India's readiness for taking up the new and emerging market-based mechanisms in the context of carbon forestry. After careful evaluation of all A/R CDM projects implemented in India, the following two cases were selected for the present research: “Small scale Mahoba JFM A/R CDM Project on degraded lands in Mahoba Forest Division, Uttar Pradesh, India”, and “Small scale Kashi JFM A/R CDM Project on degraded lands in Kashi Forest Division, Uttar Pradesh, India”. These are community-based projects implemented on degraded lands by low income communities jointly with the forest department under joint forest management programme in Uttar Pradesh.
Above-ground biomass and belowground biomass carbon pools were selected for the study. Sampling with partial replacement (SPR) was employed using a combination of permanent sample plots (PSPs) maintained by the project implementers and temporary sample plots (TSPs) laid by the researcher. Measurements taken in these sample plots were used for estimating wood volume using volume equations. Living biomass (aboveground + belowground) was estimated from the wood volume using wood density, biomass expansion factor and Root /Shoot ratio. The carbon stock of biomass was calculated using default IPCC conversions. In the case of Mahoba, the actual sequestration was found 58% lower than the envisaged level, while in the case of Kashi, it was 32% lower than the level envisaged in PDD. This is comparable with the national average of all Indian A/R CDM projects verified so far, which is around 54% less than the envisaged value.
Sustainable livelihood framework (SLF) was employed for livelihood assessment. The framework includes five livelihood capital categories: Economic (Financial) Capital, Human Capital, Natural Capital, Social Capital and Physical Capital. Each capital category was measured in terms of an individual index based on 18 chosen indicators. Household interviews were conducted to collect data on these indicators. The five indices of different SLF capital asset classes were calculated and summed to arrive at a combined ‘Sustainable Livelihood Index’ (SLI). The before-and-after comparison reveals that a marginal increase of 3% was found in SLI in the Mahoba project, while a marginal decrease of 1% in SLI was found in the case of the Kashi project. These low values depict that the projects have not brought a substantial change in the local people's livelihood. This result is also supported by the households' response to the direct question on livelihood benefit from the respective projects. In Mahoba, 20% of the surveyed households and in Kashi, 7% of the surveyed households commented that they had livelihood benefits from the project.
Focus Group Discussions and Key Stakeholders’ Interviews indicated that local people are mostly unaware of the carbon revenue and benefit sharing aspects of the project. Carbon benefits are to be transferred to the Village Development Fund (VDF) managed by the JFMCs. No precise distribution mechanism was found to be in place for carbon benefits, while an institutional mechanism for distributing non-carbon benefits is clearly defined in JFM rules of Uttar Pradesh.
A simple, non-iterative online expert survey was used to gather the opinion of practitioners, researchers and other experts on the future role of forestry in the carbon markets in India. The forest-dependent people come out to be the most crucial strength of India’s forestry sector. The majority of experts (58%) believed that India is somewhat ready for a forest-based domestic carbon market, while 40% of the experts believed that India is not prepared for it. Of the total, 72% of the experts foresee India as a leading country in the event of international carbon markets reviving on implementation of the Paris Agreement, post-2020.
There are several capacity constraints to overcome, gaps to fill and needs to meet, in order to make the institutional arrangement of the country ready for taking up new and emerging carbon markets. Country specific values of specific gravity of wood and the volume equations for indigenous species need to be developed. Quality control issues such as oversight in reporting need to be tightened. Monitoring for the carbon aspect is still perceived as an additional task for local implementing teams that have a lack of trained manpower to perform forest carbon monitoring. Limited frontline staff and regular manpower is a constraint. Currently there is no mechanism to measure, report, and verify negative environmental and social impacts under CDM. Leakages (activity displacement such as fuelwood collection and grazing) also need to be minimized. Learnings from the research would help design the rules and procedures for new market mechanisms and frameworks under the national and international regimes to address climate change.
