Carbon Forestry and the Kyoto Protocol Clean Development Mechanism: A Legal Analysis.

The document emphasizes the importance of carbon forestry projects under the Clean Development Mechanism of the Kyoto protocol and argues that even under a variety of proposed interpretations the Protocol does not exclude or place significant limits on the eligibility of carbon forestry projects. Some of the arguments that are presented are the following:

• Carbon forestry projects in tropical forests are among the most cost-effective means of achieving climate change mitigation.
• Carbon forestry projects are a vital ingredient of any climate change regulatory regime. In addition, they can have a number of other important benefits, like the protection of endangered animal and plant species and their habitats, transfer of technology and know-how related to sustainable forestry and agriculture, and the development of alternative sources of income for rural communities.
• Site-based measurements of emissions resulting from forest activities now can be performed with high confidence. Measuring the emissions impact of a carbon forestry project is not significantly more difficult than measuring the emissions impact of an energy sector project.

Autores: Rotter, Jonathan C. / Danish, Kyle W.