GROUP DISCUSSIONS
What are the opportunities offered by global initiatives such as the CDM, environmental services and biodiversity that could benefit the poor? How can these opportunities be tapped to benefit the poor? What are the strategies, policies, mechanisms or procedures that must be put in place to tap these opportunities? The workshop has incorporated four group discussions during which the participants discussed several issues, trying to find answers to these and many other related questions.
The issues that were discussed during the group discussions include:
The outputs and recommendations are as summarized below:
It was generally agreed that there is a need to establish an information clearing-house on CDM in the Asia Pacific region.
- The establishment of this information clearing-house could begin with establishing an informal network and seeking more formal government agreement.
- A web site could be launched and to be maintained by contributions from focal points nominated by participating countries.
- A regional network, such as APAFRI, could manage the web site and clearing-house with appropriate support from participating countries.
The workshop generally concluded that enhancing carbon sequestration in forests and reducing fossil fuel demand, being a global responsibility, presented opportunities for small landowners of the developing countries of the region to increase their incomes.
- Policies and guidelines, however, would need to be developed to enable the smallholders to utilize the opportunity.
- As the smallholders are often poor people with few economic opportunities, and carbon sequestration alone may not significantly enhance their incomes, it would be necessary to integrate the CDM with other environmental goods and services to maximize their incomes and make tree growing an economically attractive option.
- Tree growing with long gestation is particularly prone to high risks of fire, theft, insect attacks, diseases and natural disasters, as well as price fluctuations due to changing economic conditions and consumer preferences. It is necessary to develop appropriate risk management strategies involving risk evaluation, risk reduction and risk sharing between state and the tree growers, covering risks by appropriate insurance instruments.
- Measuring, verification and certification of carbon sequestration are costly processes involving scientific, technological and managerial skills beyond the reach of the small landholders. The governments would need to provide these services.
- Likewise, meeting the legal, procedural, methodological and technological requirements of the Kyoto Protocol related to the issues of leakage, additionally and biological diversity, would be beyond the capacity of the individual small landholders. The governments would need to assist to meet these requirements by laying out appropriate guidelines.
- Appropriate research strategies should be developed in measurement and economic valuation of environmental goods and services produced by growing trees.
- Governments should remove legal and fiscal barriers discouraging tree growing on private lands.
- Governments should encourage networking and cooperation among smallholders to enhance their bargaining power and prevent undercutting.
- Governments should define the role of the bureaucracy and adopt institutional reform with better accountability and transparency in CDM management.
The workshop recommended that an institutional mechanism be developed at the regional level to attract private industry investment to support biodiversity conservation.
- This could be in the form of an Asia Pacific Regional Biodiversity Fund that may be established to channel all private investments to ensure a flow of minimum sustained financing for biodiversity conservation in the region.
- Such a fund could internalize, at least partially, some of the externalities, and reward countries for conserving biodiversity. Organizations such FAO-RAP and APAFRI may lead in establishing such fund.
- Country studies would need to be conducted to assess private investment opportunities for biodiversity conservation.
- It is also essential that structural and policy reforms at international, regional and national levels should be attempted to provide the institutional and policy environment that will facilitate private capital flows to biodiversity conservation in the region.
- The national governments need to not only remove barriers but also provide incentives and encourage private investment in biodiversity.
- Private industry should assume a good corporate citizenship role and develop and internalize codes of conduct conducive to sustainable development.
- Sufficient safeguards should be put in place to ensure protection of intellectual property rights and the rights of indigenous people in particular.
- Establishing of new institutional mechanism for private industry’s investment in biodiversity encompassing timber, energy, carbon sequestration, land and water conservation, in situ and ex situ conservation, and ecotourism as outputs will require the cooperation of private industry and governmental and non-governmental organizations with the support of international agencies.
- It is necessary to build mechanisms to promote better coordination and cooperation between the private and public sectors to facilitate private investment in biodiversity conservation.
- Private industry’s involvement can effectively complement other approaches to biodiversity conservation and will add value to make it an economic activity. Biodiversity conservation must start to pay for itself and the governments alone can no longer fund it.
Governments should consider introducing tax-breaks or other tax incentives to attract private investments in conservation.
- Governments should initiate public education programmes for environment awareness.
- Clearly quantified environmental benefits will attract private investments.
- Opportunities are to be identified of for public-private partnership.
- Rights to services and land are to be secured.
