Sushil99’s Blog

By: Sushil Kumar Bhandari
Poverty has been a back aching problem of Nepal. Vicious circle of poverty is blamed to have put huge dependence on forest and is a critical area of natural imbalance. It has been area of conference talk about the negative consequences on environment due to higher dependence on nature for subsistence of livelihoods of developing world. But the consumption of resources of forest has been dramatically reduced in the research site. The dependence has been limited to occasional use of timber and partial fulfillment of firewood need the environment services such as hydrological balance has been top the local priority recently. My research on CF based carbon sequestration came up with the interesting figure. It definitely urges the policy makers and the environmentalists to have a critical appraisal over the agenda to lobby in the international forum when Carbon trade gets entry as an agenda of discussion. It has significant upswing positive linkages on tier issue of conservation, livelihoods and rights. The figure of the outcome of the research reads as follows:-
The incidence of the poverty in the site was found to be about 59 percent. It is a based on the income poverty of the villagers which depicts the low level of the income status of the people far below the national average (i.e. 31 percent) and the World Bank demarcation of $1.08 per capita daily income. Carbon trade could add the additional income to the poor society with the significant amount. Carbon trading has the potentiality of generation of additional income of NRs.189487 annually. If the additional revenue earned is disbursed to the individual household, it could enhance the income of household by Rs.1155. This amount is about 7.3 percent annual increments in the household income. As there occurs the spell over effects of the income in the society, the cumulative influence on the poverty reduction progresses in the positive direction. This helps to reduce the poverty by accelerating the poverty reduction process and its rate significantly. The national average of the poverty reduction through the period of 1995/96 and 2003/04 was 3.7 percent and the poverty incidence was declined by 11 point from 42 percent to 31 percent respectively. Taking the national average, although the estimation of the rate to be increasing yet reliable date wasn’t found, the poverty reduction rate could be increased to 12.95 percent annually at the research sight, others things remaining constant( A study carried by the World Bank estimates the progess in the annual poverty reduction rate due to direct and spillover effects of average houseshold income increament(Ravellion, 2001).
Within the 26 years i.e. by the year 2034, the poverty level falls to 1.6 percent from 59 percent, other variables are supposed to be constant but not adverse. On the national scale too, the carbon trade can have a significant importance in bridging the resource deficits for the development finance and poverty reduction. It is estimated that the forest occupies about 4000000 ha of the total land of Nepal. The average carbon
Sequestration capacity of the existing forest is 1.88 tChayr-1 in the mountain and the hilly areas whereas 2 tChayr-1 in the Terai (ICIMOD, 2007 and Aune,et. al.,2005 in ICIMOD,2007). The national average sum up to the value of 1.94 tChayr-1. This could earn the revenue of NRs. 4.5billion, 11billion and 18.4 billion at the rate of $5, $12 and $20 per ton CO2 sequestration respectively even if half of the existing forest area could register for the carbon credits.
A similar glimpse of hope exists in the area of the Leasehold community forestry sector of Nepal. About 40000 ha of degraded land of Nepal can be suitable for the R/A projects recognized by the Kyoto Under its CDM projects. Dhungana (2008) estimates the annual income could be US$ 1.2 million to 2.4 million if the half of the degraded forest land of Nepal in 22 projects district of Leasehold Forestry and Livestock Program (LFLP) is brought under CDM for the carbon trade under the voluntary scheme of the Kyoto protocol. The potentiality to generate additional revenue through the LF could be even higher if a half a million hectare (Singh, 2004) of the degraded land is leased and processed for the Carbon trading. In addition to the above, Nepal can be at a position to reap a huge chunk of the financial flow through the sale of the permitable average which has surplus of 0.07 tCO2 per capita if the mechanism could be established under the emerging issue of the PES and Polluter Pays Principal.

Based on the research carried out by author.