Photo credit: Forest News
An oil palm plantation in southwestern Cameroon. Cash crops like palm oil still fetch a higher price here than forest-carbon incentive programs like REDD+. Flore de Preneuf/PROFOR photo
REDD+ to the rescue of Central Africa’s forests? Not yet, study says
BY JOAN BAXTER
Unfortunately, with the current prices on the carbon markets, REDD+ does not bring significant additional benefits
Enforcing sustainable logging and assigning a monetary value to the carbon stored in forest concessions managed under the REDD+ mechanism will not be enough to curb deforestation in Central Africa.
Across the Congo Basin it is more profitable to cut down the forest and replace it with cash crops, and REDD+ schemes (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation) are of little help to reverse this trend, according to a new study.
Scientists from the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) and CIRAD, a French agricultural and development research center, worked together to investigate the profitability of different uses of forest land in the Republic of Congo and Cameroon. The research was part of the FORAFAMA project to support the sustainable management of forests in the Congo Basin and the Brazilian Amazon Basin, funded by the French Facility for Global Environment (FFEM).
Research revealed the extent to which concessions in Cameroon and Congo are threatened by the push for agro-industrial plantations, primarily rubber and oil palm.
Read the full article: Forest News
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