Move to pay carbon revenue to farmers by reviving forests
The aim of the project is to benefit over 1,500 small and marginal farmers from Odisha and Andhra Pradesh through plantations raised on 1,600 hectares of degraded land
image for illustrative purpose
Visakhapatnam: As part of the Improving Rural Livelihood (IRL) project, four small and marginal farmers from North Andhra were paid carbon revenue here on Tuesday.
The aim of the project is to benefit over 1,500 small and marginal farmers from Odisha and Andhra Pradesh through plantations raised on 1,600 hectares of degraded land. Veda Climate Change Solutions Ltd (VCCSL), an enviro-social enterprise (www.vccslindia.org) which has developed and is implementing the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)-registered A/R (afforestation/reforestation) Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) project named Improving Rural Livelihoods (IRL).
The IRL project is under implementation through carbon sequestration by adopting environment-friendly technology based agroforestry practices (UNFCCC No 4531) in collaboration with BioCarbon Fund established by the World Bank and JK Paper Mills Ltd, Rayagada (Odisha).
President of VCCSL and former IFS officer M Satyanarayana told Bizz Buzz that they have entered into an Emission Reduction Purchase Agreement (ERPA) with the World Bank. Farmers numbering 1,590 enrolled under the project received carbon revenue from the sale of CERs (Certified Emission Reduction) for the first time in India after first verification in 2012.
Subsequently, the UNFCCC CDM Board had issued 62,756 CERs on March 18, 2020 after second verification and the World Bank has also released the carbon revenue which is being distributed to the participating farmers of the innovative project.
"Our aim is to replicate and scale up this innovative project to benefit more resource poor farmers and to bring extensive degraded lands to productive use, VCCSL has conceptualised a new grouped project "Enhancing Rural Livelihoods" through carbon sequestration by adopting agroforestry practices and nature-based solutions under the Verified Carbon Standard (VCS) in partnership with the JK Papers Ltd to bring 30,000 hectares under agroforestry over the next five years in AP, Odisha and Telangana," Satyanarayana said.
