Forest-based Carbon-financing

The event was organized by the Forestry and Biodiversity Group of TERI in association with Ministry of Environment and Forests, Government of India, and Iora Ecological Solutions at the India Habitat Centre on February 5, 2014.

Mr A K Srivastava, Additional Director General of Forests, MoEF, emphasized the role of forests in various ecosystem services, and elaborated upon different strategies and financial mechanisms.

In the technical session, Mr Swapan Mehra, CEO, Iora highlighted the potential of compliance and voluntary markets for carbon-based fi nancing. Mr Suresh Chauhan, Fellow TERI; Mr A K Lal, Executive Director Himachal Pradesh; Mid Himalayan Watershed Development Project, and Dr Ashish Aggarwal, Fellow TERI; presented case studies on carbon forestry projects. It was concluded that forestry CDM projects were complex and costly, hence difficult to pursue.

This session was followed by a panel discussion on the post-CoP-19 scenario. The panel was largely satisfied with the Warsaw REDD+ Framework and expected it to be much simpler and holistic compared to the CDM process.