Developing voluntary carbon market project for Dudhwa Tiger Reserve (DTR), Uttar Pradesh

The protected areas in India have been identified to have potential of generating around 10,000,000 Carbon Emission Reduction (CERs), the tradable form of carbon, which could be traded in the carbon market.  Finance through carbon related projects could yield additional finance which is required to address the issues of community alternative livelihood and mitigation strategies for human wildlife conflict.

Thus, TERI has initiated a voluntary carbon market project for Pench Tiger Reserve (PTR), Maharashtra; Dudhwa Tiger Reserve (DTR), Uttar Pradesh; Periyar Tiger Reserve, Kerala inorder to generate additional finance and use it for community development and biodiversity conservation activities. This will result in adaptation and enhancing carbon sequestration as well as reducing pressure on forests from unsustainable collection of fuelwood through sustainable fuel wood management and exploring energy efficient technologies and alternative fuel.

The activities involved will comprise of baseline preparation on socio-economic status and fuelwood dependency of communities in and around the TR, assessment of forest carbon stock, preparation of Project Design Document (PDD), validation and verification of projects, preparation of Monitoring Reports (MRs) for Voluntary Carbon Markets and finally issuance and sale of carbon credits.