Carbon Credits: A Renewed Opportunity for Securing Resources Rights in Africa

Abstract

"Africa still depends on low input and extensive agriculture. The continent also relies on forests for generating foreign exchange and more importantly for meeting the energy needs of both the rural and urban populations. Therefore, conversion of forests into other land uses is one of the major causes of deforestation. In addition, selective harvesting of high commercial value species is a common practice. The reduction of the commercial value of the forest leads to their subsequent conversion. Combating deforestation and degradation through compensation for sustainable forest management ensuing carbon sequestration is a topical discussion on forests and their role in mitigating climate change. Many countries in Africa have been promoting participatory natural resources management, having adopted legal instruments to enable security of rights to forest resources by local communities while only few have legal provisions for security of rights to both land and forests. The latter is the case of Mozambique. Other countries such as Ghana have strong traditional authorities and customary rights are not only entrenched in the Constitution, but determine the allocation of land resources and revenue sharing. One peculiarity of the reforms on resources rights in the continent is the focus on devolving resources for development of enterprises and derivation of economic benefits from the products. The forest services such as conservation of biodiversity, watershed protection, carbon sequestration are often not valued. Therefore, sustainable forest management by communities has a high opportunity cost. In view of these, the paper analyses the extent to which the implementation of the REDD mechanism and carbon payments can reinvigorate participatory resources management in the continent, add value to resources under community control, contribute to improvement of the livelihoods and simultaneously enhance mitigation to climate change."