Making Carbon Trading a Fair Trade

By Kelpie Wilson, TruthOut.org. Posted December 29, 2006.

When industrialized countries use monoculture tree plantations in the developing world to offset carbon pollution they are doing more harm than good. Fortunately, there is a more sustainable alternative.

A recent issue of New Scientist magazine carried an article with this disturbing headline: "Africa Barred From Carbon Trading." Advocates for African farmers were claiming that European Union policies on carbon credits amounted to a carbon trade embargo on Africa.

Louis Verchon of the World Agroforestry Centre said that if the EU would implement a new scheme to credit farmers who capture carbon on their land, "millions of dollars in carbon credits could begin flowing to the world's rural poor."