Drafting REDD Agreements to Reduce Carbon Emissions
New Perimeter is assisting Conservation International Foundation (CI) in conceptualizing, negotiating, and drafting key legal agreements required for the implementation of two forest carbon conservation, or REDD (“reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation”), projects – one in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and the other in Peru. CI is a science-based conservation organization dedicated to the “vision of a healthy blue planet supported by a sustainable, green development path.” REDD projects achieve net carbon emission reductions by reducing the rate of deforestation that would otherwise occur in the absence of the project. CI’s REDD projects in DRC and Peru collectively could yield 900,000 tons of carbon credits by 2014.
DRC Project
This project will develop two contiguous, community-based REDD projects in the eastern DRC Province of North Kivu. The site includes two government-sanctioned community reserves (Tayna Nature Reserve and Kisimba-Ikobo Nature Reserve). It is estimated that the project will yield five million tons of carbon emission reductions over 20 years. The program will be managed by CI in partnership with Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International, which works directly with local community NGO partners. A New Perimeter lawyer traveled with CI to the DRC in 2011 to visit the community reserves and to meet with the project partners.
Peru Project
This project is intended to conserve forestlands in the Alto Mayo watershed (the Alto Mayo Protected Forest and associated buffer zone), located in northwestern Peru in the region of San Martin, as well as to reforest degraded lands along the Yuracyacu watershed (downstream of the Alto Mayo River) located in the provinces of Moyobamba and Rioja. The entire project compromises approximately 297,900 hectares (1,050 square miles). Both the forest conservation and reforestation activities will form part of an integrated “Compensation for Ecosystem Services Program,” currently being designed with input from local NGOs. The project is projected to yield 232,247 tons of carbon emission reductions from REDD between 2009 and 2013.
A New Perimeter team is currently helping to draft agreements on behalf of CI with all of the potentially interested parties involved in the projects in DRC and Peru, including national governments, local organizations, and members of the local population. DLA Piper attorneys are working with CI to obtain certification from carbon verification organizations that the projects will result in real, verifiable, permanent, and additional carbon emissions reductions. Carbon credits generated as a result of these projects can be sold on the voluntary carbon market with the proceeds used to support management and conservation of the forests and to assist local organizations and communities. In order to obtain certification, DLA Piper attorneys are working with CI to draft and negotiate contracts with Peruvian and DRC agencies to govern management of the forests and establish CI’s title to the carbon rights associated with the projects. Likewise, the New Perimeter team is engaging local stakeholders to resolve any potential disputes relating to CI’s right to manage the protected areas and use the carbon credits. These efforts will ensure that CI can successfully prevent deforestation and forest degradation in Peru and the DRC, while enriching the lives of the local community.
