JK Paper Improving Rural Livelihoods through Carbon Credits
Bureau,Odishabarta
For the first time in India, small and marginal farmers in Odisha and Andhra Pradesh are benefittingtwice from sale of carbon creditsfromagro-forestry plantations
Visakhapatnam:JK Paper Ltd and VCCSL in association withWorld Bank BioCarbon Fund (BioCF) organised a function at Vishakapatnamon 22nd March 2022for distribution of cheques to farmers towards revenue obtained from sale of carbon credits. This was the second event organized for the same, the first was held at Jaykaypur.
The farmers were presented cheques by Shri Biswajeet Dwivedi,Vice President (Commercial), JKPLDr.M.Satyanarayana, President, Veda Climate Change Solutions Ltd, Dr. Nandani Salaria,IFS,Director Visakhapatnam Zoo, Dr A J Rao, Member Environment Appraisal Committee for Industry, Ministry of Environment, Forest & Climate Change (MoEFCC), Govt of India, Dr CBS Dutt, Ex Sr. Scientist, ISRO & NRSA. In all around 900 farmers in AP out of total of 1455 farmers will be receiving amounts towards sale of carbon revenue generated through their agroforestry plantations.
Having successfully implemented this first of its kind project in South Asia through the PPP model, another project on similar lines was also launched at the event – “Enhancing Rural Livelihoods through Carbon Sequestration by adopting Agro-forestry practices” under the Verified Carbon Standard (VCS) to bring over 30,000 ha of land under Agroforestry over the next five years in AP, Odisha and Telangana. This would benefit around 20,000 farmers through sale of the carbon revenue generated through their plantation by linking them to the global carbon markets.
A workshop was also organised on the occasion to explore opportunities for developing projects integrating climate change mitigation and poverty alleviation strategies to provide local as well as global benefits sustainably. Dr. M. Satyanarayana chaired the technical sessions which was moderated by Shri Sai Kishore of VCCSL & participants were Shri Anant Shankar, IFS, Divisional Forest Officer, Visakhapatnam, Shri B Janaki Rao,Regional Coordinator, AP State Biodiversity Board, Mr. Chaitanya Sure (Climate Partner, Munich), Dr. C.B.S. Dutt, Ex Senior Scientist, ISRO &NRSA, Shri B.P. Ratho, General Manager, JKPL, Ms. Manali Bhaduri (Emergent Ventures India Pvt. Ltd) and Mr. G. Prasad Babu (CEO, Geo Climate Risk Solutions) .
The meeting was well attended by officials of the Forest Department, NGOs like LAYA,BREDS, TCDS, Corporates, International Organizations, scientific institutions like NRSC,GCRS and other numerous experts in the sphere of climate change mitigation.
