Climate experts call for regulating blue carbon projects in Sindh

The blue carbon projects in Sindh should be run with a regular system as it is not enough to sign an agreement with an investor company but all its contents and activities should be made public.

These were the unanimous views of the speakers and participants of the Blue Carbon Dialogue held at the Climate Action Centre Karachi on Friday.

The speakers maintained that everyone should be aware of the benefits of the carbon credit market as an important source of foreign exchange that also helps prevent climate change. Local investors and planners could also venture into this sector, it was said.

Most of the speakers were of the view that coastal communities should benefit equally from all blue carbon projects because projects that ignored the rights of local communities did not produce long-term results. They said that in all the blue carbon projects that the Sindh government's forest department has undertaken so far, neither was the local population nor was the civil society involved in any way.

They lamented that there had been no system of information sharing about these projects, which meant that the government wanted to keep people away from such projects.

Climate change expert Ali Tauqeer Sheikh in his online address said that any project, especially the one in which an important aspect of nature was being used as a business, should not be carried out without any policy or rules. Running without regulations not only could affect nature but also raised questions about its transparency as there was no accountability and monitoring mechanism for such projects.

He said the blue carbon projects being run in Sindh were sold in a carbon market that was run voluntarily without any regulations. The benefits of these projects in terms of carbon sequestration were sold to those who had emitted an excess amount of carbon in their production activities.

By paying for the carbon absorbed by such projects, they got an exemption from any kind of compensation or tax on their carbon emissions. The speaker, however, explained that it was not ensured how much of the real money would be spent on the climate protection of the communities living around the project, and nor was there any disclosure about them because all these steps were taken without any rules and regulations.

The chief conservator of the Sindh forest department, Riaz Waghan, while defending the blue carbon projects in the province, said that the amount of carbon absorbed in the atmosphere from all the projects was properly calculated and then it was transferred to the parties under a legal agreement. He said it was sold to their representatives who emitted more than their quota of carbon in their production activities, thereby compensating for the excess carbon emitted by them through payments to the said projects.

The chief conservator said the funds received from the projects so far had not been deposited in the provincial treasury, and it has been proposed to establish a special fund to be used for climate and environmental improvement. “The fund will be used as soon as it is sanctioned,” he said.

Researcher Dr Khalid Waleed said that if the income from blue carbon projects did not benefit the coastal communities, such projects would cause harm in the future because continuing such projects with the dismay of coastal communities would be a risky venture.

Such projects, he said, had no climate value if they did not share their benefits with those most affected by climate change.

Zero-Point Partners Chief Executive Officer Maha Qasim said that blue carbon projects were being run with great success all over the world, which not only helped mitigate climate change but also brought foreign exchange to countries. The speaker added that such projects, however, were in initial stages in Pakistan and private and public sectors should work together for their promotion.

A representative of the Pakistan Fisherfolk Forum, Aslam Malah, said that coastal communities were the most affected by all kinds of climate disasters, and they were always deprived of the benefits of any climate project. Unless the rights of local populations were taken into account, climate change projects would never deliver the desired benefits, he said.

The dialogue was moderated by Climate Action Centre’s Warda while Director of Climate Action Center Yasir Hussain thanked the guests for their participation.