Multinational companies are seeking large stretches of degraded lands in Ghana and other developing countries to establish tree plantations to help stabilize rising temperatures and reduce the impact of climate change. Ghanaian researchers however say the country would need to build the requisite human resource capacity for Ghana to benefit from carbon credit trading, under the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) arrangement. This involves preparing a business plan for local communities with degraded lands to qualify for participation in the climate mitigation activity. Developed economies are committing substantial sums of money to support deforestation projects in developing countries, because the tropical forest is seen as a major sink for carbon for the world. The CDM allows emission-reduction projects in developing countries to earn certified emission reduction (CER) credits; each equivalent to one tonne of CO2. These CERs can be traded and sold, and used by industrialized countries to meet a part of their emission reduction targets under the Kyoto Protocol. The central feature of the Kyoto Protocol is its requirement that countries limit or reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. By setting such targets, emission reductions took on economic value. The mechanism stimulates sustainable development and emission reductions, while giving industrialized countries some flexibility in how they meet their emission reduction limitation targets. The Carbon Offset or Carbon Credit is a financial instrument which neutralizes a company’s contribution to global warming, in the form of corporate social responsibility. Sequester Carbon is a traded commodity like cocoa, coffee and oil palm. It’s measured in tonnes based on the size of the tree. The Clean Development Mechanisms are in the form of energy, waste management, reforestation and afforestation. Ghana, with increasing land degradation in local communities and challenges with forest cover, qualifies to participate in the trade. Experts however say the country is yet to maximize opportunities for the local economy and environmental protection because of limited human resource in carbon trading. Dr. Emmanuel Opuni-Frimpong of the Forest and Wildlife Division of the Forestry Research Institute of Ghana (FORIG) of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR says the International Tropical Timber Organization (ITTO) is funding a project to build capacity in CDM for forestry in Ghana, involving carbon calculation and estimation, and planting processing. “I am very sure within the shortest possible time, there will be enough capacity in Ghana to make this carbon credit business viable”, he said. A number of communities for plantation development sites have been identified in the Western and Brong Ahafo regions to benefit from the initial project implementation. “For this carbon credit business, when you plant the tree you sign an agreement with whoever will be buying your carbon for a number of years… and at the end of every year you do measurements to see the amount of carbon that has been sequestered”, Dr. Opuni-Frimpong told Luv FM. According to him, prices for the sequestered carbon differ on markets in Europe and the US, observing that “the pricing of carbon may be less than cocoa, but the way climate change issues are becoming hotter and hotter everyday, with time it’s likely it will become even more expensive than cocoa”. Story by Kofi Adu Domfeh/Luv FM/Ghana