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To make even a small impact on overall emissions, carbon sequestration must take place on a very large scale. In the context of the Kyoto Protocol, millions of hectares of land would have to be taken over in an attempt to counteract even a small fraction of carbon dioxide emissions in the North. One of the likely consequences is that fast-growing tree plantations will be established. Another concern is that, wherever they occur, most of these tree plantations will be large-scale, and this brings several more problems:

• Large plantations are cheaper and easier to administer than small-scale, community-driven projects. Industrial timber plantations have negative impacts on local communities and biodiversity. A study (Tree Trouble, September 2000, HTML) by Friends of the Earth, the World Rainforest Movement and Fern shows that this pattern is likely to remain unchanged for carbon sink plantations. Changes in land use affect people and their livelihoods, and this in turn affects greenhouse gas emissions. This is an area that has been largely forgotten or ignored and may lead to unrecorded greenhouse gas emissions resulting from credit-generating carbon sink plantations.

• There are comparatively few cases where large-scale tree plantations have been established on degraded land. Often, large-scale tree plantations replace forests and are thus a direct cause of deforestation. This also means that before large-scale tree plantations become a temporary carbon sink, they in fact release large amounts of carbon previously stored in the forest and forest soils they replace.

• Several studies suggest that if planted on certain soils, tree plantations established on clearcuts areas will continue to release more carbon than they absorb for at least 7 years. Consequently, tree plantations should be considered sources until proven otherwise. Unfortunately, there are many possibilities under the Kyoto Protocol to avoid accounting for these releases while fetching the credits for the sequestration.

• Climate change has mainly been caused by the North’s high levels of energy consumption, but the impact is likely to be felt most dramatically in the South. This inequality is likely to be perpetuated by carbon sink credits because most large-scale tree plantations are likely to be planted in the South where land and labour are cheap, but where local communities have been offered little opportunity to participate in climate negotiations.

Also check out the WRM webpage www.wrm.org.uy for a detailed documentation of the social and environmental impacts of large-scale tree plantations.