By Cat Pritchard
We don’t often look to Africa for innovative business ideas. But here’s one coming out of Mali that could be replicated in our own backyard – an acacia nursery project that offsets and sells carbon credits to help local farmers yield revenue from their arid landscape. Karoo project anyone?
The project, which is a partnership between local communities, the World Bank and local agro-industrial concern, Déguessi Vert, aims to plant 6,000 hectares of acacias in four villages in the Dialoubé area.
In the first phase, each village planted 50 hectares. These plantations are intended to eventually fall under the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), which awards credits to projects in developing countries that reduce emissions of greenhouse gases.
These "carbon credits" can then be purchased by polluters in developed countries in order to meet their commitments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions under the Kyoto Protocol.
If you haven’t heard of carbon trading (of carbon credits), it’s big business. Last year global carbon credit trading was estimated at $5 billion carbon credits are a part of international emission trading norms that incentivise companies or countries that emit less carbon dioxide. Places like Mali and India.
Each year, a cap is placed on the total emissions and the market allocates a monetary value to any shortfall through trading. Businesses can exchange, buy or sell carbon credits in international markets at the prevailing market price, which can vary between $3-$10.
As part of a greater project, this Mali project aims to plant 10,000 hectares of acacia across the country. The result? – These trees will collectively offset 100 000 tonnes of carbon dioxide by 2012 and over 500 000 tonnes by 2017. Based on an average market value of $5 per tonne, this little project could yield $2, 5 million by 2017. Not bad for a little African tree planting project.
Of course it the Mali project hasn’t been all smooth trading. There have been a few problems – what with slow saplings, straying animals and a lack of adequate desalinated water – but that’s just part of any fledgling business.
The good news is that the plantation has already begun generating income for local farmers. Some of the villagers have permanent employment on the plantation, earning just under $50 a
month. During a brief period of heightened activity each year, every able-bodied person in the area finds work on the project.
"I earn at least 5,000 CFA francs (over $10) per day filling the pots," says the caretaker at the Dialoubé plantation. Locals use this money to buy additional food, as their harvests are often poor due to lack of rain. Cheick Billal Khibé, the former mayor of Dialoubé, says, "Each year 33 families would temporarily move to Mauritania and Côte d'Ivoire in search of money. Now, only about three families do so."