BioCarbonFund

Participation in the World Bank’s BioCarbon Fund will open up new channels for carbon finance to flow into developing countries.

The Kyoto Protocol aims to reduce the release of gases which advance climate change. 169 countries are required to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions by 5.2 per cent before 2012. Through a carbon trading system, countries unable to meet these demands themselves can pay for activities elsewhere in the world that will reduce carbon emissions.

In March 2007, The World Bank launched Tranche Two of its BioCarbon Fund, which supports sustainable land use and forestry development and conservation programmes in the developing world. Jointly with the Syngenta group, SFSA will invest US $2.5 million in the Fund over the next five years.

Currently about 30 per cent of the BioCarbon Fund’s investments are in Africa, many in semi-arid areas where the land is difficult to farm. This will provide an alternative ‘carbon crop’ as a source of income for smallholders whose livelihoods otherwise depend solely on agriculture.

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